square before the cathedral church of Clermont became every instant
more densely crowded as the hour drew nigh when the Pope was to
address the populace. Issuing from the church in his frill canonicals,
surrounded by his cardinals and bishops in all the splendour of Romish
ecclesiastical costume, the Pope stood before the populace on a high
scaffolding erected for the occasion, and covered with scarlet cloth.
A brilliant array of bishops and cardinals surrounded him; and among
them, humbler in rank, but more important in the world's eye, the
Hermit Peter, dressed in his simple and austere habiliments.
Historians differ as to whether or not Peter addressed the crowd, but
as all agree that he was present, it seems reasonable to suppose that
he spoke. But it was the oration of the Pope that was most important.
As he lifted up his hands to ensure attention, every voice immediately
became still. He began by detailing the miseries endured by their
brethren in the Holy Land; how the plains of Palestine were desolated
by the outrageous heathen, who with the sword and the firebrand
carried wailing into the dwellings and flames into the possessions of
the faithful; how Christian wives and daughters were defiled by pagan
lust; how the altars of the true God were desecrated, and the relics
of the saints trodden under foot. "You," continued the eloquent
pontiff, (and Urban the Second was one of the most eloquent men of the
day,) "you, who hear me, and who have received the true faith, and
been endowed by God with power, and strength, and greatness of soul,
-- whose ancestors have been the prop of Christendom, and whose kings
have put a barrier against the progress of the infidel, -- I call upon
you to wipe off these impurities from the face of the earth, and lift
your oppressed fellow-christians from the depths into which they have
been trampled. The sepulchre of Christ is possessed by the heathen,
the sacred places dishonoured by their vileness. Oh, brave knights and
faithful people! offspring of invincible fathers! ye will not