the means of defence against all other oppression except their own. In
the ecclesiastical ranks were concentrated all the true piety, all the
learning, all the wisdom of the time; and, as a natural consequence, a
great portion of power, which their very wisdom perpetually incited
them to extend. The people knew nothing of kings and nobles, except in
the way of injuries inflicted. The first ruled for, or more properly
speaking against, the barons, and the barons only existed to brave the
power of the kings, or to trample with their iron heels upon the neck
of prostrate democracy. The latter had no friend but the clergy, and
these, though they necessarily instilled the superstition from which
they themselves were not exempt, yet taught the cheering doctrine that
all men were equal in the sight of heaven. Thus, while Feudalism told
them they had no rights in this world, Religion told them they had
every right in the next. With this consolation they were for the time
content, for political ideas had as yet taken no root. When the
clergy, for other reasons, recommended the Crusade, the people joined
in it with enthusiasm. The subject of Palestine filled all minds; the
pilgrims' tales of two centuries warmed every imagination; and when
their friends, their guides, and their instructors preached a war so
much in accordance with their own prejudices and modes of thinking,
the enthusiasm rose into a frenzy.

But while religion inspired the masses, another agent was at work
upon the nobility. These were fierce and lawless; tainted with every
vice, endowed with no virtue, and redeemed by one good quality alone,
that of courage. The only religion they felt was the religion of fear.
That and their overboiling turbulence alike combined to guide them to
the Holy Land. Most of them had sins enough to answer for. They lived
with their hand against every man; and with no law but their own
passions. They set at defiance the secular power of the clergy, but