The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1917-12-19
From, Other
Editorial ages
THE NINTH CRUSADE.

night OF the goth Of November the
British troops bivouacked at Beit'urel-
Tahta, 10 the northwest OF Jerusalem.
Now this Beitur-el.Tahta Is none other
than the Beth.horon OF the Bible that
Beth.horon TO WHICH Joshua and 'all
the mighty men OF valor" drove the
Amorites who had gone mp, under the
five kings. TO the siege OF Gilgal. And
II was here. when the day proved not
long enough for the victory, that
Joshua cried, In the sight OF Israel.
and thou, moon. In the valley OF Ala
lon"
II was night when the British troops
marched up the road to Bethhoron. the
road the lsraelites had trodden in pur-
suit of the Amorites, and only twelve
miles away, over the hills. lay the city
which had been the magnet OF the eight
crusades. Once only had their efforts
been successful. and that was on that
terrible July day. in the year 1893,
when the soldiers Of the first crusade
hacked their way through the streets
of the city, treading the winepress OF
the Lord. as they hideously described
II. and meeting to clasp their CORY hands
In prayer before the Holy Sepulchre."
Thus there was founded that curious
Latin kingdom OF Jerusalem. stretching
it's narrow limits along the Mediter
ranean coast from Beirut to the Red
sea, and ruled, actually or nominally,
by those strange eighteen kings from
Baldwin |. in 100, To Henry IL. in 1891.
What was IL that brought these
raging soldiers into Syria, that set up
"A king in Jerusalem, and maintained
his fictitious title. long after the day
the city had capitulated to Saladin, in
October 1887? People will tell you that
II was the fiery preaching OF Peter the
Hermit. Now no doubt Peter urged his
ass through France and the Rhine
lands laundering his battle cry. Deus
Vult," in town, and village, and hamlet
But he rode as Pope Urbans man. For
it was Urban III. I'M that famous sermon
I'm the great church at Clermont, whose
eloquence brought the answering shout
Deus Vult, Deus Nult"' from the
frenzied emotions of his listeners. and
so made the first crusade possibility.
Yet, as a matter of fact. the way had
been prepared for Urban also.
The germ of the crusade lies with
out a doubt in the penitentiary pilgrim
age. The twelfth century was "a cen
tury of penance, and. for that matter.
of peregrination. The bed of ashes,
the scourge, the hair shirt. and the
DllSllflidkt, were It's ever lddN lliCtntlNtS
to virtue, and of pigrimages, the pill
grimage to the Holy Sepulchre" was,
of course, the most merltorious. The
bishops of one Henry dragged him,
by halter tied round his neck. to a
bed of ashes; another Henry barred his
back to the ecclesiastical scourge;
Beckett wore a hair shirt which he
never took off nor changed; an arch |
bishop of Mainz headed the pilgrims
trudging across Europe to the Holy |
Land. But in the twelfth century a |
pilgrim. even in a Christian country, |
went in danger, and. in. a country of
infidels, i'm danger so great that the |
pilgrims would gather in armed com |
panies to cross the Bosphorus. Thus |
the crusade became merely a march of |
red cross knights instead OF palmers, |
swords instead of palm |
branches, and having, at its end, not |
merely shrine to be knelt before, but |
a kingdom to be fought for.
II must be remembered, too, that |,
the men of the twelfth century were |
as mighty hunters of relics as ever |
Nimrod was of wild beasts. Every mon
astery had its precious treasures |
guarded with Jealous care. The Doge |
returning from Palestine to |
Venice. brought those marvellous col |
umns of the Piazzetta, but he brought |
also the bodies of st. Isidore and st. /!
Donate. The monks of st. Adams pre-
served the remains of Alban the Mar. /
tyr. by stratagem, from the Danes,
The townsmen of Canterbury, though |
they let the murderers of Beckett de-
part unharmed. were yet ready to fight
'or the possession of the archbishop's |
body. To men to whom the possession |
If such things meant so much, the
)attle for the Holy Sepulchre" became
4 sacred duty. And so the crusade as.
iumed the aspect of the 'novum salutis
genus" the new road to salvation. One
,ther powerful contributing cause was,
If course. the institutions of chivalry.
Il was all very well to proclaim the
Pax Der amongst Christians, and to
the sword of the knight to
he defense of right, but the knight had
won his knghthood with the sword. and
vas intent if possible on winning a
indeed, been very truly said that the
of the crusades is easily
when it is realized that
hey offered a pugnacious world the
ruits of asceticism on the point of the
word, and the peace of heaven through
iard fighting upon earth.
One thing. curiously enough the cru
ader never troubled himself over. or
( he thought about il at all, did so
With loathing and with murder in his
leart. and that was Judaism. The old
of course, had viewed the mat
er differently. Alexander the Great had
ent the Jews to colonize his settle
nent of Alexandria, in Egypt. Julius
caesar seems TO have had some scheme.
enturies in advance of his time of
making the Jew the mediator. as he
an be. between the east and west. And
o proving that even If the east Is the
asst. and the west the west, they can
meet. Such ideas would have been sac
ilegious to crusader. who would
ather have turned the Ghetto than
he bazaar into the divine winepress.
accordingly. had to wait
we centuries for a statesman capable
( conceiving the re-establishment of a
ewish state i'm Palestine. and to find
i'm of all people. in the person of the
'orsican Ogre"
II is strange that of all the states
h.. ,.t.1a In, uf,n,ol