History of the Crusades

Illus -20 Tissue

THE MASSACRE OF ANTIOCH

The Crusaders had obtained possession of the city by treachery. The soldiers penetrated into the houses. . . . Everything that was not marked with a cross became the object of vengeance, and all who pronounced not the name of Christ were massacred without mercy. In a single night more than six thousand of the inhabitants of Antioch perished. . . . Phirous, the betrayer, received from the Christians great riches as the reward of his treachery ; this renegade now embraced the Christianity he had abandoned ; two years afterwards, his ambition not being satisfied, he returned to the religion of Mahomet, and died abhorred by Christians and Mussulmans, whose cause he had by turns embraced and betrayed. - Book III

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Notes: pages 87 to 96 the coming attack by a united Sacarens. pages 96 to 101. Starvation, despair, and desertion became rampant throughout the armies surrounded by Mussulman. When word of the emperor Alexius hearing of the hopeless condition of the Crusaders at Antioch decided to retreat back to Constantinople, not a hope remained to them. All the Crusaders had left was their fanaticism and superstition, which had precipitated them into the abyss which they were now plunged, alone had the power to re-animate their courage, and extradite them from such fearful perils. Prophecies, revelations, and miracles became every day the more frequent subjects of report in the Christian army. St. Ambrose had appeared to a venerable priest, and had told him that the Christians, after overcoming all their enemies, would enter Jerusalem as conquerors, and that God would there reward their exploits and their labours. A Lombard ecclesiatic had passed the night in one of the churches of Antioch, and had there seen Jesus Christ, accompanied by the Virgin and the prince of the apostles. The Son of God, irritated by the conduct of the Crusaders, rejected their prayers, and abandoned them to the fate they had too richly merited ; but the Virgin fell at the knees of her son, and by her tears and lamentations appeased the anger of the Saviour. "Arise," then, said the Son of God to the priest, "go and inform my people of the return of my commiseration ; hasten and announce to the Christians, that if they come back to me, the hour of their deliverance is at hand." Offers to attest to the truths of these visions included precipitate from a lofty tower, walk through flames and face an executioners block. . . . two deserters came before the Christian army and related that, when endeavouring to escape from Antioch, they had been stopped, one by his brother, who had been killed in fight, the other by Jesus Christ himself. The Saviour of mankind had promised to deliver Antioch. The warrior who had fallen under the sword of the Sacarens had sworn to issue from the grave with all his companions, equally dead as himself, to fight with the Christians. In order to crown all these heavenly promises, a priest of the diocese of Marseilles, named Peter Barthelemi, came before the council of leaders, to reveal an apparition of St. Andrew, which had been repeated three times during his sleep. The holy apostle had said to him ; "Go to the church of my brother Peter of Antioch. Near the principal altar you will find, by digging up the earth, the iron head of a lance which pierced the side of the Redeemer. Within three days this instrument of eternal salvation shall be manifested to his disciples. This mystical iron, borne at the head of the army, shall effect the deliverance of the Christians, and shall pierce the hearts of the infidels." . . .

On the morning of the third day, twelve Crusaders, chosen from amongst the most respected of the clergy and the knights, repaired to the church of Antioch with great number of workmen provided with the necessary instruments. Digging through the day and into the late evening hours, whilst the twelve witnesses were at prayers around the wole, Barthelemi precipatated himself into it, and in a short time re-appeared, holding the sacred iron in his hands. A cry of joy rose among the spectators, which was repeated by the soldiers waiting at the doors, and which soon resounded through all quarters of the city. Enthusiasm gave new life to the army, and restored strength and vigor to the Crusaders. All the horros of famine, and even the numbers of their enemies were forgotten.

So full of spirit they sent deputies to the general of the Sacarens offering them a single combat or a general battle. . . . page 92 whole speech Kerbogah, who knew the situation of the Christians was suprised at such language, mute with astonishment and rage, but at length said, "Return to them who sent you, and tell them it is not the part of the conquered to receive conditions, and not to dictate them.

At length day appeared ; it was the festival of St. Peter and St. Paul. The gates of Antioch were thrown open, and the whole of the Christian army marched out in twelve divisions, symbolic of the twelve apostles. . . . Raymond d' Agiles, one of the historians of the crusade, bore the holy lance and directed the attention of the soldiers to it. . . . The whole country around Antioch was covered with the Mussulman battalions. The Sacarens had divided their army into fifteen bodies arranged in echelons. In the midst of all these, the division of Kerbogha says the Armenian historian, appeared like an inaccessible mountain. The Sacaren general, who had no expectation of a battle, at first believed that the Christians were come to implore his clemency. A black flag flying over the citadel of Antioch, which was the signal agreed upon to announce the resolution of the Crusaders, soon informed him that he had not to deal with supplicants. Two thousand men of his army, who guarded the passage of the bridge to Antioch, were cut in pieces by count de Vermandois. The fugitives carried terror to the tent of their general, who was playing at chess. Aroused from his false security, the sultan of Mossoul ordered the head of a deserter be cut off who had announced to him the speedy surrender of the Christians, and then set himself seriously to the task of fighting an enemy whose auxiliaries were fanaticism and despair.

pages 94 to 95 the battle. page 95 The Sultan of Nice, whom no reverse could overcome, firmly withstood the shock of the Christians. In the heat of the combat he ordered lighted flax to be thrown amongst the low bushes and dries grass which covered the plain. Immediately a blaze arose which enveloped the Christians in masses of flame and smoke. Their ranks wre for a moment broken ; they could no longer see or hear their leaders. The sultan of Nice was about to gather the fruits of his stratagem, and victory was on the point of escaping from the hands of the Crusaders.

At this moment, say the historians, a squadron was seen to descend from the summit of the mountains, preceded by three horseman clothed in white and covered with shining armour. "Behold!" cried Bishop Adhemar, "the heavenly succour which was promised to you. Heaven declares for the Christians ; the holy martyrs George, Demetrius, and Theodore come to fight for you." . . .

Kerbogha, who had been so certain of victory as to have announced the defeat of the Christians to the caliph of Bagdad and the sultan of Persia, fled toward the Euphrates, escorted by a small body of his most faithful soldiers. Several of the emirs had taken flight before the end of the battle. Tancred and some others, mounted on the horses of the conquerored enemy, persued till night-fall the sultans of Aleppo and Damascus, the emir of Jerusalem, and the scattered wreck of the Saracen army. The conquerors set fire to the intrenchments behind which the enemy's infantry had sought refuge, and a vast numebr of Mussulmmans perished in the flames.

According to the account of several historians, the infidels left a hundred thousand dead on the field of battle. Four thousand Crusaders lost their lives on this glorious day, and were placed among the ranks of martyrs.

* The discovery of this lance and the prodigies that it opened are related by all the historians of the Crusades. The Arabian historian Aboul-Mahacen agrees, in the principal circumstances, with the latin historians. The most credulous of the latter, and he who gives the greatest number of details, is Raymond d' Agiles.