“Come with me, and see my zeal for the Lord.” (2 Kings 10:16) Such were the words of the holy Jehu, before he slew the pagans within Israel, and let us now come and see the zeal that permeated the souls of those warriors who fought for “the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem” (Hebrews 12:22).

Imagine to yourself just this one moment: A horde of bandits tramped through the doors of an ancient church. The congregation is immediately struck with terror as the criminals run about, clutching with their hands on anybody they can latch onto. Women are viscously seized, stripped into the nude and raped. A large body of congregants are violently forced to get on their knees and bend low their necks. A few smiling men thrust down their blades and decapitate the victims. Meanwhile, the rape of the women continues on as the blood of their butchered men puddles next to them.

The bandits take a defenseless monk and laugh sadistically as they hold him, and as one of them plunges a sword into his belly. They watch as he bleeds and chuckle as though it was nothing. Screams are heard that are so filled with horror, suffering, agony, and helplessness that they pierce through our very bones, stab our souls and overrun our minds. The murderers grapple another group of men, tear open their garments and cut off their private parts. Some take in a portion of the spraying blood into containers and mockingly sprinkle it onto the church altar, while others pour it into the holy water vases. The bleeding monk is still alive, his heart beating ever so intensely.

A bandit shoves his hand into his deep wound and pulls out his intestines. The others help, and when they pull out enough guts, they wrap them around a stake. One holds the stake, an other whips the monk to make him walk, while the rest enjoy the sight as a comedic spectacle. They walk out of the church; a trail of blood follows. The monk murmurs some prayers, preparing his soul for the everlasting glory that is to come. His body, forced into its weakest state, is about to perish, while his soul and his faith are as strong as they were before the attack. They continue to pull him, and though we are now outside, the shrills from inside the church can still be clearly heard. They keep going, and as a few moments go by, the monk’s body can no longer withstand the pulling, his body splits right open and all of his entrails come out. He gives out his last breath and collapses as his persecutors explode into the laughter of madmen possessed by devils. (1)

This is not some sick man’s fantasy, but a reality which frequently took place in the Eastern Christian lands such as Syria, North Africa, Mesopotamia, and Armenia, which, before being under Islam, were half of Christendom. (2)

Now, after imagining this horror we find a priest short in stature, but a zealot nonetheless, this is Peter the Hermit. He travelled from France to Jerusalem as a pilgrim where he met with the Christians who revealed to the hermit all of the tremendous persecutions which the Christians were enduring. What he wasn’t told of he saw with his own eyes, witnessing the turmoil of his brethren before him.

He also met Simeon, the patriarch of the city, who provided him with further details on the inhumanities of the Muslims. His spirit was stirred to zeal and compassion for these saints. Their voices needed to be heard, and he was going to make sure that they did. He did not turn his eyes from the evils which took place in Jerusalem, go back home and live a merry life, nor did he tell Simeon, “I’ll pray for you” and walk away. He was moved to action, and not just talk, and told Simeon:

You may be assured, holy father, that if the Roman church and the princes of the West should learn from a zealous and reliable witness the calamities which you suffer, there is not the slightest doubt that they would hasten to remedy the evil, both by words and deeds. Write them zealously both to the lord Pope and the Roman church and to the kings and princes of the West, and confirm your letter by the authority of your seal. I, truly, for the sake of salvation of my soul, do not hesitate to undertake this task. And I am prepared under God’s guidance to visit them all, to exhort them all, zealously to inform them of the greatest of your sufferings and to urge to hasten to your relief. (3)

The patriarch followed through, wrote of the calamities that were occurring, and gave it to Peter who proceeded to Rome and delivered the urgent message to Pope Urban II. (4)

This poor pilgrim did what our Faith demands, and that is to bring aid to the persecuted. So many famous pastors receive great revenues and do not give a cent to those Christians who live their lives every day not knowing if they are to be butchered, raped, kidnapped, and a whole litany of other cruelties. A professing Christian who does nothing for our suffering brethren is not a true believer in the Faith. When Christ returns in the Day of Judgement He will tell those who took no action to help His oppressed people:

Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did [it] not to one of the least of these, ye did [it] not to me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal. (Matthew 25:45-46)

As Pope Urban II was sojourning in Piacenza on a journey to France, he was encountered by an embassy coming from the Emperor Alexius I Commenus, bringing news of these very atrocities, imploring him to come to the aid of the Eastern church. (5)

What did the pope do? He did not call for an interfaith dialogue, as we see so much today, nor did he preach to “build bridges” with Muslims, and try to find commonality with Islam. On November 27, 1095, Urban made a profound declaration in France — the most militarily skilled country of the west in that time — before a congregation of three hundred and ten Frankish bishops and abbots, as well as as legates from Tuscan, Lombard, and Constantinople. (6) in the attempt to arouse their spirits to sojourn to the Holy Land and fight the Muslim horde in a grand crusade.

“Hastening to the way,” he said, “you must help your brothers living in the Orient, who need your aid for which they have already cried out many times.” He spoke of how Muslims invaded the lands of the Christians and “depopulated them by the sword, pillage and fire;” how they

“destroy the altars, after having defiled them with their uncleanness. They circumcise the Christians, and the blood of the circumcision they either spread upon the altars or pour into the vases of the baptismal font. When they wish to torture people by a base death, they perforate their navels, and dragging forth the extremity of the intestines, bind it to a stake; then with flogging they lead the victim around until the viscera having gushed forth the victim falls prostrate upon the ground. Others they compel to extend their necks and then, attacking them with naked swords, attempt to cut through the neck with a single blow. What shall I say of the abominable rape of the women? To speak of it is worse than to be silent.” (7)

In Jerusalem, which was conquered by the Seljuks in 1076, (8) Christian pilgrims coming into the Holy City were subject to the Jizya tax, or the tribute that those who reject Islam are to pay Muslims. Every time a Christian wished to enter a church, or even at the moment of his journey, he was met by a Muslim who compelled him with violence to pay. Many of these saints came with nothing but their very lives, and so when they had no money to give, the Muslim would cut open the heal of the pilgrim to see if he had any hidden inside. The Muslim would rip open his stomach and inspect the Christian’s intestines, or force him to drink scammony until he vomited, hoping that he would spew out any money. The Turks esteemed it an entertaining spectacle to tie Christians onto posts and use them for target practice with arrows. (9)

Such evils and brutalities justify a crusade without apology; after reading this, it is ironic to hear those who condemn the Crusaders while praising the American Revolution for fighting taxation without representation. The Crusaders were a response to the massacring and enslavement of Christians; (10) and where are those bickerers of our time who howl about slavery in old America? Why are they not showing their gratitude to the Crusades for liberating slaves who were under the Turks, since they, day and night, never stop yammering on slavery?

Pope Urban II declared Jerusalem the center of the world where Christ redeemed mankind, and that this city of God was now taken by the haters of God. (11) Churches of olden times, he said, were now taken by “base and bastard Turks”; the saints were tormented and made subject to “pagan tyranny”. (12) Urban understood that despotism comes from paganism, and is implemented by idolaters; that the Muslim heathen, being taken by devils, would naturally desire to war with Jerusalem, the symbol of the Kingdom of Heaven.

The Muslims had taken the Holy Land, the sanctified place where Christ was born, where He died, where He resurrected, and where He will return to purge the earth from all wickedness and drive out the crescent idols of the Muslim with His divine light and mighty hand. The land of Israel holds the blood of the first martyr Stephen, the waters of the Jordan which served John the Baptist when he baptized the Savior; it was to this holy place where the Israelites came to stamp out the barbarous heathen, and ultimately it is where the blood of Christ was spilt for our salvation. The Church loved Jerusalem so much, for they truly revered and upheld the description of Jerusalem by Christ as “the city of the great King.” (Matthew 5:35)

A place so used by God to defeat the forces of darkness would of course be to the eternal hatred of Satan and his servants, who would slaughter countless lives to rule over it. Our entire faith sprung from Israel, and indeed, a land so holy must not be neglected, but protected and defended by the citizens of Heaven. The Maccabees fought so that Antiochus would no longer corrupt the land of Israel and tyrannize the believers, and now the crusaders were to push out the Muslims from despotically ruling the Holy Land, and in the words of Urban, “to defend the liberty of your country.” (13)

“If all that there is of Christianity has flowed from the fountain of Jerusalem,” said Urban, “its streams, whithersoever spread out over the whole world, encircle the hearts of the Catholic multitude, that they may consider wisely what they owe such a well-watered fountain.” (14)

Now a new enemy, the Muslims, marched forth into Israel, with a religion no less savage than that of the Canaanite. And as Joshua came to Canaan to vanquish the pagans, so would the Christians of Europe march into the Holy Land to expunge the cruel followers of Islam, and end the misery which they so caused upon the saints. “With Moses,” beautifully proclaimed Urban, “we shall extend unwearied hands in prayer to Heaven, with you go forth and brandish the sword, like dauntless warriors, against Amalek.” (15)

The congregation expressed their agreement, and the First Crusade began. Urban ordered that the crusaders were to bear the Holy Cross as their symbol, and to sew it upon their shirts and cloaks, (16) which reminds us of how Constantine, who was the first to do this, decreed that the sign of the Cross be engraved on the shields of his soldiers. (17) Urban then sent a letter of instruction to the warriors which expresses truly the purpose of the crusade: to save the eastern church from annihilation by the Muslims:

Your brotherhood, we believe, has long since learned from many accounts that a barbaric fury has deplorably afflicted and laid waste the churches of God in the regions of the Orient. More than this, blasphemous to say, it has even grasped in intolerable servitude its churches and the Holy City of Christ, glorified by His passion and resurrection. Grieving with pious concern at this calamity, we visited the regions of Gaul [France] and devoted ourselves largely to urging the princes of the land and their subjects to free the churches of the East. (18)

A commonly believed opinion is that the purpose of the Crusades was to wipe out the Jews, but if this is true, then why didn’t pope Urban, when commencing the First Crusade, ever mention the Jews? He made the goal of the crusaders specific: the obliteration of Islamic power over Christian lands in the East, as we find in a letter of Pope Paschal II to the western church:

We owe boundless gratitude to the compassion of Almighty God, since in our time He has deigned to wrest the Church in Asia from the hands of the Turks and to open to Christian soldiers the very city of the Lord’s suffering and burial. (19)

So militant was Christianity in those days, that the first to take up the cross for this battle with evil was not a layman or a mere warrior, but a papal legate, Adhemar the Bishop of Le Puy. One million men joined this noble and great cause, just twenty five years after the Seljuk Turks overran Asia Minor. (20) They had left all of the beauties and pleasures of this world; they left their parents, wives and possession for an idea greater than themselves. (21)

When John of Joinville was leaving to join the Crusade, he did not want to turn his eyes back to his family, “fearful that my heart would melt for the fine castle and two children I was leaving behind.” (22) Fathers departed from their sons, and husbands from their wives; and if the spouses weeped, it was only because she could not share the honors of their men. (23) The warrior Archard of Montmerle sold his land to a monastery for, in his words, “I wish, fully armed, to join in the magnificent expedition of the Christian people seeking for God to fight their way to Jerusalem against the pagans and Saracens.” (24)

Raymond IV of St. Gilles, though rich and very wealthy, sold all that he possessed to leave for the Crusade and liberate God’s land from the heretic. (25)

THE CONQUEST OF JERUSALEM

Therefore, friends,
As far as to the Sepulchre of Christ,
(Whose soldier now, under whose blessed cross
We are impressed and engage’d to fight)
Forwith a power of English shall we levy;
Whose arms were moulded in their mother’s wombs
To chase these Pagans, in those holy fields,
Over whose acres walk’d those blessed feet
Which, fourteen hundred years ago, were nail’d,
For our advantage, on the bitter cross. — Shakespeare

There lied in that great city, destined to be the City of God, many a holy site to where simple and zealous pilgrims travelled, just to receive through the eyes the delight from the mere sight of the Tomb of the Patriarchs, from whom the world was given those prophets whose Holy Writ the Apostles taught; where laid the burial place of Abraham (26) by whose seed was the world blessed, and by whose arms and valiancy were the tyrants of Elam, Babylon, Assyria, and Cappadocia defeated, in that crusade which he took to liberate Lot and all those captured, after which the holy Melchizedek conferred the divine Eucharist to the saintly warrior whose body by then surely was fatigued by the shedding of despots’ blood.

And now a new crusade was about to go underway, by these same zealous pilgrims, whose souls were grafted in with the same seed by which the nations were blessed, whose armies were accompanied by pious priests who, being of the order of Melchizedek, gave of that holy bread and wine, and whose valor was to quarrel with the descendants of those same tyrants who Abraham vanquished, in that same city — Jerusalem.

The pious crusaders marched to Jerusalem to take the Holy City from the Muslim heathens who stole it. A large group of Syrian and Greek Christians saw them from a far distance, but when they spotted the banners showing the crosses, they immediately knew that these men were no Muslims, but crusaders. They happily took up their crosses and banners and rushed to them with weeping and singing.

They expressed their sorrows for the immense suffering they went through under the hands of the Muslims, and feared that soon they too would be slaughtered. But they still sang their hymns of praise; for they saw the crusaders not as tyrants, as people today describe them, but as liberators who were to crush their oppressors and raise Christianity back to what it once was. These two peoples, from both West and East, were brought together under Christ and celebrated a public thanksgiving to God in the Church of the Blessed Mary. And after they visited the place where Christ was born, the crusaders gave the kiss of peace to these Christians and resumed their journey to Jerusalem. As they sojourned, they passed by the ancient city of Gibeon, and it was sublimely remembered that this was the place where Joshua defeated the five Canaanite kings to save the lives of the Hivites, and where God commanded the sun and moon to stand still. (27)

These warrior saints compared themselves to the Hebrews who liberated the Holy Land from the despotic Canaanites, now the Muslims. Before reaching their destination, one hundred knights under the command of Tancred stopped in Bethlehem with the help of the local Christians, to give reverence to their Redeemer. One contemporary account gives a beautiful description of this visit:

In procession did they [the Christians of Bethlehem] lead them to the Church built on the place where the Glorious Mother brought forth the Saviour of the world: there did they set eyes on that cradle where lay the Beloved Child who was also the Maker of Heaven and the Earth; and the people of the town for joy and for proof that God and their leader would give our people victory, took Tancred’s banner and set it high over the Church before the Mother of God. (28)

Prior to taking Jerusalem, an acute battle was fought in the city of Ramlah in which two hundred Turks were overpowering seventy crusaders. Oppressed by wounds and death, these men endured the fatigue of battle regardless of them being outnumbered. Weariness soon came to their bodies, and before the crusaders were about to retreat, a storm of dust abruptly came about clouding the vision of both Christian and Turk. The sand disturbed the vision of the enemy, and the attacking crusaders now appeared to be more in number. The aggression of the Turks turned into fret, and all two hundred of them were killed by their Christian enemies. (29)

The warriors arrived in Jerusalem with the most innocent of piety; they beheld with the purest reverence the Temple of the Holy Sepulchre. They bowed in supplication and adored their Saviour as rivers of tears poured down from their submissive eyes. Their bodies trembled before the presence of holiness, and even their feet were without shoes, for they were on holy ground. (30)

Some time after this, the siege of Jerusalem began. The number of Muslim warriors within the city was sixty thousand, while the crusaders were only twelve thousand. As they were striving to break open the walls, two Muslim witches tried to put a spell on one of the catapults, but the machine quickly launched a boulder which immediately crushed the two wretches. The Turks sharply fought back against the catapults, burning many of them.

As the crusaders were debating whether or not they should withdraw these machines, an unknown knight was seen on top of the Mount of Olives waving his shield, giving the signal to advance into Jerusalem. The men took heart; many of them started to batter the walls while others began to ascend into the city by scaling ladders and ropes. (31) Numerous of them reached the top and fought with indomitable spirit.

When the crusaders were in the middle of taking Jerusalem from the Muslims, Count Raymond, one of the topmost leaders of the First Crusade, saw Mount Zion, remembered the miracles which God had done there, he said:

If we neglect to take this sacred offering, which the Lord has so graciously offered us, and the Saracens there occupy this place, what will become of us? What if through hatred of us they [the Muslims] should destroy and pollute these sacred things? Who knows that God may not be giving us this opportunity to test our regard for Him? I know this one thing for certain: unless we carefully protect this sacred spot, the Lord will not give us the others within the city. (32)

The Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem at this time was tainted by Islamic idolatry, being filled with Muslim images and paraphernalia, and no Christian was allowed to enter. (33)

But this was going to change for the better. The Crusaders held a fast and walked barefoot around the walls of Jerusalem, as Joshua and the Hebrews did in Jericho. Never did those memories escape from their minds, of how the Seljuks just twenty years before massacred seven thousand of the Christian inhabitants. They chanted holy songs while making a procession from the Mount of Olives to Zion Hill before the eyes of mocking Muslims who laughed at them and presented crosses upon which they spat and defiled. (34)

As the devils laughed, the air was filled with the yells of “God wills it!” Battering-rams were set into motions, and a wave of arrows shot through the air into enemy territory. At about noon, when the very object of the battler–Jerusalem–set western civilization tottering, a man holding a glittering shield was on top of the Mount of Olives, crying out that they should move forward in their siege and take the Holy City. Every wounded man rose up to combat, and their was no distinction seen between the healthy and injured. (35)

On July 15th, 1099, the Crusaders were stirred to righteous anger at the Muslims’ scoffing of the Holy Cross, (36) magnificently entered the city with roaring trumpets and exclaiming, “Help, God!” They pushed without stopping and posted their banner on top of the city’s wall.

The heathen, stricken with fear, shifted from being bold and brave to completely terrified. They fled with desperation; many of them jumped from the top of walls. A great slaughter took place, with the Crusaders utterly defeating the Muslim tyrants; so great was their loss that a large body of them ran into the Temple of Solomon. But this did not stop the knights who entered the temple and killed ten thousand of the enemy. Nowhere was there a place for the Muslim to escape. Five hundred Muslims then requested that they be allowed to leave provided that their belongings be kept safe, which the count Raymond fulfilled. (37)

In all, the Crusaders killed seventy thousand Muslims in their taking of Jerusalem. (38) Muslim prisoners were allowed to go if adequate ransom was paid, and some Crusader commanders even provided with protection. (39)

Subsequent to this victory, all of these knightly pilgrims came to the Temple of the Holy Sepulcher, singing with sublime high-sounding voices exalting hymns to the Lord. (40) One crusader wrote on the significance of Jerusalem and the taking of it from the jihadists:

Here He [Christ] was born, died, and rose. Cleansed from the contagion of the heathen inhabiting it at one time or another, so long contaminated by their superstition, it was restored to its former rank by those believing and trusting in Him. (41)

The warriors laid down their arms, put on vestments of holiness, washed their hands, and in the spirit of humility, wept and groaned as they walked to all the places where our Lord was present. (42)

But despite this great achievement, the reconquest of Jerusalem by the crusaders is actually condemned by a great deal of modern Christians because it involved killing Muslims.

While that did happen, we cannot forget that they were purging the land from idolatry, and were fighting to put an end to the ongoing oppression and killing which the Muslims for hundreds of years were inflicting upon the Christians.

Christians who affirm that this was wrong, have completely neglected the Hebrew conquest of Canaan in which they “utterly destroyed all that [was] in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword.” (Joshua 6:21)

As Joshua liberated Canaan from heathen despotism, so did the crusades free the Holy Land from the Muslim yoke. And if any supposed Christian wishes to object to the brutality of the Crusades, they should read what David did unto the Ammonites of Rabbah, when he “cut them with saws, and with harrows of iron, and with axes” (1 Chronicles 20:3). (43)

Furthermore, after the victory the natives of Nablus approached Godfrey and requested that he rule over, for they preferred the government of Christians than that of others. (44)

After the victory the men threw a grand celebration. “On this day we chanted the Office of the Resurrection,” writes the crusader Raymond d’Aguiliers, “since on that day He, who by His virtue arose from the dead, revived us through His grace.” (45)

It is difficult to refer to the First Crusade as being contrary to Christianity when they were fighting to preserve and purify the holy city of Jerusalem from people who were enemies to God. The crusades are condemned for believing that to fight for Jerusalem would bring salvation. But what true believer in the Scriptures would affirm that one can truly be a Christian and stand negligent as the Holy Land is being pillaged, and his brethren are put to the slaughter? It was in the land of Israel where Christ, God in the flesh, died, His divine body buried and resurrected.

By this fact alone, to not do anything to help God’s people and to liberate His land, more holy than any place in the universe, would be blasphemous. The reverence which the Crusaders had for Jerusalem is expressed in the letter of Manasses II, archbishop of Reims, to his brother Lambert:

Jerusalem, the city of our redemption and glory, delights with inconceivable joy, because through the effort and incomparable might of the sons of God it has been liberated from most cruel pagan servitude. (46)

And who could not admire the words of Godfrey de Bouillion, when he was asked to take up the crown of kingship after he was established as king of Jerusalem:

I will not wear a crown of gold where my Master wore a crown of thorns. (47)

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REFERENCES

(1) This description was inspired by the speech of Pope Urban II, documented by Robert the Monk, in Edward Peters, The First Crusade, p. 2

(2) See Hilaire Belloc, The Crusades, ch. i, p. 1; ch. ii, p. 9

(3) See Edward Peters, The First Crusade, ch. iv, p. 93, Peter the Hermit, The Version of William of Tyre

(4) See Edward Peters, The First Crusade, ch. iv, p. 94, Peter the Hermit, The Version of William of Tyre; Mills, Hist. Crus. ch. ii, pp. 23-24

(5) See footnote 1 of Edward Peters in his First Crusade, ch. iii, p. 30, to Fulcher of Chartres’ chronicle, 1.3.2; John France, “Impelled by the Love of God”, in Thomas F. Madden’s The Crusades, part 2, p. 36

(6) This number comes from Fulcher of Chartres, chron. 1.1.1, in Edward Peters, Fulcher of Chartres, The First Crusade, ch. iii, p. 26; Mills, Hist. Crus. ch. ii, p. 25

(7) Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont, the version of Robert the Monk, in Edward Peters, The First Crusade, p. 24

(8) See Gibbon, Decline and Fall, vol. v, ch. lvii, p. 1042, ed. Hans-Friedrich Mueller, see his annotation for the date

(9) Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont, the version of Guibert of Nogent, in Edward Peters, The First Crusade, pp. 14-15; Robert the Monk, History of the First Crusade, 1.10

(10) See Moczar, Seven Lies about Catholic Church, ch. iii, 73

(11) Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont, the version of Robert the Monk, in Edward Peters, The First Crusade, p. 2

(12) Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont, the version of Baldric of Dol, in Edward Peters, The First Crusade, p. 2

(13) Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont, the version of Guibert of Nogent, in Edward Peters, The First Crusade, p. 12

(14) Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont, the version of Guibert of Nogent, in Edward Peters, The First Crusade, p. 12

(15) Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont, the version of Baldric of Dol, in Edward Peters, The First Crusade, pp. 7-10

(16) Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont, the version of Guibert of Nogent, in Edward Peters, The First Crusade, ch. i, pp. 14-15

(17) Eusebius, Life of Constantine, 4.17

(18) Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont, the version of Guibert of Nogent, in Edward Peters, The First Crusade, ch. i, pp. 15-16

(19) The Letter of Pope Paschal II, in Edward Peters, The First Crusade, ch. iv, p. 219

(20) Hilaire Belloc, The Crusades, ch. i, p. 1; ch. iv, p. 50; John France, “Impelled by the Love of God, in Thomas F. Madden’s The Crusades, part 2, p. 36

(21) The Chronicle of Fulcher of Chartres, b. i, prelude, 1, in Edward Peters, The First Crusade, ch. iii, p. 24

(22) John of Joinville, Life of Saint Louis, 122, trans. Caroline Smith

(23) Mills, Hist. Crus. ch. ii, p. 31

(24) In John France, “Impelled by the Love God”, in Thomas F. Madden’s The Crusades, part 2, pp. 38-9

(25) Robert the Monk, History of the First Crusade, 3.2

(26) See Alfred J. Andrea, Christendom and the Umma, in Thomas F. Madden, part 1, p. 24

(27) Fulcher of Chartres, chron. 1.25.15-17

(28) See Belloc, The Crusades, ch. vi, p. 107

(29) See Edward Peters, The First Crusade, ch. iv, pp. 204-205, The Fall of Jerusalem: The Version of Raymond d’Aguiliers

(30) Robert the Monk, 9.1; Mills, Hist. Crus. ch. 6, p. 83

(31) See Edward Peters, The First Crusade, ch. iv, pp. 211, 213, The Frankish Victory: The Version of Raymond d’Aguiliers

(32) See Edward Peters, The First Crusade, ch. iv, p. 202, The Fall of Jerusalem: The Version of Raymond d’Aguiliers

(33) Fulcher of Chartres, chron. 1.26.9

(34) Belloc, The Crusades, ch. vi, p. 109

(35) Mills, Hist. Crus. ch. 6, p. 86

(36) See Moczar, Seven Lies about Catholic History, ch. iii, p. 63; Mills, Hist. Crus. ch. 6, p. 85

(37) Fulcher of Chartres, 1.29.2

(38) Butcher, The Story of the Church of Egypt, ch. xviii, p. 71

(39) Moczar, Seven Lies about Catholic History, ch. iii, p. 65

(40) Fulcher of Chartres, 1.29.2; 1.30.3

(41) Fulcher of Chartres, chron. 1.29.3

(42) Mills, Hist. Crus. ch. 6, p. 87

(43) Josephus says that David “tormented them, and then destroyed them” (Joseph. Antiq. 7.7.5), which is in accordance with both 1 Chronicles 20:3 and 2 Samuel 12:31

(44) Robert the Monk, 9.12

(45) Edward Peters, The First Crusade, ch. iv, p. 215, The Frankish Victory: The Version of Raymond d’Aguiliers

(46) The Letter of Manasses II, Archbishop of Reims, in Edward Peters, The First Crusade, ch. iv, p. 218

(47) Chesterton, The New Jerusalem, ch. xi, in James V. Schall, The Complete Works of G.K. Chesterton, pp. 367