CHAP. II.]

ST. JOHN OH JERUSALEM.

85

it was clear that the constellations prophesied greatdisorders; r and all these expounders of the lawagreed, that some dark prediction was thus fore-shadowed of people, who seemed to he Christians,seizing on much of the true believers’ lands, afterimmense victories. And every one drew the con-sequence, that something of great importance wasat hand, since announced by such prodigies.

In truth, it is in a Mahometan mouth that I firstobserve the words holy war, calling on all Mussul-men to leave off discord among themselves, andunite in a holy war against the Greek; words usedin about 1084, and in that very Asia Minor, andassented to by that very same Solyman, Avhom (orson) any army from Constantinople would havefirst to encounter; sanguinary Turks, lately Maho-metans, and still savages, who had never seen anybetter Christians than Greeks, Syrians, and de-fenceless pilgrims, and therefore scorned and hatedChristianity. These were the hyenas and lions,leopards, tigers, crowding down to the Asiaticmargin of the Sea of Marmora, snuffing for bloodalong it, as if round where travellers have pitchedtheir nightly camp, defended by fires in thedesert.

The opinion of most Christians then was, thatthe end of the world was at hand; but all people