cnAP. iii.]

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helpless, as this kingdom is, none can protect it;but only possibly a corps of the transcending spiritproposed, a selection of the most valiant of allChristendom. And it must begin with those who,it is allowed, are pre-eminent above all others atpresent in existence, our own Normans.’’ Was itnot natural that Tancred, to whom knighthoodseemed far superior to any monarchy, should haveenthusiastically undertaken what he wa,s ordered ?And that the Norman chiefs heard him with ap-plause? And other Normans all over Christendomhurried with donations, as soon as they receivedthe circular?

Lands and tenements in Europe had been socheapened and reduced nearly to worthlessness bythe emigration of the first crusade, and in Palestineby the fluctuation of all property during so manywars, and principally the Saracenic, that so mightya foundation was practicable and timely. It re-quired all that patronage. It was as natural aneffect of the first crusade, as the crusade of thedisorderly state of Europe. Urgency brought thatnecessary simultaneousness, quite characteristic ofthe institution in all its parts, from the founder’smind, into complete action. A chronicler, whileGodfrey was alive, saw their church building, andthe knights mounting their horses for battle, and

VOL. i.

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