CHAP. I.]

ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM.

133

some remnants . 1 In consequence of a sickness,Louis IX. took, and tricked some of his nobles intotaking the Cross ; 2 but, for some years, the Frenchflattered themselves they should persuade him notto effectuate his threat, for though they were readyto attend their monarch on a crusade, or anywhereelse, the spirit of religion, or fanaticism,was extinct,and few ever thought of Jerusalem.

There is a letter of the emperor and of the GrandMaster of the Hospitallers relative to the Karismiansand the invasion of those destructive savages, whoin 1246 (and even further back) appear to havepenetrated into Palestine . 3 The Pope himself(Innocent IV.) seems to have been far too muchoccupied with politics and Guelphs and Ghibellinesto think seriously of the holy war, except as itmight be converted into an instrument against theemperor ; 4 and it was more with this intent thanany beyond-sea projects (though he pretended tothem certainly, and wrote to excite who needed noexcitation ), 5 that he convened the Council -^47of Lyons that was sitting in 1248. 6 A letter

1 Arab. Chron., 442, 446. 2 Michaud: Hist., iv. 126.

3 Mathew Paris: 2.—Bib. Crois., ii. 817.

4 Michaud: Hist., iv. 135.

5 Cod. Dipl. Geros. i. Hum. xliv.—Appendix, xcv.

6 Michaud: Hist., iv. 141.