Adam Simmons at 16:38, 3 July 2015

2015-07-03T16:38:20Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 16:38, 3 July 2015
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	like brute beasts, he scattered them, like a hurricane driving dust.		like brute beasts, he scattered them, like a hurricane driving dust.
	A second time he sent his 9000 knights forward, supported by 20,000		A second time he sent his 9000 knights forward, supported by 20,000
	~~Ethiopean~~ common foot-soldiers. The pious king assembled against him		Ethiopian common foot-soldiers. The pious king assembled against him
	scarcely 1000 knights and foot-soldiers, forming seven battalions out		scarcely 1000 knights and foot-soldiers, forming seven battalions out
	of them, and he sent them with great confidence directly at the		of them, and he sent them with great confidence directly at the

Adam Simmons: Created page with "(c. 1107-8) ''Benedictine historian.'' ''Dei gesta per Francos (The Deeds of God through the Franks).'' ''Latin.'' When the hermit, like a herald, went everywhere before ..."

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(c. 1107-8)

''Benedictine historian.''

''Dei gesta per Francos (The Deeds of God through the Franks).''

''Latin.''

When the hermit, like a herald, went everywhere
before him, Mahomet was believed by everyone to be a prophet. When
far and wide, in the opinion of everyone, his growing reputation
shone, and he saw that people in the surrounding as well as in
distant lands were inclining towards his teachings, after consulting
with his teacher, he wrote a law, in which he loosened the reins of
every vice for his followers, in order to attract more of them. By
doing this he gathered a huge mob of people, and the better to
deceive their uncertain minds with the pretext of religion, he
ordered them to fast for three days, and to offer earnest prayers for
God to grant a law. He also gives them a sign, because, should it
please God to give them law, he will grant it in an unusual manner,
from an unexpected hand. Meanwhile, he had a cow, whom he himself
had trained to follow him, so that whenever she heard his voice or
saw him, almost no force could prevent her from rushing to him with
unbearable eagerness. He tied the book he had written to the horns
of the animal, and hid her in the tent in which he himself lived. On
the third day he climbed a high platform above all the people he had
called together, and began to declaim to the people in a booming
voice. When, as I just said, the sound of his words reached the
cow's ears, she immediately ran from the tent, which was nearby, and,
with the book fastened on her horns, made her way eagerly through the
middle of the assembled people to the feet of the speaker, as though
to congratulate him. Everyone was amazed, and the book was quickly
removed and read to the breathless people, who happily accepted the
licence permitted by its foul law. What more? The miracle of the
offered book was greeted with applause over and over again. As
though sent from the sky, the new license for random copulation was
propagated everywhere, and the more the supply of permitted filth
increased, the more the grace of a God who permitted more lenient
times, without any mention of turpitude, was preached. All of
Christian morality was condemned by a thousand reproofs, and whatever
examples of goodness and strength the Gospel offered were called
cruel and harsh. But what the cow had delivered was considered
universal liberty, the only one recommended by God. Neither the
antiquity of Moses nor the more recent Catholic teachings had any
authority. Everything which had existed before the law, under the
law, under grace, was marked as implacably wrong. If I may make
inappropriate use of what the Psalmist sings, "God did not treat
other nations in this fashion, and he never showed his judgements to
any other people." The greater opportunity to fulfil lust, and,
going beyond the appetites of beasts, by resorting to multiple whores,
was cloaked by the excuse of procreating children. However, while
the flow of nature was unrestrained in these normal acts, at the same
time they engaged in abnormal acts, which we should not even name,
and which were unknown even to the animals. At the time, the
obscurity of this nefarious sect first covered the name of Christ,
but now it has wiped out his name from the furthest corners of the
entire East, from Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Libya, and even the more
remote coasts of Spain - a country near us. But now to describe how
this marvellous law-giver made his exit from our midst.

...

If Christ had not died and been buried in
Jerusalem, had not lived there at all, if all these things had not
taken place, surely this fact alone should be enough to drive you to
come to the aid of the land and the city: that the law came from Zion
and the word of God from Jerusalem. If all Christian preaching flows
from the fountain of Jerusalem, then let the rivulets, wherever they
flow over the face of the earth, flow into the hearts of the Catholic
multitude, so that they may heed of what they owe to this overflowing
fountain. If "rivers return to the place whence they flow, so that
they may continue to flow," according to the saying of Solomon,
it should seem glorious to you if you are able to purify the place
whence you received the cleansing of baptism and the proof of faith.
And you should also consider with the utmost care whether God is
working through your efforts to restore the church that is the mother
of churches; he might wish to restore the faith in some of the
eastern lands, in spite of the nearness of the time of the Antichrist.
For it is clear that the Antichrist makes war neither against Jews,
nor against pagans, but, according to the etymology of his name, he
will move against Christians. And if the Antichrist comes upon no
Christian there, as today there is scarcely any, there will be no one
to resist him, or any whom he might justly move among. According to
Daniel and Jerome his interpreter, his tent will be fixed on the
Mount of Olives, and he will certainly take his seat, as the Apostle
teaches, in Jerusalem, "in the temple of God, as though he were God,
" and, according to the prophet, he will undoubtedly kill three
kings pre-eminent for their faith in Christ, that is, the kings of
Egypt, of Africa, and of Ethiopia. This cannot happen at all, unless
Christianity is established where paganism now rules. Therefore if
you are eager to carry out pious battles, and since you have accepted
the seedbed of the knowledge of God from Jerusalem, then you may
restore the grace that was borrowed there. Thus through you the name
of Catholicism will be propagated, and it will defeat the perfidy of
the Antichrist and of the Antichristians. Who can doubt that God,
who surpasses every hope by means of his overflowing strength, may so
destroy the reeds of paganism with your spark that he may gather
Egypt, Africa and Ethiopia, which no longer share our belief, into
the rules of his law, and "sinful man, the son of perdition,"
will find others resisting him? See how the Gospel cries out that "Jerusalem will be trodden down by the Gentiles, until the time of
the nations will be fulfilled." "The time of nations" may be
understood in two ways: either that they ruled at will over the
Christians, and for their own pleasures have wallowed in the troughs
of every kind of filth, and in all of these things have found no
obstruction (for "to have one's time" means that everything goes
according to one's wishes, as in "My time has not yet come, but your
time is always ready," and one customarily says to voluptuaries,
"You have your time;") or else the "time of nations" means the
multitudes of nations who, before Israel is saved, will join the
faith. These times, dearest brothers, perhaps will now be fulfilled,
when, with the aid of God, the power of the pagans will be pushed
back by you, and, with the end of the world already near, even if the
nations do not turn to the Lord, because, as the Apostle says, "there
must be a falling away from faith."

...

But the prince of Babylon, less concerned with the loss of Jerusalem
than with the proximity of the Frankish settlement, set out to launch
a heavy offensive against the new king, often striving to attack the
port city of Acre. Count Robert of Normandy had besieged Acre when
the army of the Lord was advancing to besiege Jerusalem, but duke
Godfrey had brought him away, in expectation of a more successful
undertaking. The Babylonian then gathered a vast army and challenged
the Christian king to battle. He gathered his small band, to whom
the Lord said, "Fear not," and, setting his troops in order as
well as he could, he attacked the impious ones. Killing them swiftly,
like brute beasts, he scattered them, like a hurricane driving dust.
A second time he sent his 9000 knights forward, supported by 20,000
Ethiopean common foot-soldiers. The pious king assembled against him
scarcely 1000 knights and foot-soldiers, forming seven battalions out
of them, and he sent them with great confidence directly at the
thickest ranks of the enemy. When the prince saw far off a pagan
knight, he rushed at him with such force that he drove his spear,
together with its standard, into the man's breast, and when he pulled
the spear from the wound, the standard remained in the man's breast.
Frightened by the courage of the prince and his men, the enemy
retreated at first, but their courage returned, because of the
strength of their numbers, and they united to attack our men,
compelling them to think of fleeing. They said that this misfortune
had happened to them because, in their foolishness, they had not
brought the cross of the Lord to this battle. They said that, guided
by a Syrian or some Armenian, they found this cross, which, like the
Lance, had lain buried somewhere. They drew a lesson from this
incident, which was more blemish of a victory in the process of being
won than defeat, and when the army of the Babylonian prince, as
strong as the previous one, came forward to fight for the third time,
the splendid king, together with what forces he could gather,
deriving his confidence from God, went up against them. After he had
drawn up his troops as well as he could, the clash of men was so
great that, although the armies were unequal, both sides suffered
severe losses, as 6000 pagan soldiers, and 100 Christians, lay dead.
And because they had no prideful concern for banners with eagles and
dragons, they raised aloft the sign of the humiliating Crucifixion,
the Cross, and as praiseworthy conquerors drove their enemies to
flight.

'''Selected edition'''

Guibert of Nogent, The Deeds of God through the Franks, trans. R. Levine (Suffolk, 1997).

Guibert de Nogent - Revision history

Adam Simmons at 16:38, 3 July 2015

Adam Simmons: Created page with "(c. 1107-8) ''Benedictine historian.'' ''Dei gesta per Francos (The Deeds of God through the Franks).'' ''Latin.'' When the hermit, like a herald, went everywhere before ..."