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Chap. 8.
The character of Peter the Hermite; his solici∣ting the Holy warre; the Councel at Clermont, and the successe thereof.
IT happened there came a pilgrime to Jerusalem called Peter, an Hermite, born at Amiens in France; one of a contem∣ptible person: His silly looks carried in them a despair of any worth; and yet (as commonly the richest mines lie under the basest and barrennest surface of ground) he had a quick appre∣hension, eloquent tongue, and what got him the greatest re∣pute, was accounted very religious. With him Simon the Pa∣triarch of Jerusalem often treated, concerning the present mise∣ries of the Christians under the Turks; what hope of amend∣ment; and how the matter might secretly be contrived, that the Princes of Europe might assist and relieve them. Peter mo∣ved with the Patriarchs perswasions, the equity and honoura∣blenesse of the cause, and chiefly with a vision (as they say) from† heaven (wherein our Saviour himself appointed him his Legate, with a commission to negotiate the Christian cause) took the whole businesse upon him, and travelled to Rome to consult with Pope Urbane the second about the advancing of so pious a design.
Now, though many cry up this Hermite to have been so pre∣tious a piece of holinesse, yet† some suspect him to be little bet∣ter then a counterfeit, and a cloke-father for a plot of the Popes begetting: because the Pope alone was the gainer by this great adventure, and all other Princes of Europe, if they cast up their audite, shall find themselves losers: This with some is a pre∣sumption, that this cunning merchant first secretly employed this Hermite to be his factour, and to go to Jerusalem to set on foot so beneficiall a trade for the Romish Church. As for the apparition of our Saviour, one may wonder that the world should see most visions when it was most blind and that that age most barren in learning, should be most fruitfull in revelations. And surely had Peter been truly inspired by God, and moved by his Spirit to begin this warre, he would not have apostared from his purpose: so mortified a man would not have feared death in a good cause, as he did afterwards, and basely ran away at† Antioch. For when the siege grew hot, his devotion grew cold; he found a difference betwixt a voluntary fast in his cell, and a necessary and undispensable famine in a camp: so that be∣ing well hunger-pincht, this cunning companion who was the