her singular fact, that the
religion of Hakem was by no means confined to Egypt and Syria. M. de
Sacy quotes a letter addressed to the chief of the sect in India; and
there is likewise a letter to the Byzantine emperor Constantine, son of
Armanous, (Romanus,) and the clergy of the empire. (Constantine VIII.,
M. de Sacy supposes, but this is irreconcilable with chronology; it must
mean Constantine XI., Monomachus.) The assassination of Hakem is, of
course, disbelieved by his sectaries. M. de Sacy seems to consider the
fact obscure and doubtful. According to his followers he disappeared,
but is hereafter to return. At his return the resurrection is to take
place; the triumph of Unitarianism, and the final discomfiture of all
other religions. The temple of Mecca is especially devoted to
destruction. It is remarkable that one of the signs of this final
consummation, and of the reappearance of Hakem, is that Christianity
shall be gaining a manifest predominance over Mahometanism. As for the
religion of the Druses, I cannot agree with Gibbon that it does not
"deserve" to be better known; and am grateful to M. de Sacy,
notwithstanding the prolixity and occasional repetition in his two large
volumes, for the full examination of the most extraordinary religious
aberration which ever extensively affected the mind of man. The worship
of a mad tyrant is the basis of a subtle metaphysical creed, and of a
severe, and even ascetic, morality.--M.]

[Footnote 69: See Glaber, l. iii. c. 7, and the Annals of Baronius and
Pagi, A.D. 1009.]

[Footnote 70: Per idem tempus ex universo orbe tam innumerabilis
multitudo coepit confluere ad sepulchrum Salvatoris Hierosolymis,
quantum nullus hominum prius sperare poterat. Ordo inferioris plebis....
mediocres.... reges et comites..... praesules ..... mulieres multae
nobilis cum pauperioribus.... Pluribus enim erat mentis desiderium
mori priusquam ad propria reverterentur, (Glaber, l. iv. c. 6, Bouquet.
Historians of France, tom. x. p. 50.) * Note: Compare the first chap. of
Wilken, Geschichte der Kreuz-zuge.--M.]

[Footnote 71: Glaber, l. iii. c. 1. Katona (Hist. Critic. Regum
Hungariae, tom. i. p. 304-311) examines whether St. Stephen founded a
monastery at Jerusalem.]

[Footnote 72: Baronius (A.D. 1064, No. 43-56) has transcribed the
greater part of the original narratives of Ingulphus, Marianus, and
Lambertus.]

After the defeat of the Romans, the tranquillity of the Fatimite caliphs
was