made. The Normans took it by surprise, and released Gregory
from his imprisonment in the Castle of St. Angelo. An awful scene
ensued. Some conflicts between the citizens and the Normans occurred; a
battle in the streets was the consequence, and Rome was pillaged,
sacked, and fired. Streets, churches, palaces, were left a heap of
smoking ashes. The people by thousands were massacred. [Sidenote: The
Mohammedans support Hildebrand.] The Saracens, of whom there were
multitudes in the Norman army, were in the Eternal City at last, and,
horrible to be said, were there as the hired supporters of the Vicar of
Christ. Matrons, nuns, young women, were defiled. Crowds of men, women,
and children were carried off and sold as slaves. [Sidenote: Sack of
Rome, and death of the pope.] It was the treatment of a city taken by
storm. In consternation, the pontiff with his infidel deliverers retired
from the ruined capital to Salerno, and there he died, A.D. 1085.

[Sidenote: The Crusades.] He had been dead ten years, when a policy was
entered upon by the papacy which imparted to it more power than all the
exertions of Gregory. The Crusades were instituted by a French pope,
Urban II. Unpopular in Italy, perhaps by reason of his foreign birth, he
aroused his native country for the recovery of the Holy Land. He began
his career in a manner not now unusual, interfering in a quarrel between
Philip of France and his wife, taking the part of the latter, as
experience had shown it was always advisable for a pope to do. Soon,
however, he devoted his attention to something more important than these
matrimonial broils. It seems that a European crusade was first
distinctly conceived of and its value most completely comprehended by
Gerbert, to whom, doubtless, his Mohammedan experiences had suggested
it. In the first year of his pontificate, he wrote an epistle, in the
name of the Church of Jerusalem, to the Church throughout the world,
exhorting Christian soldiers to come to her relief either with arms or
money. It had been subsequently contemplated by Gregory VII. For many
years, pilgrimages to Palestine had been on the increase; a very
lucrative export trade in relics from that country had arisen; crowds
from all parts of Europe had of late made their way to Jerusalem, for
the singular purpose of being present at the great assize which the
Scriptures were supposed to prophesy would soon take place in the Valley
of Jehoshaphat. The Mohammedans had i