which the
head of the Christian religion must reap from a religious war, and
though he esteemed the blind zeal of Peter a proper means for effecting
the purpose, resolved not to interpose his authority, till he saw a
greater probability of success. He summoned a council at Placentia,
which consisted of four thousand ecclesiastics, and thirty thousand
seculars; and which was so numerous that no hall could contain the
multitude, and it was necessary to hold the assembly in a plain. The
harangues of the Pope, and of Peter himself, representing the dismal
situation of their brethren in the East, and the indignity suffered by
the Christian name, in allowing the holy city to remain in the hands of
infidels, here found the minds of men so well prepared, that the whole
multitude suddenly and violently declared for the war, and solemnly
devoted themselves to perform this service, so meritorious, as they
believed it, to God and religion.

But though Italy seemed thus to have zealously embraced the enterprise,
Martin knew, that, in order to insure success, it was necessary to
enlist the greater and more warlike nations in the same engagement; and
having previously exhorted Peter to visit the chief cities and
sovereigns of Christendom, he summoned another council at Clermont in
Auvergne. The fame of this great and pious design being now universally
diffused, procured the attendance of the greatest prelates, nobles, and
princes; and when the Pope and the Hermit renewed their pathetic
exhortations, the whole assembly, as if impelled by an immediate
inspiration, not moved by their preceding impressions, exclaimed with
one voice, _It is the will of God, It is the will of God!_--words deemed
so memorable, and so much the result of a divine influence, that they
were employed as the signal of rendezvous and battle in all the future
exploits of those adventurers. Men of all ranks flew to arms with the
utmost ardor; and an exterior symbol, too, a circumstance of chief
moment, was here chosen by the devoted combatants. The sign of the
cross, which had been hitherto so much revered among Christians, and
which, the more it was an object of reproach among the Pagan world, was
the more passionately cherished by them, became the badge of union, and
was affixed to their right shoulder, by all who enlisted themselves in
this sacred warfare.

Europe was at this time sunk into profound ignorance and superstition.
The ecclesiastics had acquired the