§ 57. ST. LOUIS AND THE LAST CRUSADES. 281
against its ritual. Perhaps, with his freedom of thought, he did not regard the possession of Palestine after all as of much value. In any case, Frederick's religion — whatever he had of religion — was not of a kind to flame forth in enthusiasm for a pious scheme in which sentiment formed a prevailing element.
Gregory's continued appeals in 1235 and the succeeding years called for some minor expeditions, one of them led by Richard of Cornwall, afterwards German emperor-elect. The condition of the Christians in Palestine grew more and more deplorable and, in a battle with the Chorasmians, Oct. 14, 1244, they met with a disastrous defeat, and thenceforth Jerusalem was closed to them.
§ 57. St. Louis and the Last Crusades. 1248, 1270.
LITERATURE. — JEHAN DE JOINVILLE, d. 1319, the next great historical writer in old French after Villehardouin, companion of St. Louis on his first Crusade : Hist, de St. Louis, Isted. Poitiers, 1547 ; by Du Cange, 1668 ; by Michaud in Memoires a Vhist. de France, Paris, 1857, I. 161-329, and by de Wailly, Paris, 1868. For other edd. see Potthast, Bibl, I. 679-681. Engl. trans., M. Tn. JOHNES, Haford, 1807, included in Chronicles of the Crusades, Bohn's Libr. 340-556, and J. HUTTON, London, 1868. — TILLEMONT : Vie de St. Louis, publ. for the first time, Paris, 1847-1851, 6 vols. — SCHOLTEN : Gesch. Ludwigs des Heiligen, ed. by Junkemann and Janssen, 2 vols. Miinster, 1850-1855. — GUIZOT : St. Louis and Calvin, Paris, 1868. — MRS. BRAY: Good St. Louis and his Times, London, 1870. — WALLON : St. Louis et son Temps, 3d ed. Tours, 1879. — ST. PATHUS : Vie de St. Louis, publie"e par F. Delaborde, Paris, 1899. — F. PERRY: St. Louis, Most Christian King, London, 1901. — LANE-POOLE: Hist, of Egypt in the M. A., N.Y., 1901.
One more great Crusader, one in whom genuine piety was a leading trait, was yet to set his face towards the East and, by the abrupt termination of his career through sickness, to furnish one of the most memorable scenes in the long drama of the Crusades. The Sixth and Seventh -Crusades owe their origin to the devotion of Louis IX., king of France, usually known as St. Louis. Louis combined the piety of the monk with the chivalry of the knight, and stands in
282 THK MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1049-1294.
the front rank of Christian sovereigns of all times.1 His religious zeal showed itself not only in devotion to the con fessional and the mass, but in steadfast refusal, in the face of threatened torture, to deviate from his faith and in patient resignation under the most trying adversity. A considerate regard for the poor and the just treatment of his subjects were among his traits, lie washed the feet of beggars and, when a Dominican warned him against carrying his humil ity too far, he replied, " If I spent twice as much time in gaming and at the chase as in such services, no man would rise up to find fault with me."
On one occasion, when he asked Joinville if he were called upon to choose between being a leper and committing mortal sin, which his choice would be, the seneschal replied, " he would rather commit thirty mortal sins than be a leper." The next day the king said to him, " How could you say what you did ? There is no leper so hideous as he who is in a state of mortal sin. The leprosy of the body will pass away at death, but the leprosy of the soul may cling to it forever."
The sack of Jerusalem by the Chorasmians,2 who were being pushed on from behind by the Mongols, was fol lowed by the fall of Gaza and Ascalon. It was just one hun dred years since the news of the fall of Edessa had stirred Europe, but the temper of men's minds was no longer the same. The news of disasters in Palestine was a familiar thing. There was now no Bernard to arouse the conscience and give directions to the feelings of princes and people. The Council of Lyons in 1245 had for one of its four objects the relief of the holy places. A summons was sent forth
1 "Piety was his ruling passion." Guizot, p. 117. l)e Joinville fre quently calls him " the good king " and Matthew Paris " that most Christian king."
2 See the account in a letter from the prelates of the Holy Land in Matthew Paris, an, 1244. The invaders were called Tartars by Robert, patriarch of Jerusalem, in his letter to Innocent TV. Rohricht, Reg. regni I Tier., p. 299.