Chapter XXXVI the Fourth Crusade and the Capture of Constantinople

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181.

First Preaching of the Crusade

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Be it known to you that eleven hundred and ninety-seven years after the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, in the time of Innocent III, pope of Rome, Philip II, king of France, and Richard I, king of England, there was in France a holy man named Fulk of Neuilly — which Neuilly is between Lagnisur-Marne and Paris — and he was a priest in that village. And Fulk began to speak of God throughout the Isle of France, and the other regions round about; and you must know that by him the Lord wrought many miracles.

Be it known to you, further, that the fame of this holy man so spread that it reached the pope, Innocent III; and the pope sent to France, and ordered the right worthy man to preach the cross by his authority. And afterwards the pope sent a cardinal of his, Master Peter of Capua, who himself had taken the cross, to proclaim the indulgence of which I now tell you, viz., that all who should take the cross and serve in the host for one year would be delivered from all the sins they had committed and would be acknowledged in confession. And because this indulgence was so great, the hearts of men were much moved, and many took the cross for the greatness of the pardon.

1 , translated by Sir Flank Marzials. London, 1908. J. M. Dent and Sons.

2 Villehardouin, La conquête de Constantinople, ch. vi, secs. 1–2.