Jerusalem, have afflicted our heart and those of all our brethren with excessive grief; inasmuch as any one who has the name of Christian can hardly even hear, without tears and sighs, the récitals that are given as to the wretched state of that country. For it is (and with grief we own it) trodden down under the inroads of the infidels, and so utterly bereft of the prowess of men of might, and the prudent counsel of men of probity, that unless the people receive from the Christian kings and princes of the earth speedy and powerful succour, we fear, which may God forbid, the speedy desolation thereof, thus working to the disgrace of the Lord, and to the contempt of the Christian faith. For there is no king to rule that land, inasmuch as Baldwin, who now holds the helm of state, has been (as we believe you are aware) so grievously scourged under the righteous judgments of God, that he is hardly able to endure the incessant torments of his body. Indeed, the heavy losses and the shocking misfortunes, both in men and property, which that land (for which our fathers and ancestors shed their blood in the battles which they formerly waged with the heathens) has, in consequence of its sins so requiring it, endured, we can neither without great sorrowing at heart call to our recollection, nor can any who are zealous for the law of the Lord, endure with feelings of patience calamities of the faithful so mighty ; and the more especially so, as this most abominable nation of the pagans, in consequence of the losses and dangers which they have inflicted upon the nation of the Christians, are said to be inspired with such audacity as impudently to boast that they Will, which God forbid, gain possession of that land. Therefore let the zeal of the Lord move you, and let not the Christian religion sleep in its sorrow over such mighty evils as are threatening that land ; but, on the contrary, manfully defend all those places which our Saviour and Redeemer has sanctified by His bodily presence, and despise the nations which reject the Lord, and strive to sweep away the Christian name from off the earth. For indeed, there is no Christian who is not moved at the misfortunes of the before-named land, and who does not prepare for the purpose of defending it from the attacks of the infidels, while they are striving to possess it, and, which God forbid, to profane it by their abominations. Therefore, those among you who are valiant and fit for waging war, ought, as a matter of duty, to undertake a work as pious as it is necessary and the labours of this pilgrimage, clothed no less with the shield of faith