WILLIAM RUFUS.

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Alcoran , the original monument of their faith , c h a rseems to contain some violent precepts , they v.were much less infected with the spirit of bigotry 1096.

and persecution than the indolent and speculativeGreeks, who were continually refining on theseveral articles of their religious system. Theygave little disturbance to those zealous pilgrims,who daily flocked to Jerusalem; and they allowedevery man, after paying a moderate tribute, tovisit the holy sepulchre, to perform his religiousduties, and to return in peace. But the Turcomansor Turks, a tribe of Tartars , who had embracedIMahometanism , having wrested Syria from theSaracens , and having in the year 1065 madethemselves masters of Jerusalem , rendered thepilgrimage much more difficult and dangerous tothe Christians. The barbarity of their manners,and the confusions attending their unsettledgovernment, exposed the pilgrims *to many in-sults, robberies, and extortions; and these zealots,returning from their meritorious fatigues andsufferings, filled all Christendom with indignationagainst the infidels, who profaned the holy cityby their presence, and derided the sacred mysteriesin the very place of their completion. Gregory VII.among the other vast ideas which he entertained,had formed the design of uniting all the westernChristians against the Mahometans ; but theegregious and violent invasions of that pontiff onthe civil power of princes , had created him somany enemies , and had rendered his schemes sosuspicious, that he was not able to make greatVol. I. C c