

Baldwin (Baldvinus), the fourth of this name, seventh king of Jerusalem, and son of the aforesaid Amalric, reigned six years after his father. Although he was afflicted with the illness of leprosy, he ruled the kingdom with strength and wisdom. In daring and knightly affairs, he was an informed and experienced man. He caused the forces of Saladin to flee in a battle. Afterwards, before the city of Tiberias, with a small number of men, he slew twenty thousand Saracens, Turks and Arabs in the very presence of Saladin; and as often as he encountered the Saladin he manfully resisted him. Having a great abhorrence of his own leprosy, he refrained from taking a wife, and entertaining no hope of any issue, he decided to leave his kingdom to his sister’s children. The younger sister, named Sibylla (Sibilla), he espoused to William (Guilhelmo), margrave of Monteferrato, and she bore a son the first year; and he was named Baldwin after his mother’s brother, and succeeded Baldwin the Fourth after the latter’s death.[Baldwin IV, son of Amalric I by his first wife Agnes, ruled in Jerusalem from 1174 to 1183, when he had his nephew Baldwin crowned in his stead. Educated by William of Tyre, Baldwin IV came to the throne at the early age of thirteen; and thus the kingdom came under the regency of Raymond II of Tripoli. The problems of the reign of Baldwin IV were two – his sister, Sibylla, and the fiery Raynald of Chatillon, once prince of Antioch, then a captive for many years in the hands of the Muslims, and since 1176 lord of Krak (Kerak) to the east of the Dead Sea. Sibylla was the heiress of the kingdom; the problem of her marriage was important. She was first married to William of Montferrat, to whom she bore a son, Baldwin, and was married a second time in 1180 to Guy of Lusignan. Dissension between Sibylla and her husband on the one hand, and Baldwin IV on the other, troubled the latter years of his reign. Meanwhile, Raynald of Krak took advantage of the position of his fortress on the great trade route from Damascus and Egypt to plunder the caravans, and thus helped to precipitate the inevitable attack of Saladin. When the attack came, Guy was made regent by Baldwin IV; but he declined battle and was deposed from his regency and right of succession, while Sibylla’s son by her first husband was crowned king as Baldwin V in 1183. For a time Baldwin IV continued to be king, but, in 1184, he handed over the regency to Raymond of Tripoli, and died in the same year.]

The Order of The Humiliati had its origin (as is said) at this time in Cisalpine Gaul; but others say, under Emperor Henry (Henrico). But when the emperor Frederick Barbarossa afflicted those in the eastern parts of Gaul with all manner of mischief, he also sent a large number of men, women and children from there to Germany as exiles. After being detained there ever so long, these exiles became distressed; and they all dressed in white and went to the emperor, asking pardon and mercy. He was so moved that he allowed all of them to return to their homes. When they arrived in their homeland, they lived together, probably in accordance with a vow, avoiding wantonness and going about in humble raiment. In course of time they became more strict in their mode of life. The men lived and worked together, but separate and apart from the women, according to the rule of the Blessed Benedict. Their superior was called a provost. The order so increased in membership and possessions that it was confirmed by the pope and granted many privileges.[Humiliati is the name of an Italian monastic order of obscure origin in the twelfth century. A group of Lombards came to Rome with the intention of obtaining the pope’s approval of the rule of life that they had spontaneously chosen. While continuing to live in their houses in the midst of their families, they wished to lead a more pious existence than of old, to abandon oaths and litigation, to content themselves with a modest dress, and all in a spirit of Catholic piety. The pope approved their resolve to live in humility and purity, but forbade them to hold assemblies and to preach in public, the chronicler adding that they infringed the pope’s wish and thus drew upon themselves his excommunication. Their name, Humiliati, arose from the fact that the clothes they wore were very simple and of one color. This lay fraternity spread rapidly and soon put forth two new branches, a second order composed of women, and a third composed of priests, to which Innocent III granted a rule. His object was to reconcile the order with the Waldensians, and indeed the rule reproduces several of the Waldensian propositions, ingeniously modified in the orthodox sense, but still very easily recognizable. It forbade useless oaths and the taking of God’s name in vain; allowed voluntary poverty and marriage; regulated pious exercises; and approved the solidarity that already existed among the members of the association. Finally, by a singular concession, it authorized them to meet on Sunday to listen to the words of a brother “of proved faith and prudent piety,” on condition that the hearers should not discuss among themselves either the articles of faith or the sacraments of the church. The bishops were forbidden to oppose any of the utterances of the Humiliati brethren, “for the spirit must not be stifled.” So broad a discipline must of necessity have led back some waverers into the pale of the church, but the tradition of the independent Humiliati is confused with the history of the Waldensians throughout the later 12th century. The celebrated decretal of Pope Lucius III at the council of Verona (1184) against all heretics condemns at the same time as the “Poor Men of Lyons” “those who attribute to themselves falsely the name of Humiliati,” at the very time when this name denoted an order recognized by the papacy. This order, though orthodox, was always held in tacit and ever-increasing suspicion, and was suppressed by Pius V in February 1570 and 1571.]

The Final Capture of the City of Jerusalem

Guy (Guido) Lusignanus, husband of the aforesaid Sibylla (Sibille), who was a sister of the leprous king Baldwin (Baldvini), reigned for two years after the death of said Baldwin and of Baldwin his sister’s son. When Baldwin died the kingdom passed to Baldwin the child of his sister. The regency for the little king was assumed by Raymond, count of Tripoli, and Guy, the father of the infant. The child died in the eighth month after his uncle’s demise, and while the dissensions among the Christians at Jerusalem were in progress. Sibylla was concerned that the count of Tripoli might be elected king by the knights and the people. However, by promises of rewards and gifts she succeeded in having Guy, her husband, elected king by the patriarchs, bishops, nobles, and those in power. This so offended Raymond, count of Tripoli, that he entered into a truce with Saladin; and he purloined from the kingdom of Jerusalem the county of Tripoli, together with the principality of Tiberias and Galilee, by means of marriage with a noblewoman, whom the same principality belonged to. Matters between the Christians and Saladin were now at peace; but Saladin decided to violate the peace. With a large army of foot and horse he went to Jerusalem and besieged it. He stormed it for ten days without success, and afterwards for twenty days. Finally, those within the city surrendered, not through fear of these attacks, but because they despaired of assistance and rescue. They capitulated upon condition that they be allowed to depart with as much of their household effects as each could carry. And thus the Christians left Jerusalem, some proceeding to Antioch, others to Tyre, and some to Alexandria. When Saladin entered the city, he threw the bells out of the towers and made inns of the churches.[The situation of the Christian kingdom of Jerusalem became more and more perilous after the Second Crusade. At length Saladin, sultan of Egypt, reduced a part of Palestine under his scepter. He granted the Christians of Palestine a truce; but when a Christian knight interrupted the passage of Saladin’s mother, seized her treasures, and killed her attendants, the exasperated sultan of Egypt recommenced hostilities, defeated the Christians at Tiberias, took Joppa, Sidon, Acre, and other towns, and finally, in 1187, Jerusalem fell into his possession. Saladin, surpassing his Christian foes in magnanimity and virtue, treated the inhabitants of the Holy City with mildness, but caused the crosses to be torn down and the furniture of the churches to be destroyed.]