The Crusades | Fulcher of Chartres (essay date c. 1095-97)
Fulcher of Chartres (essay date c. 1095-97)
SOURCE: “Prologue to A History of the Expedition to Jerusalem, 1095–1127” in A History of the Expedition to Jerusalem, translated by Frances Rita Ryan, edited by Harold S. Fink, University of Tennessee Press, 1969, pp. 56–59.
[In the following prologue, Fulcher outlines the story that will be told in his A History of the Expedition to Jerusalem and describes the Crusade as a “pilgrimage in arms.”]
HERE BEGINNETH MASTER FULCHER'S PROLOGUE TO THE WORK WHICH FOLLOWS
It is a joy to the living and even profitable to the dead when the deeds of brave men, especially those fighting for God, are read from written records or, retained in the recesses of the memory, are solemnly recited among the faithful.1 For those still living in this world, on hearing of the pious purposes of their predecessors, and how the latter following the precepts of the Gospels...
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