Then began the plunder of the city. The imperial treasury and the
arsenal were placed under guard; but with these exceptions the right
to plunder was given indiscriminately to the troops and sailors. Never
in Europe was a work of pillage more systematically and shamelessly
carried out. Never by the army of a Christian state was there a more
barbarous sack of a city than that perpetrated by these soldiers of
Christ, sworn to chastity, pledged before God not to shed Christian
blood, and bearing upon them the emblem of the Prince of Peace.
Reciting the crimes committed by the crusaders, Nicetas says, with
indignation: "You have taken up the cross, and have sworn on it and on
the holy Gospels to us that you would pass over the territory of
Christians without shedding blood and without turning to the right
hand or to the left. You told us that you had taken up arms against
the Saracens only, and that you would steep them in their blood alone.
You promised to keep yourselves chaste while you bore the cross, as
became soldiers enrolled under the banner of Christ. Instead of
defending his tomb, you have outraged the faithful who are members of
him.
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