The History of the Holy War, Book 3 · Chapter 12
Chap. 12. The little-honourable peace King Richard made with Saladine; Of the value of Reliques.
BUt bad news out of Europe shaked his steadiest resolutions, hearing how William Bishop of Ely, his Vice-roy in England, used unsufferable insolencies over his subjects: So hard it is for one of base parentage to personate a King without overacting his part. Also he heard how the King of France and John Earl of Morton his own brother, invaded his dominions; ambition, the Pope in their belly, dispensing with their oath to the contrary. Besides, he saw this warre was not a subject capable of valour to any purpose; the Venetians, Genoans, Pisans and Florentines being gone away with their fleets, wisely shrinking themselves out of the collar, when they found their necks wrung with the hard imployment. Hereupon he was forced first to make the motion of (in plain terms, to begge) peace of Saladine.
Let Saladine now alone to winne, having all the game in his own hand. Well knew he how to shoot at his own ends, and to take aim by the exigencies wherein he knew King Richard was plunged. For he had those cunning gypsies about him, who could read in King Richards face what grieved his heart; and by his intelligencers was certified of every note-worthy passage in the English armie. Upon these terms therefore or none (beggers of peace shall never be choosers of their conditions) a truce for three (some say, five) yeares might be concluded, That the Christians should demolish all places they had walled since the taking of Ptolemais; which was in effect to undo what with much charge they had done. But such was the tyrannie of King Richards occasions, forcing him to return, that he was glad to embrace those conditions he hated at his heart.
Thus the voyage of these two Kings, begun with as great confidence of the undertakers as expectation of the beholders, continued with as much courage as interchangeablenesse of successe, baned with mutuall discord & emulation, was ended with some honour to the undertakers, no *P. Aemyl. pag. 181. Tanto duorum regum comaru nihil actum.profit either to them or the Christian cause. Some farre-fetched deare-bought honour they got; especially King Richard, who eternized his memory in Asia: whom if men forget, horses will remember; the Turks using to say to their horses when they started for fear, Dost thou think King Richard is here? Profit they got none, losing both of them the hair of their heads in an acute disease; which was more, saith *Daniel, pag. 100.one, then both of them got by the voyage.
They left the Christians in Syria in worse case then they found them: as he doeth the benighted traveller a discourtesie rather then a kindnesse, who lendeth him a lantern to take it away, leaving him more masked then he was before.
And now a little to solace my self and the reader with a merry digression, after much sorrow and sad stories; King Richard did one thing in Palestine which was worth all the cost and pains of his journey, namely, He redeemed from the Turks a chest full of holy Reliques (which they had gotten at the taking of Jerusalem) so great, as *Matth. Paris. in Rich. 1. pag. 222.foure men could scarce carry any way. And though some know no more then Esops cock how to prize these pearls, let them learn the true value of them from the Romane jewellers. First, they must carefully distinguish between publick and private Reliques: In private ones some forgery may be suspected, lest quid be put for quo; which made S. *In lib. De oper. Mon. cap. 28.Augustine put in that wary parenthesis, Si tamen Martyrum, If so be they be the Reliques of Martyrs. But as for publick ones approved by the Pope, and kept in Churches (such no doubt as these of King Richards were) oh let no Christian be such an infidel as to stagger at the truth thereof! If any object, That the head of the same Saint is shewed at severall places; the whole answer is by a *Bellar…. De Reliq. cap. 4.Synecdoche, That a part is put for the whole. As for the common exception against the Crosse, That so many severall pieces thereof are shown, which put together would break the back of Simon of Cyrene to bear them; it is answered, Distrahitur, non diminuitur, and like the loaves in the Gospel, it is miraculously multiplied in the dividing. If all these fail, *Annal. Eccl. in anno 226.Baronius hath a rasour shaveth all scruple clear away: For, saith he, Quicquid sit, fides purgat facinus; So that he worshippeth the false Reliques of a true Saint, God taketh his good intention in good worth, though he adore the hand of Esau for the hand of Jacob. But enough of these fooleries.