RS 1576
Huon de Saint-Quentin
I Jerusalem se plaint et li païs u Dameldiex souffri mort bonement, que deça mer a poi de ses amis 4 ki de secors li facent mais nïent. S’il sovenist cascun del jugement et del saint liu u il souffri torment quant il pardon fist de sa mort Longis, 8le descroisier fesissent mout envis; car ki pour Dieu prent le crois purement, il Le renie au jor que il le rent, et com Judas faura a paradis.
II 12Nostre pastour gardent mal leur berbis quant pour deniers cascuns al leu les vent, mais li pechiés les a si tous souspris k’il ont mis Dieu en oubli pour l’argent. 16Que devenront li riche garniment k’il aquierent assés vilainement des faus loiers k’il ont des croisiés pris? Saichiés de voir k’il en seront repris, 20se loiautés et Dius et fois ne ment; retolu ont et Achre et Belleent ce que cascuns avoit a Diu pramis.
III Ki osera jamais en nul sermon 24de Dieu parler em place n’em moustier, ne anoncier ne bien fait ne pardon, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . chose qui puist Nostre Segneur aidier 28a la terre conquerre et gaaignier u de son sanc paia no räençon? Segneur prelat, ce n’est ne bel ne bon que son secors faites si detriier: 32vos avés fait, ce poet on tesmoignier, de Deu Rolant et de vos Guenelon.
IV En celui n’a mesure ne raison ki se conoist, s’il n’aïe a vengier 36ceuls ki pour Dieu sont dela em prison et pour oster lor ames de dangier. Puis c’on muert ci, on ne doit resoignier paine n’anui, honte ne destorbier: 40pour Dieu est tout quan c’on fait en son non, ki en rendra cascun tel guerredon que cuers d’ome nel poroit esprisier; car paradis en ara de loier, 44n’ainc pour si peu n’ot nus si riche don.
I Jerusalem laments, and the land where the Lord God suffered death most willingly, because this side of the sea it has few friends who offer it the slightest help. If each one remembered the judgment (the Last Judgment) and the holy place where He suffered torture when He forgave Longinus for His death, he would not readily renounce his crusading vow; for whoever takes the cross with full consent for God’s sake denies Him on the day he gives it back, and like Judas will lose paradise.
II Our shepherds take little care of their sheep when each of them sells them to the wolf for money, but sin has so taken hold of them that they have forgotten God for the sake of silver. What will become of the rich ornaments they acquire most shamefully with the fraudulent payment they have taken from the crusaders? Be well aware that they will be blamed for this, if loyalty and God and faith do not lie; they have stolen from Acre and Bethlehem what each [giver] had promised to God.
III Who will dare to preach and speak of God any more in square or cloister, and announce benefits and indulgences, [when no-one is disposed to perform] anything which can assist Our Lord to conquer and win back the land where He paid our ransom with His blood? Lord prelates, it is neither good nor just that you so delay helping Him: you, this can certainly be said, have made Roland of God and Ganelon of yourselves.
IV There is no wisdom nor intelligence in anyone who knows this without helping to avenge those who are over there in prison for God’s sake, and to remove their souls from danger. Since one has to die here, one should not fear pain or torment, shame or harm: everything one does in His name is for God, who will give to each such a reward that the heart of man could not appreciate its worth; for he will receive paradise as a reward, and no-one has ever had such a rich gift for so little.
Historical context and dating
Little or nothing is known of the life of Huon de Saint-Quentin. According to Guida, Huon is thought to have been born in the last decades of the XIIth c. in Picardy and to have belonged to a family of the petty bourgeoisie of which there is no documentary trace (Guida 1992, p. 96). The only chronological indications come from the Complainte de Jérusalem contre Rome (ed. Serper 1983, p. 87), whose attribution to Huon de Saint-Quentin was demonstrated by Paris 1890a. Between the Complainte and song RS 1576 there are many affinities and analogies which show that the two texts refer to the same events. However, it is only in the Complainte that we find explicit allusions to the loss of Damietta (8 September 1221), the Albigensian Crusade, John of Brienne and the pontifical legate Pelagius, which place this text in the context of the events of the Fifth Crusade. Pace Serper and Guida, there is no evidence that Huon participated directly in the expedition (Dijkstra 1995a, p. 112). Because of the reference to the prisoners (v. 36), the composition of the song has usually been dated to the months following the fall of Damietta, when in Europe the hostages’ fate must have still been unknown (September-November 1221). However, the absence of any reference to the loss of Damietta, the mention of key places in the Holy Land (v. 21) and the hortatory tone suggest instead the initial phase of the crusade, at the time of the reverses suffered by the Christians in Palestine (November-December 1217), before the arrival of the new contingents and the beginning of the campaign in Egypt. Moreover concern for the fate of captive Christians in the East was not confined to particular times such as those following the loss of Damietta. Yvonne Friedman has described how the foundation of the Trinitarian Order in 1198, and the subsequent establishment of other redemptionist orders, marked a turning-point in the ransom of prisoners, which proved an ongoing preoccupation. If there is much greater evidence of their activities in Reconquista Spain than in the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem - a phenomenon which has puzzled historians –, in the East the older, powerful and established military orders appear to some extent to have taken on a redemptionist rôle (see Friedman 2002, pp. 187-211).