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Pearsall Surname Project
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Surname
History and Genealogy
of the Pearsall Family in England
and America:
Volume I
Front Cover
Inside Front Cover
The Motive
Thanks
Illustrations
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Appendix I
Volume II
Volume III
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in
the aid of Pagan arms to prostrate the Christian name. To league with
Pagans, is to renounce God and return to idolatry. The kings, your
ancestors, after having abandoned the errors of Paganism, devoted
themselves to the worship of the true God, and from Him they always
supplicated aid; and thus they reigned happily, and have transmitted
their inheritance to their posterity. But you are about to abandon God;
yes, with regret I say it, you abandon God when you league with his
enemies. What! at the very moment you ought to put an end to such a long
train of calamities, give over robbing the poor, and repent of such horrible
crimes, you are about to provoke still more the wrath of God, by leaguing
with those who hate him, and persist in their barbarous ferocity? Believe
me, never by such a course of conduct will your
reign prosper. Until this time, I have always had some hope, but now I
see you rushing with your partisans on the downward road to destruction.
Those who give such counsels prove, not that they are faithful, but that
they are unfaithful t if you listen to them, you will surely lose both
the celestial and the terrestrial kingdom. In the name of God then, I
sup-plicate you to renounce such a design, and not to plunge into eternal
perdition; which would be for me and all those who remain faithful to you
a perpetual source of grief. Better would it have been for you never to
have been born than to seek to reign with the aid of the demon, and to
give aid and succour to those whom it was your
duty to have combated by every means in your power. Know that if you
persist in your design, and yield to such evil counsels, you must no
longer reckon on my fidelity; on the contrary, I will draw off from their
allegiance as many of your subjects as I may be able, and excommunicating
both you and yours, I will deliver you to eternal condemnation.
Whether
it was the effect of this menacing epistle, or dread
of the thunders of the church, combined with the circumstance of the
death of Eudes, his rival, which happened about
this time, it is impossible to determine; but Charles the Simple
renounced his design of forming an alliance with the Normans. In the meantime they continued
their accustomed ravages, and whilst one band invaded Neustria, and
another was engaged in laying waste the kingdom of Acquitaine
with fire and sword, Rollo ascended the river Seine to Pont-de-l'Arche, and Charles the Simple, who now became the
undisputed monarch of the Franks, resolved to encounter the Norman chief
with a strong force. The elder Hastings, who had become the vassal of the
king, was to join the royal army with his array. The united corps
encamped on the Eure, and Ragnold,
duke of France and
Or-leans, by whom it was commanded, took counsel of Hastings how he should con-duct towards
the invading foe. Hastings
advised negotiation, and was sent to the enemy with two other persons,
who understood the Norman language, to commence overtures for this
purpose. The envoys stood on the banks of the Eure,
which separated them from the Normans,
and cried out to the pirates on the opposite shore, that they wished to
speak to their chief. The Normans
answered that they were `all equal.' Being asked what was
their design in invading the country, they answered, `to subdue
it.' They were again interrogated, whether they would not rather become
the vassals of King Charles, and receive gifts of land to hold of him as
their liege lord. In answer to this question, they all cried out with one
voice in the negative, and the deputation returned to the camp
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