[Footnote 35: Fuit et aliud scelus detestabile in hac
congregatione pedestris populi stulti et vesanae levitatis,
anserem quendam divino spiritu asserebant afflatum, et
capellam non minus eodem repletam, et has sibi duces
secundae viae fecerant, &c., (Albert. Aquensis, l. i. c. 31,
p. 196.) Had these peasants founded an empire, they might
have introduced, as in Egypt, the worship of animals, which
their philosophic descend ants would have glossed over with
some specious and subtile allegory.
Note: A singular "allegoric" explanation of this strange
fact has recently been broached: it is connected with the
charge of idolatry and Eastern heretical opinions
subsequently made against the Templars. "We have no doubt
that they were Manichee or Gnostic standards." (The author
says the animals themselves were carried before the army. -
M.) "The goose, in Egyptian symbols, as every Egyptian
scholar knows, meant 'divine Son,' or 'Son of God.' The goat
meant Typhon, or Devil. Thus we have the Manichee opposing
principles of good and evil, as standards, at the head of
the ignorant mob of crusading invaders. Can any one doubt
that a large portion of this host must have been infected
with the Manichee or Gnostic idolatry?" Account of the
Temple Church by R. W. Billings, p. 5 London. 1838. This
is, at all events, a curious coincidence, especially
considered in connection with the extensive dissemination of
the Paulician opinions among the common people of Europe.
At any rate, in so inexplicable a matter, we are inclined to
catch at any explanation, however wild or subtile. - M.]