CHAPTER 75
The Land across the Water
DEUS EX MACHINA
In the last century the scale of corruption in the Curia and factionalism in Oltremare had made the word ‘Crusade’ something of a bad joke. Critics observed that the First Crusade was launched to save Jerusalem, not Akka, and that successive Crusades had served only to impoverish Etruria and unite the Radinate. Shunned and friendless, the beset kingdom was left to die.
Only a miracle could save it.
Though the Curia thought it a fool’s errand, they still permitted Saint Francis’ voyage to Egypt.41 The Sage of Gubbio, however, was confident: he had persuaded carrion birds, wolves and wool merchants to adopt the one true faith; how hard could it be to convert a benighted Melic? Contrary to all expectations, he succeeded.42 Overnight, Oltremare’s territory doubled. The conversion restored hope to the Oltremarines, but it alone would have been insufficient to break the stalemate with the Radinate. That required a third party.