As Il-ghazi mustered his troops, inside Antioch the patriarch took supreme military command. He ordered a nightly curfew and decreed that no one was to carry arms within the city except for the Franks. Then he ensured that every tower along Antioch’s defenses was “garrisoned at once with monks and clerics,” supported by what suitable Christian laymen they could find to assist them. Bernard arranged for constant prayers to be said “for the safety and defense of the Christian people,” and while these took place he “did not cease . . . to visit in turn, night and day, with his armed clergy and
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