Greek Gods- Rome- Middle Ages- England

A PILGRIM

From all sides they hastened to give in their names for the holy war. Each person promising to go was given a cross of red cloth, which he was to wear upon his breast going to the Holy Land, and on his back returning. To those who "took the cross," the name "Crusaders" was given, from the Latin word which means cross.

The winter following the Council was spent in getting ready. All classes showed the greatest zeal. Preachers went about among the people calling upon rich and poor, noble and peasant alike, to help free the Holy Land; and whole villages, towns, and cities were emptied of their inhabitants to join the Crusade. Many sold all they had to get the means to go; and thieves, robbers, and wicked men of all kinds promised to leave their wickedness and aid in rescuing the tomb of Christ Jesus from the infidels.

The time set for the starting of the Crusade was the early summer of the year 1096. But the common people could not wait so long.

Under a monk named Peter the Hermit, and a poor knight called Walter the Penniless, great companies from Germany and France set out before that time. They had almost no money; they were unorganized; and there was no discipline or obedience in the multitude. The route which they took was down the river Danube, through the kingdoms of the Hungarians and Bulgarians, and so to Constantinople. Few of the people or their leaders had any idea of the distance, and as each new city came in sight many cried out: "Is this Constantinople?"

A CRUSADER

In Hungary and Bulgaria the people attacked them because they were forced to plunder the country as they passed through, and many were slain. When they reached Constantinople, some of the unruly company set fire to buildings near the city, while others stripped off sheets of lead from the roofs of churches to sell them to Greek merchants. The Emperor hastened to get rid of his unwelcome guests by sending them across into Asia Minor. There within a few months Walter and most of his followers were slain by the Turks; and the expedition came to a sorrowful end.

Meanwhile the princes from France, Germany, and Italy were making ready their expeditions. While the Norman chiefs of Southern Italy were engaged in one of their many wars, a messenger came to them with the news that countless warriors of France had started on the way to Jerusalem, and invited them to join the expedition.

CRUSADERS ON THE MARCH

"What are their weapons, what their badge, what their war-cry?" asked one of the Normans.

"Our weapons," replied the messenger, "are those best suited to war; our badge, the cross of Christ; our war-cry, 'It is the will of God! It is the will of God!'"

When he heard these words, the Norman tore from his shoulders his costly cloak, and with his own hands he made crosses from it for all who would follow him to the Holy Land. There he became one of the most famous and renowned of the Crusaders; and his followers showed that they could be as brave, as enterprising, and as skillful in fighting for the Holy Land, as they had been before in fighting for lands and goods in France, in England, and in Italy.

The Crusaders set out at last in five different companies. The first started in August, 1096; the last did not join the others, near Constantinople, until the next summer. The companies were made up of trained and armed knights, with chosen leaders, who had made many preparations for the expedition. They did not suffer so severely, therefore, as did the poor, ignorant people under Walter the Penniless. Still they encountered many hardships. It was already winter when the men of South France toiled over the mountains near Constantinople.

"For three weeks," writes one of their number, "we saw neither bird nor beast. For almost forty days did we struggle on through mists so thick that we could actually feel them and brush them aside with a motion of the hand."

At last this stage of their journey came to an end, and the Crusaders arrived at Constantinople. In the lands north of the Alps, there were at that time none of the vast and richly ornamented churches and other buildings which later arose; all was poor, and lacking in stateliness and beauty. Constantinople, however, was the most beautiful city of the world; so the sight of it filled the Crusaders with awe and admiration.

"Oh how great a city it is!" wrote one of their number; "how noble and beautiful! What wondrously wrought monasteries and palaces are therein! What marvels everywhere in street and square! It would be tedious to recite its wealth in all precious things, in gold and silver, in cloaks of many shapes, and saintly relics. For to this place ships bring all things that man may require."

Now that these sturdy warriors of the West were actually at Constantinople, the Greek Emperor began to fear lest they might prove more troublesome to his empire than the Turks themselves.

"Some of the Crusaders," wrote the Emperor's daughter, "were guileless men and women marching in all simplicity to worship at the tomb of Christ. But there were others of a more wicked kind. Such men had but one object, and this was to get possession of the Emperor's capital."

After much suspicion on both sides, and many disputes, the Emperor got the "Franks"—as the Crusaders were called—safely away from the city, and over into Asia Minor. There, at last, they met the Turks. At first the latter rushed joyously into battle, dragging ropes with which to bind the Christians captive; but soon they found that the "Franks" were more than a match for them. Nicaea, the city where Constantine held the first Church council, was soon taken; and the Crusaders then pressed on to other and greater victories.

Letter-writing was not nearly so common in those days as it is now; but some of the Crusaders wrote letters home, telling of their deeds. A few of these have come down to us across the centuries; and in order that you may learn what the Crusaders were thinking and feeling, as well as what they were doing, one of them is given here. The writer was a rich and powerful noble, and the letter was written while the army was laying siege, with battering rams and siege towers, to the strongly walled city of Antioch.

"Count Stephen to Adele, his sweetest and most amiable wife, to his dear children, and to all his vassals of all ranks,—his greeting and blessing:

"You may be very sure, dearest, that the messenger (whom I send to give you pleasure) left me before Antioch safe and unharmed, and through God's grace in the greatest prosperity. Already at that time we had been continuously advancing for twenty-three weeks toward the home of our Lord Jesus. You may know for certain, my beloved, that of gold, silver, and many other kinds of riches I now have twice as much as your love had wished for me when I left you. For all our princes, with the common consent of the whole army and against my own wishes, have made me, up to the present time, the leader, chief, and director of their whole expedition.

"You have certainly heard that, after the capture of the city of Nicæa, we fought a great battle with the faithless Turks, and by God's aid conquered them. Next we conquered for the Lord all Roumania, and afterwards Cappadocia. Thence, continually following the wicked Turks, we drove them through the midst of Armenia, as far as the great river Euphrates. Having left all their baggage and beasts of burden on the bank, they fled across the river into Arabia.