Part 41 (2/2)
Although this religious feeling was the princ.i.p.al cause of the Crusades, still there was another concurring cause which must not be overlooked.
This was the restless, adventurous spirit of the Teutonic peoples of Europe, who had not as yet outgrown their barbarian instincts. The feudal knights and lords, just now animated by the rising spirit of chivalry, were very ready to enlist in an undertaking so consonant with their martial feelings and their new vows of knighthood.
PREACHING OF PETER THE HERMIT.--The _immediate_ cause of the First Crusade was the preaching of Peter the Hermit, a native of Picardy, in France. Having been commissioned by Pope Urban II. to preach a crusade, the Hermit traversed all Italy and France, addressing everywhere, in the church, in the street, and in the open field, the crowds that flocked about him, moving all hearts with sympathy or firing them with indignation, as he recited the sufferings of their brethren at the hands of the infidels, or pictured the profanation of the holy places, polluted by the presence and insults of the unbelievers.
THE COUNCILS OF PLACENTIA AND CLERMONT.--While Peter the Hermit had been arousing the warriors of the West, the Turks had been making constant advances in the East, and were now threatening Constantinople itself. The Greek emperor (Alexius Comnenus) sent urgent letters to the Pope, asking for aid against the infidels, representing that, unless a.s.sistance was extended immediately, the capital with all its holy relics must soon fall into the hands of the barbarians.
Urban called a great council of the Church at Placentia, in Italy, to consider the appeal (1095), but nothing was effected. Later in the same year a new council was convened at Clermont, in France, Urban purposely fixing the place of meeting among the warm tempered and martial Franks.
The Pope himself was one of the chief speakers. He was naturally eloquent, so that the man, the cause, and the occasion all conspired to achieve one of the greatest triumphs of human oratory. He pictured the humiliation and misery of the provinces of Asia; the profanation of the places made sacred by the presence and footsteps of the Son of G.o.d; and then he detailed the conquests of the Turks, until now, with all Asia Minor in their possession, they were threatening Europe from the sh.o.r.es of the h.e.l.lespont. ”When Jesus Christ summons you to his defence,” exclaimed the eloquent pontiff, ”let no base affection detain you in your homes; whoever will abandon his house, or his father, or his mother, or his wife, or his children, or his inheritance, for the sake of my name, shall be recompensed a hundred-fold, and possess life eternal.”
Here the enthusiasm of the vast a.s.sembly burst through every restraint.
With one voice they cried, _Dieu le volt! Dieu le volt!_ ”It is the will of G.o.d! It is the will of G.o.d!” Thousands immediately affixed the cross to their garments, [Footnote: Hence the name Crusade given to the Holy Wars, from old French _crois_ cross.] as a pledge of their sacred engagement to go forth to the rescue of the Holy Sepulchre. The fifteenth day of August of the following year was set for the departure of the expedition.
2. THE FIRST CRUSADE (1096-1099).
MUSTERING OF THE CRUSADERS.--All Western Europe now rang with the cry, ”He who will not take up his cross and follow me, is not worthy of me.” The contagion of enthusiasm seized all cla.s.ses; for while the religious feelings of the age had been specially appealed to, all the various sentiments of ambition, chivalry, love of license, had also been skilfully enlisted on the side of the undertaking. The council of Clermont had declared Europe to be in a state of peace, and p.r.o.nounced anathemas against any one who should invade the possessions of a prince engaged in the holy war. By further edicts of the a.s.sembly, the debtor was released from meeting his obligations while a soldier of the Cross, and during this period the interest on his debt was to cease; and the criminal, as soon as he a.s.sumed the badge of the crusader, was by that act instantly absolved from all his sins of whatever nature.
Under such inducements princes and n.o.bles, bishops and priests, monks and anchorites, saints and sinners, rich and poor, hastened to enroll themselves beneath the consecrated banner. ”Europe,” says Michaud, ”appeared to be a land of exile, which every one was eager to quit.”
THE VANGUARD.--Before the regular armies of the crusaders were ready to move, those who had gathered about Peter the Hermit, becoming impatient of delay, urged him to place himself at their head and lead them at once to the Holy Land. Dividing command of the mixed mult.i.tudes with a poor knight, called Walter the Penniless, and followed by a throng of about 80,000 persons, among whom were many women and children, the Hermit set out for Constantinople by the overland route through Germany and Hungary.
Thousands of the crusaders fell in battle with the natives of the countries through which they marched, and thousands more perished miserably of hunger and exposure. Those that crossed the Bosporus were surprised by the Turks, and almost all were slaughtered. Thus perished the forlorn hope of the First Crusade.
MARCH OF THE MAIN BODY.--Meanwhile there were gathering in the West disciplined armies composed of men worthy to be champions of the holy cause they had espoused. G.o.dfrey of Bouillon, Duke of Lorraine, and Tancred, ”the mirror of knighthood,” were among the most noted of the leaders of the different divisions of the army. The expedition numbered about 700,000 men, of whom fully 100,000 were mailed knights.
The crusaders traversed Europe by different routes and rea.s.sembled at Constantinople. Crossing the Bosporus, they first captured Nicaea, the Turkish capital, in Bithynia, and then set out across Asia Minor for Syria. The line of their dreary march between Nicaea and Antioch was whitened with the bones of nearly one-half their number. Arriving at Antioch, the survivors captured that place, and then, after some delays, pushed on towards Jerusalem. When at length the Holy City burst upon their view, a perfect delirium of joy seized the crusaders. They embraced one another with tears of joy, and even embraced and kissed the ground on which they stood. As they pa.s.sed on, they took off their shoes, and marched with uncovered head and bare feet, singing the words of the prophet: ”Jerusalem, lift up thine eyes, and behold the liberator who comes to break thy chains.”
The first a.s.sault made by the Christians upon the walls of the city was repulsed; but the second was successful, and the city was in the hands of the crusaders (1099). A terrible slaughter of the infidels now took place.
For seven days the carnage went on, at the end of which time scarcely any of the Moslem faith were left alive. The Christians took possession of the houses and property of the infidels, each soldier having a right to that which he had first seized and placed his mark upon.
FOUNDING OF THE LATIN KINGDOM OF JERUSALEM.--No sooner was Jerusalem in the hands of the crusaders than they set themselves to the task of organizing a government for the city and country they had conquered. The government which they established was a sort of feudal league, known as the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. At its head was placed G.o.dfrey of Bouillon, the most valiant and devoted of the crusader knights. The prince refused the t.i.tle and vestments of royalty, declaring that he would never wear a crown of gold in the city where his Lord and Master had worn a crown of thorns. The only t.i.tle he would accept was that of ”Defender of the Holy Sepulchre.”
Many of the crusaders, considering their vows fulfilled, now set out on their return to their homes, some making their way back by sea and some by land. G.o.dfrey, Tancred, and a few hundred other knights, were all that stayed behind to maintain the conquests that had been made, and to act as guardians of the holy places.
3. THE SECOND CRUSADE (1147-1149).
ORIGIN OF THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS OF KNIGHTHOOD.--In the interval between the Second and the Third Crusade, the two famed religious military orders, known as the Hospitallers and the Templars, [Footnote: The Hospitallers, or Knights of St. John, took their name from the fact that the organization was first formed among the monks of the Hospital of St. John, at Jerusalem; while the Templars, or Knights of the Temple, were so called on account of one of the buildings of the brotherhood occupying the site of Solomon's Temple.] were formed. A little later, during the Third Crusade, still another fraternity, known as the Teutonic Knights was established. The objects of all the orders were the care of the sick and wounded crusaders, the entertainment of Christian pilgrims, the guarding of the holy places, and ceaseless battling for the Cross. These fraternities soon acquired a military fame that was spread throughout the Christian world. They were joined by many of the most ill.u.s.trious knights of the West, and through the gifts of the pious acquired great wealth, and became possessed of numerous estates and castles in Europe as well as in Asia.
PREACHING OF ST. BERNARD; FAILURE OF THE CRUSADE.--In the year 1146, the city of Edessa, the bulwark of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem on the side towards Mesopotamia, was taken by the Turks, and the entire population was slaughtered, or sold into slavery. This disaster threw the entire West into a state of the greatest alarm, lest the little Christian state, established at such cost of tears and suffering, should be completely overwhelmed, and all the holy places should again fall into the hands of the infidels.
The scenes that marked the opening of the First Crusade were now repeated in all the countries of the West. St. Bernard, an eloquent monk, was the second Peter the Hermit, who went everywhere, arousing the warriors of the Cross to the defence of the birthplace of their religion. The contagion of the holy enthusiasm seized not only barons, knights, and the common people, which cla.s.ses alone partic.i.p.ated in the First Crusade, but kings and emperors were now infected with the sacred frenzy. Conrad III., emperor of Germany, was persuaded to leave the affairs of his distracted empire in the hands of G.o.d, and consecrate himself to the defence of the sepulchre of Christ. Louis VII., king of France, was led to undertake the crusade through remorse for an act of great cruelty that he had perpetrated upon some of his revolted subjects. [Footnote: The act which troubled the king's conscience was the burning of thirteen hundred people in a church, whither they had fled for refuge.]
The strength of both the French and the German division of the expedition was wasted in Asia Minor, and the crusade accomplished nothing.
4. THE THIRD CRUSADE (1189-1192).
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