Peter the Hermit Part 3

Wherever the Hermit went he was received as a saint, and if the people could not obtain a thread of his garment they contented themselves with a hair from the tail of his mule!

[Sidenote: _Effect of His Preaching_]

Whatever the modern mind may see of credulity among the people or of fanaticism in Peter, contemporary annals show that his preaching was followed by the results promised to the Gospel. Michaud says: "Differences in families were reconciled, the poor were comforted, the debauched blushed at their errors. His discourses were repeated by those who heard to those who did not. His austerities and his miracles were widely known and credited. When Peter found those who had been in Palestine, or confessed to have been there, he used them as living examples, and made their rags speak of the barbarities they had suffered, or claimed to have suffered, at Turkish hands."

[Sidenote: _Constantinople in Peril_]

Additional strength was given to the cry for relief from Palestine by the perils of Constantinople. This city, under nominally Christian emperors, had become a museum of sacred relics. Alexius Comnena threatened by the same warriors who had subjected the Holy City, offered his sacred treasures and his secular riches to the leaders who would rescue his capital. The poor esteem in which the haughty but, when in danger, servile Greek held the Franks, as to everything but warlike power, is indicated by his promising the Frank warriors the beauty of the Greek women. As if these warriors were of the same tastes as the Turks! To pa.s.s under the Mussulman yoke was infinitely more degrading than to hand his scepter to the Latins.

[Sidenote: _Urban Concentrates Opinion_]

Urban now found it a suitable time to attempt to concentrate opinion and prepare for action by summoning a Council at Plaisance. There was a great response to the papal summons. Two hundred bishops and archbishops, four thousand ecclesiastics, thirty thousand of the laity came to the Council which had to meet, on account of its size, outside the city wall.

[Sidenote: _Amba.s.sadors of Alexius Humble_]

The tone of the Eastern emperors had long been so haughty that the presence of their amba.s.sadors at a Latin Council was a sufficient proof of their humiliation. The pope seconded their requests and prayers with all the force of speech and authority; yet the Council concluded nothing. It seems probable that the astute pope pa.s.sed the word that no conclusion should be formulated, as he was not yet ready to indicate all that was in his mind. It may well be that the danger to Constantinople was not yet so evident to Alexius and to all as to indicate the hour for absolute submission to the Roman authority.

[Sidenote: _Italy not yet Roused_]

[Sidenote: _Opening of the Council_]

It is more probable, however, that Urban could not yet command Italian aid and unity. Commerce had so developed that religion, where it interfered with it, could not command undivided allegiance. The Italians, too, were near enough to know the limitations of Urban's power, his failures and disgraces, and could not be summoned to action as successfully as those who were farther away from knowledge of the weakness of the papal grip. So the second Council met at Clermont in Auvergne, and was equally weighty in the numbers attending and the authority represented. "The cities and villages of the neighborhood were so filled that tents and pavilions were erected in the meadows, although the weather was very cold."[4]

Various matters of Church and social discipline were first considered and determined. The purposed delay in reaching the real object of the Council seemed to whet the appet.i.tes for the consideration of the wrongs of the East. Enthusiasm grew to fanaticism, and a grand and universal impatience of other topics finally brought the greater matter before the body.

[Sidenote: _Artful Delay_]

The opening of the subject was had in the great square before the cathedral. A throne had been prepared there for the pope, who approached it followed by his cardinals and accompanied by Peter the Hermit in the garb now known to the Christian world everywhere.

[Sidenote: _Describes Sufferings of Christians_]

Peter was put forward to speak first. His countenance was cast down with humiliation, and his voice expressed his inward agony as he told what he had seen of the sufferings of Christians at the scene of the world's redemption. He told how they had been chained, beaten, harnessed like brutes; how their bread had been taken away; how they had been compelled to pay from the poverty of the pilgrim's wallet for approach to the sacred shrines; how Christian ministers had, like their Lord, known the rod, and met their death.

It is not needful to suppose that the growth of Peter's emotion, as he told this tale of horrors, was simulated. In the cooler blood of to-day the narrative stirs a sluggish heart. He ceased to speak because choked with sobs.

[Sidenote: _Urban's Great Speech_]

The speech of Urban, who followed Peter, was one of the greatest ever spoken in its effect on the history of the world. Delivered undoubtedly in French, it survives only in ecclesiastical Latin. He was in France.

He wished to stir the French. He could not have moved them through an interpreter as he moved them in his own tongue and theirs. He began in the language of compliment.

[Sidenote: _Urban Compliments Franks_]

[Sidenote: _Describes Desecration of Palestine_]

"Nation beloved of G.o.d, it is in your courage that the Christian world has placed its hope. Because I am well acquainted with your piety and your bravery, I have crossed the Alps to preach to you.... You have not forgotten that but for the exploits of Charles Martel and Charlemagne France would have been under the rule of Mahomet.... Your fathers saved the West from slavery. More n.o.ble triumphs await you. Under the guidance of the G.o.d of Armies you will deliver Europe and Asia, you will rescue the City of Jesus Christ from whence the Lord has come to us. Whose soul does not melt? Whose bowels are not stirred with shame and sorrow? The holy place has become not only a den of thieves, but the dwelling place of devils. Even the Church of the Holy Sepulcher has become a stable for cattle. Men have been ma.s.sacred and women ravished within those blessed walls. European Christians are warring on each other when they ought to be rescuing their brethren from the yoke, and from the unbeliever's sword."

[Sidenote: _Offers Rewards for Crusading_]

[Sidenote: _Pathetic Closing_]

[Sidenote: _Further Appeals_]

He appealed to every pa.s.sion by captivating prophecies. "The wealth of the unbelievers shall be yours. You shall plunder their treasuries. Your commander, Christ, will not permit you to want bread or deny you a just reward. There is no crime which may not be absolved by this act of obedience to G.o.d. I offer absolutions for all sins; absolution without penance to all who for this cause will take up arms.... I promise eternal life to all who die on the battle-field or on the way to it. The crusader shall pa.s.s at once to Paradise. I myself must stand aloof, but, like Moses, I will be fervently and successfully praying while you are slaughtering the Amalekites. I will not seek to dry the tears which images so painful for a Christian and for the father of the faithful draw from you. Let us weep over the sins which have withdrawn the favor of G.o.d from us, but let us also weep over the calamities of the Holy City. But if tears be all, we shall leave the heritage of the Lord in the hands of the wicked. How can we sleep in comfort when the children of Jesus Christ live in torments? Christian warriors, eager for pretexts to unsheath your swords, rejoice that to-day you have found a just cause for war. You mercenaries who have hitherto sold your valor for money, go now and merit an eternal reward.... If you must have blood, bathe your sword in the blood of infidels. Soldiers of h.e.l.l become soldiers of the living G.o.d. Remember that 'he who loves father and mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me.' Thus speaks Christ to you to-day."

[Sidenote: _Spread of Enthusiasm_]

[Sidenote: _Pardon by Fighting_]

Long before this final sentence, Urban's hearers had been lifted to indescribable enthusiasm. A mighty shout as from a single throat answered him: "G.o.d wills it. G.o.d wills it. We will join the army of G.o.d!" Urban commands the bishops to rouse their dioceses by preaching the instant duty of war for the Holy Sepulcher. The enthusiasm spread everywhere like an infection under ripe conditions. France took the lead; Germany with slower step; the Italians slowest of all, except the Normans who dwelt among them. England contributed least of all, the Normans being still busy in holding what they had won, and Anglo-Saxons too discouraged over their own defeats. Spain had her own anti-Mohammedan battle to fight. Some n.o.blemen, unable to prevent their va.s.sals from going, joined them and took command that they might not wholly lose their authority over them. Many had fought notwithstanding papal prohibition. So many had sins to expiate that they were happy that they could find forgiveness while indulging their chief pa.s.sion, and could wash away their sins by shedding blood.

Here again contemporary chronicles prove that humanity is seldom governed by other than mixed motives. Bishops who were also barons bore the skill in warfare which they had gained in defending their bishoprics in the Crusades. Some of the priests, whose eyes were upon the rich bishoprics of the East, found hope enlarged by arming for the war.

"Knights of G.o.d and Beauty" found a new field in the march to Jerusalem.

The distresses due to scanty harvests in 1094-95 contributed in some measure to the easy gathering of the hosts of the first crusade. Famine seemed so close at hand that those who left their homes had little to lose and much to gain. Nor were the ma.s.ses unwilling to fly from the oppressions and exactions of rulers who claimed the privilege to do wrong by Divine Right.

[Sidenote: _Normans and Saracens_]

[Sidenote: _Marvels Begin_]

Apulia and Sicily had been wrested from the Saracens by a few hundred Normans. This bred confidence in the final result of the war. One of the most curious of the fanaticisms, which developed from the larger fanaticism, was that of the sign of the cross in the flesh. Women and children imprinted crosses on their limbs. A monk who made a large cross on his forehead kept it from healing and colored the gash with prepared juices. He declared it was a miraculous stigma done by an angel, and his lie served him well in abundant help. It is further related that a company of Crusaders being shipwrecked near Brundusium all the bodies had a cross imprinted on their flesh just under where the cross had been sewed on their clothes. Perhaps they had done what the monk did; perhaps poor dyes soaked through. A miracle was in those days the easiest explanation of all marvels.

[Sidenote: _True Religion in the Movement_]

Yet all this was no more than the earth which clings for awhile to all plants which spring from the soil. The essence of the movement as to the ma.s.ses was truly religious and the duties of religion released the doer of "the will of G.o.d" from all other obligations. The monk from his cloister and the hermit from his cave declared they had heard G.o.d's call.

[Sidenote: _Sacrifices for the Cause_]

Men do not part with property for what they do not deem a valuable consideration. Many at this time surrendered their castles, their lands, their cottages, to "leave all and follow Him." Small sums sufficient to eke out the alms of the pilgrimage, were accepted as pay, and, if not forthcoming, the property was abandoned to him who might remain to use it. It seemed as if all Europe was to emigrate to Palestine.

The Crusaders have been ordered to march on the Feast of the a.s.sumption in the year following the November of the Council. The whole winter was given to preparation.

[Sidenote: _Spring Revives Enthusiasm_]

The warmth of spring rekindled the fires of crusading zeal, if indeed they anywhere burned more slowly during the winter cold. Those who had been at first indifferent to the movement now became in large numbers as enthusiastic as those first influenced. Both cla.s.ses set out to the appointed camping places. On horseback, in carts, and on foot, the mult.i.tudes marched. Sin marched with purity, and indulgence with penitence. Prost.i.tutes in arms appeared with the warrior and dragged down many whom devotion sought to uplift. Secular and warlike music was sometimes overcome by psalms and other religious songs.

[Sidenote: _Crazy Enthusiasm_]

[Sidenote: _Ignorance of the Crusaders_]

More pitiful sights could be occasioned only by a famine or pestilence.

Men who had dependent families were followed by the wives and children who could not afford to be separated from their natural protectors. Old men, helpless as to livelihood, dragged after their strong-armed sons.

There was no joy over staying at home. Happiness seemed to abide only with those who were going to war. A stream starting from a village drew other streams from the villages and towns through which it pa.s.sed until a river of humanity rushed on. They did not know the length of their journey, and could not conceive of the dangers they must approach and pa.s.s. Some had been so steadfast in residence as to have no idea of the size of the world even as it was known to other men. Great lords with hounds in front, and falcon on wrist, went out as if the chief aim was to hunt and fish. All were crazed, and at first no sane mind was left to point out the dangers, or prepare a commissariat, or plan a campaign.

CHAPTER III.

THE MARCH AND THE BATTLE.