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Show the world's! I great events 1 ALBERT PAYSON TERHUNE j I fs US; Dy Dodd. Mead & '.'oinpany.J The Crusades A DWARF misshapen, bearded, ungainlysat un-gainlysat on a lean, shaggy donkey. In the midst of a shrieking multitude and brandished a huge crucifix cruci-fix above his head. His shouted exhortations ex-hortations were echoed and re-echoed by Die crowd. The dwarf was known as Peter the Hermit. He was pleading with his Klewnth-century audience to wrest the lloiy Laud from the grip of the Mahometan Ma-hometan infidels. And so eloquently did the little priest urge his cause that he aroused a world-wide wave of en-: en-: thusiasm and set afoot a mighty International In-ternational agitation which endured for centuries. Mahomet's successors held the Holy Land. Christians on pious pilgrimages pilgrim-ages to the Savior's birthplace and tomb were rubbed, insulted and even murdered by these Moslems. Sacred shrines were profaned or destroyed. Those outrages aroused Peter the Hermit; and, in the latter part of the Eleventh century, he went from coun-! coun-! try to country, urging all Christians to sweep the 1 loly Land, and especially espe-cially the Holy City, Jerusalem, clear of Mahometans and to avenge the injuries in-juries perpetrated on Christian pilgrims. pil-grims. Tope Urban II approved the plan and promised remission of sins to all who should enter on this holy war. All Europe went mad with religious zeal. "Id Deus vult!" ("God wills It !") was their war cry. Thousands and hundreds of thousands donned the blood-red cross which was to be the badge of the mission. Debtors, felons, servants, monks and other classes bound in one way or another were freed on promise to march against the Infidels. An enormous enor-mous international army was raised for the purpose, Its chief commander being Godfrey du Bouillon, duke of Lorraine. But early in 1096, before the organized expedition could get under un-der way, a disorganized mob of 200,-000 200,-000 men, women and children;" under the personal leadership of Peter the Hermit, started across Europe for Jerusalem. They never reached their destination. Without discipline, food or siiufiicient arms, they straggled on eastward, their ranks daily thinning through desertion, disease and famine, until of all that vast motley horde a bare 7,000 readied l lie eastern banks of the Bosphorus. There they were s.'t upon and literally cut to pieces by the Turks. On August 15, 1000, Godfrey de Bouillon's host began its march to Pal- j estine. reaching Constantinople on Christmas day. Wrangles of various sorts, disputes as to precedence in command, bad management and insufficient insuf-ficient supplies hampered their movements move-ments from first to last. The expedition, expedi-tion, which started with so holy an j aim, began to feel the influence of politics, poli-tics, corruption and personal ambition. Neverllieless, held . together by Godfrey's God-frey's genius, they defeated, one after another, the Mahometan armies sent against them, and at last laid siege to Jerusalem itself. The Holy City fell after about a month's defense, and the victorious crusaders put to death in horrible fashion every Mahometan de- j fender they could lay their hands on. j 'Moslem men, women and even babies i were slaughtered mercilessly by these : upholders of the Gospel of Peace, and i Godfrey was chosen king of Jerusalem. A second crusade, urged on by St. . Bernard and led by Louis VII of j France, followed a few years later. An ; unsuccessful effort was made to -cap- i tare Damascus, and. altogether, the ! venture was without any real results, j For eighty-eight years the Christians I held Jerusalem. Then the Moslems I recaptured it. j In 11D0 a third great crusade was j begun, the prime mover and lender being King Richard I of England, sur-named sur-named Coeur de I. Kin (Lion Heart). Again the leaders quarreled among i themselves and swerved from the true purpose of their mission. They won a few barren victories, but failed wholly to win Jerusalem. Crusade followed crusade, none achieving true success. At lengtli the belief spread that the expeditions failed because of the sins and worldll-ness worldll-ness of the men who embarked upon them. Churchmen declared that the Holy Land could be snatched from the ' Infidel by none but innocent hands. I Innocence then, as now, was not a I common commodity among men of j war, so It was decided to raise an ! army of little children and send them ! against the Moslems. The new von- j ture was known as the Children's j crusade. It was the saddest, most j pitiful agedy in all history. Fifty thousand children, some of -them mere babies, set out for Pules- J tine in 1212. They went, assured by j llic-ir parents and liy the priests, that I theirs was the solemn privilege of ro- j storing Palestine to ( 'hrisl lanity. They S vet forth with high hopes. But they ' starved, fell ill, were lost in strange. ! lands, died or were sold as- slaves' The crusades were the most gl,,r. j ous. sublime failuies In the annals of the world. They constituted a mis- ' take that can never wholly l on- ! demned. They accomplished nothing ' permanent, yet they did much to Christianize, unite and teach th" brotherhood of man to Europe's war- ! ring nations. ; They remain forever a monument of the lire-sacrllb-es-magnificcnt, If futile that men have made and ever Kill make, for their faith. i |