The Central Presbyterian

THE CHILDREN'S CRUSADES

One of the strangest events in history is what we call the "Children's Crusades;" and because so little is said about them in historical books, we propose to give our little readers a short account of them, for they are of intense interest to the children as well as to grown people.

The holy city of Jerusalem, where Christ was crucified and buried, finally came into possession of the infidel Turks, and they treated the tomb of our Saviour and all the sacred places with great disrespect. This made the Christians of Europe very angry, and in the latter part of the eleventh century they gathered in immense numbers to march to the Holy Land to take the sacred places.

These expeditions were called "crusades," and they formed immense armies.

In the month of June, in the year 1212, a shepherd boy named Stephen, of the region of Vendome, a city in the south of France, suddenly appeared as a preacher of the cross.

He said the Saviour had appeared to him in dream in the form of a pilgrim, and complaining that the men had deserted his cause, bid the boy take up his staff and continue the crusades.

He immediately began to preach, and his words worked wonders. Crowds gathered around him, and were astonished at the strength and fire with which he talked of the insults offered to Jesus. But they said that he was under the influence of some sorcerer, or that he had been influenced by an evil spirit, and they simply wondered.

The children, however, listened to him and were entranced with his words. They believed him, and wherever he came the boys and girls were seized with a great desire to go and rescue the sacred tomb. The fire of his speech and the rapture of his face when he uttered the name of Jerusalem seemed to make the children crazy to follow him, and crowds of them came swarming to him from all the regions around. Other child preachers soon arose to assist him, mostly shepherd boys like himself, who told the most marvelous stories of the wonders that had happened to them. One of them declared that when he was driving his sheep from a neighbor's pasture, into which they had strayed during his absence, they all fell on their knees to beg his pardon for having done wrong.

In short, the grown-up people declared that the children had become crazy, and tried to control them: but when the shepherd-boy, in glowing words, told them how God would care for them and guide them over plains and deserts and distant seas, as he had once led the hosts of Israel, it was impossible to restrain their feelings. The parents then appealed to the priests to stop this extraordinary excitement among their children, which they endeavored to do, declaring the whole affair to be the work of some wicked sorcerer who desired to lead the children to destruction.

In spite of all opposition, no less than thirty thousand children gathered at Vendome for the march. They were from all classes in society, high and low—not a few were sons of princes, barons and other nobles. Some had arms and provisions, others not even decent clothes. Some were on horseback, others in wagons, but the most on foot. The rush around their leader, St. Stephen, was so great, in the desire to see him and touch the hem of his garment, that it was necessary to surround him with a body-guard of young soldiers to prevent his being crushed to death.

Thus, the procession started, preceded by banners and music and boys bearing lighted candles and smoking incense-pots, with which to perform prayers at the altars which they carried with them. Everywhere were heard the cries, "To the sea! to the cross! to God!" The weather was hot, the plains were dry, and in the very first days of the pilgrimage its utter folly became apparent.

The children sunk by thousands from fatigue and thirst. Many of them died by the wayside, and others returned to their homes.

But their wild enthusiasm enabled a great many to reach the sea at Marseilles; and though almost exhausted they hastened to the shore and gazed on it in rapture, expecting it to rise up in walls on either side and offer them a dry passage to the Holy Land. But when the waves moved not, the people gave them food and drink, and cared for the sick, and advised all to return to their homes.

But there were two wealthy men in the town who seemed as enthusiastic as the children, and who offered to carry them free in the ships to the sacred spot. So a fleet of seven of the largest vessels was filled with the children, and left Marseilles for death and destruction. On the second day of the voyage two of the ships were wrecked on a rocky island during a violent storm, and all on board were lost. The other ships proceeded safely. But these men proved to be unprincipled rascals, for they steered the ships into Egyptian ports and sold all the children at the slave-markets of the various cities. They were scattered all over the East, some of them being taken by their masters away off to Bagdad.

At the same time a similar frenzy seized the children of Germany, who gathered in numbers to about forty thousand, all crazy with excitement, longing to see the promised land and to contend for the cross.

Great numbers of these perished in crossing the high passes of the Alps, many starved on their way to Genoa to find the sea, and when driven from there they wandered about in Italy. A few even reaching Rome, to be cared for by the Pope. The most of them met with miserable deaths, or lived to lead miserable lives among strangers, few ever reaching their homes again.

One could hardly believe this strange story if we did not know that it is true, from the papers and documents preserved in the libraries and records of those times.—Western Christian Advocate.