RELIGION, EDUCATION, FINE ARTS. 



515 



partment of Tarn, of which Albi is the capi- 

 tal- was the first point against which the 

 crusade of Pope Innocent II L, 1209, was 

 directed. The immediate pretense of the cru- 

 sade was the murder of the papal legate and 

 inquisitor, Peter of Castelnau, who had been 

 commissioned to extirpate heresy in the domin- 

 ions of Count Raymond VI. of Toulouse ; but 

 its real object was to deprive the count of his 

 lands, as he had become an object of hatred 

 from his toleration of the heretics. It was in 

 vain that he had submitted to the most humil- 

 iating penance and flagellation from the hands 

 of the legate, Milo, and had purchased the 

 papal absolution by great sacrifices. The ex- 

 pedition took by storm Beziers, the capital of 

 Raymond's nephew Roger, and massacred 

 20,000 of the inhabitants, Catholics as well as 

 heretics. Simon, Count of Montfort, who con- 

 ducted the crusade under the legates, proceeded 

 in the same relentless way with other places in 

 the territories of Raymond and his allies. The 

 conquered lands were given to Simon de Mont- 

 fort, and by him were eventually, ceded to 

 Louis VIII. Raymond VI. and Raymond VII. 

 disputed the possession of the land by the 

 king, and after thousands had perished on both 

 sides, a peace was concluded in 1229, at which 

 Raymond VI I. purchased relief from the ban of 

 the church by immense sums of money, gave up 

 Narbonne and several lordships to Louis IX., 

 and had to make his son-in-law, the brother of 

 Louis, heir of his other possessions. The her- 

 etics were handed over to the proselyting zeal 

 of the Order of Dominicans and the bloody 

 tribunals of the Inquisition, and both used 

 their utmost power to bring the recusant Albi- 

 genses to the stake. From the middle of the 

 thirteenth century the name of the Albigenses 

 gradually disappears. 



Juggernaut.- The temple in the town of 

 Juggernaut, one of the chief places of pilgrimage 

 in India, contains an idol of the Hindoo god, 

 called Juggernaut or Juggernaut, a corruption 

 of the Sanskrit word Jagannatha, i. e., lord of the 

 world. The legend regarding the building of the 

 town, the erection of the temple, and the forma- 

 tion of the idol is as follows : A king, desirous 

 of founding a city, sent a learned Brahmin to 

 pitch upon a proper spot. The Brahmin, 

 after a long search, arrived upon the banks of 

 the sea, and there saw a crow diving into the 

 water, and, having washed its body, making 

 obeisance to the sea. Understanding the lan- 

 guage of birds, he learned from the crow that 

 if he remained there a short time he would 

 comprehend the wonders of this land. The 

 king, apprised of thia occurrence, built on the 

 spot where the crow had appeared a large city 

 and a place of worship. The Rajah one night 



heard in a dream a voice saying : " On a cer- 

 tain day cast thine eyes on the seashore, when 

 there will arise out of the water a piece of 

 wood 52 inches long and l cubits broad ; this 

 is the true form of the Deity ; take it up and 

 keep it hidden in thine house seven days ; and 

 in whatever shape it shall then appear, place it 

 in the temple and worship it." It happened 

 just as the Rajah had dreamed, and the image, 

 called by him Jagannatha, became the object 

 of worship of all ranks of people, and per- 

 formed many miracles. The car-festival, 

 when Jagannatha is dragged in his car on a 

 yearly visit to his country quarters, is currently 

 believed to be the occasion of numerous cases 

 of self-immolation, the frantic devotees com- 

 mitting suicide by throwing themselves before 

 the wheels of the heavy car. This has been 

 proved, however, upon good authority, to be 

 untrue. 



Children's Crusade. In the summer of 

 1212 two immense armies of children were 

 gathered at Cologne, in Germany, and at Ven- 

 dorne, in France, summoned thither by two 

 boy prophets, Stephen of Cloys (France) and 

 Nicholas of Cologne (Germany), both about 

 twelve years of age. These boy prophets be- 

 lieved or pretended to believe, that they were in- 

 spired by heaven, and the crusade which they 

 preached was not a crusade of blood against 

 the Saracens, but a crusade of prayer. The 

 children were to march to the sea, which would 

 open, as it once did for the Israelites, to per- 

 mit them to pass over into Palestine dry shod. 

 There they were to convert the leaders of Is- 

 lam and baptize the heathen. The excite- 

 ment aroused by this preaching spread so 

 among the children that within short intervals 

 of each other two unarmed hosts of German 

 children, drawn from all. classes, and nearly 

 all under twelve years of age, left Cologne to 

 march over the sea to the Holy Land. The 

 first was led by the famous Nicholas, and the 

 second by a boy whose name is not known. 

 Their combined numbers are believed to have 

 been 40,000. At about the same time an army 

 of French children to the number of about 

 30,000 left Vendome under Stephen. The 

 mortality among the German children in their 

 passage across the Alps was frightful. Nearly 

 30,000 succumbed to exposure, fatigue, and 

 hunger. Of the French army, 10,000 died 

 before it reached Marseilles. The army under 

 Nicholas was broken up at Genoa when it was 

 found that the sea did not open to let them 

 pass, and some of the children were returned 

 to their homes by the humane Genoese ; but 

 others pressed on to Pisa and obtained pas- 

 sage by ship to the Holy Land. A part of 

 the children under the unknown leader were 



