IILSTOllY AND ETHNOLOGY. 117 



had always been considered as works of piety, even among heathens. The 

 same feeling prompted the Christians, long before the eleventh century, to 

 perform wearisome and costly pilgrimages to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, 

 where Jesus was born, crucified, and buried. The scenes around them 

 awakened in their minds tlic holiest recollections, and stimulated them to a 

 loftier faith and hope, so tliat the pious pilgrim often imagined himself 

 nearer heaven in Palestine than in his native land. These pilgrimages, 

 however, were attended Avith considerable difficulty and danger, for the 

 Saracens, who hated the Christians, not only desecrated the spots con- 

 sidered sacred by the followers of Christ, but did all in their power to 

 prevent them from visiting those places. They waylaid and plundered the 

 pilgrims, imprisoning som.e and slaughtering many who fell into their 

 liands. 



Pope Sylvester IL, as w^ell as Gregory VII., appealed to Christendom at 

 large against these atrocities. They formed the project of recovering the Holy 

 Land from the infidels. The suggestion, as it looked to the aggrandizement 

 of the Church, met with a favorable reception from the clergy. Many hoped 

 thereby to obtain bishoprics or patriarchates. The knights were dazzled with 

 prospects of glory and renown ; ambitious squires exulted in the hope of early 

 knighthood ; merchants longed for the wealth which the enterprise would givfr 

 them ; bondsmen and serfs anticipated a speedy and permanent emanciipa-- 

 tion ; bankrupts descried the means of defrauding their creditors ; while 

 gamblers and vagabonds of all descriptions regarded the coming strife as a 

 bright era for their several professions. In spite of so many elements 

 joining in the movement, from more or less selfish motives, it cannot be de- 

 nied that the purest religious zeal actuated the majority. Some wished to 

 leave the scenes of war and strife in the west for a nobler career ; others be- 

 lieved that they would thereby expiate previous sins ; and the whole under- 

 taking was considered b}'' the pious as a work pleasant to Heaven, and there- 

 fore in itself a virtue. 



Under Pope LTrban II. the crusades first began to play an active part. 

 He issued a summons to all Christian people to contribute towards 

 recovering the Holy Sepulchre, and the Holy Land altogether, from the 

 hands of the infidels. A visionary hermit of Picardy, Peter of Amiens, 

 had induced Urban II. to carry this grand plan into execution. He had 

 visited the Holy Land, and liad witnessed in sorrow^ the wrongs and 

 indignities to which the Saracens subjected the pilgrims. These enormities 

 he depicted to the supreme pontifi" in glowing language, exhibiting a 

 certificate from the bishop of Jerusalem, and closing by asserting a call 

 from Heaven to avenge the ^vrongs of the Christians. L^rban saw in Peter 

 an appropriate agent in arousing to fury an indignant populace. He 

 dismissed him with the apostolic blessing, and bespoke for him every- 

 necessary aid and encouragement. Peter set out upon his mission.. 

 Mounted upon an ass, his head uncovered, his half-famished body 

 encircled by a rope, and holding a crucifix in his hand, he rode from village 

 to village, and from country to country, calling upon the faithful to rally to 

 the rescue of Jerusalem. He painted in the most dismal colors the 



ICONOGRAPHIC E.NCVCLOP.^DIA. VOL. Ul. 19 2S9> 



