es of Christianity for its followers
to make pilgrimages to Palestine. All pious Christians desired to visit
the land where Christ had lived and died for their redemption, and they
believed firmly that the blessing of God awaited those pilgrims who
made long and perilous journeys to worship at the tomb of their Lord.
These pilgrimages became much more numerous in the fourth century, when
the Roman emperor, Constantine, was converted to Christianity and put a
stop to the persecution of the Christians. This emperor and his mother,
Saint Helena, restored Jerusalem, and there erected magnificent churches
for the worship of Christ. Then, from all parts of the Christian world,
thousands of pilgrims journeyed to the Holy City in peace and safety.

But Jerusalem was not destined to remain in the hands of the Christians.
After having been taken by the Persians and retaken by the Christians,
the city yielded in the seventh century to the Mohammedans, under the
Caliph Omar, a successor of Mohammed. From that time on, Christians
living in Palestine and pilgrims from other countries were oppressed and
persecuted, and the pilgrimage to Jerusalem became both difficult and
dangerous. During the reign of Charlemagne, respect for the fame and
power of that great Christian emperor induced the celebrated Caliph
Haroun-al-Raschid to treat the Christians with mildness, and to allow
them to worship in peace at Jerusalem; but under the succeeding
Mohammedan rulers of Palestine, the Christians were subjected to every
manner of insult and outrage. Those courageous pilgrims who dared all
the perils of a journey to Jerusalem and returned home in safety, spread
abroad throughout Europe the sad story of their own trials, the
sufferings of their fellow-Christians in Palestine, and the desecration
of holy places.

These stories excited deep indignation and pious horror in all hearers,
for it was an age of intense religious faith and enthusiasm; and the
feeling arose in the hearts of Christian people that it was an
imperative religious duty to rescue the Holy Land and the Sepulchre of
their Lord from the Infidels. This feeling grew and spread and
strengthened into a religious conviction throughout Christendom. So when
Peter the Hermit, a monk returned from Palestine, traveled through
Europe, and preached eloquently the sacred duty of delivering the Holy
Land, he found everywhere enthusiastic hearers.

The people burned with zeal to undertake the piou