nd
Modern History; _Guizot_, History of Civilization; _Lord_, Beacon
Lights; _Archer and Kingsford_, The Crusaders; _White_, Eighteen
Christian Centuries; _Andrews_, Institutes of General History;
_Ridpath_, Library of Universal History (article on the Crusades).

Among the most remarkable movements that took place during the Middle
Ages were the crusades. The Saracens had overrun and conquered the Holy
Land, and the Christian nations of the west attempted to recover from
the hands of the infidels the soil made sacred by the life and death of
Christ. For a long time the pilgrims who made journeys to the tomb of
the Savior were undisturbed, as their pilgrimages were a source of
profit to the Saracens. But when the Turks gained possession of
Jerusalem, they began to persecute both the native Christians and those
who came from abroad. Peter the Hermit, who had suffered from these
cruelties at Jerusalem, returned to Europe, and by his crude eloquence
and earnestness stirred the people almost to a frenzy. Obtaining the
sanction of the Pope, he gathered an immense crowd of men, women, and
children, and started for the Holy Land.

They encountered great hardships, many died of hunger, disease, and the
hostility of the people through whose countries they passed, and the
remnant who reached the Bosporus, were totally destroyed by Turkish
soldiers.

The first successful crusade was organized by the feudal lords, who
gathered an army of six hundred thousand men under the leadership of
Godfrey of Bouillon. They had connected with their army one hundred
thousand splendidly mounted men. After untold losses and horrors, which
reduced their forces to sixty thousand men, they succeeded in taking
Jerusalem. They established a Latin kingdom with Godfrey at the head,
and thus accomplished the purpose for which they had set out. This
crusade lasted from 1096 to 1099.

For about fifty years the Latin kingdom held its own; but it was
constantly harassed by the Mohammedans, until it became necessary to
organize a second crusade. The leaders in this were Conrad III. of
Germany and Louis VII. of France. Jealousies soon arose between the
rival leaders, who cared more for personal glory than for the purpose of
the crusade. As a result, only a small portion of the three hundred
thousand soldiers ever reached the Holy Land; and this crusade, which
lasted from 1147 to 1149, resulted in failure.

Forty years later Saladin, a Mohammedan ruler,