d of Gertrude, formerly a
princess in Dalmatia; and soothsayers and prophets at the time of her
birth foretold her coming greatness.

Elizabeth was born in 1207--a century when religion was more simple
than it is to-day and when people believed that miracles were still
being performed. It was a time, too, when a fiery passion for religion
ruled the world. Soldiers were intent on crusades into the Holy Land to
capture the city of Jerusalem and to rescue the tomb of the Savior from
the hands of the heathen, and fanatical bands called "flagellants" were
soon to appear throughout Europe--men and women who scourged each other
with whips in public places until they fell down fainting from pain and
exhaustion, believing that this practice was welcome in the eyes of the
Lord and would assure them a place in Paradise.

It was a time when unquestioning faith held the minds and beliefs of
men. Nothing seemed too marvelous to be accomplished through Divine
means. When a great poet of whom we shall tell you later, wrote about
Hell, Heaven and Purgatory, his neighbors all believed that he had
really visited those places and seen all the wonders that he described.
So when soothsayers and astrologers foretold that the infant Elizabeth
was to become one of the Saints of Heaven, as the legends tell us they
predicted, people marveled, but believed, for it did not seem strange
for Angels and Saints to appear to the eyes of mortal men.

It was customary in those days for children of high rank to be
betrothed almost before they had quitted the cradle, and when Elizabeth
was four years old she was engaged to be married to the eldest son of
the Landgrave of Thuringia--a boy named Herman who was about ten years
older than herself. And it was also customary at that time for the
future bride to be brought up in the house of her intended husband, so
a number of lords and ladies came from Thuringia to fetch the Princess
Elizabeth away.

She returned with them in great splendor, and many wagons and strong
horses were needed to carry back to Thuringia all the costly things
that went with her, for she was provided with every comfort and luxury
then known. We are told that her dresses were all of the most costly
silks adorned with precious stones, that her cradle, which was of
silver, accompanied her to the house of the future bridegroom, that
even her bath was of silver and so heavy that it was all that her
handmaidens could do to carry it, and a