he scenes of strife.
There appeared a strange blending of these two tendencies, which indeed
was the leading characteristic of the time. This union of the religious
with the militant spirit had been promoted by the enthusiasm of the
crusades which had already been undertaken, and among the crusaders
themselves the blended spiritual and military ideal of the holy war had
its complete development. Let us recall the reasons and the beginnings
of the crusades themselves.

Upon the legendary discovery of the Holy Sepulchre by Helena, the mother
of Constantine, about three hundred years after the death of Christ, and
the consequent erection, as it is said, by her great son--the first
Christian emperor of Rome--of the magnificent Church of the Holy
Sepulchre over the sacred spot, a tide of pilgrimage set in toward
Jerusalem which increased in strength as Christianity gradually spread
throughout Europe. When in A.D. 637 the Holy City was surrendered to the
Saracens, the caliph Omar gave guarantees for the security of the
Christian population. Under this safeguard the pilgrimages to Jerusalem
continued to increase, until in 1064 the Holy Sepulchre was visited by
seven thousand pilgrims, led by an archbishop and three bishops. But in
1065 Jerusalem was taken by the Turcomans, who massacred three thousand
citizens, and placed the command of the city in savage hands. Terrible
oppression of the Christians there followed; the Patriarch of Jerusalem
was dragged by the hair of his head over the sacred pavement of the
Church of the Holy Sepulchre and cast into a dungeon for ransom;
extortion, imprisonment, and massacre were indiscriminately visited upon
the people.

Such were the conditions that aroused the indignant spirit of
Christendom and prepared it for the cry of Peter the Hermit, which awoke
the wild enthusiasm of the crusades. When Jerusalem was captured by the
crusaders under Godfrey of Bouillon in 1099, the zeal of pilgrimage
burst forth anew. But although Jerusalem was delivered, Palestine was
still infested with the infidels, who made it as hazardous as before for
the pilgrims entering there. Some means for their protection must be
found, and out of this necessity grew the great military order of which
the following pages treat.)

To alleviate the dangers and distresses to which the pilgrim enthusiasts
were exposed; to guard the honor of the saintly virgins and matrons, and
to protect the gray hairs of the venerable pal