the wild spirit of fanaticism which mixed
in with this great ferment of minds.

Thus, he warned the Germans not to suffer themselves to be misled so far
as to follow certain independent enthusiasts, ignorant of war, who were
bent on moving forward the bodies of the crusaders prematurely. He held
up as a warning the example of Peter the Hermit, and declared himself
very decidedly opposed to the proposition of an abbot who was disposed
to march with a number of monks to Jerusalem; "for," said he, "fighting
warriors are more needed there than singing monks." At an assembly held
at Chartres it was proposed that he himself should take the lead of the
expedition; but he rejected the proposition at once, declaring that it
was beyond his power and contrary to his calling. Having, perhaps,
reason to fear that the Pope might be hurried on, by the shouts of the
many, to lay upon him some charge to which he did not feel himself
called, he besought the Pope that he would not make him a victim to
men's arbitrary will, but that he would inquire, as it was his duty to
do, how God had determined to dispose of him.

With the preaching of this Second Crusade, as with the invitation to the
First, was connected an extraordinary awakening. Many who had hitherto
given themselves up to their unrestrained passions and desires, and
become strangers to all higher feelings, were seized with compunction.
Bernard's call to repentance penetrated many a heart; people who had
lived in all manner of crime were seen following this voice and flocking
together in troops to receive the badge of the cross. Bishop Otto of
Freisingen, the historian, who himself took the cross at that time,
expresses it as his opinion "that every man of sound understanding would
be forced to acknowledge so sudden and uncommon a change could have been
produced in no other way than by the right hand of the Lord." The
provost Gerhoh of Reichersberg, who wrote in the midst of these
movements, was persuaded that he saw here a work of the Holy Spirit,
designed to counteract the vices and corruptions which had got the upper
hand in the Church.

Many who had been awakened to repentance confessed what they had taken
from others by robbery or fraud, and hastened, before they went to the
holy war, to seek reconciliation with their enemies. The Christian
enthusiasm of the German people found utterance in songs in the German
tongue; and even now the peculiar adaptation of this language t