nturous and barbarous Normans, who came from Norway, Sweden
and Denmark, countries north of the Baltic Sea.

THE CRUSADERS OR CROSS-BEARERS

These invasions were followed by the period of the Crusaders, 1096 to
1271, when as many as seven great armies or multitudes of people were
assembled at the call of the popes, and wearing crosses on their
shoulders, marched through the intervening countries to Palestine. Their
object was to rescue the city of Jerusalem and the holy sepulchre from
the infidels. The first crusade was organized in France, and it enlisted
an army of 800,000. Godfrey, duke of Lorraine, was placed in command,
and the multitude was arranged for the march in three divisions. Peter,
the hermit, a wrong-headed monk, was appointed leader of the first
division and experienced an inglorious and irreparable defeat on the
way. Godfrey, after the siege and conquest of Jerusalem in 1099, was
chosen King to rule over Palestine and the holy city, as his kingdom. At
the time of his coronation he made the noble remark, that,

"He could not bear the thought of wearing a crown of gold in that
city, where the King of Kings had been crowned with thorns."

The brave soldier and manly man, who gave expression to this noble
sentiment, died the next year.

Under weak and unskilful chiefs the crusaders while on the way wandered
about like undisciplined bands of robbers, plundering cities, committing
the most abominable enormities, and spreading misery and desolation
where-ever they passed. There was no kind of insolence, injustice and
barbarity of which they were not guilty. The seven successive crusades
drained the wealth of the fairest provinces and caused the loss of a
prodigious number of people.

Those of the first crusade, that remained in Palestine, were divided by
sordid ambition and avarice, and in 1187 Saladin, sultan of Egypt and
Syria, the most valiant chief of the Mohammedan warriors, recaptured
Jerusalem and subsequent crusaders were not able to regain it.

FIRST RAYS OF LIGHT

The first rays of light, that serve to dispel the darkness of prevailing
night, may be briefly summarized in the following leading events.

In 901 =Alfred the Great=, king of England, founds a seminary at Oxford to
promote the study of sacred literature. Later it becomes a university,
the first one in Europe, and it is still distinguished as one of the
greatest institutions in the world for publishing the Scriptures i