ierce and lawless; tainted with every vice, endowed
with no virtue, and redeemed by one good quality alone, that of courage.
The only religion they felt was the religion of fear. That and their
overboiling turbulence alike combined to guide them to the Holy Land. Most
of them had sins enough to answer for. They lived with their hand against
every man, and with no law but their own passions. They set at defiance
the secular power of the clergy; but their hearts quailed at the awful
denunciations of the pulpit with regard to the life to come. War was the
business and the delight of their existence; and when they were promised
remission of all their sins upon the easy condition of following their
favourite bent, it is not to be wondered at that they rushed with
enthusiasm to the onslaught, and became as zealous in the service of the
cross as the great majority of the people, who were swayed by more purely
religious motives. Fanaticism and the love of battle alike impelled them
to the war, while the kings and princes of Europe had still another motive
for encouraging their zeal. Policy opened their eyes to the great
advantages which would accrue to themselves by the absence of so many
restless, intriguing, and bloodthirsty men, whose insolence it required
more than the small power of royalty to restrain within due bounds. Thus
every motive was favourable to the Crusades. Every class of society was
alike incited to join or encourage the war: kings and the clergy by
policy, the nobles by turbulence and the love of dominion, and the people
by religious zeal and the concentrated enthusiasm of two centuries,
skilfully directed by their only instructors.

It was in Palestine itself that Peter the Hermit first conceived the grand
idea of rousing the powers of Christendom to rescue the Christians of the
East from the thraldom of the Mussulmans, and the sepulchre of Jesus from
the rude hands of the infidel. The subject engrossed his whole mind. Even
in the visions of the night he was full of it. One dream made such an
impression upon him, that he devoutly believed the Saviour of the world
himself appeared before him, and promised him aid and protection in his
holy undertaking. If his zeal had ever wavered before, this was sufficient
to fix it for ever.

Peter, after he had performed all the penances and duties of his
pilgrimage, demanded an interview with Simeon, the Patriarch of the Greek
Church at Jerusalem. Though the latter was