Some were on horseback, some in carts, and some came down the rivers in
boats and rafts, bringing their wives and children, all eager to go to
Jerusalem. Very few knew where Jerusalem was. Some thought it fifty
thousand miles away, and others imagined that it was but a month's
journey; while at sight of every town or castle the children exclaimed,
"Is that Jerusalem? Is that the city?"[3] Parties of knights and nobles
might be seen travelling eastward, and amusing themselves as they went
with the knightly diversion of hawking, to lighten the fatigues of the
way.
[2] Guibert de Nogent.
[3] Guibert de Nogent.
Guibert de Nogent, who did not write from hearsay, but from actual
observation, says the enthusiasm was so contagious, that when any one
heard the orders of the Pontiff, he went instantly to solicit his
neighbours and friends to join with him in "the way of God," for so they
called the proposed expedition. The Counts Palatine were full of the
desire to undertake the journey, and all the inferior knights were
animated with the same zeal. Even the poor caught the flame so ardently,
that no one paused to think of the inadequacy of his means, or to consider
whether he ought to yield up his farm, his vineyard, or his fields. Each
one set about selling his property at as low a price as if he had been
held in some horrible captivity, and sought to pay his ransom without loss
of time. Those who had not determined upon the journey joked and laughed
at those who were thus disposing of their goods at such ruinous prices,
prophesying that the expedition would be miserable and their return worse.
But they held this language only for a day; the next they were suddenly
seized with the same frenzy as the rest. Those who had been loudest in
their jeers gave up all their property for a few crowns, and set out with
those they had so laughed at a few hours before. In most cases the laugh
was turned against them; for when it became known that a man was
hesitating, his more zealous neighbours sent him a present of a
knitting-needle or a distaff, to shew their contempt of him. There was no
resisting this; so that the fear of ridicule contributed its fair
contingent to the armies of the Lord.
Another effect of the Crusade was, the religious obedience with which it
inspired the people and the nobility for that singular institution "The
Truce of God." At the commencement of the eleventh century, the clergy of
France, sympath
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