away and who availed themselves of the hope for absolution in the promise of the pope to those who fought for the Holy Tomb, thought it ridiculous to attack the Unitarian Mussulman so far away, when the Unitarian Jew who had slain the Lord was close at hand. Then, as now, the commerce of the world was in Jewish hands, and it was felt that so much wealth ought not to be in such hands. That element which still exists in the Jewish character of being purse-proud and offensively familiar in prosperity, is reported to have twitted the Christians with the worship of a Jewish prophet as a God.
Slaughter of Jews
Whatever was the proportion of motive, it is certain that this mob fell on the Jews and robbed and killed all they found in the cities of the Rhine and the Moselle. It is said that many perished by kindling flames they felt to be more merciful than their Christian persecutors. Others, with stones tied to their necks, drowned themselves and their treasures in the adjacent rivers. Let us be thankful that there was pity somewhere and that the Bishops of Worms, Treves, Mayence, and Spires gave asylum to the persecuted race and denounced the marauding bands as beyond the pale of the Church.
A Goose for a Leader
Fear of such Maniacs
This band set out for Jerusalem in pious rap
ture that the soldiers of God had been given victory and had been supplied by the God of Battles with money for the journey! Blinded with superstition, they measure themselves to us by what they did. Albert of Aix tells us that they found a goose "filled with the Holy Ghost," which they made leader in equal authority with a goat not less filled with the same Spirit (et capellam non minus eodem repletam)! Fear of such maniacs closed the gates of Hungarian cities. The city now known among Germans as Ungarish-Altenburg, situated in the marshy embouchure of the Leytha, was attacked by them by means of a causeway made of the trunks of trees. Ladders were built, and walls, defended by darts, arrows, and boiling oil, were almost scaled and won, when the breaking of ladders caused a panic and the plain was soon covered by fugitives who had, like all panicky soldiers, thrown away their arms. Multitudes of these were butchered without resistance while others died hopelessly mired in the marshes.
Horrors of the March
Surely these are enough to show the horrors of such marches in the name of Christ. A sentence may express the fate of those who survived. The Bulgarians almost finished what the Huns began. The Greeks received the news with joy.