“My dear children,” he wrote, “the foundation of all religion is the love of God and the love of man. Obey your heavenly Father; and love man, your brother. It is not fasting, it is not monastic seclusion, which will confer the favor of God: it is doing good to your brother-man. Never forget the poor: take care of them. Do not hoard up riches: that is contrary to the teachings of our Saviour. Be a father to orphans;protect widows; and never permit the powerful to oppress the weak.
“Abstain from every thing that is wrong. Banish from your heart all pride. Remember that we all must die: to-day full of life, to-morrow in the tomb. When you are travelling on horseback, instead of allowing your mind to wander upon vain thoughts, recite your prayers, or at least repeat the best of them all: ‘O Lord! have mercy upon us.’
“Never retire at night without falling upon your knees before God in prayer. Always go to church at an early hour in the morning to offer to God the homage of your first and freshest thoughts. This was the custom of my father, and of all the pious people who surrounded him. With the first rays of the sun they praised the Lord, and exclaimed with fervor, ‘Condescend, O Lord! with thy Divine Spirit to illumine my soul.’”
Near the commencement of the twelfth century, nearly all Christendom combined for the recovery of Jerusalem and the Holy Land from the Moslems. The crusades are generally regarded as among the strangest of all earthly frenzies. In the first crusade, a rabble, unorganized band of three hundred thousand persons, of all ages and both sexes, set out on an insane expedition to drive out of Syria the warlike Moslems. Though the crusaders deemed their enterprise a sacred one, their conduct was often such as could scarcely have been exceeded in wickedness by incarnate fiends. Not one of those who embarked in this first crusade ever reached Jerusalem: only a remnant of about twenty thousand, after extreme sufferings, ragged and starving, regained their homes. The well-armed and organized Turks cut down the fanatic rabble as the mower does the grass.
The next year there was another campaign commenced, still more imposing in numbers, and a little more formidable in warlike character. All the steel-clad knights of Europe mounted their chargers, eager to gain and to win the favor of Heaven by the slaughter of the infidel Turk. Six hundred thousand men—as motley an assemblage as ignorance andfanaticism ever brought together—commenced their march across Europe to the Holy Land. Trusting that they should receive supernatural aid, they made but slight provision for their wants. Soon all the horses died: famine and sickness decimated their ranks. There was no discipline, no self-command; and the wildest excesses reigned. Their track was strewn with the bodies of the dead.
As they drew near to Jerusalem, their numbers had dwindled to sixty thousand; but these were the boldest, the strongest, the hardiest. With energy which religions enthusiasm alone could inspire, they hurled themselves upon the defences of Jerusalem, broke open the gates, clambered the walls, and, after a scene of awful carnage, succeeded in recapturing the city. This was in July, 1099. Of the vast army which had left Europe, not ten thousand survived to return to their native land.
Though Jerusalem was taken, there were many portions of Palestine still in the hands of the Moslems. The insane idea then arose of organizing a crusade of children against them. Fanaticism affirmed that Christ would interpose in their behalf, and give the weak a victory over the strong; thus showing how God, out of the mouths of babes and sucklings, could perfect his praise. It seems almost incredible, but it is apparently well authenticated, that ninety thousand boys, of but ten or twelve years of age, commenced their march across Europe to present their innocence and helplessness to the cimeter of the bearded Turk.
“When the madness of the time,” writes Rev. James White, “had originated a crusade of children, and ninety thousand boys, of but ten or twelve years of age, had commenced their journey, singing hymns and anthems, and hoping to conquer the infidels with the spiritual arms of innocence and prayer, the whole band melted away before they reached the coast. Barons and counts, and bishops and dukes, all swooped down upon the devoted march; and, before many weeks’ journeying was achieved, the crusade was brought to a close. Most of the children had died of fatigue or starvation; and thesurvivors had been seized as legitimate prey, and sold as slaves.”[202]
The introduction of Christianity into Russia early in the eleventh century is one of the most interesting events in the history of the Church. Vladimir the king, a pagan, but a thoughtful man, had heard of Christianity, and became anxious respecting his own destiny beyond the grave. He made earnest inquiries of the teachers of all forms of religion respecting their peculiar tenets.
He summoned the Mohammedan doctors from Bulgaria, the Jews from Jerusalem, and Christian bishops from the Papal Church at Rome and the Greek Church at Constantinople. He soon rejected the systems of Jews and of the Mohammedans as unworthy of further consideration, but was undecided respecting the apparently-conflicting schemes of Rome and Constantinople.