The return of the German children was sadder than their going. In Italy, having to obtain food and clothing in any way possible, they contracted the worst of vices. So on their return they were no longer a religious throng hurrying on to save the Cross, but a rabble, with no respect for any one and no one had respect for them. Hence they were treated badly on the way back and only found a refuge when arriving each one in his own home.

This Crusade shows the great danger to which child-nature may be subjected in times of great excitement and teaches the need of the careful guarding of children from such. In this Crusade it is estimated that more than thirty thousand children never saw their homes after leaving. In all near a hundred thousand children went from their homes, leaving sixty thousand sorrowing families behind them. Perhaps not one of these children who returned home came back with the purity with which he or she started.

Other Child-pilgrimages.

"Still much more obscure is a child-pilgrimage of 1458, of which the motives were quite clearly religious. It is probably, at present, almost impossible to trace the chain of ideas which occasioned it; it is enough that it was in honor of the Archangel Michael. More than 100 children from Hall, in Suabia, set out, against the will of their parents, for Mont St. Michel in Normandy. They could not by any means be restrained, and if force was employed, they fell severely ill, and some even died. The mayor, unable to prevent the journey, kindly furnished them a guide for the long journey, and an ass to carry their luggage. They are said to have actually reached the then world-renowned Abbey, and to have performed their devotions there. We have absolutely no other information of them, and it appears that this child-pilgrimage, which falls to the time when chorea was very frequent and widely spread in Germany, has excited even much less attention than the migration of the children of Erfurt in the year 1237."[220]

LITERATURE.

  1. Abram, A., English life and manners in the later middle ages.
  2. Adams, George Burton, Civilization during the middle ages.
  3. Anderson, Lewis F., History of common school education.
  4. Bémont, Charles, and Monod, G., Medieval Europe.
  5. Bury, J. B., A history of the later Roman empire.
  6. Compayré, Gabriel, A history of pedagogy.
  7. Cornish, F. Ware, Chivalry.
  8. Davidson, Thomas A., A history of education.
  9. Davis, H. W. C., Medieval Europe.
  10. Dean, Amos, The history of civilization.
  11. Donaldson, James, Woman: Her position and influence in ancient Greece and Rome and among the early Christians.
  12. Emerton, Ephraim, Medieval Europe.
  13. Finck, Henry F., Romantic love and personal beauty.
  14. Froude, James Anthony, History of England from the fall of Wolsey to the death of Elizabeth.
  15. Garnier, Russell M., Annals of the British peasantry.
  16. Graves, Frank Pierrepont, A history of education, During the middle ages.
  17. Gray, George Zabriskie, The children's crusade.
  18. Guizot, Francis Pierre Guillaume, General history of civilization in Europe.
  19. Hallam, Henry, View of the state of Europe during the middle ages.
  20. Hecker, J. F. C, The epidemics of the middle ages.
  21. Laurie, S. S., The rise and early constitution of universities.
  22. Lacroix, Paul, Manners, customs, and dress during the middle ages.
  23. Letourneau, Ch., The evolution of marriage.
  24. Michaud, Joseph François, The history of the crusades.
  25. Mullinger, J. B., The schools of Charles the Great.
  26. Neal, Daniel, The history of the Puritans.
  27. Payne, George Henry, The child in human progress.
  28. Rait, Robert S., Life in the medieval university.
  29. Sheldon, Henry D., Student life and customs.
  30. Thwing, Charles Franklin, The family.
  31. Traill, H. D., Social England.

CHAPTER XII
THE CHILD IN EARLIER UNITED STATES

Customs Relating to Land.

One very old and peculiar custom was brought over from England and used by the first colonists. This was the transferring of land under the old ceremony of the livery of seizin, a feudal ceremony. When land was being sold, the owner would stand upon it and he would pluck a twig from the tree or bush and place it in the hand of the purchaser, or he would take a small piece of the turf and stick a twig in it and give over to the purchaser. If a house was sold, the owner would take hold of the ring or latch of the door and formally give over the house to the purchaser.

In Virginia once every four years between Easter and Whit Sunday, the owner of a piece of ground had to go over the boundary and renew the marks, and when a piece of land had been thus traced three times, the right to possess it by the owner was never afterward disputed. Another custom was feudal in its nature. The land of the new country was given out in grants by the King and the owners acknowledged allegiance to him and paid annual dues and these proprietors established a system of land-tenure in which they let out the land, and an annual due was always expected. This was sometimes paid in money and again in produce from the land, sometimes being a very small amount, just sufficient to show acknowledgment of feudal service, it might be a few pounds of butter or a couple of loads of wood or a pair of chickens. In Virginia the first tenants were little better than villains of feudal times, as when they received land they were bound to remain seven years on it and to pay one-half of the whole produce as rent.