About 1050-1115


I


During the Middle Ages the Christians of Europe used to go to the
Holy Land for the purpose of visiting the tomb of Christ and other
sacred places. Those who made such a journey were called "pilgrims."

Every year thousands of pilgrims--kings, nobles and people of
humbler rank--went to the Holy Land.

While Jerusalem was in the hands of the Arabian caliphs who reigned
at Bagdad, the Christian pilgrims were generally well treated. After
about 1070, when the Turks took possession of the city, outrages
became so frequent that it seemed as if it would not be safe for
Christians to visit the Savior's tomb at all.

About the year 1095 there lived at Amiens (a-me-an') France, a monk
named Peter the Hermit.

Peter was present at a council of clergy and people held at Clermont
in France when his Holiness, Pope Urban II, made a stirring speech.
He begged the people to rescue the Holy Sepulchre and other sacred
sites from the Mohammedans.

The council was so roused by his words that they broke forth into
loud cries, "God wills it! God wills it!"