A Short History of the Crusades Author:Jacob Isidor Mombert General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1894 Original Publisher: News Printing Co. Subjects: Crusades History / General History / World History / Medieval Religion / General Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When y... more »ou buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER III. FIRST CRUSADE, A. D. 1096 -- 1099. I. I'KTER AM1 HIS HOSTS. The Council of Clermont had ordered the departure i, f the Crusaders to take place on the Festival of the Assumption, August 15, 1096. Peter the Hermit, and the monk Gottschalk were foremost among the preachers who agitated the masses throughout France, Lorraine, and the region of the Lower Rhine; the priest Volkmar undertook the same work in- Saxony and Thuringia. The promotion of the movement however was not confined to them. The Pope, in person, made the round of France, repeating in the lesser Councils of Rouen, Tours, and Nimes the argument and persuasives of his grand speech at Clermont. Every bishop echoed the Pope's call in his diocese. Thus the enthusiasm was fed, and spread apace. It soon pervaded all the countries from the Pillars of Hercules, as the Strait of Gibraltar was still called, to the extremities of Scotland, from the Normans in Sicily to their true home in Norway. All Europe was arming ; it was a shame to stay behind ; the chivalry of all the lands of Western Christendom, being promised the expiation of their many crimes in the indulgence of war, their dominant passion, strained every nerve, and made every sacrifice, to take part in the Holy War. The most reckless arithmetic speaks of six millions of people who in the spring following the Council were ready to march ; a more sober estimate reduces them to three hundred thousand. These people clamored to be led to the Holy ...« less