On the parched ground of the Middle East in early fall, 1096, a lone European knight walked among thousands of dead bodies. He had been away from his post for days searching for 20,000 Crusaders who had been called to accept the crusader’s cross by Pope Urban to rescue the Holy Land from the Saracens. What he found in the desert sickened him. The stench from the thousands of dead bodies was so nauseating that he threw up.
He walked among the dead and to his dismay found not one man alive. He determined from the decaying bodies that this was the army on which so many hopes had been placed. He was surprised that the weapons that were lying beside the dead were mostly sling shots, flails and maces. There were a few Crusader shields among the bodies, and a few Medieval battle swords of that time. He wondered why there were so few weapons, and he quickly realized why they were doomed. He wondered if the rag-tag crew lying in the hot desert sun was the best that Europe would offer to save Jerusalem.
He continued to trudge through the bodies, and he suddenly viewed the cloak of a Monk, and beside the holy man’s decaying body, there lay a scroll. He unrolled the document, and began to read of the disastrous crusade of Peter the Hermit.
“I joined Peter, a fellow monk who spoke with such inspiration that I knew that we could save this land for God. Pope Urban issued the call to crusade and we answered. Our recruits were not the rich knights with mighty arms; our crusaders were the poor and disadvantaged who desired to escape their sordid existence and do the Lord’s work. They had few arms, but what they could make themselves or their flails which they used as farm implements. But what we lacked in wealth and arms we made up for in devotion. We knew that God would bless us. I must admit that some of our recruits did not come here with the best intentions, because they have stolen and murdered even from their comrades. I must say however, that for the most part our band of farmers, peasants and the disadvantaged have attempted to fight like the devoted Christians that they are. We did well until we reached Nicaea; we sacked the city of the Seljuk, one of the major cities of the Turks. We moved a few miles from the city in the hopes of securing a castle for a headquarters. Then we saw a large contingent of troops in the distance. We determined that they were Saracens with their mighty swords and swift horses. I fear we will die soon. We are no match for them. They have surrounded us, and we have been here for days. We are starving to death and there is no hope. God wills that we die here.”
The knight wondered if ever again Christian pilgrims would subject themselves to such a disastrous result. Would Crusaders ever free the Holy Land?