become society leaders, when, as we say, they rise from overalls to
dress-suits, but here we have the son’s son of a pirate rising to be
king of England, and those living now who find they are descended from
him brag of it!
[Illustration]
51
A Great Adventure
Have you ever played the game called “Going to Jerusalem” in which
every one scrambles to get a seat when the music stops playing?
Well, all during the Dark Ages “Going to Jerusalem” was not a game but
a real journey which Christians everywhere in Europe wanted to take and
did take if they could. They wanted to see the actual spot where Christ
had been crucified, to pray at the Holy Sepulcher, and to bring back a
palm-leaf as a souvenir, which they could show their friends, hang on
the wall, and talk about all the rest of their lives.
So there were always some good Christians--and also some bad
ones--“going to Jerusalem.” Sometimes they went all by themselves,
but more often they went with others. As of course there were no such
things as trains in those days, poor people had to walk nearly the
whole way from France and from England, from Spain and from Germany,
and so it took them many months and sometimes years to reach Jerusalem.
These travelers were called _pilgrims_, and their trip was called a
_pilgrimage_.
Jerusalem at that time belonged to the Turks, who were Mohammedans. The
Turks did not like these Christian pilgrims who came to see Christ’s
tomb, and they didn’t treat them very well. Indeed, some of the
pilgrims on their return told frightful stories of the way they had
been treated by the Turks and the way the holy places in Jerusalem were
also treated.
Just before the Year 1100 there was a pope at Rome named Urban. He
was the head of all the Christians in the world. Urban heard these
tales that the pilgrims told, and he was shocked. He thought it was a
terrible thing, anyway, for the Holy City, as Jerusalem was called,
and the Holy Land, where Jerusalem was located, to be ruled over by
Mohammedans instead of by Christians. So Urban made a speech and urged
all good Christians everywhere to get together and go on a pilgrimage
to the Holy Land, with the idea of fighting the Turks and taking the
city of Jerusalem away from them.
Now, there lived at that same time a monk whom people called Peter the
Hermit. A hermit is a man who goes off and lives entirely by himself,
usually in a cave or hut where no one can find him or go to see him,
where he can spend all day in prayer. Peter the Hermit thought such a
life was good for his soul, that it made him a better man to be hungry
and cold and uncomfortable.
Peter the Hermit had made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and was very angry
at what he saw there. So he, too, began to tell people everywhere he
went how disgraceful it was for them to allow Christ’s tomb to belong
to the Mohammedans and called on every one to start on a pilgrimage
with him to save Jerusalem. He talked to people in the churches, on the
street-corners, in the market-places, on the roadside. He was such a
wonderful orator that those who heard him wept at his descriptions and
begged to go with him.
Before long, thousands upon thousands of people, old and young, men and
women, and even some children had pledged themselves to join a band to
go to Jerusalem and take it away from the Mohammedans. As Christ had
died on the cross, they cut pieces of red cloth in the form of a cross
and sewed them on the fronts of their coats as a sign that they were
soldiers of the cross. So these pilgrims were called _Crusaders_, which
is the Latin word for a cross-bearer. As they knew they would be gone
a long time and perhaps never return, they sold all they had and left
their homes. Not only poor people but lords and nobles and even princes
joined the army of the Crusaders, and there were, besides the crowds on
foot, large companies of those who rode on horseback.
The plan was to start in the summer of 1096, four years before 1100,
but a great many were so anxious to get started that they didn’t wait
for the time that had been set. With Peter the Hermit and another pious
man named Walter the Penniless as their leaders, they started off
before things were really ready.
They had no idea how very far off Jerusalem was. They hadn’t studied
geography nor maps. They had no idea how long it would take, no idea
how they would get food to eat on their journey, no idea where they
would sleep. They simply trusted in Peter the Hermit and believed that
the Lord would provide everything and show them the way.
Onward they marched, “Onward, Christian Soldiers,” thousands upon
thousands, toward the east and far-off Jerusalem. Thousands upon
thousands of them died from disease and from hunger on the way. Every
time they came within sight of another city, they would ask, “Is this
Jerusalem?” so little did they know of the long distance that still lay
between them and that city.
When the Mohammedan army in Jerusalem heard that the Crusaders were
coming they went forth to meet the Christians and killed almost all
of those who had started out with Peter ahead of the rest. But those
Crusaders that had started out later, as had been planned at the
beginning, marched on.
Finally, after nearly four years, only a small band of that vast throng
that had set out so long before reached the walls of the Holy City.
When at last they saw Jerusalem before them, they were wild with joy.
They fell on their knees and wept and prayed and sang hymns and thanked
God that he had brought them to the end of their journey. Then they
furiously attacked the city. The Christians fought so terribly that
at last they beat the Mohammedans and captured Jerusalem. Then they
entered the gates and killed thousands, so that it is said the streets
of the Holy City ran with blood. This seems strange behavior for the
followers of Christ, who preached against fighting and commanded, “Put
up thy sword, for he that taketh the sword shall perish by the sword.”
The Crusaders then made one of their leaders named Godfrey ruler of the
city. Most of the other Crusaders that were left then went back home.
So ended what is known as the First Crusade.
52
Tit-Tat-To; Three Kings in a Row
Here are three kings:
Richard of England,
Philip of France, and
Frederick Barbarossa of Germany.
If you say their names over several times, they keep ringing through
your mind and you cannot seem to stop thinking them whether you want to
or not.
Jerusalem was captured. But it did not stay captured very long.
The Mohammedans attacked and won it back again.
So the Christians started a Second Crusade. Then about once in a
lifetime during the next two hundred years there was one Crusade after
another--eight or nine in all. Sometimes these later Crusades won back
Jerusalem for a while, but for a while only. Sometimes they did not
succeed at all.
The Third Crusade took place about a hundred years after the First;
that is, nearly 1200 A. D. These three kings--Richard of England,
Philip of France, and Frederick Barbarossa--started on the Third
Crusade. But they didn’t all finish. I will tell you about them in
three-two-one order.
[Illustration: Richard of England, Philip of France, and Frederick
Barbarossa]
Frederick’s name, Barbarossa, meant Red Beard, for in those days it was
the custom to give kings nicknames that described them. Frederick’s
capital was in Aix-la-Chapelle, as Charlemagne’s had been, but
Frederick was king only of Germany. When a young man he had tried to
make his country as large and powerful as the new Roman Empire that
Charlemagne had made. But he was not a great enough man, and so was
unable to do what Charlemagne had done. Frederick was quite old when
he started out on the Third Crusade with the other two kings. But he
never reached Jerusalem, for in crossing a stream on the way he was
drowned. So much for Frederick, the third king.
The second king, Philip of France, was jealous of the first king,
Richard, because Richard was so very popular and well liked by the
Crusaders. So Philip finally gave up the Crusade and went back to
France.
Richard of England was then the only king left on the Crusade. It would
have been better if he, too, had gone back to his country instead of
gallivanting off on a Crusade. But he thought going on a Crusade was
much better sport than staying at home and working over the difficult
business of governing his people.
But although he had his faults, Richard was the kind of a man that
all men like and all women love. He was kind and gentle, yet strong
and brave. Richard the Lion-Hearted they called him. He was hard on
wrongdoers but fair and square. So people loved him, but they feared
him, too, for he punished the wicked and those who misbehaved. Even
long, long after he had died, mothers would try to quiet a naughty and
crying child by saying: “Hush! If you don’t be good, King Richard will
get you!”
soHnOFFGOBBELLum!
Even Richard’s enemies admired him. The Mohammedan king of Jerusalem at
the time of this Third Crusade was named Saladin. Saladin, though being
attacked by Richard, admired him very much and even became his friend.
And so Saladin, instead of fighting Richard, finally made a friendly
agreement with him to treat the Holy Sepulcher and the pilgrims
properly. As this arrangement was satisfactory to every one, Richard
left Jerusalem to Saladin and started back home.
On his way home Richard was captured by one of his enemies and put in
prison and held for a large ransom from England. Richard’s friends did
not know where he was and did not know how to find him.
Now, it so happened that Richard had a favorite minstrel named Blondel.
Blondel had composed a song of which Richard was very fond. So when
Richard was taken prisoner, Blondel wandered over the country singing
everywhere this favorite song in the hope that Richard might hear it
and reveal where he was. One day he happened to sing beneath the very
tower where Richard was imprisoned. Richard heard him and answered by
singing the refrain of the song. His friends then knew where he was,
the ransom was paid, and Richard was allowed to go free.
When, at last, Richard did reach England, he still had adventures. This
was the time when Robin Hood was robbing travelers. Richard planned
to have himself taken prisoner by Robin Hood, so that he might capture
him and bring him to justice. So Richard disguised himself as a monk
and was captured as he had planned. But he found Robin Hood such a good
fellow after all that he forgave him and his men.
Richard’s coat of arms was a design of three lions, one above the
other; and this same design of three lions now forms part of the shield
of England.
After Richard’s Crusade there was a Fourth Crusade, and then in the
year 1212--which is an easy date to remember, because it is simply the
number 12 repeated--one, two, one, two--there was a crusade of children
only. This was known therefore as the Children’s Crusade. It was led by
a French boy about twelve years old named Stephen, who was named after
the first Christian martyr.
Children from all over France left their homes and their mothers and
fathers--it seems strange to us that their mothers and fathers let them
start off on such a trip--and marched south to the Mediterranean Sea.
Here they expected the waters of the sea would part and allow them
to march on dry land to Jerusalem, as they had read in the Bible the
waters of the Red Sea had done to allow the Israelites to leave Egypt.
But the waters did not part.
Some sailors, however, offered to take the children to Jerusalem in
their ships. They said they would do it for nothing, just for the love
of the Lord. But it turned out that these sailors were really pirates,
and as soon as they got the children on board their ships they steered
them straight across the Mediterranean to Africa into the very land of
their enemies, the Mohammedans. Here, it is said, the pirates sold the
children as slaves. This is not a Grimm’s Fairy-Tale, and the pirates
were not trapped by the children, so I cannot make a happy ending, for
it was not.
The last or Eighth Crusade was led by a king of France called Louis. He
was so pious and so devoted to the Lord that he was made a saint and
ever after has been called St. Louis. Yet this Crusade failed, and ever
since Jerusalem has been ruled by the Mohammedans until just recently,
when, in 1918, it was captured by the English, and this, then, was
really the Last Crusade.
Not all the Crusaders were good Christians. Like some people nowadays,
a great many were Christian only in name. In fact, though strange
to say, quite a number of the Crusaders were nothing but scalawags,
looking for excitement and adventure, and they went on a Crusade merely
as an excuse to rob and plunder.
The Crusades did not succeed in their object, which was to keep
Jerusalem for the Christians. Yet in spite of that, they did a great
deal of good. When the Crusades first started, the Crusaders were not
nearly as civilized as the people they went to conquer. But travel
sometimes teaches people more than books, and it taught the Crusaders.
They learned the customs of the other lands through which they went.
They learned languages and literature. They learned history and art.
There were then no public schools. Only a very, very few people had any
education at all. So the Crusades did what schools might have done.
They taught the people of Europe and put an end to the Dark Ages of
ignorance.
[Illustration]
53
Bibles Made of Stone and Glass
How often do you go to church?
Probably not more than once a week--on Sundays.
But in the Middle Ages people usually went to church every day and
often several times a day. They did not go only when there was a church
service. They went to say their prayers by themselves; they went to
tell their troubles to the priest, to get advice from him, to burn a
candle to the Virgin Mary, or simply to chat with their friends.
All during the Crusades, and immediately after the Crusades, the chief
thing that people thought about was their church.
There was only one church in a neighborhood, and every one went to
the same church for there were no Baptists, nor Episcopalians, nor
Methodists; all were just Christians.
The church was every one’s meeting-house, and so people naturally gave
as much money and time and labor as they could to make their church
the best that could be built. That is why there were built in France
and other parts of Europe at this time many of the finest churches
and cathedrals in the world. These churches and cathedrals are still
standing, and, because they are so beautiful, people go long distances
to see them.
Do you know what a cathedral is? A cathedral is not just a large
church. It is the church of a bishop. In the chancel of this church
there is a special chair for the bishop. This bishop’s chair is called
in Latin a “cathedra,” and so his church is named a cathedral after
this chair.
These churches and cathedrals were nothing like the old Greek and Roman
temples; they were not like anything that had ever been built before.
If you have ever built a house out of blocks, you probably did it this
way: first you stood two blocks upright, and then you laid another
block across the top of these for a roof. This is the way the Greeks
and Romans built.
But the Christians throughout Europe at that time did not build in this
way at all.
When you were building toy-houses, instead of laying a single block
across the two standing ones, you may perhaps have tried leaning two
blocks together like the sides of a letter A for a roof? If you did,
you know what happened: the two leaning blocks pushed over the sides,
and _crash_! everything tumbled. Well, these churches were built
somewhat in this way, with stones arched across the standing stone
columns. But to keep the stone arches from pushing over the standing
stone columns the builders put up props or braces. These props or
braces were made of stone, too, and these props of stone were called
_flying buttresses_.
[Illustration: Flying buttresses--Apse of Notre Dame.]
The people in Italy thought this a crazy way of building. They thought
such buildings must be shaky and might easily topple over--like a
house of cards. The Goths who had conquered Italy in 476 were wild
and ignorant and after that people called anything wild and ignorant
“Gothic.” So people called all buildings such as I have just described
“Gothic,” although the Goths had nothing to do with the buildings, for
they had all died long years before.
Indeed, from my description you, too, may think such buildings propped
up by flying buttresses must have been tottering and ugly, but they
were neither. They were not rickety, for though occasionally one that
was not carefully built did collapse, the largest and best are still
standing to-day. And although there were old-fashioned people who
thought no building was beautiful that was not built in the Roman or
Greek style, we have come to admire the great beauty of these so called
Gothic buildings.
But there were other ways in which the Gothic churches were different
from the Greek and Roman temples. Before a Gothic church was started,
a very large cross was first drawn on the ground with its head
towards the east, because that is the direction of Jerusalem. On this
cross-shaped plan, the church was built so that if you looked down from
above on the finished building, it was shaped like a cross with the
altar always toward the east.
Gothic churches had beautiful spires or _arrows_, which have been
likened to _fingers pointing to_ _heaven_. The doorways and windows
were not square or round at the top, but pointed, like hands placed
together in prayer.
Nearly the whole side of a Gothic church was made of glass. These large
windows were not, however, plain white glass, but beautiful pictures
made of colored glass. Small pieces of different colors were joined
together at their edges with lead to make what looked like wonderful
paintings. But these pictures were much finer than ordinary paintings,
for the light shone through the stained glass and made the colors
brilliant as jewels--blue like the clear sky, yellow like sunlight, red
like a ruby. These pictures in glass told stories from the Bible. They
were like colored illustrations in a book. So the people who could not
read, and very few could read, were able to know the Bible stories just
by looking at these beautiful illustrations.
Statues of saints and angels and characters in the Bible were carved in
the stonework of the church. So the churches were like Bibles of stone
and glass.
Besides these holy beings, strange, grotesque beasts were also made in
stone--monsters like no animal that has ever been seen in nature. These
creatures were usually put on the outside edge or corner of the roof
or they were used for waterspouts and called _gargoyles_. They were
supposed to scare away evil spirits from the holy place.
No one now knows who were the architects or the builders of these
Gothic churches or who were the sculptors or artists. Almost every one
did some work on the church, for it was _his_ church. Instead of giving
money he gave his time and labor. If he had any skill, he carved stone
or made stained glass. If he had no skill he did the work of a common
laborer.
[Illustration: Gargoyle.]
Some of these Gothic churches took hundreds of years to build, so that
the workmen who started them never lived to see them finished. Some of
the most famous cathedrals are Canterbury Cathedral in England, the
Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, and Cologne Cathedral in Germany.
Cologne Cathedral took the longest of all to build, as it was not
entirely finished until about seven hundred years after it was begun!
The beautiful Cathedral of Rheims in France was almost destroyed by the
gun-fire of the Germans in the Great War only a few years ago.
Gothic churches were built, with loving care, of stone and jeweled
glass. Nothing but the best was thought good enough. To-day almost all
churches are still built with spires, pointed doors and some stained
glass windows, and often the altar is toward the east. But although
they imitate the Gothic style in these things, they seldom have stone
ceilings, as Gothic churches had, nor flying buttresses, nor walls of
stained glass. The ceilings are usually of wood, the spire often of
wood, also, and even the whole building of wood or some cheap material.
Real Gothic was enormously expensive and difficult, and nowadays people
haven’t the time, the money, nor the interest to build in such a way.
And that is the story of Gothic churches that the Goths had nothing to
do with.
[Illustration]
54
John, Whom Nobody Loved
Richard, the Lion-Hearted, whom everybody loved, had a brother named
John, whom nobody loved.
This brother John became king, but he turned out to be a very wicked
king.
He is another one of the villains in history, whom we do not like, but
like to hear about, and like to clap when he gets what he deserves.
John was afraid that his young nephew named Arthur might be made king
in his place, and so he had him murdered. Some say he hired others to
do the killing; some say he murdered him with his own hands. This was
a very bad beginning for his reign, but things got worse and worse as
time went on.
John got into a quarrel with the pope in Rome. The pope at that time
was head of all Christians in the world and said what should be done
and what should not be done in all churches everywhere. The pope
ordered John to make a certain man bishop in England, and John said he
wouldn’t do it. He wanted another man, a friend of his, to be bishop.
The pope then said he would close up all the churches in England if
John didn’t do as he was told. John said he didn’t care. Let the pope
go ahead and close up all the churches if he wanted to. So the pope
ordered all churches in England to be closed until John should give
in. Nowadays this might not have made much difference, but then, as I
have told you, the church was the one most important thing in every
one’s life; in fact, nothing else mattered so much. The closing of
the churches meant that no services could be held in any church. It
meant that children could not be baptized, and so, if they died, it
was believed they could not go to heaven. It meant that couples could
not be married. It meant that the dead could not be given a Christian
burial.
The people of England were shocked. It was as if Heaven had put a curse
on them. They were afraid that terrible things would happen to them. Of
course the people blamed John, for he was the cause of the churches’
being closed. They were so angry at him that he became scared--afraid
what his people might do to him. When at last the pope threatened to
make another man king of England in his place--yes, the pope had as
much power as that--John in fear and trembling gave in and agreed to
do everything that at first he had said he would not do and more
besides. But John was pig-headed. He was always doing the wrong thing
and sticking to it.
John had an idea that the world was made for the king and that people
were put upon the earth simply so that the king might have servants to
work for him, to earn money for him, to do what he wished them to do.
Many of the kings of olden days felt the same way, though they did not
go as far as John did. John would order people who were rich to give
him whatever money he wanted. If they refused to give him all he asked,
he would put them in prison, have their hands squeezed in an iron press
until the bones cracked and the blood ran, or he would even put them to
death.
John got worse and worse until at last his barons could not stand his
actions any longer. So they made him prisoner and took him to a little
island in the Thames River called Runnymede. Here they forced John to
agree to certain things which they had written down in Latin. This was
in the Year 1215; and 1215 was a bad date for John, but a good date
for the English people. This list of things which the barons made John
agree to was called by the Latin name for a great agreement, which is
Magna Carta, or Charta.
John did not agree to Magna Carta willingly, however. He was as angry
and furious as a spoiled child, who kicks and screams when forced to do
something he does not want to do. But he had to agree, nevertheless.