Peter the Hermit

[sniffs] Okay.

[clears throat] Peter described living by tradition as futile.

1 Peter 1:18, "Knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers." God's word clearly warns that tradition can take you captive.

In Colossians 2:8, "See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ." Do you know that God states that anyone who trusts in man is cursed? "Cursed is anyone who trusts in man," Jeremiah 17:5.

The Apostle Paul warned Titus, "Don't pay attention to any manmade laws," telling how doing so turns you from the truth.

Remember, it was undermined by the holy people, okay, in Jesus' time.

Just as happened during the time of Jesus, people are being taught to follow traditions of men who claim to speak for God.

I was taught that the pope's authority was because he spoke from the chair of Peter.

From their perspective, everyone else was uncultured and would fade away in time.

Traditional Roman warfare proved inefficient against the Seljuk threat, so Alexios used his treasury, cunning agents, and relics to attract the attention of Western Europe, which was catalyzed by the preaching of Urban II and Peter the Hermit.

Over 100,000 men, women, and children entered Byzantine lands and crossed into Anatolia.

This is called the People's Crusade.

So Peter the Hermit ends up leading, I'm talking women, children, men, old people, in, in an attempt to go back to the Holy Land.

Now they're going to get annihilated.

They're gonna get wiped out.

But this is the first wave, uh, uh, regarding the First Crusade.

Their journey would come first, and it would end in catastrophe.

The people's crusade, the man who lit the fuse among the common people was not a bishop or a baron, but a small, shabby, intense preacher named Peter the Hermit.

He came from the region of Amiens in northern France, and by the accounts of those who saw him, he was an unforgettable figure.

He was short and dark, dressed in a coarse woolen cloak, and he traveled on a donkey, eating little, going barefoot.

When this ragged horde arrived outside his walls, the Emperor Alexios faced exactly the problem he had feared, though in a form he had never imagined.

He had asked for disciplined mercenaries.

What had turned up was a vast camp of starving civilians and the occasional knight, with Peter the Hermit at their head, all of them hungry, excitable, and prone to looting whatever was not nailed down.

Alexios, ever the careful manager, did the sensible thing.

Go east, fight for God, and wash your soul clean.

The most effective and famous of these was a man from Amiens, a diminutive figure with a fiery gaze and a powerful voice known to history as Peter the Hermit.

He was a master of populist rhetoric, a man who traveled from village to village, often barefoot and riding a simple donkey, captivating vast crowds of common folk with his passionate sermons.

He spoke not of strategy or logistics, but of visions and divine imperatives, painting a picture of a holy mission in which faith alone was the only weapon required.

And so, long before the great dukes and counts had finished polishing their armor and mustering their vassals, a vast, spontaneous, and utterly disorganized migration began.

This was not an army.

It was a human tide, a loose collection of columns comprising tens of thousands of men, women, and even whole families who sold their meager possessions, packed their belongings onto rickety carts, and set off under the spiritual leadership of Peter the Hermit and a minor knight named Walter Sans Avoir, whose name aptly translates to Walter Without Property.

Historians still argue about the exact numbers, with estimates ranging from sixty thousand to over one hundred thousand, but all agree that it was a massive and unprecedented movement of people.

That's what really they preached.

Urban, Peter the Hermit, and all these other... preachers and that's what really drove the people to go on the crusade.

Omnibuses from the different hotels, and several carriages, were waiting at the station.

"Let us take a carriage," said Violet; "for, as we have several weeks to spend here, it will enable us better to see which is the best hotel, and where we are likely to get good rooms." "Oh, yes," answered Agnes "If we enter an omnibus, we must go where it takes us and it will be much more comfortable if we do not have to change our apartments." We drove to the Hotel des Quatre Saisons and found it full Then to the Hotel d'Angleterre, where we soon establish ourselves Not in the hotel itself, but in its principal dependency, the Quatre Tours or Old Kurhaus And we had indeed cause to congratulate ourselves, for we had found the airiest situation and the most commanding view in a somewhat confined watering place Ems is situated on the banks of the Lahn in a very narrow valley The only level space for walking is planted with trees under which the fashionable world promenades in the morning and evening During the day, the great heat confines most people indoors An excellent band plays in front of the Trinkhalle during the hours for drinking and here many German ladies bring their knitting In the Kursaal, the gaming tables drive a brisk trade whilst once a week those who are not very anxious about their cure indulge in a dance But the greatest charm of Ems is a donkey ride Our donkeys were named Fix, Fritz, and Bertha Fix's previous rider was a Russian count who played away a great deal of money and had to send for more to take him home Which was the greater donkey? It was amusing to hear the donkey drivers talk They had no respect for their king "Only fancy," said one of them "He has been here two seasons and has never mounted a donkey once." "But your king is a very brave soldier," said Violet "How could you expect him to ride a donkey? It would not be dignified." "Oh, but the Empress of Russia, she is the good woman She and 30 of her suite rode on donkeys twice a day to drink coffee in a rustic arbor on the Marlburg You say you have not got such good donkeys in England Suppose you take these three home with you on the railway." "Well, we may think of it," said Agnes "But I fear our friends will say we are six." Our evening walks were very pleasant We seldom entered the Kursaal, but walked about by moonlight under the trees One night, whilst strolling home, Edith remarked that our path was something like the journey of life A clear light thrown on it from above, every now and then crossed by a shadow And at the end is darkness, represented by a thick grove of trees But we knew that having passed through the darkness, we should find a resting place Teach me to live that I may dread The grave as little as my bed May we enter the shadowland With as little fear as we did the grove There were many Russian visitors in Ems The Empress of Russia once stayed at the Hotel d'Angleterre and after she left, crowds of ladies came to kiss the chair on which she had sat The Viceroy of Egypt seems to be a great favorite out of his own dominions on account of his liberality The Queen of Holland paid a 10 days visit to Ems whilst we were there and several feeble attempts at illumination were made in her honor The hills became clothed in their autumn tints before we left Brown, green, and gold were more brightly blended than we had ever yet seen them But all this wondrous beauty, though it gives such exquisite delight, is the beauty of decay Like the hectic cheek and brilliant eye of consumption How lovely the Marlburg looked in its russet dress It was like some characters that never show the half that is in them till a cold wind blows When we had resolved to leave Ems, Violet obtained from the landlord a list of the hotels he could recommend in the towns we were about to visit, intending to modify it according to the advice of those we might afterwards meet She also requested the concierge either to write or telegraph to the hotel at Frankfurt for rooms as nothing is so wearing out as standing waiting in a confusion of fresh arrivals or being detained an hour after the fatigue of a long journey until one's apartments can be arranged This simple expedient saved us much annoyance A landlord never gives his best rooms to those who come without previous notice He rightly judges that to them comfort and tidiness are not essential matters How can anyone expect hardworking servants to make the same preparation in 10 minutes and at a late hour as they would have made had they known earlier in the day? The expense of the two plans is almost the same Edith experienced no difficulty on German railways After delivering our luggage to the officials, she did not require to think more about it till having arrived at our destination and entered the omnibus of the hotel we had chosen She delivered the receipt to the commissionaire and saw our boxes transported to the roof and the gift of a franc always supplied us with a man to carry our rugs and bags How much better than being in bondage to a courier Agnes had a good idea that Peter the Hermit's task was not a very difficult one Had we accepted all the offers we received of company to Jerusalem, what a caravan we should have had The principal attraction for Catholics seems to be our Savior's grave But as we were not taught in our youth to worship any particular spot of earth, we can hardly understand what benefit they expect to derive from visiting it Our Saviour is risen! and the distance is short indeed which separates Him from a believing soul.

From Frankfort we went to Nuremberg.

At first sight of this famous town we all expressed our disappointment.