Chapter XI: The Child in Earlier and Medieval Europe (3)

Nicholas related his story and preached his crusade before the cathedral to the pilgrims who came to view the relics. These pilgrims carried the story of Nicholas back to their homes and there soon came a number of children to him at Cologne. He also sent out assistants to preach the crusade in different parts of the land. The excitement became even greater than in France for bands of children came into Cologne in even greater numbers than to St. Denys. This was a more mixed crowd than that of Stephen, as there were more girls and more adults and especially more lewd women, so many of these latter that the chroniclers referred to them often and attributed to them the greater part of the evils that came upon the multitude. These crusaders had a uniform, which consisted of a long gray coat, with a cross sewed upon the breast, and they wore broad brimmed hats and carried a palmer's staff. In about a month the host had gathered and was ready to start for the sea, which was to let them pass through to the Holy Land, as with the army of Stephen. But there arose a division and only a part started under the leadership of Nicholas.

Those who remained with Nicholas left Cologne for Genoa in June or July, 1212. The number that started was said to have been twenty thousand, the majority being boys under twelve years of age. Nicholas took his place at the head and at a signal the start was made, with banners flying and the singing of hymns. But this was not true of all the parents and friends, for many of them were in great distress over the leaving of their children, and they followed for some distance pleading for them to give up and return to their homes. One of the songs of this band comes down to us. Gray[219] states that an account of the discovery of this hymn may be found in a magazine, the _Evangelical Christendom_ for May, 1850, and that Hecker asserts it was used by the children. It was in German, coming from Westphalia, and had been used before by Crusaders on their journey to Palestine. The English translation is as follows:

"Fairest Lord Jesus,
Ruler of all nature,
Thou of Mary and of God the Son!
Thee will I cherish,
Thee will I honor,
Thee my soul's glory, joy, and crown!

"Fair are the meadows,
Fairer still the woodlands,
Robed in the blooming garb of spring;
Jesus is fairer,
Jesus is purer,
Who makes our saddened heart to sing.

"Fair is the sunshine,
Fairer still the moonlight,
And the sparkling, starry host;
Jesus shines brighter,
Jesus shines purer,
Than all the angels heaven can boast."

They took their way along the Rhine, they entered into Switzerland going by way of Geneva, their route through the Alps was over Mont Cenis, entering Italy in what is now Piedmont, and from thence to Genoa. At that time the region along the Rhine was not much peopled, a feudal castle rising here and there on some prominent crag with hamlets below, but most of the way was almost a wilderness and with plenty of wild animals such as stags and boars and wolves and bears. The children suffered much, especially from lack of food and shelter. The children also were carried off by the robber barons. The children were preyed upon by the hangers-on and thieves and the degraded men and women and they were soon without control, and the band became but little more than a rabble. But their sufferings along the Rhine were quite small as compared with what took place in traversing the Alps. The trials and sufferings were so great that many of them succumbed and a large number gave up and turned back. The summit was reached and in the monastery there they were helped with food and shelter and afforded a time to rest before going on with their journey. They went on and came into Italy where they had hoped to receive kind treatment, but instead they were treated harshly, robbed, refused entrance into the towns, seized by the lords and carried away as slaves. Finally they came to a place where they saw Genoa from a mountain and then they felt that their sufferings were over. They again recognized Nicholas as their prophet and leader and with crosses aloft, banners unfurled, and hymns sung in praise, they hurried down to the sea to enter the path that surely would be opened to them to go over to the Holy Land.

As was stated, twenty thousand started with Nicholas at Cologne, but after the hard journey of seven hundred miles, there were only seven thousand that reached Genoa in August, 1212. But these were the very best for only the strongest kept on and could endure the hardships. Like the children at Marseilles, they asked to remain in Genoa but one night as on the morrow God was to open the sea to them that they might continue on their journey. The authorities at first granted them permission to remain six or seven days but on the very same day this time was shortened to one day, as it was feared they might become lawless and again there was fear of famine, but most of all the Genoese feared the displeasure of the Pope, who at that time was in conflict with the German Emperor, and of course these children were subjects of the Emperor. The children agreed to this, as they said they wanted but one night as they would go on through the sea in the morning. The gates were then opened and the children entered and marched through the streets singing, with crosses uplifted and banners flying. The night was passed and in the morning they rushed to the seashore, but as with the other children so with these, for they waited in vain for the sea to open.

When the senate at Genoa had taken back their offer to let the children remain six or seven days and gave them permission to remain but one day, they did extend an invitation to all those who would like to make Genoa their permanent home to do so, and they would be received as citizens. At the time the offer was made it was rejected by all as they were anticipating that on the morrow the sea would open and a path would be provided for a way to Palestine. After the sea did not open, many of the children were convinced that their journey was ended and they decided to accept the offer and to remain at Genoa. There were quite a number that so decided, and they became citizens and some of the youth grew to become wealthy and prominent men and some joined themselves with patrician families, being of noble German birth, and several great families were so founded, among such being one great princely house.

Those who did not wish to remain at Genoa left on the following day after their entry. Outside the gates a council was held and they decided to go on their way by land to Palestine as far as they could. After this there was no further organization, and Nicholas is not heard of again. They went to Pisa and from here two shiploads of children set sail for the Holy Land, but there is nothing known of them further. The remnant went on to Rome and were received by the Pope who talked to them kindly and advised them to give up their march, but he held them to their vows and told them that when they reached manhood they should go forth to fight for the redemption of the Holy Sepulcher. These young people then gave up their enterprise and prepared to return home.

It is not known who was the leader of the band that separated from that one led by Nicholas. It is thought that when this band left Cologne it was as large as that which went out with Nicholas. They took a different route, going through Swabia to Switzerland and crossing the Alps at the Pass of St. Gotthard and entered Italy in Lombardy. They traversed the entire length of Italy to Brindisi. This company was composed of about the same elements as the other one and they met with even greater difficulties and hardships and became even more lawless. They were treated very badly everywhere in Italy. At Brindisi a number of them embarked on ships and sailed away for Palestine and that was the last ever heard of them.

The return of the German children was sadder than their going. In Italy, having to obtain food and clothing in any way possible, they contracted the worst of vices. So on their return they were no longer a religious throng hurrying on to save the Cross, but a rabble, with no respect for any one and no one had respect for them. Hence they were treated badly on the way back and only found a refuge when arriving each one in his own home.

This Crusade shows the great danger to which child-nature may be subjected in times of great excitement and teaches the need of the careful guarding of children from such. In this Crusade it is estimated that more than thirty thousand children never saw their homes after leaving. In all near a hundred thousand children went from their homes, leaving sixty thousand sorrowing families behind them. Perhaps not one of these children who returned home came back with the purity with which he or she started.

=Other Child-pilgrimages.= "The _second children's pilgrimage_ falls only twenty-five years later; so that the assumption of a morbid excitability of the child-world at all this time appears to be justified. It was confined to the city of Erfurt, and the phenomenon was very transient, but not the less presents all the distinctive marks of a religious convulsion, and exhibited more of disease than other child-pilgrimages, as far at least as has come down to posterity. On the 15th July, 1237, there assembled, unknown to their parents, more than 1,000 children, left the town by the Löber Gate, and wandered, dancing and leaping, by the Steigerwald to Armstadt. A congress such as this, as if by agreement, resembles an instinctive impulse as in animals, when, for instance, swallows and storks collect for their migration; the same phenomenon has doubtless taken place in all children's pilgrimages, it was also remarked by eye-witnesses of the first of them, in a manner characteristic of the Middle Ages. It was not till the next day that the parents learned the occurrence, and they fetched their children back in carts. No one could say who had enticed them away. Many of them are said to have continued ill some time after, and in particular to have suffered from trembling of the limbs, perhaps also from convulsions. The whole affair is obscure, and so little account has been taken of it by contemporaries, that the chronicles only speak of the fact, and say nothing of its causes. The only probable conjecture is that the many noisy and pompous festivities connected with the canonization of St. Elizabeth, the Landgravine of Thuringia, had excited in the child-world of Erfurt this itch for devotion, which sought to relieve itself by displays of spinal activity. For this child-pilgrimage is in very near proximity to the Dancing Mania.

"Still much more obscure is a child-pilgrimage of 1458, of which the motives were quite clearly religious. It is probably, at present, almost impossible to trace the chain of ideas which occasioned it; it is enough that it was in honor of the Archangel Michael. More than 100 children from Hall, in Suabia, set out, against the will of their parents, for Mont St. Michel in Normandy. They could not by any means be restrained, and if force was employed, they fell severely ill, and some even died. The mayor, unable to prevent the journey, kindly furnished them a guide for the long journey, and an ass to carry their luggage. They are said to have actually reached the then world-renowned Abbey, and to have performed their devotions there. We have absolutely no other information of them, and it appears that this child-pilgrimage, which falls to the time when chorea was very frequent and widely spread in Germany, has excited even much less attention than the migration of the children of Erfurt in the year 1237."[220]

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