Peter the Hermit | Page 7

the sacred places and on the religious
by the Turks. He followed in the wake of the devotees who traversed
the long road to the Holy City. That Peter actually made this journey is
sufficiently attested by his contemporary, Anna Conmena. She
probably met him while tarrying in Constantinople, and could easily
know of his presence at the palace of her father, Alexius. From her we
learn that he had to flee before the Turks and Saracens, and her
narration makes it doubtful if he reached Jerusalem on his first attempt.
By so much as he was more enthusiastic than others by nature, by so
much was he fired with indignation, which to him was but the just
expression of his zeal and his piety.
[Sidenote: Emotions in Jerusalem]
He stood with agony on Calvary. He adored with tears the tomb of
Christ. Then he sought speech with the Patriarch of Jerusalem. His
name was Simeon, and like another, waited for "the salvation of God."
Who is responsible for the report of this interview we do not know, but
one more probable and pathetic is not on record outside the Bible.
[Sidenote: Patriarch Simeon]

[Sidenote: Simeon's and Peter's Hope]
Simeon had suffered much for his faith as well as for his leadership.
The impatient enthusiasm of Peter was moved to tears by the patient
enthusiasm of Simeon. "Is there no remedy?" cried Peter, weeping. And
Simeon answered: "Is it not evident that our sins have shut us away
from the mercy of the Lord? All Asia is in the power of the
Mussulmans; all the East is enslaved; no power on earth can help us."
Peter asked, "May not the warriors of the West come to your help?"
"Yes," said Simeon, "when our cup is full, God will soften the princes
of the West, and will send them to the help of the Holy City." This was
Peter's thought, and, weeping with joy over a great hope, the patriarch
and the pilgrim embraced. The patriarch pledged himself to appeal to
Europe by letter and Peter by word of mouth.
The plan of Peter was strengthened by his further devotions at the Holy
Sepulcher. There are two ways in which men of strong will become
sure that their will is the will of God.
[Sidenote: Peter's Mental Constitution]
One is to make a plan, and then submit it to God in prayer. The other,
and the truer, is to ask God's help in the making of the plan as in its
execution. The first, as was probable from Peter's intellectual and moral
constitution, seems to have been the way in which he came to certainty
as to his life mission. There is no reason to doubt that in his exiled state,
moved at once by piety and peril, he saw the vision, though inwardly,
which inspired his return. At the Sepulcher he thought he heard the
voice of Christ commanding him to proclaim the sorrows of Christ's
land and of Christ's people. The best account of this vision and
commission is that of the Historia Belli Sacri: "One evening as Peter
went to rest the Lord Jesus Christ appeared to him in a vision, saying,
'Peter, stand up. Go back quickly into the West. Betake thyself to Pope
Urban with this commission from Me that he get all My brothers as
quickly as possible to hasten to Jerusalem, in order to purge the city of
unbelievers. All who do this from love to Me, to them stand open the
doors of the kingdom of heaven.'" This became to him a daily
commission from on high. Bearing letters from Simeon, he went to

Italy by sea, and sought the presence and aid of Urban II, then pope.
[Sidenote: Pope Urban]
Urban felt that this call, recognized by his predecessors, was more fully
and loudly given to him.
The refusal of Hagenmeyer to credit this vision and its influence on
Pope Urban seems to be the result of an ultra critical spirit. When a
pope speaks, after argument and urging, he is not likely to think it
consonant with his dignity to give credit in allocution or bull to those
who urged him. Holding that all men are properly servants of the Holy
See, he speaks as if he was the original source of knowledge and
impulse. Urban does not, in his famous speech at the Council of
Clermont, give Peter's vision or Peter's urgency as a ground for his
utterance or action. But he followed Peter on that occasion, and it may
well be that if Peter mentioned his vision as the inspiration of his
mission, the pope would not speak of its influence on himself.
[Sidenote: Urban's Emotions]
The Roman pontiffs, whatever their own ability or lack of it, have
always been distinguished