Peter the Hermit | Page 3

of the silks, spices, and other treasures of the East, and commercial greed came to move men under the cover of the cross.
[Sidenote: Chosroes Conquers Syria]
The stream of pilgrimage was full until the reign of Heraclius. Then the Persian king, Chosroes, carried his arms through Syria and Palestine to Egypt. The fire-worshipers defiled the holy city by their authority and their worship. They tainted and robbed the churches, and carried off what was believed to be the cross of the crucifixion, which had been guarded by the Church of the Resurrection.
[Sidenote: Return of the Cross]
The wailing of the Christian world over this loss strengthened the courage of Heraclius through ten years of reverses, and aided in the late but full victory which not only brought back to Jerusalem the enslaved Christians but the Cross of Calvary, as the most glorious of trophies. The emperor himself bore this barefooted to the summit of Calvary, and at Constantinople received the congratulations of the Christian world.
Jerusalem was soon, however, to feel the weight of a new and heavy hand.
[Sidenote: Rise of Mahomet]
[Sidenote: Greek Empire Corrupt]
In Arabia a religion arose with a singular power of advance, which it retains to this day. The union of the spiritual with the material, of the sensual with a fatalistic theology, made the followers of Mahomet eager for heaven by way of the battle-field. The Jews had now no unity; Christianity had become divided into sects cursing each other; the Persian Empire had exhausted itself; the Greek Empire was wasted with its own corruptions. The way was open for the stern, sober, and, in all respects but one, self-denying followers of Mahomet. Until they learned to navigate they swept the eastern and southern coasts of the Mediterranean. They early overwhelmed Palestine. Becoming masters of maritime peoples, they conquered even to Spain; were held at bay for a while by Constantinople; came even under the walls of Vienna, and were at length beaten back by Charles Martel.
[Sidenote: Jerusalem Sacred to Mohammedans]
[Sidenote: Jerusalem Taken by Omar]
Jerusalem was almost as sacred a city to the Mohammedans as to the Christians. Their prophet had visited it, and had journeyed to heaven from it. Attacked by the soldiers of Omar shortly after the death of the prophet, the Christians endured the horrors of a siege for four months, resisting armies which claimed the city as theirs by the promises of God. Omar came to receive the keys of the exhausted city, and Christians cried out in agony as the chief infidel defiled by his presence the Holy Sepulcher. They were permitted to worship, but not openly to exhibit their crosses and sacred books. Their conqueror erected a mosque on the site of the temple. This was more than the breaking heart of the Christian patriarch could bear. He died bewailing the sorrows and desolation of the city of the Great King.
[Sidenote: Omar Checks Persecution]
While Omar lived the hand of persecution was in good measure stayed, but worked in full vigor as soon as he was dead. Christians were certain neither of their homes nor of their churches. Their taxes were increased to the point of exhaustion. They could not mount a horse nor bear a weapon. A leather girdle must always show their subjection. No Arabic word must fall from their lips, nor could they speak the name of their own Patriarch without permission.
[Sidenote: Hardships Stimulate Pilgrimages]
These hardships awakened the sympathy of the Christian world, and stimulated many to go to the Holy Land that they then might be "accounted worthy to suffer with Christ."
Arculphus and Antoninus, of Plaisance, reached sainthood by making this journey and certifying to the Western Churches the persecutions of the Christians in the Holy Land.
[Sidenote: Haroun al Raschid Just]
Yet truth compels the statement that the Mohammedans were not always unjust or unkind. Intervals of peace came to cheer those who wept, and the reign of Haroun al Raschid offered them the largest hope. The great Charles was now great enough, even in Eastern eyes, to secure liberty and peace to Christians in far-off Palestine, and was treated as an equal through embassies and presents by the great Caliph.
Never could a monarch have received a more welcome present than did Charlemagne when the Caliph sent him the keys of the Holy Sepulcher.
[Sidenote: Christ Expected 1000 A. D.]
It is also to be remembered that prophecy had been interpreted to mean that in the year 1000 A. D. Christ would appear and set up His millennial kingdom. This greatly stimulated the pilgrimages to the Holy Land, as it did all other phases of devotion. Thousands felt that it would be well to be at the scene of the cross and of the resurrection when Christ came with His angels. It were well they should be near where He ascended, whether they