The crusades were first and foremost a spiritual
enterprise. They sprang from the pilgrimages which Christians had long been
accustomed to make to the scenes of Christ's life on earth. Men considered it a
wonderful privilege to see the cave in which He was born, to kiss the spot
where He died, and to kneel in prayer at His tomb. The eleventh century saw an
increased zeal for pilgrimages, and from this time travelers to the Holy Land
were very numerous. For greater security they often joined themselves in companies
and marched under arms. It needed little to transform such pilgrims into
crusaders.
ABUSE OF PILGRIMS BY THE TURKS
The Arab conquest of the Holy Land had not interrupted the
stream of pilgrims, for the early caliphs were more tolerant of unbelievers
than Christian emperors of heretics. But after the coming of the Seljuk Turks
into the East, pilgrimages became more difficult and dangerous. The Turks were
a ruder people than the Arabs whom they displaced, and in their fanatic zeal
for Islam were not inclined to treat the Christians with consideration. Many
tales floated back to Europe of the outrages committed on the pilgrims and on
the sacred shrines venerated by all Christendom. Such stories, which lost
nothing in the telling, aroused a storm of indignation throughout Europe and
awakened the desire to rescue the Holy Land from the grasp of the
"infidel."
