souls, because of their good intentions. There you would have seen
remarkable, even comical things; poor people, for example, tied their
cattle to two-wheel carts, armed as though they were horses, carrying
their few possessions, together with their small children, in the
wagon. The little children, whenever they came upon a castle or a
city, asked whether this was the Jerusalem to which they were going.

At that time, before people set out on the journey, there was a great
disturbance, with fierce fighting, throughout the entire kingdom of
the Franks. Everywhere people spoke of rampant thievery, highway
robbery; endless fires burned everywhere. Battles broke out for no
discernible reason, except uncontrollable greed. To sum up briefly,
whatever met the eye of greedy men, no matter to whom it belonged,
instantly became their prey. Therefore the change of heart they soon
underwent was remarkable and scarcely believable because of the
heedless state of their souls, as they all begged the bishops and
priests to give the sign prescribed by the above-mentioned Pope, that
is, the crosses. As the force of powerful winds can be restrained by
the gentle rain, so all of the feuds of each against the other were
put to rest by the aspiration imbedded undoubtedly by Christ Himself.

While the leaders, who needed to spend large sums of money for their
great retinues, were preparing like careful administrators, the
common people, poor in resources but copious in number, attached
themselves to a certain Peter the Hermit, and they obeyed him as
though he were the leader, as long as the matter remained within our
own borders. If I am not mistaken, he was born in Amiens, and, it is
said, led a solitary life in the habit of a monk in I do not know
what part of upper Gaul, then moved on, I don't know why, and we saw
him wander through cities and towns, spreading his teaching,