century.

The train that was to explode so fearfully was now laid, and there
wanted but the hand to apply the torch. At last the man appeared upon
the scene. Like all who have ever achieved so great an end, Peter the
hermit was exactly suited to the age; neither behind it, nor in
advance of it; but acute enough to penetrate its mystery ere it was
discovered by any other. Enthusiastic, chivalrous, bigoted, and, if
not insane, not far removed from insanity, he was the very prototype
of the time. True enthusiasm is always persevering and always
eloquent, and these two qualities were united in no common degree in
the person of this extraordinary preacher. He was a monk of Amiens,
and ere he assumed the hood had served as a soldier. He is represented
as having been ill favoured and low in stature, but with an eye of
surpassing brightness and intelligence. Having been seized with the
mania of the age, he visited Jerusalem, and remained there till his
blood boiled to see the cruel persecution heaped upon the devotees. On
his return home he shook the world by the eloquent story of their
wrongs.

Before entering into any further details of the astounding results
of his preaching, it will be advisable to cast a glance at the state
of the mind of Europe, that we may understand all the better the
causes of his success. First of all, there was the priesthood, which,
exercising as it did the most conspicuous influence upon the fortunes
of society, claims the largest share of attention. Religion was the
ruling idea of that day, and the only civiliser capable of taming such
wolves as then constituted the flock of the faithful. The clergy were
all in all; and though they kept the popular mind in the most slavish
subjection with regard to religious matters, they furnished it with