where he would be among his own countrymen. Here in November, 1095, he
delivered before a vast concourse of persons assembled in the open air
an impassioned appeal on behalf of the suffering Christians of the
east. The result answered his utmost expectation, and the cry of the
assembled multitude, "God wills it," was the ratification of the papal
leadership. All methods were taken to stir the feelings of the west.
The vast ecclesiastical organisation was used in order to transmit
invitations to possible crusaders; the penitential system of the
Church was brought to bear on those already conscious of a sinful
life; popular preachers, such as Peter the Hermit, were employed to
rouse the interest of the masses; the Pope himself spent the
succeeding months in a tour through Southern France; and arrangements
were made for the start of the first expedition from the Italian ports
at the end of the summer of 1096, under the leadership of a legate
appointed by the Pope.

[Sidenote: The first Crusade.]

It is not possible here to follow the fortunes of the Crusaders.
Several unauthorised expeditions, which bore witness to the popular
enthusiasm, made their way through Southern Germany; but the
disorderly crowds which composed them perished either at the hands of
the inhabitants of the Eastern Empire, whom they treated as
schismatics, or among the Turks in Asia Minor. The real expedition
passed partly by land, partly by sea from the Italian ports to
Constantinople, whence the Crusaders set out across Asia Minor. Nicaa
was taken in June, 1097; the Sultan of Roum was overthrown in battle
at Dorylaum in July; Antioch detained the Crusaders from October,
1097, to June, 1098; and it was only in July, 1099, that after a siege
of forty days Jerusalem was captured from the Saracens of Egypt, who