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It should be said right away that the Children's Crusade that took place in 1212 is questionable by many modern historians. That is, there was no children's trip and two more waves. The legend of children was invented by the chroniclers to please the Catholic Church. She needed a sacrificial rite, and innocent children's souls sacrificed themselves for the sake of Christianity. But only on paper, real life nothing like that happened.

This conclusion of experts in the Middle Ages is based on the fact that there are no more than 50 sources describing such a remarkable historical event. Moreover, all these sources are extremely short, from a few sentences to half a page.

Experts in medieval history divided all available information into 3 groups. The first group included texts written before 1220. The second group included sources dating back to 1220-1250. They could be written by authors who were alive during the children's campaign and put their memories on paper. The third group included texts written after 1250. It was already information obtained from second and third hands.

Modern historians do not consider sources after 1250 to be authoritative. The information given before 1250, but not all, can be considered the most plausible. There are no more than 20 most plausible texts. Moreover, these are small handwritten passages that provide generalized information. But there is no fundamental work with a chronologically detailed list of those distant events.

However, the authenticity of the Children's Crusade has been pointed out by many authorities. This is the Dominican monk Vincent Beauvais (1190-1264), who created the encyclopedia of the Middle Ages, the philosopher and Franciscan monk Roger Bacon (1219-1292), the Catholic writer Thomas Cantimpre (1201-1272), the English chronicler Matthew Paris (1200-1259). The significance of these people in history is enormous, and their authority is in no way inferior to the authority of modern professors from reputable universities. And therefore, let us reduce the share of doubt and get acquainted with those distant events that happened in 1212.

In the early spring of 1212, a 9-year-old boy who went down in history as Nicholas of Cologne claimed that Jesus had appeared to him in a dream and commanded him to take the children to the Holy Land in order to liberate Jerusalem. The boy said that you need to go to Italy, go to the sea, and it will part. On the bottom of the sea, the children will reach Palestine, and there the Muslims, seeing such a miracle, will convert to Christianity.

Nicholas immediately had associates. They went through the lands of Germany, calling on children and teenagers to crusade. A few weeks later a large mass of young men and women gathered in Cologne. In total, there were about 25 thousand children. All of them moved to Italy by 2 roads through the Alps. On the way, two of the three died, and some were afraid of difficulties and turned back home. At the end of August, only 7,000 people arrived in Genoa.

They all went to the harbor and waited for the sea waters to part and the bottom to be exposed. However, nothing of the kind happened, and the children were deeply disappointed. Some of them began to accuse Nicholas of betrayal, but others stood up for him.

Meanwhile, the Genoese authorities, impressed by the religious impulse of the children, offered them citizenship. Most of the crusader children took advantage of this offer, but Nicholas refused. With a small group of associates, he went to Pisa, where he met with Pope Innocent III.

The pontiff released the children who came to him from the vow of the crusade and asked them to return home to their families. After that, the boys and girls went to Germany in the same way that they came. This time, Nicholas did not survive the crossing of the Alps and died. And his father was arrested in Germany and hanged at the request of the parents of children who died on the campaign.

But the Children's Crusade did not end there, as there was a second wave that originated in France. This time, the initiator was 12-year-old shepherd Stefan from Kroyes. In the month of May 1212, he declared that Jesus appeared to him in the robe of a poor man. He told Stephen to take the children to Jerusalem and free it from the Muslims. Jesus said that adult crusaders are selfish and evil people, and therefore God does not give them victory. Only sinless children without any weapons will be able to return the Holy Sepulcher to Christians.

Very soon, at least 30 thousand young men and women gathered near Stefan. The French king Philip II learned about this mass of religiously minded young people. He ordered Stephen to be brought to him, and he appeared, accompanied by several companions. The king talked to the boy, and refused to take him seriously. But Stephen continued to preach as he traveled through France. And although the church was skeptical of the young preacher, he impressed many French with his teachings.

While Stefan was preaching, only half of the 30,000 like-minded people remained. The rest went home. With the remaining 15 thousand, the young organizer of the crusade at the end of June 1212 went to Marseille. A huge crowd of children walked along the dusty medieval roads and begged for alms. Many could not stand the hardships, hunger, and other hardships of the journey and returned home. Only a quarter of the Children's Crusade made it to Marseilles.

The young crusaders came to the port and began to wait for the sea to part so that they could walk along the bottom without getting their feet wet. But the waters did not part, and the children standing on the shore experienced a feeling of deep disappointment. Most of them turned back and returned to their families. But the remaining merchants were loaded onto ships, and the further fate of these young creatures unknown. It is assumed that they were transported to Algeria, where they were sold into slavery.

Thus ended the Children's Crusade. It consisted of 2 waves. One of them originated in Germany, and the second in France. In both cases, the boys were present - Nicholas and Stefan, to whom Christ allegedly appeared and ordered to go to the Holy Land to liberate Jerusalem. Nicholas died, and the fate of Stephen after the arrival of the young crusaders in Marseille is shrouded in darkness. Whether these events are true or fiction is still unknown. And therefore, they just need to be taken into account and not unconditionally believe in all of the above..

The conquest of Constantinople in 1204 as a result of the Fourth Crusade was the last significant result of the crusader movement. The idea of ​​a holy war had exhausted itself, but the papacy continued to call on Christians to capture Jerusalem. The fanaticism of the common people expressed itself in its ugliest form in the Children's Crusade of 1212.

The birth of the idea of ​​a children's crusade

The successes of Muslims in the East significantly cooled the warlike fervor of the Crusaders. The appeals of the Pope found a response only among the peasantry. The crazy idea arose that victory could only be achieved by innocent, unarmed children, because true warriors were hindered by the weight of accumulated sins.

Rice. 1. Engraving by G. Doré.

Briefly about the children's crusade is evidenced by the history of movements in France and Germany.

French Children's Crusade

In May 1212, the 12-year-old shepherd Etienne came to the abbey of Saint-Denis (Paris). He declared that he was God's messenger and should lead the children's crusade. The Catholic clergy took advantage of the boy for their own purposes. Etienne was helped. He began preaching to the peasants and performing "miracles."

Many imitators of Etienne appeared. Peasant children no older than 12 gathered around the new preacher. About 30,000 children gathered in the city of Vendôme in a month.

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The children quickly reached Marseille. Here the shipowners agreed to transport them by sea. During the voyage, a storm broke out. Two ships with children sank near Sardinia. The remaining five brought the children to Egypt, where they were sold into slavery.

Child traffickers were subsequently executed, but the fact that child fanaticism was used was monstrous.

Rice. 2. Model of the Crusader ship.

The children who reached Marseilles were extremely surprised that the sea did not part before the “holy host”.

German Children's Crusade

Like Étienne in France, the preaching child also appeared in Germany. Ten-year-old Niklas, together with his father, preached the idea of ​​a crusade in the lower Rhine regions.

Niklas' sermons were a great success. In a short time, about 20 thousand children gathered in Cologne. The army of young knights of the cross moved south. When crossing the Alps, two-thirds of the children died of starvation.

Near Rome, part of the crusaders turned back, the rest headed for the port of Brindisi. Only the intervention of the local bishop protected the children from the hands of the slave traders.

On the way back, the young German crusaders almost all died of starvation and disease.

Pope Innocent III did not condemn this crazy idea. He granted the surviving children a "reprieve" until adulthood, after which they had to fulfill their holy vow.

Outcome of the Children's Crusade

The French and German Children's Crusades are often combined into one movement, as they have similarities :

• the fanatical faith of children in their holy mission, supported by the clergy;
• Catholicism did not provide children with any support, except for spiritual parting words;
• the credulity of children was taken advantage of (or only tried) by slave traders;
• tragic outcome (the senseless death of thousands of children).

Results of children's trips were the following:

• disappointment in the religious sense of the crusader movement;
• increased calls from the Pope for a new crusade to avenge the deaths of children.

Rice. 3. Engraving by G. Doré.

What have we learned?

After the capture of Constantinople by the Christians, the crusader movement began to decline. It was reborn in a distorted form - a children's crusade. The children were doomed to death. For their death and slavery, the Catholic clergy is responsible, which only incited the fanaticism of children and their parents.

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Digging on the Internet, I found an interesting article. Rather, this is an essay by a 4th year student of the Smolensk Pedagogical University Konstantin Kupchenko. Reading about the crusades, I came across the mention of the children's crusade. But I had no idea that everything was so terrible!!! Read to the end, do not be afraid of the volume.

Children's Crusade. How it all began

Gustave Doré Children's Crusade

Introduction

« It happened right after Easter. We had not yet waited for the Trinity, as thousands of youths set off on their way, leaving their work and their shelter. Some of them were barely born and were only six years old. Others, it was just right to choose a bride for themselves, they also chose a feat and glory in Christ. The cares entrusted to them, they forgot. They left the plow with which they had recently blown up the earth; they let go of the wheelbarrow that weighed them down; they left the sheep, next to which they fought against the wolves, and thought about other adversaries, strong with the Mohammedan heresy ... Parents, brothers and sisters, friends stubbornly persuaded them, but the firmness of the ascetics was unshakable. Having laid a cross on themselves and rallied under their banners, they moved to Jerusalem ... The whole world called them madmen, but they went forward».

Something like this medieval sources tell about the event that stirred up the entire Christian society in 1212. In the sultry dry summer of 1212, an event took place that is known as the children's crusade.

Chroniclers of the thirteenth century. described in detail the feudal quarrels and bloody wars, but did not pay close attention to this tragic page of the Middle Ages.

Children's campaigns are mentioned (sometimes briefly, in one or two lines, sometimes taking half a page to describe them) by more than 50 medieval authors; of these, only more than 20 are credible because they either saw the young crusaders with their own eyes. Yes, and the information of these authors is very fragmentary. Here, for example, is one of the references to the crusade of children in a medieval chronicle:

"Crusade, called children's, 1212"

« Children of both sexes, boys and girls, and not only small children, but also adults, married women and girls went on this expedition - they all went in crowds with empty wallets, flooding not only all of Germany, but also the country of the Gauls and Burgundy. Neither friends nor relatives could in any way keep them at home: they resorted to any tricks to get on the road. It got to the point that everywhere, in the villages and right in the field, people left their guns, leaving on the spot even those that were in their hands, and joined the procession. Many people, seeing in this a sign of true piety, filled with the Spirit of God, hurried to provide the strangers with everything they needed, distributing food and everything they needed. But the clergy and some others, who had a more sound judgment and denounced this walk, were furiously rebuffed by the laity, reproaching them for unbelief and arguing that they opposed this act more out of envy and avarice than for the sake of truth and justice. Meanwhile, any work begun without a due test of reason and without relying on wise discussion will never lead to anything good. And so, when these crazy crowds entered the lands of Italy, they dispersed in different directions and scattered through the cities and villages, and many of them fell into slavery to the locals. Some, as they say, reached the sea, and there, trusting the crafty shipbuilders, they allowed themselves to be taken away to other overseas countries. Those who continued the campaign, having reached Rome, found that it was impossible for them to go further, since they did not have support from any authorities, and they finally had to admit that the waste of their strength was empty and in vain, although, however, no one could remove from them a vow to make a crusade - only children who had not reached a conscious age, and old people, bent under the weight of years, were free from it. So, disappointed and confused, they set off into Return trip. Once accustomed to march from province to province in a crowd, each in his own company and without stopping singing, they now returned in silence, one by one, barefoot and hungry. They were subjected to all sorts of humiliations, and not one girl was captured by rapists and deprived of innocence.».

Religious authors of subsequent centuries, for obvious reasons, passed over the terrible story in silence. And enlightened secular writers, even the most malicious and merciless, apparently considered the reminder of the senseless death of almost a hundred thousand children "a blow below the belt" as an unworthy method in polemics with churchmen. The venerable historians saw in the absurd undertaking of children only obvious indisputable stupidity, for the study of which it is inappropriate to spend mental potential. And therefore, the children's crusade is given in solid historical studies devoted to the crusaders, at best, a few pages between the descriptions of the fourth (1202-1204) and fifth (1217-1221) crusades.

So what happened in the summer of 1212?To begin with, let's turn to history, consider briefly the causes of the crusades in general and the campaign of children in particular.

Causes of the Crusades.

For quite some time now, Europe has looked with alarm at what was happening in Palestine. The stories of the pilgrims returning from there to Europe about the persecution and insults they endured in the Holy Land excited the European peoples. Little by little, a conviction was created to return to the Christian world its most precious and revered shrines. But in order for Europe to send numerous hordes of various nationalities to this enterprise for two centuries, it was necessary to have special reasons and a special situation.

There were many reasons in Europe that helped to carry out the idea of ​​the Crusades. Medieval society was generally distinguished by its religious mood; the crusades were a peculiar form of pilgrimage; great importance for the crusades, the rise of the papacy also had. In addition, for all classes of medieval society, the crusades seemed very attractive from worldly points of view. Barons and knights, in addition to religious motives, hoped for glorious deeds, for profit, for the satisfaction of their ambition; merchants expected to increase their profits by expanding trade with the East; the oppressed peasants were freed from serfdom for participation in the crusade and knew that during their absence the church and the state would take care of the families they left behind in their homeland; debtors and defendants knew that during their participation in the crusade they would not be prosecuted by the creditor or the court.

A quarter of a century before the events described below, the famous Sultan Salah ad-Din, or Saladin, defeated the crusaders and cleared Jerusalem of them. The best knights of the Western world tried to return the lost shrine.

Many people of that time came to the conclusion that if adult people burdened with sins cannot take back Jerusalem, then innocent children must complete this task, since God will help them. And then, to the joy of the pope, a prophet-lad appeared in France, who began to preach a new crusade.

Chapter 1

In 1200 (or perhaps the next) near Orleans in the village of Cloix (or perhaps elsewhere), a peasant boy named Stephen was born. This is too much like the beginning of a fairy tale, but it is only a reproduction of the carelessness of the chroniclers of that time and the inconsistency in their stories about the children's crusade. However, the fairy-tale beginning is quite appropriate for a story about a fairy-tale fate. That's what the chronicles are about.

Like all peasant children, Stefan helped his parents from an early age - he grazed cattle. He differed from his peers only in a slightly greater piety: Stefan was in church more often than others, wept more bitterly than others from overwhelmed feelings during liturgies and religious processions. Since childhood, he was shocked by the April "movement of black crosses" - a solemn procession on the day of St. Mark. On this day, prayers were offered for the soldiers who died in the holy land, for those tormented in Muslim slavery. And the boy was inflamed along with the crowd, who furiously cursed the infidels.

On one of the warm May days of 1212, he met a pilgrim monk coming from Palestine and asking for alms.The monk began to talk about overseas miracles and exploits. Stefan listened in fascination. Suddenly the monk interrupted his story, and then suddenly he was Jesus Christ.

Everything that followed was like a dream (or this meeting was the boy's dream). The monk-Christ ordered the boy to become the head of an unprecedented crusade - a children's one, for "from the lips of babies comes strength against the enemy." There is no need for swords or armor - to conquer Muslims, the innocence of children and the word of God in their mouths will be enough. Then, dumbfounded, Stephen accepted a scroll from the hands of a monk - a letter to the king of France. Then the monk quickly walked away.

Stephen could no longer be a shepherd. The Almighty called him to a feat. Out of breath, the boy rushed home and retold what had happened to him dozens of times to his parents and neighbors, who peered in vain (because they were illiterate) at the words of the mysterious scroll. Neither ridicule, nor slaps on the back of the head cooled Stefan's zeal. The next day he packed his knapsack, took his staff, and set out for Saint-Denis, the abbey of St. Dionysius, patron of France. The boy correctly judged that it was necessary to collect volunteers for the children's campaign in the place of the largest confluence of pilgrims.

And early in the morning, a puny boy was walking with a knapsack and a staff on a deserted road. "Snowball" rolled. The boy can still be stopped, restrained, tied up and thrown into the basement to "cool off". But no one foresaw the tragic future.

One of the chroniclers testifies in conscience and in truth, that Stefan was" an early-grown scoundrel and a nest of all vices". But these lines were written thirty years after the sad ending of the crazy undertaking, when retroactively they began to look for a scapegoat. After all, if Stephen had a bad reputation in Cloix, the imaginary Christ would not have chosen him for the role of a saint. It is hardly worth calling Stephen a holy fool, as Soviet researchers do, he could just be an exalted gullible boy, quick-witted and eloquent.

Along the way, Stefan lingered in cities and villages, where he gathered tens and hundreds of people with his speeches. From numerous repetitions, he ceased to be shy and confused in words. An experienced little orator came to Saint-Denis. The abbey, located nine kilometers from Paris, attracted crowds of thousands of pilgrims. Stefan was well received there: the sanctity of the place disposed to the expectation of a miracle - and here it is: a Chrysostom child. The shepherd boy briskly recounted everything he heard from the pilgrims, deftly knocked out a tear from the crowds, who had come just to be touched and cry! "Save, Lord, those who suffer in captivity!" Stephen pointed to the relics of St. Dionysius, kept among gold and precious stones, revered by crowds of Christians. And then he asked: is this the fate of the Tomb of the Lord himself, daily desecrated by the infidels? And he pulled out a scroll from his bosom, and the crowds buzzed when the youth with burning eyes shook before them the immutable command of Christ addressed to the king. Stephen recalled the many miracles and signs given to him by the Lord.

Stephen preached to adults. But there were hundreds of children in the crowd, who were then often taken with them by the elders, heading to the holy places.

A week later, the wonderful youth became fashionable, having stood in sharp competition with adult rhetoricians and holy fools.His children listened with fervent faith. He appealed to their secret dreams: about feats of arms, about travel, about glory, about serving the Lord, about freedom from parental care. And how it flattered the ambition of teenagers! After all, the Lord chose not sinful and greedy adults as his instrument, but their children!

The pilgrims dispersed to the cities and towns of France. The adults soon forgot about Stefan. But the children excitedly talked everywhere about the same age - a miracle worker and orator, striking the imagination of the neighboring children and giving each other terrible oaths to help Stefan. And now the games of knights and squires are abandoned, the French children began dangerous game into the army of Christ. The children of Brittany, Normandy and Aquitaine, Auvergne and Gascony, while the adults of all these regions quarreled and fought with each other, began to unite around an idea that was not higher and purer in the thirteenth century.

The chronicles are silent about whether Stephen was a happy find for the pope, or one of the prelates, or maybe the pontiff himself planned the appearance of the boy saint in advance. Whether the cassock that flashed in Stefan's vision belonged to an unauthorized fanatic monk or a disguised messenger of Innocent III is no longer known. And it doesn't matter where the idea of ​​the children's crusading movement arose - in the bowels of the papal curia or in children's heads. Dad grabbed her with an iron grip.

Now everything was a good omen for the children's trip: the fertility of the frogs, the clashes of the dog packs, even the beginning of the drought. Here and there appeared "prophets" twelve, ten and even eight years old. They all said that they were sent by Stefan, although many of them did not see him in the eyes. All these prophets cured the possessed and performed other "miracles"...

The children formed detachments and marched around the neighborhood, recruiting new supporters everywhere. At the head of each procession, singing hymns and psalms, there was a prophet, followed by an oriflamme - a copy of the banner of St. Dionysius. Children held crosses and lighted candles in their hands, brandished smoking censers.

And what a tempting sight it was for the children of the nobility, who watched the solemn procession of their peers from their castles and houses! But almost every one of them had a grandfather, father or older brother fighting in Palestine. Some of them died. And now - the opportunity to take revenge on the infidels, to gain fame, to continue the work of the older generation. And children from noble families enthusiastically joined in new game, flocked under the banners with images of Christ and the Ever-Virgin. Sometimes they became leaders, sometimes they were forced to obey an inferior peer-prophet.

A lot of girls also joined the movement, who also dreamed of the Holy Land, exploits and freedom from parental authority. The leaders did not drive the "girls" - they wanted to gather a larger army. Many girls, for the sake of safety and ease of movement, dressed as boys.

As soon as Stefan (May had not yet expired!) announced Vendôme as a gathering place, hundreds and thousands of teenagers began to converge there. With them were a few adults: monks and priests, going, in the words of Reverend Gray, "to plunder to their heart's content or to pray to their heart's content", the city and village poor, who joined the children "not for Jesus, but for the sake of a piece of bread"; and most of all - thieves, sharpers, various criminal rabble, who hoped to profit at the expense of noble children, well equipped for the journey. Many adults sincerely believed in the success of the campaign without weapons and hoped that they would get rich booty. There were also elders with children who had fallen into a second childhood. Hundreds of corrupt women hung around the offspring of noble families. So the units turned out to be remarkably colorful. And in the previous crusades, children, old people, hordes of Magdalenes and all kinds of scum participated. But beforethey were only an appendage, and the core of Christ's army was made up of barons and knights skilled in military affairs. Now, instead of broad-shouldered men in armor and chain mail, the core of the army was made up of unarmed children.

But where did the authorities and, most importantly, parents look? Everyone was waiting for the children to go crazy and calm down.

King Philip II Augustus, a tireless collector of French lands, a cunning and far-sighted politician, initially approved of the children's initiative. Philip wanted to have the pope on his side in the war with the English king and was not averse to pleasing Innocent III and organizing a crusade, but only his power was not enough for that. Suddenly - this idea of ​​\u200b\u200bchildren, noise, enthusiasm. Of course, all this should kindle the hearts of barons and knights with righteous anger against the infidels!

However, adults did not lose their heads. And the children's fuss began to threaten the tranquility of the state. The guys leave their houses, run to Vendôme, and are really going to move to the sea! But on the other hand, the pope is silent, the legates are agitating for the campaign... Cautious Philip II was afraid to anger the pontiff, but nevertheless turned to the scientists of the newly created Paris University. They answered firmly: the children must be stopped immediately! If necessary, by force, for their campaign is inspired by Satan! Responsibility for stopping the campaign was removed from him, and the king issued an edict commanding the children to immediately put nonsense out of their heads and go home.

However, the royal edict did not impress the children. Children's hearts had a lord more powerful than a king. The matter has gone too far - it can no longer be stopped by a shout. Only the faint-hearted returned home. Peers and barons did not dare to use violence: the common people sympathized with this undertaking of children and would have risen to their defense. There would be no riots. After all, the people had just been told that God's will would allow children to convert Muslims into Christians without weapons and bloodshed and, thus, free the "Holy Sepulcher" from the hands of the infidels.

In addition, the pope declared loudly: "These children serve as a reproach to us adults: while we sleep, they joyfully stand up for the holy land." Pope Innocent III still hoped, with the help of children, to arouse the enthusiasm of adults. From distant Rome, he could not see the frenzied childish faces and probably did not realize that he had already lost control of the situation and could not stop the children's march. The mass psychosis that gripped the children, skillfully fueled by churchmen, was now impossible to contain.

Therefore, Philip II washed his hands and did not insist on the implementation of his edict.

There was a groan of unfortunate parents in the country. Amusing solemn children's processions around the district, which touched adults so much, turned into a general flight of teenagers from their families. Rare families in their fanaticism themselves blessed their children for a disastrous campaign. Most of the fathers flogged their offspring, locked them in closets, but the children gnawed through the ropes, undermined the walls, broke the locks and ran away. And those who could not escape fought in tantrums, refused food, withered, fell ill. Willy-nilly, the parents gave in.

The children wore a kind of uniform: simple gray shirts over short trousers and a large beret. But many children could not afford this either: they walked in what they were (often barefoot and with their heads uncovered, although The sun hardly ever set behind the clouds that summer. On the chest of the participants in the campaign was sewn a cloth cross in red, green or black (of course, these units competed with each other). Each detachment had its own commander, flag and other symbols, which the children were very proud of. When detachments with singing, banners, crosses cheerfully and solemnly passed through towns and villages, heading for Vendôme, only locks and strong oak doors could keep a son or daughter at home. Like a plague swept through the country, taking away tens of thousands of children.

Enthusiastic crowds of onlookers stormily greeted the groups of children, which further fueled her enthusiasm and ambition.

Finally, some priests realized the danger of this undertaking. They began to stop the detachments, where they could persuade the children to go home, assured that the idea of ​​a children's campaign was the machinations of the devil. But the guys were adamant, especially since in all major cities they were met and blessed by papal emissaries. Reasonable priests were immediately declared apostates. The superstition of the crowd, the enthusiasm of the children, and the intrigues of the papal curia won common sense. And many of these apostate priests deliberately went with children doomed to inevitable death, as seven centuries later the teacher Janusz Korczak went with his pupils to the gas chamber of the Nazi concentration camp Treblinka.

Chapter 2. The way of the cross of German children.

The news of the boy-prophet Stefan spread throughout the country with the speed of pilgrims on foot. Those who went to worship at Saint-Denis carried the news to Burgundy and Champagne, from where it reached the banks of the Rhine. In Germany, his "holy youth" was not slow to appear. And there the papal legates zealously took up the processing of public opinion in favor of organizing a children's crusade.

The boy's name was Nicholas (we only know the Latin version of his name). He was born in a village near Cologne. He was twelve years old, maybe ten. At first, he was just a pawn in the hands of adults. Nicholas's father energetically "pushed" his child prodigy into the prophets. It is not known whether the boy's father was rich, but he was undoubtedly driven by low motives. The monk-chronicler, a witness to the process of "making" the child prophet, calls Father Nicholas " sly fool". How much he earned from his son, we do not know, but after a few months he paid for his son's affairs with his life.

Koln- the religious center of the German lands, where thousands of pilgrims often flocked with their children, - was best place for campaigning. In one of the churches of the city, the zealously revered relics of the "Three Kings of the East" were kept - the Magi who brought gifts to the Christ Child. We note a detail, the fatal role of which will become clear later: the relics were capturedFrederick I Barbarossa during his robbery of Milan. And right here, in Cologne, at the instigation of his father, Nicholas proclaimed himself the chosen one of God.

Further, events developed according to an already tested scenario: Nicholas had a vision of a cross in the clouds, and the voice of the Almighty told him to gather the children on a campaign; the crowds cheered the newly-appeared prophet boy; immediately followed by the healing of the possessed by him and other miracles, rumors of which spread with incredible speed. Nicholas orated on the porches of churches, on stones and barrels in the middle of the squares.

Then everything went according to a well-known pattern: adult pilgrims spread the news about the young prophet, the children whispered and gathered in teams, marched around the outskirts of different cities and villages and finally left - to Cologne. But there were in the development of events in Germany and their own characteristics. Frederick II, himself still a youth who had just won the throne from his uncle Otto IV, was at that time the favorite of the pope, and therefore could afford to contradict the pontiff. He resolutely forbade the idea of ​​​​children: the country was already shaken by unrest. Therefore, the children gathered only from the Rhine regions closest to Cologne. The movement snatched from the families not one or two children, as in France, but almost everyone, including even six-year-olds and seven-year-olds. It is this little one that, on the second day of the trip, will begin to ask the elders to back up, and on the third or fourth week they will begin to get sick, die, at best, remain in roadside villages (for ignorance of the way back - forever).

The second feature of the German version: among the motives of the children's campaign, the first place here was occupied not by the desire to liberate the "holy land", but by the thirst for revenge. A lot of valiant Germans died in the crusades - in families of any rank and condition, bitter losses were remembered. That is why the detachments consisted almost entirely of boys (although some of them turned out to bedisguised girls), and the sermons of Nicholas and other leaders of local groups consisted of more than half calls for revenge.

Detachments of children hastily gathered in Cologne. The campaign had to be started as soon as possible: the emperor was against it, the barons were against it, parents were breaking sticks on their sons' backs! Togo and look, a tempting idea will fail!

The inhabitants of Cologne showed miracles of patience and hospitality (nowhere to go) and gave shelter and food to thousands of children. Most of the boys spent the night in the fields around the city, groaning from the influx of criminal rabble, who expected to profit by joining the children's campaign.

And then came the day of the solemn speech from Cologne. End of June. Under the banner of Nicholas - at least twenty thousand children (according to some chronicles, twice as many). Mostly they are boys of twelve years and older. No matter how the German barons resisted, there were more offspring of noble families in the detachments of Nicholas than Stephen. After all, there were much more barons in fragmented Germany than in France. In the heart of every noble teenager, brought up on the ideals of knightly prowess, a thirst for revenge burned for a grandfather, father or brother killed by the Saracens.

Cologne poured out on the city walls. Thousands of identically dressed children are lined up in columns in the field. Wooden crosses, banners, pennants sway over the gray sea. Hundreds of adults - some in cassocks, some in rags - seem to be prisoners of the children's army. Nicholas, the commanders of the detachments, some of the children from noble families will go in wagons surrounded by squires. But many underage aristocrats with knapsacks and staffs stand side by side with the last of their serfs.

The mothers of children from distant cities and villages sobbed and said goodbye. The time has come to say goodbye and sob to the Cologne mothers - their children make up almost half of the participants in the campaign.

But then the trumpets sounded. The children sang a hymn to the glory of Christ of their own composition, alas, not preserved for us by history. The line moved, trembled - and moved forward to the enthusiastic cries of the crowd, the lamentations of mothers and the murmur of sane people.

An hour passes - and the children's army hides behind the hills. Only a thousand-voiced singing can still be heard from afar. The Colognesians disperse - proud: they have equipped their children for the journey, and the Franks are still digging! ..

Not far from Cologne, the army of Nicholas broke into two huge columns. One was led by Nicholas, the other by a boy whose name the chronicles did not save. Nicholas's column moved south in a short way: through Lorraine along the Rhine, through the west of Swabia and through French Burgundy. The second column reached the Mediterranean Sea along long route: through Franconia and Swabia. For both, the Alps blocked the way to Italy. It would have been wiser to go across the plains to Marseilles, but the French children intended to go there, and Italy seemed closer to Palestine than Marseilles.

The detachments stretched for many kilometers. Both routes ran through semi-wild lands. The local people, not numerous even in those days, clung to a few fortresses. Wild animals came out on the roads from the forests. The thickets were full of robbers. Dozens of children drowned while crossing rivers. In such conditions, entire groups fled back home. But the ranks of the children's army were immediately replenished by children from roadside villages.

Glory was ahead of the participants in the campaign. But not in all cities they were fed and left to spend the night even on the streets. Sometimes they were driven away, justly protecting their children from "infection". The guys happened to be left without alms for a day or two. Food from the knapsacks of the weak quickly migrated to the stomachs of those who were stronger and older. Theft in the detachments flourished. Broken women lured money from the offspring of noble and wealthy families, cheaters took away the last penny from children, luring them to play dice at rest breaks. Discipline in the detachments fell from day to day.

We set off on our journey early in the morning. In the heat of the day, they made a halt in the shade of trees. As they walked, they sang simple hymns. At rest stops, they told and listened to stories full of extraordinary adventures and miracles about battles and campaigns, about knights and pilgrims. Surely there were jokers and naughty boys among the guys, who rushed about one after another and danced when others fell down after a many-kilometer hike. Surely the children fell in love, quarreled, reconciled, fought for leadership ...

At a bivouac in the foothills of the Alps, near Lake Leman, Nicholas found himself at the head of a "host" almost half the size of the original. The majestic mountains only for a moment with their white caps of snow enchanted the children, who had never seen anything like it in beauty. Then the hearts were shackled with horror: after all, they had to rise to these white hats!

The inhabitants of the foothills met the children warily and severely. It never occurred to them to feed the children. Well, at least they didn't kill. Grubs in knapsacks were melting. But that's not all: in the mountain valleys, German children - many for the first and last time - met ... the very Saracens who were intended to be baptized in the holy land! The vicissitudes of the era brought detachments of Arab robbers here: they settled in these places, not wanting or not being able to return to their homeland. The guys crept along the valley in silence, without songs, lowering their crosses. And then turn them back. Alas, smart conclusions were made only by the rabble attached to the children. These bastards have already robbed the kids and fled, because further promised only death or slavery among the Muslims. The Saracens hacked to death a dozen or two guys who had fallen behind the detachment. But the children are already accustomed to such losses: every day they buried or abandoned dozens of their comrades without burial. Malnutrition, fatigue, stress and disease took their toll.

Crossing the Alps- without food and warm clothes - became a real nightmare for the participants of the campaign. These mountains terrified even adults. Making your way along icy slopes, along eternal snows, along stone cornices - not everyone will have the strength and courage for this. As necessary, merchants with goods, military detachments, clerics crossed the Alps - to Rome and back.

The presence of guides did not save careless children from the death. Stones cut bare freezing feet. Among the snows there were not even berries and fruits to satisfy hunger. The knapsacks were already completely empty. The passage through the Alps, due to poor discipline, fatigue and weakness of the children, dragged on twice as much as usual! Frostbitten legs slipped and did not obey, the children fell into the abyss. Behind the ridge rose a new ridge. Slept on the rocks. If they found branches for a fire, they warmed themselves. They probably fought because of the heat. At night they huddled together to keep each other warm. Not everyone got up in the morning. The dead were thrown on the frozen ground - they did not even have the strength to roll them with stones or branches. At the highest point of the pass was a monastery of missionary monks. There the children were a little warmed up and welcomed. But where was one to get food and warmth for such a horde!

The descent was an incredible joy. Greenery! River Silver! Crowded villages, vineyards, citrus fruits, the height of a luxurious summer! After the Alps, only every third participant of the campaign survived. But those who remained, perked up, thought that all the sorrows were already behind them. In this bountiful land they will, of course, be caressed and fattened.

But it was not there. Italy met them with undisguised hatred.

After all, there were those whose fathers tormented these abundant lands with raids, desecrated shrines and plundered cities. Therefore, "German kites" were not allowed into Italian cities. Alms were given only by the most compassionate, and even then secretly from the neighbors. Barely three or four thousand children reached Genoa, stealing food along the way and plundering fruit trees.

On Saturday, August 25, 1212 (the only date in the chronicle of the campaign with which all chronicles agree), exhausted teenagers stood on the shore Genoese harbor. Two monstrous months and a thousand kilometers behind, so many friends buried, and now - the sea, and the holy land is within easy reach.

How were they going to cross the Mediterranean? Where were they going to get money for the ships? The answer is simple. They don't need ships or money. The sea - with God's help - should part before them. From the first day of agitation for the campaign, there was no talk of any ships or money.

Before the children was a fabulous city - rich Genoa. Perking up, they again raised the remaining banners and crosses high. Nicholas, who had lost his wagon in the Alps and was now walking with everyone else on foot, stepped forward and delivered a fiery speech. The guys greeted their leader with the same enthusiasm. They may have been barefoot and in rags, with wounds and scabs, but they reached the sea - the most stubborn, the strongest in spirit. The goal of the campaign - the holy land - is very close.

The fathers of the free city received a delegation of children led by several priests (at other times of the campaign, the role of adult tutors is hushed up by the chroniclers, probably because of their unwillingness to compromise the churchmen who supported this ridiculous undertaking). The children did not ask for ships, they only asked for permission to spend the night on the streets and squares of Genoa. The city fathers, delighted that they were not asked for money or ships, allowed the guys to stay for a week in the city, and then advised them to return to Germany in good health.

The participants of the campaign entered the city in picturesque columns, for the first time in many weeks, again reveling in everyone's attention and interest. The townspeople greeted them with undisguised curiosity, but at the same time wary and hostile.

However, the Doge of Genoa and the senators changed their mind: no week, let them leave the city tomorrow! The mob was resolutely against the presence of little Germans in Genoa. True, the pope blessed the campaign, but suddenly these children are carrying out the insidious plan of the German emperor. On the other hand, the Genoese did not want to let go of such a free labor force, and the children were invited to stay in Genoa forever and become good citizens of a free city.

But the participants of the campaign shrugged off the proposal, which seemed absurd to them. After all, tomorrow - on the road across the sea!

In the morning, Nicholas's column, in all its glory, lined up at the edge of the surf. Citizens crowded on the embankment. After the solemn liturgy, singing psalms, the detachments moved towards the waves. The first ranks entered the water up to their knees... up to their waists... And they froze in amazement: the sea did not want to part. The Lord did not keep his promise. New prayers and hymns did not help. As time went. The sun was rising and hot... The Genoese, laughing, went home. And the children did not take their eyes off the sea and sang, sang - until they were hoarse ...

The permit to stay in the city expired. I had to leave. Several hundred teenagers who had lost hope for the success of the campaign seized on the offer of the city authorities to settle in Genoa. Young men from noble families were accepted into the best houses as sons, the rest were dismantled into service.

But the most stubborn gathered in a field not far from the city. And they started conferring. Who knows where the Lord intended to open the bottom of the sea for them - maybe not in Genoa. We must go further, look for that place. And it is better to die in sunny Italy than to return home beaten by dogs! And worse than shame - the Alps ...

The heavily depleted detachments of unlucky young crusaders moved further to the South-East. There was no longer any question of discipline, they walked in groups, more precisely, in gangs, earning food by force and cunning. Nicholas is no longer mentioned by chroniclers - he may have remained in Genoa.

The horde of teenagers has reached at last Pisa. The fact that they were expelled from Genoa was a great recommendation for them in Pisa, a city that rivaled Genoa. The sea did not part even here, but the inhabitants of Pisa, in defiance of the Genoese, equipped two ships and sent some of the children to Palestine on them. There is a faint mention in the chronicles that they safely reached the shores of the holy land. But if this happened, they probably soon died of want and hunger - the Christians there themselves barely made ends meet. The chronicles do not mention any meetings of crusader children with Muslims.

In autumn, several hundred German teenagers reached Rome, whose poverty and abandonment, after the luxury of Genoa, Pisa and Florence, struck them. Pope Innocent III received the representatives of the little crusaders, praised and then scolded them and ordered them to return home, forgetting that their home was a thousand kilometers beyond the cursed Alps. Then, by order of the head of the Catholic Church, the children kissed the cross, that, "having come to the perfect age", they would certainly finish the interrupted crusade. Now, at the very least, the pope had several hundred crusaders for the future.

Few participants in the campaign decided to return to Germany, most of them settled in Italy. Few reached the homeland - after many months, or even years. Due to their ignorance, they did not even know how to really tell where they had been. The children's crusade resulted in a kind of migration of children - their dispersion in other areas of Germany, Burgundy and Italy.

The second German column, no less numerous than Nicholas's, suffered the same tragic fate. The same thousands of deaths on the roads - from hunger, fast currents, predatory animals; the most difficult passage through the Alps - however, through another, but no less disastrous pass. Everything was repeated. Only there were even more uncleaned corpses behind: there was almost no general leadership in this column, the campaign in a week turned into a roam of uncontrollable hordes of teenagers hungry to the point of brutality. Monks and priests with great difficulty gathered children into groups and somehow curbed them, but this was before the first fight for alms.

In Italy, children managed to poke their noses in Milan, who barely recovered from the raid of Barbarossa for fifty years. From there, they barely carried their legs: the Milanese poisoned them with dogs, like hares.

The sea did not part before the juvenile crusaders in any Ravenna, nor elsewhere. Only a few thousand children made it all the way to the south of Italy. They had already heard about the pope's decision to stop the campaign and planned to deceive the pontiff and sail to Palestine from the port of Brindisi. And many simply trudged forward by inertia, not hoping for anything. In the extreme south of Italy that year there was a monstrous drought - the harvest was lost, the famine was such that, according to chroniclers, "mothers devoured their children." It is hard to even imagine what the German children could eat in this hostile land swollen from hunger.

Those who miraculously survived and reached Brindisi, waiting for new misadventures. The townspeople identified the girls participating in the campaign in sailor dens. Twenty years later, chroniclers will wonder: why are there so many blond, blue-eyed prostitutes in Italy? Boys were seized and turned into semi-slaves; the surviving offspring of noble families were, of course, more fortunate - they were adopted.

The archbishop of Brindisi tried to stop this coven. He gathered the remnants of the little martyrs and... wished them a pleasant return to Germany. The most fanatical "merciful" Bishop put on several small boats and blessed them for the unarmed conquest of Palestine. The vessels equipped by the bishop sank almost in sight of Brindisi.

Chapter 3

More than thirty thousand French children came out when the German children were already freezing in the mountains. There was no less solemnity and tears at the farewell than in Cologne.

In the first days of the campaign, the intensity of religious fanaticism among teenagers was such that they did not notice any difficulties on the way. Saint Stephen rode in the best carriage, covered and covered with expensive carpets. Next to the cart pranced underage high-born adjutants of the leader. They gladly rushed along the marching columns, passing on instructions and orders from their idol.

Stefan subtly caught the mood of the mass of participants in the campaign and, if necessary, turned to them at halts with an incendiary speech. And then there was such a pandemonium around his wagon that in this crowd one or two babies were certainly maimed or trampled to death. In such cases, they hastily built a stretcher or dug a grave, said a quick prayer and hurried on, remembering the victims to the first crossroads. But they discussed for a long time and animatedly who was lucky enough to get hold of a piece of St. Stephen's clothes or a chip from his wagon. This exaltation captured even those children who ran away from home and joined the crusading "army" not at all for religious reasons. Stefan's head was spinning from the consciousness of his power over his peers, from incessant praise and boundless adoration.

It is difficult to say whether he was a good organizer - most likely, the movement of the detachments was led by the priests who accompanied the children, although the chronicles are silent about this. It is impossible to believe that vociferous teenagers could, without the help of adults, cope with a thirty-thousand "army", set up camps in convenient places, organize overnight stays, and give the detachments the direction of movement in the morning.

While the young crusaders were walking through the territory of their native country, the population everywhere received them hospitably. Children, if they died on the campaign, almost exclusively from sunstroke. And yet, gradually, fatigue accumulated, discipline weakened. In order to maintain the enthusiasm of the participants in the campaign, they had to lie every day that the detachments would arrive at their destination by evening. Seeing some fortress in the distance, the children excitedly asked each other: "Jerusalem?" The poor fellows forgot, and many simply did not know that it was possible to reach the "holy land" only by swimming across the sea.

Passed Tours, Lyon and came to Marseilles almost at full strength. In a month, the guys walked five hundred kilometers. The ease of the route allowed them to get ahead of the German children and be the first to reach the Mediterranean coast, which, alas, did not part before them.

Disappointed and even offended by the Lord God, the children scattered around the city. We spent the night. The next morning they again prayed on the seashore. By evening, several hundred children were missing in the detachments - they went home.

Days passed. Marseilles somehow endured the horde of children that fell on their heads. Fewer and fewer "cross-bearers" came out to pray to the sea. The leaders of the campaign looked longingly at the ships in the harbor - if they had money, they would not disdain now the usual way of crossing the sea.

Marseilles began to grumble. The atmosphere heated up. Suddenly, according to the old expression, the Lord looked back at them. One day the sea parted. Of course, not in the literal sense of the word.

The sad situation of the young crusaders touched two of the most eminent merchants of the city - Hugo Ferreus and William Porkus (Hugo the Iron and William the Pig). However, these two diabolical figures with their gloomy nicknames were not at all invented by the chronicler. Their names are also mentioned in other sources. And they, out of pure philanthropy, provided the children with the required number of ships and provisions.

The miracle promised to you, - St. Stephen was broadcasting from the platform in the city square, - has happened! We just misunderstood the signs of God. It was not the sea that had to part, but the human heart! The will of the Lord is revealed to us in the deed of two venerable Marseillais, etc.

And again the guys crowded around their idol, again strove to snatch a piece of his shirt, again they crushed someone to death ...

But there were quite a few among the children who tried to get out of the crowd as quickly as possible in order to sneak away from the blessed Marseilles under the guise. Medieval boys had heard enough about the unreliability of the ships of that time, about sea storms, about reefs and robbers.

By the next morning, the participants in the campaign had significantly decreased. But it was for the best, the rest were tolerably placed on ships, clearing their ranks of the cowardly. There were seven ships. According to the chronicles, a large ship of that time could accommodate up to seven hundred knights. Thus, we can reasonably assume that no fewer children were placed on each ship. So, the ships took about five thousand guys. With them were at least four hundred priests and monks.

Almost the entire population of Marseille poured out to see the children ashore. After the solemn prayer service, the ships under sails, decorated with flags, to the chants and enthusiastic cries of the townspeople, majestically sailed out of the harbor, and now they disappeared over the horizon. Forever.

For eighteen years, nothing was known about the fate of these ships and the children who sailed on them.

Chapter 4 Tragic ending. What remains in the memory of Europeans about the children's crusade.

Eighteen years have passed since the departure of the young crusaders from Marseilles. All the deadlines for the return of the participants in the children's campaign have passed.

After the death of Pope Innocent III, two more crusades died down, they managed to capture Jerusalem from the Muslims, having made an alliance with the Egyptian sultan ... In a word, life went on. They forgot about the missing children. Throw a cry, raise Europe in search, find five thousand guys who may still be alive - this never occurred to anyone. Such wasteful humanism was not in the customs of that time.

Mothers have already cried. Children were born apparently-invisibly. And many died. Although, of course, it is difficult to imagine that the hearts of mothers who accompanied their children on a campaign did not hurt from the bitterness of a senseless loss.

In 1230, a monk suddenly appeared in Europe, who had once sailed from Marseilles with his children. To him, for some merit, released from Cairo, mothers of children who disappeared during the campaign flocked from all over Europe. But how much joy did they have from the fact that the monk saw their son in Cairo, that the son or daughter was still alive? The monk said that about seven hundred participants in the campaign were languishing in captivity in Cairo. Of course, not a single person in Europe lifted a finger to redeem the former idols of ignorant crowds from slavery.

From the stories of the runaway monk, which quickly spread around the entire continent, the parents finally learned about the tragic fate of their missing children. And this is what happened:

The children crowded in the holds of ships sailing from Marseille suffered terribly from stuffiness, seasickness and fear. They were afraid of sirens, leviathans and, of course, storms. It was the storm that fell on the unfortunates when they passed Corsica and went around Sardinia. The ships carried to island of saint peter at the southwestern tip of Sardinia. In the twilight the children screamed in terror as the ship tossed from wave to wave. Dozens of those on deck were washed overboard. Five ships were carried by the current past the reefs. And two flew directly to the coastal cliffs. Two ships with children were blown to pieces.

Fishermen immediately after the shipwreck buried hundreds of children's corpses on a desert island. But such was the disunity of Europe at that time that the news of this did not reach either French or German mothers. Twenty years later, the children were reburied in one place and the Church of the New Immaculate Infants was erected on their mass grave. The church has become a place of pilgrimage. This went on for three centuries. Then the church fell into disrepair, even its ruins were lost over time...

Five other ships somehow made it to the African coast. True, nailed them in Algerian harbor... But it turned out that this is where they were supposed to sail! They were obviously expected here. Muslim ships met them and escorted them to the port. Exemplary Christians, compassionate Marseillais Ferreus and Porkus donated seven ships because they intended to sell five thousand children into slavery to the infidels. As the merchants correctly calculated, the monstrous disunity of the Christian and Muslim worlds contributed to the success of their criminal plan and ensured their personal safety.

What is slavery among the infidels, the children knew from the terrible stories that the pilgrims spread across Europe. Therefore, it is impossible to describe their horror when they realized what had happened.

Some of the children were sold out in the Algerian bazaar, and they became slaves, concubines or concubines of wealthy Muslims. The rest of the guys were loaded onto ships and taken to markets of Alexandria. Four hundred monks and priests, who were brought to Egypt with their children, were fabulously lucky: they were bought by the elderly Sultan Malek Kamel, better known as Safadin. This enlightened ruler had already divided his possessions between his sons and had leisure for learning. He settled the Christians in the Cairo palace and planted them for translating from Latin into Arabic. The most educated of the learned slaves shared their European wisdom with the Sultan and gave lessons to his courtiers. They lived a satisfying and free life, only it was impossible to go beyond Cairo. While they settled in the palace, blessing God, the children worked in the fields and died like flies.

Several hundred little slaves were sent to Baghdad. And it was possible to get to Baghdad only through Palestine ... Yes, the children did set foot on holy land. But in chains or with ropes around his neck. They saw the majestic walls of Jerusalem. They passed through Nazareth, their bare feet burned the sands of Galilee... In Baghdad, young slaves were sold. One of the chronicles tells that the Caliph of Baghdad decided to convert them to Islam. And although this event is described according to the then stencil: they were tortured, beaten, tormented, but not one betrayed their native faith, the story could be true. The boys who went through so much suffering for the sake of a lofty goal could well show an unbending will and die as martyrs for their faith. There were, according to the chronicles, eighteen. The Caliph abandoned his venture and sent the surviving Christian fanatics to slowly wither in the fields.

In Muslim lands, juvenile crusaders died from diseases, from beatings or mastered, learned the language, gradually forgetting their homeland and relatives. All of them died in slavery - not one returned from captivity.

What happened to the leaders of the young crusaders? Stephen was heard only before the arrival of his column in Marseille. Nicholas disappeared from sight in Genoa. The third, nameless, leader of the crusader children has vanished into obscurity.

As for the contemporaries of the children's crusade, then, as we have already said, the chroniclers limited themselves to only a very cursory description of it, and the common people, forgetting their enthusiasm and delight from the idea of ​​​​little madmen, fully agreed with the two-line Latin epigram - literature honored one hundred thousand ruined children in just six words:

To the shore foolish
Leads the mind of the children.

Thus ended one of the worst tragedies in the history of Europe.

The material is taken from here http://www.erudition.ru/referat/printref/id.16217_1.html slightly reduced, removed the situation in Europe at the beginning of the 13th century. and an excursion into the history of the Crusades. The book "Crusader in Jeans" about the above events can be found on Librusek. Written by Thea Beckman.