TJie Crusades 463 crusader, like the faithful Mohammedan, was assured of immedi- Privileges ate entrance into heaven if he died repentant. Later, the Church crusaders exhibited its extraordinary authority by what would seem to us an unjust interference with business contracts. It freed those who " with a pure heart " entered upon the journey from the payment of interest upon their debts, and permitted them to mortgage property against the wishes of their feudal lords. The crusaders' wives and children and property were taken under the immediate protection of the Church, and he who troubled them incurred excommunication. These various con- siderations help to explain the great popularity of undertakings that, at first sight, would seem to have promised only hardships and disappointment.
The Council of Clermont met in November. Before spring Peter the
(1096) those who set forth to preach the Crusade, — above all, hisarmy^"' the famous Peter the Hermit, who was formerly given credit for having begun the whole crusading movement, — had col- lected, in France and along the Rhine, an extraordinary army of the common folk. Peasants, workmen, vagabonds, and even women and children answered the summons, all blindly intent upon rescuing the Holy Sepulcher, two thousand miles away. They were confident that the Lord would sustain them during the weary leagues of the journey, and that, when they reached the Holy Land, he would grant them a prompt victory over the infidel. This great host was got under way in several divisions under the leadership of Peter the Hermit, and of Walter the Penni- less and other humble knights. Many of the crusaders were slaughtered by the Hungarians, who rose to protect them- selves from the depredations of this motley horde in its passage through their country. Part of them got as far as Nicaea, only to be slaughtered by the Turks. This is but an example, on a large scale, of what was going on continually for a century or so after this first great catastrophe. Individual pilgrims and adventurers, and sometimes considerable bodies of crusaders,
