But though Nicholas and Stephen were labeled fanatics, their mystical mission to the Holy Land intrigued their followers. They held believers spellbound with sermons, songs and promises of miracles. As Nicholas and his flock headed over the chilly Alps, singing hymns and eagerly awaiting the conversion of the Muslims, they became exhausted and hungry.
When they arrived in Genoa, Italy, they faced language barriers and annoyed townspeople who were not eager to play host to a ragged group of religious children.
Things disintegrated from there. While waiting for ships to take them to Jerusalem, some took local jobs. Some returned to their towns. Others were sold into slavery or drowned at sea. Some accounts say that a small group persisted and headed not to Jerusalem, but to Rome. He praised their enthusiasm, but told them they were too young to go on a crusade and told them to go home.
It was a humiliating blow. They may have believed it was up to poor and marginalized people to take up the flag for Christianity after the first Crusades failed. Raedts concluded the crusaders were not really children, but poor people—an interpretation that calls the very name of the movement into question. But the ill-fated journey shows how the influence of just a few persuasive voices can incite a full-blown movement—even one that ends in humiliation and disaster.
These include authors such as Matthew Paris, an English Benedictine monk writing more than 20 years after the event. There they are tricked by two merchants, who give them free passage aboard their seven ships.
The merchants sell the children to Muslim slavers, who then try to force them to renounce their Christianity. They remain faithful, and 18, according to Alberic, are tortured to death. One of the pueri escapes and returns to Europe to give this testimony. Alberic includes many of the same details as the Laon chronicler, but the events in Marseille and North Africa are not supported by any other sources of the era, placing his account more in the realm of hearsay.
It is clear, however, that Nicholas, like Stephen, believed he had received orders from God to travel to Jerusalem to recover the Holy Land. His followers reportedly numbered in the thousands and included men and women, as well as the youth.
They gathered in Cologne between Easter and Pentecost in Sources recorded that Nicholas and his followers carried T-shaped tau crosses, later associated with the Franciscan monastic order associated with poverty and humility. The tau emblem would also become associated with Nicholas.
Archaeological excavations under Jerusalem are stoking long-standing tensions. The remoteness of Jerusalem did not deter Nicholas. He claimed that upon reaching the shore, the sea would part for him as it had for Moses when he led the Hebrews out of Egypt. On July 25, , their presence was registered in the city of Speyer in southwestern Germany. From Speyer, the pueri marched south and crossed the Alps, an unimaginably difficult and dangerous route.
Weakened by hunger, exposure, and fatigue, those who did not choose to return home or who did not die along the way arrived at Piacenza in northern Italy on August 20, They had walked over miles in a month.
From Piacenza several thousand travelled almost miles more to the port city of Genoa in Italy. Despite their prayers, the sea did not part, and the multitude disbanded. Tales abound that some pueri went by ship to Marseille, while others ended up in Rome.
The ones who stayed in Genoa probably found work as a source of cheap labour. More than 50 chroniclers recorded it; some penned a few terse lines, while others devoted pages. Whether the pueri were children, or peasants, or a mixture of the two, the hostility of some chronicles toward them reflects the fear that piety carried too far by the young or by the poor would lead to a breakdown in authority.
He was from Rhineland, Germany. His teachings quickly garnered him a large following, as he was considered very eloquent and wise for a year-old. Nicholas was perhaps the initiator of the idea that the sea would dry before the Crusaders in order for them to cross into the Holy Land. He insisted on a peaceful approach, which, in his vision, meant the converting of Muslims into Christianity.
Instead of fighting the Saracens, he claimed that the Muslim kingdoms would be defeated when they converted. His disciples amassed in Cologne, eager to travel to the Middle East.
They were split into two groups, each taking a different route through Switzerland in order to reach the Italian coast. The pilgrimage led them across the Alps, which was an ordeal itself, as many had fallen victims to exhaustion during the trip. About 7, of them arrived in Genoa in late August They rushed to the harbor, waiting for the sea to divide before them.
Some felt betrayed by Nicholas and abandoned the quest immediately, while other sat in front of the calm sea, waiting for God to conduct his miracle, as they felt it was impossible for him not do so eventually.
The city of Genoa offered citizenship to the pilgrims, as a reward for their faith and endurance. From there he continued with some of his most loyal followers to Vatican.
The Pope persuaded them to return home and quit the Crusade.
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