CHILDREN'S CRUSADE

a religious movement in Europe during the summer of 1212 in which thousands of children set out to conquer the Holy Land from the Muslims by love instead of by force. The movement ended in disaster, but the religious fervour it excited helped to initiate the Fifth Crusade (1218). The first group of children was led by a French shepherd boy named Stephen, from Cloyes-sur-le-Loir, a town near Vendme, who had a vision in which Jesus appeared to him disguised as a pilgrim and gave him a letter for the French king. On his way to deliver the letter, Stephen attracted hundreds of followers, some of whom decided to go to the Holy Land. An estimated 30,000 made their way to Marseille, where they fell victim to disreputable merchants who shipped them to slave markets in North Africa. A 10-year-old boy named Nicholas, from Cologne, led a second group. He preached the Children's Crusade in the Rhineland, attracting an estimated 20,000 children. After crossing the Alps into Italy, they split into groups: some were dispersed among various Lombard towns; others continued on to Genoa, where they were refused transport across the Mediterranean. A few then traveled to Rome, where Innocent III (pope from 1198 to 1216) took pity on them and released them from their crusade vows. The fate of their leader, Nicholas, is unknown, but many of these children, like the French group, were sold in the East as slaves.