Of all the major Crusades the most tragic was the failed Children's Crusade. In 1212 a German youth called Nicholas proclaimed that God had ordained him to lead a crusade of children to the Holy Land. The idea captured the imagination of the children. Thirty thousand young people (including girls who dressed as boys) averaging twelve years slipped away from their parents to follow Nicholas. As they marched from Cologne, down the Rhine and over the Alps they sang:
Fair are the meadows,
Fairer still the woodlands,
Robed in the pleasant garb of spring;
Jesus is fairer, Jesus is purer,
He makes the grieving heart to sing.
Many died of hunger. Some stragglers were devoured by wolves. Thieves mingled with the marchers and stole money, food and clothing. Those who survived reached Genoa, Italy only to discover that no ships would carry them to the field of battle in Palestine. Pope Innocent III told the children as kindly as possible to go home. Some did but many stayed.
In France in the same year, a twelve year old shepherd named Stephen came to Philip Augustus and announced that Christ had appeared to him while tending his flock and commanded him to lead a children's crusade to Palestine. The king ordered him to return home. Still, twenty thousand young people gathered to follow wherever Stephen chose to lead them. He chose to lead them across France to Marseille, where, Stephen promised, the ocean would divide in a miraculous manner and they would walk to Palestine on dry ground. The ocean did not open like the Red Sea but several ship owners offered to take as many young people as possible to Palestine without charge. The children anxiously crowded into seven ships and sailed forth singing hymns of triumph. On the way two of the ships were wrecked off Sardina resulting in the death of all on board. The other surviving children were not taken to Palestine, but instead, were brought to Tunisia and Egypt where they were sold as slaves. The ship owners were eventually arrested and hanged by neck until death from order of Frederick II.
If there is a practical lesson to learn from this historical narrative it is how children and young people can be manipulated and misguided. If there is a spiritual lesson it is that young people’s hearts can be turned towards the Lord and towards noble causes. To that end let Christian parents labor. It is time well invested.
Charles Francis Adams, a 19th century political figure and diplomat, kept a diary. One day he entered: "Went fishing with my son today—a day wasted." His son, Brook Adams, also kept a diary, which is still in existence. On that same day, Brook Adams made this entry: "Went fishing with my father—the most wonderful day of my life!" The father thought he was wasting his time while fishing with his son, but his son saw it as an investment of time. The only way to tell the difference between wasting and investing is to know one's ultimate purpose in life and to judge accordingly (Silas Shotwell, in Homemade, September 1987).
