Page:A General Sketch of Political History from the Earlist Times.djvu/186

 i74 THE LATER MIDDLE AGES decayed, and the Seljuks had swept it back out of Asia Minor till their kingdom of Iconium included the greater part of it. The Seljuks were still the dominant force in Western Asia, though they recognised the Kaliph of Bagdad as the representative of the prophet. Palestine, however, and a part of Syria, were attached to the rival Fatimide kaliphate of Egypt. This then was the position. of the civilised world at least as known to the westerns at the opening of the crusading era. The Crusad- That era lasted for nearly two centuries. It was ing Era. marked by the gradual consolidation of the king- doms of England and Scotland, of France, and those of Spain j by the great development of the papal power in its long contest with the German emperors ; by the wreckage of the eastern empire, which was really brought about by the western Christians ; and finally, by that struggle between East and West which goes by the name of the crusades. The crusades, or the battle between Islam and Christianity, claim our first attention. On the throne of the grievously weakened Byzantine Empire the dynasty of the Comneni was just established. The Emperor 2. The First Alexius appealed in vain to the Christians of the crusades. wes t to stem the advancing tide of the Turkish power. It was time for a united Europe to make a determined stand against the followers of Mohammed. But it was not easy to persuade Europe to anything in the shape of united action. A different kind of appeal from that made by Alexius was required. The appeal came from Peter the Hermit, who had made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and seen the cruelties to which Christians were subjected in the Holy Land, and the desecration of the spots which all Christians held sacred. He came back to Europe, and his fervid eloquence fired the hearts of his hearers. The pope, Urban n., Peter the flung himself zealously into the cause. Peter the Hermit. Hermit went forth preaching, with the pope's authority. Urban struck while the iron was at its hottest. A great council was held at Clermont, to which were gathered princes and prelates and nobles from all parts of Europe, together with a great concourse of lesser folk. To passionate pleadings