Page:A general history for colleges and high schools (Myers, 1890).djvu/510

448 most striking exhibition possible of the ignorance, superstition, and fanaticism that characterized the period. Yet we cannot but reverence the holy enthusiasm of an age that could make such sacrifices of innocence and helplessness in obedience to what was believed to be the will of God.

The children's expedition marked at once the culmination and the decline of the crusading movement. The fanatic zeal that inspired the first crusaders was already dying out. " These children," said the Pope, referring to the young crusaders, " reproach us with having fallen asleep, whilst they were flying to the assistance of the Holy Land."

The Minor Crusades: End of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.— The last four expeditions—the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth —undertaken by the Christians of Europe against the infidels of the East, may be conveniently grouped as the Minor Crusades. They were marked by a less fervid and holy enthusiasm than that which characterized the first movements, and exhibit among those taking part in them the greatest variety of objects and ambitions. The flame of the Crusades had burned itself out, and the fate of the little Christian kingdom in Asia, isolated from Europe, and surrounded on all sides by bitter enemies, became each day more and more apparent. Finally the last of the places