The Origin of Freemasonry and Knights Templar ... - Lodge Prudentia

FREEMASONRY AND KNIGHTS TEMPLARbering about 40,000 men, women and children, underthe command of Peter the Hermit, pressed onin the same direction taken by Walter. They, too,were pursued and furiously attacked by the wildBulgarians, who caused a general rout and slaughterof thousands of their number. The remainingwretched, half-starved fugitives in time arrived atConstantinople, where, under the protection ofEmperor Alexius, who had espoused the Crusade,the two united their forces, crossed the Bosphorusinto Asia Minor, and encountered the Turks atNice. There they were utterly routed and slaughtered;Walter the Penniless was killed and the remainingremnant returned to Constantinople. Athird rabble soon followed from Germany. A certainmonk named Godeschal, envious of the fameof Peter and Walter, preached the holy war throughhis native districts, and about 15,000 villagers andpeasants flocked to his standard. They followedthe same route as the others, and before the wallsof Belgrade they were massacred by the Hungarians,almost to a man.In the meantime, the fourth and last division ofthe host gathered on the eastern confines of Germany.Perhaps no other such a detestable massof vile humanity was seen before or since in theworld. France sent her thieves; the Rhine provinces,their offscouring; the British Islands, theiroutlaws ;and all the west, her pads and murderers.This delightful army of European refuse heapedup to the number of more than 200,000. A fewignorant nobles with their bands of retainers weremerged in the common mass; but when it came tothe election of leaders the choice fell on a goat and133