The hordes which moved through France and Flanders into German territory were led by a French knight, named William the Carpenter, who had begun by plundering his peasants in order to fit out his soldiers. The spirit animating William's troops is shown by one instance. They placed a goose and a herd of goats in the van, firmly believing that they would show them the way to Jerusalem. To such the Jewish communities of the Moselle and the Rhine were given over. The emperor Henry was at that time occupied in war with Italy, and the wildest anarchy prevailed in Germany. At the first news of the approach of William, the congregation of Treves was seized with such terror that some of its members killed their own children. Women and girls loaded themselves with stones, and threw themselves into the Moselle in order to escape baptism or disgrace at the hands of the holy murderers. The rest of the community entreated the bishop, Egilbert, for his protection. But this hard-hearted prince of the Church, who perhaps sought to cancel by zeal the imputation of heresy resting upon him, replied: "If you apostatize, I will give you peace and the enjoyment of your property. If you remain hardened, your soul and body shall be destroyed together." The Jews thereupon assembled in council, and determined, on the advice of Micah, one of the learned members of the congregation, to conform outwardly to Christianity. He said to the bishop: "Tell us quickly what to believe, and deliver us from the men that watch at the gate, ready to kill us." The priest recited the Catholic confession of faith, which the Jews repeated, and then baptized them. It was a disgraceful victory which Christianity celebrated over the congregation of Treves, but it did not last long. Thereupon the crusaders went to Speyer, where the congregation had lately had documentary promises of liberty and security. Here some Jews were dragged to the church, and commanded to undergo baptism. They resolutely refused, and were murdered (8th Iyar--3d May, 1096). The remaining Jews fled to the palace of the bishop Johannsen and to the emperor's castle. The bishop, more humane and pious than Egilbert, would not countenance such baptism by main force, and opposed the furious mob. The Jews also defended themselves vigorously, and no more of them fell victims to fanaticism. Johannsen caused some of the crusaders to be executed, an act strongly reproved by the monkish chroniclers. They asserted that he was bribed by the Jews. It is not to be wondered at that the Jews shuddered at baptism, and held themselves disgraced if they were borne off unconscious to the font. The Christianity of the eleventh century they could regard only as a terrible form of paganism. The worship of relics and pictures; the conduct of the head of the Church, who absolved nations from a sacred oath, and incited them to regicide; the immoral, dissipated life of the priesthood; the horrible practices of the crusaders--all these