Every year during the early centuries of the Christian era, hundreds of pilgrims journeyed to the Holy Land undergoing much hardship on the way. They thought through this pilgrimage to be forgiven for their sins, and win the approval of the Church, then far more powerful than the kings. Toward the end of the 11th century, Mohammedans had seized Palestine, and prevented the Christian pilgrims from doing penance or worshipping at the Holy Sepulchre. This led to a series of expeditions against the Mohammedans in Palestine in which all the Christian countries of Europe united. These expeditions were called the Crusades (1095–1271), and they have been celebrated in story and song ever since. The Crusades gave the rough uncultured men of the Western world the chance to hear the poetry and the songs of the Arabs (Chapter VI), who at that time were the most advanced in culture and arts. Although the Oriental music with its complicated rhythms must have been hard to learn, the Crusaders brought back much of real value and beauty,—a new way of singing, new subjects for poems, and two new instruments, a kind of guitar and _el oud_, in Europe called lute. The lute had a strong influence on popular music, for it was the most commonly used instrument for centuries. ROMANCE LANGUAGES Latin had been the language of France because the Romans lived there so long, but later it became mixed with the rough dialect and speech of the Franks and other Gothic barbarous tribes and was much changed. From this mixture came rustic Latin, or _Romanse rustique_, and modern French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese are still called Romance languages. A new poetry was born in Provence, the south of France, and in Normandy in the north, written in this _Romanse rustique_, and the oldest French songs were called _lais_, lay or ballad. The great ruler Charlemagne collected these _lais_ of barbarian period and the trouvères and troubadours had wonderful old songs of heroism to choose from. In Provence they said “oc” for “yes” and in Normandy, “oui.” So, the language of the south of France was called “langue d’oc” and of the north “langue d’oui.” TROUBADOURS, TROUVÈRES, JONGLEURS The troubadours, whose very name brings to mind a charming picture of romance, chivalry and adventure, were the poet-composers of Provence a land of sunshine where men were brave and courteous, and women beautiful and gracious. The words _troubadour_ and _trouvères_, come from _trobar_, _trouver_, meaning to find or to invent, for these troubadours and trouvères were the inventors or composers of poems which they set to music.