Even when young, Mohammed seemed to be religious. He often went to a cave a few miles from Mecca, and stayed there alone for days at a time. He claimed that he had visions in which the angel Gabriel came down to him, and told him many things which he should tell the people of Arabia. When he was forty years old, he went forth to preach, saying that he was the prophet of God. At the end of three years he had forty followers. The people of Mecca, however, did not believe him to be a prophet. They were for the most part idolaters, and as Mohammed preached against idolatry, they finally drove him from the city. He and his followers then went to the city of Medina. The inhabitants of that city received them kindly, and Mohammed was able to raise an army with which to overcome his enemies. Mohammed was a very shrewd man, and among other things he was careful to teach his followers that the hour of each man’s death was fixed. Hence one was as safe in battle as at home. This belief, of course, helped his soldiers to fight bravely. The number of Mohammed’s followers now increased very fast; and ten years after his flight to Medina, he returned to Mecca at the head of forty thousand pilgrims. Soon all Arabia was converted to his faith, and idolatry was no longer known in Mecca. After Mohammed’s death, his followers formed the plan of converting the whole world by means of the sword. In course of time their armies overran Persia, Egypt, and northern Africa. They also entered Spain, and having established themselves there, they hoped to conquer the whole of Europe. Soon the Moslems, as the followers of Mohammed were called, took possession of Palestine and of Jerusalem, where was the sacred tomb of our Saviour. After the earliest churches had been established by the apostles of Christ, it had been the custom of Christians to make pilgrimages to Jerusalem to see the tomb of our Saviour. Each pilgrim carried a palm branch and wore a cockleshell in his hat. The branch was the token of victory; the shell a sign that the sea had been crossed. After the Moslems had gained possession of the Holy Land, as Palestine is often called, the pilgrims often suffered much from persecution. Then, too, they were required to pay a large sum for permission to visit the tomb and other sacred places. [Illustration: CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHER (Present Day)] It was to free the pilgrims, who came from Europe, from this persecution that the crusades, or holy wars, were undertaken. These crusades were begun through the efforts of one zealous man, a priest commonly known as “Peter the Hermit.” II. PETER THE HERMIT pilgrimage exposure admittance enthusiasm resurrection sanction earnestly separated cardinals council military Constantinople