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Illustrated World History Europe |
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 Excommunicated From a painting by Jean Paul Laurens, France. King Robert II, the Pious (996-1031), Defies the Church for His Wife's Sake. In the doorway we see the churchmen walk away bearing a Serpent Crosier and a Crucifix, both having not Christian significance but pagan connotations. The serpent being a sign of Satan and the Roman crucifix derives from the Egyptian pagan ankh sign. The Word of God gives absolutely no support to utilize such signs in any of our religious services. The son and successor of Hugh Capte (987-996) as king in Paris was Robert the Pius, one of the best, if not the wisest or strongest of French sovereigns. Before coming to the throne he had married a distant cousin, Bertha Countess of Blois. The churchmen who had long been very powerful in France, disapproved of the marriage both because of the cousinship and for political reasons. Hence, after Robert became king, the Church commanded him to divorce his wife. He refused, and after long argument and much protest was excommunicated. That is, the heads of the French Church passed in solemn procession before him and Bertha, they showed him the "blessed" candles and then extinguished these as symbols of the light of faith that had gone out. However, being despisers of the Law of God, the faith these man advertised did not point to the Creator God in heaven, it pointed to the god of this world. Papal "blessings" are dangerous. They may bring disaster rather than help for the Pope does not pray to God Almighty, nor does he pray on the day God Almighty has distinctly assigned for worship for all mankind to follow for ever. But he must endure for a little longer until the day, soon, when Christ returns in His power, the power of His Father and the holy angels. - Of course, faith is a personal thing between each person and God - churchmen have no connection with God except through His Word, and if they are faithful themselves and for themselves. The threat of excommunication was greatly painted to be the worst thing that could happen in those dark ages when the true gospel of God was not known. Robert gave in at last, divorced Bertha and wedded Eleanor of Aquitaine. |
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Menu Forward Back |  The French Conquest of England Painted by R. Caton Woodville. The Normans Rage Through London While Crowning Their Duke William the Conqueror as King. The year 1066 will always be remembered in England as marking the French conquest of England. It was not, however, the French king who achieved this conquest; it was one of the French dukes, who thus became more powerful and possessed of wider territories than the king himself. Count Eudes fights himself back into Paris.\|/  |
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 The Rise of the Crusading Fever From the historical series by Alphonso de Neuville. Peter the Hermit Rouses all France to Undertake the Conquest of Jerusalem. Among the interesting military as well as religious movements stand out the `Crusades.' All Europe, but especially France, took part in these during the 12th and 13th centuries. They began when a pilgrim monk, Peter the Hermit, came back from Jerusalem to Rome about the year 1095. He told Pope Urban II. (1088-1099), a passionate and harrowing tale of the way Catholic Christian pilgrims were maltreated by the Turks. These had just seized Jerusalem, which had previously been held by the Muhammedans of a more mild and friendly type. After hearing Peter's tale the Pope, at a Council of the Church held at Clermont in southern France, urged the gathering of an army of Catholics to march against Jerusalem. Peter also told his experience to the people, and they seized eagerly upon the dream of making Jerusalem the center of a Catholic empire. The idea of fighting in the name of Catholicism was by no means new. Charlemagne had undertaken it, and many a warlike person before him. William of Normandy had borne against England a banner by the Pope. But never before had a contest been suggested so distant and so impractical as this Crusade. The Middle Ages had no vast war galleys such as ancient Rome had possessed for transporting armies; nor were there railroads, cars or airlines to carry troops today. Yet under Pope Urban's sanction, Peter the Hermit went everywhere urging his crusade; and multitudes of warriors vowed to join the `Holy War" which actually turned out to be an `Unholy War' for it shows the worst sin will do in people. |
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 Africans First Encounter with the Cavalry of Knights Painted by the Spanish artist M.S.M. Sedano The illustrated legendary story of Godfrey of Bouillon's victory over the Awed tribe. The first crusade are said to have encountered these African slaves of Muslim owners who equipped them to fight the European intruders. |
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Menu Forward Back |  Storming the Turkish Capital Drawn by the French master Gustave Dore (1832-1883). The Turkish Capital of Antioch was captured by the Crusaders and its people massacred. What was really the chief battle of the first crusade was fought at Antioch. The crusaders besieged it for seven months and were so fiercely resisted that when they finally stormed the city, they forgot all about their supposed Christian upbringing and went over to the side of Satan having gone under his banner right from the start. So it is that within three days of their taking the city, they themselves were besieged in Antioch by an enormous army of Turks gathered against them from the region. Every effort to break free was repelled. They were, in their turn, reduced by starvation to skeletons. At last, in desparation, they marched out against the Turks to win food or die. They stumbled and fell as they marched along, and the foe watched them with shouts of derision. Then on a sudden frenzy they rose up and charged their enemy with a fury which overwhelmed the entire power of the enmey and left them masters of the field. The Turkish empire was swept away. |
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 The Crusaders First Sight of Jerusalem |
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 Godfrey takes possession of Jerusalem Painted by Carl von Piloty (1826-1886), Germany. The crusaders after storming Jerusalem re-entered in a religious procession. While the Turks and the Catholics were locked in that awful struggle around Antioch, a wholly different nation of Muslims from Egypt had taken possession of Jerusalem. It is said that the army of the crusaders when they first set out had numbered 600,000; but only 30,000 of these remained for the final siege. After their victory at Antioch they never doubted they would win Jerusalem. The force they encountered in the city outnumbered them 3:1, yet the defenders dared not march out and meet these terrible crusaders, who stormed the city by thrusting towers against the walls and again, massacred many thousands inside the city. |
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