In my wanderings around the net yesterday I came across this interesting piece about childrens' involvment in the Crusades. I often think there are historical parallels between certain events and the way that the WBTS treat the youths under their influence, for example the Hilter Youth movement. The part that the Churches played in encouraging youths to sacrifice themselves during the middle ages also reminds me of the way that youths are encouraged to sacrifice their lives on the alter of pioneer or Bethel service.
What do you think?
The article:
What happened to the kids who went on the Children's Crusade?
The Crusades of medieval western Europe became progressively
uglier as centuries passed; gold and lives were squandered, and
yet the Crusaders were no closer to wresting the Holy Land from
the infidel Muslims. In 1202, Crusaders ransacked Christian
churches and Eastern European villages, much to the embarrassment
of the Church and their communities back home. Morale in western
Europe was at an all-time low.
It was in this atmosphere that two young boys emerged from the
countryside of western Europe to act as God's warriors. Stephen
was a young shepherd boy from Cloyes, France. Devout and eager,
he claimed to have received a message from Jesus that he was to
walk to Jerusalem and crush the infidels. Stephen soon managed to
attract thousands of French boys to his cause, all hoping to
change the world and right the wrongs of the Crusaders before
them. Parents cried and begged them not to go, but church
officials, by many accounts, fully encouraged these youths in
their quest.
At the same time, a similar scene was being played out in
Germany. Nicholas, a local peasant boy from Cologne, said he had
received specific instructions from a cross of lights in the sky.
He manageji to gather at least 7,000 young people to his cause.
Like lambs to slaughter, the two groups of unarmed children
marched off to reclaim the Holy Sepulcher.
It's a toss-up for which group fared worse. Most of the German
children either froze to death or slid off the mountains trying
to get through the Alps. The French children suffered from
disease and hunger during their long march. When they reached the
Mediterranean Sea, they were disappointed to discover that the
sea did not part and let them walk across, as Stephen had
prophesied. Finally, seven ships were supplied by two rich
merchants to carry the boys across the the Mediterranean. Two of
them sank in storms with 1,400 children aboard. The other five
reached land on the other side but nowhere near the Holy Land,
alas. The sailors had changed course to Egypt where they sold the
boys into slavery. Many of them were put to death when they
refused to convert to Islam.
Meanwhile, the German children who survived passage over the Alps
split into smaller groups, each looking for the passage to
Palestine. Some arrived at the Italian port of Genoa with no
means of transportation. Others just disappeared into the
countryside to fates unknown. Of the thousands that set out from
France and Germany, only a hundred or two were ever heard from
again. Some historians theorize that the tale of the Pied Piper
of Hamelin - who magically led an entire German village of
children away, never to be seen again-was an allegorical history
of the parents' and villagers' deep sense of loss over their
children who went off to the Children's Crusade.
~source used: "Just Curious, Jeeves"
by Erin Barrett & Jack Mingo