THE SWAY OF THE CROSS 283

than 20,000 children were mobilised for this infantile move-
ment. But most of them partook of the mercy of God
long before they could reach the Holy Land. Others
were kidnapped and sold into slavery by unscrupulous
Genoese and Venetian merchants. The remaining were
sent back to their homes under safe custody by the Pope
Innocent III who took pity on them.

The clash of the Cross and the Crescent had been attend-
ed with great carnage on both sides. When Jerusalem
was first captured by the Crusaders it lasted for a full
week, and according to a French eye-witness, "under the
portico of the mosque the blood was knee deep and reached
the horses' bridles." Yet the direct results of two centu-
ries of constant fighting were not, perhaps, worth more than
a single campaign. The importance of the Crusades is,
however, to be seen in their indirect but lasting effects.
In the words of G. M. Trevelyan, " The Crusades were the
military and religious aspect of a general urge towards the
East on the part of the reviving energies of Europe. The
prize that Europe brought back from the Crusades was not
the permanent liberation of the Holy Sepulchre or the po-
tential unity of Christendom, of which the story of the Cru-
sades was one long negation. She brought back instead
the finer arts and crafts, luxury, science, and intellectual
curiosity—everything that Peter the Hermit would most
have despised."

The exact extent of the influence of the contact with
the East brought about by the Crusades will ever remain
a subject of controversy among scholars. In the following
passage the maximum claim is sought to be summarised :—

'In tiie religious sphere they diminished the prestige of the
Papacy, irretrievably affected monasticism, and encouraged the
growth of heresy. In the social and economic sphere they led