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87)
holy crusade of the poor
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Holy crusade of the poor
He woke up soaked in sweat. He no
longer knew how he got to this deserted place, only the words of the village
preacher rang in his ears: “The children will rule the world and create God's
kingdom! The last will be the first! Only a poor man can fit through the eye
of the needle. ”And after that there was a gap in his memories.
It was cold and almost night; the
first owl began its hunting cry: “Uhuuu, uhuuu!” He lay there for a while,
before he got up. Small, sparkling eyes looked at him from the thicket. The
moonlight cast various shadows. And there it was again, now he remembered a
moment before he fainted. A middle-aged man with uncombed hair, blood on his
forehead and a dirty robe that was once certainly white said to him:
"Go, gather the poor and children and reclaim my grave, go to
Palestine!" Then the apparition disappeared again, only the moon shone
through the leaves of the trees and bushes at the edge of the clearing on
which he stood.
He moved slowly in what he
suspected to be a footpath. Now he was no longer afraid because he knew what
his goal was: "Palestine, the tomb of Jesus!"
His mother was a maid, his father
probably the farmer. When her pregnancy slowly became visible, he hid her. He
could have sent her away too. Nobody would have scolded him for this, or
accused him of adultery. This only applied to women. Everyone in the village
would have put the blame on her. And so, he grew up as an illegitimate child
in the forest. After his mother had died, he went on a wandering. At some point,
a farmer employed him as a shepherd. Food was scarce and hunger was his
constant companion. He picked mushrooms, berries and herbs, although he did
not know all of them. Sometimes he was in a coma for hours because he had
eaten something poisonous.
The forest opened up and
somewhere to his right a dog could be heard. When it got light, he would ask
for a piece of old bread there.
It was a market square with a
church. People from all over the area gathered here every Sunday. People were
setting up their stands. Before and after church, people traded, sold and
exchanged. During church service, one needed a guard for the goods and the
servant or shepherd would get an extra piece of dry bread for it.
A servant gave him half of his
and was therefore able to go to church and attend church service. After
devouring the piece, he remembered his mission and when the people came out
of the church he stood in the middle of the square and shouted like an obsessed,
“I saw the Messiah, he appeared to me. We have to go to Palestine and look
for the rich tomb of Jesus.” Many laughed at him and continued to haggle over
cheaper prices. Only a few shepherds and servants gave him an ear. The word
"rich" in particular caught their attention.
He didn't know how long he had
spoken, but as he left the square, two young people joined him. They
accompanied him until they were out of sight and hearing of the settlement
and wanted to rob him. They were looking for the "rich" that of
course only existed in his brain.
He only woke up a few hours later
from the blow on the back of the head, alone again. However, this mishap
didn't wake him up, it just made him more confident that he was on the right
track. At the next spring, he washed the dried blood from his hair.
More and more people joined him,
soon there were a hundred. They didn't know exactly where they were going,
but Palestine was everywhere. Whenever they came near a village, the mayor
immediately met them and brought food to prevent the crowd from entering the
village. Probably the dignitaries were scared.
As he approached a larger city
with a thousand men, they were faced with a group of soldiers who preferred
to speak to them in awe. The many wooden crosses were certainly like lances
in their eyes. The spiritual leader of the city that had formed around the
monastery had heard of this wandering army of God. He knew that the last few
years of bad harvests had pushed people to extremes. At such times, church,
monastery and house looting was not uncommon. Who would stop this hungry
crowd once they got into frenzy and set the red rooster (fire) on the
rooftops of the city? Therefore, he rode up to them at the head of his
handful of soldiers before they reached him.
He was greeted by a loud cry “To
Palestine, to the grave of Jesus!”. Like mad of hunger and religious
fanaticism, they roared and shouted. He had to show them the way to or into
the grave before the whole thing turned into a peasant revolt. They were in
the foothills of the Alps and autumn was already over, it would soon snow.
When the clerical dignitary in his white robe with pink overcoat raised his
hands, he himself was surprised that the horde slowly fell silent.
"Jesus appeared to me and commanded me to lead you," he cried. A
loud cheer was the answer. “The noble goal is on your left,” he pointed to
the mountains. “A rich reward will be given to those who liberate the grave
of our Savior from the heathens and Muslims. Follow me! I will show you the
way."
They followed him with great
enthusiasm. He led them into the Alps, the mountains became higher and the
valleys deeper. When it started to snow one morning and visibility became
very poor because of the dense fall of flakes, he rode far ahead and left
them. He knew that those weakened and hungry folks would not survive the
storm. The storm lasted for two days, then the crows and other wild animals
came and the whole winter enjoyed this rich supper of Christ, which God had
given them so unexpectedly.
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Samstag, 8. August 2020
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