The Crusaders !Deus lo vult!

!Deus lo vult! ("It is God's will") This was the famous Christian Crusader's battle cry.

Peter the Hermit (Deid July 8, 1115) became a member of the council, of the well known Crusaders, in May of 1097. He was well known for his leadership and inspirational capabilities. Once using a letter that he self proclaimed had received from Jesus himself and was written by God, as a tactic to recruit tens of thousands of Christian peasants to follow him.

He along with other Crusade leaders later lead their noblemen, of the finest Christians they knew, into small towns and villages across Europe to destroy all of God's enemies; which consisted mostly of Muslims occupying the Middle East. If the men, women, and children did not convert to Christianity then they were brutally murdered.

Maybe the most outrageous of leaders that these Crusaders followed was a goose! [Yes, I said a goose] through the Rhine valley (which is currently located in most of modern day Germany and a few other countries as well) who they believed was enchanted by God to be their guide, and it gets worse.

Somehow these ill minded followers happened to stumble upon a mob of fellow Crusaders led by the notorious Emicho of Leiningen, who was brutal Christian leader of Crusaders. Motivated by greed to fund his army, Emicho would accept payments from the wealthy in agreement to not harm their villages, before later pillaging the village and massacring its people.

One of the most horrid massacres displayed by these noble Christians occurred in a Yugoslavian town, Zemun, where, led by Emicho's army, approx. 4,000 innocent men, women, and children were raped, beaten, chopped up, burned, hanged, tortured or otherwise slaughtered in the name of God.

913 years later and we still worship this evil spirit. The above is a very brief account to the horrible crusades that took place from 1095-1291, yet it still displays how detrimental religion is to society. I urge you to do further research on the subject, look into all of the crusades, there is a lot of information in encyclopedias at your local libraries. Few things have led man to commit such horrible acts and religion is the most popular by far.