PIETRO L'EREMITA. – Born c. 1050 in the diocese of Amiens, died at Neufmoutier (diocese of Liège) on 8 July 1115. He is the best-known among the popular preachers of the First Crusade; but legend seized upon his name and exaggerated beyond measure the part he played in the enterprise. He was not the initiator of the Crusade, nor was he the only one to lead the popular masses that rushed towards the East. His importance, therefore, must be reduced to its proper proportions, as attributed to him by contemporary accounts, such as those of Guiberto di Nogent and Alberto di Aquisgrana.
The monk P. was already known in the region where he was staying for his austerity when, following the Council of Clermont, he began preaching the reconciliation of Christians and traversing the countryside of France as far as the region of Berry, promising salvation to the liberators of the Holy Sepulchre. Even women, children, and old men wished to join the throng of those who, without provisions or weapons, began to follow P. the hermit. He was also joined by a troop of Germans led by Gualtieri Senza-avere. But P. was unable to prevent excesses from occurring: massacres of Jews in the German cities and devastation in Hungary. When P. the hermit arrived in Constantinople on 1 August 1096, many of his followers had died of hunger or deprivation; the official Crusade of the barons had not yet left the West. The emperor Alessio I Comneno received P. and, in order to rid himself of a suspicious crowd, supplied him with the ships necessary for crossing the Bosporus. Once in Asia, P. l’E. succeeded even less than before in controlling his followers, who, completely ignorant, already thought they were close to the end of their journey. Instead, they became lost in the midst of an unknown land infested by the Turks, who massacred a great number of them; others departed on account of the climate. P. had to implore the Emperor to send the assistance of a contingent of Greeks, for otherwise they would all have perished. Those who managed to return to Constantinople awaited the arrival of the barons and joined their troops. P. was fortunate enough to escape the dangers, return to the West, and retire to Neufmoutier until his death. From then on, he remained in the popular imagination the symbol of the mysticism of the Crusade.