Free Republic

Reformation Day October 31, 1517 It was a Wednesday. It was a Wednesday, October 31, 1517. It was not really all that much different from the thousands of other Wednesdays that had come before. It was fall, of course, and the air had cooled down and the leaves were putting on a wonderful show of color along the River Elbe on the hillside. It was nice time to be a German. It was a nice time to live in rural Germany. The harvest had been plentiful. That is, it had been as plentiful as the white sand fields surrounding the...

The First Holy War During the Crusades, East and West first met–on the battlefield BY ANDREW CURRY It was the fall of 1187, and an emissary from the besieged city of Jerusalem had come to beg Saladin, the sultan of Egypt, for mercy. After barely four days of assaults, the Christian defenders saw that Saladin had them hopelessly outmatched. Waiting in his tent outside the city's walls, the Muslim ruler knew both sides had a lot riding on the outcome of this battle. For the city's defenders, the prospect of Saladin's wrath loomed. The last time Jerusalem was sacked by...