The First Book of Samuel - SAREJESS (chrysanthemum read aloud TXT) 📗

Thomas.

“Indeed I do know of many pools in the city of Jerusalem but none by that name” said Samuel, who in fact at this stage knew very little of the bible and had no idea of what the strange man from Silesia was speaking about.

As the day progressed they found themselves a hostel in the city where they would spend the night. Here people from many nations gathered to sleep, never in the same place twice. The city was a place of great wonder and the pilgrims found a place to rest their heads wherever they could. On the morrow they would seek out the well of healing.

These pilgrims like many who were to follow them over the centuries were a superstitious lot clinging fast to relics of a previous age. Almost a thousand years before the carpenter of Nazareth had been born and on the events of his life and death they based their lives. These pilgrims were striving for holiness and trying to live righteous lives so that they might one day enter heaven, where they would be rewarded for there faithfulness to the cause of the Carpenter. They searched for rest for their weary souls and healing for their bodies. However it was not yet meet for them to wander on that day. There were pilgrimages to be made, time to be spent adoring the sacred relics such as the sacred thigh bone of ST John the Baptist. There were waters to be drunk at the holy wells at all the holy places. There were pilgrims who would beat themselves with whips enduring tortures of the road as they walked resolutely to the shrines of various saints.

Our friend Samuel had seen many things in his long life but the religious fervor with which the people around him acted scared him. If he remembered correctly the carpenter was a man of sweet temperament and had always spoken openly of loving thy neighbor. The carpenter had said nothing of beating yourself for sins. It is true he had said ask ye therefore for forgiveness of those that you had sinned against and you will be forgiven, but the extent to which the people of this age went was frightening to him.

At the close of the day Samuel bid his new friend a good night’s rest before lying down and dropping off to sleep.


CHAPTER NINE
Jerusalem 1125 AD

As the Jewish innkeeper, let’s call him Samuel, poured a drink for one of his guests, his mind was cast back to a day in the year 1125AD when the Christian knights and their followers had taken Jerusalem. They had breached a gate and had come pouring into the city killing all who they happened to meet at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. They paused for a moment, taking in the sight of a Coptic priest, waving a banner with the Coptic cross, before they rushed into the church, dispatching the priests. “Infidels!” they cried, finding a number of Coptic Christians in the church in the dress of the Arab population they rushed forward into the main building. The Knights followed by the hoards of unwashed half savage followers and began slaughtering the Coptic Christians with broad slashes of their swords and knives, the European knights not stopping to ask if they were Christian or not, slaughtered until the floor of the church was covered in Christian blood. The horses slipped on the bloody, wet surface.

In other parts of the city, the European Christian army was raping and pillaging. The scenes of death and destruction were to be repeated many times that day and the day that followed, before some of the more cool headed knights were able to bring their followers to order. Samuel had observed the killing and had hidden off in a dark alley in which his inn was situated. A dark, filthy, flea infested little inn, offering hospitality to any who could afford the rates he charged. By the third day after the city gate had been breached, Samuel ventured forth into the city to see what he could buy for the inn. There was not much available as most of the people who worked at the market had been slaughtered. Samuel knew for a while at least lean times lay ahead. However things being as they were Samuel reckoned that he had been alive for a thousand years, he would be able to survive. He had seen massacres before and he knew he would survive. It sickened him when he saw people been slaughtered for what their beliefs. Of course he was glad that the Moslems had been driven from the city, but at what cost? Samuel was wandering near the market when he was accosted by a group of drunken Christians. “What are you doing here Mohamed?” they cried “Don’t you know that your people have been driven from the city?” Samuel stood dead still and said “I am Samuel ben Johan, a Jew of this city. If you are a Jew show us!” said one of the crowd. This was followed by cheers and cat calls from a number of the mob. Samuel had to think quickly. He knew how a mobs playfulness could turn to hatred and destruction. Slowly he began backing up down the street. The mob was quick to notice this and they began drawing closer with significant glances at the daggers at their belts. One or two of the more drunken bullies in the crowd began drawing their weapons. Suddenly there was the clatter of hooves as a tall knight on a grey horse came trotting down the street. “What is going on here?” asked the knight in a heavy German accent. “My Lord we have caught an infidel” cried the leader of the mob. “Is this true?” said the knight turning in the saddle towards the Jew. “No sire I am Samuel Ben Johannes, Jew of this city” cried the Jew with fear. “I own a small inn a short way from here which I put at your disposal” he continued quickly. “I was out looking for food for my guests” he ended.

”What proof have that you are what you say you are?” said the leader of the mob. The knight looked on with interest. “Well, what have you to say Samuel or what ever you call yourself?” said the knight Gunther. “We did ask him to show us me lord” said one of the mob. “Quiet!” shouted Gunther. “Well Jew, prove you are what you say you are.” Samuel had lived through many humiliations this was just another of them he thought, as he slowly lifted his robe and dropped his loincloth. There was a hush in the street as the crowd looked on. Samuel dropped his robe. “Are you satisfied now?” he asked. Gunther looked down at him and said softly “Yes Jew you will live to see another day.” The crowd moved off down the road. Gunther sat still in the saddle and looked down at Samuel. “I am sorry that had to happen” he said “but we cannot be too sure now days. I apologize for my people’s behavior. You said you have an inn nearby? Do you think I can get a cup of wine there?” asked Gunther. Samuel was taken aback by this behavior and even more so by the apology of the Christian Knight. He had heard that all western Christians were barbarians with little thought of their fellow man. “Sire I will lead you there now. I have some fine wines which you might like, grown in our Judean Mountains” he said as he took the horses reigns and began to lead the German knight to the inn. This was to be the beginning of a friendship that would span two generations.

Samuel opened the door and allowed his guest to enter the inn. The main room of the inn was cool after the heat of the street outside. Gunther found a seat on a low bench and removed his helmet placing it on the bench next to him. Samuel brought the pitcher of wine and poured the amber liquid into a baked clay mug. Gunther took up the mug and drank deeply. “You have a good business here my friend” said Gunther. “A man tries” said Samuel, “but things are not always easy. I was trying to find some bread today at the market but alas there is no baker left so my wife will have to do some baking” said Samuel. “Ah yes I know we were a bit too hasty the other day when we entered the city” said Gunther with a sigh. Samuel detected a genuine sorrow in the young man’s voice.

”These things happen” said Samuel “the infidels also did the same when they were angry with my people said the Jew. I have seen it happen before so I cannot really say it was any different but what I cannot understand is why you Christians killed your own fellow believers at the churches. I have heard that hundreds died at the point of Christian swords I don’t understand how your people could do it.” “Ah yes that was a mistake. Some of us did try to stop the rabble but you know what men are like when their blood is hot for battle” Gunther said with a shrug.

The innkeeper’s wife entered the room with a platter of sweet meats and placed them before the knight, her eyes averted. Gunther began eating and as he ate he began telling the Jew of his experiences traveling from his home city of Bremen, in the German heartland; how green the country was, so different from the holy land. The Jew sat listening, occasionally asking questions. When the name of Constantinople came up the Jew’s face lit up as he listened, and his questions became more specific; what was the distant city like and what did people do for a living. What did they eat and were there many inns in the city; to all these questions the German knight gave honest answers with what he knew. It was not his fault that the information he had was mostly second hand and mainly superstition. It was like that all over the world in the 12th century.

They talked till late in the night before retiring to bed. The subject of their discussion was mainly the distant lands the knight had seen. All the while Samuel was carefully taking note of what was being said, storing it away for later reference. One did this more often as the years passed by because “you never know where you might one day open an inn” thought Samuel.

Over the following days Gunther became a regular guest at the inn and it was not to long before he made the inn his base. This afforded the innkeeper and the inn a measure of protection from marauding Christians from the west, who after a few weeks in the holy city began to lose their fierceness. As they adapted to the city’s climate now they were to be seen wandering around the city with open mouths wondering if this was the place where the Lord had drunk from a well or if this was the house with the upper room. All the while Samuel kept his own council not wanting to give too much away. One day Gunther arrived at the inn in a highly excited mood.

After he had refreshed himself, he called Samuel to his room and carefully unwrapped a small splinter of wood with much emotion and tears in his eyes. Gunther showed Samuel the treasure and said “I have found a piece of the true cross of the Lord! Look at how old it looks, it must be real”