and the throne upon which is seated the Desired of all nations, the Messiah of the new times, he who is to make all things new."[2] Yet all eyes were turned toward Syria, where a French knight, Jean de Brienne, had just been declared King of Jerusalem (1210), and toward which were hastening the bands of the children's crusade.
The conversion of Francis, radical as it was, giving a new direction to his thoughts and will, had not had power to change the foundation of his character.

"In a great heart everything is great." In vain is one changed at conversion--he remains the same.

That which changes is not he who is converted, but his surroundings; he is suddenly introduced into a new path, but he runs in it with the same ardor.

Francis still remained a knight, and it is perhaps this which won for him in so high a degree the worship of the finest souls of the Middle Ages.

There was in him that longing for the unknown, that thirst for adventures and sacrifices, which makes the history of his century so grand and so attractive, in spite of many dark features.
Those who have a genius for religion have generally the privilege of illusion.