The Penn's Grove record., 1903-06-26

OF Northern Africa with their blood with
out achieving any permanent results in
either Asia or Africa, their exodus from
Europe and their return to their former
homes were attended by consequences In
Europe far greater than would have been
the conquest of all the East and the rescue
of the relics of all the saints. In the first
place they had broken the power of the
Saracens by successive impacts upon hem,
by prolonged conflict with them.
They had fought fire with fire. Religious
fauaticism was matched against religious
fanaticism, and it inflicted such punish
ment upon the rapacious and cruel Mussul-
man that he has never been able to rally
from it. Although he reached the shores
of Europe later on, he was exhausted with
the struggle, and has continued in a state
OF languishing impotency ever since. In
the second place the Crusades had a
marked and lasting effect upon the Cru
saders themselves, and in spite OF their
suffering and losses the gain was greater
than the loss, for it brought them into di-
rect and immediate contact with the
East, at that time the cultivated and re-
pie and Antioch, the two great storehouses
of ancient art and learning, and the CEN
tres of the wealth and culture OF the East,
had become familiar to them. Antioch Z
was for a time in their hands. The splen-
did buildings, fine fabrics, beautiful stat
ues, costly gems, were a revelation to the
Crusaders, and served as object lessons.
while the elegant re6nements, splendid
courtesy, magnificent manners and ancient
learning of the East were not without their
effect upou the coarse, nude and untamed
barbarians of the West. Those who sur
vived the conflict returned with new ideas
of the character of the world IN which they
lived. of the meaning of civilization, of the
possibilities of humanity, and of the de-
fects of Europe. They had been to school
and had travelled. Their view of life had
been broadened and their minds enriched
by contact with superior conditions of 6fe.
and a great mental and moral revolution
lad been wrought in them. ~
But the Crusades had also an immediate
and lasting effect upon Europe itself. For
bv e~nlisting in the Crusades the serf bought
his freedom from the soil. The debtor was
freed from his creditor. He that went ont
a slave came back a free man with gold
coin in his pocket and some new ideas Of
the world in his head. Serfdom, v~illainaee
and slavery were practically abolished in.
Europe. The cities also had been able, by
immense sums of money paid to the hered-
itary princes, who held lordship over them.
to buy their freedom and secure charters
for themselves which made them independ-
emit in the control Of petty rulers, and by
the long absence of the mobiles in the East,
the middle classes had learned to admins
ter Inelr W dHdirs, anu 80 Tue pdckDone
of the feudal system was broken and the
period of freedom and enlightenment came
in. Modern industrialism was inaugurated.
New ideas sprang up and a redistribution
of wealth and privileges took place, to- Z
gether with a new sense of their own place
in the world and new wants and ambi-
tons in the common people. The imme-
date results to Europe of the Crusades
were i~ncalculable. A new spirit OF human
ity and of enterprise, of hope and OF ann
bition had sprung up.~and the death war
rant was signed of the ancient regime OF
ignorance, superstition and terror which
had reigned for a thousand years.
The second great movement that hast
ened the final conflict for religious liberty
was the Renaissance or revival OF learning
in Europe which followed upon the taking
Of Co~nstantinople by the Turks in 1853.
That was a momentous event for Western
Europe. It sent hundreds of Greek schoi-
ars and ~literatti to find refuge In the West. :
The learning and the MSS. which they
brought with them created a great STIR.
Schools, academies and universities sprang >
nm everywhere. and the church ceased to
be the sole custodian of knowledge: Ie
was as a part of that movement that the
University of Wittenberg was established
by the Elector of Saxony. to which one
Martin Luther cam In 1903 as preacher
and professor of theology. A spirit OF IN
curry was awakened, investigations were
instituted, and historical and scientific
studies were taken up in real earnest. The
cold and lifeless Journalism that had char
acterized the logic of the school men dis
appeared. The study of the Greek and Ro-
man classics became a passion. Pfinces
and potentates We'd with each other m Sc
curing eminent scholars and elegant Inter-
atti to adorn their courts, and the rcn
and the great became the profuse patrons
Of learning, and spared no pains and no
expense in collecting MSS. and creating
libraries and schools of learning. The
minds of men already liberated from their
ancient thralldom by the Crusades were
ouickened and enlightened by the new
learning which soon spread among all
classes of the people, sse.
In addition to these great movements
and perhaps as a consequence of them was
the spirit of adventure which now broke
out simultaneously In Italy and Span,
France and England, Germany and Hoi-
land. Inspired by Columbus, a native OF
Genoa, Italy, hundreds OF adventures
braved the perils of the untraversed seas
in search of new lands, or new passages 70
the East. New continents were discovered
and the globe was circumnavigated.
vention also was 1~uickened, printing by
| movable types and the manufacture OF
naper from rags had but recently been IN
! vented. The mariners compass came into
| general use in navigation. The telescope
fwas invented and the heavens expioreo lor
| new worlds, as the seas for new lands
| The whole period was one of unprecedent-
| ed mental activity and ferment. Coperni.
| Gus. by his new system of astronomy, ana
Kepler. by his laws, were soon revolution.
| king astronomy. All OF these things mad
their effects upon the minds Of men. Inc
| discovery of the size and shape OF the eartn,
| of its relation to other bodies in space: OF
~ .---~,nro Jseforeoc in the heavens and
| the vast systems of worlds IN space; the
! changes of mems ideas as to the centre OF
| the universe and the revelation that 1t was
! NOT the earth, but that the earth was only
an insignificant, member of a system whose
centre was the sun; all served to teach
men the uncertainty and anstabfhfy OF
things they had been accustomed to regard
az Established beyond the peradventure OF
doubt, and led them to expect and pre-
pared them to receive changes IN other
spheres of thought and realms of life. "A
spirit of skepticism became general ana m
yaded even the church, and everything
seemed to converge upon and conspire TO,
ward a single point, until nothing eouia
withstand the conjunction of forces which
worked to free the human mind from bond
age and the human spirit from thraldom-.
Suffice it to say in closing that the great
est blessings we now possess, the sanctlfy
of our homes, our personal security ana
freedom. and the right to make the most
Of ourselves, has been secured to US as the
ious liberty. The freedom OF the press,
the right Of every man TIC worship God IN
his own way, the democratic principles OF
government, the right of a mar as such,
regardless of his place or position IN the
social scale or of his worldly possessions,
and the demand for absolute justice for all
men. equally irrespective of race, sex or
- l.k.~ - H. fIo-o and many af the