The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1903-07-02

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took pace among all classes Of people.
Kings and peasants, priests and lawyers,
merchants and bankers were swept by the
same mighty impulse and fired by the same
zeal, which for the time burned alike in
every breast and submerged calculations
and seit-lnterest All alike were moved to
venture life and fortune in the holy cause.
During the space Of 200 years seven up
| heavas q the population took place known
as the Crusades, five of them prodigious
and two OF them only relatively lesser, all
| Of them mighty. Before the frenzy Kim
died by Peter the Hermit died out i'm
| mense treasure was squandered, multitudes
| of lives were sacrificed and apparently
| nothing accomplished; total and disastrous
| failure seemed to attend it all.
But here again we are mistaken If we
| Judge by appearances. For although the
Crusaders whltened the plains Of Asia Mi
| nor with their bones and dyed the grass
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 consequ snces in
Europe far greater than would nave 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.
| fanaticism 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 a state
| Of languishing impotency ever since. In
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
| was for time in their hands The spen-
did buildings, fine fabrics, beautiful stat
| ues, costly gems, were a revelation to the
| Crusaders, and served as object lessons,
while the elegant refinements, spien did
| courtesy, magnificent manners and ancient
| learning of the East were not without their
| effect upon 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-
|
and had travelled. Their view of life had
been broadened and their minds enriched
| by contact with superior conditions OF life,
and great mental and moral revolution
had been wrought in them.
But the Crusades had also an immediate
and lasting effect upon Europe itself. For
| by enlisting In the Crusades the serf bought
his freedom from the soil. The debtor was
| freed from his creditor. He that went out
a slave came back free man with gold
coin in his pocket and some new ideas of
| the world in his head Serfdom, villainage
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,
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 their own affairs, and so the backbone
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-
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 incalculable. A new spirit of human
ity and Of enterprise, OF hope and OF am
bieion had sprung up. and the death war;
rant was signed of the ancient regime Of
| ignorance, superstition and terror which
had reigned for 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 Constantinople by the Turks in 1853.
| That was a momentorls event for Western
| of bot-
ars and literatti to find refuge in the West.
The learning and the MSS. which they
brought with them created great stir.
| Schools, academies and universities sprang
up everywhere, and the church ceased to
| be the sole custodian OF knowledge. 1t
was as a part Of that movement that the
| University of Witteaberg was established
by the Elector of Saxony. to which one
Martin Luther came in 1908 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 life,ess 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. Princes
and potentates We'd with each other in Sc
curing eminent scholars and elegant liter
atti to adorn their courts, and the rich
and the great became the profuse patrons
| OF learning, ana spared no pans ana 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
quickened and enlightened by the new
learning which soon spread among all
classes of the people.
| Tn 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 Spain,
France and England, Germany and Hol-
land Inspired by Columbus, native of
Genoa, italy, hundreds Of adventurers
braved the peri!s of the untraversed seas
in search Of new lands. or new passages to
! the East. New continents were discovered
and the globe was circumnavigated. In
vention also was ouickened, printing by
movable types and the manufacture of
paper from rags had but recently been in
vented. The mariners compass came into
general use in navigation. The telescope
was invented and the heavens explored for
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, and
| Kepler, by his laws were soon revolution