The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1903-07-08

Europe lar greater than would nave Deen
| the conquest of all the East and the rescue
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
| fanaticisn was matched against religious
fanaticism, and it inflicted such punish
ment upon the rapaeious and cruel MuSsMl'
man that he has never been able to rally
from it. Although he reached the shores
OF Europe later on, be was exhausted with
the struggle, and has continued IN state
of languishing impoteney ever since. IN
the second place the Crusades had a
marked and lasting effect upon the CRU
saders themselves, End in spite of their
suffering and losses the gain was greater
than the loss, for it brought them into d.
| rect and immediate contact with the
| East, at that time the cultivated and re-
| fined portion of the world. Constanttno-
pie and Antioch, the t' great storehouses
Of ancient art and learning, and the CEN
tres Of the wealth and culture of the East,
was for a time in their hands. The sp!en-
did buildings, fine fabrics, beautiful stat
| ues, costly gems, were a revelation to the
| Crusaders, and served as object lessons.
while the elegant reinements, .splend 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
| 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 'ife.
and a great mental and moral revolution
lad been wrought in ther.
But the Crusades had also an immediate
and lasting effect upon Europe itself For
nv enlisting in the Crusades the sert bought
his freedom from the SOIL The debtor was
| freed from his creditor: He that went ont
| slave came hack free man with gold
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.
| to buy their freedom and secure charters
| for themselves which made them independ-
ent 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 I'D and redistribution
| of wealth and privileges took place, to.
| cether with new sense of their own place
| in the world and new wants and ambi.
| tions in the common people. The lmme'
diate results to Europe Of the Crusades
were incalculable. A new spirit of human
ity and of enterprise, of hone and OF am
bi:ion had sprung up; and the death war:
rant was signed of the ancient regime OF
| ignorance, superstition and terror WnIcn
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 ll53.
| That was a momentons event TOR western
Europe. It sent hundreds of Greek schol'
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 spTane
ND everywhere, and the church ceased TO
be the sole custodian Of knowledge; IL
| was as n part of that movement that the
University of Wittenherg was established
| nv the Elector of Sayony. to which one
Martin Luther came in 1908 as preacher
and professor OF theology A spirit OF IN
nrirv was awakened, investigat tions were
instituted. and historical and scientific
Studies were taken up in real earnest. The
cold and ifeless 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, Prlnces
and potentates We'd with each other IN Sc
curing eminent scholars and elegant llter.
atti to adorn Sheir courts. and the r,cn
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. Ihe
minds OF men already liberated from their
ancient thralldom by the Crusades were
1uickened and enlightened by the new
learning which soon spread among all
classes OF the peop]e.
In addition to these great movements
and perhaps as a consequence OF them was
Che spirit of adventure which now broke
mt mt Simultaneously in Italy and Spain,
France and England. Germany and Hol::
land. Inspired by Columbus, 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. In
vention also was uuickened, 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 tor
| new worlds, as the seas for new lands.
The whole period was one of unpreeedent'
ed mental activity and ferment. Coperni::
Gus, by his new system of astronomy, ano
kepler, by his laws, were soon revolutlon,,
ling astronomy. All of these things mao
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
the immense distances in the heavens end
the vast systems of worlds in space; the
changes of mems ideas as to the, centre OF
not the earth, but that the earth was only
an insignificant member of system whose
centre was the sun; all served to teach
men the uncertainty and instability OF
things they had been accustomed to regard
as 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 e. life, A
spirit of skepticism became general and IN
vaded even the church, and everything
seemed to converge upon and consplre 70;
withstand the conjunction of forces when
worked to free the human mind from bond
age and the human spirit from thralldom.,
Suffice it to say in closing that the great.
est blessings we now possess, the sanctity
Of our homes, our personal security and
freedom. and the right to make the most
of ourselves, has been secured to US as the
result of that world-long struggle for rellg'
ious liberty. The freedom of the press,
the right of every man to worship God IN
his own way, the democratic principles OF
government, the right of man as such,
regardless of his place or position IN the
social scale or of his worldly possessions,
men. equally irrcsnective of race, sex or
condition of life-these and many of the
nreat nrinnin,es nnw taking front rank