CRUSADES,

A name given to the military expeditions undertaken by the Christians of Europe for the deliverance of the Holy Land from the dominion of the Saracens and Turks.

About seventy years after the death of Christ, Jerusalem was taken and destroyed by Titus. But, sixty years afterwards, the city was rebuilt by Hadrian, and the Christians were permitted to return to it. Their establishment, however, existing only by a precarious tolerance, was by no means flourishing, till Constantine embraced the Christian faith, and declared it the religion of the empire. This auspicious change, as might have been expected, greatly improved their condition; and when the Empress Helena visited Jerusalem, this princess, having ordered the places which had been signalized by evangelical events to be cleared of rubbish, caused the most hallowed spots to be inclosed within the walls of a spacious church. But, in the latter days of the empire, as knowledge declined, superstition advanced, and the feelings of reverence originally inspired by Christianity itself were transferred to the material and visible objects with which the principal events in the life of its great founder were associated. Hence, among zealous but ignorant Christians a strong desire was excited to visit the scenes of our Saviour’s miracles and passion; and pilgrimages to Palestine accordingly became a frequent, because they were considered as a meritorious practice, throughout the whole of Christendom. In the year 637, Jerusalem was taken by the Saracens; but either from indifference regarding observances which they despised, or from motives of immediate interest, the resort of pilgrims to Jerusalem was not interdicted nor discountenanced by these conquerors. This toleration however ceased when the Turks, in the year 1063, got possession of the holy city. That wild, fierce, and fanatical horde, though superior in force and military prowess, were yet immeasurably inferior in civilization, to the people whom they had expelled; and as they made no scruple to plunder and insult their Christian visitors, the dangers of the pilgrimage, painted in the darkest colours by those who had returned, began to threaten a discontinuance of what was then considered as a sacred duty. But a strong revulsion of feeling was ere long produced. Terror yielded to the fiercest indignation, and religious enthusiasm, blending itself with the martial spirit of the age, produced and stamped upon the general mind that adventurous character which ultimately led to these memorable expeditions. About this time, too, an opinion prevailed in Europe, which tended much to inflame the desire to visit the Holy Land. It was believed that the thousand years mentioned in the twentieth chapter of the Revelations were fulfilled; that Christ would soon make his second appearance in Palestine to judge the world; and that journeys to that country were consequently in the highest degree meritorious, if not even absolutely necessary. Accordingly, multitudes of pilgrims flocked to Palestine; and as these were systematically plundered and maltreated by the Turks, they on their return filled all Europe with complaints against the infidels who had profaned the holy city by their presence, and derided the sacred mysteries of Christianity even in the place where they were fulfilled. At this time Pope Gregory VII. had formed a design of uniting all the princes of Christendom against the Mahommedans; but hisexorbitant encroachments upon the civil power of princes had created him so many enemies, and rendered his schemes so suspicious, that he was unable to make any considerable progress in the undertaking. The work was reserved for a meaner instrument.

These memorable expeditions commenced in the year 1096. Peter, commonly called the Hermit, a native of Amiens, in Picardy, had made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem; and, being deeply affected with the dangers to which that act of devotion exposed the pilgrims, as well as with the oppression under which the eastern Christians groaned, he formed the bold, and, to all appearance, impracticable design of leading into Asia, from the farthest extremities of the West, armies sufficient to subdue the warlike nations by whom the Holy Land was now held in subjection. He proposed his scheme to Urban IL, vyho then filled the papal chair; but this pope, though apparently sensible of the advantages which would accrue to himself from such an undertaking, resolved not to interpose his authority until he saw a greater probability of success. He therefore summoned at Placentia a council, consisting of four thousand ecclesiastics and thirty thousand laymen; and as no hall could be found large enough to contain so great a multitude, the assembly was held on a plain. Here the pope himself, as well as Peter, harangued the people, representing the dismal situation of their brethren in the East, and the indignity offered to the Christian name in allowing the holy city to remain in the hands of the infidels. These speeches were so agreeable to those who heard them, that the whole multitude suddenly and vehemently declared for war, and solemnly devoted themselves to perform this service, which they believed to be highly meritorious in the sight of God.

But though Italy seemed to embrace the design with ardour, yet the pontiff thought it necessary, in order to insure perfect success, to engage the greater and more warlike nations in the same enterprise. Having therefore exhorted Peter to visit the chief cities and sovereigns of Christendom, he summoned another council at Clermont, in Auvergne. The fame of this mighty and pious design being now universally diffused, the greatest prelates, nobles, and princes attended; and when the pope and the hermit renewed their pathetic exhortations, the whole assembly, as if impelled by an immediate inspiration, exclaimed with one voice, “It is the will of God; it is the will of God.” These words were deemed so memorable, and considered so much the effect of a divine impulse, that they were employed as the signal of rendezvous and battle in all the future exploits of the crusaders. Men of every rank now flew to arms with the utmost ardour; a cross was affixed to the right shoulder by all who enlisted in the holy enterprise; and the projected expedition was denominated a crusade.

At this time Europe was sunk in the most profound ignorance and superstition. The ecclesiastics had gained a complete ascendant over the human mind; and the people, who committed the most horrid crimes and disorders, knew of no other expiation for their sins than the observances imposed upon them by their spiritual pastors. But amidst the abject superstition which then prevailed, the military spirit had also universally diffused itself; and, though supported neither by art nor by discipline, it had become the general passion of the nations governed by the feudal law. All the great lords possessed the right of peace and war. They were engaged in almost continual hostilities ;—the open country had become a scene of outrage and disorder;—and the cities, being still mean and poor, were neither guarded by walls nor protected by privileges. Every man was obliged to depend for safety upon his own force or his private alliances; and valour was the only quality held in [7:7:485]esteem, or which gave one man a pre-eminence above another. When all the superstitions, therefore, were united in one great object, the ardour for military adventure took the same direction; and the whole of Europe, as the Princess Anna Comnena expresses herself, torn from its foundations, seemed ready to precipitate itself in one united body upon Asia.

As all orders of men now deemed the crusades the only road to heaven, they became impatient to open the way with their swords to the holy city. Nobles, artisans, peasants, and even priests, inrolled their names; and to decline this service was to incur the reproach of impiety or cowardice, probably of both. The nobles who enlisted themselves were moved by the romantic spirit of the age to hope for opulent establishments in the East, which was at that time the chief seat of arts and commerce; and in pursuit of these chimerical projects, they sold at the lowest price their ancient castles and inheritances, which indeed had by this time lost all value in their eyes. The infirm and the aged contributed to the expedition by presents and money; whilst many of them, not satisfied with this, attended it in person, being determined, if possible, to breathe their last in sight of that city where Jesus Christ had died for tire human race. Even women, having concealed their sex under the disguise of armour, attended the camp; and, as is said, forgot their duty still more, by prostituting themselves to the army. The greatest criminals were forward in a service which they considered as an expiation of their crimes; and, during the course of these expeditions, the most enormous disorders were committed by men inured to wickedness, encouraged by example, and impelled by necessity. The multitude of adventurers soon increased so greatly, that their more sagacious leaders became apprehensive lest the vastness of the armament should cause the ruin of the enterprise. For this reason they permitted an undisciplined multitude, computed at three hundred thousand men, to go before them under the command of Peter the Hermit, and Gaultier or Walter, surnamed the Moneyless, from his being a soldier of fortune. These took the road through Hungary and Bulgaria towards Constantinople; and trusting that heaven, by supernatural assistance, would supply all their necessities, they made no provision for subsistence on their march. But they soon found themselves obliged to obtain by plunder what they had vainly expected from miracles; so that the enraged inhabitants of the countries through which they passed attacked the disorderly multitude, and slaughtered them almost without resistance. The more disciplined armies followed after; and, having passed the strait of Constantinople, they were mustered in the plains of Asia, to the amount of nearly seven hundred thousand men.

The first crusade, as already mentioned, occurred in the year 1096 The princes engaged in it were Hugo, count of Vermandois, brother of Philip I. king of France; Robert, duke of Normandy; Robert, earl of Flanders; Raymond, earl of Toulouse; Godefroy of Bouillon, duke of Lorrain, with his brothers Baldwin and Eustace; Stephen, earl of Chartres and Blois; Hugo, count of St Paul; with a great number of other lords. The general rendezvous, as above stated, was at Constantinople. Having besieged and taken Nice, and defeated Solyman, in 1097, the crusaders under Godefroy proceeded eastward, where Baldwin conquered Edessa, and erected it into a principality. In the end of 1098 they took the town, but not the citadel, of Antioch, I and defeated an army of six hundred thousand Saracens which had advanced to the relief of the latter. In 1099 they advanced to Jerusalem, with little more than a twentieth part of their original number, and, after a siege of forty days, carried it by storm, putting all its inhabitants, except the Christians, to the sword. The victorious Godefroy was now raised to the throne of Jerusalem, and soon added security to his conquest by defeating the soldan of Egypt with an innumerable army on the plains of Askalon. But the heroic chief was deprived of the reward of his valour by a papal legate, who had been elected patriarch, and who contrived to unite the temporal with the spiritual power, leaving to Godefroy only the small principality of Jaffa, and some immunities in that of Jerusalem. The crusaders, seeing their object accomplished, now began to return to Europe, and the few who remained in the settlements of Jerusalem, Antioch, Edessa, and the Syrian Tripoli, were obliged to depend for defence against the Turks on the gradual accession of adventurers whom the fame of their exploits had attracted from Christendom. Thus terminated the first crusade.

The second crusade, preached by Bernard, the founder of the monastic order of Bernardines, and undertaken in the year 1146, was headed by the Emperor Conrad III. and by Louis VII. king of France. Their united forces amounted to about three hundred thousand; but the emperor was defeated by the Turks near Iconium, and with difficulty escaped to Antioch; and, a short time afterwards, Louis suffered a similar reverse, having, through the disaffection of the Christians of Syria, been forced to raise the siege of Damascus, and compelled to witness the ruin of his army. The disastrous issue of these attempts for their relief only hastened the decline of the Christian principalities in Asia. Having defeated the army of Jerusalem at the battle of Tiberias, and made prisoner Guy of Lusignan, who then wore the crown, the soldan of Egypt entered the holy city as a conqueror in the year 1187.

The third crusade, undertaken in the year 1188, immediately followed the taking of Jerusalem by Saladin.^[1. This is a corruption of Sαlαh∙Eddiu, the true name of the soldan or sultan. ] The princes engaged in this expedition were, the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, and Frederick, duke of Suabia, his second son; Leopold, duke of Austria; Berthold, duke of Moravia; Herman, marquis of Baden; the Counts of Nassau, Thuringia, Missen, and Holland, and above sixty other princes of the empire; together with the Bishops of Besançon, Cambray, Munster, Osnaburg, Missen, Passau, Visburg, and several others. In this expedition the Emperor Frederick defeated the sultan of Iconium; but his son Frederick, having been joined by Guy of Lusignan, king of Jerusalem, in vain endeavoured to reduce St Jean d’Acre or Ptolemais. During these transactions Philip the Second of France, and Richard the First of England, joined the crusade, by which means the Christian army was raised to three hundred thousand fighting men. With this enormous force Ptolemais was again besieged, and, in spite of a very gallant resistance, taken; but Philip, unable to brook the real or affected superiority of his rival, quitted the Holy Land in disgust, and Richard had the undivided honour of defeating the mighty Saladin. His victory, however, was productive of nothing but glory. Reduced by the casualties of war, enfeebled by the influence of climate, and utterly paralysed by intestine broils, the army gradually melted away, and Richard Coeur de Lion, like the preceding leaders, returned to Europe, unaccompanied even by a remnant of his once mighty host. But on his way through Austria he was arrested and detained in prison until an immense ransom had been extracted from his subjects. Before his departure from Syria, however, he had concluded a peace with Saladin, who soon afterwards died.

The fourth crusade was undertaken in the year 1195, [7:7:486]by the Emperor Henry VI. after Saladin’s death. In this expedition the Christians gained several battles over the infidels, took many towns, and were in a fair way of success, when the death of the emperor obliged them to quit the Holy Land, and return into Germany.

The fifth crusade was proclaimed by order of Pope Innocent III. in 1198. But those engaged in it made fruitless efforts for the recovery of the Holy Land; for, although John de Neule, who commanded the fleet equipped in Flanders, arrived at Ptolemais a little after Simon of Montfort, Reynard of Dampierre, and others, yet the plague having destroyed many of them, the rest either returned, or engaged in the petty quarrels of the Christian princes. In 1202, Baldwin, count of Flanders, collected an army to act against the Mahommedans, but commenced with the Christians of Greece. Having arrived at Constantinople during a disputed succession, he tempted one claimant to assassinate his rival, then dispatched the other by the hand of the executioner; and, having indulged his followers with the plunder of the city, seated himself on the throne of the eastern empire. In this splendid conquest the original object of the expedition was forgotten, and only a few knights passed over into Asia.

The sixth crusade commenced in 1228. On this occasion the Christians took the town of Damietta, but were afterwards forced to surrender it. The next year the Emperor Frederick made peace with the soldan of Egypt, brother of Saladin, for ten years, and obtained possession of Jerusalem by treaty. But the holy city was soon wrested from the Christians by a new enemy, namely, the Tartars, who fled before the irruption of Genghis Khan, and, having overrun all Judea, forced the crusaders to confine themselves to the maritime towns on the coast of Syria. About 1240, Richard, earl of Cornwall, and brother of Henry III. king of England, arrived in Palestine at the head of the English crusade; but finding it most advantageous to conclude a peace, he re-embarked, and steered towards Italy.

The seventh crusade was headed by Louis XI. commonly called St Louis, who in the year 1249 took the town of Damietta. But sickness having broken out in the Christian army, the king endeavoured to retreat. In this, however, he was unsuccessful; for being closely pursued by the Saracens, he was defeated and taken prisoner near Mas-soura, in 1750, along with nearly all his nobility. A truce was then agreed to for ten years, and the king and his followers were set at liberty upon the payment of a ransom.

The eighth crusade, undertaken in 1270, was headed by the same prince, who having embarked with an armament from the southern ports of his kingdom, landed in Africa, and encamped,near the ruins of Carthage. But he was immediately surrounded and besieged by the Moors; a contagious distemper now attacked his troops, carrying off great numbers; and Louis, having himself caught it, died in the fifty-fifth year of his age. The king of Sicily, however, having arrived with a considerable fleet, and joined Philip the Bold, son and successor of Louis, the king of Tunis, after several engagements in which he was always worsted, sued for peace, which was granted upon conditions advantageous to the Christians; and after this both princes embarked for their own kingdoms. Prince Edward of England, who arrived at Tunis at the time of this treaty, sailed towards Ptolemais, where he landed with a small body of three hundred English and French, and prevented Bendokdar from laying siege to that place; but being obliged to quit Palestine in order to take possession of the crown of England, this crusade ended without contributing in any degree to the recovery of the Holy Land. In 1291, the town of Acre, or Ptolemais, was taken and plundered by the soldan of Egypt, and the Christians were driven entirely out of Syria.

After this time there was no crusade, though several popes attempted to stir up the Christians to such an undertaking, particularly Nicholas IV. in 1292, and Clement V. in 1311. Indeed, long before the age of St Louis the appetite for holy wars had been greatly blunted in Europe, and, owing to the small number of recruits who arrived in Palestine, the Christian settlers were gradually led to intermarry with their Moslemin neighbours. The descendants of the crusaders consequently degenerated into a mongrel race, half Christian half Mahommedan, who ere long either forgot their pretensions to an European origin, or became altogether indifferent about the subject. After Tyre and Ptolemais had been wrested from them they soon became blended with theMaliommedan population of Syria, and not a vestige of the Christian conquest remained.

The foregoing sketch embraces but a faint and meagre outline of these memorable expeditions; but were the details to be filled in so as to constitute an expanded narrative, several volumes would be insufficient to contain it. What we have aimed at is merely to trace out in their order the leading facts, to indicate the prominent characteristics, and to mark the immediate results of each successive enterprise undertaken for the conquest of the Holy Land. Our object has been to direct the attention of the reader, in the first instance, to the events themselves, exclusively of all speculations either as to their general complexion, or the consequences, whether proximate or remote, of which they are supposed to have been productive. What still remains, in order to complete the design of the present article, is, first, to exhibit a general sketch of the grand picture presented by the crusades; and, secondly, to endeavour to estimate the influence which they exerted, both at the time and afterwards, on the state and condition of society.

I. The history of the middle ages presents no spectacle half so imposing as that of the expeditions undertaken for the recovery of the Holy Land from the Infidels. The picture which these exhibit is that of the people of Europe and Asia reciprocally armed against each other; that of two religions in fierce conflict for the mastery. By a sudden and extraordinary impulse, the West, formerly menaced by the Moslemins, and indeed exposed to their attacks, seemed to rise en masse in order to precipitate itself on Asia. Forgetful of their individual interests, sinking their mutual jealousies, and abandoning their ancient feuds, the nations of Europe, uniting in a common pursuit, fixed their eyes upon a single country as the only one upon earth worthy the ambition of conquerors, lt might have been supposed indeed that the world contained no city but Jerusalem, and no country fit to be inhabited except that in which Jesus Christ had lived and taught, suffered and died. Every road leading to Palestine was drenched with blood, and along its dreary tract lay scattered at no distant intervals the skeletons and the wrecks of nations. In this general commotion the most sublime virtues were displayed in the midst of the most frightful disorders. The soldiers of the cross, animated with a supernatural enthusiasm, braved hunger and thirst, fatigue and disease, the influence of a deadly climate and the fury of exasperated enemies; in the greatest dangers, and amidst incessant disorders and excesses, nothing could shake their perseverance, nothing exhaust their resignation. After four years of toil, and misery, and victory, Jerusalem was conquered by the crusaders; but as their conquests were not the work of wisdom and prudence, but the fruit of a blind enthusiasm and an ill-directed heroism, they laid the foundation of no permanent settlements, and, in fact, soon melted away like frost-work in the sun.

When the banner of the cross had passed from the heroic[7:7:487] hands of Godefroy of Bouillon into those of his feeble and incompetent successors, Jerusalem, which had now become Christian, was forced to implore fresh succours from the West. At the call of St Bernard, the Christians again took up arms, and, conducted by an emperor of Germany and a king of France, rushed to the defence of the Holy Land. But they had no longer great captains to command them, and no longer did they exhibit the magnanimity and heroic resignation which had distinguished their predecessors. Asia beheld the new invaders without dismay; already it presented a different spectacle from that which the first crusaders had witnessed. The followers of Mahommed had recovered from their consternation; they had even become possessed with a delirium similar to that which had impelled the crusaders against them; they opposed enthusiasm to enthusiasm, and fanaticism to fanaticism; and, in their turn, they burned with a sanguinary zeal to shed blood in a religious war. The spirit of discord, which had formerly 7 proved their ruin, was now confined to the Christians. The luxury, the manners, and the climate of the East had enfeebled the courage of the defenders of the cross, and caused them to forget the objects for which the holy war had been undertaken. Jerusalem, the conquest of which had cost the crusaders so much blood, fell into the hands of the Infidels, and became the prize of a wise and warlike prince, who had united under his banners the forces of Syria and Egypt.

The genius and fortune of Saladin enabled him to inflict a mortal blow on the ill-cemented power of the Christians in the East. In vain did an emperor of the West, and two kings renowned for their valour, put themselves at the head of the forces of their respective states, and march to deliver Palestine. These new armies of crusaders found everywhere insurmountable obstacles or invincible enemies; and efforts, which promised so much, produced only 7 splendid misfortunes. The kingdom of Jerusalem, the ruins of which were still disputed, had become but the shadow of a name; and even the captivity and misfortunes of the holy city soon ceased to draw tears from the eyes of Christians, or to fill them with the transports of a warlike piety. The crusaders who had armed themselves for the deliverance of the heritage of Christ, allowed themselves to be seduced by the riches of Greece, and instead of rushing with fervid impetuosity on Palestine, stopped short to attempt the conquest of Constantinople. From this time the crusades began to assume a new character, and appear to have had another object, as well as another motive, than at the period of their commencement. W r hilst a small number of Christians still shed their blood for the deliverance of the holy sepulchre, the greater part of the princes, leaders, and knights of the cross listened only to the voice of ambition; and the popes completed the corruption of the original spirit by preaching crusades against Christian states and against their personal enemies. Holy wars thus degenerated into civil commotions, in the course of which religion and humanity were equally outraged, while the rights of nations and the liberties of mankind were trampled under foot.

This abuse of the crusades, and the fatal passions which it called into play, had plunged Europe into disorder and anarchy 7 , when a pious monarch undertook once more to arm the West against the Infidels, and to rekindle in the bosoms of new crusaders the heroic ardour which had animated the companions of Godefroy. But the two expeditions, directed by this sainted leader, proved the most disastrous of all. In the first, the world had the spectacle presented to it of an army in captivity, and a king in letters; in the second, that of a powerful monarch perishing near the ruins of Carthage, of the same pestilence which had desolated his ranks. In Egypt, the fortune of arms placed him at the mercy of the Infidels whom he went to conquer; in Africa, the plague claimed him as its victim. These misfortunes contributed powerfully to dispel the illusion which had so long reigned supreme over the public mind; and from this time Jerusalem ceased to excite the passions or to attract the regards of the children of the West. But Europe, much as it had suffered, was, by the compensatory law of Providence, destined to reap important benefits in return. So many revolutions did not take place, so many distant expeditions were not undertaken, in vain. Some gleams of civilization penetrated athwart the darkness of barbarism; and the first effect of the light which the crusades began to scatter abroad, was to weaken the spirit of exaltation in which they 7 had had their origin. Attempts were afterwards made to rekindle the flame which had at first overspread all Europe, and burned with consuming fury in Asia; but these proved utterly abortive. The nations recovered from their pious delirium; languor succeeded to enthusiasm, and lassitude passed into indifference; so that, when Germany found itself menaced by the Moslemins, who were already masters of Constantinople, the banner of the cross could scarcely summon together a few thousand warriors; and Europe, which had risen almost en masse to attack the Infidels in Asia, could oppose to them only a feeble resistance upon its own territory.

II. Having thus endeavoured to explain the origin and to illustrate the spirit and character of the crusades, it now remains to show what influence they produced upon the state and condition of society. On this subject different opinions have been entertained at different times. In the seventeenth century sentiment prevailed over reason; the heroic valour of the crusaders was admired, their reverses w ere deplored; and, without reference to the good or evil produced by these distant expeditions, men respected the pious motives which had induced the warriors of the West to take up arms. In the eighteenth century, which had imbibed the spirit of reform, an opposite tendency showed itself; and these enterprises were represented as the joint product of ignorance, fanaticism, and barbarism. In 1773 Voltaire published a history of the crusades; but the subject was then so generally decried, and the author had thrown so much ridicule on the events which he related, that his book excited little curiosity, and found but few readers. The same tone was afterwards assumed by the writers of the Encyclopedic, who adopted the sarcasms and greatly exaggerated the declamations of Voltaire; and this mode of judging the crusades became so general, that even the panegyrists of St Louis could scarcely forgive that pious monarch his exploits and misfortunes in Egypt and at Tunis. But in due time philosophy, enlightened by research and analysis, investigated the causes of events, studied their effects, and, searching for the truth, abandoned satire and declamation. In the introduction to his History of Charles the Fifth, Robertson expressed his conviction that the crusades had favoured the progress of freedom and the advancement of the human mind; and the conclusion of the historian, whether it flattered some of the opinions of the time, or exercised on the public mind the natural ascendency of truth, soon found many partizans. From this time writers began to judge with less severity of the oriental expeditions of the crusaders, and to consider these as a subject of philosophical inquiry, rather than as a theme for declamation or ridicule. Hence, about twenty years ago, the Institute of France, in a truly liberal and enlightened spirit, proposed to the learned in general, as a subject of competition, the advantages which society had derived from the crusades; and two memoirs, one by M. Hercen, and another by Μ. de Choiseul d’Aillecourt[7:7:488], obtained the prize offered by the Institute on this occasion. The object of both these productions, which are remarkable for the erudition and sound critical spirit which they display, is to establish the principle that the holy wars were, in their consequences, productive of advantages to posterity which greatly overbalanced the calamities they inflicted on contemporary generations. It may be added that these very able and learned memoirs form as it were the basis of Michaud’s more ample and satisfactory work, entitled H/istoire des Croisades, to which we are happy in having an opportunity of expressing our obligations. Upon the whole, then, it appears that, in the course of two centuries, opinions have several times changed on the subject of the crusades; and that, long as the period is which has elapsed since these memorable expeditions were undertaken, there is still great room for the exercise of caution in endeavouring to estimate the precise amount of the influence which they eventually exercised on society.

It may be observed, indeed, that what the crusades wanted in order to propitiate favourable judgments, was success. Let us, however, suppose for a moment, that these distant expeditions had succeeded to the fullest extent, and endeavour to show what would, in that case, have been the results. Egypt, Syria, and Greece would have become Christian colonies; the nations of the East and of the West would have advanced hand in hand in the career of civilization; the language of the Franks would have penetrated to the extremities of Asia; the coasts of Barbary, inhabited by pirates, would have received the manners and the laws of Europe; and the interior of Africa would not long have remained a region impenetrable to the activity of commerce, or the researches of science and discovery. In order to judge what might have been gained by this union of so many nations and races of men under the same laws and the same religion, it is only necessary to consider the state of the Roman world under the successors of Augustus, forming in some sort but one people, living under the same laws, and speaking the same language. All the seas were free; the most distant provinces communicated with one another by means of admirable roads; cities exchanged their arts, their industry, and their varied productions; nations maintained a commerce of knowledge, on principles of perfect reciprocity. If the crusades had subjected the East to Christendom, it is not unreasonable to believe that this magnificent spectacle, which the human race had only once seen, would have been renewed in modern times; and then opinions would not have been divided as to the advantage of the holy wars. But, unhappily, the crusaders could neither extend nor preserve their conquests; they wanted the faculty of improving victory, and they were unable to repair the consequences of defeat. The results of the crusades, therefore, are on this account more difficult to be determined; whilst the good which is ascribed to them is immeasurably less obvious and striking. The evils which they caused to humanity were great, though temporary; as to the good which they produced, it was like a germ which remained long hid in the earth, and at length developed itself slowly and imperceptibly. Let us, however, glance at the state and condition of the different powers of Europe before, during, and after the crusades, noting the principal changes that occurred, and the ameliorations which were gradually effected.

1. At the commencement of the twelfth century, the French monarchy had fallen into a state of weakness and decay; but in the course of the succeeding ages, it revived and attained to great prosperity and splendour. Able negotiations, successful wars, useful alliances, the decay of the feudal system, and the progressive emancipation of the commonalty, favoured the dynasty of the Capets in the aggrandisement of their states and the increase of their authority. Several centuries were employed in consummating this great work of fortune or of policy; but the revolution, thus slowly operated, was attended with effects proportionally durable. The policy of the French kings, however, was seconded by the great events of the crusades; and it was natural that the nation which had taken the greatest share in these enterprises, should profit the most by them, for the increase of its power and the amelioration of its social condition. The royal authority derived equal benefit from the exploits and the reverses of the numerous warriors whom the crusades had hurried into Asia. The removal, the death, or the ruin of the great vassals of the crown, equally enabled the sovereign to disengage himself from the fetters of feudal anarchy, and to establish order in the kingdom. More than a century before the first crusade, the barons and the prelates had ceased to meet in general assemblies, for the purpose of regulating the forms of justice, and of giving to the acts of the sovereign the support of their political influence. But at the time of the second crusade, there were several assemblies of the grandees of the kingdom, at which they occupied themselves with preparations for the expedition, and with measures for maintaining public order and the execution of the laws during the absence of Louis VII.; and in these meetings the French beheld a faint image of the assemblies, so celebrated under the former races of kings, in which the monarch and his subjects deliberated together as to the best means of insuring the safety of the throne and the independence of the nation. Thus the crusades aided the kings of France in recovering their legislative power, and enabled the more enlightened portion of the nation to repossess themselves of those ancient prerogatives which they had exercised under the descendants of Clovis and of Charlemagne. The great vassals who, in the time of Hugues Capet, and for more than a century afterwards, had been continually opposed to the crown, from which they had separated their interests, became animated with different sentiments when they saw the French monarchs at the head of expeditions which fixed the attention of Christendom, and in which the cause of Jesus Christ himself and that of all Christian nations was concerned. In a word, to understand how much the kings of France were indebted to the crusades, and how much they gained by the part they took in these expeditions, it is only necessary to compare Philip I. shut up in his palace during the council of Clermont, excommunicated by Urban, condemned by the bishops, and abandoned by his grandees, with Philip-Augustus, victorious over Saladin in Syria, and over the enemies of his kingdom at Bouvines; or with Louis XI. surrounded in his reverses by a faithful nobility, respected by the clergy and people, revered as the firmest supporter of the church, and proclaimed by his age the arbiter of Europe. The crusades, indeed, were the signal of a new order of things in France, the foundations of which were laid with great solidity during the wars in Palestine and in other countries of the East.

2. If royalty had sunk to a low ebb in France at the period of the first crusade, in England it was lusty and vigorous, and, together with the feudal system, pressed upon the nation with all the weight of the tyranny established by William the Conqueror. But an authority founded by victory and supported by violence, inspired a feeling of opposition which time and circumstances afterwards developed. Military despotism had succeeded in silencing opinion; but it had failed to produce an entire change in the manners of the English, or to eradicate their attachment to their ancient customs. The passions repressed by the sword found vent when the force of terror [7:7:489]was removed, and broke out with a vehemence proportioned to the constraints to which they had previously been subjected. In England, therefore, the change which took place was just the reverse of that which had been effected in France. A monarchy formerly powerful began to decline, and liberty made progress at the expense of the royal authority. The crusades, however, had probably less influence on the civilization of England than on that of several other states of Europe; but they may, nevertheless, have concurred with other causes in accelerating the changes which afterwards took place in the English monarchy. Richard Coeur de Lion showed himself more anxious to acquire the renown of a great captain than the reputation of a great king; and in seeking glory in arras, he neglected the cares of government. At his departure for Palestine he sold the revenues, prerogatives, and domains of the crown, and would have sold the city of London itself if he had found a purchaser; but his reverses and his captivity ruined his people, and his long absence nourished the spirit of faction among the nobility, nay even in the bosom of his own family. The English barons several times indicated a determination to set out for the East without the permission of the king; and the thought of opposing a monarch whom they disliked heightened their impatience to embark for Palestine. In fact, princes sought to take advantage of the opinions of their time, and engaged to join the crusades for the sole purpose of obtaining subsidies, which they employed in other enterprises; conduct which brought contempt on their policy, and increased the public distrust of all their proceedings. But there was another cause which mainly contributed to subvert the foundations of absolute monarchy in England; we mean the violent enterprises of the popes against the sovereigns of that country, enterprises which were favoured by the spirit of the religious wars. In the league of the barons against Henry III., the rebels bore the badge or ensign of a cross, as in the wars beyond sea, and the priests promised the crown of martyrdom to all who should die in the cause of liberty. It is a remarkable circumstance that the chief of the league formed for establishing the independence of the English nation was a French gentleman, the son of the Count de Montfort, who had acquired so great renown in the crusade against the Albigenses. After long and persevering efforts, liberty at length took root in that soil whence we trust it will never be eradicated, and many fierce and painful struggles issued in positive and durable results, of which succeeding ages reaped the full benefit.

3. But whilst the monarchy of France was strengthened at the expense of liberty, and liberty in England was conquered from the monarchy, Germany presented a different spectacle, and the empire, which had flourished till the commencement of the eleventh century, exhibited symptoms of a rapid decline during the period of the crusades. In order to resist the great vassals, the emperors granted several advantages to the clergy, and conferred privileges on the towns. But the clergy employed these advantages in favour of the popes, who attacked the imperial power; and the towns profited by the concessions made to them in order to establish their independence. In spite of all the efforts of the emperors, the crown remained elective, whilst the great fiefs had become hereditary; and thus the

1 heads of the empire depended for their election on the nobility and princes who had freed themselves from all dependence. The succession was therefore a subject of perpetual intrigue and contention, whilst, in the struggle,

I ambition was often preferred to moderation and virtue. Amongst the princes who ascended the imperial throne, several were men of great character; but their active and stirring genius hurrying them into disproportionate enterprises, exhausted their means, and accelerated the decline of the empire. The recollection of ancient Rome, and of the power of the Caesars, was continually present to their thoughts. They carried their arms into Italy, where a war of extermination was declared against them by the popes; two families of emperors sunk under the thunders of Rome; and whilst they exhausted themselves in vain efforts to establish their power in Italy, they completed the ruin of their influence in Germany. The policy pursued by the kings of France was wiser and more fortunate. They confined their efforts to the extension of their own power; their conquests tended only to reunite the scattered branches of a great family; and their authority became more popular, in proportion as they came to be considered as the natural bond of connection between the French of all the provinces. But the glory which the emperors of Germany acquired by their conquests was personal to themselves, and possessed no attraction for the German people. It had nothing in common with the nation of which they were only the nominal heads; it was neither a principle of union nor a source of support; it combined no interests, it appealed to no national feelings; and each sought his own safety or his own aggrandisement by his individual means. Hence arose a state of things more fatal to Germany than even the absolute power of the emperors. From the ruins of imperial greatness there sprung up a multitude of small states, opposed to one another by difference of laws and by a spirit of rivalry; and whilst the monarchical spirit predominated in these principalities, secular as well as ecclesiastical,—whilst the great towns were actuated by the love of liberty and independence, and the nobility continued to urge the pretensions of the aristocracy,—it was vain to expect that, having conflicting interests, they would pursue the same policy, or direct their efforts towards any common and salutary end. The popes continually interposed; great disorders were produced; the sceptre of Charlemagne was broken; pretenders to the imperial dignity multiplied, under the encouragement of Rome, in proportion as the empire itself was falling to pieces; and, in the midst of this anarchy, Germany lost its political as it afterwards did its religious unity. The enormous and inert mass of the confederation could never be set in motion; even the presence of actual danger failed to awaken its energy, or to induce it to adopt any vigorous decision for the safety of Germany". In the meanwhile, the crusades afforded a pretext, of which the popes availed themselves, for removing the emperors of Germany, and hurrying them into disastrous expeditions, which accelerated the ruin of their power; and thus the enthusiasm of the holy wars, which contributed to unite other Christian nations, only served to produce confusion and disorder in the bosom of the empire. At the same time, it was under the influence and auspices of the court of Rome, whilst seriously occupied with a crusade, that the family of Rodolph of Hapsburg took its rise; a family whose power restored to the empire something of∖ its ancient splendour, and saved Europe from the invasion of the Turks. It was also during the epoch of the crusades that the cities of Dantzick, Thorn, Elbing, Königsberg, and others, sprung up in the midst of deserts and of forests; that Finland, Lithuania, Pomerania, and Silesia, became flourishing provinces; and that new states were formed, destined afterwards to occupy a high rank among the powers of Europe.

4. If from Germany we turn to Italy, we shall there find other forms of government, and revolutions of a different character. When the last columns of the Roman empire were overturned, Italy found itself covered with ruins. The Huns, Franks, Vandals, Goths, Germans, and Lombards, successively carried into that fine country the [7:7:490]scourge of their domination, and left there traces of their manners, their legislation, and their character. But, in the tenth century, when the emperors of Constantinople could no longer extend their arms to Italy, other powers arose, some by conquest, others by fortune, and others again by means unknown to history. The influence of the popes sometimes defended Italy with success against the invasions and the yoke of the emperors of Germany; but the struggle was protracted, whilst the various fortune of the contest served only to perpetuate confusion and discord; and, during several centuries, the factions of the Guelphs and Gibelines desolated Italy without defending it. That country, unfortunately, had no point of centralization around which to rally and unite its means of defence. On the contrary, divided into a multitude of petty states, it reckoned within its natural boundaries several nations, and twenty republics, each having its own laws, its own interests, and its own history. Amongst a numerous population thus split into factions, there could scarcely prevail any community of feeling, because there existed no identity of interest; whilst, on the other hand, all the elements of disorder and contention were accumulated in destructive abundance. Hence we find little else than continual wars and strifes, not only between different towns and different states, but even between the citizens of the same town or the same republic; strangers were called in to take part in their intestine feuds; and the same mutual distrust which hired and armed mercenary adventurers to decide their disputes, destroyed the true sentiment of patriotism, and almost effaced the remembrance of the Italian name. The feudal system was abolished in Italy sooner than in other countries; but with this system disappeared the ancient honour of the preux chevaliers, and all the virtues of chivalry. In republics defended by mercenaries bravery ceased to be respected, and the generous sentiments which it inspires were forgotten. A loose rein was given to the most violent passions; excesses of hatred and vengeance, which appear scarcely probable even in our tragedies, were indulged in; the finest country in Europe seemed to be peopled with demons incarnate; and Dante had only to look around him in order to find the model of his Inferno. Society, always ready to fall in pieces, seemed to have no other motive force than the fury of parties, no other life than discord and civil war; against anarchy there was no guarantee but tyranny, against tyranny none but the despair of factions and the daggers of conspirators. As the power of the little states which covered Italy was disproportioned to their ambition, their rulers were consequently weak, and, wanting both courage and moderation, they sought their aggrandisement or their safety by all the means which treachery or perfidy could suggest. Any plot however infamous, any proceeding however scandalous, any crime however great, appeared good in their eyes, provided it only served to support their quarrels or to satisfy their ambition and their jealousy. Morality, in short, disappeared; and then was formed that school of politics, the maxims of which are embodied, for the purpose probably of exposing them, in the Prince of Machiavelli.

At the period of the crusades, however, the cities of Lombardy, and the republics of Genoa, Pisa, and Venice, had attained great prosperity. This arose from the commerce of the East, which Italy had carried on before the epoch of these expeditions, and which it continued with all the additional advantages offered by the contest in Palestine. But these mercantile republics, which had their attention continually fixed on Syria, Egypt, and Greece, were better fitted to enrich Italy with the products of their commercial industry than to nurse among the Italians the sentiment of true independence. At the same time, the power of Venice was everywhere advanced by the arms of the crusaders, and by the men of that age the queen of the Adriatic was regarded as the empress of the East. Her decay commenced only at the period when the progress of navigation, to which she had so greatly contributed, opened a new passage to the Indies, and led to the discovery of a new world. The greater part of the other republics had neither the same lustre nor the same duration, but, towards the close of the crusades, disappeared in the chaos and tumult of discord and civil war. As to the kingdom of Naples and Sicily, it formed, as it were, part of the high road by which the crusaders marched to Greece and to Palestine; and as its riches appeared to have no protectors, a country which its inhabitants had never been able to defend naturally tempted the cupidity of the princes and knights proceeding to seek their fortunes in Asia. For more than two centuries, accordingly, its history is blended with that of the crusades, which often served as a pretext or occasion for conquering it; whilst, as to the wars in which this kingdom engaged, they exhibit monstrous crimes rather than glorious exploits, revolts instead of battles, and consummate cowardice united with remorseless and unsparing cruelty.

5. During the course of the crusades Spain was chiefly occupied in defending her own hearths against the same Saracens whom the people of other nations of Europe went to combat in the East. Accordingly, she did not take part in these enterprises until the spirit in which they originated had begun to decline in the rest of Europe. This country, however, derived some advantages from the expeditions to the East. In almost all the enterprises of Christendom against the Moslemins of Asia, a great number of crusaders disembarked on the shores of Spain in order to combat the Moors; and several crusades were published in the West against the infidel masters of the Peninsula. The celebrated victory gained over the Moors at Tolosa was the fruit of a crusade preached in Europe, and particularly in France, by order of the sovereign pontiff. The expeditions beyond sea also aided the cause of the Spaniards, by detaining in their own country the Saracens of Egypt and Syria, who might otherwise have joined those on the coasts of Africa, and proceeded to the assistance of their countrymen in Spain. The kingdom of Portugal was moreover conquered and founded by the crusaders; and their expeditions first suggested the idea of certain orders of chivalry, which, in imitation of those of Palestine, were formed in Spain, and mainly contributed to enable the people of that country to triumph over the Moors. We may add, that Spain is the country where the memory of the crusades was longest preserved. In the course of last century there used to be published, every year, in all the provinces, a bull called Crusadα, which solemn publication recalled to the Spanish nation the triumphs which their ancestors had gained over the Moorish invaders of their country.

In thus surveying the condition of the principal countries of Europe at the epoch of the crusades, it is impossible not to be struck with the great diversity observable in their manners, their institutions, and the destiny of their inhabitants. But still it is no easy task to follow and to mark the progress of civilization in so many monarchies and republics, some emerging in splendour from the bosom of barbarism, and others falling back into decay and ruin. Nor is it less difficult to detect the influence exercised by the crusades amidst so many revolutions, which had often the same origin, though their effects were different and sometimes opposite. Nevertheless, this influence was in all cases considerable, and in a few strikingly great. In France it favoured the growth of the monarchy at the expense of a turbulent and powerful feudal aristocracy. In England, it favoured the growth of liberty at the expense[7:7:491] of an absolute monarchy. In Germany, it accelerated the decline of an empire with an elective head, and depressed the aristocracy, whilst it encouraged the industry and enterprise of the towns, enabling them at the same time to secure a sort of independence. In Italy, if it failed to mitigate the political evils with which that country was unhappily cursed, it gave a new stimulus to commerce and navigation; enriched those mercantile republics which then monopolized the trade of the East; and gradually paved the way for discoveries which have since produced the most striking effects on the destinies of mankind. And, lastly, in Spain, it powerfully contributed to the deliverance of the Peninsula from the yoke of the Saracens, and gave rise to the institution of the Cortes, the emancipation of the commonalty, the enfranchisement of the towns, and other measures which signalized the decline of the feudal system and of the absolute authority of the sovereign in that country. Such were the more immediate political results of the crusades. Let us now for an instant inquire what effects they produced on the authority of the church, and on the institutions and manners of the middle ages.

III. The situation of the popes in the middle ages presents a singular spectacle. As sovereigns of Rome, they had scarcely any authority, and were frequently exiled from their own states; as the heads of Christendom, they exercised an absolute empire to the very extremities of the world, and their name was revered wherever the gospel was preached. Possessing this unlimited spiritual authority, the popes obtained credit with some for originating the crusades; but they’ who support such an opinion have little knowledge of the general movement which then agitated the Christian world. No power on earth was capable of producing so mighty and universal a commotion; it belonged only to Him who raises and stills the tempest at his pleasure to inspire of a sudden into the hearts of men that enthusiasm which absorbed all other passions, and hurried on vast multitudes as if impelled by an invisible force. It has also been said that the crusades greatly increased the authority of the popes; and this is true, though perhaps scarcely to the extent which some are willing to believe. At first, indeed, the popes did not seem to be aware of the advantages which they might derive from these expeditions; and, accordingly, it was not until the second crusade that they became sensible of the ascendency which the holy see might exercise by means of the efforts made for the conquest of the Holy Land. Latterly, however, the crusades furnished the popes with a pretext for usurping, in all the states of Europe, the principal prerogatives of the sovereign power. In name of the holy war, they assumed the right of raising armies and levying imposts; their legates exercised supreme authority in all the countries of Christendom; the presence of these haughty envoys inspired respect and fear; wherever they went their will was law. Armed with the cross, they exacted the most implicit obedience from the clergy; and as the latter naturally possessed a very great ascendency over the people, the empire of the popes knew neither limits nor opposition. At the same time, the papal power received but little increase in Asia during the holy wars; whilst the quarrels and disorders which incessantly disturbed the Christian colonies multiplied their embarrassments without adding to their power. Their voice was not always listened to amidst the din of arms; and sometimes the soldiers of the cross resisted the will and contemned the counsels of the pontiffs. The legates of the holy see were often at variance with the chiefs of the Christian armies, and their character was not always respected in the midst of camps; whilst, on the other hand, as the popes aspired to direct the crusades, they were held in some sort responsible for misfortunes and disorders which they could not prevent; and this responsibility, exposing them to be judged with rigour, impaired their reputation for ability and sagacity. By a gross abuse of the crusading spirit, the popes also engaged in wars where ambition was more concerned than religion; they thought of their temporal when they should have attended only to the interests of their spiritual dominion; and in seeking to advance the one they neglected the other. The crusade against the Albigenses was productive of no solid advantage to the papal authority. The intolerance which occasioned that war may no doubt be regarded as an emanation of the fierce spirit of the time; but the Inquisition, which then took its rise, awakened more passions than it repressed. The enormous tributes imposed on the clergy also served to weaken the papal authority, by the universal discontent which these exactions produced. Tenths were raised not only for a crusade, but for every attempt at a crusade, and not only for the expeditions to the East, but for every enterprise undertaken against the enemies of the court of Rome; whilst the rigour with which the agents of the pontiffs collected the imposts, and the scandalous manner in which they often misapplied the sums wrung from the faithful, excited the most lively indignation, and called forth loud remonstrances. “Rien ne fut plus funeste à l’au-torité pontificale (says Michaud) que ces plaintes qu’on entendait de toutes parts, et dont s’arma enfin la redoutable hérésie de Luther.” In short, to quote the words of the same author, “la domination des papes alla toujours s’accroissant pendant un siècle jusqu’à Innocent III.; elle alla ensuite en déclinant pendant un autre siècle, jusqu’à Boniface VIII., époque où finissait les croisades d’outre-mer.”

2. Before the period of the crusades, the feudal system had begun to exhibit some symptoms of decline. Founded on the basis of military colonization, the governments of the middle ages may be compared to a victorious army dispersed in a conquered country, having the territory which it occupied parcelled out in certain definite proportions, and always ready at the signal of its officers or supreme head to march against the common enemy, and to defend its possessions. Hence, as long as discipline and obedience subsisted in these colonies, public order was not disturbed. But when the reciprocal relations of protection and submission, service’^and duties, became enfeebled— when discipline relaxed, and the rigour of military law had been insensiblymitigated—society then presented the spectacle of an army abandoned to license, ór freed in some measure from the control of its chief or head; and every successive abatement was so much withdrawn from the strength and solidity of the fabric of feudalism, so much added to the antagonist force which had already begun to attack its foundations. Still, at the period of the crusades, the ties of fidelity produced by the feudal relations were so powerful that the preachers of these expeditions sometimes invoked these in their exhortations; they preached the duties of feudalism in concurrence with the precepts of the gospel; and, to excite the Christian warriors to assume the cross, they called them the vassals of Jesus Christ. The crusades, however, unquestionably exercised a salutary influence upon the spirit and manners of feudalism; they contributed to destroy, by exhausting, the ferocity’ which that system had nurtured, as well as to eradicate some of the grosser abuses which it had engendered; they preserved, by stimulating and encouraging, the generous sentiments which it had inspired; and they concurred in developing whatever it contained that was favourable to the progress of civilization. They opened a seasonable and sufficient outlet for an overboiling spirit, which, if compressed, would have blown to pieces the whole fabric of society; and, by their re-action, they favoured the growth [7:7:492] and expansion of interests which became identified with the cause of general improvement and of public order. The whole of man was not yet known, and the idea of virtue was still in a great measure merged in that of mere duty or obedience. But the crusades created a desire, or we should rather say produced a necessity, for acquiring personal distinction, in addition to that conferred by mere rank or possessions; every man above the common herd was compelled by ambition to illustrate his name with some brilliant achievement; and even the meanest and humblest individual became in some sort ennobled by the performance of great actions. This feeling belongs to a rising civilization; it is the first indication of that spirit which sooner or later issues in the intellectual, moral, and political improvement of society.

3. The crusades were not altogether without fruits even to that class which, in the first instance, suffered most by them; we mean the nobility. Some acquired principalities in the East; many of the cities of Greece and Syria were erected into signories; and the military orders which were then introduced afforded them some compensation for the losses which they had sustained. A few, more fortunate than the rest, ascended the thrones of David and of Constantine, and took their place among the great monarchs of Christendom. All acquired distinction or renown; and, by means of sirnames and armorial bearings, which were now introduced, their glory was emblazoned and preserved in the achievements of their escutcheons. The feudal system declined apace, and the power of the great barons was gradually but certainly yielding to the encroachments of royalty on the one hand, and the inroads of public liberty on the other. But the spirit of chivalry came instead of the colder and more repulsive principle of feudalism; and if the nobility served the state in a new character, they still retained a predominant influence, and, in fact, constituted the greater part of its defensive force.

4. The condition of the people was more slowly ameliorated, and they long groaned under intolerable oppressions. The peasantry remained in a state of servitude or villeinage, subject to the arbitrary jurisdiction of their feudal lords, and without any law to protect them against tyranny of the worst description. But the inhabitants of the towns were more fortunate; and as the policy of princes concurred with the advancement of their consequence, they were early enabled to shake off the fetters which long weighed so heavily on the serfs of the plains. The cities of Lombardy, and of a great part of Italy, were the first to throw off the feudal yoke; in Germany the towns also became free, though at a later period; in England the manifestation of the spirit of liberty dates from the era of the crusades, prior to which the towns, with the exception of London, which had obtained some privileges, seem never to have once dreamed of independence; and in Spain, the war against the Moors not only favoured the rise of the commons, but secured them the protection of institutions which guaranteed the enjoyment of a large measure of freedom. The towns of the south of France soon followed the example of those of Italy and Spain, and obtained franchises which in time became consecrated by usage as well as by positive laws. The liberty of the towns commenced with corporations; because experience had taught their inhabitants that they were only strong when united, and also because the conservation of their privileges and franchises would otherwise have been impossible. This emancipation of the commons, however, was attended with very different results to the great vassals and to the crown. It weakened the authority of the barons and feudal lords, because the spirit of liberty naturally turned against its more immediate and dangerous enemies; but it increased the royal authority, because the cities which were either free, or expected to become so, naturally turned towards the monarch, the author of that boon, whose interest, in one important particular, was identical with their own. Hence we find kings and princes placing themselves, as it were, at the head of the general movement of society, and seeking to establish order and to promote improvement because they knew that they would thereby extend their power and increase their authority. The serfs of the plains, however, groaned in subjection to tyranny long after the towns had become free. From the crusades they derived little or no direct advantage. They could not unite, likq the inhabitants of towns; they were dispersed, and therefore feeble. But a propitious impulse had been given, and the day of deliverance at length arrived. Some cities in Germany contributed to the freedom of the peasants of their territory; the same thing occurred in Italy and Spain; and although in England the yoke of villeinage was worn for a longer period, yet it was at length removed, and with it the last external badge of feudal servitude.

5. The crusades have been reproached with having first given the idea and introduced the practice of taxation. The notion, however, is too simple in itself to make it necessary to search so far back for its origin. But it is not improbable that the mode in which the tenths were levied for the holy wars served as a model to those who afterwards established regular contributions. Further, when the feudal regime, which cost nothing, had been overturned, it became necessary to provide for the expenses of a new system of administration; and when the state could no longer calculate on the defenders with which the tenure of military service had supplied it, it was obliged to seek for others, and of course to pay them for their services. Hence arose the necessity for stipendiary armies and regular and permanent imposts. Other means, indeed, were at first employed. The coin of the realm was debased; the·Jews were persecuted; violence was employed; justice was sold. But all these resources, which tended at once to corrupt the government and the nation, were soon exhausted, and none other than that of taxation remained. With regard to regular armies, again, there can be no doubt whatever that the first idea of these was suggested by the expeditions to Palestine and other countries of the East. These distant and protracted enterprises changed the conditions of the feudal service, and accustomed men to see permanent armies, supported and commanded by princes.

6. Chivalry was known in the West before the era of the crusades. But these wars, which appeared to have the same object as chivalry, namely, that of defending the oppressed, serving the cause of God, and combating the Infidels, imparted to 1 this institution greater lustre and consistence, and gave it a direction at once more extensive and more salutary. On this important branch of the subject, however, it is only necessary here to refer to the article Chivalry in this work, which contains a clear, eloquent, and masterly exposition of the more prominent features of that extraordinary institution, and, in particular, explains the changes and modifications which it underwent in consequence of the memorable expeditions of which we are treating. When the institution of chivalry fell by the abuse which had been made of it, and particularly in consequence of the changes which had taken place in the military system of Europe, there still remained in the mind of society some of the sentiments which it had inspired; in the same manner as there remains with those who have forgotten the religion in which they were born, something of its preeepts, and especially of the impressions which they had received in their infancy. In the time of chivalry, the price of good actions was glory and [7:7:493]honour; and this coin, which is so useful to nations, yet costs them nothing, did not fail to possess some currency in the ages which followed. Such is the effect of a glorious recollection, that the marks and distinctions of chivalry still serve as the most appropriate and enviable recompense of bravery and merit. Seeing, then, that the crusades added some lustre and gave some ascendency to an institution which formed, as it were, a barrier against license and barbarism, it must be admitted that these expeditions, however wild in themselves, have, in this respect at least, conferred a real service on humanity.

IV. Having thus viewed the crusades in connection with the effects which they are supposed to have produced on the condition of different classes of society, and having traced to the same source the origin of several of our institutions, it now only remains to advert shortly to the progress which was made, during the same period, in navigation, commerce, industry, the sciences, arts, letters, and useful knowledge.

1. Before the twelfth century, the seas of Europe and Asia, with the exception of the Mediterranean, were scarcely frequented by the nations who occupied their shores. Át the commencement of the crusades, France had only two or three ports on the coast of Normandy, and not one either in the Atlantic or the Mediterranean, till the seventh crusade, when Louis XI. caused that of Aigues-Mortes to be constructed. England had not made greater advances; and the trifling navigation of that age was carried on by some towns on the coasts of the Baltic, in Holland, Flanders, and Spain. But when the crusades commenced, the spirit of devotion uniting with that of commerce, gave a new and more extended scope as well as impulse to the enterprises of navigators. The inhabitants of Denmark appeared in the seas of Syria; and the Norwegians, who had arrived in ships, assisted at the capture of Sidon. At the siege of Ptolemais were found citizens of Lubeck and Bremen; and from all the coasts of the West sailed vessels and even fleets to transport pilgrims, provisions, and arms, into the kingdom of Jerusalem and the other principalities in Asia founded by the arms of the crusaders. Thus the navigators of all countries were met in the seas of the East; and, under the auspices of the cross, commercial relations began to be established between the maritime states of Europe. At the commencement of the twelfth century, a fleet of Pisans, united with some other Italians, assisted the Aragonese in conquering the Balearic Isles; and the navigators of Italy thus extended their knowledge of the shores of Spain, with which they had previously been so little acquainted that they' mistook the coasts of Aragon for the country of the Moors. Having gained experience in distant voyages, the navigators of Lubeck, Bremen, and Denmark also explored the hitherto unknown coasts of the Baltic ;—a communication was established between the Baltic, the Mediterranean, the Spanish Ocean, and the seas of the North ;—a spirit of emulation and enterprise united different nations in pursuit of the same advantages;—and nautical science received important accessions in almost all its branches. The configuration of coasts, and the position of capes, harbours, bays, islands, and headlands was determined; seas were explored to their furthest extremities; the direction of winds, of currents, and of tides, was observed; and various points in hydrography were likewise settled with tolerable precision. Lastly, the discovery of the compass, which had been made about this time, although it did not come into general use until a subsequent period, enabled those navigators who had obtained possession of the secret, to embark in more adventurous voyages, and to brave the terrors of the ocean. Naval architecture was also improved during the crusades. The construction of vessels was rendered more solid, at the same time that their size was increased; and they were for the first time provided with several masts, in order to multiply their sails, and enable them to shape a course upon a wind. To guard the interests and protect the freedom of navigation, a code of maritime law was likewise framed, upon the model which had been furnished by the nautical sages of Barcelona about the beginning of the twelfth century. In an assembly held at St Sophia, in 1255, the Venetians adopted the code entitled Consulat de la Mer, which was afterwards recognised by the Pisans and the Genoese, and became the common law of the seas of the East; whilst another code, first published by Eléonore de Guyenne, and afterwards by Richard Coeur de Lion, under the title of Poles d’Oleron i obtained the assent of several maritime states, and was at length accredited in all the seas of the West. Protected by this legislation, navigators reaped the fruits of their lengthened enterprises, and were soon enabled to dispute the empire of the Mediterranean with the Infidels. Indeed, if Italy and several countries of the West were not subjugated by the Saracens, they owed their safety more to the superiority of their fleets than to that of their armies. In short it is more than probable that, without the crusades, the genius of navigators would not, till a much later period, have enabled them to traverse the immense space which separates the Baltic from the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean, or to shoot across the mighty waste of waters interposed between the Old and the New World.

2. Every climate has its peculiar productions; and this diversity of wealth naturally leads to interchange or commerce, which in time establishes communications between the most distant regions. In the middle ages, the indolent and effeminate Greeks neglected to import into the West the merchandise of Asia; and the Saracens landed on the coasts of Europe only to subject them to the scourge of war. But the commercial enterprise of the West sought out those products which had ceased to be imported; and the frequent voyages to the East were altogether to the advantage of the Occidentals. Before the period of the crusades, the merchandise of Asia had arrived in Europe, sometimes by the overland route, traversing the Greek empire, Hungary, and Bulgaria; more frequently by way of the Mediterranean, which may be said to abut, as it were, on all the ports of Italy. Both these routes were rendered easy by the holy wars; and then commerce, protected by the standard of the cross, advanced with rapid strides. Most of the maritime towns of the West enriched themselves by supplying Europe with the productions of the East; and they also derived considerable advantages from the transport of pilgrims and of the Christian armies. Fleets hovered around the coasts where the crusaders fought, supplying them with munitions of war and provisions; and thus commerce brought back to Europe part of the treasures which had been carried into Asia by the princes and barons who had ruined themselves in order to provide the necessary means for combating the infidels. In fact, all the riches of the maritime towns of Syria, and even of Greece, belonged to the merchants of the West. They were masters of the greater part of the Christian cities of Asia; they possessed all the islands of the Archipelago; for a time, they ruled in Constantinople; and the Greek empire was almost another Venice, with its laws, its fleets, and its armies. The Latins, however, were not long masters of Constantinople, Jerusalem, and most of the countries conquered by their arms. But commerce, more fortunate than war, persevered in its conquests after the crusades. The city of Tana, built at the mouth of the Tanais, became to Venice a colony which opened useful relations with Persia, Tartary, Tauris, Trebizond, Bagdad, and Bassora; whilst the Genoese, established in the small [7:7:494]town of Caffa, in the Crimea, explored the mines of the Caucasus, and received the treasures of India by way of Astracan. But several of the great kingdoms of Europe had as yet but little share in this commerce, which still continued in the hands of a few maritime towns. England had nothing but her wool to give in exchange for the merchandise of Asia, imported by Spanish and Italian merchants. The towns of France, excepting Marseilles, had little share in the trade of the East. Italy, from her position, which commands the Mediterranean, enjoyed almost exclusively this advantage, and became the grand emporium of a traffic as extensive as it was profitable; sending into all parts of Europe, not legions and proconsuls like Rome in the days of its greatness, but caravans of merchants, who subjected the provinces they traversed to the calculations and wants of commerce, and disposed, by their industry, of all the money which then circulated in the West. In a word, Europe has scarcely a great city where the name of Lombard affixed to some street or quarter does not to this day attest the long residence of the Italian merchants.

3. It is not easy to separate the progress of industry, or even of agriculture, from that of commerce. In order to ascertain, however, what each gained by the relations with the East, it is necessary to attend to the state of these two sources of wealth among the Orientals at the period of the crusades. Before this time the Saracens had manufactures of various stuffs, such as silk, woollen, and linen. At Damascus and in the towns of Egypt they worked in metals with greater perfection than in the West. The Christians of Palestine often went to Damascus to purchase arms. At Tripoli in Syria, camlets were manufactured; and, in the same town, as well as in several of the cities of Greece, there were a great number of trades connected with the preparation and manufacture of silk. All this could not escape the observation of the merchants and pilgrims who visited the East. We find, in fact, that, about the middle of the twelfth century, Roger II. king of Sicily, caused several of these artisans to be brought over to Palermo; that this was the result of an expedition to the coasts of Greece; that the mulberry tree throve in the fine climate of Italy as well as in that of the Morea; and that the Sicilians soon surpassed the Greeks in this valuable species of industry. Several useful inventions were also derived from the East; among which wind-mills have been mentioned. Tyre was then renowned for its glass ware, which the fine sand in the neighbourhood enabled its workmen to bring to a degree of perfection unknown in other countries; and to this place the Venetians were indebted for instruction in an art in which they afterwards greatly excelled. It is probable, also, that the Greek fire suggested the idea of gunpowder, and ultimately led to the important invention which has immortalized the name of Berthold Schwartz. During the fourth crusade, Boniface of Montferrat sent maize and wheat from Turkey to Italy; the plum of Damascus was imported by a duke of Anjou, who had visited Jerusalem; our gardens owe to the holy wars the ranunculus, so dear to the Orientals, and the echallotes, which derive their name from Askalon; and the knowledge or rather the use of saffron, of alum, and of indigo, is also due to the crusades. In the territory of Tripoli in Syria, the crusaders beheld, for the first time, the sugar cane, which was transported to Sicily about the middle of the twelfth century, and thence passed into other countries. It was transferred by the Spaniards to Madeira, whence it is supposed to have been carried, at a subsequent period, to the New World. Natural history, which is connected with the progress of industry and agriculture, was enriched with some useful discoveries during the crusades. The productions of distant climates were exchanged; and Europe acquired a knowledge of several animals peculiar to Africa and Asia.

4. Architecture was also greatly improved. The sight of the monuments and superb edifices of the East excited wonder, and awakened a spirit of emulation. Nothing could equal the astonishment of the crusaders when they first beheld the city of Constantine. Foucher de Chartres exclaimed in his enthusiasm, “Oh, que Constantinople est une belle et vaste cité and the French knights, on viewing the magnificent towers and superb palaces of Byzantium, could scarcely persuade themselves, “que si riche ville pust être en tout le monde.” These no doubt were the feelings produced by novelty and surprise; but they soon gave place to a desire to imitate the fabrics which had excited so much admiration. Italy, in particular, profited much by the classical masterpieces of Greece, which served as models; whilst the wealth acquired by commerce enabled the inhabitants to indulge their taste for the embellishment of their cities. With the exception of architecture, however, the fine arts owed little to the frequent intercourse with the East. Painting was despised by the Mosleminö, who were forbidden by the Koran to make any image of man or beast; and the Latins, after the capture of Constantinople, destroyed the greater part of the monuments erected by the genius of sculpture, converting into coin some of the masterpieces of Phidias and Praxiteles. The Orientals had no music, and Greece had long lost the secret of those melodious strains which, in the time of Linus and Orpheus, were fabled to have tamed savage beasts, charmed Rhodope, and led captive the woods of Maenalus. The history of this art, therefore, has but little relation to the holy wars.

5. The science which derived most improvement from these distant expeditions was unquestionably that of geography. Before the crusades, this science was altogether unknown. Countries the least remote had no communication with one another. Burgundy was scarcely known in Paris, or Paris in Burgundy. The crusaders who followed Peter the Hermit were ignorant of the names of the towns which they passed through in Germany and Hungary. They experienced a defeat at Merseburg; but the contemporary chroniclers, unacquainted with the name of the place, content themselves with calling it Malkvilk,ox the city of misfortune. But if the Franks scarcely knew their own country, what must have been their ignorance of the countries of the East? It was so great indeed that they were under the necessity of hiring guides among the Greeks, whom they distrusted, and of committing the fate of expeditions to conductors by whom they were often deceived and abandoned. Several armies, in fact, perished from not knowing· the places to which they were conducted by victory. The greater part of the chroniclers were as ignorant as the crusaders; and hence it is difficult to follow their details respecting Asia Minor, Egypt, and Syria. Of more than two hundred who speak of Egypt, not one makes the least mention of the pyramids. James ofVitry, who had sojourned long in Palestine, and who appears to have possessed all the knowledge of his time, repeats, in his description of the East, the fables of the Amazons and the Phoenix. And Joinville, in his Mémoires, tells us gravely that the trees of the terrestrial paradise produced cinnamon, ginger, and cloves, and that these spices were fished out of the waters of the Nile, to which they were carried by the winds. In a word, the crusaders, continually occupied with fighting, had neither time nor inclination to study the countries conquered by their arms. But in their train religion and commerce, guided, the one by a desire to spread the gospel, and the other by the hope of amassing riches, opened some new routes, and collected much useful information respecting the East. Missionaries[7:7:495] sent out by the court of Rome also traversed the most extensive regions of Asia; and the relations of Rubruquis, Asselin, Carpin, and Marco Paolo contain observations, the truth and accuracy of which have since been fully confirmed. At the same time, the geographical charts of this period exhibit neither the configuration of the globe, nor the extent of countries, nor the position and boundaries of states; they are limited merely to tracing, by vague designations, what struck the majority of travellers, as, for example, the curiosities of each country, animals, edifices, and men differently dressed. Maps were equally rude. They wanted the four cardinal points, whilst on the four sides were sometimes inscribed the names of the principal winds; Jerusalem was placed in the centre of the three parts of the known world, and around it were grouped the cities of Palestine, Syria, and Egypt, whilst distances were marked without the least regard to accuracy. In short, geography was still in its infancy; but, from the impulse given by the crusades, it soon made considerable progress; and, in the fourteenth century, the countries of the East were much better known.

If the crusaders had profited by the knowledge of the Orientals, some of the sciences most useful to man, such as medicine, might also have been improved. In medicine particularly the Arabians had more positive knowledge than the Latins. At the siege of Ptolemais, Saladin sent his physicians to Richard; but we do not learn that Richard sent his to Saladin when the soldan fell sick. In the first crusade of St Louis, the physicians who accompanied the army understood nothing of the ravages which scurvy and the ordinary epidemic diseases committed in the Christian camp; and their ignorance was not less fatal than the contagion. Nevertheless, the East furnished some processes and remedies from which medicine long derived very great advantage. Cassia and senna came from Asia, and were known in the West at the epoch of the crusades. Treacle, which had so distinguished a place assigned it in the medicine of the middle ages, was brought from Antioch to Venice. And Robert of Normandy, returning from the Holy Land after the capture of Jerusalem, obtained from the school of Salerno a collection of those precepts of health which have since become proverbs amongst all the nations of Europe. Nevertheless, the discoveries and the knowledge of the Orientals in the healing art served in no material degree to enlighten the West; and it may with truth be said that more new diseases than new remedies were imported from the East during the holy wars. Amongst these may be mentioned numerous leprosies, which, for a considerable time, committed great ravages, and at length disappeared, without the aid of medicine.

6. The crusades contributed in several ways to advance the cause of learning. They established relations, which were never wholly interrupted, between the cities of Italy and the empire of Byzantium; and some sparks of the genius of the Greeks irradiated Italy even before the taking of Constantinople by the Turks. A college of young Greeks was established at Paris during the reign of Philip Augustus; and, in the thirteenth century, flourished the Universities of Bologna, Paris, and Salamanca, where the Greek tongue was taught, and latterly the Oriental languages, (conformably to a decree of the council of Vienna. When the Turks became masters of Constantinople, the learned, exiled from their own country, established themselves in Italy, where the Greek were, so to speak, married to the Latin muses. The venerable interpreters of antiquity were everywhere cordially received, and the communication of their knowledge repaid the attentions of a generous hospitality. About the same time printing was discovered, and employed to preserve the literary treasures derived from the East against the accidents of time, the fury of war, or the hand of barbarism. The Iliad and the Odyssey found readers in the scenes which had inspired the Aeneid; the orations of Demosthenes were perused amidst the ruins of the forum, where still lingered the echo of the voice of Cicero; the genius of the Italians, inspired by the great works of ancient Greek and Roman art, produced new masterpieces; and Italy presented a phenomenon which the world will never again perhaps behold, —that of a nation which, in the space of a few centuries, had twice obtained the palm of literature in two different languages. It is to Constantinople that we are indebted for the philosophy of Aristotle; but whether or not the friends of real knowledge ought to felicitate themselves on this boon seems exceedingly doubtful. Aristotle had disciples, partisans, even martyrs; and the authority of the Bible itself could scarcely compete with that of the philosopher of Stagyra. Reason was studied, not in the mind of man, but in the dogmas laid down in a book; and the laws of the universe were not investigated by induction, but sought for in Aristotle. The schools also exhibited a species of intellectual fencing or gladiatorship. In an age when every thing was decided by violence, the mind even desired to indulge in a species of warfare; and as, in ordinary affairs, victory constituted justice, so, in the schools, it passed for reason. It may be supposed that this disputatious philosophy was little favourable to the advancement of real knowledge; but, on the other hand, whilst it exercised the faculties of men, it contributed to their development; and if it for a season misdirected the human mind, it certainly did not retard its advancement. In the early stages of society, it is not the misdirection of the mind, but its inactivity, which tends to keep nations in the darkness of barbarism.

7. Among the productions of the human mind, the first place is due to those which have for their object to preserve the memory of past events. In all the epochs of the middle ages, there appeared chronicles in which facts of importance to history were recorded, with greater or less fidelity. In several monasteries there were kept registers or journals, in which every remarkable occurrence was inscribed; and the monks sometimes communicated these registers at their general assemblies, in the view of rendering their chronicles more complete. The old chroniclers were simple and pious men, who regarded the slightest falsehood as a mortal sin, and sometimes scrupled to tell the truth, even when they knew it, if a shadow of doubt crossed their minds». The greater part would have thought themselves wanting in their duties as historians, if they had not ascended to the creation of the world, or at least to the deluge. Amongst the events which they relate, they never forget those which are calculated to strike the vulgar, and which indeed made a strong impression upon themselves, such as revolutions of nature, famines, and prodigies. But we are at the same time sensibly touched by their simplicity, and interested by their naïveté; and when they speak of marvellous occurrences, which were believed in their time, and of the reality of which they themselves seem fully persuaded, they only delineate their own character, and that of the age in which they lived. Further, it wpuld be a great error to imagine that the Oriental chronicles of the same period are in any degree superior to those which we have been endeavouring to describe. On the contrary, they exhibit the same spirit of superstition and credulity which appears in the chronicles of the West, united with that belief in fatalism which characterizes the Mahommedan religion, and with a degree of negligence or caution which deprives these productions of all individual interest. The chronicles of the middle ages, therefore, have nothing to envy in those of the East. The greater part, it is true, are extremely[7:7:496] dry, and destitute alike of precision and method; but there are several which appear to be not altogether unworthy of the attention of historians. Among these may be mentioned William of Tyre, who may be styled the Livy of the crusades; Albert of Aix; Baudry, archbishop of Doi; Odon of Deuil; James of Vitry, whose lively and animated descriptions are clothed in a style at once rapid and flowery, and whose narrative is almost always elegant; and, lastly, Ville-Hardouin and Joinville, who wrote in the French language, and whose works constitute the earliest monuments of French literature.

8. The muse of the troubadours celebrated chivalry, love, and beauty; that of the trouveurs, who inhabited the banks of the Loire, and the provinces situated beyond that river, delighted in graver strains. The trouveurs had rivals both in England and in Germany. Those poetshad created for themselves a new and heroic world, which inspired their lofty lays. They celebrated the high feats of Arthur, Renaud, the knights of the round table, Charlemagne, Rolland, and the twelve peers of France; and to these names they added those of Godefroy, Tancred, Richard, and Saladin, whose names possessed a lively interest for all the Christian nations of the middle ages. But these chivalric strains soon gave place to wilder and bolder creations, into which the marvellous entered as a predominant ingredient. The traditions of the North were blended with those of the' South, and produced a semi-barbarous mythology, which, in its composite form, had nothing in common with the gay and gorgeous mythology of Greece. But the labours, the perils, and the exploits of a religious war, carried on at a great distance, like that of the crusades, gave a nobler direction to the imagination of poets, and effectually guarded them against whatever was common or extravagant in the romanesque conceptions of a rude age. Hence arose a literature adapted to a new state of society: and if this literature, which had impressed upon it a strong character of national originality, had produced such masterpieces as the Iliad and the Odyssey, the muses would have entered upon a career unknown to the ancients; the language would have been enriched, improved, and fixed; and history would have spoken of the age of the crusades as it now speaks of that of Pericles and Augustus. But the greater part of the poets and romancers of this epoch, having no models upon which to form themselves, and wanting the taste necessary to guide them, could discover no other means of interesting their readers, than by exaggerating tlìe sentiments of chivalry. Imitation, pushed to the extreme, was mistaken for reality; and there were knights, like the hero of Cervantes, who wished to put in practice what they had read in poems and romances. This was the origin of knight-errantry; a practical caricature of chivalry, which, by bringing it into contempt, exposed it to ridicule, and thus sealed the doom of an institution which, with all its follies, absurdities, and vices, has conferred essential benefits upon mankind. The romances which were consecrated to -chivalry and the crusades, underwent modifications conformable to those which the manners and usages of society had received; and literature took its tone from the spirit of the time, and in its turn re-acted upon the state of society which had originally imparted to it its peculiar direction and character.

Little more remains to be said as to the results of the crusades. To appreciate the advantages which they produced, it is only necessary to consider what would in all probability have occurred if these expeditions had not taken place. In the eleventh century several countries of Europe were invaded, and others were menaced by the Saracens. That remarkable race were then in the full career of victory and conquest; while the Christian states, distracted by discord, a prey to anarchy, and plunged in barbarism, were destitute of all means of defence. If, then, Christendom had not, as it were, gone out by all her gates to attack this formidable enemy, and, at different times, poured forth fresh multitudes of assailants, impelled by a fierce enthusiasm, this enemy, profiting by the inaction of the Christian nations, would have surprised them in the midst of their divisions, and subjugated them one after another to its sway. France, Germany, England, and Italy, might have experienced the fate of Greece and of Palestine, and the crescent might have been elevated in triumph above the shivered fragments of the cross. The crusades, as we have already remarked,> presented the spectacle of a fierce and sanguinary contest between two religions contending for the empire of the world. Butin this formidable struggle, the real means of defence consisted in superiority of knowledge, civilization, and social qualities. As long as ignorance and barbarism prevailed among the nations of the West, as well as among those of Asia, the victory remained uncertain; but when Europe beheld the dawn of civilization, it then knew security, and its enemies also began to know fear. The Mahominedan religion, by its doctrine of fatalism, taught its disciples to despise the calculations of prudence, and in the day of calamity served to depress rather than to elevate the courage of its warriors. The Christians, on the contrary, lost none of their faculties in their reverses, which often served to redouble their energy and their activity; and the defeats experienced by their armies in Asia excited, even more than their victories, the enthusiasm of the warlike population of Europe. Thus Christianity, and the heroic virtues with which it inspired its disciples in the middle ages, served as an impenetrable buckler to Europe, enabling it to force back the invaders who had long threatened its independence, and to inflict a blow on their power, from which it never afterwards recovered. “On ne peut done nier,” says Michaud, “que les croisades n’aient puissament contribué à sauver les sociétés Européennes de l’invasion des barbares, et ce fut là sans doute le premier et le plus grand de tous les avantages qu’en ait retiré Thumanité.”

Gibbon, History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire; Voltaire, Histoire Générale; Encyclopédie οu Die- tionaire raisonne des Sciences, art. Croisades; Hercen and Choiseul d’Aillecourt, Mémoires sur les Croisades; Main-bourg, Histoire des Croisades; Esprit des Croisades; Mills, History of Chivalry ; Hélyot, Histoire des Ordres Monastiques; Jacques de Vitry, Chronique des Croisades; Fiévée, Des Interets et des Opinions; Mémoire pour servir à nouvelle Histoire de Louis XII.; Michaud, Histoire des Croisades.

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