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arbitrary monarchy which had so long crushed them to the dust, and the humiliation of that church which had so often compelled them to drink, to the very dregs, the cup of human misery. The cause of toleration-the cause in which they suffered unto death-has been ever since making a steady and resistless progress. The protestant nations have, with few exceptions, acknowledged it as their foundation principle. Many members of the Roman catholic church, and especially those who inhabit these realms, have become its public advocates. In France, the theatre of former persecutions, the protestant religion is, under its influence, recognized by the fundamental laws of the state. In the east, it waves its banner over all the nations of India. In the west, it has established in America a bulwark for universal liberty, and an asylum for the persecuted of every country. England has incorporated it with her civil rights, and it forms an immoveable basis for the British throne. She withholds the full effects of it from the catholics, only till their church has publicly recognized its sacred principles. It has spread the triumphs of religion and liberty through the islands of the pacific ocean; and is fast gaining an establishment amongst the liberated nations of South America. There is but one more battle to be fought, and one more victory to be won, before its triumphs shall be universal. It still remains to wrest from the reluctant grasp

of the Roman church the thunderbolt of divine vengeance against heresy: and when she shall have been compelled, by the resistless force of public opinion, to recognize, by an authentic and irrevocable act, the rights of conscience, the world will be free.

JUNE 9TH, 1826.

HISTORY OF THE CRUSADES.

CHAP. I.

First Crusade, from 1207 to 1209.

FRANCE, during the feudal period, instead of forming an entire monarchy, was submitted to the influence of four kings; to each of whom a number of grand vassals were subordinate: so that the North of France might be considered as Walloon, a name afterwards confined to the French Flemings, and which was then given to the language spoken by Philip Augustus; towards the West was an English France; to the East a German France; and in the South, a Spanish or Aragonese France. Till the reign of Philip Augustus, the first division possessed the least of extent, of riches, or of power. That monarch, by a` concourse of fortunate circumstances rather than by his talents, greatly exalted the splendour of his crown, and extended his dominion over a part

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of France much more important than his own inheritance. At the beginning of the thirteenth century, the division which has been indicated did, however, still exist. He had conquered more than half of the English France, but Aquitaine still belonged to England. The Germanic France had still the same limits; except that, of the three kingdoms of which it was composed, those of Lorraine and Burgundy had more intimately than formerly united themselves with the Empire, so that their history was no longer mingled with that of France. On the contrary, the kingdom of Provence had so much relaxed its connexion with the imperial crown, that its great vassals might be considered absolutely independent, and the most powerful of its states, the countship of Provence, possessed by the King of Aragon, might be justly denominated the Aragonese France.

The king of Aragon might, as well as the king of England, be considered a French prince. The greater part of his states, even beyond the Pyrenees and as far as the Ebro, were considered to belong to the ancient monarchy of Charlemagne, and owed homage to the crown of France. Like the king of England, the king of Aragon had acquired, either by marriages, or by grants of fief, or by treaties of protection, dominion over a great number of French lords; some of whom did homage to the king of France, others to the emperor; but all of whom, nevertheless, rendered

obedience only to the Spanish monarch. The Counts of Bearn, of Armagnac, of Bigorre, of Cominges, of Foix, and of Roussillon, lived under his protection, and served in his armies. The viscounts of Narbonne, of Beziers, and of Carcassonne, regarded him as their count. The lord of Montpellier had submitted to him. The powerful count of Toulouse, surrounded by his states and vassals, maintained, with difficulty, his own independence against him. The countships of Provence and of Forcalquier belonged solely to him, whilst the other vassals of the kingdom of Arles were eager to obtain his protection.

Languedoc, Provence, Catalonia, and all the surrounding countries which depended on the king of Aragon, were peopled by an industrious and intelligent race of men, addicted to commerce and the arts, and still more to poetry. They had formed the provençal language; which, separating itself from the Walloon Roman, or French, was distinguished by more harmonious inflexions, by a richer vocabulary, by expressions more picturesque, and by greater flexibility. This language, studied by all the genius of the age, consecrated to the innumerable songs of war and of love, appeared at that moment destined to become the first and the most elegant of the languages of modern Europe. Those who used it had renounced the name of Frenchmen for that of Provençals; they had endeavoured, by means of their lan

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