been expected from the rude ideas of the ages SECT. character man mind. As the inhabitants of Europe, during these cen- Upon the turies, were strangers to the arts which embellish and virtues a polished age, they were destitute of the virtues of the huwhich abound among people who continue in a simple state. Force of mind, a sense of personal dignity, gallantry in enterprise, invincible perseverance in execution, contempt of danger and of death, are the characteristic virtues of uncivilized nations. But these are all the offspring of equálity and independence, both which the feudal institutions had destroyed. The spirit of domination corrupted the nobles; the yoke of servitude depressed the people; the generous sentiments inspired by a sense of equality were extinguished, and hardly any thing remained to be a check on ferocity and violence. Human society is in its most corrupted state, at that period when men have lost their original independence and simplicity of man [M] NOTE XII, SECT. ners, but have not attained that degree of refinement which introduces a sense of decorum and of propriety in conduct, as a restraint on those passions which lead to heinous crimes. Accordingly, a greater number of those atrocious actions, which fill the mind of man with astonishment and horror, occur in the history of the centuries under review, than in that of any period of the same extent in the annals of Europe. If we open the history of Gregory of Tours, or of any contemporary author, we meet with a series of deeds of cruelty, perfidy, and revenge, so wild and enormous, as almost to exceed belief. From the beginning tury, go and man to improve. BUT, according to the observation of an eleof the elegant and profound historian*, there is an ultimate venth cen-point of depression, as well as of exaltation, vernment from which human affairs naturally return in a ners begin contrary progress, and beyond which they never pass either in their advancement or decline. When defects, either in the form or in the administration of government, occasion such disorders in society as are excessive and intolerable, it becomes the common interest to discover and to apply such remedies as will most effectually remove them. Slight inconveniencies may be long overlooked or endured; but when abuses grow to a certain pitch, the society must go to ruin, or must attempt to reform them. The disorders in the feudal system, together with the corruption of taste and manners consequent upon these, which had gone on increasing during a long course of years, seemed to have at Hume's History of England, vol. ii. p. 441. 1. tained their utmost point of excess towards the close SECT of the eleventh century. From that era, we may date the return of government and manners in a contrary direction, and can trace a succession of causes and events which contributed, some with a nearer and more conspicuous, others with a more remote and less preceptible influence, to abolish confusion and barbarism, and to introduce order, regularity, and refinement to point out which con wards this ment. IN pointing out and explaining these causes and Necessary events, it is not necessary to observe the order of the causes time with a chronological accuracy; it is of more and events importance to keep in view their mutual connec-tribute totion and dependence, and to shew how the opera-improvetion of one event, or one cause, prepared the way for another, and augmented its influence. We have hitherto been contemplating the progress of that darkness, which spread over Europe, from its first approach, to the period of greatest obscuration; a more pleasant exercise begins here; to ob serve the first dawnings of returning light, to mark the various accessions by which it gradually increased and advanced towards the full splendour of day.+ troduce a I. THE Crusades, or expeditions in order to The tendency of rescue the Holy Land out of the hands of Infi-the Crudels, seemed to be the first event that roused Eu-sades to inrope from the lethargy in which it had been longchange in sunk, and that tended to introduce any consider and manable change in government or in manners. It is' natural to the human mind to view those places government ners. remote these expe SECT. which have been distinguished by being the residence of any illustrious personage, or the scene The more of any great transaction, with some degree of decauses of light and veneration. To this principle must be ditions. ascribed the superstitious devotion with which Christians, from the earliest ages of the church, were accustomed to visit that country, which the Almighty had selected as the inheritance of his favourite people, and in which the Son of God had accomplished the redemption of mankind. As this distant pilgrimage could not be performed without considerable expence, fatigue, and danger, it appeared the more meritorious, and came to be considered as an expiation for almost every crime. An opinion which spread with rapidity over Europe about the close of the tenth, and beginning of the eleventh century, and which gained universal credit, wonderfully augmented the number of credulous pilgrims, and increased the ardour with which they undertook this useless voyage. The thousand years, mentioned by St. John*, were supposed to be accomplished, and the end of the world to be at hand. A general consternation seized mankind; many relinquished their possessions; and abandoning their friends and families, hurried with precipitation to the Holy Land, where they imagined that Christ would quickly appear to judge the world. While Pa * Rev. xx. 2, 3, 4. + Chronic. Will. Godelli ap. Bouquet Recueil des Historiens de France, tom. x. p. 262. Vita Abbonis, ibid. p. 332. Chronic. S. Pantaleonis ap. Eccard. Corp. Scrip. medii ævi, vol. i. p. 909. Annalista Saxo, ibid. 576. 1. lestine continued subject to the Caliphs, they had SECT. encouraged the resort of pilgrims to Jerusalem; and considered this as a beneficial species of commerce, which brought into their dominions gold and silver, and carried nothing out of them but relics and consecrated trinkets. But the Turks having conquered Syria about the middle of the eleventh century, pilgrims were exposed to outrages of every kind from these fierce barbarians. This change happening precisely at the juncture when the panic terror, which I have mentioned, rendered pilgrimages most frequent, filled Europe with alarm and indignation. Every person who returned from Palestine related the dangers which he had encountered in visiting the holy city, and described with exaggeration the cruelty and vexations of the Turks. diate occa them. WHEN the minds of men were thus prepared, the The immezeal of a fanatical monk, who conceived the idea of sion of leading all the forces of Christendom against the Infidels, and of driving them out of the Holy Land by violence, was sufficient to give a beginning to that wild enterprise. Peter the Hermit, for that was the name of this martial apostle, ran from province to province with a crucifix in his hand, exciting princes and people to this Holy War, and wherever he came kindled the same enthusiastic ardour for it with which he himself was animated. The council of Placentia, where upwards of thirty thousand persons were assembled, pro * Jo. Dan. Schoepflini de sacris Gallorum in orientem expeditionibus, p. 4. Argent. 1726. 4to. |