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SECT. forts and institutions. The darkness returned, and settled over Europe more thick and heavy than before.

I.

upon the character

of the hu

As the inhabitants of Europe, during these centuries, and virtue were strangers to the arts which embellish a polished age, man mind. they were destitute of the virtues which 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 equality 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 manners, 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

of the ele

venth century, government

BUT, according to the observation of an elegant and probeginning found historian, there is an ultimate point of depression, as well as of exaltation, from which human affairs naturally return in a contrary progress, and beyond which they never either in their advancement or decline. When defects, ners begin either in the form or in the administration of government, occa to improve. sion 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 in

and man

pass

e Hume's History of England, vol. ii. p. 441.

I.

conveniences may be long overlooked or endured; but when SECT. 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 attained their utmost point of excess towards the close of the eleventh century. From that æra, 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 perceptible influence, to abolish confusion and barbarism, and to introduce order, regularity, and refine

ment.

the causes

and events

which contribute to

ment.

IN pointing out and explaining these causes and events, it Necessary is not necessary to observe the order of time with a chrono- to point out logical accuracy; it is of more importance to keep in view their mutual connexion and dependence, and to show how the operation of one event, or one cause, prepared the way wards this for another, and augmented its influence. We have hither- improveto 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 observe the first dawnings of returning light, to mark the various accessions by which it gradually increased and advanced towards the full splendour of day.

Crusades

duce a

change in

ment and

manners.

I. THE Crusades, or expeditions in order to rescue the The tenHoly Land out of the hands of Infidels, seemed to be the dencyofthe first event that roused Europe from the lethargy in which it to introhad been long sunk, and that tended to introduce any considerable change in government or in manners. It is natural governto the human mind to view those places which have been distinguished by being the residence of any illustrious person- The more age, or the scene of any great transaction, with some degree remote of delight and veneration. To this principle must be ascrib- these expeed the superstitious devotion with which Christians, from ditions. 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 ac-*

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causes of

I.

SECT. complished the redemption of mankind. As this distant pilgrimage could not be performed without considerable expense, 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 Palestine continued subject to the Caliphs, they had 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.

The imme

diate occa

sion of them.

WHEN the minds of men were thus prepared, the zeal of a fanatical monk, who conceived the idea of leading all the forces of Christendom against the Infidels, and of driving them out of the Holy Land by violence, was sufficient to

f Revel. xx. 2, 3, 4.

g 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.

h Jo. Dan. Schoepflini de sacris Gallorum in orientem expeditionibus, p. Argent. 1726. 4to.

I.

give a beginning to that wild enterprise. Peter the hermit, SECT. 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, pronounced the scheme to have been suggested by the immediate inspiration of heaven. In the council of Clermont, still more numerous, as soon as the measure was proposed, all cried out with one voice, "It is the will of God." Persons of all ranks catched the contagion; not only the gallant nobles of that age, with their martial followers, whom we may suppose apt to be allured by the boldness of a romantic enterprise, but men in the more humble and pacific stations of life; ecclesiastics of every order, and even women and children, engaged with emulation in an undertaking, which was deemed sacred and meritorious. If we may believe the concurring testimony of contemporary authors, six millions of persons assumed the cross', which was the badge that distinguished such as devoted themselves to this holy warfare. All Europe, says the Princess Anna Comnena, torn up from the foundation, seemed ready to precipitate itself in one united body upon Asia*. Nor did the fumes of this enthusiastic zeal evaporate at once: the frenzy was as lasting as it was extravagant. During two centuries, Europe seems to have had no object but to recover, or keep possession of the Holy Land; and through that period vast armies continued to march thither [N].

THE first efforts of valour, animated by enthusiasm, were The sucirresistible; part of the lesser Asia, all Syria and Palestine, cess of the Crusades, were wrested from the Infidels; the banner of the cross was displayed on Mount Sion; Constantinople, the capital of the Christian empire in the East, was afterwards seized by a body of those adventurers, who had taken arms against the

i Fulcherius Carnotensis ap. Bongarsii Gesta Deiper Francos, vol. i. 397. edit. Han. 1611.

k Alexias, lib. x. ap. Byz. script. vol. xi. p. 224.

[N] NOTE XIII.

I.

SECT. Mahometans, and an Earl of Flanders, and his descendants, kept possession of the Imperial throne during half a century. But though the first impression of the Crusaders was so unexpected that they made their conquests with great ease, they found infinite difficulty in preserving them. Establishments so distant from Europe, surrounded by warlike nations, animated with fanatical zeal scarcely inferior to that of the Crusaders themselves, were perpetually in danger of beA. D. 1291. ing overturned. Before the expiration of the thirteenth century, the Christians were driven out of all their Asiatic possessions, in acquiring of which, incredible numbers of men had perished, and immense sums of money had been wasted. The only common enterprise in which the European nations ever engaged, and which they all undertook with equal ardour, remains a singular monument of human folly.

'The benefi

of the Cru

sades on

manners.

Their

BUT from these expeditions, extravagant as they were, cial effects beneficial consequences followed, which had neither been foreseen nor expected. In their progress towards the Holy Land, the followers of the cross marched through countries better cultivated, and more civilized than their own. first rendezvous was commonly in Italy, in which Venice, Genoa, Pisa, and other cities, had begun to apply themselves to commerce, and had made considerable advances towards wealth as well as refinement. They embarked there, and landing in Dalmatia, pursued their route by land to Constantinople. Though the military spirit had been long extinct in the Eastern Empire, and a despotism of the worst species had annihilated almost every public virtue, yet Constantinople, having never felt the destructive rage of the barbarous nations, was the greatest, as well as the most beautiful city. in Europe, and the only one in which there remained any image of the ancient elegance in manners and arts. The naval power of the eastern Empire was considerable. Manufactures of the most curious fabric were carried on in its dominions. Constantinople was the chief mart in Europe for the commodities of the East Indies. Although the Saracens and Turks had torn from the Empire many of its richest provinces, and had reduced it within very narrow bounds, yet great wealth flowed into the capital from these

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