cefs, together with the accounts which they gave of the unknown conveniences and luxuries that abounded in countries better cultivated, or bleffed with a milder climate than their own, excited new adventurers, and expofed the frontier to new devastations.

When nothing was left to plunder in the adjacent provinces, ravaged by frequent incurfions, they marched farther from home, and finding it difficult, or dangerous to return, they began to fettle in the countries which they had fubdued. The fudden and fhort excurfions in queft of booty, which had alarmed, and difquieted the empire, ceafed; a more dreadful calamity impended. Great bodies of armed men, with their wives and children, and flaves and flocks, iffued forth, like regular colonies, in queft of new fettlements. People who had no cities, and feldom any fixed habitation, were fo little attached to their native foil, that they migrated, without reluctance, from one place to another. New adventurers followed them. The lands which they deserted were occupied by more remote tribes of barbarians. Thefe, in their turn, pufhed forward into more fertile Countries, and, like a torrent, continually increafing, rolled on, and fwept every thing before them. In lefs than two centuries from their first irruption, barbarians of various names and lineage, plundered and took poffeffion of Thrace, Pannonia, Gaul, Spain, Africa, and at last of Italy, and Rome itfelf. The vast fabrick of the Roman power, which it had been the work of ages to perfect, was, in that short period, overturned from the foundation.

Many concurring caufes prepared the way for this great revolution, and enfured fuccefs to the nations which invaded the empire. The Roman commonwealth had conquered the world by the wisdom of its civil maxims, and the rigour of its military difcipline. But, under the Emperors, the former were forgotten or defpifed, and the latter was gradually relaxed. The armies of the empire, in the fourth and fifth centuries, bore fcarce any resemblance to those invincible legions which had been victorious wherever they marched. Instead of freemen, who voluntarily took arms from the love of glory, or of their country, provin cials and barbarians were bribed or forced into fervice. They were too feeble, or too proud to fubmit to the fatigue of military duty. They even complained of the weight of their defenfive armour, as intolerable, and laid it aside. Infantry, from which the armies of ancient Rome derived their vigour and ftability, fell into contempt; the effeminate and undifciplined foldiers of later times, could scarce. be brought to venture into the field but on horfeback. These wretched troops, however, were the only guardians of the empire. The jealoufy of defpotifm had deprived the people of the ufe of arms; and fubjects oppreffed and rendered incapable of defending themselves, had neither spirit nor inclination to refift their invaders, from whom they had little to fear, because they could fcarce make their condition more unhappy. As the martial spirit became extinct, the revenues of the empire gradually diminished. The tafte for the luxuries of the east, increased to

fuch a pitch in the Imperial court, that great fums were carried into India, from which money never returns. By the vaft fubfidies paid to the barbarous nations, a ftill greater quantity of fpecie was withdrawn from circulation. The frontier provinces, wafted by frequent incurfions, became unable to pay the customary tribute; and the wealth of the world, which had long centered in the capital of the empire, ceafed to flow thither in the fame abundance, of was diverted into other channels. The limits of the empire continued to be as extenfive as ever, while the fpirit requifite for its defence declined, and its refources were exhaufted. A vaft body, languid, and almoft unanimated, became incapable of any effort to fave itself, and was eafily overpowered. The Emperors, who had the abfolute direction of this difordered fyftem, funk in the foftness of Eastern luxury, fhut up within the walls of a palace, ignorant of war, unacquainted with affairs, and governed entirely by women and eunuchs, or by minifters equally effeminate, trembled at the approach of danger, and under circumstances which called for the utmost vigour in counfel as well as in action, difcovered all the impotent irrefolution of fear and of folly.

In every respect, the condition of the barbarous nations was the reverse of that of the Romans. Among them, the martial fpirit was in full vigour; their leaders were hardy and enterprizing; the arts which had enervated the Romans, were unknown among them; and fuch was the nature of their military inftitutions, that they brought forces into the field with

out any trouble, and fupported them at little expence. The mercenary and effeminate troops ftationed on the frontier, aftonished at their fierceness, either fled at their approach, or were routed in the first onfet. The feeble expedient to which the emperors had recourse, of taking large bodies of the barbarians into pay, and of employing them to repel new invaders, instead of retarding, hastened the destruction of the empire. They foon turned their arms against their masters,and with greater advantage than ever; for, by ferving in the Roman armies, they had acquired all the difcipline, or fkill in war, which the Romans still retained and upon adding these to their native ferocity, they became altogether irresistible.

But though from thefe, and many other caufes, the progrefs and conquests of the nations which overran the empire, became fo extremely rapid, they were accompanied with horrible devastations, and an incredible destruction of the human fpecies. Civilized nations, which take arms upon cool reflection, from motives of policy or prudence, with a view to guard against fome distant danger, or to prevent fome remote contingency, carry on their hostilities with fo little rancour, or animofity, that war among them is difarmed of half its terrors. Barbarians are strangers to fuch refinements. They rush into war with impetuofity, and profecute it with violence. Their fole object is to make their enemies feel the weight of their vengeance, does their rage fubfide until it be fatiated with inflicting on them every poffible calamity. It is with

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nor

fuch

fuch a fpirit, that the favage tribes in America carry on their petty wars. It was with the fame fpirit that the more powerful, and no lefs fierce barbarians, in the north of Europe, and of Afia, fell upon the Roman empire.

Wherever they marched, their route was marked with blood. They ravaged or destroyed all around them. They made no distinction between what was facred, and what was profane.They refpected no age, or fex, or rank. What efcaped the fury of the first inundation, perifhed in thofe which followed it. The most fertile and populous provinces were converted into deferts,in which were scattered the ruins of villages and cities, that afforded fhelter to a few miferable inhabitants, whom chance had preferved, or the fword of the enemy, wearied with destroying, had fpared. The conquerors, who first fettled in the countries which they had wasted, were expelled or exterminated by new invaders, who coming from regions farther removed from the civilized parts of the world, were still more fierce and rapacious. This brought new calamities upon mankind, which did not cenfe until the north, by pouring forth fucceffive fwarms, was drained of people, and cop'd no longer furnish instruments of destruction. Famine and pestilence, which always march in the train of war, when it ravages with fuch inconfiderate cruelty, raged in every part of Europe, and completed its fufferings. If a man were called to fix upon the period in the history of the world, during which the condition of the human face was mest calamitous and afflicted, he would, without hefitation, name that which elapfed from

the death of Theodofius the Great

to the establishment of the Lombards in Italy. The contemporary authors, who beheld that scene of defolation, labour, and are at a lofs for expreffions to describe the horror of it. The Scourge of God, The deftroyer of nations, are the dreadful epithets by which they diftinguish the most noted of the barbarous leaders: and they compare the ruin which they had brought on the world, to the havock occafioned by earthquakes, conflagrations or deluges, the most formidable and fatal calamities which the imagination of man can conceive.

But no expreffions can convey fo perfect an idea of the deftructive progrefs of the barbarians, as that which muft ftrike an attentive obferver, when he contemplates the total change, which he will difcover in the ftate of Europe when it began to recover fome degree of tranquillity towards the close of the fixth century. The Saxons were, by

that time, mafters of the fouthern and more fertile provinces of Britain: the Franks of Gaul; the Huns of Pannonia; the Goths of Spain: the Goths and Lombards of Italy, and the adjacent provinces. Scarce any veftige of the Roman policy, jurifprudence, arts, or literature, remained. New forms of government, new laws, new manners, new dreffes, new languages, and new names of men and countries, were every where introduced. To make a great and fudden alteration with refpect to any of thefe, unless where the ancient inhabitants of a coun try have been almoft totally exterminated, has proved an undertaking beyond the power of the greatest conquerors. The total change which the fettlement of the

barbarous

barbarous nations occafioned in the ftate of Europe, may, therefore, be confidered as a more decifive proof than even the testimony of contemporary hiftorians, of the destructive violence with which they carried on their conquefts, and of the havock which they had made from one extremity of this quarter of the globe to the other." Our author has fome new obfervations upon the Crufades, of which he gives the following act

count.

"The Crufades, or expeditions in order to rescue the Holy Land out of the hands of Infidels, feem to be the first event that rouzed Europe from the lethargy in which it had been long funk, and that tended to introduce any change in government, or in manners. It is natural to the human mind to view thofe places which have been diftinguished by being the refidence of any illuftrious perfonage, or the fcene of any great tranfaction, with fome degree of delight and veneration. From this principle flowed the fuperftitious devotion with which Chriftians, from the earliest ages of the church, were accustomed to vifit that country which the Almighty had felected as the inheritance of his favourite people, and in which the Son of God had accomplished the redemption of mankind. As this diftant pilgrimage could not be performed without confiderable expence, fatigue, and danger, it appeared the more meritorious, and came to be confidered as an expiation for almost every crime. An opinion, which fpread with rapidity over Europe, about the clofe of the tenth and beginning of the eleventh century,and which gained univerfal

credit, wonderfully augmented the number of thefe crudulous pilgrims, and increafed the ardour with which they undertook this ufelefs voyage. The thoufand years mentioned by St. John, were fuppofed to be accomplished, and the end of the world to be at hand. A general confternation feized mankind; many relinquifhed their poffeffions; and, abandoning their friends and families, hurried with precipitation to the Holy Land, where they imagined that Chrift would quickly appear to judge the world. While Paleftine continued fubject to the Caliphs, they had encouraged the refort of pilgrims to Jerufalem; and confidered this as a beneficial fpecies of commerce,which brought into their dominions gold and filver, and carried nothing out of them but relics and confecrated trinkets. But the Turks having conquered Syria about the middle of the eleventh century, pilgrims were expofed to outrages of every kind from thefe fierce barbarians. This change happening precifely at the juncture when the panic terror, which I have mentioned, rendered pilgrimages moft frequent, filled Europe with alarm and indignation. Every perfon who returned from Paleftine, related the dangers which he had encountered in vifiting the holy city, and defcribed with exaggeration, the cruelty and vexations of the Turks.

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 fufficient to give a beginning to that wild enterprize. Peter the

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Hermit

Hermit, for that was the name of this martial apoftle, 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 fame enthufiaftic ardour for it with which he himself was animated. The council of Placentia, where upwards of thirty thousand perfons were affembled, pronounced the scheme to have been fuggefted by the immediate infpiration of Heaven. In the council of Clermont, ftill more numerous, as foon as the measure was propofed, all cried out with one voice, It is the will of God." Perfons of all ranks were fmitten with the contagion; not only the gallant nobles of that age, with their martial followers, whom the boldness of a romantic enterprize might have been.apt to allure, but men in the more humble and pacific stations of life; ecclefiaftics of every order, and even women and children engaged with emulation in an untertaking which was deemed facred and meritorious. If we may believe the concurring teftimony of contemporary authors, fix millions of perfons affumed the crofs, which was the badge that diftinguished fuch as devoted themfelves to this. holy warfare. All Europe, fays the princess Anna Comnena, torn up from the foundation, feemed ready to precipitate itself in one united body upon Afia. Nor did the fumes of this enthufiaftic zeal evaporate at once the frenzy was as lafting, as it was extravagant. During two centuries, Europe feems to have had no object but to recover, or keep poffeffion of the Holy Land, and through that period,

vaft armies continued to march thither.

The firft efforts of valour, animated by enthufiafm, were irrefiftible; part of the Leffer Afia, all Syria, and Palestine, were wrefted from the Infidels; the banner of the cross was difplayed on Mount Sion: Conftantinople, the capital of the Chriftian empire in the eaft, was feized by a body of these adventurers, who had taken arms against the Mahometans, and an earl of Flanders, and his defcendants, kept poffeffion of the Imperial throne during half a century. But though the first impreffion of the Crufaders was fo unexpected that they made their conquefts with great eafe, they found infinite difficulty in preferving them. Eftablishments fo diftant from Europe, furrounded by warlike nations, animated with fanatical zeal, fcarce inferior to that of the Crufaders themfelves, were perpetually in danger of being overturned. Before the expiration of the thirteenth century, the Chriftians were driven out of all their Afiatic poffeffions, in acquiring of which, incredible numbers of men had perifhed, and immenfe fums of money had been wasted. The only common enterprize in which the European nations ever engaged, and which all undertook with equal ardour, remains a fingular monument of human folly.

But from thefe expeditions, extravagant as they were, beneficial confequences followed, which had neither been forefeen, nor expected. In their progrefs towards the Holy Land, the followers of the cross marched through countries better cultivated, and more civilized than