333 



CRUSADES. 



CRUTH. 



334 



Situation of the East after the Fifth Crusade. The Khowarzm-shah 

 Turks, pressed by the Mongols, who soon after put an end to the 

 Caliphat, rushed into the Holy Land, and defeated near Gaza the 

 whole of the Christian forces (1244). Jerusalem, together with Pales- 

 tine, became a possession of the sultan of Egypt, as a member of their 

 alliance. 



Sixth Crumde. Louis IX., king of France, called St. Louis, under- 

 took in the year 1249 a new crusade. He followed the plan adopted 

 by John of Jerusalem, and conducted his army against Egypt. 



This land, however, seems to have offered few advantages to the 

 Christian conquerors. Louis, after having easily obtained possession 

 of Damietta, marched along the Nile towards Cairo, but, chiefly through 

 the imprudence of his brother d'Artoia, he lost the battle of Mansura, 

 and with it the bulk of his army. D'Artois and many of the bravest 

 knights were slain ; hunger and sickness compelled the remainder to 

 retreat. Before they were able to reach Damietta, they saw themselves 

 overtaken and surrounded by the sultan, who made the king prisoner, 

 together with the relics of his army. A truce was agreed on, in which 

 the Christians were compelled to give up Damietta, and to pay a ransom 

 of 800,000 Byzantine guilders. The Mamluks, a guard composed of 

 Turkoman youth, who had gradually increased in power, dissatisfied 

 with the generosity of the sultan towards the Christians, murdered 

 him, and placed Ibek, their commander, upon the throne of the caliphs 

 of Egypt. Louis, however, after some hesitation, was allowed to 

 obtain his liberty. 



Though Louis, upon his return to France, found his kingdom hi a 

 disordered state, on account of the misery and waste caused by the 

 revolutionary movements of bands of a fanatic peasantry called Pas- 

 torells, he could not give up the idea of reconquering Jerusalem, and a 

 few years after his return he prepared a new crusade. This crusade, 

 however, did not extend beyond Tunis, where Louis expected to make 

 converts of the princes. This undertaking failed likewise ; and Louis 

 found his grave on the shores of Africa (1270). 



Seventh Crusade. England was the pioneer of the seventh and last 

 crusade. While Louis was still in Tunis, Edward, the grandchild 

 of Richard Coaur de Lion, prepared a new crusade. After the death 

 of Louis he appeared before Tunis, but soon left Africa for Palestine 

 to fight against the Saracens. Not being able to accomplish his plans 

 he returned home, and was the last among the Christian princes who 

 dreamed of conquering the Holy Land. 



^'/nation of the Eat after the lat Cnuade. A few towns situated on 

 or near the coast, Antioch, Ptolema'is, and Tripolis, were still in pos- 

 session of the Christians, and were chiefly defended by the Templars 

 and other military orders. The dispute about the kingdom of 

 Jerusalem still continued between the descendants of the Baldwins. 

 At length Ptolemais fell (1291); the other towns were either aban- 

 doned or taken ; the knights fled to Europe, and the whole of Palestine 

 and Syria again became a possession of the sultans of Egypt, and 

 obeyed the laws of Mohammed. In short, the labour of two centuries 

 was lost; and we may regard this epoch as a kind of oriental 

 restoration. 



Crtuada w the Weitenn Empire. We have already observed how 

 Emiko of Leiningen and the priest Oottschalk had persecuted the 

 i u the Rhenish provinces in their expedition towards the East. 

 This was called a crusade against the Jews. The banner of the cross 

 was likewise displayed in the wars against the Moors in Spain, against 

 the heathens in Prussia and Lithuania, against the Waldenses and 

 Albigenses hi France, against all kinds of heretics, even against the 

 house of Hohenstauffen, when placed under the popish interdict ; 

 which wars, unjust in their principle, were rendered by fanaticism still 

 more terrible hi then* consequences. 



Object of the Eastern Crvsade.Tbe object of the first crusade* was 

 to obtain possession of the Holy Sepulchre for the Christians in Europe ; 

 and secondly, to protect the Christians in the East against the persecu- 

 tions of the Turks. The first object might perhaps have been obtained 

 by treaties : the second, however, could not be secured as long as the 

 Turks possessed Palestine ; and hence the conquest of this country 

 became the principal object of the crusaders. This conquest might 

 have been made in favour of the lawful lords of Palestine, the caliphs, 

 but the Franks, misled by fanaticism, preferred to take for themselves 

 that which by right belonged to others, and by a just retribution lost 

 the fruits of two hundred years' struggle. On the other hand, if they 

 had >en guided by moderation, they might have easily obtained from 

 the caliph Mostaali the possession of Jerusalem by treaties. 



The object of the second crusade was from the very beginning in- 

 considerate. The possession of Jerusalem was not in danger ; nothing 

 had happened to cause a war, except the taking of Edessa. 



Th" third crusade was undertaken with the view of reconquering 

 the Holy Land. This war may appear just to those who think that 

 the acquisition by the sword and the possession of a few years make a 

 good title ; or even to those who, misled by diplomatic sophistry, 

 fancy that crowns and men may be inherited like goods and chattels. 

 niaade of Count Baldwin was an infamous intrigue and mystifi- 

 cation of the Doge Arrigo Dandolo : the crusade of the king of Jeru- 

 salem was an idle attempt to change his imaginary crown into a real one 

 by taking the towns of Egypt ; neither of these expeditions deserves 

 the name of crusade, a name that might be given with more propriety 

 to the fourth crusade undertaken by Andrew, king of Hungary. 



The hatred of the pope against the house of Hohenstauffen was the 

 cause of the fifth crusade. In spite of the impure motives of this war, 

 however, the emperor, by hia prudent conduct, succeeded in obtaining 

 the possession of Jerusalem without the sacrifice of time or blood. 



The sixth and seventh crusades were undertaken with the object of 

 regaining possession of Palestine, which had been lost in the battle of 

 Gaza. The chief reason why so many powerful expeditions turned out 

 signal failures may be sought in the rivalry of the knights of the same 

 country, and the jealousy of their respective kings ; hence there was 

 no unity of action, no discipline, no commander-in-chief, and their 

 numerous armies were scattered and defeated like sheep without a 

 shepherd. 



Consequences of the Crusades. Though the crusades sacrificed the 

 lives of several millions of Christians, among whom were many women 

 and children, and though they were one of the causes which contri- 

 buted to give the popes such an overwhelming power in Europe, 

 although they were instrumental in bringing about the religious wars 

 or persecutions which afflicted Europe, and also in weakening the 

 power of the eastern princes, and rendering them unable to withstand 

 the attacks of the Mongols, it cannot be denied that the crusades were 

 accompanied by many beneficial effects. 



Such, for instance, were the increased activity of political life in 

 Europe, the union of different nations in a common object, the conse- 

 quent dissipation of international strifes and prejudices, and a tendency 

 to a more humane reciprocal intercourse, the acquisition of scientific 

 knowledge, improvement in manners and habits, the breaking up of 

 the feudal system by the sale of estates to the merchants in exchange 

 for the money required by the nobles for their military accoutrements 

 and provisions, the increased wealth of the mercantile towns in Italy, 

 which led to the revival of the fine arts and the sciences in that country, 

 and finally, the diffusion of more liberal modes of thinking in matters 

 of government and religion, occasioned by the intercourse of the 

 western and eastern nations. The great influence of the crusades in 

 extending commerce has been pointed out by Heeren in his ' Essay on 

 the Influence of the Crusades." 



Before the crusades the heavy clouds of religious fanaticism hung 

 over Europe, and mankind bore quietly the chains imposed upon their 

 minds by the authority of the priesthood. But the knight and the 

 soldier who returned from the crusades, after having a thousand times 

 experienced the generosity and hospitality of the Mussulmans, brought 

 home the singular tale that in those remote countries there existed a 

 race of men noble-minded and kind, though professing a creed different 

 from that of their invaders. 



Blind submission to the authority of the priesthood was exchanged 

 for meditation and independent reflection. The inquisition, which 

 was instituted about this time, proves that there were men who were 

 deemed fit subjects for an inquisition, that is, heretics and philosophers. 

 One or two centuries after the crusades, Europe was filled with re- 

 ligious sceptics, as far as regarded the infallibility of the church, some 

 of whom even dared to be religious reformers, such as Huss, Wycliffe, 

 and others. At length Luther appeared, who by his theses and his 

 translation of the Bible shook the very pillars of the Vatican. 



Since the reformation of Luther, the Christian religion has been 

 split into numerous sects, an event which some regard as injurious to 

 religion. But as, in the chemical process of fermentation, in order to 

 prepare a new and better product, it is necessary that the old matter 

 be dissolved into minute particles (that the grape, for instance, be 

 pounded and reduced to an unsightly juice, in order to make a pure 

 and costly wine), so it is perhaps necessary that Christianity should be 

 divided into many sects in order to clean it from all accidental 

 impurities, and to make it fit to become the universal religion of 

 mankind. 



(Wilken, Getchichte der Kreuzzilge, Leipzig, 1807 ; Voltaire, Hixtnln- 

 det Croimdet ; Michaud, Hiftoire del Craisades ; Robert Mons, Historia, 

 Hierotolomitana : Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire ; 

 Mill's Hillary of the Crusade* ; Sybel, Geschichte der erste Kreuzzilge, 

 1841 ; and lastly, Michaud, Bibliographic des Crouades, which gives an 

 account of all the writers who have treated this subject.) 



CRUSCA, ACADEMIA DELLA. [ACADEMY.] 



CRUTH, or CRWTH, a musical instrument of the violin kind, 

 formerly much used in Wales. Sir John Hawkins says that " it some- 

 what resembles a violin, twenty-two inches in length and an inch and 

 a half in thickness. It has six strings, supported by a bridge, and ia 



played on by a bow The bridge is not placed at right angles 



to the sides of this instrument, but in an oblique direction, and one of 

 the feet passes through one of the sound holes, and rests on the inside 

 of the back." The four first strings are placed as in the violin, but the 

 fifth and sixth, which are an inch longer than the others, are fixed to 

 the upper part of the instrument in the manner of the arch-lute 

 [LUTE], and unconnected with the finger-board. According to the 

 same writer the notes of the Cruth were these : 



from which we are led to suppose that the strings were struck in pairs 

 i two at a time. 



