CRUISERS CRUSADES. 



549 



the history of St Peter, during the first century of 

 the Christian era. Having been seized by the Ro- 

 man government, and condemned to die on the cross, 

 it is said that he solicited, as a greater degradation, 

 that he might be crucified with liis head downwards. 

 It appears that delinquents were sometimes affixed 

 to the cross, and burnt or suffocated to death. With 

 respect to the persons on whom this punishment was 

 inflicted, we liave seen that the Carthaginian leaders 

 were not exempt from it ; but elsewhere, especially 

 among the Jews and Romans, only the lowest male- 

 factors were condemned to the cross. It was pecu- 

 liarly appropriated for slaves. 



The cross has been made a more terrible instru- 

 ment of destruction to a vanquished enemy. Thus 

 Alexander the Great, after putting eight or ten thou- 

 sand Tyrians to the sword, on taking their city, cru- 

 cified 2000 more along the shores. Not less san- 

 guinary was the vengeance of the Romans against 

 the Jews ; Minutius Alexander crucified 800, and 

 Quinctilius Varus 2000, on account of some revolt. 

 Titus, whom we are wont to esteem as humane and 

 merciful, crucified above 500 in a day ; and, at the 

 sack of Jerusalem, under his command, the Romans, 

 wherever they could seize the affrighted fugitives, 

 either in hatred or derision, nailed them to crosses 

 about the walls of the city, until the multitude was so 

 great that room was wanting for the crosses, and 

 crosses for the bodies. 



Crucifixion has been considered the most cruel of 

 ah 1 punishments, and merited by the roost atrocious 

 offences only. That the pain of the cross is cruel 

 cannot be denied ; yet we are, perhaps, accustomed 

 to exaggerate it. Examples are not wanting of per- 

 sons having been taken down from the cross alive, 

 and surviving the laceration of their members. Jo- 

 sephus, the historian, relates, tliat, on leaving a par- 

 ticular town in Judea, he saw a great many of the 

 enemy crucified ; but it grieved him much to recog- 

 nize tliree of the number with whom he had been in 

 intimate habits. He hastened to inform Titus of the 

 fact, who immediately ordered them to be taken 

 down, and their wounds carefully healed. Two, 

 nevertheless, perished ; but the third survived. 



CRUISERS, in naval affairs ; vessels, as the name 

 imports, employed on a cruise. The name is com- 

 monly given to men of war, made use of to secure 

 merchant sliips and vessels from the enemy's small 

 frigates and privateers. They are generally formed 

 for fast sailing, and well manned. 



CRUSADES are the wars which were carried on 

 by the Christian nations of the west, from the end of 

 the llth to the end of the 13th century, for the con- 

 quest of Palestine. They were called crusades be- 

 cause all the warriors who followed the holy banner 

 (crusaders,} wore the sign of the cross. The Chris- 

 tian and Mohammedan nations had been, during a 

 long period, in a state of war, not only in Asia, but 

 also in Europe, where the Moors, Mohammedans by 

 religion, had taken possession of part of the Spanish 

 peninsula. The nations of the west were grieved 

 that the Holy Land, where Jesus had lived, taught, 

 and died for mankind, where pious pilgrims resorted 

 to pour out their sorrows, and ask for aid from above, 

 at the tomb of their Saviour, should be in the power 

 of unbelievers. The pilgrims, on their return, relat- 

 ed the dangers they had encountered. The caliph 

 Hakein was particularly described as a second Nero. 

 Being the son of a Christian woman, he shed the 

 blood of Christians without mercy, to prevent the 

 suspicion of his being secretly attached to that reli- 

 gion. These representations kindled the religious 

 eeal of Christian Europe into a flame, and a genera" 

 ardour was awakened to deliver the sepulchre 01 

 Christ from the hands of the infidels. In order to 



understand this general excitement, we must remem- 

 jer tliat, at this period, the confusion and desolation 

 which had followed the irruption of the barbarians 

 nto the south and west of Europe, had ceased, and 

 ,he dawn of civilization and intellectual cultivation 

 lad commenced. In this mental twilight, men were 

 ust in a state to receive a strong religious excite- 

 ment. The idea of the Virgin, too, harmonized well 

 with the Teutonic reverence for the female sex ; and 

 to fight in her cause was gratifying to the spirit of 

 chivalry. The undisciplined minds of men were bent 

 upon adventure, and their imaginations were easily 

 roused by the reports of the riches of the East. The 

 joys of paradise were the sure reward of all who fell 



the holy cause. Thus a crowd of the strongest 

 Feelings, chivalrous devotion to the female sex, the 

 dope of adventure, of wealth, of honour, and of hea- 

 ven, stirred up the spirit of Europe, and impelled her 

 sons into the East. See Chivalry. 



The pope considered the invasion of Asia as the 

 means of promoting Christianity amongst the infidels, 

 and of winning whole nations to the bosom of the 

 church ; monarchs expected victory and increase of 

 dominion ; the peasant, who, in the greater part of 

 Europe, was struggling with wretchedness in the de- 

 grading condition of bondage, was ready to follow to 

 a country which was pictured as a paradise. The 

 East has always had a poetical charm for the people 

 of the West, which has by no means ceased in our 

 time. The crusades, and the ardour with which 

 whole nations engaged in them, must be attributed 

 to the above causes. Peter of Amiens, or Peter the 

 Hermit, was the immediate cause of the first crusade. 

 In 1093, he had joined other pilgrims on a journey to 

 Jerusalem. On his return, he gave pope Urban II. 

 a description of the unhappy situation of Christians in 

 the East, and presented a petition from the patriarch 

 of Jerusalem, in which he anxiously entreated the 

 assistance of the Western Christians for their suffering 

 brethren. The pope disclosed to the council which 

 was held at Piacenza, in 1095, in the open air, on 

 account of the number of people assembled, the mes- 

 sage which Christ had sent through Peter the H ermit, 

 caused the ambassadors of the Greek emperor Alex- 

 ius to describe the condition of Christianity in the 

 East, and induced many to promise their assistance 

 for the relief of their oppressed brethren. The sen- 

 sation which he produced at the council assembled at 

 Clermont, in 1096, where ambassadors from all na- 

 tions were present, was still greater ; he inspired the 

 whole assembly so completely La favour of his plan, 

 that they unanimously exclaimed, after he had describ- 

 ed the miserable condition of the Oriental Christians, 

 and called upon the West fe. aid, Deus vult (It is 

 God's will) ! 



In the same year, numberless armies went forth in 

 different divisions. This is considered the first cru- 

 sade. Many of these armies, being ignorant of mili- 

 tary discipline, and unprovided with the necessaries 

 for such an expedition, were completely destroyed hi 

 the different countries through which they had to 

 pass before reaching Constantinople, wlu'ch had been 

 chosen for their place of meeting. A superficial 

 knowledge of these holy wars throws a false glare 

 round the character of the crusading armies. They 

 contained, indeed, some men of elevated character ; 

 but the greater part consisted of crazy fanatics and 

 wretches bent on plunder. A well conducted, re- 

 gular army, however, of 80,000 men, was headed by 

 Godfrey of Boulogne, duke of Lower Lorraine, 

 Hugh, brother to Philip king of France, Baldwin, 

 brother of Godfrey, Robert of Flanders, Raymond 

 of Toulouse, Bohemond, Tancred of Apulia, and 

 other heroes. With this army, the experienced com- 

 manders traversed Germany and Hungary, passed 



