312 ' A. D. 1095. 



ftantinople, where they moreover faw manufadures unknown m the 

 refl of Europe, and a confiderable commerce. Nor did the mutual 

 r.verfion entirely prevent them from perceiving how much their Moha- 

 medan enemies were fuperior to their own countrymen in fcience and 

 manufadures. The few, who returned home with expanded minds and 

 improved tafte, carried with them new arts and nianufadtures, and new 

 plants and animals, which were naturalized in their own countries, 

 where they wifhed ftill to enjoy the conveniencies and luxuries they had 

 been accuflomed to when abroad. By their example the tafte for fuch 

 enjoyments v/as communicated to their neighbours ; and as it became 

 necefiary to improve and increafe the native produce in order to anfwer 

 the increafed demand for foreign merchandize, the numbers of veflels 

 and feamen, and alfo of manufadurers and merchants, at leaft in the 

 free ftates of Italy, were greatly augmented. 



For all thefe, and many other improvements in the condition of man- 

 kind, the weftern world is indebted to the mofl frantic enterprile that 

 ever was undertaken by a number of independent nations in conjunc- 

 tion, and which was intended only to promote the interell of prieftcraft 

 and the deluiion and deflruction of mankind *. 



Before the pradice of infurance reduced the hazard of the fea to 

 arithmetical certainty, it was more neceffary than now for the owners 

 of veflels to divide their rifk by holding fhares of feverals, rather than 

 embarking too much of their capital in one bottom. Accordingly 

 about this time, when infurance was certainly unknown in England, 

 and perhaps even in the commercial ftates bordering on the Mediter- 

 ranean fea, we find a half fhare of one veflel, and a quarter of another, 

 belonging to Godric, a native of Walpole in Norfolk, who, after fol- 

 lowing the bufinefs of a merchant fixteen years, became a famous faint, 

 and was honoured with a vifit of the Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalene. 

 [M. Paris, pp. 64, 117.] 



1098 — Magnus Berfoetta (the Barefooted), king of Norway, made fome 

 expeditions among the Britifli iflands, the moft important of which 

 feems to have been about this time. Landing in Orkney, he depofed 

 the two conjunft earls, and then proceeded to the Sudureyar (Weftern 

 iflands), Mann, and Anglefey, plundering every one of them, except 

 Hyona, the fandity of which he refpeded. Next direding his hoftili- 

 ties againft Scotland, a peace was concluded upon condition that the 

 king of Scotland fliould refign all pretenfions to every ifland, between 

 which and the main land a veflel could fteer with a rudder. Magnus 

 availed himfelf of the diftindion, which feems to have been intended 



• It imil be ackiiowlcgcd, lliat Sllvcder II (or clnircli of Jcnifalcm, tlic fruit of which was a little 



Gerbcrt) one of the moft enlightened of the popes, pieliminary cnifadc, undertaken in the year (J99 by 



fowed the firft feeds of tliia frenzy by a letter ad- a fleet from the commercial city of Pifa. \_Plt. 



drcffed to all Chriftiaiis in the name of the dillreflVd Ponlif. up. Miiralori Script. V. Hi, part i, p. 400O 



