28 INTRODUCTION. 



controversy, and bound themselves by solemn vows 

 for their extirpation. Military orders were ex- 

 pressly instituted for the same object, who made it 

 a work of charity and mercy to harass and destroy 

 them from the face of the earth. Towards the close 

 of the middle ages their name .w^as detested over all 

 Europe, where they were known only as barbarians 

 and freebooters, the burners of libraries, the Huns 

 and Goths of the East, and the enemies of the Catho- 

 lic faith. 



The improvements and discoveries of navigation, 

 which threw a new light on the most distant quarters 

 of the globe, tended for a while rather to prolong 

 than to dispel the shades of prejudice that had settled 

 down on Arabia. When the naval enterprise of the 



• 



about the year 1460, produced his " Cribratio Alcorani," or 

 Sifting of the Koran, as an antidote against the false rehgion 

 that had made such disastrous inroads into the papal dominions. 

 In 1487, Joannes Andreas, a converted Mussulman, wrote in 

 Spanish his " Confusion of the Mohammedan Sect," in refuta- 

 tion of the creed he had forsaken. So early as 1210 Friar Rich- 

 ard had gone to Bagdad in order to confute the Mohammedans 

 out of their own books : and, on his return, he published his 

 " Confutatio Legis Saracemcas." The Jesuit missionary Xa- 

 vier, at the command of the Mogul emperor, wrote a defence of 

 the Gospel against the Saracens, called " A Looking-glass for 

 showing the Truth." A learned Persian wrote an answer to it, 

 entitled the " Brasher of the Looking-glass," in which he ex- 

 posed the errors and superstitions of the Church of Rome, so as 

 to alarm the Propagandists, who employed a Franciscan friar to 

 refute it ; and, in 1628, he published his " Clearing up of the 

 Looking-glass," in reply to the Persian Brusher. Among other 

 defenders of Clu-istianity who directed their polemical fury 

 against the Saracens, may be mentioned Alphonso de Spina, 

 who wrote the " Fortalitium Fidei," or Fortress of the Faith ; 

 Raymond Martin, with his " Pugio Fidei," or Dagger of the 

 Faith ; and Pelagius, with his " CoUyrium contra Hereticos," 

 or Eye Salve against the Heretics. Some of these productions 

 are poor enough, and give a curious picture of the extravagant 

 fancies of the writers. Among the early specimens of English 

 typography, we find a book printed by Daye, " AgajTist Perju- 

 nus Murderying Mahomet." — Watfs Biblioth. Brit. Pridsa-ux's 

 Life of Mahomet. 



