486 THE CRUSADES. 



of the Ganges muttered his devotions on a rosary of pre- 

 cious stones. The pious Buddhist in Ceylon, and in Ava, 

 and in Pekin, had the beads ever between his fingers, 

 and a prayer ever between his lips. By means of these 

 great and cosmopolitan religions, all of which possessed 

 their sacred books, all of which enjoined a pure morality, 

 all of which united vast masses of men of different and 

 even hostile nationalities beneath the same religious 

 laws, beneath the same sceptre of an unseen king ; all 

 of which prescribed pilgrimage and travel as a pious 

 work, the circulation of life in the human body was 

 promoted ; men congregated together at Borne, Jeru- 

 salem, Mecca and Benares. Their minds and morals 

 were expanded. Religious enthusiasm united the 

 scattered princes of Europe into one great army, and 

 poured it on the East. The dukes and counts and 

 barons were ruined ; the castle system was extin- 

 guished : and the castle serfs of necessity were free. 

 The kings allied themselves with the free and fortified 

 cities, who lent troops to the crown, but who officered 

 those troops themselves ; who paid taxes to the crown, 

 but who voted those taxes in constitutional assemblies, 

 and had the power to withhold them if they pleased. 

 Those towns now became not only abodes of industry 

 and commerce, but of learning and the arts. In Italy 

 the ancient culture had been revived. In Italy the 

 towns of the western empire had never quite lost 

 their municipal prerogatives. New towns had also 

 arisen, founded in despair and nurtured by calamity. 

 These towns had opened a trade with Constantinople, 

 a great commercial city in which the Arabs had a 

 quarter and a mosque. The Italians were thus led 

 forth into a trade with the Mahometans, which was inter- 

 rupted for a time by the Crusades only to be afterwards 



