CRUSADES. 



379 



Crwades. 



Effects of 

 the cru- 

 sades on 

 the poli- 

 tical con- 

 dition of 

 Jiu rope. 



Cal condition; 2d, the manners and customs ; 3d, the 

 literature and the arts ; and 4th, the religion of Eu- 

 rope. 



1 . The period at which the crusades began, was that 

 at which the irruptions of the northern and eastern bar- 

 barians closed. These had confirmed their settlement 

 in the countries which they overran, and had effaced 

 every vestige of the Roman policy, by the introduction 

 of their own. The latter, as might be expected, was 

 rude and irregular, and from its military origin, termi- 

 nated in what is too well known to require description 

 by the name of the Feudal Si/stem. Under this system, 

 the nobility enjoyed a subeffdinate sovereignty, in their 

 own domains ; and though acknowledging a species of 

 allegiance to the king, as the original granter of their 

 lands, yet the acknowledgment was understood to im- 

 ply so imperfect an obedience, that its occasional viola- 

 tion was accounted neither criminal nor infamous. A 

 kingdom resembled a cluster of confederated states, un- 

 der a common head, like those of Greece fn the days of 

 Homer, with this difference, that, in the former case, 

 the crown was hereditary, which rendered its power 

 proportionally greater. When obedience was refused, 

 it could be enforced only by war, and not by law ; and 

 thus a great baron was more like the royal rival than 

 the subject of his nominal superior. He had his own 

 courts of justice, his own mint, and his own army. He 

 made war upon his neighbours ; and the pillage of their 

 domains was regarded as the spoils of conquest, not of 

 robbery. Every kingdom was, therefore, a scene of tur- 

 bulence and distraction ; and the tenants of adjoining 

 baronies felt the same mutual hostility, as the subjects 

 of conterminous states at present. The king naturally 

 strove to augment his authority, but he could do so only 

 by dividing the nobility, and then securing the alliance 

 of the most powerful, or by extending his own domains, 

 in the way of purchase or forfeiture. Kings, therefore, 

 encouraged the crusades, from secular, as well as from 

 spiritual motives. The barons who engaged in them, act- 

 ing not more from superstition, than from a desire of mi- 

 litary glory, were generally the most warlike of this in- 

 tractable order, and their absence was on that account 

 desirable. Sums were required to convey their troops to 

 foreign service, for which their annual revenues were 

 insufficient ; and as the expedient of loans was not yet 

 devised, they were obliged to alienate their lands for 

 isuch a price as they could obtain. Of this necessity 

 their sovereigns took advantage, and by thus enlarging 

 their personal possessions, eidarged their political power. 

 When the kings themselves were infected by the cru- 

 sading mania, they raised money from the sale of mu- 

 nicipal privileges to the towns ; and this, though an 

 apparent abridgment, was a real extension of their au- 

 thority. As the consequence of the people advanced, 

 that of the nobility, which was injurious to order, and 

 which opposed the chief resistance to royal authority, 

 declined in proportion ; and when this unintended ef- 

 fect was perceived, kings became more willing to eman- 

 cipate the lower orders of their subjects from feudal 

 servitude. In this manner corporations were formed, 

 with a species of republican jurisdiction, within their 

 own limits and ideas of liberty, which had long been 

 dormant, began once more to revive. These made the 

 most rapid progress, and reached the greatest perfec- 

 tion, in the maritime cities of Italy, which, from the 

 wealth acquired, by supplying the means of transport 

 and subsistence to the crusaders, were enabled to erect 

 themselves into independent commonwealths. From the 

 co-operation of all these circumstances, the power of go- 



vernment and the efficiency of law were increased ; the Crusades.' 

 protection thus afforded to property gave new confidence * """"i 

 and a new motive to industry; and men being called into 

 situations which obliged them to think and act for them- 

 selves, their faculties were quickened by exercise, and 

 directed to objects of enquiry which had formerly been 

 unknown. If, for example, we turn to England, in 

 the reign of Edward the First, who had himself enga- 

 ged in the last crusade, we find the power of the mo- 

 narchy wielded with unprecedented ease and energy ; 

 we find the people embarking in commerce and navi- 

 gation ; we find the laws improved, and their admini- 

 stration invigorated ; we find the rudiments of our pre- 

 sent constitution distinctly visible ; and we find the 

 youth, instead of limiting their attention to bodily ex- 

 ercises, frequenting the universities, and cultivating 

 their understandings. In France, at the same period, 

 the advance was still more considerable ; and though 

 in both countries, partly owing to the personal charac- 

 ter of the sovereigns, it must be also ascribed in part 

 to the causes which have been already assigned. 



2. In the age preceding the crusades, the manners Effects of 

 and mode of life which prevailed through Europe, were lie cm- 

 gross and unpolished. This must naturally be the case, ^"^ on 

 among the members of small societies, who live in ha- l e mal '" 

 bits of ferocious hostility with their neighbours, and clls toms 

 of close and rude familiarity with each other. Into of Eu- 

 such societies every kingdom was divided. The pre- rope. 

 cincts of each estate were a constant scene of that bor- 

 der warfare, which is the most brutalizing of any; and 

 the conviviality of the baronial hall was, as constantly, 

 the reward of the vassals, on their return from pillage. 

 Then- lord was obliged, in order to secure their attach- 

 ment, to indulge them in intemperance, and in those 

 coarse and turbulent pastimes which suited " the un- 

 yoked humour of their idleness." Himself and his re- 

 lations, having few other associates, were frequently 

 induced to mix in their revels, and a tincture of mascu- 

 line semi-barbarism was thus diffused, even through the 

 higher orders of society. The distinction between the 

 practice of private war and that of indiscriminate rob- 

 bery was so faint and equivocal, that heroes of the 

 highway were held in little dishonour, and the right of 

 plundering passengers, within a definite district, wag 

 sometimes annexed, by grant, to the possession of cer- 

 tain manors. That respect for the fair sex, which is at 

 once a cause, and a consequence of polished manners, 

 could, in these days, have little influence, as women 

 were classed among other articles of property and plun- 

 der, and depredations on moveables of this description 

 were frequently the origin of the baronial wars. Pre- 

 vious to the crusades, indeed, a partial remedy, or ra- 

 ther a feeble palliative, for the evils created by this 

 dissolution of order, had arisen from the institution of 

 chivalry. Some individuals, whose natural ideas of 

 justice and humanity were superior to those of their 

 age, determined to supply the deficiencies of law, which 

 permitted injuries too painful for their sensibility to 

 witness, and assuming the character of judges, in every 

 case of oppression, enforced their decisions by their own 

 personal prowess. The weaker sex, and those of the 

 other, who, from profession, were most pacific, became 

 the principal objects of their protection ; and the plea- 

 sing consciousness of performing acts of generosity, 

 and at the same time of indulging the prevailing pro- 

 pensity to acts of valour, rendered the occupation fa- 

 shionable, and introduced sentiments and manners of 

 a new and interesting kind. These voluntary cham- 

 pions of injured innocence formed themselves into fra- 



