380 



CRUSADES. 



("rusade?. 



Effects -of 

 the cru- 

 sades on 

 the man- 

 ners and 

 customs 

 ef Ru- 

 repe. 



ternities, which were governed by their own rales, and 

 into which candidates were admitted with martial and 

 religious ceremonies. In the modern orders of knight- 

 hood, these fraternities still preserve a nominal exist- 

 ence ; but until chivalry was rendered superfluous by 

 improvements in policy, and ludicrous by the humour 

 of Cervantes, it continued to be a dignified and ser- 

 viceable institution. For the encouragement and ex- 

 tension of these societies, nothing could be better adapt- 

 ed than the crusades, which were indeed a general en- 

 terprise, on the principles of chivalry, undertaken by 

 confederated Christendom. The motive which led to 

 them was indignation at the oppression exercised by 

 the Saracens; and in their progress, many who engaged 

 in them were rediiced to such extremities of distress, 

 and dereliction, that various orders of knighthood, espe- 

 cially those of St John and of the Temple, were found- 

 ed expressly for their relief. The admiration which 

 the crusaders enjoyed, rendered those eastern orders 

 more honourable and permanent than others, and the 

 spirit of chivalry was strengthened at home, by its 

 adoption among the venerated warriors in Palestine. 

 In this spirit were implied a punctilious obedience to 

 the laws of honour, morality, and religion, a dignified 

 courtesy of deportment, and an elaborate tenderness 

 and respect for the fair. In short, parcere snbjeclis et 

 debellare stiperbos was the general motive by which, on 

 all occasions, it was to be swayed. The new direction 

 which was thus communicated to the activity of human 

 nature, and the ambition of extracting- and combining 

 all that is most laudable in the ecclesiastical and military 

 characters, soon produced a visible effect on the aspect 

 of society. Men became more guarded in their mutual 

 intercourse; fashion succeeded, where better principles 

 had failed in improving their conduct ; and weakness 

 being invested with an ideal sanctity, which gave it all 

 the advantages of strength, the general comfort was 

 increased by a consciousness of increased security. This 

 direct and imperative operation of chivalry was essen- 

 tially aided by the change of habits and opinions, which 

 gradually and insensibly proceeds from foreign travel, 

 and from the union of various nations in a common en- 

 terprise. Nothing is better fitted to supply the absence 

 of literary education, than visiting new countries, and 

 acting with new associates. It enlarges the views, and 

 corrects false habits of thinking ; it teaches us to re- 

 gard in a projier light, things to which we had attach- 

 ed undue importance ; it imposes the necessity of ac- 

 commodating ourselves to practices and opinions at vari- 

 ance with our own ; and it accustoms the temper to 

 forbearance and pliability, and the mind to discretion 

 and address in the ordinary affairs of life. Travelling 

 of any description produces these effects, but travelling 

 as a soldier accelerates them : for as the character is 

 generally barbarised by the petty and acrimonious con- 

 tests of neighbouring tribes, it is raised and refined, in 

 an equal proportion, by military service on an extend- 

 ed scale, and against a remote and unhabitual oppon- 

 ent. We there contend with men to whom we are in- 

 dividually unknown, and against whom we feel no 

 personal resentment ; we learn to measure our hostility, 

 not by passion, but by the necessity of the case ; we 

 learn from our own wants, to put the proper value on 

 humanity, to mingle courtesy with valour, and to sympa- 

 thise in the sufferings of the foe whom we have over- 

 tome. With our fellow soldiers, too, our companions 

 in peril and privation, and in all the most interesting 

 situations of life ; the sharers in our wistful yearnings 

 after that native land, which is endeared to us by a 



consciousness of extending its glety, and earning its 

 applause, and to winch, amid our toils, we often joint- 

 ly look forward, sustained by the cheering hope of for- 

 tasse et hcec olim meminisse juvabit ; with these we form 

 a friendship of the most cordial and delicate kind, which 

 exalts, as much as it softens the affections, and which, 

 by giving exercise to the best dispositions of our na- 

 ture, imparts a manly but captivating amenity to our 

 general deportment. 



Such were the effects to be expected from the ex- 

 peditions to the East, and we accordingly find that, 

 after their operation had time to be felt, the man- 

 ners of the European nations underwent a percep- 

 tible change ; while the general imitation of their dar- 

 ling champions introduced the rudiments of modem 

 urbanity, and of those usages which, by implying 

 mutual good will and respect, are found so conveni- 

 ent in smoothing the surface of social intercourse. In 

 the East too, and especially in Constantinople, where 

 the luxury and splendour of an imperial capital had 

 never been interrupted by the establishment of bar- 

 barians, the crusaders became acquainted with modes, 

 of life which were superior to those of their own coun- 

 tries, and of which, on their return, they were ready 

 to report the advantages, and urge the adoption. This 

 produced, in the 1 2th and ] 3th centuries, a rapid im- 

 provement in the dignity of courts, in the refinement 

 of pleasures, and in a general taste for those accom- 

 modations, and that order and elegance of domestic ar- 

 rangements, with which the feudal nobility had never 

 thought of gracing the rough hospitality of their halls. 

 The castle of Windsor, which was built about 40 years 

 after the termination of the crusades, is an existing 

 monument of the sort of lodging which was then re- 

 quired by a monarch. 



3. At the time when the crusades began, Europe 

 was involved in the grossest ignorance. All that remain- 

 ed of ancient science and art was confined to Constan- 

 tinople, and to the more enlightened of the Saracens, 

 who first from the vicinity, and afterwards by the con- 

 quest of Alexandria, added to their native literature 

 a considerable knowledge of the Greek philosophy. 

 Though, in visiting these regions, the crusaders were 

 actuated by no desire of mental improvement, and could 

 not boast even that portion of knowledge, which stimu- 

 lates to the acquisition of more, yet they must, from the 

 very boldness of the enterprise, have carried with them 

 a vigour of mind, which is seldom unaccompanied by 

 curiosity. This curiosity would be sharpened by an 

 endless succession of new objects and singular charac- 

 ters ; and it is scarcely possible that some of them 

 should not have perceived the value of that information 

 of which they were destitute. Of the clergy, in par- 

 ticular, who monopolized all the learning of the age, 

 some among the numbers who proceeded to the East, 

 might have been expected to study the language of the 

 Greeks at Constantinople, or the philosophy of the Sa- 

 racens in Egypt. No instances, however, can be given 

 of the importation into Europe of any interesting ad- 

 dition to literature, by the votaries of the cross, and we 

 must, therefore, content ourselves with the general fact, 

 that the close of these expeditions was the commence- 

 ment of a new era in the history of human intellect. 

 The 12th century was the period when it seemed to 

 awaken from its torpor, and to resume its activity, 

 which, though long ill directed, was useful in prepa- 

 ring it for more judicious exertions. A distinguished 

 author (Mr Gibbon) has maintained, that the progress 

 of literature in Europe was retarded, not accelerated, 



6rU5ade«. 



Effects of 

 the cru- 

 sades on 

 literature 

 and the 

 arts. 



