CRUSADES. 



381 



Ofu'ades by the crusades. But this opinion seems objectionable, 

 tff JT""^ for the following reasons, drawn from the nature, and 

 the e.ru. confirmed by the history of the mind. Exercise of one 

 sadeson kind disposes the mental faculties, not to indolence, 

 literature but to exercise of another. Even among barbarians, 

 and the it is the old warrior who becomes the bard or historian 

 alts * of his tribe. It is those who have themselves made 



extraordinary exertions, who are most anxious to know 

 what exertions have been made by others. It was af- 

 ter the long wars between the Spartan and Athenian 

 states, that the genius of the Greeks broke out with 

 greatest lustre ; and we shall find, that all the golden 

 ages of literature, either immediately succeeded, or ac- 

 tually coincided with periods of excessive agitation, 

 from foreign or intestine conflicts. By analogy, there- 

 fore, we may infer that the interesting novelty, and 

 extensive commotion of the crusades, were better fitted 

 to excite the faculties, and fire the imagination, both 

 of those who performed, and of those who promoted 

 them, than the petty contests and insipid routine of 

 rustic sports, which alone, but for this diversion, would 

 have interrupted the slothful uniformity of their Euro- 

 pean homes. 



In the intellectual progress of nations, poets and fa- 

 bulous historians are the first writers who appear ; and 

 whatever stimulates the fancy may be considered as fa- 

 vouring the creation, because it accelerates the com- 

 mencement of an age of literature. In this view the 

 crusades must have been highly beneficial. They fa- 

 miliarised the minds of Europeans with the splendid 

 fictions — the sjjeciosa miracula rerum — on which the ge- 

 nius of the East has always delighted to dwell. Nay, 

 the very occurrences of these expeditions, magnified by 

 the vanity of those who had shared in them, were sin- 

 gularly suited to quicken the embryo seeds of poetry 

 in the breasts of their ingenious countrymen. We ac- 

 cordingly find in the earliest writers of Europe, in 

 Dante and Boccaccio, and in our own poets, from Chau- 

 cer to Milton, a frequent propensity to avail themselves 

 of Oriental notions, and to give additional attraction to 

 their writings, by allusions to the romantic adventures 

 of the holy warriors, and to the preternatural, but in- 

 teresting extravagances which were grafted on them. 

 In so far, therefore, as the crusades supplied a spur to 

 curiosity, and materials to those who could increase its 

 impulse by gratification, in the same degree they must 

 have contributed to assist the ordinary march of intel- 

 lect, and to give it a more vigorous motion at its out- 

 set, than it would otherwise have so speedily acquired. 

 Whatever hastens the age of poetry, must hasten that 

 of philosophy, by which it is naturally succeeded. In 

 addition to these speculative grounds of belief, we have 

 direct evidence that the crusades, even by their suc- 

 cessless issue, were of advantage to letters. The popes, 

 after perceiving the inefficiency of carnal weapons, to 

 resist the triumphs of Mohammedanism, had recourse 

 to those of a spiritual and logical kind, by which they 

 hoped, instead of conquering, to convert the Saracens. 

 Young men were, therefore, appointed to be educated 

 as future missionaries ; and even at the early period of 

 1285, Pope Honorius had proposed the establishment 

 of a college at Paris, for the purpose of instructing 

 them in the Oriental languages, that, in his own words, 

 " they might fulfil the intentions of his predecessors." 

 Actuated by similar views, the council of Vienna, in 

 1311, declared that the revival of letters was the true 

 method of converting the infidels, and of securing the 

 recovery of the Holy Land ; and we shall find, by in- 

 quiry, that it is nearly to the same period, and proba- 



bly to the same design, the foundation of many foreign ^*J^ 

 and domestic seminaries of learning must be referred. £^^f 



On the other hand, it cannot be denied, that, if the the cru _ 

 crusades were ultimately useful, they were, in various sa d es on 

 respects, immediately detrimental to the advancement literature 

 of knowledge. During then- continuance, military and the 

 fame was the chief object of ambition to all who aspi- arl% 

 red at distinction. A cultivated mind conferred no im- 

 portance in society, compared with talents for waf; and 

 after the institution of chivalry, admission into any of 

 its orders was sufficient to give a youth that rank and 

 respect, the hope of which is the principal incentive to 

 literary labour. Even when some would have prefer- 

 red an attempt to advance themselves by the latter, 

 they were prevented by the heavy contributions impo- 

 sed for the equipment of crusading armies. These ex- . 

 hausted all their means, and obliged them to forego 

 that education, and the provision of those books and 

 other helps, for which studious men require a certain 

 measure of ease, if not of affluence, in their circum- 

 stances. It must also be confessed, as a proof of the 

 incurious ignorance of the age, that no part of Arabic 

 science, of which Europe has availed itself, was im- 

 ported by the crusaders. The arithmetical cyphers 

 were known in the west, before the 11th century. 

 The translation of Aristotle, whose authority continued 

 to be long so unprofitably idolized, was obtained from 

 the Saracens in Spain ; and the astronomy and geogra- 

 phy of the Arabs were transmitted to Christendom, 

 through the same channel. 



But if Europe was not much indebted to the cru- 

 sades, for the direct improvement of science, with re- 

 spect to the advancement of commerce and the arts, 

 the case was very different. Before the 12th century, 

 there had been no regular and systematic communica- 

 tion between the ports of Europe, and those of Asia 

 and Africa. Commerce was so little valued, and so 

 little understood, that France had allowed her mari- 

 time cities, on the Mediterranean, to remain in the 

 hands of the counts of Tholouse, the kings of Majorca, 

 and other petty princes ; nor had the idea yet occurred 

 to the Italians, of extending their traffic beyond their 

 own vicinity, and of rendering their ports the entrepots 

 for Indian commodities. In short, the numerous and 

 signal advantages of water-transport had never drawn 

 the attention of the European nations, till the destruc- 

 tive disasters of the first crusaders, in attempting a 

 march by land, forced upon the mind of their follow- 

 ers the expediency of changing their element. Ships 

 for their conveyance were, therefore, collected to an 

 unusual number in the Mediterranean ports, and these 

 were afterwards employed in carrying provisions to the 

 crowd, which they had previously landed. By the 

 consequent frequency of voyages to Palestine, the arts 

 of navigation and shipbuilding were rapidly improved ; 

 and from tins period may be dated the maritime emi- 

 nence of Pisa, Genoa, and Venice. By the example of 

 Italy, the French monarchs perceived the expediency 

 of obtaining possession of the Mediterranean coast ; 

 but it was not till the embarkation of St Louis and his 

 armies, which required no less than 1800 transports,, 

 that the port of Marseilles began to rise from its prece- 

 ding obscurity. The impulse having once been given 

 to the spirit of naval adventure, it went on with in- 

 creasing activity, till it produced the remarkable change 

 on the aspect of human affairs, which succeeded the 

 discovery of America, and of the naval route to India. 

 The profits, too, which arose from the supply of ne- 

 cessaries to armies at the distance of Palestine, called 



