382 



CRUSADES. 



1*1 us?, tics, 



Effects of 

 tbe cru- 

 sades up- 

 on reli- 

 gion. 



the attention of traders to the advantages of an extend- 

 ed transfer of commodities ; and the example of the 

 Italian towns was gradually followed by other coun- 

 tries. Wealth was thus introduced into the states of 

 Europe, and the inhabitants prepared, by the enjoy- 

 ment of affluence and leisure, to relish and require the 

 luxuries of knowledge and the elegant arts, which are 

 never encouraged, till the more urgent cravings of na- 

 ture have been supplied. In further proof of the bene- 

 fit which trade derived from the crusades, we may 

 add that the commercial regulations of Richard I. which 

 he promulgated on his return from Palestine, under the 

 title of the " Laws of Oleron," were the wisest then 

 known, and no less remarkable for their justice and 

 humanity than for their prudence. 



4. To religion, as to letters, the crusades, though 

 immediately injurious, were the remote cause of bene- 

 ficial changes. At their commencement, the papal au- 

 thority was in its plenitude, and the sovereign pontiffs, 

 who had subjected Europe, were desirous of reducing 

 Asia under their singular mixture of temporal and spi- 

 ritual tyranny. But of all such attempts of extrava- 

 gant ambition, the failure weakens, as the success con- 

 firms, the power of the projector. When Europe, dis- 

 gusted by two centuries of disaster, began to suspect 

 the folly of these expeditions, it must have also begun 

 to doubt the infallible judgment of their ghostly pro- 

 moters. This doubt, being once introduced into think- 

 ing minds, (and such must have been the first to en- 

 tertain it,) would naturally increase ; and when aided 

 by the new vigour which reason had; from other cau- 

 ses, acquired, may be supposed to have operated, as a 

 slow and imperceptible preparative for the doctrines of 

 the reformation, the rudiments of which were suggest- 

 ed by Valdo, about 50 years before, and by Wickliffe, 

 about 50 years after the final recapture of Palestine. 

 During the progress of the crusades, however, that 

 blind and fanatical devotion to the will of the priest- 

 hood, without which the people could never have been 

 seduced into so wild an enterprise, seems to have ra- 

 ther increased than declined. Nothing, indeed, was 

 omitted by the popes and their subordinate agents, to 

 carry this principle to its most extravagant height, and 

 thus to accomplish the object on which they had fixed, 

 as necessary to the consummation of their paramount 

 supremacy. 



Indulgences, or an exemption from the penalties of 

 purgatory, were granted with a profusion, most subver- 

 sive of morality, to all who were willing, either by per- 

 sonal service or pecuniary contributions, to forward the 

 conquest of Palestine. The eagerness of the people to 

 drug their consciences, which were purposely agonized, 

 by the venders of the opiate, rendered this artful expe- 

 dient too productive to be discontinued, after the prin- 

 cipal cause of resorting to it had ceased ; and the sale 

 of indulgences was afterwards converted into a regular 

 branch of the ecclesiastical revenue. The infamy of 

 such a traffic, in which the interests of virtue were sa- 

 crificed by those who exclusively pretended to maintain 

 them, could not fail to be at length perceived, and is 

 well known to have been the chief of those multiplied 

 abuses of human ignorance, which gradually led intelli- 

 gent men to detect the delusions, and to deny the legi- 

 timacy of the Romish church During the crusades, 

 the interests of the priesthood were artfully identified 

 with those of the Christian faith ; and the zealous, but 

 bewildered, laity endeavoured to support the latter, by 

 the most extravagant donations to the former. This 



Crusades, 



liberality was generally directed to the monasteries; for 

 the conventual character had acquired additional value - » 

 with the people, from what they had seen or heard of the e ^„.° 

 the ascetic practices of the East. New monasteries were, sades up . 

 therefore, endowed, and new fraternities instituted by on reli- 

 the church, that it might provide sufficient channels, gion. 

 through which the bounty of its infatuated votaries 

 should flow. But the popes, not contented with increa- 

 sing the wealth and numbers of the priesthood, took 

 advantage of the opportunity offered by the crusades to 

 fortify themselves still farther, by instituting orders of 

 knighthood, who, among their other duties, obliged 

 themselves to be champions of the church and of all its 

 rights. But even these auxiliaries, though an apparent 

 addition of strength, in reality increased the weakness, 

 and accelerated the downfall of pontifical domination. 

 The ecclesiastical warriors, who, by a vow of celibacy, 

 exposed themselves to double temptation, and who, tin- 

 der the sanctity of a semi-canonical vocation, could in- 

 dulge with more freedom the licentiousness of military 

 habits, speedily sunk into the most abominable debau- 

 chery. Wealth and indolence, too, produced their usual 

 effects on the monastic orders, who shewed, by their 

 open and unguarded indecencies, that they considered 

 the subjection of the popular mind to be complete and 

 irretrievable, and that the trouble of disguising their 

 vices might therefore be spared. This security created 

 in the popes such a contempt for the public understand- 

 ing, as led them to instdt it with the most absurd addi- 

 tions to the creed. Of this description were the doc- 

 trines of transubstantiation, the adoration of the host, 

 the worship of the Virgin, and the efficacy of the rosa- 

 ry, all of which were the inventions of the 13th centu- 

 ry. Though, for a time, these ludicrous or idolatrous 

 tenets met with implicit belief, yet human reason, 

 which, by its progressive maturation, was silently re- 

 sisting every effort to protract its weakness, could not 

 long submit to the wanton mockery which they implied. 

 It was provoked to an investigation and assertion of its 

 natural rights, the result of which, combined with in- 

 dignation at the dissolute example of the military and 

 monastic orders, contributed to produce that memora- 

 ble revolt against papal oppression, by which, two cen- 

 turies after, Christendom was convulsed and purified. 

 These causes were aided by the persecuting spirit of 

 the church, which, if not created, was confirmed by the 

 crusades. We naturally indulge hatred, from a desire 

 of self justification, against those whom we attack; and 

 hence, during the eastern expeditions, aversion at infi- 

 dels became the most prevailing sentiment in Europe. 

 This sentiment was propagated by the clergy with so 

 much success, that we find it give a tincture to the 

 style of the times, in which the epithets of miscreant, 

 pnynim, or recreant, are the strongest expressions of 

 vituperation and abhorrence which language could sup- 

 ply. When the mind has been enslaved to such a feel- 

 ing, it is easily transferred from unbelievers to those of 

 our own communion, who differ from us, by the nicest 

 shade of opinion, in religious metaphysics, and expe- 

 rience has abundantly proved, that, in the last case, its 

 asperity is embittered, by the constant irritation which 

 vicinity occasions, and by a closer contact with the 

 objects of detestation. It is, therefore, by no means 

 surprising that the wars with the Saracens, should have 

 introduced an excessive jealousy of heretical notions, 

 and an implacable spirit of persecution at home ; or 

 that the cruelties, which were the consequence, should, 

 by natural reaction, have led to that obstinate resist- 



