ON THE MIDDLE OR DARK AGES. 



307 



with an unconquerable determination to rescue the Holy Land, and trample 

 upon its defilers. 



Hence the origin of the various military orders which form so prominent a 

 feature in the history of this period of the world ; of the Knig-hts of Malta, or 

 of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, as they were at first called : the 

 Knights Templars; the Teutonic Order; and the Order of St. Lazarus. 

 Hence, too, that spirit of chivalry and romantic adventure, of tilts and tourna- 

 ments ; which, however it may have laid a basis for a thousand interesting 

 tales of wild exploit and marvellous vicissitude,* had a tendency to change 

 the sober order of things; to convert the patriotic citizen into a champion of 

 fortune, and to work up the temperate reality of life into a fitful and visionary 

 phrensy. 



And hence, too, among those who confined their views altogether to sub- 

 jects of personal devotion and still life, the extension, though not the rise (for 

 they were already in existence), of religious orders, of pilgrimages, and her- 

 mit solitudes ; of vows of celibacy and fasting, of severe penance and rigour ; 

 under the preposterous idea of propitiating the Supreme Being in favour of 

 his own cause, by directly warring with the best and warmest, the most 

 active and most benevolent passions and instincts which he has imprinted on 

 the human heart for the multiplication of human happiness. 



The crusades were numerous, but there are only seven that are worthy of 

 particular notice. Of these, the first was led by Godfrey of Bouillon, in 1096, 

 and was the only one that proved really successful; and that actually rescued, 

 though only for a few years, the whole of Palestine from the grasp of the 

 Mahometans. The third is chiefly celebrated for the chivalrous and enthu- 

 siastic valour with which it was prosecuted under our own Richard I. in 

 1189; and for the generous magnanimity of Saladin, who was at that time 

 the Saracen king of Jerusalem. The last two were headed by St. Lewis in 

 1248 and 1270; and are principally notorious for the piety and valour which 

 he displayed, and the misfortunes which attended him. 



The scenes of havoc and barbarity to which this infatuating system gave 

 rise on both sides are too shocking for narration, and too long to be recounted, 

 even if we had time. The wild desire of foreign expurgation led to a similar 

 desire of purging the church at home ; and hence the establishment of the 

 Holy Wars led to the establishment of the Holy Inquisition ; — the extirpation 

 of infidels to the extirpation of heretics. Hence the crusaders under Bald- 

 win, count of France, when advancing towards Palestine, in 1204, by a sud- 

 den and delirious impulse, turned aside from their attack upon the Maho- 

 metans, and attacked the Greek Church in its stead, on account of its sup- 

 posed heterodoxies ; and took and ransacked Constantinople, instead of 

 taking and restoring Jerusalem. 



The brutal havoc which followed upon this expedition, and the destruction 

 of all the finest statues and public monuments erected by Constantino on his 

 founding the city, are described with much force and feeling by Nicetas the 

 Chroniate, who was an eye-witness to the transaction, and who justly styles 

 these crusading Vandals, T5 /caA» avepaaroi Bap6apo7 if " Barbarians insensible to 

 the fair and beautiful." He especially laments the destruction of the inimi- 

 table figures of Hercules and Helen, which, being constructed of brass, were 

 melted down to pay the soldiers. The following is a part of his description 

 of the latter statue, and I quote it from the translation of Mr. Harris, as a 

 proof that Constantinople, even in the thirteenth century, had scholars not 

 altogether destitute of literary taste. *' What," says he, " shall I say of the 

 beauteous Helen ; of her who brought together all Greece against Troy 

 Does she mitigate these immitigable, these iron-hearted men ? No — nothing 

 like it could even she effect, who had before enslaved so many spectators 

 with her beauty. Her lips," continues he, " like opening flowers, were gently 

 parted, as if she were going to speak : and as for that graceful smile, which 

 instantly met the beholder and filled him with delight, those elegant curva- 



•Sainte-Palaye : M^moires sur I'Ancienne Chevalerie, torn. i. p. 1&3, et seq. | Fabricii Biblfoth. p, 413 



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