volume one

INTllODUCTIO]!?. XXI
tians. The Crusaders who had taken up arms for its
deliverance, suffer themselves to be seduced bj the wealth
of G-reece, and stop short to undertake the conquest of
Constantinople.
From that time the spirit of the Crusaders begins to
change ; whilst a small number of Christians still shed their
blood for the deliverance of the tomb of Jesus Christ, the
princes and the knights are deaf to everything but the
voice of ambition. The popes complete the corruption of
the true spirit of the Crusaders, by urging them on, by
their preaching, against other Christian people, and against
their own personal enemies. The holy wars then degenerate
into civil wars, in which both religion and humanity are
outraged.
These abuses of the crusades, and the dire passions which
had mixed themselves with them, plunge Europe in disorder
and anarchy ; when a pious king undertakes once more to
arm the powers of the AVest against the infidels, and to
revive among the Crusaders the spirit which had animated
the companions of Godfrey. The two wars directed by this
pious chief, are more unfortunate than all the others. In
the first, the world is presented with the spectacle of a captive
army and a king in fetters ; in the second, that of a
powerful monarch dying in its ashes. Then it is that the
illusion disappears, and Jerusalem ceases to attract all the
attention of the West.
Soon after, the face of Europe is changed ; intelligence
dissipates barbarism ; the crusades no longer excite the same
degree of enthusiasm, and the first eftect of the civilization
it begins to spread is to weaken the spirit of the fanaticism
which had given them birth. Some few useless efforts are
at times made to rekindle the fire which had burnt so
fiercely in Europe and Asia. The nations are so completely
recovered from the pious delirium of the Crusades, that
when Germany finds itself menaced by the Mussulmans
who are masters of Constantinople, the banner of the cross
can with difficulty gather an army around it ; and Europe,
which had risen in a mass to attack the infidels in Asia,
opposes but a feeble resistance to them on its own ter-
ritories.
Such is, in a few words, the picture of the events and