volume one

2G0 nrsTORY of the crusades.
tlie Mussulman nations, and to place it out of their po^ver
to undertake for a length of time any warlike enterprises
against the West. Thanks to the yictories of the Crusaders,
the Greek empire extended its limits, and Constantinople,
which was the road to the West for the tSaracens, was rendered
safe from their attacks. In this distant expedition
Eiu-ope lost the flower of its population, but it was not, as
Asia was. the theatre of a bloodv and disastrous war ; of a
war in which nothing was respected, in which provinces and
cities were, by turns, ravaged by the conquerors and the
conquered. Whilst the warriors of Europe were shedding
their blood on the plains of the East, the West remained in
profound peace. Among Christian nations it was then considered
a crime to take up arms for any other cause than
that of Jesus Christ. This opinion contributed greatly to
check the frightful brigandage that had prevailed, and to
increase respect for the truce of God, which was, in the
middle ao:es. the crerm or the simal of the best institutions.
AVhatever were the reverses of the crusades, they were less
deplorable than the civil wars and the scourges of feudal
anarchv that had so Ions; ravas:ed all the countries of the
West.
This first crusade produced other advantages to Europe.*
The East, by the holy war, was in some sort laid open to the
West, which, before, was but little acquainted ^ith it ; the
IMediterranean became more frequented by European vessels,
navigation made some progress, and commerce, particularly
that of the Pisans and Grenoese, must have been increased
and enriched bv the foundation of the kinojdom of Jerusalem.
A great part, it is true, of the gold and silver of
Em'ope was carried into Asia by the Crusaders ; but these
treasures, heaped up and concealed by avarice and fear, had
been long abstracted from circulation ; the gold which was
not carried awav bv the Crusaders circulated more freelv,
and Europe, with a less quantity of money, appeared all at
once more rich than it had ever been.
We cannot perceive, whatever may have been asserted,
tliat in the first crusade Europe received any great quantity
* Iq our general conclusions, we shall often have to quote the works
of M. Heeren and M. Choiseuil d'Aillecourt upon the influence of the
crusades.