volume one

HISTORY or THE CRUSADES. 261
of kno'^\-ledge from the East. During the eleventh century,
Asia had been the theatre of the most sanguinary revolu-
tions. At this period the Saracens, but more particularly
the Turks, cultivated neither the arts nor the sciences. The
Crusaders had no other relation T\'ith them but a war of extermination.
On another side, the Franks held the Greeks,
among whom, besides, the arts and sciences were declining,
in too much contempt to borrow any kind of instruction
from them ; nevertheless, as the events of the crusade had
strongly affected the imagination of nations, this great and
imposing spectacle was sufficient to give an impetus to the
human mind in the "West. Several writers undertook to
trace the history of this memorable period. Raymond
d'Agiles, Robert the monk of St. Eemy, Tudebode, Foulcher
de Chartres, Abbot Guibert, Baudry, the bishop of Dol, and
Albert d'Aix were contemporary historians, and most of
them ocidar witnesses of the conquests and exploits they
have described. The histories they have left us are not destitute
of merit, and some of them are even better than that
which was written of the same kind among either the Greeks
or the Arabs. These writers were animated in their labours
by the same spirit of piety which governed the heroes of the
cross. This spirit of piety caused them to take up the pen,
and persuaded them that they wrote for the cause of God.
They would have thought themselves wanting in their duty
as Christians, if they had not employed their abilities in
transmitting the events of the holy war to posterity. In
whatever manner we judge of their motives, we cannot avoid
being convinced that they have rendered great services to
history, and that without them the heroic times of our
annals would have remained without monuments.
The wonderful portion of the character of this first crusade
likewise awakened the epic muse. Eaoul de Caen,*
who, in his history, sometimes sounds the epic trumpet in
order worthily to celebrate the "gestes" of Tancred, is not
deficient in either warmth or fancy. The conquest of Jerusalem
was during the twelfth century the subject of several
works in verse. A Limousin knight, Geoffrey de la Tour,
* The verse of this writer is much better than his prose, which is very
incorrect, and sometimes unintelligible.