volume one

IKTRODUCTIOIS". XXlll
are the interpreters. AYithout yielding faith to all they
say, I have not disdained the fables they relate to ns, and
which were believed by their contemporaries ; for that which
was thought worthy of credit then serves to picture to us
the manners of our ancestors, and forms an essential part of
tlie history of past ages.
We do not now require much sagacity to discover in our
ancient chronicles what is fabulous and what is not. A far
more difficult thing is to reconcile, upon some points, the
frequent contradictory assertions of the Latins, the Greeks,
and the Saracens, and to separate, in the history of the cru-
sades, that which belongs to religious fanaticism, to policy,
or to human passions. I do not pretend to resolve more
skilfully than others these difficult problems, or to elevate
myself above my subject, by ottering positive judgments
upon the nations and ages which will present themselves
before me. Without giving myself up to digressions in
Avhich it is always easy to make a display of learning, after
having scrupulously examined the historical monuments
which remain to us, I will tell honestly what I believe to be
the truth, and will leave dissertations to the erudite, and
conjectures to philosophers.
In an age in which some value is set upon an opinion of
the crusades, it will be first asked, if the wars of the Crusades
were just. Upon this head we have but little to answer
: whilst the Crusaders believed that they were obeying
God himself, by attacking the Saracens in the East, the lat-
ter, who had invaded a part of Asia possessed by Christian
people, who had got possession of Spain, who threatened
Constantinople, the coasts of Italy, and several countries ot
the West, did not reproach their enemies with making an
unjust war, and left to fortune and victory the care of deciding
a question almost always useless.
We shall think it of more importance in this history to
examine what was the cause and the nature of these remote
wars, and what has proved to be their influence on civilization.
The crusades were produced by the religious and
military spirit which prevailed in Europe diuing the middle
ages. The love of arms and religious fervour were two
dominant passions, which, mingling in some way, lent each
other a mutual energy. These two great principles united