THE CRUSADES STIR THE EUROPEAN MIND
_What Brought About the Crusades_.--We have learned from the former
chapters that the Arabs had spread their empire from the Euphrates to
the Strait of Gibraltar, and that the Christian and Mohammedan
religions had compassed and absorbed the entire religious life over
this whole territory. As Christianity had become the great reforming
religion of the western part of Europe, so Mohammedanism had become the
reforming religion of Asia. The latter was more exacting in its
demands and more absolute in its sway than the former, spreading its
doctrines mainly by force, while the former sought more to extend its
doctrine by a leavening process. Nevertheless, when the two came in
contact, a fierce struggle for supremacy ensued. The meteorlike rise
of Mohammedanism had created consternation and alarm in the Christian
world as early as the eighth century. There sprang up not only fear of
Islamism, but a hatred of its followers.
After the Arabian Empire had become fully established, there arose to
the northeast of Bagdad, the Moslem capital, a number of Turkish tribes
that were among the more recent converts to Mohammedanism. Apparently
they took the Mohammedan religion as embodied in the Koran literally
and fanatically, and, considering nothing beyond these, sought to
propagate the doctrine through conquest by sword. They are frequently
known as Seljuks. It is to the credit of the Arabs, whether in
Mesopotamia, Africa, or Spain, that their minds reached beyond the
Koran into the wider ranges of knowledge, a fact which tempered their
fanatical zeal, but the Seljuk Turks swept forward with their armies
until they conquered the Byzantine Empire of the East, the last branch
of the great Roman Empire. They had also conquered Jerusalem and {320}
taken possession of the holy sepulchre, to which pilgrimages of
Christians were made annually, and aroused the righteous indignation of
the Christians of the Western world. The ostensible purpose of the
crusades was to free Palestine, the oppressed Christians, and the holy
sepulchre from the domination of the Turks.
It must be remembered that the period of the Middle Ages was
represented by fancies and theories and an evanescent idealism which
controlled the movements of the people to a large extent. Born of
religious sentiment, there dwelt in the minds of Christian people a
reverence for the land of the birth of Christ, to which pilgrims passed
every year to show their adoration for the Saviour and patriotism for
the land of his birth. These pilgrims were interfered with by the
Mohammedans and especially by the Seljuk Turks.
The Turks in their blind zeal for Mohammedanism could see nothing in
the Christian belief worthy of respect or even civil treatment. The
persecution of Christians awakened the sympathy of all Europe and
filled the minds of people with resentment against the occupation of
Jerusalem by the Turks. This is one of the earliest indications of the
development of religious toleration, which heralded the development of
a feeling that people should worship whom they pleased unmolested,
though it was like a voice crying in the wilderness, for many centuries
passed before religious toleration could be acknowledged.
There were other considerations which made occasion for the crusades.
Gregory VII preached a crusade to protect Constantinople and unify the
church under one head. But trouble with Henry IV of Germany caused him
to abandon the enterprise. There still dwelt in the minds of the
people an ideal monarchy, as represented by the Roman Empire. It was
considered the type of all good government, the one expression of the
unity of all people. Many dreamed of the return of this empire to its
full temporal sway. It was a species of idealism which lived on
through the Middle Ages long after the {321} Western Empire had passed
into virtual decay. In connection with this idea of a universal empire
controlling the whole world was the idea of a universal religion which
should unite all religious bodies under one common organization. The
centre of this organization was to be the papal authority at Rome.
There dwelt then in the minds of all ecclesiastics this common desire
for the unity of all religious people in one body regardless of
national boundaries. And it must be said that these two ideas had much
to do with giving Europe unity of thought and sentiment. Disintegrated
as it was, deflected and disturbed by a hundred forces, thoughts of a
common religion and of universal empire nevertheless had much to do to
harmonize and unify the people of Europe. Hence, it was when Urban II,
who had inherited all of the great religious improvements instituted by
Gregory VII, preached a crusade to protect Constantinople, on the one
hand, and to deliver Jerusalem, on the other, and made enthusiastic
inflammatory speeches, that Europe awoke like an electric flash. Peter
the Hermit, on the occasion of the first crusade, was employed to
travel throughout Europe to arouse enthusiasm in the minds of the
people.
The crusades so suddenly inaugurated extended over a period of nearly
two hundred years, in which all Europe was in a restless condition.
The feudal life which had settled down and crystallized all forms of
human society throughout Europe had failed to give that variety and
excitement which it entertained in former days. Thousands of knights
in every nation were longing for the battle-field. Many who thought
life at home not worth living, and other thousands of people seeking
opportunities for change, sought diversion abroad. All Europe was
ready to exclaim "God wills it!" and "On to Jerusalem!" to defend the
Holy City against the Turk.
_Specific Causes of the Crusades_.--If we examine more specifically
into the real causes of the crusades we shall find, as Mr. Guizot has
said, that there were two causes, the one moral, the other social. The
moral cause is represented in the {322} desire to relieve suffering
humanity and fight against the injustice of the Turks. Both the
Mohammedan and the Christian, the two most modern of all great
religions, were placed upon a moral basis. Morality was one of the
chief phases of both religions; yet they had different conceptions of
morality, and no toleration for each other. Although prior to the
Turkish invasion the Mohammedans, through policy, had tolerated the
visitations of the Christians, the two classes of believers had never
gained much respect for each other, and after the Turkish invasion the
enmity between them became intense. It was the struggle of these two
systems of moral order that was the great occasion and one of the
causes of the crusades.
The social cause, however, was that already referred to--the desire of
individuals for a change from the monotony which had settled down over
Europe under the feudal regime. It was the mind of man, the enthusiasm
of the individual, over-leaping the narrow bounds of his surroundings,
and looking for fields of exploitation and new opportunities for
action. The social cause represents, then, the spontaneous outburst of
long-pent-up desires, a return to the freedom of earlier years, when
wandering and plundering were among the chief occupations of the
Teutonic tribes. To state the causes more specifically, perhaps it may
be said that the ambition of temporal and spiritual princes and the
feudal aristocracy for power, the general poverty of the community on
account of overpopulation leading the multitudes to seek relief through
change, and a distinct passion for pilgrimages were influential in
precipitating this movement.
_Unification of Ideals and the Breaking of Feudalism_.--It is to be
observed that the herald of the crusades thrilled all Europe, and that,
on the basis of ideals of empire and church, there were a common
sentiment or feeling and a common ground for action. All Europe soon
placed itself on a common plane in the interest of a common cause. At
first it would seem that this universal movement would have tended to
{323} develop a unity of Western nations. To the extent of breaking
down formal custom, destroying the sterner aspects of feudalism, and
levelling the barriers of classes, it was a unifier of European thought
and life.
But a more careful consideration reveals the fact that although all
groups and classes of people ranged themselves on one side of the great
and common cause, the effect was not merely to break down feudalism
but, in addition, to build up nationality. There was a tendency toward
national unity. The crusades in the latter part of the period became
national affairs, rather than universal or European affairs, even
though the old spirit of feudalism, whereby each individual followed by
his own group of retainers sought his own power and prestige, still
remained. The expansion of this spirit to larger groups invoked the
national spirit and national life. While, in the beginning, the papacy
and the church were all-powerful in their controlling influence on the
crusades, in the later period we find different nationalities,
especially England, France, and Germany, struggling for predominance,
the French nation being more strongly represented than any other.
Among the important results of the crusades, then, were the breaking
down of feudalism and the building up of national life. The causes of
this result are evident. Many of the nobility were slain in battle or
perished through famine and suffering, or else had taken up their abode
under the new government that had been established at Jerusalem. This
left a larger sway to those who were at home in the management of the
affairs of the territory. Moreover, in the later period, the stronger
national lines had been developed, which caused the subordination of
the weaker feudal lords to the more powerful. Many, too, of the strong
feudal lords had lost their wealth, as well as their position, in
carrying on the expenses of the crusades. There was, consequently, the
beginning of the remaking of all Europe upon a national basis. First,
the enlarged ideas of life broke the bounds of feudalism; second, the
failure to unite the nations in the common sentiment of a Western {324}
Empire had left the political forces to cluster around new
nationalities which sprang up in different sections of Europe.
_The Development of Monarchy_.--The result of this centralization was
to develop monarchy, an institution which became universal in the
process of the development of government in Europe. It became the
essential form of government and the type of national unity. Through
no other known process of the time could the chaotic state of the
feudal regime be reduced to a system. Constitutional liberty could not
have survived under these conditions. The monarchy was not only a
permanent form of government, but it was possessed of great
flexibility, and could adapt itself to almost any conditions of the
social life. While it may, primarily, have rested on force and the
predominance of power of certain individuals, in a secondary sense it
represented not only the unity of the race from which it had gained
great strength, but also the moral power of the tribe, as the
expression of their will and sentiments of justice and righteousness.
It is true that it drew a sharp line between the governing and the
governed; it made the one all-powerful and the other all-subordinate;
yet in many instances the one man represented the collective will of
the people, and through him and his administration centred the wisdom
of a nation.
Among the Teutonic peoples, too, there was something more than
sentiment in this form of government. It was an old custom that the
barbarian monarch was elected by the people and represented them; and
whether he came through hereditary rank, from choice of nobles, or from
the election of the people, this idea of monarchy was never lost sight
of in Europe in the earliest stages of existence, and it was perverted
to a great extent only by the Louis's of France and the Stuarts of
England, in the modern era. Monarchy, then, as an institution, was
advanced by the crusades; for a national life was developed and
centralization took place, the king expressed the unity of it all, and
so everywhere throughout Europe it became the universal type.
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_The Crusades Quickened Intellectual Development_.--The intense
activity of Europe in a common cause could not do otherwise than
stimulate intellectual life. In a measure, it was an emancipation of
mind, the establishment of large and liberal ideas. This freedom of
the mind arose, not so much from any product of thought contributed by
the Orientals to the Christians, although in truth the former were in
many ways far more cultured than the latter, but rather from the
development which comes from observation and travel. A habit of
observing the manners and customs, the government, the laws, the life
of different nations, and the action and reaction of the different
elements of human life, tended to develop intellectual activity. Both
Greek and Mohammedan had their influence on the minds of those with
whom they came in contact, and Christians returned to their former
homes possessed of new information and new ideas, and quickened with
new impulses.
The crusades also furnished material for poetic imagination and for
literary products. It was the development of the old saga hero under
new conditions, those of Christianity and humanity, and this led to
greater and more profound sentiments concerning life. The crusades
also took men out from their narrow surroundings and the belief that
the Christian religion, supported by the monasteries, or cloisters,
embodied all that was worth living in this life and a preparation for a
passage into a newer, happier future life beyond. Humanity, according
to the doctrine of the church, had not been worth the attention of the
thoughtful. Life, as life, was not worth living. But the mingling of
humanity on a broader basis and under new circumstances quickened the
thoughts and sentiments of man in favor of his fellows. It gave an
enlarged view of the life of man as a human creature. There was a
thought engendered, feeble though it was at first, that the life on
earth was really important and that it could be enlarged and broadened
in many ways, and hence it was worth saving here for its own sake. The
culmination of this idea appeared in the period of the Renaissance, a
century later.
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_The Commercial Effects of the Crusades_.--A new opportunity for trade
was offered, luxuries were imported from the East in exchange for money
or for minerals and fish of the West. Cotton, wine, dyestuffs,
glassware, grain, spice, fruits, silk, and jewelry, as well as weapons
and horses, came pouring in from the Orient to enlarge and enrich the
life of the Europeans. For, with all the noble spirit manifested in
government and in social life, western Europe was semibarbaric in the
meagreness of the articles of material wealth there represented. The
Italian cities, seizing the opportunity of the contact of the West with
the East, developed a surprising trade with the Oriental cities and
with the northwest of Europe, and thus enhanced their power.[1] From
this impulse of trade that carried on commerce with the Orient largely
through the Italian cities, there sprang up a group of Hanse towns in
the north of Europe. From a financial standpoint we find that money
was brought into use and became from this time on a necessity.
Money-lending became a business, and those who had treasure instead of
keeping it lying idle and unfruitful were now able to develop wealth,
not only for the borrower but also for the lender. This tended to
increase the rapid movement of wealth and to stimulate productive
industry and trade in every direction.
_General Influence of the Crusades on Civilization_.--We see, then,
that it mattered little whether Jerusalem was taken by the Turks or the
Christians, or whether thousands of Christians lost their lives in a
great and holy cause, or whether the Mohammedans triumphed or were
defeated at Jerusalem--the great result of the crusades was one of
education of the people of Europe. The boundaries of life were
enlarged, the power of thought increased, the opportunities for doing
and living multiplied. It was the breaking away from the narrow shell
of its own existence to the newly discovered life of the Orient that
gave Europe its first impulse toward a larger life. And to this extent
the crusades may be said to have been a {327} great civilizer. Many
regard them as merely accidental phenomena difficult to explain, and
yet, by tracing the various unobserved influences at work in their
preparation, we shall see it was merely one phase of a great
transitional movement in the progress of human life, just as we have
seen that the feudal system was transitional between one form of
government and another. The influence of the crusades on civilization
was immense in giving it an impulse forward.
Under the general intellectual awakening, commercial enterprise was
quickened, industry developed, and new ideas of government and art
obtained. The boundaries of Christian influences were extended and new
nationalities were strengthened. Feudalism was undermined by means of
the consolidation of fiefs, the association of lord and vassal, the
introduction of a new military system, the transfer of estates, and the
promotion of the study and use of Roman jurisprudence. Ecclesiasticism
was greatly strengthened at Rome, through the power of the pope and the
authority of his legates, the development of monastic orders, by the
introduction of force and the use of the engine of excommunication.
But something was gained for the common people, for serfs could be
readily emancipated and there was a freer movement among all people.
Ideas of equality began to be disseminated, which had their effect on
the relation of affairs. Upon the whole it may be stated in conclusion
that the emancipation of the mind had begun.
SUBJECTS FOR FURTHER STUDY
1. Show how the crusades helped to break down feudalism and prepare
for monarchy.
2. What intellectual benefit were the crusades to Europe?
3. Were there humanitarian and democratic elements of progress in the
crusades?
4. What was the effect of the crusades on the power of the church?
5. What was the general influence of the crusades on civilization?
6. How did the crusades stimulate commerce?
[1] See Chapter XXI.
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