CRUSADES

(Lat. crux, cro .) In the European History of the Middle Ages, wars undertaken by confederaf chiefs and soldiers with a religious object. Those which were engaged in by great part of the nations of Europe for the recovery of Palestine from the infidels are nv >ro frequently denoted by this peculiar name. The term derived from the sacred symbol of the cro , which was borne by the warriors engaged in it over their arms: the colour of the cro often served to designate the nation of the soldier; as, the white cro on a red ground,:e; the red cro on a white ground. England. The principal crusades for the conquest of Palestine were — I. Tii" Brat, a. d. 1096, excited by the preaching of Peter the Hermit and the encouragement of Pope Urban IL.in which ret of Boulogne headed the Christians, who made thi mselves masters of Jerusalem and great part of Pales- -'. The second, a. d. 1142, in which Conrad III. of i my and Louis VII. of France led armies to complete the conquest of Palestine, but without succe . 3. The third, a. n. 1139, was occasioned by the capture of Jerusalem by sultan Salad in; Frederic II. of Germany, Philip August us of France, and Richard Casurde Lion of England, were the chief among the confederate monarchs: the capture of Acre was almost the only fruit of this great exSedition. 4. The fourth crusade was conducted by the inc of Hungary, Andrew 11., in 1217. 5. The fifth was conducted by Frederic II. of Germany (Barb a ro a), who recovered Jerusalem, but for a short time. 6. The sixth, A. d. 12 K by Saint Louis, king of France, against Egypt, but without succe . Among other wars which have been at various times denoted by the name of Crusades, that i Raymond count of Toulouse and his heretical va als the Afblgools, of which the first leader was the famous Simon de Mnntfort, is the most memorable. (See Albioknses.) Whether the Crusades exercised a beneficial Influence on the state and condition of society, is a question which has long engaged the attention of the learned; and, as is the case with every subject of a purely speculative character, different opinions have been entertained respecting i att different times. In the seventeenth century, when the question came first to be agitated, these extraordinary expeditions were generally regarded as having been in the highest decree favourable to the intellectual, commercial aol political interests of the world; but in the succeeding century there arose a host of inquirers, at the head of whom was Voltaire, le dazzled by the brilliancy which romance had thrown around these enterprises than the philosophers of the preceding age, by whom they were represented as mere ebullitions of superstition, fanaticism, and barbarism, which, how strongly soever they agitated the surface of society, in no degree contributed to its permanent improvement.And it was not until Robertson published the introduction to his Charles V-, in which he expre ed his conviction that the Crusades had exercised a most favourable influence over the progre of freedom and the advancement of the human mind, that a ch?ck was given to these unfavourable views, and that the interest and importance formerly attached to the Crusades began to be revived. With the view of stimulating inquiry into this grand historical question, the French Institute, in the year 1806, with its usual enlightened spirit, proposed it to the learned of all countries as a subject of general competition; and the prize was awarded jointly to the e ays of Ileeren and Choiseul d'Aillecourt, which have since been published. These e ays form the groundwork of the more elaborate researches of Michaud, and of the numerous other treatises upon this subject with which the literature of France, England, and Germany has since been inundated; and along with all the most recent discu ions upon this question, which it has been our fortune to see, manifest a singular coincidence of opinion respecting the tendency of the Crusades, which, in spite of some strong drawbacks and disadvantages, they consider as having materially contributed to the revival of European learning and civilization. There are few disputed subjects of which it is more difficult to form a correct estimate than the influence of the Crusades, whether we regard the distant period when they look place, the insufficiency of contemporary history, the different phenomena and consequences by which they were accompanied in different countries, or, above all, the difficulty of a igning to these enterprises their own peculiar effects, amid the multiplicity of other causes, more powerful, perhaps, though le apparent, which were then 306 [s. 319]