Mahometanism, in the secular influence of the priesthood, as exhibited in Turkey: and as it is in Turkey, so it is in Persia, and other Maho

metan states.

Lastly, The character of that inveterate and sanguinary warfare between the Papal and Mahometan tyrannies, the spirit of which still outlives the vicissitudes of ten centuries*, combines with their contemporaneous rise, progress, and decay, and with all the heads of the general analogy specified in these pages, to mark the prophetic relation of the two powers, as, indeed, the great heads of that Antichrist foretold by Christ and his Apostles, and vividly foreshown in the Scriptures of both Testaments.t If, in the earlier ages of Mahometanism, in obedience to the precepts of the Koran, the successors of Mahomet carried a war of religion and persecution into the heart of France and Italy, in the era of the crusades, the self-named successors of Saint Peter, in the genuine spirit of Mahometanism, exchanging the sword of the Spirit for the arm of flesh, bore the terrors of war and persecution into the midst of Mahometan Asia. To the warlike fanaticism of the armed apostles of

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* Computing from the invasion of France by the Saracens, in the ninth century; that is, from the date of their earliest collision with Catholic Europe.

† See especially sect. iii.

Islamism, was now every where opposed the kindred fanaticism of a military priesthood, arrayed under the banners of papal Rome. And the common spirit of the hostile superstitions is hardly more legible in the annals of the crusades themselves, than in the history of those bloody wars between the Turks and Francs, by which the crusades were succeeded. Nor is it the least remarkable feature of coincidence in this rivalry of persecution, that, while, in more modern times, the atrocities of the piratical states of Barbary have served to keep alive the character of the antichristian conflict of Mahometanism with Popery on the shores of the Mediterranean, the cruelties of the Portuguese in the East, and the dreadful enormities of the inquisition of Goa, have registered, in notes of blood and fire, along the coasts of India, the character of the no less antichristian controversy, maintained, by the authority of the church of Rome, against the Mahometan world.

But the developement of these, and other particulars of this parallel, must be reserved for the ensuing examination of the crusades, and their consequences; where they will find their natural and proper place.

* The motives, however, of many among the crusaders, and the providential uses of the crusades, must not be lost sight of. See sections xi,

SECTION XI.

THE CRUSADES.

THE causes and effects of the crusades form one of the most interesting topics of modern history.* The subject has, accordingly, engaged the attention, and exercised the minds, of our most eminent historical writers. But, whatever may be the connection of this important question with the history of modern Europe, its investigation must enter essentially into the plan of the present work; where the object proposed is a comparison of Christianity and Mahometanism, in all the analogies which exist between the two religious polities. Among the heads of this comparison, the holy wars occupy a foremost place: 1. on account of the international relations, and the universal collisions, which, for the

* For much new and valuable light, we owe a debt of thanks to the French Institute: the impulse given by its liberal encouragement of more full inquiry into the character and consequences of the holy wars, has produced the desired fruits: the essays of M. M. Heeren, and De Choiseul D'Aillecourt, "Sur l'Influence des Croisades," will be perused with interest by every reader, who would enlarge his view of the philosophy of history, or take a fresh lesson out of this important chapter of the book of providence.

space of two centuries, these expeditions occasioned between the Christian and the Mahometan world*; and 2. because the crusades prosecuted by western Christendom against the Mahometan powers, from the eleventh to the fourteenth century inclusive, were, properly speaking, but the reaction of that religious warfare, which, in the seventh century, Mahometanism had set on foot, with no less a purpose than the utter subversion of Christianity.1

In re-opening this great field of inquiry, it will be our first duty, briefly to examine the previous state of the question. By the founders of the historical school, which sprang up in Great Britain during the eighteenth century, and which has deservedly established its reputation throughout Europe, views of the Christian expeditions to Palestine, of their causes, of their general character, and of their final results, have been taken, which, whether justly or unjustly, strip those stupendous movements, both of all true historical dignity, and of all direct political utility or importance. Brute force, impelled by blind fanaticism, or by pious fraud, may be said

* M. Oelsner traces the rise of European chivalry, to ante-Mahometan Arabia: Mahometanism first gave the spirit of chivalry its religious character, and communicated it by contact to the Christian nations of Europe. Effets de la Relig. de Moham. p. 177.

to comprize the account, which two eminent writers of the last age have given of their origin; and, according to the same high authorities, unmitigated evil would appear to have been their immediate, and almost their only direct result.*

In his preliminary view of the state of Europe, the celebrated author of the History of Charles V. professes to discuss the subject of the crusades. But, while willing largely to acknowledge their indirect operation upon the European system, Doctor Robertson has not scrupled to characterize these holy wars, in their origin and direct influences, as "wild expeditions, the effect of superstition or folly ;" and, with still greater freedom of expression, he has further ventured to pronounce "the only common enterprize in which the European nations ever engaged, and which they all undertook with equal ardour, - a singular monument of human

folly."

We may regret to see the dignity of history degraded, by the license of such unmeasured language; language suited, indeed, only to the meridian of minds, which have learnt to con

* "The principle of the crusades was a savage fanaticism; and the most important effects were analogous to the cause.' Decline and Fall, vol. xi.

p. 291.