§ 48. CHARACTER AND CAUSES OP THE CRUSADES. 219
To other testimonies to the esteem in which the Crusaders were held may be added the testimony of Matthew Paris. Summing up the events of the half-century ending with 1250, he says:1 "A great multitude of nobles left their country to fight faithfully for Christ. All of these were manifest martyrs, and their names are inscribed in indelible characters in the book of life.'* Women forced their hus bands to take the cross.2 And women who attempted to hold their husbands back suffered evil consequences for it. 3 Kings who did not go across the seas had a passion for the holy sepulchre. Edward I. commanded his son to take his heart and deposit it there, setting apart X2000 for the ex pedition. Robert Bruce also wanted his heart to find its last earthly resting-place in Jerusalem.
The Crusades began and ended in France. The French element was the ruling factor, from Urban II., who was a native of Chatillon, near Rheims, and Peter of Amiens, to St. Louis.4 The contemporary accounts of the Crusades are for the most part written by Frenchmen. Guibert of Nogent and other chroniclers regard them as especially the work of their countrymen. The French expression, outre-mer, was used for the goal of the Crusades.5 The movement spread through all Europe from Hungary to Scotland. Spain alone forms an exception. She was engaged in a crusade of her own against the Moors ; and the crusades against the Saracens in
1 Luard's ed., V. 196.
2 Baldric of Dol, Hist. Jems., I. 8; Rec., IV. 17: gaudebant uxores abeuntibus maritis dilectissimis, etc.
3 Caesar of Heisterbach, Dial., X. 22, speaks of a woman suffering with severe pains in childbirth who was delivered with ease, so soon as she con sented to her husband's going on a crusade.
* The name Franks became the current designation for Europeans in the East, and remains so to this day. The crusading enthusiasm did not fully take hold of Germany till the twelfth century. Hauck, Kirchengesch. Deutschlands, IV. 80.
5 The expression was a translation of the Latin ultra mare, used for the East, and, so far as I know, for the first time by Gregory VII., Reg. II. 37 ; Migne, 148, 390.
220 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1049-1294.
the Holy Land and the Moors in Spain were equally com mended by an oecumenical council, the First Lateran (can. 13). The Moors were finally expelled from Granada under Ferdinand and Isabella, and then, unwearied, Spain entered upon a new crusade against Jews and heretics at home and the pagan Indians of Mexico and Peru. In Italy and Rome, where might have been expected the most zeal in the holy cause, there was but little enthusiasm.1
The aim of the Crusades was the conquest of the Holy Land and the defeat of Islam. Enthusiasm for Christ was the moving impulse, with which, however, were joined the lower motives of ambition, avarice, love of adventure, hope of earthly and heavenly reward. The whole chivalry of Europe, aroused by a pale-faced monk and encouraged by a Hildebrandian pope, threw itself steel-clad upon the Orient to execute the vengeance of heaven upon the insults and bar barities of Moslems heaped upon Christian pilgrims, and to rescue the grave of the Redeemer of mankind from the grasp of the followers of the False Prophet. The miraculous aid of heaven frequently intervened to help the Christians and confound the Saracens.2
The Crusaders sought the living among the dead. They mistook the visible for the invisible, confused the terrestrial and the celestial Jerusalem, and returned disillusioned.3 They learned in Jerusalem, or after ages have learned through
1 Gregorovius, IV. 288, says no traces of enthusiasm can be found in Rome. " Senate and people would probably have laughed in derision had Urban summoned them to rise in religious enthusiasm to forsake the ruins of Rome and advance to the rescue of Jerusalem." The Crusades were a finan cial detriment to Rome by diverting pilgrimages from the tombs of the Apostles to the tomb of the Saviour.
2 Here is one such miracle. At the battle of Ramleh, 1177, there was a miraculous extension of the cross borne by the bishop of Bethlehem. It reached to heaven and extended its arms across the whole horizon. The pagans saw it, were confused, and fled. Hoveden, II. 133 sq.
3 Hegel, Philosophic der Gesch., 3d ed. 1848, p. 470, brings out this idea most impressively.