wrongs, and the legislative authority too feeble. to redress them. There was scarce any shelter from violence and oppression, except what the valor and generosity of private persons afforded; and the arm of the brave was the only tribunal, to which the helpless could appeal for justice. The trader could no longer travel in safety, or bring to market his commodities, without which there was no subsisting. Every possessor of a castle pillaged them, or laid them under contribution; and many, not only plundered the merchants, but carried off all the women that fell in their way.

Slight inconveniencies may be overlooked or endured; but when abuses grow to a certain height, the society must reform, or go to ruin. It becomes the business of all to discover, and to apply such remedies as will most effectually remove them. Humanity sprung from the bosom of violence, and relief from the hand of rapacity. Those licentious and tyrannic nobles, who had been guilty of every species of outrage, and every mode of oppression; who, equally unjust, unfeeling and superstitious, had made pilgrimages, and had pillaged; who had massacred, and done penance; touched at last by a sense of natural equity, and swayed by the conviction of a common interest, formed associations for the redress of private wrongs, and the preservation of public safety. So honorable was the origin of an institution generally represented as whimsical.

The young warrior among the ancient Germans, as well as among the modern knights, was armed, for the first time, with certain cere

monies proper to inspire martial ardor; but chivalry, considered as a civil and military institution, is as late as the eleventh century. The previous discipline and solemnities of initiation are to be found in books of knighthood. Valor, humanity, courtesy, justice and honor were its characteristics. To these were added religion; which, by infusing a large portion of enthusi astic zeal, carried them all to a romantic excess, wonderfully suited to the genius of the age, and productive of the greatest and most permanent effects, both upon policy and manners.

War was carried on with less ferocity, when humanity, no less than courage, came to be deemed the ornament of knighthood; and knighthood a distinction superior to royalty, and an honor, which princes were proud to receive from the hands of private gentlemen. More gentle and polished manners were introduced, when courtesy was recommended as the most amiable of knightly virtues, and every knight devoted himself to the service of a lady. Violence and oppression decreased, when it was accounted meritorious to check and punish them. A scrupulous adherence to truth, with the most religious attention to fulfil every engagement, but particularly those between the sexes, as more easily violated, became the distinguishing character of a gentleman, because chivalry was regarded as the school of honor, and inculcated the most delicate sensibility with respect to that point; and valor, seconded by so many motives of love, religion, and virtue, became altogether irresistable.

That the spirit of Chivalry sometimes rose to an extravagant height, and had often a pernicious tendency, must, however, be allowed. In Spain, under the influence of a romantic gallantry, it gave birth to a series of wild adventures, which have been deservedly ridiculed. In the train of Norman ambition, it extinguished the liberties of England, and deluged Italy in blood; and we shall soon see it, at the call of superstition, and as the engine of papal power, desolate Asia under the banner of the cross. But these ought not to be considered as arguments against an institution, laudable in itself, and necessary at the time of its foundation. And those, who pretend to despise it, the advo cates of ancient barbarism and ancient rusticity, ought to remember, that chivalry not only first taught mankind to carry the civilities of peace into the operations of war, and to mingle politeness with the use of the sword, but roused the human soul from its lethargy, invigorated the human character, even while it softened it, and produced exploits, which antiquity cannot parallel. Nor ought they to forget, that it gave variety, elegance, and pleasure, to the intercourse of life, by making women a more essential part of society; and is therefore entitled to our gratitude, though the point of honor, and the refinements in gallantry, its more doubtful effects, should be excluded from the improvements in modern manners.

CHAP. XXI.

Of the first Crusade to the Holy Land, in order to drive the Infidels from Jerusalem, A. D. 1096.

POPE Gregory VII. among other vast ideas, had formed the project of uniting the western Christians against the Mahometans, and of recovering Palestine from the hands of those infidels; and his quarrels with the Emperor Henry IV. by which he declared himself an enemy to the civil power of princes, only could have obstructed the progress of this undertaking, conducted by so able a politician, at a time when the minds of men were so fully prepared for such an enterprize.

The work, however, was reserved for a meaner instrument; for a man, whose condition could excite no jealousy, and whose head was as weak as his imagination was warm. But before we mention this man, it will be necessary to say a few words of the state of the East at that time, and of the passion for pilgrimages, which then prevailed then in Europe.

We naturally view, with veneration and de. light, those places which have been the residence of any illustrious personage, or the scene of any great transaction. Hence the enthusiasm with which the literati still visit the ruins of Athens and Rome; and hence flowed the superstitious devotion with which Christians, from the earliest age of the church, were accustomed to visit that country, where their religion had taken its rise,

and that city, in which the Messiah had died for the redemption of those who believed in his

name.

Pilgrimages to the shrines of martyrs and saints were also common. But as this distant pilgrimage could not be performed without considerable expense, fatigue and danger, it appeared (for these reasons, as well as its superior sanctity) more meritorious than all others, and came to be considered as an expiation for almost every crime. And an opinion, which prevailed over Europe towards the close of the tenth and the beginning of the eleventh century, increased the number and the ardor of the credulous devotees who undertook this tedious journey.

The thousand years mentioned by St. John, in his book of Revelation, were supposed to be accomplished, and the end of the world at hand. A general consternation seized the minds of Christians; many relinquished their possessions, abandoned their friends and families, and hurried with precipitation to the Holy Land, where they imagined that Christ would suddenly ap pear to judge the quick and the dead.

But the Christians, in these pious journies, had the mortification to see the holy sepulchre, and the other places made sacred by the presence of the Saviour, fallen into the hands of infidels. The followers and the countrymen of Mahomet had early made themselves masters of Palestine, which the Greek empire, far in its decline, was unable to protect against so warlike an enemy. They gave little disturbance, how. ever, to those zealous pilgrims who daily flocked