THE

PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL

QUARTERLY REVIEW,

AND

CHURCH REGISTER.

JANUARY, 1855.

No. I.

ARTICLE I.

History of the Crusades. By JOSEPH FRANCOIS MICHAUD, Translated from the French, by W. ROBSON. Three vols., 12mo. New-York: Redfield. 1853.

THE Crusades have ever been a marvel. Their annals seem rather to belong to the romance of chivalry than to sober history. The warriors engaged in them rival or surpass the fabulous heroes of the poets. The deeds of valor they performed find no parallel except in fiction. No wonder, then, that the Crusades have ever taken a strong hold upon the imagination. True, the convictions of our minds condemn war. We know that it is opposed to the spirit and letter of the religion we profess; that its tendency is to bring out the worst passions of human nature; that it has been the source of most of the evils which have afflicted the world, and caused its history to be written, like the prophet's scroll, "within and without," "mourning, lamentation, and woe;" and that it has ever opposed a barrier to social progress and the improvement VOL. II.-1.

of mankind. But notwithstanding these convictions and these confessed facts, there has always been something extremely captivating to the mind in military glory; our admiration of it seems to be an instinctive feeling a feeling which is developed in early childhood, and which follows us through life. In our own case, we must confess the fact. We well remember with what intense delight we were wont to pore over the tales and ballads in which were celebrated the exploits of some doughty warrior, who went forth to do battle against some dragon, or giant, or powerful foe. Even when reading the Bible, if left to follow the bent of our own inclination, we were far oftener engaged in perusing the narrative of the exploits of Joshua and Sampson, and Gideon and Jehu, than the writings of David or St. John. Bunyan's allegories were special favorites with us. We loved to linger over the deeds of GreatHeart; and we were so well versed in the scenes and events of the Holy Wars, that the streets of Man-soul, and the topography about Ear-gate and Eye-gate were as familiar to us as the squares and buildings of our native town.

In perusing the annals of warfare this fact is brought out, that the courage and prowess of the individual man strike us more powerfully than the same qualities do when exhibited by the aggregate. A single warrior rushing unsupported into the conflict, braving every danger, contending undaunted against fearful odds, and achieving a triumph by his own indomitable bravery, presents to us in clearer and sharper outline what the might and resolution of men are, than the shock of contending armies. It is probably to this fact that the influence of the Crusades over the mind must be traced. But this is not all. The Crusades not only exhibit the most signal instances of individual heroism, they also set before us a chapter in the world's history which is perfectly unique. There have been many great movements in the world, but none like this. It was not, like the exodus of the children of Israel from Egypt, a movement to emancipate themselves from a galling bondage, to recover the land of their fathers, and to enjoy the free worship of God according to ancient usages. It was not, like the irruption of the Tartar hordes from the cold and barren regions of Siberia to the teeming fields and sunny plains of the south, a

movement whose governing motive was a desire to possess a better inheritance than that which had fallen to their lot. There was in it a total absence of all those motives which ordinarily influence men in vast and difficult and distant undertakings. At the close of the eleventh century one dominant idea had taken possession of the minds of men-the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre; this was the secret spring which set the whole machinery in motion. And when we consider the state of society at that time, and note the fact that the nations of the west were in a transition state from savage to civilized life, a condition in which mere brute passion has lost somewhat of its supremacy, but over which reason has not indisputably established her rule; and in which religion is not principle in the heart, but a fierce and fiery fanaticism, fed and sustained by outward forms, and by objects addressed to the senses; we need not wonder at the spectacle which the first Crusade presents; the marvel is, that the fire thus kindled did not soon burn out, but was kept alive for two centuries. Many waters could not quench it; disasters only added fresh fuel to it. It burned more brightly after defeat than after victory. The tidings of a signal overthrow were but a war-cry to rally fresh bands of soldiers around the standard of the cross.

The Crusades form an era in the heroic age, and they have their epic as well as the ten-years' war which the Greeks waged before Troy.

But Tasso had this advantage over Homer: the subject of "Jerusalem Delivered" was more interesting than that of the "Iliad." The Crusades had a nobler origin and end than the Trojan war. Their heroes belonged to the human race, and were endowed with mere human attributes. The victories they gained were the results of their own strength and skill and daring; they were not aided by gods in human form.

But however high Tasso may rank as an epic poet; and the general verdict of the learned has placed "Jerusalem Delivered" among the noblest creations of human genius; still there is a manifest incongruity between the persons and events which his epic celebrates, and the same persons and events as they are set before us by the old chroniclers. The early Crusaders were simple-minded men-men governed by religious

feelings, who eschewed witchcraft and magic as they did the reputed author of them; and yet Tasso has introduced both into his poem as active agencies. He has blended together the natural and the supernatural. In the action of his poem, Ismeno and Alecto, and Clorinda and Armida perform as prominent a part as Godfrey, or Raymond, or Tancred, and incantations are as potent a weapon as the sword. Had Tasso entered fully into his subject; had he drawn less upon imagination, and more upon facts; had his epic contained more of poetic history, and less of poetic fancy; had he been content with giving a graphic delineation of the actual characters he had to deal with, and of the events which form the subject of his epic; had he presented a true picture of the characteristic traits of his heroes-their courage in the hour of danger, their fortitude in suffering, their glowing enthusiasm, their sincere but misdirected devotion, his poem would have occupied a far higher place than it now does among the works of genius. His heroes, it is true, are endowed with all the attributes that belong to the poetic conception of heroes, but they are no more like the real heroes of the Crusades than the enchanted forest is like the barren hills and the parched valleys that are round Jerusalem.

The Crusades have had many historians; of these, it must be confessed that the old are the better. Albert d'Aix, Reynard d'Argile, William of Tyre, Jaques de Vitry, Villebardouin, and Joinville, the old chroniclers, were actors in the events which they record, and eye-witnesses of the scenes they delineate. They relate things just as they took place; and notice events which, however trifling in themselves, give us an insight into the habits of the age, and set before us the heroes of a remote time clothed in all the attributes of life. The hue which they give to the ever-changing scene which is passing before them is sombre, but the dark tints only go to show that they drew from life, and thus presented their subject in its appropriate colors. Their histories have all the life and freshness of a personal narrative, and we read them with the interest and attention with which we listen to one who has passed through wonderful scenes, and witnessed astonishing events,

and who is giving us a graphic account of what he has seen, and suffered, and done.

In our own language, we have several histories of the Crusades; the best of which are those of Fuller and Mill. Fuller's "Holy War" must be considered rather as a series of panoramic sketches of the Crusades than a complete history. It is strongly marked with all the peculiarities of that quaint and witty writer. His narrative seems only to be used as the warp in which to weave the quips and conceits and alliterations with which his brain teemed. Mill's history is of a different order. His narrative is never enlightened by sallies of humor or fancy, but is always solemn, stately, and dignified. We learn from it the prominent facts of the Crusades, and that is all.

In the history, whose title-page is at the head of this article, we have an approximation to what a true history of the Crusades ought to be. It sets them before us in much the same manner that D'Aubigné's History does the Reformation in the sixteenth century. There is the same minuteness in detail, the same picturesque grouping, the same life-like delineations of men and events, the same use of the ipsissima verba of the old writers. But in one respect they differ, as much as the Crusades differ from the Reformation. While the evangelical element is the great feature in D'Aubigné's history, in that of Michaud it is altogether wanting. There is a minor trait also in which they differ. D'Aubigné has always some great central truth before him, which he never loses sight of, and which all the events he narrates are designed to bring out and illustrate; while Michaud is anxious only to portray events as they occur; each scene of his history has a distinct individuality; it is a feature that is complete in itself; hence his history often takes the form of sketches, many of which are not at all necessary to the completeness or continuity of the narrative. Michaud was a devout Romanist; his peculiarities Rome-ward are so decided that the Reformers find neither mercy nor justice at his hands. He says of them, that they "admitted into their bosom both corruption and licentiousness, destroyed every regulation of authority, abandoned every thing to the caprice of the passions, and left no bond to society, no power to morals, no check upon the multitude." While giv