DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.63447#0177
THE CRUSADES.
161
A French historian of the Holy Wars appears to have
been struck by this difference in the character and
manners of the Italians,1 and by their superiority in
their “love of liberty and civil wisdom.”
Highly practical on the one hand, and on the other
with more vivid perceptions of the beauty of proportion
and of form (the basis of all true artistical excellence),
the Italians brought from the East far more graceful,
intelligent and expressive perceptions of the fine arts
than any other nation ; and the first and best samples of
these in the West were due to them.
The Monastic Orders, who, at a later period, pene-
trated to the furthermost regions of Tartary, and found
there a ceremonial of rites so exactly like their own
(that they explained it by a special interposition of Satan
to bring confusion amongst the believers), came to the aid
of civilization during the Crusades. During their mis-
sions from Rome they became acquainted with the pro-
cess of many manufactures and useful arts, sealed
secrets to the great mass of mankind, as well as with the
exquisite and difficult art of illuminating manuscripts, and
many of the laws of chemistry, and of astronomy (debased
then, as later, too often by the superstitions of astrology).
These beneficial and peaceful conquests on barbarism,
the Monastic Orders, and the merchants and laymen who
accompanied the Crusaders, were able to carry out, on
their return to Europe, by the superiority which pre-
scriptive respect, and the experience of men and
manners, never fails to give a privileged order, exactly at
the moment when ignorance begins to awaken to the
feeling that life has higher aims than mere earthly
enjoyments. And yet, two hundred years after the first
Crusade, we find in ancient French charters such and
such an one : “ ne sachant pas ecrire, attendu sa qualite
1 Jacobus de Vetriaco. “ In consiliis circumspecti, in re sua publica
procuranda diligentes et studiosi, sibi in posterum providentes ; aliis
subjici renuentes ; ante omnia libertatem sibi defendentes; sub uno
quern eligunt Capitaneo, comminitate sua jura et instituta dictantes
et similiter observantes.”—Histor. Hierosol. ap. Gesta Pei per Francos,
Vol. ii., p. 1085.
M
161
A French historian of the Holy Wars appears to have
been struck by this difference in the character and
manners of the Italians,1 and by their superiority in
their “love of liberty and civil wisdom.”
Highly practical on the one hand, and on the other
with more vivid perceptions of the beauty of proportion
and of form (the basis of all true artistical excellence),
the Italians brought from the East far more graceful,
intelligent and expressive perceptions of the fine arts
than any other nation ; and the first and best samples of
these in the West were due to them.
The Monastic Orders, who, at a later period, pene-
trated to the furthermost regions of Tartary, and found
there a ceremonial of rites so exactly like their own
(that they explained it by a special interposition of Satan
to bring confusion amongst the believers), came to the aid
of civilization during the Crusades. During their mis-
sions from Rome they became acquainted with the pro-
cess of many manufactures and useful arts, sealed
secrets to the great mass of mankind, as well as with the
exquisite and difficult art of illuminating manuscripts, and
many of the laws of chemistry, and of astronomy (debased
then, as later, too often by the superstitions of astrology).
These beneficial and peaceful conquests on barbarism,
the Monastic Orders, and the merchants and laymen who
accompanied the Crusaders, were able to carry out, on
their return to Europe, by the superiority which pre-
scriptive respect, and the experience of men and
manners, never fails to give a privileged order, exactly at
the moment when ignorance begins to awaken to the
feeling that life has higher aims than mere earthly
enjoyments. And yet, two hundred years after the first
Crusade, we find in ancient French charters such and
such an one : “ ne sachant pas ecrire, attendu sa qualite
1 Jacobus de Vetriaco. “ In consiliis circumspecti, in re sua publica
procuranda diligentes et studiosi, sibi in posterum providentes ; aliis
subjici renuentes ; ante omnia libertatem sibi defendentes; sub uno
quern eligunt Capitaneo, comminitate sua jura et instituta dictantes
et similiter observantes.”—Histor. Hierosol. ap. Gesta Pei per Francos,
Vol. ii., p. 1085.
M