LXI. Homer. Yet in a reign of fixty years the Latins CHAP. of Conftantinople difdained the fpeech and learning of their fubjects; and the manufcripts were the only treasures which the natives might enjoy without rapine or envy. Aristotle was indeed the oracle of the Western univerfities; but it was a barbarous Ariftotle; and, inftead of afcending to the fountain-head, his Latin votaries humbly accepted a corrupt and remote verfion from the Jews and Moors of Andalufia. The principle of the crufades was a favage fanaticism; and the most important effects were analogous to the cause. Each pilgrim was ambitious to return with his facred spoils, the relics of Greece and Palestine"; and each relic was preceded and followed by a train of miracles and vifions. The belief of the Catholics was corrupted by new legends, their practice by new fuperftitions; and the establishment of the inquifition, the mendicant orders of monks and friars, the laft abuse of indulgences, and the final progress of idolatry, flowed from the baleful fountain of the holy war. The active fpirit of the Latins preyed on the vitals of their reafon and religion; and if the ninth and tenth centuries were the times of darkness, the thirteenth and fourteenth were the age of abfurdity and fable. In the profeffion of Christianity, in the culti 67 Such was the opinion of the great Leibnitz (Oeuvres de Fontenelle, tom. v. p. 458.), a master of the hiftory of the middle ages. I fhall only inftance the pedigree of the Carmelites, and the flight of the house of Loretto, which were both derived from Palestine. U 2 vation LXI. CHAP. vation of a fertile land, the northern conquerors of the Roman empire infenfibly mingled with the provincials, and rekindled the embers of the arts of antiquity. Their fettlements about the age of Charlemagne had acquired fome degree of order and stability, when they were overwhelmed by new fwarms of invaders, the Normans, Saracens, and Hungarians, who replunged the western countries of Europe into their former state of anarchy and barbarifm. About the eleventh century, the second tempeft had fubfided by the expulfion or converfion of the enemies of Chriftendom: the tide of civilization, which had fo long ebbed, began to flow with a steady and accelerated courfe; and a fairer profpect was opened to the hopes and efforts of the rifing generations. Great was the increase, and rapid the progress, during the two hundred years of the crufades ; and fome philofophers have applauded the propitious influence of these holy wars, which appear to me to have checked rather than forwarded the maturity of Europe. The lives and labours of millions, which were buried in the East, would have been more profitably employed in the improvement of their native country: the accumulated stock of induftry and wealth would 68 If I rank the Saracens with the Barbarians, it is only relative to their wars, or rather inroads, in Italy and France, where their fole purpose was to plunder and destroy. 69 On this interefting fubject, the progrefs of fociety in Europe, a ftrong ray of philofophic light, has broke from Scotland in our own times; and it is with private, as well as pubiic regard, that I repeat the names of Hume, Robertson, and Adam Smith. LXI. have overflowed in navigation and trade; and CHAP. the Latins would have been enriched and enlightened by a pure and friendly correspondence with the climates of the Eaft. In one refpect I can indeed perceive the accidental operation of the crufades, not fo much in producing a benefit as in removing an evil. The larger portion of the inhabitants of Europe was chained to the foil, without freedom, or property, or knowledge; and the two orders of ecclefiaftics and nobles, whofe numbers were comparatively small, alone deferved the name of citizens and men. This oppreffive fyftem was fupported by the arts of the clergy and the swords of the barons. The authority of the priests operated in the darker ages as a falutary antidote: they prevented the total extinction of. letters, mitigated the fiercenefs of the times, fheltered the poor and defencelefs, and preferved or revived the peace and order of civil fociety. But the independence, rapine, and difcord, of the feudal lords were unmixed with any femblance of good; and every hope of industry and improvement was crushed by the iron weight of the martial ariftocracy. Among the causes that undermined that Gothic edifice, a confpicuous place muft be allowed to the crufades. The eftates of the barons were diffipated, and their race was often extinguished, in thete coftly and perilous expeditions. Their poverty extorted from their pride thofe charters of freedom which unlocked the fetters of the flave, fecured the farm of the peafant and the fhop of the artificer, and gradually reftored a fubftance and U 3 a foul CHAP. a foul to the most numerous and ufeful part of LXI. the community. The conflagration which deftroyed the tall and barren trees of the foreft, gave air and scope to the vegetation of the smaller and nutritive plants of the foil. Origin of of Cour tenay, A. D.' 1020. Digreffion on the Family of Courtenay. THE purple of three emperors, who have reigned at Conftantinople, will authorife or excufe a digreffion on the origin and fingular fortunes of the house of COURTENAY 7, in the three principal branches, I. Of Edeffa; II. Of France; and, III. Of England, of which the last only has furvived the revolutions of eight hundred years. I. Before the introduction of trade, which the family fcatters riches, and of knowledge, which difpels prejudice, the prerogative of birth is most strongly felt and moft humbly acknowledged. In every age, the laws and manners of the Germans have difcriminated the ranks of fociety: the dukes and counts, who fhared the empire of Charlemagne, converted their office to an inheritance; and to his children, each feudal lord bequeathed 70 I have applied, but not confined, myself to A genealogical Hiftory of the noble and illuftrious Family of Courtenay, by Ezra Cleaveland, Tutor to Sir William Courtenay, and rector of Honiton; Exon. 1735. in folio. The first part is extracted from William of Tyre; the fecond from Bouchet's French history; and the third from various memorials, public, provincial, and private, of the Courtenays of Devonshire. The rector of Honiton has more gratitude than industry, and more induftry than criticism. LXI. his honour and his fword. The proudeft families CHAP. are content to lofe in the darkness of the middle ages, the tree of their pedigree, which, however deep and lofty, muft ultimately rife from a plebeian root; and their historians must descend ten centuries below the Christian æra, before they can ascertain any lineal fucceffion by the evidence of furnames, of arms, and of authentic records. With the first rays of light", we difcern the nobility and opulence of Atho, a French knight: his nobility, in the rank and title of a nameless: father; his opulence, in the foundation of the castle of Courtenay in the district of Gatinois, about fifty-fix miles to the fouth of Paris. From the reign of Robert, the fon of Hugh Capet, the barons of Courtenay are confpicuous among the immediate vaffals of the crown; and Jofcelin, the grandfon of Atho and a noble dame, is enrolled among the heroes of the first crufade. A domeftic alliance (their mothers were fifters) attached him to the standard of Baldwin of Bruges, the fecond count of Edeffa; a princely fief, which he was worthy to receive, and able to maintain, announces the number of his martial followers: and after the departure of his coufin, Jofcelin 1152. himself was invefted with the county of Edeffa on both fides of the Euphrates. By the economy in peace, his territories were replenished with Latin and Syrian fubjects; his magazines with corn, 4 71 The primitive record of the family, is a paffage of the continuator of Aimoin, a monk of Fleury, who wrote in the xijth century. See his Chronicle, in the Hiftorians of France (tom. xi. p. 276.). I. The deffa, counts of A. D. IIOI |