a stirring address to the Council of Clermont (France), issued a call to
the lords, knights, and foot soldiers of western Christendom to cease
destroying their fellow Christians in private warfare, and to turn their
strength of arms against the infidel and rescue the Holy Land. The journey
was to take the place of penance for sin, many special privileges were
extended to those who went, and those who died on the journey or in battle
with the infidels were promised entrance into heaven. [26] nobles and
peasants, filled with a desire for adventure and a sense of personal sin,
no surer way of satisfying either was to be found than the long pilgrimage
to the Saviour's tomb. In France and England the call met with instant
response. Unfortunately for the future of civilization, the call met with
but small response from the nobles of German lands.

The First Crusade set out in 1096. A second went in 1144, and a third in
1187. These were the great Crusades, though five others were undertaken
during the thirteenth century. Jerusalem was taken and lost. The
Christians quarreled with one another and with the Greeks, though with the
Saracens they established somewhat friendly relations, and a mutual
respect arose. The armies which went were composed of all kinds of people
--lords, knights, merchants, adventurers, peasants, outlaws--and a spirit
of adventure and a desire for personal gain, as well as a spirit of
religious devotion, actuated many who went. In 1204 the Venetians diverted
the fourth crusade to the capture of Constantinople, and established there
an outpost of their great commercial empire. The history of the crusades
we do not need to trace. The important matter for our purpose was the
results of the movement on the intellectual development of western Europe.

RESULTS OF THE CRUSADES ON WESTERN EUROPE. In a sense the Crusades were an
outward manifestation of the great change in thinking and ideals which had
begun sometime before in western Europe. They were at once both a sign and