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of all the fanaticism of the age, having experienced the multifarious
impositions to which his countrymen were exposed formed the
grand idea of arming the warlike powers of Christendom against
these enemies of their religion to expel them from the Holy Land: "I
will rouse exclaimed the hermit to the patriarch of Jerusalem,
the martial nations of Europe in your cause, and the martial
nations of Europe were obedient to the call of the hermit. Such
was the origin of those wars which from the object that occasioned them
were called holy, but which in their consequences propell equally fatal
to the cause of religion and to the temporal prosperity of the European states. The Europeans have
in every age been distinguished by an active enterprising
spirit and by a peculiar energy of character which have ena-
bled them to surmount every obstacle and melt-down
every opposition. It was this spirit which reared the fair
fabrick of the Grecian Republick, it was this which led her
to victory and glory: it was this too which gained for Rome her
universal sway, it was this which spread her fame coextensive
with the limits of the earth. But -

"No virtue springs in man's immortal soul,
But tends to vice if urged beyond contrail."

Thus the crusaders activated by a principle of savage fanata
cism suffered their active spirit to prey upon the vitals
of their reason and religion, bigotry and superstition seized
on their minds which corrupting their belief rendered it lia
ble to many and great abuses. The establishment of the inqui
sition, than which the powers of hell and earth combined never
formed a more damnable instrument of human torture, and many
other institutions equally abhorrent to religion and humanity.