oughout Europe to arouse enthusiasm in the minds of the
people.

The crusades so suddenly inaugurated extended over a period of nearly
two hundred years, in which all Europe was in a restless condition.
The feudal life which had settled down and crystallized all forms of
human society throughout Europe had failed to give that variety and
excitement which it entertained in former days. Thousands of knights
in every nation were longing for the battle-field. Many who thought
life at home not worth living, and other thousands of people seeking
opportunities for change, sought diversion abroad. All Europe was
ready to exclaim "God wills it!" and "On to Jerusalem!" to defend the
Holy City against the Turk.

_Specific Causes of the Crusades_.--If we examine more specifically
into the real causes of the crusades we shall find, as Mr. Guizot has
said, that there were two causes, the one moral, the other social. The
moral cause is represented in the {322} desire to relieve suffering
humanity and fight against the injustice of the Turks. Both the
Mohammedan and the Christian, the two most modern of all great
religions, were placed upon a moral basis. Morality was one of the
chief phases of both religions; yet they had different conceptions of
morality, and no toleration for each other. Although prior to the
Turkish invasion the Mohammedans, through policy, had tolerated the
visitations of the Christians, the two classes of believers had never
gained much respect for each other, and after the Turkish invasion the
enmity between them became intense. It was the struggle of these two
systems of moral order that was the great occasion and one of the
causes of the crusades.

The social cause, however, was that already referred to--the desire of
individuals for a change from the monotony which had settled down over
Europe under the feudal regime. It was the mind of man, the enthusiasm
of the individual, over-leaping the narrow bounds of his surroundings,
and looking for fields of exploitation and new opportunities for
action. The social cause represents, then, the spontaneous outburst of
long-pent-up desires, a return to the freedom of earlier years, when
wandering and plundering were among the chief occupations of the
Teutonic tribes. To state the causes more specifically, perhaps it may
be said that the ambition of temporal and spiritual princes and the
feudal aristocracy for power, the general poverty of the community on