ions of the cross were dismissed with a superfluous admonition to
invite their countrymen and friends; and their departure for the Holy
Land was fixed to the festival of the Assumption, the fifteenth of
August, of the ensuing year.

So familiar, and as it were so natural to man, is the practice of
violence, that our indulgence allows the slightest provocation, the most
disputable right, as a sufficient ground of national hostility. But the
name and nature of a _holy war_ demands a more rigorous scrutiny; nor
can we hastily believe, that the servants of the Prince of Peace would
unsheathe the sword of destruction, unless the motive were pure, the
quarrel legitimate, and the necessity inevitable. The policy of an
action may be determined from the tardy lessons of experience; but,
before we act, our conscience should be satisfied of the justice and
propriety of our enterprise. In the age of the crusades, the Christians,
both of the East and West, were persuaded of their lawfulness and merit;
their arguments are clouded by the perpetual abuse of Scripture and
rhetoric; but they seem to insist on the right of natural and religious
defence, their peculiar title to the Holy Land, and the impiety of their
Pagan and Mahometan foes. I. The right of a just defence may fairly
include our civil and spiritual allies: it depends on the existence of
danger; and that danger must be estimated by the twofold consideration
of the malice, and the power, of our enemies. A pernicious tenet has
been imputed to the Mahometans, the duty of _extirpating_ all other
religions by the sword. This charge of ignorance and bigotry is refuted
by the Koran, by the history of the Mussulman conquerors, and by their
public and legal toleration of the Christian worship. But it cannot be
denied, that the Oriental churches are depressed under their iron yoke;
that, in peace and war, they assert a divine and indefeasible claim of
universal empire; and that, in their orthodox creed, the unbelieving
nations are continually threatened with the loss of religion or liberty.
In the eleventh century, the victorious arms of the Turks presented a
real and urgent apprehension of these losses. They had subdued, in less
than thirty years, the kingdoms of Asia, as far as Jerusalem and the
Hellespont; and the Greek empire tottered on the verge of destruction.
Besides an honest sympathy for their brethren, the Latins had a right
and interest in the support of Constantinople, th