e most important
barrier of the West; and the privilege of defence must reach to prevent,
as well as to repel, an impending assault. But this salutary purpose
might have been accomplished by a moderate succor; and our calmer
reason must disclaim the innumerable hosts, and remote operations,
which overwhelmed Asia and depopulated Europe. II. Palestine could add
nothing to the strength or safety of the Latins; and fanaticism alone
could pretend to justify the conquest of that distant and narrow
province. The Christians affirmed that their inalienable title to the
promised land had been sealed by the blood of their divine Savior; it
was their right and duty to rescue their inheritance from the unjust
possessors, who profaned his sepulchre, and oppressed the pilgrimage
of his disciples. Vainly would it be alleged that the preeminence of
Jerusalem, and the sanctity of Palestine, have been abolished with the
Mosaic law; that the God of the Christians is not a local deity, and
that the recovery of Bethlem or Calvary, his cradle or his tomb, will
not atone for the violation of the moral precepts of the gospel. Such
arguments glance aside from the leaden shield of superstition; and the
religious mind will not easily relinquish its hold on the sacred ground
of mystery and miracle. III. But the holy wars which have been waged
in every climate of the globe, from Egypt to Livonia, and from Peru to
Hindostan, require the support of some more general and flexible tenet.
It has been often supposed, and sometimes affirmed, that a difference of
religion is a worthy cause of hostility; that obstinate unbelievers may
be slain or subdued by the champions of the cross; and that grace is
the sole fountain of dominion as well as of mercy. Above four hundred
years before the first crusade, the eastern and western provinces of
the Roman empire had been acquired about the same time, and in the same
manner, by the Barbarians of Germany and Arabia. Time and treaties had
legitimated the conquest of the _Christian_ Franks; but in the eyes of
their subjects and neighbors, the Mahometan princes were still tyrants
and usurpers, who, by the arms of war or rebellion, might be lawfully
driven from their unlawful possession.

As the manners of the Christians were relaxed, their discipline of
penance was enforced; and with the multiplication of sins, the
remedies were multiplied. In the primitive church, a voluntary and
open confession prepared the work of a