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 CRUSADES

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CRUSADES

riip Doge of Venice had yielded to the pope's en- roaties, whereas the Duke of Burgundy was satisfied vith sending 2000 men. But when, in June, 1404, the 3ope went to Aiicona to assume command of the ex- pedition, he fell sick and died, whereupon most of the ■rusaders, being unarmed, destitute of ammunition, ind threatened with starvation, returned to their own 'ountries. The Venetians were the only ones who nvaded the Peloponnesus and sacked Athens, but v^ancing their commercial interests. Under Sixtus [V they had the presumption to utilize the papal fleet "or the seizure of merchandise stored at Smyrna and .A.dulia; they likewise ) purchased the claims of Cath- Briiie t'ornaro to the Kingdom of Cyprus. Finally, in 14S0, Mohammed II directed a triple attack against Europe. In Hungarj- Matthias Corvinus withstood the Turkish inva.sion, and the Knights of Rhodes, con- ductetl by Pierre d'Aul^usson, defended themselves victoriously, but the Turks succeeded in gaining pos- session of Otranto and threatened Italy with conquest. At an assembly held at Rome and presided over by Si.xtus IV, ambassadors from the Christian princes again promised help; but the condition of Christendom would have been critical indeed had not the death of Mohammed II occasioned the evacuation of Otranto, while the power of the Turks was imjiaired for several years by civil wars among Jlohammed's sons. At the time of Charles VIII's expedition into Italy (1492) there was agaui talk of a crusade; according to the plans of the King of France, the conquest of Naples was to be followed by that of Constantinople and the East. For this reason Pope Alexander VI delivered to him Prince Djem, son of Mahommed II and pretender to the throne, who had taken refuge with the Hos- pit:illers. When Alexander VI joined Venice and Maximilian in a league against Charles VIII, the offi- cial object of the alliance was the crusade, but it had become impossible to take such projects as seriously meant. The leagues for the crusade were no longer anything but political combinations, and the preach- ing of the Holy War seemed to the people nothing but a means of raising money. Before his death, Emperor Maximilian took the cross at Metz with due solemnity, but these demonstrations could load to no satisfactory results. The new conditions that now controlled Christendom rendered a crusade impossible.
 * hey looked upon the crusade merely as a means of ad-

X. MoDIFIC.\TIO.\'S A.VD SURVIVAL OF THE IdEA OF

THE Cru.sade. — From the sixteenth century European policy was swayed exclusively by state interests; hence to statesmen the idea of a crusade seemed antiqutited. Egypt antl Jerusalem having been con- quered by Sultan Selim, in 1.517, Pope Leo X made a supreme effort to re-establish the peace essential to the organization of a crusade. The King of France and Emperor Charles V promised their co-operation; the King of Portugal was to besiege Constantinople with .'300 ships, and the pope himself was to conduct the expedition. Just .at this time trouble broke out between Francis I and Charles V; these plans there- fore failed completely. The leaders of the Reforma- tion were unfavourable to the crusade, and Luther declared that it was a sin to make war upon the Turks because God had made them His instruments in pun- ishing the sins of His people. Therefore, although the idea of the crusade was not wholly lost sight of, it took a new form and adapted itself to the new condi- tions. The Cimquistiulores, who ever since the fif- teenth century had been going forth to discover new lands, considered themselves the auxiliaries of the crusade. The Infante Don Henrique, Vasco da Gama, Christopher Columbus, and .Mbuquerriue wore the cross on their breast and. when seeking the means of doubling .\frica or of reaching .\sia liy routes from the l",ast, tliought of .attacking the Mohammrdans in the rear; besidi's. they calculatcil on tlie alliance of a fabulous sovereign said to be a Christian, Prester John.

The popes, moreover, strongly encouraged these expe- ditions. On the other hand, among the Powers of Europe the House of .iVustria, which was mistress of Hungary, where it was directly threatened by the Turks, and which had supreme control of the Mediter- ranean, realized that it would be to its advantage to maintain a certain interest in the crusade. Until the end of the seventeenth century, when a diet of the German princes was held at Ratisbon, the question of war against the Turks was frequently agitated, and Luther himself, modifying his first opinion, exhorted the German nobility to defend Christendom (1528- 29). The war in Himgary always partook of the character of a crusade and, on different occasions, the French nobles enlisted under the imperial banner. Thus the Duke of Mercoeur was authorized by Henry IV to enter the Hungarian service. In 1664 Louis XIV, eager to extend his influence in Europe, sent the emperor a contingent which, under the command of the Count of Coligny, repulsed the Turks in the battle of St. Gothard. But such demonstrations were of no importance because, from the time of Francis I, the kings of France, to maintain the balance of ix)wer in Europe against the Hovise of Austria, had not hesi- tated to enter into treaties of alliance with the Turks. When, in 1683, Kara Mustapha advanced on Vienna with 30,000 Turks or Tatars, Louis XIV made no move, and it was to John Sobieski, King of Poland, that the emperor owed his safety. This was the supreme effort made by the Turks in the West. Over- whelmed by the victories of Prince Eugene at the close of the seventeenth centurj', they became thence- forth a passive power.

On the Mediterranean. Genoa and Venice beheld their commercial monopoly destroyed in the sixteenth century by the discoverj' of new continents and of new water-routes to the Indies, while their political power was absorbed by the House of Austria. With- out allowing the crusaders to deter them from their continental enterprises, the Hapsburgs dreamed of gaining control of the Mediterranean by checking the Barbary pirates and arresting the progress of the Turks. When, in 1571, the Island of Cyprus was threatened by the Ottomans, who cruelly massacred the garrisons of Famagusta and Nicosia, these towns having surrendered on stipulated terms, Pope Pius V succeeded in forming a league of maritime powers against Sultan Selim, and secured the co-operation of Philip II by granting him the right to tithes for the crusade, while he himself equipped some galleys. On 7 October, 1571, a Christian fleet of 200 galleys, carry- ing .50.000 men under the command of Don Juan of Austria, met the Ottoman fleet in the Straits of Lepanto, destroyed it completely, and liberated thou- sands of Christians. This expedition was in the nature of a crusade. The pope, considering that the victory had saved Christendom, by way of connnemo- rating it instituted the feast of the Holy Rosary, which is celebrated on the first Sunday of October. But the allies pushed their advantages no further. When, in the seventeenth century, France superseded Spain as the great Mediterranean power, she strove, despite the treaties that bovmd her to the Turks, to defend the last remnants of Christian power in the East. In 1C69 Louis XIV sent the Duke of Beaufort with a fleet of 7000 men to the defence of Candia, a Venetian prov- ince, but, notwithstanding some brilliant sallies, he succeeded in putting off its capture for a few weeks only. However, the diplomatic action of the kings of France in regard to Eastern Christians who were Turkish .subjects was more efficacious. The regime of "Capitulations", established imder Francis I in 1.536, renewed under Louis XIV in 1673, and Louis XV in 1740. ensured Catholics religious freedom and the juri.sdiction of the French amba.s.sador at Constan- tinople; all Western pilgrims were allowed access to Jerusalem and to tlie Holy Sepulchre, which was con-