When the first tide of Mahomedan invasion set in towards the west, its irresistible flood seemed about to overwhelm the whole of Europe, and extinguish every trace of Christianity, just as its proud waves were repelled by the Pyrenees.
But though different portions of Europe successfully resisted the attack, yet Mahomedan settlements continued for centuries to exist upon it.
Again, during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, when Europe poured her millions into the East, the invaders established, for a length of lime, and in the midst of their foes, a succession of posts, which were gradually rolled back by the Turkish arms.
And, finally, in the 15th century, the closing conquest of Constantinople and European Turkey, and the extended frontier towards Hungary and Italy, confirmed and perpetuated the last and most intimate connection which has taken place between Christian Europe and the Eastern zealots.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
Here then we have a long period of twelve centuries, during which Christianity has been in contact with her mortal foe; and upon three marked occasions, that foe was the grand object of her hopes and fears.
It would be natural, therefore, to expect that Christian Europe would have entered the lists not merely with the sword and with the shield.
We might have anticipated that her learned divines and casuists would have advanced to the combat clad in the celestial arm our of the Gospel; that the Popes, besides pouring forth the martial bands of their subjects, would have strenuously and unremittingly applied themselves and their hosts of learned monks and ecclesiastics.
To overcome the adversary with those spiritual weapons which would better have suited their sacred character? The banners of Islam approached close to the Papal see, and the crescent, almost within sight of Imperial Rome, shone brightly upon Spain, Turkey and Sicily.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
Might we then have hoped that its rays would have become dim and waned before the transcendent glory of the Sun of Christ?
How fallacious were such expectations! We learn, indeed, that “in later times, when in the vicissitudes of military adventure, the arms of the Mahomedan were found to preponderate, some faint attempts were made, or meditated, to convince those whom it proved impossible to subdue;” and still farther, that, “in 1285, Honorius IV.
In order to convert the Saracens strove to establish at Paris, schools for Arabic and other oriental languages.
The Council of Vienna, in 1312, recommended the same method; and Oxford, Salamanca, Bologna, as well as Paris, were places selected for the establishment of the Professorships. But the decree appears to have remained without effect until Francis I, called it into life.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
And where are the marks and effects of this feeble resolution so tardily executed? As far as practical controversy is concerned, they are buried in obscurity: learned works upon the Arabic tongue, translations from its authors, or at best, notes and commentaries.
Which too often fight with the air, and sometimes betray gross ignorance of the real views and tenets of Mahomedan, are all that remain?
The dominion of the Prophet needed to fear but little from such contemptible efforts, which even had they been kn6wn to his followers, would most probably have served only to confirm them in their belief.
In truth, the spirit of the age was adverse to any spiritual success. Clogged and obscured by the errors of Popery, Christianity had abandoned her vantage ground, and what but defeat and dishonor were to be looked for?
ADVERTISEMENTS:
We are not prepared, indeed, to say that the entire labors of the Christian world, from the time of Mahomet to the Reformation, were of this futile character.
On the contrary, we believe that devoted Christians, during this interval, frequently and with zeal attempted the conversion of the Mussulmans; but it is a melancholy reflection, that we have not a single account of their success, or of any beneficial effects resulting from their efforts.
We find, it is true, in the twelfth century, the eastern Emperor erasing from his creed the anathema against the God of Mohammed, as likely to offend those Mahomedan who had embraced, or were disposed to embrace, Christianity; but, except for such transient hints, we should hardly be aware that the controversy was going on; no fruits at least give token of its vitality.