Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/666

This page needs to be proofread.
632
CRU—CRU

the tide of Mahometan conquests as effectually as it was arrested for Western Europe by Charles Martel on the plain of Tours. They saved the Italian and perhaps even the Teutonic and the Scandinavian lands from a tyranny which has blasted the fairest regions of the earth ; and if they added fuel to the flame of theological hatred between the Orthodox and the Latin churches, if they intensified the feelings of suspicion and dislike between the Eastern and the Western Christians, they yet opened the way for an interchange of thought and learning which had its result in the revival of letters and in the religious reformation which followed that revival. If, again, of their leaders some showed themselves men of merciless cruelty and insatiable greed, there were others who like Tancred approached the ideal of the knightly chivalry of a later generation, and others again whose self-sacrifice, charity, and heroic patience furnish an example for all time. The ulterior results of the crusades were the breaking up of the feudal system, the abolition of serfdom, the supremacy of a common law over the independent jurisdiction of chiefs who claimed the right of private wars ; and if for the time they led to deeds of iniquity which it would be monstrous even to palliate, it must yet be admitted that in their influence on later ages the evil has been assuredly outweighed by

the good.


Gibbon, History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire ; Michaud, Histoire des Croisades ; Mills, History of the Crusades; William of Malmesbury ; Joinville, Memoirs of the Crusades of St Louis ; Richard of Devizes ; Geoffrey of Vinsauf ; Geoffrey of Ville- hardouin; Wilken, Geschichtc der Kreuzziige ; Haken, Gcmalde dcr Kreuzziige; Milman, Latin Christianity, book vii. ch. vi. ; Hallam, Middle Ages, ch. i. parti.; Mainbourg, Histoire des Croisades; Finlay, History of the Byzantine and Greek Empires, from 1 057 to 1453 ; James de Vitry, Historia Orientalis ; Choiseul d Aillecourt, Memoir es sur les Croisades ; Heeren, Essay on the Influence of tie Crusades.

(g. w. c.)




CRUSENSTOLPE, Magnus Jakob, a Swedish historian, was born in 1795. He became early famous both as a political and an historical writer. His first important work was a History of the Early Years of the Life of King Gustavus IV. Adolphiis, which was followed by a series of monographs and by some politico-historical novels, of which The House of Holstein-Gottorp in Sweden is considered the best. He obtained a great personal influence over King Karl Johan, who during the years 1830-33 gave him his fullest confidence, and sanctioned the official character of Crusenstolpe s newspaper Faderneslandet. In the last- mentioned year, however, the historian suddenly became the king s bitterest enemy, and used his acrid pen on all occasions in attacking him. In 1838 he was condemned, for one of these angry utterances, to be imprisoned three years in the castle of Waxholm. He continued his literary labours until his death in 1865. Few Swedish writers have wielded so pure and so incisive a style as Crusenstolpe, and it is by virtue of the elegance of his writings that he will survive, for his historical worth is injured by the passionate bias of his political and personal antipathies.

CRUSIUS, Christian August (1715-1775), after BuddaBus the most distinguished theological opponent of the Wolfian philosophy and critical methods, was born on the 10th of January 1715, at Leuna, in Merseburg, a division of Prussian Saxony, and passed to the university of Leipsic in 1734. After attending the usual classes, he became extraordinary professor of philosophy in Leipsic in 1744, professor of theology in 1750, and theological principal in 1755. He died on the 18th of October 1775. Two of the great objects of his life were to place philosophy on a thoroughly satisfactory basis for the future, and to bring philosophical conclusions into harmony with orthodox theology. The university was divided by the disputes that were rife into two parties the " Ernestianer " and the " Crusianer." The former contended for a purely grammatical interpretation of Scripture, and carried out their theory to its logical consequences. They thus subjected the sacred writings to the same laws of exposi tion as are applied to other ancient books. Ernesti, adopting the principles he had employed in dealing with the classics, looked at the Bible from a purely philological stand-point. Crusius, on the other hand, explained Scripture in the light of the labours of the church and the usually received theological system. This had great influence on his philosophical position. He had inherited a bias against the Wolfian views from his teacher Riidiger ; and numerous works were issued by him on logic, meta physics, psychology, and moral philosophy all with a direct controversial bearing. The system of Crusius was not successful, but it had a few very enthusiastic supporters. His mysticism and sincere religious spirit endeared him to the Pietists and the followers of Zinzendorf, who would naturally regard him as an able opponent of the extreme rationalizing tendencies (Aufklarung) of the time. His views of prophecy, too, and of its important connection with the Christian economy, had considerable influence on Hengstenberg and Delitzsch. The principal works of Crusius are Jli/pomnemata. ad theologiam propheticam and his Moral Theology. The latter is in two parts. In the first, taking revelation as his starting point, he combats the Wolfian idea of human perfection, and treats of the depravity, conversion, and sanctification of man. He seems to have held, like Dr Wardlaw, that natural, as distinguished from Christian, ethics are not legitimate. The second part is devoted more specially to morals. The book, although prolix, is animated by genuine religious feeling. Although Crusius had great influence on many of his contemporaries, he unfortunately outlived his reputation. He was a profound, subtle, and original thinker, and was, perhaps, drawn into mysticism by his attempts to reconcile theology and philosophy. His works have fallen into the background ; but he is still remembered for his profound learning, unfeigned piety, and purity and earnestness of character. Few controversialists have left behind them so stainless a name.




 

CRUSTACEA


 

THERE is probably no class among the Invertebrata which I offers so many striking family and individual peculi arities as are to be met with among the Crustacea. Having a special type of structure, and possessed of numerous characteristics in common, they nevertheless put on such diverse appearances both in the young and adult stages of their existence as frequently to have baffled the most able investigators, whilst many of the vagrant members of the class still challenge further research.

The masterly and exhaustive labours of Charles Darwin

on the Cirripedia have rescued that aberrant group from obscurity, and many of the parasitic forms have been relegated to the various orders of which they are in reality

only degenerated members, their organs having suffered