They opened up new lines of commerce; they instilled into men's minds a greater care for material well-being; and they created, through intercourse with the Saracens, a new idea of tolerance which displayed itself, not in recognising what is good in others, but in relaxing the bonds of belief. Nor were there only wanderings abroad, there were also wanderings at home. The troubadours roamed from place to place, carrying ideas which told of pleasure and delight, turning men's minds away from any conception of duty. And what the troubadours did for the upper classes in disintegrating their old beliefs was done for the lower classes by a strange body of men, vagabond priests and monks and students from the universities. They sang their songs in the peasant's home, as the troubadour sang his in the castle hall, they lodged where they could, and brought with them Epicurean notions of life. They parodied all the services of the Church; they mocked at religion; they were centres of unbelief and looseners of all bonds wherever they penetrated.
Side by side with these tendencies there went amongst the educated a growing criticism of saints and their miracles; and many were the gibes and mocks that were made. The more learned priests, who saw no way of stopping the growing mischief, contented themselves with indulging in mildly cynical remarks. Philosophy, too, had advanced, and the spirit of inquiry and rationalism had received a great impulse from the teaching of Abelard. All this was seen and deplored by St. Bernard; but all he could do was to point out the abuses of his time and implore
