408 THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. interest of Europe to make a supreme effort to strike a blow at Mahometanism, which should make its further advance upon Christian territory impossible. He tried and, no doubt, to a certain extent succeeded in finding consolation in the union of the churches, which he fondly hoped was to be brought about by the conquest ; and though, as we have seen, he recognized that the manner of the conquest had placed a great obstacle in the way of union, he yet hoped that the "loathing" felt by the Greeks towards the Latins would in time be softened down or entirely removed. He hoped that the conquest of the city might still be of use in reducing Jerusalem under Christian rule. He believed that its capture during Easter week miglit possibly be regarded as a token that Christ intended to make use of the wicked act of the Crusaders by leading to a new entry into the Holy City, and that the Greeks had been justly punished for their refusal to help the Crusaders and for their toleration of a mosque within their city. In these facts he found consolation. The existence of this consolation and of this rejoicing in the union which so many pontiffs had labored fruitlessly to effect brings out into stronger relief the intensity of his conviction that the destruction of the rival empire was a blunder and a crime. He was profoundly sad at the failure of his expedition, at the conquest of an empire whose preservation would absorb all the force of Christendom, and at the necessary diversion of Christian troops from Palestine. We who can be wise after the event can see even more distinctly than Innocent how disastrous the conquest of Con- stantinople had been. The city had spent its strength in fighting against the hordes of Asia. Her outposts in Asia Minor had been carried by successive waves of barbarian in- vasion from the great plains of Central Asia. These waves had come flowing on multitudinously and overwhelmingly during a century and a half, pushed by the mighty movement of a Tartar emigration westward. Her powers had been ex- hausted in thus defending the first lines of Europe against a host whose deficiencies were immediately supplied by new- comers. We have seen in our recent small war in the Soudan
