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PHARMACY AND MEDICAL PRACTICE. 257
with one another in works of mercy. It is quite possible
that many were induced to consecrate their lives to the
service of mankind, not so much by ideal love as by hopes
of reward in the world to come, and other less noble influences;
but is this a reason why their good deeds should
have conferred fewer blessings ? The longing and striving
after ideals, which men, discontented with the present
believed to be realized in the supersensuous world of the'
future, had an ennobling effect upon character, tempered
harshness of manner and threw a charm round many an
undertaking which otherwise might have seemed foolish or
despicable. This feature of romance was peculiarly impressed
on the aspect of the Crusades, in which a wild
craving for adventures and low covetousness were associated
with piety and simple faith. Even if the particular
object of these military expeditions was not, or only tem­
porarily, attained,—the object namely of emancipating from
the Muhammedan dominion that land, once the cradle of
Christianity,—yet many results advantageous to the development
of civilization accrued therefrom; for by means of
, these wars commercial relations were opened up between
the Orient and the Occident, the intellectual horizon of
Europe was enlarged, and the feeling of mutual dependence
was awakened among the Christians in their intercourse
with people professing another faith. This feeling manifested
itself in the foundation of hospitals and of Orders and
united people differing in creed in a common work for the
welfare of the sick.
The large hospital which the Knights of St. John possessed
in the 12th century in Jerusalem was able to accommodate
2,000 patients. It consisted of numerous buildings supported
by 124 marble columns as we are informed by the Knight
Sir JOHN MANDEVILLE. Five physicians and three surgeons,
who were appointed to this hospital, took charge of
the medical service* In 1236 the Order possessed 4,000
lodges which were distributed over the different countries
* F. v. RAUMER : .Geschichte der Hohenstaufen, Leipzig 1858, vi, 439.