Thus they
complained that he forgave some of his soldiers who deserted him in the
attack on Tangier, when he was in the greatest danger. He was wholly
given up to the public service, and was always glad to try new plans for
the welfare of the Kingdom at his own expense. He gloried in warfare
against the Infidels and in keeping peace with all Christians. And so he
was loved by all, for he loved all, never injuring any, nor failing in
due respect and courtesy towards any person however humble, without
forgetting his own position. A foul or indecent word was never heard to
issue from his lips.
To Holy Church, above all, he was most obedient, attending all its
services and in his own chapel causing them to be rendered as solemnly
as in any Cathedral Church. All holy things he reverenced, and he
delighted to shew honour and to do kindness to all the ministers of
religion. Nearly one half of the year was passed by him in fasting, and
the hands of the poor never went out empty from his presence. His heart
never knew fear except the fear of sin.
CHAPTER XX.
THE RESULTS OF PRINCE HENRY'S WORK.
Henry's own life is in one way the least important part of him. We have
seen how many were the lines of history and of progress--in Christendom,
in Portugal, in Science--that met in him; how Greek and Arabic
geography, both knowledge and practical exploration, was as much a part
of what he found to work with as the memoirs of Christian pilgrims,
traders, and travellers for a thousand years; how the exploring and
expanding energy which the Northmen poured into Europe, leading directly
to the Crusading movement, was producing in the Portugal of the
fifteenth century the very same results as in the France and Italy and
England of the twelfth and thirteenth: and now, on the failure of the
Syrian crusades, the Spanish counterpart of those crusades, the greatest
of social and religious upheavals in the Middle Ages, had reached such a
point of success that the victorious Christians of Spain could look out
for new worlds to conquer.
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