[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

He also helped form the Teutonic Knights by writing what may be called a constitution. Our Western Civilization was just coming into being in those days. Civilizations destined for greatness are very exclusive and often severe, even cruel, quite the opposite of those that are dying such as ours. In many instances men of dying Civilizations will not even lift a finger to defend themselves, their families or their property. Bernard whatever his later personal feelings helped in giving the emerging “People” direction for the next centuries. God Bless him!

[Mrs. Don-o]

To me--- and I am not a scholar of this period --- it impresses as an appalling example of futility. Bernard wrote to the pope that after the preaching of the crusade, "Cities and castles are now empty. There is not left one man to seven women, and everywhere there are widows to still-living husbands."

Most of those men --- including scores of noblemen and many thousands of commoners--- never came back. Families spent decades raising and paying out fortunes to ransom back those taken captive; the monks (including Bernard) said that the humiliating defeats were caused by the betrayal of Christian by Christian, inspired -- so they wrote --- by the devil.

It sure doesn't sound like the emergence of a civilization to me.