The crusades of medieval times appealed to the chivalric instinct of men and provided them with opportunities for adventure, penitence, and devotion. As military campaigns, the crusades were not effective. However, they broadened horizons of thought and opportunity. Men left their homes and castles in Europe by the thousands and traveled slowly to new lands. Their culture left its mark in the Near East, and they brought back new ideas and new knowledge, which helped to stimulate the intellect of western Europe.
The crusades also helped to usher in the Renaissance, which, during the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries, helped to awaken the individual to discover his worth and abilities. This flexing of thought, however, went only so far. The revival of learning and the discoveries of the Renaissance did not extend to spiritual healing, and it was not until over three hundred years later, through the discovery of Christian Science by Mrs. Eddy, that men learned that they could be freed from the shackles of ignorance of God—of sin, disease, and death.
Mrs. Eddy recognized that healing through spiritual means alone has divine authority. That such healing had lain dormant ever since the third century did not deter her from pressing forward with her discovery. When the Church of Christ, Scientist, was formed in 1879, on Mrs. Eddy's motion a resolution was adopted, "To organize a church designed to commemorate the word and works of our Master, which should reinstate primitive Christianity and its lost element of healing" (Historical Sketch from the Manual of The Mother Church by Mrs. Eddy, p. 17).
