THE UNCHRISTIAN CRUSADES 1095 - 2012
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The Christian Crusades
1095-1291
Since the time of Constantine, Christians had gone on pilgrimages to the Holy Land. Even though Moslems had ruled Jerusalem since 638, Christians were still allowed to visit the city. By the 11th century, however, the situation had changed. Just as the number and frequency of pilgrimages to Jerusalem was at new peaks, the Seljuk Turks took over control of Jerusalem and prevented pilgrimages.The First Crusade
Pope Urban II (1088-1099, see art below) was responsible for assisting Emperor Alexus I (1081-1118) of Constantinople in launching the first crusade. He made one of the most influential speeches in the Middle Ages, calling on Christian princes in Europe to go on a crusade to rescue the Holy Land from the Turks. In the speech given at the Council of Clermont in France, on November 27, 1095, he combined the ideas of making a pilgrimage to the Holy Land with that of waging a holy war against infidels.1Dr. E.L. Skip Knox gives a summary of the pope's speech, which has been recorded differently in various sources:
 | "The
noble race of Franks must come to the aid their fellow Christians in
the East. The infidel Turks are advancing into the heart of Eastern
Christendom; Christians are being oppressed and attacked;
churches and holy places are being defiled. Jerusalem is
groaning under the Saracen yoke. The Holy Sepulchre is in Moslem hands
and has been turned into a mosque. Pilgrims are harassed and even
prevented from access to the Holy Land.
"The West must march to the defense of the East. All should go, rich and poor alike. The Franks must stop their internal wars and squabbles. Let them go instead against the infidel and fight a righteous war. "God himself will lead them, for they will be doing His work. There will be absolution and remission of sins for all who die in the service of Christ. Here they are poor and miserable sinners; there they will be rich and happy. Let none hesitate; they must march next summer. God wills it! |
"Deus vult! (God wills it) became the battle cry of the Crusader.
"The day after Urban's speech, the Council formally granted all the privileges and protections Urban had promised. The red cross was taken as the official sign of the pilgrims, and Bishop Adhemar of Le Puy was chosen as papal legate and the spiritual leader of the expedition."2
The First Crusade was the most successful from a military point of view. Accounts of this action are shocking. For example, historian Raymond of Agiles described the capture of Jerusalem by the Crusaders in 1099:
Some of our men cut off the heads of their enemies; others shot them with arrows, so that they fell from the towers; others tortured them longer by casting them into the flames. Piles of heads, hands and feet were to be seen in the streets of the city. It was necessary to pick one's way over the bodies of men and horses. But these were small matters compared to what happened at the temple of Solomon, a place where religious services ware ordinarily chanted. What happened there? If I tell the truth, it will exceed your powers of belief. So let it suffice to say this much at least, that in the temple and portico of Solomon, men rode in blood up to their knees and bridle reins.
Some of the results of the first crusade were not expected. Alexus I thought that the Byzantine territories would be returned to him and the Eastern Empire, but instead the European conquerors established four independent Latin kingdoms. In addition, three military orders (Hospitallers, Templars, and Teutonic Knights) came into power. The stated purpose of these orders was to protect pilgrims and holy sites.
The Jerusalem or Crusader's Cross was worn
by Godfrey de Bouillon, the first ruler of the Jerusalem after it was
taken from the Moslems. Usually the symbol has four small crosses
between the arms. The five crosses symbolize the five wounds of the
crucified Jesus. The Crusader's Cross can also be a single cross, as
is shown in the art of St. Louis below.
Other Crusades
There were seven major Crusades. The era the Crusades the first began in 1095 with Pope Urban II's famous speech and the ended in 1291 when Acre, the last of the Latin holdings in Palestine, was lost. The major Crusades were:
- the first, 1095-1099, called by Pope Urban II and led by Peter the Hermit, Walter the Penniless, Godfrey of Bouillon, Baldwin and Eustace of Flanders, and others (see also first crusade);
- the second, 1147-49, headed by King Louis VII who was enlisted by Bernard of Clairvaux, was a disastrous failure, including the loss of one of the four Latin Kingdoms, the Duchy of Edessa;
- the third, 1188-92, proclaimed by Pope Gregory VIII in the wake of the catastrophe of the second crusade, which conducted by Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, King Philip Augustus of France and King Richard "Coeur-de-Lion" of England;
- the fourth, during which Constantinople was sacked, 1202-1204 (see also fourth crusade);
- the fifth, which included the conquest of Damietta, 1217-1221;
- the sixth, in which Frederick II took part (1228-29); also Thibaud de Champagne and Richard of Cornwall (1239);
- the seventh, led by St. Louis (Louis IX of France), 1248-50; 3
St. Louis (Louis IX of France), shown above wearing a version of the Crusader's red cross, led the seventh crusade from 1248-50.
What was the legacy of the Crusades? Williston Walker et. al. observes:
Viewed in the light of their original purpose, the Crusades were failures. They made no permanent conquests of the Holy Land. They did not retard the advance of Islam. Far from aiding the Eastern Empire, they hastened its disintegration. They also revealed the continuing inability of Latin Christians to understand Greek Christians, and they hardened the schism between them. They fostered a harsh intolerance between Muslims and Christians, where before there had been a measure of mutual respect. They were marked, and marred, by a recrudescence of anti-Semitism....
The papacy gained the most from the Crusades. Its authority was greatly increased. The power of European kings also increased in that a number of barons who had given them trouble went to the East.4
Take the Highway
The Fourth Crusade: The Sack of Constantinople (1204) The crusade was to be directed at Egypt, because the Crusaders believed that conquering it would be the key to regaining Jerusalem. The conquering of the great Christian city in 1204 ended the Fourth Crusade and had significant religious and political consequences.
Choose a Byway
1. Learn about The Middle Ages: 476-14532. Land Theft Crusades and the Book of Joshua During the Middle Ages, European Christians launched military campaigns to take the Holy Land from the Muslims.
3. Visit other web sites that explore the history and theology of the Crusades:
Crusades (The Catholic Encyclopedia)
The Crusades were expeditions undertaken to deliver the Holy Places
from Moslem control. The origin of the word may be traced to the cross
made of cloth and worn as a badge on the outer garment of the
crusaders.
The Crusades by Dr. E.L. Skip Knox, Boise State University. Lots of materials developed for a college course.
Female Heroes. Scroll down the page to Female Heroes from the Time of the Crusades: Shagrat (or Shajarat) al-Durr; Eleanor of Aquitaine; The Women Left Behind; Melisende, Queen of Jerusalem, and Anna Comnena, Byzantine Historian
History of Deeds Done Beyond the Sea by William of Tyre (107K). William of Tyre was born in the Holy Land, born in the Holy Land and was, after a French education, appointed Archbishop of Tyre and Chancellor of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. He wrote near the end of the twelfth century.
Islam's Stake: Why Jerusalem Was Central to Muhammad by Karen Armstrong, Time, April 16, 2001. Jerusalem was central to the spiritual identity of Muslims from the very beginning of their faith.
Judaism's Stake: The Mysteries of Solomon's Temple by David Van Biema, Time, April 16, 2001. How did the place first become holy? The answer is lost in prehistory.
Pope Urban II calls for the 1st Crusade, Council of Clermont, France, November 27, 1095. This speech has been called the most influencial one in the Middle Ages. It calls on the Christian princes in Europe to go on a crusade to rescue the Holy Land from the Turks. The Medieval Sourcebook offers five versions of this speech.
The Reconciliation Walk. The purpose of the Walk was to bring Christians face-to-face with Muslims and Jews with a message of regret and confession about the Crusades. The Reconciliation Walk in Jerusalem on July 15, 1999, the 900th anniversary of the fall of the city to the Crusaders.
Taking Jerusalem: Climax of the First Crusade By J. Arthur McFall. "The Crusaders spent at least that night and the next day killing Muslims, including all of those in the al-Aqsa Mosque, where Tancred's banner should have protected them. Not even women and children were spared. The city's Jews sought refuge in their synagogue, only to be burned alive within it by the Crusaders. .... The Europeans also destroyed the monuments to Orthodox Christian saints and the tomb of Abraham."
Was the Medieval Church Corrupt? by Frans van Liere. ... The myth that the medieval church was a landmark of corruption is often used to explain the success of Luther's Reformation.... This is not to deny that there were some instances of clerical abuses during the later Middle Ages, that were correctly addressed by the Protestant reformers.
Yahoo's Links: The Crusades.
The Crusades by Dr. E.L. Skip Knox, Boise State University. Lots of materials developed for a college course.
Female Heroes. Scroll down the page to Female Heroes from the Time of the Crusades: Shagrat (or Shajarat) al-Durr; Eleanor of Aquitaine; The Women Left Behind; Melisende, Queen of Jerusalem, and Anna Comnena, Byzantine Historian
History of Deeds Done Beyond the Sea by William of Tyre (107K). William of Tyre was born in the Holy Land, born in the Holy Land and was, after a French education, appointed Archbishop of Tyre and Chancellor of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. He wrote near the end of the twelfth century.
Islam's Stake: Why Jerusalem Was Central to Muhammad by Karen Armstrong, Time, April 16, 2001. Jerusalem was central to the spiritual identity of Muslims from the very beginning of their faith.
Judaism's Stake: The Mysteries of Solomon's Temple by David Van Biema, Time, April 16, 2001. How did the place first become holy? The answer is lost in prehistory.
Pope Urban II calls for the 1st Crusade, Council of Clermont, France, November 27, 1095. This speech has been called the most influencial one in the Middle Ages. It calls on the Christian princes in Europe to go on a crusade to rescue the Holy Land from the Turks. The Medieval Sourcebook offers five versions of this speech.
The Reconciliation Walk. The purpose of the Walk was to bring Christians face-to-face with Muslims and Jews with a message of regret and confession about the Crusades. The Reconciliation Walk in Jerusalem on July 15, 1999, the 900th anniversary of the fall of the city to the Crusaders.
Taking Jerusalem: Climax of the First Crusade By J. Arthur McFall. "The Crusaders spent at least that night and the next day killing Muslims, including all of those in the al-Aqsa Mosque, where Tancred's banner should have protected them. Not even women and children were spared. The city's Jews sought refuge in their synagogue, only to be burned alive within it by the Crusaders. .... The Europeans also destroyed the monuments to Orthodox Christian saints and the tomb of Abraham."
Was the Medieval Church Corrupt? by Frans van Liere. ... The myth that the medieval church was a landmark of corruption is often used to explain the success of Luther's Reformation.... This is not to deny that there were some instances of clerical abuses during the later Middle Ages, that were correctly addressed by the Protestant reformers.
Yahoo's Links: The Crusades.
Disclaimer: Some links jump to
outside sites for further information on the
Bible, interpretations, the canon, translations, manuscripts, resources,
and other perspectives. Links do not constitute an endorsement by the
Women's Division of the information on other web sites. External web
sites offer us diverse perspectives; afford us an opportunity to compare
them to United Methodist positions; and, encourage us to critically
analyze the issues raised by The Bible: the Book that Bridges the Millennia web pages.
Notes
1 A History of the Christian Church, 4th ed., edited by Williston Walker, Richard A. Norris, David W. Lotz, and Robert T. Handy (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1985), p. 284.
2 From The Crusades © Dr. E.L. Skip Knox, Boise State University, who says, "My intent is that others can use the information here for their own educational purposes, either personally or in a classroom. I especially hope this site will be a resource to other teachers. If you use any of my material I ask only that you credit me properly. If you intend to use the material for profit, you must ask my permission first."
3 Compiled from a variety of sources.
4 A History of the Christian Church, p. 290.
Pope Urban II is a detail of art in An Outline of Christianity: The Story of Our Civilization, Vol. II (New York: Bethlehem Publishers, Inc., 1926), p. 347.
"St. Louis at Jerusalem" is a detail of a painting by Alexandre Cabanel, op. cit., p. 374.
Return: The Middle Ages: 476-1453
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 This study is a resource from: The Women's Division General Board of Global Ministries The United Methodist Church E-mail: umw@gbgm-umc.org. Web: http://gbgm-umc.org/umw/ |
| Crusades-Encyclopedia Return to Table of Contents Urban II: Speech at the Council of Clermont, 1095 According to Fulcher of Chartres Text and Commentary provided by Paul Halsall's Internet History Sourcebooks, Link to Original Source |
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| Introduction [adapted from Thatcher] In 1094 or 1095, Alexios I Komnenos, the Byzantine emperor, sent to the pope, Urban II, and asked for aid from the west against the Seljuq Turks, who taken nearly all of Asia Minor from him. At the council of Clermont Urban addressed a great crowd and urged all to go to the aid of the Greeks and to recover Palestine from the rule of the Muslims. The acts of the council have not been preserved, but we have four accounts of the speech of Urban which were written by men who were present and heard him. Here is the one by the chronicler Fulcher of Chartres. Not how the traditions of the peace and truce of God - aimed at bringing about peace in Christendom - ties in directly with the call for a Crusade. Does this amount to the export of violence? _____________________________________________________________________________________________Pope Urban II, Speech at Clermont, 1095 Most beloved brethren: Urged by necessity, I, Urban, by the permission of God chief bishop and prelate over the whole world, have come into these parts as an ambassador with a divine admonition to you, the servants of God. I hoped to find you as faithful and as zealous in the service of God as I had supposed you to be. But if there is in you any deformity or crookedness contrary to God's law, with divine help I will do my best to remove it. For God has put you as stewards over his family to minister to it. Happy indeed will you be if he finds you faithful in your stewardship. You are called shepherds; see that you do not act as hirelings. But be true shepherds, with your crooks always in your hands. Do not go to sleep, but guard on all sides the flock committed to you. For if through your carelessness or negligence a wolf carries away one of your sheep, you will surely lose the reward laid up for you with God. And after you have been bitterly scourged with remorse for your faults-, you will be fiercely overwhelmed in hell, the abode of death. For according to the gospel you are the salt of the earth [Matt. 5:13]. But if you fall short in your duty, how, it may be asked, can it be salted? O how great the need of salting! It is indeed necessary for you to correct with the salt of wisdom this foolish people which is so devoted to the pleasures of this -world, lest the Lord, when He may wish to speak to them, find them putrefied by their sins unsalted and stinking. For if He, shall find worms, that is, sins, In them, because you have been negligent in your duty, He will command them as worthless to be thrown into the abyss of unclean things. And because you cannot restore to Him His great loss, He will surely condemn you and drive you from His loving presence. But the man who applies this salt should be prudent, provident, modest, learned, peaceable, watchful, pious, just, equitable, and pure. For how can the ignorant teach others? How can the licentious make others modest>? And how can the impure make others pure? If anyone hates peace, how can he make others peaceable ? Or if anyone has soiled his hands with baseness, how can he cleanse the impurities of another? We read also that if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into the ditch [Matt. 15:14]. But first correct yourselves, in order that, free from blame , you may be able to correct those who are subject to you. If you wish to be the friends of God, gladly do the things which you know will please Him. You must especially let all matters that pertain to the church be controlled by the law of the church. And be careful that simony does not take root among you, lest both those who buy and those who sell [church offices] be beaten with the scourges of the Lord through narrow streets and driven into the place of destruction and confusion. Keep the church and the clergy in all its grades entirely free from the secular power. See that the tithes that belong to God are faithfully paid from all the produce of the land; let them not be sold or withheld. If anyone seizes a bishop let him be treated as an outlaw. If anyone seizes or robs monks, or clergymen, or nuns, or their servants, or pilgrims, or merchants, let him be anathema [that is, cursed]. Let robbers and incendiaries and all their accomplices be expelled from the church and anthematized. If a man who does not give a part of his goods as alms is punished with the damnation of hell, how should he be punished who robs another of his goods? For thus it happened to the rich man in the gospel [Luke 16:19]; he was not punished because he had stolen the goods of another, but because he had not used well the things which were his. "You have seen for a long time the great disorder in the world caused by these crimes. It is so bad in some of your provinces, I am told, and you are so weak in the administration of justice, that one can hardly go along the road by day or night without being attacked by robbers; and whether at home or abroad one is in danger of being despoiled either by force or fraud. Therefore it is necessary to reenact the truce, as it is commonly called, which was proclaimed a long time ago by our holy fathers. I exhort and demand that you, each, try hard to have the truce kept in your diocese. And if anyone shall be led by his cupidity or arrogance to break this truce, by the authority of God and with the sanction of this council he shall be anathematized." After these and various other matters had been attended to, all who were present, clergy and people, gave thanks to God and agreed to the pope's proposition. They all faithfully promised to keep the decrees. Then the pope said that in another part of the world Christianity was suffering from a state of affairs that was worse than the one just mentioned. He continued: "Although, O sons of God, you have promised more firmly than ever to keep the peace among yourselves and to preserve the rights of the church, there remains still an important work for you to do. Freshly quickened by the divine correction, you must apply the strength of your righteousness to another matter which concerns you as well as God. For your brethren who live in the east are in urgent need of your help, and you must hasten to give them the aid which has often been promised them. For, as the most of you have heard, the Turks and Arabs have attacked them and have conquered the territory of Romania [the Greek empire] as far west as the shore of the Mediterranean and the Hellespont, which is called the Arm of St. George. They have occupied more and more of the lands of those Christians, and have overcome them in seven battles. They have killed and captured many, and have destroyed the churches and devastated the empire. If you permit them to continue thus for awhile with impurity, the faithful of God will be much more widely attacked by them. On this account I, or rather the Lord, beseech you as Christ's heralds to publish this everywhere and to persuade all people of whatever rank, foot-soldiers and knights, poor and rich, to carry aid promptly to those Christians and to destroy that vile race from the lands of our friends. I say this to those who are present, it meant also for those who are absent. Moreover, Christ commands it. "All who die by the way, whether by land or by sea, or in battle against the pagans, shall have immediate remission of sins. This I grant them through the power of God with which I am invested. O what a disgrace if such a despised and base race, which worships demons, should conquer a people which has the faith of omnipotent God and is made glorious with the name of Christ! With what reproaches will the Lord overwhelm us if you do not aid those who, with us, profess the Christian religion! Let those who have been accustomed unjustly to wage private warfare against the faithful now go against the infidels and end with victory this war which should have been begun long ago. Let those who for a long time, have been robbers, now become knights. Let those who have been fighting against their brothers and relatives now fight in a proper way against the barbarians. Let those who have been serving as mercenaries for small pay now obtain the eternal reward. Let those who have been wearing themselves out in both body and soul now work for a double honor. Behold! on this side will be the sorrowful and poor, on that, the rich; on this side, the enemies of the Lord, on that, his friends. Let those who go not put off the journey, but rent their lands and collect money for their expenses; and as soon as winter is over and spring comes, let hem eagerly set out on the way with God as their guide." Source: From Bongars, Gesta Dei per Francos, 1, pp. 382 f., trans in Oliver J. Thatcher, and Edgar Holmes McNeal, eds., A Source Book for Medieval History, (New York: Scribners, 1905), 513-17.
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