21. Chapter 19: The Church Inspires the Crusades, 1096-1291

CHAPTER 19 The Church Inspires the Crusades, 1096-1291

1. The World Setting for the Cru­sades The Church had its origin in the East. There during the first cen­turies of its existence it developed its greatest strength (ch. 2). There it established the great fundamen­tal Christian doctrines in the Creeds of the Ecumenical Councils (ch. 3, sec. 9; ch. 6, sec. 1-4, 8). From the East the Church ex­panded into the West. For more than a thousand years all orthodox Christians lived together in one Church, united in the bonds of a common faith.

Then in 1054 the Church was divided into the Greek Eastern and the Latin Western Church (ch. 10, sec. 4). When in 1073 Hildebrand became pope as Gregory VII, the deep wound dealt the Church by the Schism between East and West was still fresh and bleeding. It was the fondest wish of Gregory VII to heal the wound. Not only was the Church divided; it was also torn by war, and thou­sands of its members were con­quered (ch. 9). Mohammedanism, like Christianity, had its origin in the East (ch. 9, sec. 2) . The Mo­hammedan Arabs took away from the Eastern Empire the provinces of Syria, Palestine, Egypt, and North Africa. From Africa they swept victoriously with the speed of a whirlwind through Spain into the heart of France. There at Tours their impetuous advance was checked in 732 by Charles Martel, and they retreated behind the Py­renees. Charlemagne drove them back behind the Ebro. The lands conquered by the Mo­hammedans were Christian. So as a result of the Mohammedan con­quests the Church lost immense territory. In Spain and North Africa the descendants of the Arabs came to be called Moors. In Spain the Christians pushed the Moors back, step by step, until at last in 1492 all of Spain was freed from Mo­hammedanism and restored to Christianity. But in North Africa the Church was completely wiped out, and the Moors held unbroken sway until the nineteenth century. In Egypt, Palestine, and Syria the Church was not destroyed, but its life languished. With the passing of the centuries the Arabs lost their strength. They were supplanted in the East by the Turks. These also were Moham­medans. By 1070 they had taken over from the Arabs Palestine and Syria, had invaded Asia Minor, and were very seriously threaten­ing Constantinople itself and what there was left of the Eastern Em­pire and Church.

Here was a most remarkable combination of events. The Schism between East and West had taken place in 1054. The Turks were threatening Constantinople by 1070. Gregory became pope in 1073.

Gregory was anxious to heal the schism. He was gravely concerned about the Eastern Empire and Church because they were hard pressed by the Turks. In his hour of need the eastern emperor appealed to Gregory for help against the Mohammedan Turks. The emperor, who ruled the Eastern Church (ch. 17, sec. 4), promised that if the pope would help him he would put an end to the schism brought about by Patri­arch Michael Cerularius (ch. 15, sec. 4). The appeal of the eastern emper­or stirred the pope mightily. It set him on fire. Here was an oppor­tunity such as seldom in the course of history presents itself to any man. Pope Gregory thought he might be able to accomplish three things of major importance at one and the same time. He might be able to save the Eastern Church from its deadly enemies, the Mo­hammedans; heal the grievous wound of the schism by re-uniting the Eastern and Western churches; and then establish the universal, world-wide rule of the papacy.

It was a bold and magnificent plan.

Pope Gregory VII, the ecclesias­tical Napoleon of the Middle Ages, was ready to march in person at the head of an army of fifty thou­sand soldiers, and lead them "against the enemies of God, even to the tomb of Jesus Christ." But this was not to be. Gregory became involved in the struggle with Henry IV about investiture, and he was thereby prevented from carrying out his plan.

However, Gregory was the first man to conceive of a crusade, or "war of the cross." No pope ever led a crusade personally, but all those that were undertaken later were inspired by the popes.

2. The Turks Are Hostile toward the Pilgrims The Christianity of the masses after the conversion of Constan­tine, and even more so in the Middle Ages, appears to have been largely formal. As we have seen, it consisted in learning the Apos­tles’ Creed, the Ten Command­ments, and the Lord’s Prayer; in a belief in the magical power of the sacraments, a life of asceticism, the veneration of saints and their relics, and in pilgrimages to their shrines.

Pilgrimages to the Holy Land and its sacred places were espe­cially popular. Away back in the fifth century Jerome had made his home in Bethlehem (ch. 6, sec. 6). The great majority of the Chris­tians in western Europe were not much concerned over what the Mohammedans did to the Eastern Church, from which they were now separated. But the thought that the Holy Land with its sacred places was in possession of infidels was a thorn in their flesh. They felt it an unbearable insult to the Christian Church. It rankled in their bosoms, and filled them with deep resentment. The Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land had always gotten along well with the Arabs. The attitude of the Arabs toward the pilgrims was much the same as that of to­day’s resort owners toward tour­ists. To the Arabs, Christian money was just as good as Moham­medan money. They did a very profitable business with the pil­grims. When the Turks took the Holy Land away from the Arabs the sit­uation changed. The Turks were fanatics in religion. They hated the Christians because they were Christians. They would have noth­ing to do with the pilgrims. They did not want their money. They made it difficult for them to visit the sacred places. Not infrequently they insulted and maltreated them. Pilgrims upon their return told about their bad treatment at the hands of the Turks. Their reports fanned into flame the resentment which had long been smoldering in the hearts of the Christians of western Europe. And this state of popular sentiment opened the way for Pope Urban II to launch the first Crusade.

3. Pope Urban II Initiates the First Crusade

Urban II, who was pope from 1088 to 1099, was a man altogether different from Gregory VII. Gregory came from a poor and very humble family; he was small, in­significant and unprepossessing in appearance, weak of voice, and not a public speaker at all. Urban came from a rich and very prominent family; he was tall, very handsome and impressive in appearance, and a great orator. He was not a man to lead armies, but he was a master of mass psychology. He had a gift for using catchy phrases that had the power to arouse the emotions of a crowd to the highest pitch of enthusiasm. In the fall of 1095 Urban went to Clermont in France. He let it be known that he was going to speak about the Holy Land and the Turks. When he ascended the plat­form he saw before him a sea of eager and expectant faces. His powerful and eloquent voice held the multitude spellbound. He spoke to them of the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. He pictured to them Jesus growing up, being baptized, going up and down the Holy Land teaching and doing good. He made them see the arrest of Jesus, His crucifixion, death, and burial in the tomb. Feelingly he spoke of all the scenes and places in the Holy Land rendered sacred by the so­journ there of the Savior. He force­fully denounced the desecration of those places by the infidels, and the ill treatment of the pilgrims. The huge multitude began to boil with anger. The pope made the great mass of people before him feel the shame and disgrace heaped upon the Church and the name of Christ by the Turks.

He went on and whipped the crowd into a frenzy. He called upon them to go to the Holy Land and rescue Jerusalem and the tomb of Christ from the hands of the Turks. To all those who would go he promised a greatly reduced pe­riod of time in purgatory. (Purga­tory is an imagined place of suffer­ing, where the Catholics believe souls must go to be purified before they can enter heaven.) To all those who should die while serving in the war against the Turks, Ur­ban promised heaven. The vast multitude was electri­fied. It was as if a spark leaped from one to the other. The thou­sands assembled at Clermont on that day exclaimed and chanted in wild enthusiasm: "God wills it ! God wills it !" The pope had red cloth cut up into little strips. These strips were sewn together in the form of a cross. The cross was affixed to the sleeve of every one who said he would take part in the undertak­ing. The Latin word for "cross" is crux. That is why the undertaking was called a "crusade," and the participants "crusaders." The Crusades were military ex­peditions engaged in by the Chris­tians of western Europe with the purpose of wresting the Holy Land The men who led the first Crusade, 1096-1099, were Godfrey of Bouillon, Raymond IV of Toulouse, Bohemond of Tarentum, and Tancred of Hautevine and its sacred places from the hands of the Mohammedans. The wars engaged in by the Mo­hammedan Arabs and Turks for the purpose of spreading their reli­gion were to them holy wars. Now the Christians of western Europe engaged in the Crusades. To them they were holy wars because they were inspired by the Church, and had a religious motive.

POPE URBAN II AT CLERMONT
Schoenfeld Collection from Three Lions
The pope calls upon the people to rescue the Holy Land from the hands of the Turks.

LEADERS OF THE FIRST CRUSADE
Schoenfeld Collection from Three Lions 4. Results of the Crusades Are Far-reaching Rather Than Immedi­ate The first Crusade got under way in the year 1096. Most historians count eight Crusades and a tragic and pathetic children’s Crusade. With intervals they continued over a period of two hundred years. Some successes were scored, but they were only temporary. In the end the Crusades were total fail­ures from the point of view of the purpose for which they were un­dertaken. For two hundred years the crusaders shed rivers of blood all in vain. At the end of that time and down to the beginning of the present century the Holy Land re­mained in possession of the Turks. It was not until the First World War that the English, under the leadership of General Allenby, took Palestine away from the Turks.

However, in spite of their utter failure as military expeditions the Crusades had many results, entire­ly unintended and unlooked for, but tremendously important and far-reaching. We shall leave the discussion of these results for a later chapter (ch. 22, sec. 2).

5. The Motive of the Crusades Is Based on Error The motive of the crusaders was religious; but that religious motive was false, and even foolish. The religious esteem in which the Christians of the Middle Ages held the Holy Land and its so-called sa­cred places can be likened to their veneration of the relics of saints. To be sure, for every Christian Palestine will always abound in sacred memories. But Palestine is no longer the Holy Land. Since the death of Christ there are no more places here upon earth especially holy. The tomb of Christ over which crusaders and Mohammedans fought so savagely for two hundred years is empty. He is not there. He is risen. He has ascended. He is in heaven. But he is also every­where on earth where two or three are gathered in His name. Not the tomb, but such places are sacred. Sacred is every heart in which Christ dwells.

THE CRUSADERS WAR AGAINST THE MOHAMMEDANS
Drawing by Allan McNab
Religious News Service