Download The Crusades - St John Brebeuf

25/03/2015
The Crusades
Oh, the irony!
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“Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious
conviction.”
- Blaise Pascal
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Conflict
 Islam spreading throughout Northern Africa and Spain – conquest of Muslim rulers
 Leaders also looked to take land from Byzantine Empire
 Most alarming (to Christian world)
 they took control of Palestine (including Jerusalem)
 Viewed as threat to everything Christian
 Conquest motivations were often resources and land, not religious intolerance
 Though some rulers did aim to annihilate
Christianity
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Opportunity
 Emperor Alexius I sends letter to Pope Urban II
 asked for help fighting Muslims
 Urban II saw this “Muslim threat” as way to consolidate power
 Kingdoms of Europe in constant conflict with each other
 Christians fighting Christians (disgraceful)
 Urban II took steps to unite them against common enemy
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Council of Clermont, 1095
 Urban II, calls for a pilgrimage to Holy Land to free it from Muslims
 Traveled all over France and Germany spreading his message
 People of all social classes take up the cause
“Bathe your hands in the blood of the infidel.”
Let’s look at the speech Pope Urban II gave.
Oh, yes…Do let’s
The Threat
 Pilgrims increasingly being robbed and harmed on the road
 Not because they were Christians
 Marauders were Christian and Muslim
 The Holy Land had always been occupied by several religions
 Especially Jerusalem, where the city was shared b/w Jews, Muslims, and Christians
 Pilgrims from all three religions could worship
 people had learned to live and work with each other
 Muslim rule was not much different than Christian rule had been
 Except the tax to practice a non-Muslim religion
 That isn’t to say some Muslim rulers didn’t target Christians
 ie. one of the sultan’s of Egypt ordered attacks against Christians
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Motivations
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Motivations
 Faith
 Definitely a motivation
 Believed they were doing God’s will
 Power and wealth
 Urban II wanted to consolidate his power and gain wealth
 Christian leaders and crusaders wanted land and wealth
 Indulgences
 Forgiveness from sins
 Going on Crusade acted as penance
Crusades and Crusaders
 Crusade = Prayer, travel, and war
 Killing became a form of prayer
Non-Christian = non-human
 not called a crusade at the time – was a pilgrimage
 Nor were the people called crusaders
 Those who undertook the pilgrimage were given a cross to sew to their tunic
 They were called crucesignatus (sing.)
Those traveling under the sign of the cross
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Routes of the Crusades
And So it Begins
 journey started in 1096
 crusader's property were placed under protection of the church
 The first group to set out was an army of peasants led by Peter the Hermit
 poorly supplied, little to no weapons
 attacked Jewish communities all along the way
 Christian armies were relatively successful, capturing a number of towns
 killed most of the inhabitants
 did not make distinction b/w Muslim, Christian, and Jew
 Captured Holy Land (Palestine and Syria)
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Jerusalem Captured, 1099
 Only 1,500 knights of original 5,000 remained
 Supported by 12,000 foot soldiers
 Besieged city for 5 weeks
 Finally captured on July 15, 1099.
 Established Kingdom of Jerusalem
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Then the Franks entered the city magnificently at the noonday hour on Friday, the
day of the week when Christ redeemed the whole world on the cross. With trumpets
sounding and with everything in an uproar, exclaiming: "Help, God!" they vigorously
pushed into the city, and straightaway raised the banner on the top of the wall. All
the heathen, completely terrified, changed their boldness to swift flight through the
narrow streets of the quarters. The more quickly they fled, the more quickly were
they put to flight.
Count Raymond and his men, who were bravely assailing the city in another section,
did not perceive this until they saw the Saracens jumping from the top of the wall.
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did not perceive this until they saw the Saracens jumping from the top of the wall.
Seeing this, they joyfully ran to the city as quickly as they could, and helped the
others pursue and kill the wicked enemy.
Then some, both Arabs and Ethiopians, fled into the Tower of David; others shut
themselves in the temple of the Lord and of Solomon, where in the halls a very great
attack was made on them. Nowhere was there a place where the Saracens could
escape the swordsmen.
On the top of Solomon's Temple, to which they had climbed in fleeing, many were
shot to death with arrows and cast down headlong from the roof. Within this Temple,
about ten thousand were beheaded. If you had been there your feet would have
been stained up to the ankles with the blood of the slain. What more shall I tell? Not
one of them was allowed to live. They did not spare the women and children.
-Fulcher of Chartres
Holy Land of the Crusaders
 Basically, the only change was who was ruling the area
 Christian leaders now in charge
 Muslims and Jews had to pay a tax in order to practice their religion
 Jerusalem still open to pilgrims from all three religions
Crusade Era
 After initial success, defeat characterized the crusades
 Crusade era lasted from 1096 - ca. 1272
 9 crusades in total, all except the 1st were unsuccessful
 Christian control of Holy Land lasted less than 100 years (1099-1187)
 retaken by Muslims under leadership of Saladin
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The Irony
 Christians began as a pacifist group
 Would not fight in army
 600 yrs later
 Christians call a “holy” war
 Morally alright to kill Muslims
Children’s Crusade
 Crusades even caught the attention of children
 In 1212 – after crusade #4, a group of children set out
 Most were peasants (uneducated/illiterate)
 Accounts put number of children at 30,000
 None of the children were ever seen again
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Crusading Orders of Knights
Hospitaller Knights
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Templar Knight
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Homework
 Read the handout on Just War Theory
Response:
 Using the Just War Theory (both ancient and modern)
1)Determine how medieval Christians would have justified the crusades? Support your
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1)Determine how medieval Christians would have justified the crusades? Support your
position using knowledge from class and the Just War Theory.
 Now compare the medieval mindset for the crusades to your own ideas.
2)Do you think that the crusades were justifiable? Support your position using the Just
War Theory.
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