he time of the Crusades was a decisive
period in the development of the Western world as we know it today. For the
first time, intellectual, political and economical circumstances co-operated
to produce a major undertaking. For little more than two centuries, Western
civilisation maintained an outpost in Palestine and developed there a Latin
kingdom with full-fledged features of its own. The Crusades were a striking
display of what medieval Europe could produce, in good and in bad likewise.
istorians today generally view eight
campaigns as crusades. These took place between 1095 and 1291, and there
were numerous lesser ventures besides the eight. Similarly, there were
half-hearted attempts to recover the lost Palestine after 1291, but none
succeeded.
n the late 11th century, the general
populace was very pious, even if in an endearingly simple manner. Salvation
in Christianity was largely based upon deeds, and therefore all good Christians
wished to embark upon pilgrimage at least once in their lives. The three
main attractions in this field were Rome with the shrines of both Peter and
Paul, Santiago de Compostela in Spain, but of course, the biggest of all
was Jerusalem. The fact that the Seljuq Turks held the town was a major obstacle,
though. All routes to the Holy City were patrolled by Muslims who were very
much disposed towards harassing the pilgrims in most ingenious ways, which
often ended in the pilgrims being relieved of their property and life.
t the Council of Clermont in 1095,
pope Urban II preached to all the Christian world
to unite for the cause of liberating Jerusalem. Urban in effect marked war
against the infidels as holy war, and as such pleasing to God. He also wished
to limit the combat between Christians themselves by directing the warlike
tendencies against the Muslims. Yet another feature was a widespread and
very strong belief that the end of the world was at hand, and it was better
to have a go at salvation by joining the Crusade than to sit back and risk
eternal damnation.
n the ensuing First Crusade, knights
played a major role. The masses of the Crusade were largely a badly organised
mass of poor but pious people, and were it not for the valiant effort of
a few good knights, the Crusades would never have made it past Constantinople.
For example, the so-called "People's Crusade" which was drummed up by Peter
the Hermit and consisted of ordinary but frenzied people and a few armed
men, was all but hacked to easy pieces by the Turks in 1096, because they
lacked the power of the main Crusader force. The
largest contingent did better, and gradually the military leadership of the
campaign formed into the military Orders, chiefly the Knights Hospitallers
and the Templars.
ugues de Payns and Geoffrey de St.
Aldemar formed the Pauperes Commilitones Christi with seven other
knights to remedy the outrageous situation. First they bound themselves into
Augustinian rules. In 1118 Baldwin I, the King of Jerusalem, assigned the
Temple of Solomon to the knights as their abode. This resulted in a change
of the Order's name: Militia Templi Solomonis they now called themselves.
o sum this up, the driving forces
behind the Crusade were the religious fervour of the medieval man, the
Papal endorsement of war against the Infidel enemy,
and thirdly, the state Europe was in politically and financially. The Crusades
would not have been possible before the late 11th century, but at that time
the hot air in Europe had to find an outlet, lest Europe become a theatre
of war in its own right. Well, there was always Palestine. Besides, the First
Crusade was the first real attempt to block the Muslims from trying to gain
entry to Europe.
curious side note to this page is
the Crusade against the Cathars (also known as the Albigenses). It was proclaimed
in 1208 by Pope Innocent III and continued some twenty years, from 1209 to
1229. This Crusade against the Cathars was a perversion of the crusading
spirit. When asked before the storming of one Cathar town how the crusaders
could tell the heretics from the good Catholics, the churchman in charge
of the attack said something like, "Kill them all; God will know his own."
There were Catholics sympathetic to the Cathars who defended them and apparently
Templars actually fought on both sides, although certainly all their official
fighting was done on behalf of the Pope and the Church. With the final military
conquest of the area of southern France occupied by the Cathars, known as
the Languedoc, the crusade was ended and the Inquisition was established
in 1233 to finish the job. They were still at it a century later.
