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Crusades and their benefits to the church
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The Crusades were the first tactical mission by Western Christianity in order to recapture the Muslim conquered Holy Lands. Several people have been accredited with the launch of the crusades including Peter the Hermit however it is now understood that this responsibility rested primarily with Pope Urban II . The main goal of the Crusades was the results of an appeal from Alexius II, who had pleaded for Western Volunteers help with the prevention of any further invasions. The Pope’s actions are viewed as him answering the pleas of help of another in need, fulfilling his Christian right. However, from reading the documents it is apparent that Pope Urban had ulterior motives for encouraging engagement in the war against the Turks. The documents and supporting arguments now highlight that the Pope not only sought to recruit soldiers to help but also to challenge those who had harmed the Christians community and annihilate the Muslims. He put forth the idea that failure to recapture this lands would anger God and that by participating, God would redeem them of their previous sins.in a time of deep devoutness, it is clear this would have been a huge enticement for men to engage in the battle. Whether his motives were clear or not to his people, Pope Urban’s speeches claiming that “Deus vult!” (God wills it) encouraged many Christians to participate and take the cross. Pope Urban II naturally had a religious control over his people and when he gave his speech at the Council of Clermont in November 1905, he constantly referred to it as the will of God. His speech reminded them that the Crusades were their “concerns as well as God’s” . Throughout his speech, the Pope is constantly trying to align the need for men to fight with t... ... middle of paper ... ...The Pope creates many sides to his argument, conveying the need not only to redeem but also to repay their debts to God for making them the chosen race. He provokes the temper of many by speaking of the horrific crimes the Muslims are apparently committing, using distinctly graphic images to engage his followers. Bibliography: Primary Sources: Guibert of Nogent. Week Six, Document Four. Fulcher of Chartres. Week Six, Document One. Robert the Monk. Week Six, Document Two. Baldric of Dol. Week Six, Document Three. Secondary Sources: Carleton- Munro, Dana. The Speech of Pope Urban II. At Clermont, 1095. The American Historical Review. 11. no. 2 (1906): 231. Madden, John F. The Crusades: the Essential Readings. Willey-Blackwell, 2002. Riley-Smith, Jonathan. The Crusades: a History. Continuum International Publishing Group, 2005.
Dana C. Munro, “The Speech of Pope Urban II. At Clermont, 1095”, The American Historical Review, Vol. 11, No. 2 (Jan., 1906), pp. 231-242
Foss explains, “What Urban needed was an enterprise, clearly virtuous in serving the ends of Christiandome… in these moments of reflection, the popes mind turned towards Jerusalem.” Urban II reflects back on the first taking of the Holy City after the defeat of the Byzantine Empire in 1071, and begins to question what his people know about the Turkish race and really the ideology of Islamic thought. Foss goes on to examine the ignorance of westerners and needed to be “reminded [by the pope] of the infamous heathens, their cruelty and hatred of Christians,” hoping this would justify the first Holy Crusade. However, Foss identifies the creativity of the Pope’s language to persuade the knights and army of the people to embark on the Holy Crusade based on the Muslims cruel actions turned onto their fellow Christians. Claiming the Muslims “Killed captives by torture…poor captives were whipped…and others were bound to the post and used as a target for arrows.” Foss examines the Popes words as an effective effort of persuasion in creating an army of crusaders to help clean “…Holy places, which are now treated with ignominy and polluted with Filthiness” and any sacrifice in Jerusalem is a “promise of a spiritual reward… and death for
The First Crusade is often cited as one of the most damnable consequences of religious fanaticism. A careful inspection of the circumstances and outcomes, however, will reveal a resultant political restructuring of Europe under the banner of Christendom. The purpose of this investigation is to investigate Pope Urban II’s motives in initiating the First Crusade, with a particular focus on the consolidation of the Western Church’s influence in Europe. Among the primary sources that will be consulted are the letter sent by Patriach Alexios of Constantinople to Urban, and an account of Urban’s speech at Clermont. Relevant excerpts from both of these primary sources, as well as contextual evidence and a wide array of historiography, will be taken
In document 1 by Pope Urban II, he stated that the Christians in the west should defend their fellow brethren in the east. He went on to state that Romania had been conquered and had to be taken back from the Turks and Arabs. The subjects had to fight for the land that they stand on to continue being good Christians. If you died fighting for this, you would get instant remission of sins, meaning you would be forgiven for all of their sins. He was the Pope; therefore, he stood on a different level than his subjects, and did not know how they felt about this matter. He had absolute power over everyone as the leader of their religion. In document 2 by Ekkehard in his book Hierosolymita, he praises the speech that Pope Urban gave in 1095 and told of how it le...
It is amazing how much political and military supremacy the papacy position gained when the Crusades began. The First Crusade (1096-1099) was a military expedition initiated by Pope Urban the II to regain the Holy Lands in Jerusalem from the Muslim conquest. The Pope gave a speech requesting military action against Muslim takeover to the French people of Clermont. The speech eventually propagated to other nations for further recruitment. Urban’s political and military involvement helped regain the Holy Lands and save the Christian Crusaders souls. His famous speech changed the course of history in part because its dissemination was overly successful, and assembled over 40,000 Crusaders to do the will of God. Why was Pope Urban II so victorious in recruiting people for the First Crusade, and why was his influence so important?
This was enough to convince about 60,000 Europeans, many of them peasants to start on the First Crusade to the Holy Land ("THE CRUSADES TO THE HOLY LAND”). Many of the soldiers who went on the Crusades also hoped to acquire land and riches and return a war hero. This was the first time the Catholic Church had seen penitential warfare- “warfare in the service and defense of the Church for the ‘remission of your sins’”("THE CRUSADES TO THE HOLY LAND”). The whole mentality of the Crusades was to destroy any other beliefs including paganism and Judaism, which lead to all kinds of violence and persecution, with Jews becoming a common target, even entire Jewish communities were slaughtered ("How Christianity Rose to Dominate Europe."). Even the Christians were not safe, as many were killed in settlements along the way. Pope Urban was the one who brought out this idea that it was okay to kill non-Christians, and, even beyond that, IF you went to the Holy Land on a Crusade, you received a free ticket to heaven even if you died there. Does this sound a little bit familiar? Perhaps a little like those who truly believe that they’re gaining salvation by blowing up a group of innocent people along with themselves? Or flying a plane full of passengers into building full of people? Well, the First Crusaders marched to Jerusalem leaving death and
The Crusades were one of the most prominent events in Western European history; they were not discrete and unimportant pilgrimages, but a continuous stream of marching Western armies (Crusaders) into the Muslim world, terminating in the creation and eventually the fall of the Islamic Kingdoms. The Crusades were a Holy War of Roman Christianity against Islam, but was it really a “holy war” or was it Western Europe fighting for more land and power? Through Pope Urban II and the Roman Catholic Church’s actions, their proposed motivations seem unclear, and even unchristian. Prior to the Crusades, Urban encouraged that Western Europe fight for their religion but throughout the crusades the real motivations shone though; the Crusaders were power hungry, land coveting people who fought with non Christian ideals and Morales.
It is a common and oft-repeated opinion that religion, throughout history, has fueled and inspired many violent acts. Some, if not many, of the individuals who express this view carry it further, saying that the religions themselves are to blame, and that the religious beliefs inherent to them unduly divide human society. This view, however, unfortunately lacks a level of nuance and historical understanding worthy of the issue at hand. Two historical documents: Urban the II’s Call for the First Crusade and Massacre of Jews illustrate the many different forces and motivations at play in allegedly religiously-motivated violence in one of its most commonly cited examples: the Crusades. In both documents, religious language, justification, and professed understanding act in covert ways to cover the underlying beliefs, needs, and desires in the physical and social contexts of those active within them.
During the Middle Ages, Pope Urban II called the First Crusade to take back Jerusalem from the Arabs. It was called during the Council of Clermont. He promised that those who fought in the war would be forgiven of all sins, and would go to heaven if they died during the war, allowing anyone to join the crusade, even people who kill people all the time in war. Thus sparking the beginning of the First Crusade, inspiring Christians all throughout Europe. It had people of all sorts fighting, no matter their class. It was ultimately a successful crusade, but the results of the war shows that it was not a legitimate war, due to its unjust qualities, and innocent deaths that resulted. The First Crusade was not a just because of the lack of rightful
In midsummer 1680, Pope said the time was now for a revolt. Pope used his mystical powers to summon 3 native Gods to his secret chamber....
In order for the crusades to begin, the Christians needed to gather an army to travel and fight the forces of Muslims. With all the power being held by monarchies at this time, the church needed to be cleaver in order to gain troops to put their lives on the line. To gain the support of these warriors and dedication of men, Pope Urban II (1088-1099) challenged those morals of men by telling them to grab their weapons and join the holy war to recover the land of Jerusalem. It was not the challenge that convinced men to take part in this war. The promise of “immediate remission of sins” attracted the men to stand up for their religion and beliefs while at the same time, promising them a trip to heaven when life comes to an end. With this statement, men instantly prepared for battle which in a very short period of time gave the church power which has been held by the monarchies. Men of rich and poor prepared for battle, some wearing ...
Contrary to many commonly held notions about the first crusade, in his book, The First Crusade and the Idea of Crusading, Jonathan Riley-Smith sets out to explain how the idea of crusading thought evolved in the first crusade. In his book, Riley-Smith sets out five main arguments to show how these ideas of crusading evolved. Firstly, he argues that Pope Urban’s original message was conventional, secondly that a more positive reaction was drawn from the laity (due to the ideas surrounding Jerusalem), thirdly, that the original message of crusading had changed because of the horrible experiences of the first crusaders, fourth, that due to these experiences the crusaders developed their own concept of what a crusade was, and lastly, that these ideas were refined by (religious) writers and turned into an acceptable form of theology. Riley-Smith makes excellent points about the crusade; however, before one can delve directly into his argument, one must first understand the background surrounding the rise of the first crusade.
Vanessa Brake says the same thing. “Pope Urban II launched the First Crusade by calling upon his fellow Christians to reclaim the Holy City of Jerusalem, and to seek revenge on the followers of Islam, whom he accused of committing horrendous crimes against Christendom”. These men for whatever reason; selfishness, self-glory, riches, power, fear, godly power, took up the cross to the Holy Land to fight the foreign threat.
Peasants from kingdoms across Europe, primarily France and England, took up arms and proceeded on a Crusade of their own that occurred simultaneously with the First Crusade. Along their intended march to Jerusalem to deliver the aid requested by Pope Urban II, many Jewish people scattered throughout cities along the way were slaughtered mercilessly. Those that had formed this informal Crusade band were not part of a formal army nor were they acting upon any official orders but their own. This Crusade was formed and enacted because those within fully believed slaughtering Jewish people was demanded of them by God. A chaplain servicing a crusader count wrote of the slaughter of Jews and Muslims in Jerusalem “was a just and splendid judgment of God that this place should be filled with the blood of the unbelievers, since it had suffered so long from their blasphemies.” A man of religious authority produced rhetoric affirming that the slaughter of Muslims and Jews was just because God deemed it so. The chaplain wholly believed in the Crusade and praised those performing the killings, which enabled those killings to have confidence in their
According to the Medieval Sourcebook Urban II: Speech at Clermont 1095 written by Robert the Monk, he is stating Pope Urban II is trying to let the people of the Catholic Church know what is happening to Jerusalem and also to the Christians in the East. In the speech, Christians in the West began to be moved to embark on a dangerous journey to fight in the Holy Land after hearing the Pope Urban's speech at Clermont, leaving the people of the Catholic Church a deal if they go and take back the Holy Land, the pope riled them up to get them fired up to want to fight and then promised forgiveness and washing away of all the sins for all who died in the service of Christ.