Christianity In The 11th Century

In the 11th century, Christianity underwent many changes. The church split in 1054, after many years of lack of communication between the east and west. The church also had many problems on its own, where power-hungry, greedy popes and bishops ruled the church. This continued in 1095, when Pope Urban II preached the First Crusade to aid emperor Alexius and the Byzantines against the Turks. This was a call from God to aid the Christian Byzantines against the “enemies of Christ”--those who were not Christian and were living in the Holy Land--but in reality, was only a move for power. The Crusades were caused primarily by the desire for political and economic gain. The Crusades were called for by Pope Urban II, who ultimately wanted more power

In his speech, to get more people riled up, the pope straight up lied. Urban told the listeners of his speech that the Muslims in Jerusalem attacked, killed and tortured the Christian pilgrims. In reality, the only Christians that were killed were the Byzantines, whom the Muslim Turks were fighting against. The pilgrim Christians in Jerusalem were only harassed. The point of this lie was to get more people riled up against the “enemy”, the Muslims. And that it did--the people became riled to take back their Holy Land. On their way to the city, the Crusaders did many bad things that they did not have to if they were just going for “God”. In around Central Europe, during their journey, some of the leaders of the crusading realized that if they were getting rid of the “pagans” in their holy land, why not rid the ones in their backyard? According to Solomon ben Samson, “...they said to one another: ‘Look now...here, in our midst, are the Jews….Let us...exterminate them from among the nations so that the name of Israel will no longer be remembered”. These Crusaders attacked synagogues and Jews across Central Europe, forever shaping the disease of anti-Semitism. Furthermore, the Christian crusaders broke Byzantine emperor Alexius’ promise: something that would not have happened if they were only coming to the area for God. Alexius made them swear that if he were to help the

When the crusaders reached Jerusalem, they yet again wreaked havoc for power. An unknown source from the First Crusade said that, “...[the Crusaders] seized a great number of men and women, and killed whom they wished...soon the crusaders ran throughout the city, seizing gold, silver, horses, mules, and houses full of al[l] kinds of goods”. Fulk of Charles--another knight fighting in Jerusalem in the First Crusade--stated something similar to this. He said, “[o]ur squires and poorer footmen discovered a trick of the Saracens...they could find byzants in the stomachs and intestines of the dead Saracens, who had swallowed them….after several days, they burned a great heap of bodies, that they might more easily get the precious metal from the ashes”. The crusaders even took “...whatever they could find…” from the houses they entered, and “[t]hus many poor men became rich” (Fulcher). If these men had come for God, they would have not seized anything in sight. They would have not killed everyone, regardless of the their genders or faiths. This crusade was not called for God; it was called for money, power, and