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The Crusades (Continued) |
| The First Crusade (Continued) | ||
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To drum up sufficient support for the Crusade, the Pope promised that "Whoever for devotion alone, not to gain honour or money, goes to Jerusalem to liberate the Church of God, can substitute this journey for all penance". In other words, all your confessed sin would be forgiven. Pope Urban was, in effect, offering a place in heaven for everyone who took part religiously in the crusade. This is virtually the same promise as that which is made to today's suicide bombers! |
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| The Pope was hoping that many knights would join the cause, bringing their 'private armies' along with them. The call went deeper than anticipated. A charismatic peasant preacher, Peter the Hermit, gathered a large following of peasants who did not have the discipline to match their fervour. They set out before the official start of the Crusade. For some reason they went via Germany. The first victims of the Crusade were German Jews attacked by Peter?s Crusaders. The rabble staggered on across Europe leaving a trail of destruction behind them. Some of them managed to get as far as Asia Minor where they were eventually out-manoeuvred and slaughtered. The 'official' Crusade set off as planned in August 1096 and after a bloody but brilliant campaign captured Jerusalem in 1099. They captured a number of other cities in the Middle East and set up a small Latin kingdom ruled by European noblemen. |
 Crusaders' Slaughtering of the Innocents |
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| That sounds innocent enough but hides the slaughter and dishonour that marked their progress. On many occasions they killed Muslims who had been given parole, not just one or two but hundreds and sometimes thousands. When they took Jerusalem they killed every inhabitant except for a small group whose parole was surprisingly honoured. It took them almost a week to complete the slaughter! The kingdom they had set up was a long way from its supply base and difficult to sustain. It was captured again by Saladin in 1185. In stark contrast his troops killed no one after the cease-fire! |
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 King Richard the Lionheart |
Richard the Lionheart A number of other Crusades were mounted to try to recapture Jerusalem. One was led by King Richard who did his fair share of cruel things. On one occasion he slaughtered thousands of prisoners because he didn't want to feed and guard them. Yet he could also be very sensible and thoughtful. When he had Jerusalem at his mercy he knew he could capture it but not hold it. So he wisely and humanely decided to withdraw to prevent unnecessary suffering to the city and its inhabitants
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 Route of King Richard through the Holy Land |
| Assessment The cruelty of the Crusaders was shaming to a religion which was supposed to be about following the teaching and example of Jesus. The whole concept of Christians fighting for territory is in direct opposition to the teaching - 'love your enemies and pray for your persecutors'. Such acts were only made desirable by the gaining of political power and only made possible by sophisticated arguments such as Augustine's 'Just War' theory. Both took Christians away from their roots in Jesus. Ieuan Johnston
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| Parole: In this sense 'parole' means safe passage granted to those who surrendered | ||
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