The Crusaders and the Church

This essay will aim to find the answer to the question as to if the crusaders advanced the cause of Christ, the things that motivated each and every crusade and if they were undertaken in the acceptance of the other parts of the Christian section. Though the Crusades had negative aspects in spreading Christianity, there is no doubt that to some extent either externally or for business the Crusades of the mid period in time were definitely significant in spreading the faith (Hill 2006). If the correct method was applied to spread the message is a debate that has been long going on since centuries ago and will be so future time to come. This paper will start by looking at the people involved in the Crusades, at which point in time and for what reason they were involved.

The facilitators of the Crusades at the mid ages were the Roman Catholic Church and the Christian countries from Europe. It is at this time that the term ‘Holy Wars’ was applied by the Christian countries to mean and support the fighting that were in course at the time. The Crusades were set Holy Wars that were initiated by the Christian countries of Europe against the Saracens. The word ‘Saracen’ was applied to speak about a Muslim in the time of the crusades. What the crusades were as stated above as a set of Holy Wars and this is due to the objective of the Crusades which was to re-acquire or re-launch the policy of the Palestine Muslim rule and was composed a sum of nine conflicts in whole (Jonathan 1977). The crusades were attributed to massive expeditions of the military which were performed by the Christian countries of Europe with the main intention of saving the holy places of Palestine from the control of the Mohammedans. They were numbering up to eight with the prior four being in some instances termed to as the Principal Crusades, while the remaining number being the minor crusades. Moreover, there was crusade for the young people.

The crusades took place approximately the mid part of the second millennium, a time which preceded Christ walking on earth. These crusades were sponsored by the Catholic Church in a time period ranging from 1100 to 1400AD. These crusades were undertaken in the Mediterranean region or the mid-Eastern section of the earth. These crusades were considered to be the military expeditions which were put in place by the Christian secular and religious leaders which were against the Islam religion that was located in the Middle East. The Crusades took place as a result of an increasing need to heighten the monetary aspect as well as the religious want as the Christians were starting to fill the earth. Religious dominance was quite significant in bringing about the Christians to manage the military operations, as was the desire of acquiring a lot of wealth and high level of power.

This next section attempts to look at the motivating factors for every crusade that has been mentioned above and the impact that each and every crusade had acquired when promoting the objective of Christ from the time that the Crusades first appeared up to the present day in time. The first Crusade was in the year 1096 and was the outcome of the Byzantine force being pulled down by the Turks in the year 1071 composed of 3000 Christians being killed in large numbers in Jerusalem from 1085 to 1095 AD (Prawler 1951). In the year 1095 AD an embassy was given a message to take to the Pope Urban II concerning the negative activities that were taking place in Jerusalem. This led to the Pope calling for a big council of the church located at Placentia to take into consideration the appeal for help, however no resulting outcome was to be offered until a time later within the same year in an occasion as the “the great council of the clergy” located in Clermont France. It is this place that the Pope Urban II had called for a crusade that was condemning the infidels in the same year. It is in the following year that the military assembled to start on the first crusade, completely getting hold of Jerusalem by reaching the walls of the city and issuing back one of the major regions where Christ had practiced his preaching to the Christians in the year 1099. the consecutive crusade was undertaken from 1147 to 1149 AD and was motivated by the dropping and consequential killing of Edessa, also known as the ‘bulwark of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem in the region that was facing Mesopotamia that was occupied by the Turks and the whole population killed or purchased to undergo slavery. The holy persons of the second crusade was the renown abbot of Clairevaux, St. Bernard that was assisted by King Louis the seventh of France and Conrad the third of Germany who was inspired by instill the affairs of his empire to his employees and acquire the objective of Christ. King Louis’s inspiration to become part of the crusade arose from correcting a prior turn of meanness which he had applied against certain aspects of his subordinates.

As opposed to the first crusade, the consecutive one did not succeed and resulted into an integrated attack led by Louis and Conrad which was quite motivated by failed to be triumphant. This failure led to the siege to be increased and terminated the crusade (Prawler 1972). The ability of France and Germany sides of the military front was a waste in Asia Minor and was not successful. The third crusade was undertaken from 1189 to 1192 AD and came about due to Jerusalem being acquired in 87 by the Islam led by their leader Saladin, a sultan of Egypt with characteristics similar to Mohammedan; quite devout in prayers and fasting, fierce and very proud. In addition to this, he was kind and humane. In the crusade, King Richard I from England was the main person and was quite vital in bringing about finances to uphold the mission. Among the prominent happenings of the third crusade was the passing of Fredrick Barbarossa, a German Emperor about 70 years of age who had the desire for crusading and drowned in a march that broke down the hearts of the soldiers and brought about it going back to Germany, the Siege of Acre, just to fail in relation to King Philip and Richard of France and England that never correlated.

King Richard and England stayed in the Holy place much lengthier that the mean length of a stay for a normal Christian Crusader based to a settlement acquired with Saladin that allowed Christians to create a pilgrimage to Jerusalem with not tribute being offered where later he went to England hence terminating the Third Crusade. Though paradoxically he was later arrested by the duke of Austria which he had insulted at the Siege of Acre and made them to pay ransom for his freedom which was double what the yearly income was for England at the period.

The Fourth Crusade was manifested by a lack of motivation and distracted ability which was acquired by the Knights of France and applied by the prominent Pope Innocent the III who rejuvenated the desire of Pope Urban the II (Robinson 1991). This Fourth brought about the seizure of Constantinople as an alternative to Jerusalem. The remaining Crusades were well-thought-out to be insignificant, where even the Fourth Crusade had a small impact, though we are able to see that there was obviously a massive sense of hunger and cause of confidence in every section of the Crusades where their faith was the real faith and successfully showed the lengths that every section had a great desire to make sure that the range and command of these principles.

Biblically, there was this time that that the gospel of John 18:10-11 when Judas Iscariot moved towards Jesus and the huge gathering in an effort to get hold of him and Simon to chop off the ear of the high priest just to have Jesus informing him that it was not needed for him to undertake what was in their mind. In another instance, Christ indicated that his Kingdom will not be based in this world, but with his father in heaven and if he wanted he may as well have angels take control of the objective. So considering that the spread of the Gospel was helped by the Crusades, where violence took place in both sides, it takes away the main intention of the cross.

Reference
Hill, J. Zondervan Handbook to the History of Christianity. Oxford, England: Lion Publishing Plc, 2006.

Prawler, J. The First Crusade. London: The Folio Society, 1951.
Prawler, J. The World of the Crusaders. London: Quadrangle Books, Inc., 1972.Riley-Smith, Jonathan. What Were the Crusades? London, England: Thr MacMillan Press, LTD., 1977.

Robinson, J. John. Dungeon Fire & Sword: The Knights Templar in the Crusades. new York, New York: M. Evans and Company. Inc., 1991.