Crusades A Paper Essay

Crusades ( A + Paper ) Essay, Research Paper

Pope Urban II had called the Christians to join him in a Holy War to reclaim the Holy

Lands as an act of Christianity, but there were many activities that took place that

weren.t characteristics of Christianity. The Crusades were a smokescreen for Pope.s

craving for power and control.

The Crusades were the idea of Pope Urban II, a wise Frenchman. On November

18, 1095 AD, Pope Urban II opened the Council of Clermont. Nine days later, the Pope

made a very important speech just outside the French city of Clermont-Ferrand. In his

speech, he asked the people to help the Christians. effort to restore peace to the East.

The Crusades had originally been to help the Churches in the East, but the now it was to

reclaim the Holy Land, especially Jerusalem from the Muslims.

Pope Urban II stayed in France until September 1096 in hopes of providing

leadership for the First Crusaders. Urban had originally hoped for the crusading army to

be composed of mostly knights and other warriors, but his speech had already began

spreading throughout the west, and many people of different social classes started joining

the crusading army. (Foss, Michael. pg. 23)

Because of this Urban lost all control of the army, which led to the slaughter of

Jews in northern France. These poor people also caused strain on the armies supplies and

discipline. They were never trained and they were poor, so they couldn.t bring anything

and were poorly disciplined(Foss, Michael. pg. 24). The entire crusading army had

planned on reaching the city of Constantinople, but because of their lack of supplies and

training the vast majority of them were slaughtered before they got there. The few troops

that did reach Constantinople split up into two groups. One group tried to capture

Nicaea, a key city that blocked the road of their supply routes. This group was

unsuccessful. The other group was attacked near the city of Civetot in October. The

few survivors retreated to Constantinople and joined the second wave of Crusaders.

(Phillips, Jonathan. pg. 59)

Religious beliefs were a major motive of the crusaders. In Urban.s speech to the

people of Clermont-Ferrand, Urban guaranteed the complete forgiveness of all sins to any

crusader that lost his life in the name of the Crusades. Urban also proclaimed

.It is necessary that you bring to your brothers in the East the help so often

promised and so urgently needed. They have been attacked, as many of you

know, by Turks and Arabs… Churches have been destroyed and the countryside

laid waste. If you do not make a stand against the enemy now, the tide of their

advance will overwhelm many more faithful servants of God.. (Phillips,

Jonathan. pg. 43)

In this way, Urban had convinced the knights and peasants who joined the Crusades that

they were leading the way to crush the Muslims and reclaim the Holy Lands that had

been stolen . The Crusaders justified their slaughtering to themselves and the world and

often the battle cry that was heard was .Deus lo Volt!., or .God Wills It..(Maaoulf,

Amin. pg. 134) This reason is probably the most holy of reasons. It is understandable

how the people were easily persuaded that this was a needed war, not just wanted,

because their fellow Christians in the East were being slaughtered by the Turks and

Muslims.

For the most part, any Christian who desired residence in Jerusalem was met with

great difficulty, and this in itself was a major factor for the knights and peasants to join

the Crusade. On the same note, the popular ideas and cultural interest that linked the

religious aspect to a Crusade motivated many poorer people to join the crusading army.

Also among the crusaders there was a large group of knights and warriors desiring a way

to become closer to God(Foss, Michael. pg. 26). In short, almost everyone can be

motivated to do almost anything if they.re persuaded that it is an idealistic, even holy

reason.

But not all of the Pope.s reasons for the Crusades were as holy as that one.

The struggle wasn.t for power in Western Europe, but more towards the east. They

weren.t in conflict with the Byzantine church, but more so with the emperors and kings

in the West. At this time the Pope hardly had any power over Christianity. To some

extent, Urban was hoping that the Crusades would help strengthen his power and

possibly help religious beliefs become more a part of daily life among the general

population in Europe. In General, the Crusades were seen as a way for the Pope to gain

political power over the uncontrolled warrior class.(Ereira, Alan. pg. 87)

Urban felt that the best way to unite your followers is a war, and even better, a

Holy War. Looking at the actions and motives, it is hard to assume that Urban had only

good intentions for the Crusades, but to use peoples. bloodlust and general unrest to

obtain more power.

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