Image from the movie Kingdom of Heaven |
The strength and spread of Islam in what was previously the
Christian world greatly angered the Church. Islam was seen as worse than heresy
and was completely blasphemous as Islam rejected the divinity of Jesus Christ,
although the Muslims accepted him as the word of God, as Messiah, and as a very
important prophet of God. The conquering of lands and holy places caused
Christians to become inflamed with a vengeful zeal. IN 1095 CE, Pope Urban II
was especially zealous and called for the destruction of Islam, which had been
equated with the evil in Revelations, with Mohammed starring as the antichrist
(Global and Tradition).
Pope Urban II had specific goals in mind regarding how
Christian unity could be strengthened with a Holy War against Islam. He wanted to
avenge the conquest of Christian lands and holy places, calling for an ongoing
war against the Muslims, while at the same time promoting peace and unity
within the Christian lands. Unity is often formed by a common enemy, and Pope
Urban II and some prominent Christians before him, like John of Damascus, had
done a lot of work to show Islam as Christianity’s enemy. Pope Urban II hoped
that the common goal to defeat Islam would bring together Christians who were
previously divided over differences in opinion of how to celebrate
Christianity. One major unifying concept was to reclaim Jerusalem from Muslim
control (Global).
Other goals of the crusades developed over time to include
the reclamation of holy relics, protection of Christians on their pilgrimage to
holy places, such as Jerusalem. The crusades were originally termed a pilgrim’s
war due to this goal. This pilgrim’s war called for the need of Christian
Soldiers (the song “Onward Christian Soldiers” comes to mind), which eventually
became a defining feature of Western Christianity (Global). A special order of
Knights was created during the crusades, called the Knights Templar. They were
considered to be the Holy Knights of Solomon’s Temple. They were specifically
called to protect pilgrims during their pilgrimages (Global).
Medieval Christians were attracted to the call for
Christian soldiers and to the Pilgrim’s War because it offered them a chance to
redeem themselves. Even those with a tendency for violence could be fully
forgiven for their sins by becoming a crusader (Global and Tradition). The
crusades gave them a chance to fight. Previously, Christians were not allowed
to fight in wars, as they might end up having to kill someone, which was
against the Ten Commandments, “Thou shall not kill”. This ability to have
justified warfare and justified death (killing) became a divider between
Eastern Orthodoxy and Western Catholicism. Justified killing in the name of
Christ was not akin to murder, and was not a sin anymore. Crusading Knights
were even sanctified by the Church as servants of Christ (and therefore, God,
in Christian theology).
The crusades were not only directed at Islam, but also at
those things that the Western Christians found sinful about Eastern Orthodoxy,
furthering the Christian divide. It gave Iconoclasts permission to destroy
images of the Eastern veneration and crusaders permission to “retrieve” holy
relics from the Eastern churches and “return” them to the Western churches. As
such, a siege on Constantinople was conducted during the crusades.
Christianity evolved from being the persecuted religion to
being the persecuting religion. In the intolerance for any other religion, the
crusades also picked up a goal against the Jewish people and sought to punish
them to avenge the death of Jesus Christ. From Jewish Perspective though, they
were not only wrongly persecuted, but that the Pope of Rome was Satan himself
(Tradition). The crusades actually ended up distracting Jewish intolerance of
Islam to the new threat of Christian persecution and Jews were called to sward
against Christians in this Holy War, just as Christians were called to the
sword against all that was not Christian and was a threat to “pure”
Christianity (Tradition).
I wrote this piece on 11/29/11 for my Christianity class
I wrote this piece on 11/29/11 for my Christianity class
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