The Everlasting Impact Of The Medieval Church

When analyzing the events of the first crusade it is essential to first uncover the flame that ignited the spiritual motivation. Although there ought to be numerous events that contributed to the fire, a general church council at Clermont in France is credited for starting the crusading movement. In response to Alexiu 's plea, Urban delivered a sermon intended to call upon European Christians to rescue the Holy Land from Muslim occupation. As the crowd likely wrestled with the idea to start, he continued to provide justifications for the conquest. To accomplish this, he

The Crusades, a series of wars, are an extremely important part of history in the 12th century, occurring during the Middle Ages. The Middle East or the Holy Land was always a place that Christians traveled to to make pilgrimages. The Seljuk Turks eventually took control of Jerusalem and all Christians were not allowed in the Holy City. As the Turks power grew, they threatened to take over the Byzantine Empire and Constantinople. The Byzantine Emperor, Alexius I, asked Pope Urban II for help and Pope agreed, hoping to strengthen his own power. He He united the Christians in Europe and In 1095, Pope Urban II waged waged war against muslims in order to “reclaim the holy land.”

The Papacy in Rome sanctioned the First Crusade and Pope Urban II preached for a great Christian expedition to capture Jerusalem, the Holy Lands from the Muslims. During this time religion permeated every aspect of life. The Christian kings and peasants believed that every human being was judged in death and one way to absolve oneself of sin was to die in the name of the Lord, therefore dying in the Crusades would purify the soul allowing them to go straight to heaven. Consequently, “thousands of laymen and clergy took up the cross and younger sons of the upper-class had military advantages to become Crusaders” (Fiero, 2017). At this particular time, the church acknowledged and vindicated fighting and killing in the name of God, resulting in the Crusaders slaughtering all enemies of Christ; hundreds of men, women, and children plus the “entire Jewish populations of Cologne and Mainz became victims” (Fiero, 2017). The First Crusade set a dangerous precedent, the rise of organized anti-Jewish persecution and each subsequent Crusade resulted in renewed attacks on the Jews. The persecution of Jews reached a climax during the Crusades.

Towards the end of the Middle Ages and into the duration of the Renaissance, the Medieval Church’s social and political power dwindled. Centuries prior the Catholic Church gained a surplus of control, largely due to the stability it maintained during the chaotic breakdown of the Western Roman Empire . Yet toward the end of the Middle Ages the Church set in motion factors that would ultimately lead to its downfall as the definitive figure of authority. However, despite political and social controversy surrounding the church, the institutions it established cleared a path for a new way of thinking, shaping society in an enduring way.

The Crusades were a series of holy wars that began in 1095 CE. These wars were fought between Christians and Muslims to gain control over the sacred land. The Turks moved into the middle east during the early part of the 11th century CE. Most of the Turks served the Islamic armies and would invade land rapidly using combat forces. This alarmed the Greek emperor and caused him to seek out Pope Urban II and ask for mercenary troops to confront the Turks. The Pope called a council and had 300 attendees to show up. During this council, the Pope made a plea to free the Holy Land, which received an enthusiastic response. After this, Pope Urban II promptly waged war against the Muslims and took armies of Christians to Jerusalem to try and

Going against modern day religious beliefs, in 1095AD the Christians went to war to claim the holy city of Jerusalem, massacring the Muslims in a bloody attempt to worship their God. Pope Urban II’s speech at Clermont inspired by claims made by the Byzantium Emperor encouraged the Christians to partake in the First Crusade in an attempt to liberate Jerusalem. The religious and economic factors were the most relevant to cause this crusade, with some influence from desired political gain and little from social factors unrelated to religion. The immediate consequences were positive for the Christians and negative for the Muslims, but the First Crusade launched an ongoing conflict between the Christians and Muslims which had positive and negative consequences for both sides. There are a number of relevant modern sources which examine the causes and consequences of the First Crusade, but, while there are many medieval sources, they do not explicitly discuss the causes and consequences of the war. In order to fully comprehend the First Crusade, it is necessary to analyse the religious, economic, and political factors, as well as the short-term, long-term, and modern consequences.

After the fall of the Roman Empire, there was no main dominating force in Europe to enforce laws and protection for the people. The Middle Ages had begun and without the Romans, life became centered around survival. The destabilization caused rates of illiteracy, disease, and deaths to rise dramatically and to remedy the average peasants worry, the feudalism system flourished and required work in exchange for the safety of manors. Yet while there was not a overlooking empire to look towards for authority, the Catholic Church served its role to bring all classes together (Document 6). The Middle Ages will be ultimately known as an age of faith because of the prevalence of violence, power of religion, and the Catholic Church’s preservation of knowledge.

The First Crusade was called in 1095 by Pope Urban II in November. It was here that the Pope made a proposal: “Whoever for devotion alone, but not to gain honour or money, goes to Jerusalem to liberate the Church of God can substitute this journey for all penane” (Phillips, 21). Pope Urban II saw the first crusade as a chance for knights to direct their energy towards a spiritually rewarding experience, namely the recovery of the Holy City of Jerusalem from Islam. Knights were told that in return for their efforts their sins

Three of the world’s most powerful religions had gone to war during the Crusades, the same war that is responsible for an estimated 1.7 million deaths. The Crusades were a series of Christian military expeditions that lasted through nine Holy Wars. The first crusade, in 1095, was called upon by Pope Urban II in an attempt to stop the Muslim expansion to the Holy City of Jerusalem. Through this, the Christian, Catholic, and Muslim churches will go into a time of warfare as an attempt to both show their religious superiority and have a religious expansion. The western side of Europe was the most significantly impacted by the Crusades because of the 4th Crusade, the foreign influence from the East, and Europe’s economic relations with the world.

In Pope Urban II’s speech he said “On this account I, or rather the Lord, beseech you as Christ's heralds to publish this everywhere and to persuade all people of whatever rank, foot-soldiers and knights, poor and rich, to carry aid promptly to those Christians and to destroy that vile {disgusting} race from the lands of our friends... Moreover, Christ commands it.” By saying this he commanded that all Christians should take part in the battle to regain the holy land. Many of these people listened to Pope Urban II’s command to fight for the Holy Land and were influenced to take part in the Crusade based on religious devotion. However, as the Crusaders began to fight for the Holy Land, they learned that fighting for the regain of the Holy Land also had many benefits. These benefits included “great silver {lamps} weighing forty-four Syri- an pounds, as well as a hundred and fifty smaller silver {candelabras} and more than twenty gold ones, and a great deal more booty.” People not only fought in the Crusades for their religion but to acquire other rewards as well. This illustrates that the Crusades had not only began due to religious devotion but of economic and political gain

The First Crusade (1096 - 1099) played a very important part in Medieval Europe .the First Crusade was an attempt to re-capture Jerusalem. After the capture of Jerusalem by the Muslims in 1076, any Christian who wanted to pay a pilgrimage to the city faced a very hard time. When the pope urban 2 made his speech he made lots and lots of people listen and got to war he machined that a lot of people were slaughterer and that this is what god wanted. Muslim soldiers made life very difficult for the Christians and trying to get to Jerusalem was filled with danger for a Christian.

The age leading up to the first crusade is detailed by many current historians, as well as Pope Urban II, as a time period where inhabitants "rage[d] against [their own] brothers and cut each other [to] pieces" (Peters, Baldric of Dol, 31) for economic and social advancement. In spite of these references, many people today believe that the Pope instigated the crusades for the sole reason of reclaiming Jerusalem. However, other motivations such as supplementary religious factors and the chance for economic, social, and political gain also played major roles. These motivations were not experienced supremely by the Pope; in fact he needed to instill these inspirations in all Christians to evoke their will to fight. The holy land had long

The first crusade started in autumn of 1095. Pope Urban II initiated the first crusade by calling upon his Christians to reclaim the city of Jerusalem. The Crusade was also meant to seek revenge on the followers of Islam. The followers were accused of committing crimes against “Christendom”. Pope Urbans crusade was made possible by the work of St. Augustine on Christian Violence in the past. Many Christians joined the crusade because the Pope promised rewards for the afterlife. After the fourth century, Christianity underwent a transformation when it fused with the Roman state for which warfare was essential. St. Augustine and Pope Urban enabled violence to be an option for Christians and it can be described in this quote, “For the first time in Christian history, violence was defined as a religious act, a source of grace.” After the Pope’s Christian tour, many Christians were ready to destroy everything that stood in their way.

Known for his speeches, Hitler was a big believer in using words to change opinions. He said in one speech that “It is always more difficult to fight against faith than against knowledge.” By using faith for his benefit, he gave people something to fight for, and connected them and their faith to their “mission” by using propaganda, and speeches, and never stopped persuading people to join his movement. Another person who used faith to help accomplish a goal was Pope Urban the second, the initiator of the first Crusade. Pope Urban said that God wanted the Christians to fight for Jerusalem during the Crusades, and gave the people a reason to fight. He said to “Undertake this journey for the remission of your sins, with the assurance of the imperishable glory of the Kingdom of Heaven!”, and gave his people a chance to “redeem” themselves of their sins. Both Pope Urban and Hitler tried to pulverize the Jewish nation. The Crusades, similar to the Holocaust, was a war against everyone different led by stubborn leaders; however, unlike the Holocaust, the Crusades were part of a religious war, led by a religious Christian leader.

Religion was one of the main reasons for the start of the First Crusade. Islam was growing and by the time of the late 11th century Islam occupied the areas of the Holy Land which were the foundations of Christian belief. Pope Urban 2nd made his speech November 1095 urging a military expedition to aid the Christians in the east. The Pope hoped that it would unify quarrelling in Europe and unite Europe through Christianity. The response that the Pope received was enormous. In the opinion of Jean Richard, who states that it was ‘problematic’ as it ‘set off shock waves that put