Early European History Part 84

[27] See the ill.u.s.tration, page 348.

[28] So called from the lead seal (Latin _bulla_) attached to papal doc.u.ments.

[29] Latin _legatus_, "deputy."

[30] Latin _cardinalus_, "princ.i.p.al."

[31] See page 311.

[32] See the plate facing page 591.

[33] See page 317.

[34] See page 418.

[35] A name derived from Simon Magus, who offered money to the Apostle Peter for the power to confer the Holy Spirit. See _Acts_, viii, 18-20.

[36] The so-called _Dictatus papae_.

[37] The name of this German family comes from that of their castle in southwestern Swabia.

[38] It survived in name until 1806 A.D., when the Austrian ruler, Francis II, laid down the imperial crown and the venerable t.i.tle of "Holy Roman Emperor."

[39] Hapsburg as the name of a castle in northern Switzerland.

[40] See page 522.

[41] The modern German Empire dates from 1871 A.D.

[42] See pages 436-437.

[43] See page 444.

CHAPTER XX

THE OCCIDENT AGAINST THE ORIENT; THE CRUSADES, 1095-1291 A.D. [1]

169. CAUSES OF THE CRUSADES

PLACE OF THE CRUSADES IN HISTORY

The series of military expeditions, undertaken by the Christians of Europe for the purpose of recovering the Holy Land from the Moslems, have received the name of crusades. In their widest aspect the crusades may be regarded as a renewal of the age-long contest between East and West, in which the struggle of Greeks and Persians and of Romans and Carthaginians formed the earlier episodes. The contest a.s.sumed a new character when Europe had become Christian and Asia Mohammedan. It was not only two contrasting types of civilization but also two rival world religions which in the eighth century faced each other under the walls of Constantinople and on the battlefield of Tours. Now, during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, they were to meet again.

NUMBER OF THE CRUSADES

Seven or eight chief crusades are usually enumerated. To number them, however, obscures the fact that for nearly two hundred years Europe and Asia were engaged in almost constant warfare. Throughout this period there was a continuous movement of crusaders to and from the Moslem possessions in Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt.

PILGRIMAGES TO THE HOLY LAND

The crusades were first and foremost a spiritual enterprise. They sprang from the pilgrimages which Christians had long been accustomed to make to the scenes of Christ's life on earth. Men considered it a wonderful privilege to see the cave in which He was born, to kiss the spot where He died, and to kneel in prayer at His tomb. The eleventh century saw an increased zeal for pilgrimages, and from this time travelers to the Holy Land were very numerous. For greater security they often joined themselves in companies and marched under arms. It needed little to transform such pilgrims into crusaders.

[Ill.u.s.tration: COMBAT BETWEEN CRUSADERS AND MOSLEMS A picture in an eleventh-century window, formerly in the church of St.

Denis, near Paris.]

ABUSE OF PILGRIMS BY THE TURKS

The Arab conquest of the Holy Land had not interrupted the stream of pilgrims, for the early caliphs were more tolerant of unbelievers than Christian emperors of heretics. But after the coming of the Seljuk Turks into the East, pilgrimages became more difficult and dangerous. The Turks were a ruder people than the Arabs whom they displaced, and in their fanatic zeal for Islam were not inclined to treat the Christians with consideration. Many tales floated back to Europe of the outrages committed on the pilgrims and on the sacred shrines venerated by all Christendom.

Such stories, which lost nothing in the telling, aroused a storm of indignation throughout Europe and awakened the desire to rescue the Holy Land from the grasp of the "infidel."

THE CRUSADES AND THE UPPER CLa.s.sES

But the crusades were not simply an expression of the simple faith of the Middle Ages. Something more than religious enthusiasm sent an unending procession of crusaders along the highways of Europe and over the trackless wastes of Asia Minor to Jerusalem. The crusades, in fact, appealed strongly to the warlike instincts of the feudal n.o.bles. They saw in an expedition against the East an unequaled opportunity for acquiring fame, riches, lands, and power. The Normans were especially stirred by the prospect of adventure and plunder which the crusading movement opened up.

By the end of the eleventh century they had established themselves in southern Italy and Sicily, from which they now looked across the Mediterranean for further lands to conquer. [2] Norman knights formed a very large element in several of the crusaders' armies.

THE LOWER CLa.s.sES AND THE CRUSADES

The crusades also attracted the lower cla.s.ses. So great was the misery of the common people in medieval Europe that for them it seemed not a hardship, but rather a relief, to leave their homes in order to better themselves abroad. Famine and pestilence, poverty and oppression, drove them to emigrate hopefully to the golden East.

PRIVILEGES OF CRUSADERS

The Church, in order to foster the crusades, promised both religious and secular benefits to those who took part in them. A warrior of the Cross was to enjoy forgiveness of all his past sins. If he died fighting for the faith, he was a.s.sured of an immediate entrance to the joys of Paradise.

The Church also freed him from paying interest on his debts and threatened with excommunication anyone who molested his wife, his children, or his property.

170. FIRST CRUSADE, 1095-1099 A.D.

OCCASION OF THE FIRST CRUSADE

The signal for the First Crusade was given by the conquests of the Seljuk Turks. [3] These barbarians, at first the mercenaries and then the masters of the Abbasid caliphs, infused fresh energy into Islam. They began a new era of Mohammedan expansion by winning almost the whole of Asia Minor from the Roman Empire in the East. One of their leaders established himself at Nicaea, the scene of the first Church Council, [4] and founded the sultanate of Rum (Rome).

APPEAL OF EMPEROR TO POPE

The presence of the Turks so close to Constantinople was a standing menace to all Europe. The able emperor, Alexius I, on succeeding to the throne toward the close of the eleventh century, took steps to expel the invaders. He could not draw on the hardy tribes of Asia Minor for the soldiers he needed, but with reinforcements from the West he hoped to recover the lost provinces of the empire. Accordingly, in 1095 A.D., Alexius sent an emba.s.sy to Pope Urban II, the successor of Gregory VII, requesting aid. The fact that the emperor appealed to the pope, rather than to any king, shows what a high place the Papacy then held in the affairs of Europe.

COUNCIL OF CLERMONT, 1095 A.D.

To the appeal of Alexius, Urban lent a willing ear. He summoned a great council of clergy and n.o.bles to meet at Clermont in France. Here, in an address which, measured by its results, was the most momentous recorded in history, Pope Urban preached the First Crusade. He said little about the dangers which threatened the Roman Empire in the East from the Turks, but dwelt chiefly on the wretched condition of the Holy Land, with its churches polluted by unbelievers and its Christian inhabitants tortured and enslaved. Then, turning to the proud knights who stood by, Urban called upon them to abandon their wicked practice of private warfare and take up arms, instead, against the infidel. "Christ Himself," he cried, "will be your leader, when, like the Israelites of old, you fight for Jerusalem.... Start upon the way to the Holy Sepulcher; wrench the land from the accursed race, and subdue it yourselves. Thus shall you spoil your foes of their wealth and return home victorious, or, purpled with your own blood, receive an everlasting reward."

"G.o.d WILLS IT!"

Urban's trumpet call to action met an instant response. From the a.s.sembled host there went up, as it were, a single shout: "G.o.d wills it! G.o.d wills it!" "It is, in truth, His will," answered Urban, "and let these words be your war cry when you unsheath your swords against the enemy." Then man after man pressed forward to receive the badge of a crusader, a cross of red cloth. [5] It was to be worn on the breast, when the crusader went forth, and on the back, when he returned.

PRELUDE TO THE FIRST CRUSADE

The months which followed the Council of Clermont were marked by an epidemic of religious excitement in western Europe. Popular preachers everywhere took up the cry "G.o.d wills it!" and urged their hearers to start for Jerusalem. A monk named Peter the Hermit aroused large parts of France with his pa.s.sionate eloquence, as he rode from town to town, carrying a huge cross before him and preaching to vast crowds. Without waiting for the main body of n.o.bles, which was to a.s.semble at Constantinople in the summer of 1096 A.D., a horde of poor men, women, and children set out, unorganized and almost unarmed, on the road to the Holy Land. One of these crusading bands, led by Peter the Hermit, managed to reach Constantinople, after suffering terrible hardships. The emperor Alexius sent his ragged allies as quickly as possible to Asia Minor, where most of them were slaughtered by the Turks.