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The Jewish-Catholic Dialogue Shma Defending the Gospels The Holocaust The Crusades The Spanish Inquisition How Catholics See Jews Persecution of Jews Rules of Engagement The “Separate Saving Covenant” Where’s the Temple? Answering Charges of Anti-Semitism Bringing the Messiah It Comes From Pagans Messianic Prophecies National Revelation Personal Qualifications of the Messiah Intermediary Like a Lion Mortara Physical World Second Coming Suffering Servant Virgin Birth The Word Made Flesh
God directed the First Jewish Crusade when he led the Israelites across the Red Sea into Canaan. Each battle the Israelites fought against the native Canaanite tribes was a “Crusade” to bring into being the Holy Land. God had commanded, Deut 20:16 “You shall save alive nothing that breathes.”
The Second Jewish Crusade was against God’s orders. Yokhanan Hyrcanus, grandson of Yehuda haMaccabi, enlarged the borders of Israel by conquering neighboring countries, including Edom, Gen 32:3 named for Esau, where he lived after Jacob took his birthright, and Samaria, which had been Israel but was then occupied by intermarried Jews and Gentiles. Hyrcanus forced their Gentiles to convert to Judaism.
When our Father commanded His children of the covenant, Deut 20:16 “You shall save alive nothing that breathes,” He was protecting their immortal souls against worship of demons. But once the Son of God came and shifted the emphasis from obedience, Ex 20:3 “You shall have no other gods before me,” to love, Deut 6:5 “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,” free will became even more important in the economy of salvation. Only through free will can we truly love God and reach heaven.
In 612 AD an Arabian illiterate named Muhammad, claiming a prophetic call, started a new religion called Islam. A decade later he gathered enough followers to conquer all of Arabia. After his death in 632 AD, his successors, the caliphs, within the next century conquered the Christian lands of Syria, Palestine, and North Africa, destroying perhaps two-thirds of Christianity. Muslims continued into Christian Europe; they took southern Spain and invaded France, stopped from invading Rome only Charles Martel’s great victory at the Battle of Poitiers in 732 AD. The Muslim warriors then turned east and within two more centuries conquered Persia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and parts of India. Traditional Muslim thought divides the world into two spheres, the Abode of Islam and the Abode of War.
In 1009 an Egyptian caliph ordered the destruction of the Holy Sepulchre, Christ’s tomb in Jerusalem. In 1070 the Seljuk Turks seized Jerusalem, and the following year captured the Byzantine Emperor Romanus IV Diogenes at the Battle of Manzikert, making Christian pilgrimages impossible. Romanus IV’s successor, Michael VII Ducas, asked Pope Gregory VII for help. Gregory VII was interested, but was distracted by a dispute at the time as to whether the Pope or the Holy Roman Emperor could elect and install bishops. Pope Gregory VII and Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV got into an open struggle. Meanwhile, the Seljuk Turks continued their conquests, taking the city of Antioch in 1084 and the city of Nicaea, where two important ecumenical councils had been held, in 1092. Asia’s great metropolitan sees were in Muslim hands, and the Seljuk Turks were heading straight for the Byzantine capital, Constantinople. By then Muslims had destroyed about two-thirds of all Christianity. Emperor Alexius I appealed to Pope Urban II for aid.
Those who object to the Crusades need to explain what they would have done in Urban II’s situation. Should he, the successor of Peter, have mildly allowed the Muslims to continue conquering Christian lands and forcibly converting Christians to Islam until not a single Christian remained alive? The pope's first responsibility is to protect and preserve Christianity. Let’s look at what actually occurred.
Urban II convened the Council of Clermont in 1095 in southern France. He spoke passionately to all present, not only bishops and abbots but also knights, nobles, and common men, of reversing the Muslim “Crusades,” assisting the beleaguered Eastern Christians and reclaiming the Holy Sepulchre. Urban II emphasized the need for penance and spiritual motives, and offered a plenary indulgence to all who vowed these penitential and spiritual motives. The attendees responded just as passionately. Their battle cry became Deus vult! God wills it! They also decided to wear on their chests a cross of red fabric. From the Latin word for “cross,” crux, came the name crusade.
Many crusaders, filled with more passion than sense, did not live up to the Pope’s spiritual mandate. An early group rode off without formal military discipline and became disorganized. The main force massed around Constantinople, but Alexius did not want so large a force there, so he sent many of the men to Asia Minor, where they fought with mixed success.
In 1099 a crusader force rode into Jerusalem. In the Al-Aqsa Mosque the leader promised protection to the city’s Muslims and Jews but it was not to be. The soldiers had long wanted to re-take the city where Rabbi Yeshua saved the world, but the Muslims had poisoned all the wells near the city. Under the burning sun, soldiers had to lick dew from the grass or dig for moist earth to get water. The soldiers, frustrated beyond endurance after a five-week siege, sacked Jerusalem for several days, looting and killing innocent people.
The territory recovered by the crusaders became four Crusader States, the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the Principality of Antioch, the Countship of Edessa, and the Countship of Tripoli. They flourished for a time but remained vulnerable. To defend them, religious orders of knighthood, including the Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem and the Templars, arose.
After Muslims captured the northern state of Edessa, Pope Eugenius III called a second Crusade, preached in France and Germany by St. Bernard of Clairvaux. The French king, Louis VII, and his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine, offered their support. The German Emperor, Conrad III, and Byzantine Emperor Manual Comnenus, also supported the venture. However, there was less enthusiasm for this second Crusade because Jerusalem was then in Christian hands. The competing French and German interests led to inner turmoil and treachery, making it impossible for the crusaders to reach Edessa, so they tried to take Damascus, but in their weakened condition had to retreat.
Meanwhile, Saladin’s Muslim forces encircled the Crusader states. By 1189 the Muslims had re-conquered the Crusader States.
After Jerusalem fell, Pope Gregory VII called for a third Crusade, which was
finally led by the valiant King Richard I (the lion-hearted) and the calculating
King Philip II of France.
En route to the Holy Land, Richard I was attacked on the island of Cyprus by
the Byzantine prince Isaac Comnenus. Richard defeated Isaac and took control
of the island. Its port city, Acre, had been under attack by Muslim forces,
but the crusaders defeated the Muslims forces. Thereupon, Philip II decided
that his crusader vow had been fulfilled and departed for France.
Saladin had agreed to a prisoner exchange and also to return a relic of the True Cross, but Richard objected to Saladin’s selection of prisoners and eventually executed the Muslim captives. Despite this, Richard’s relationship with Saladin remained one of mutual respect. In late 1192 they signed a five-year peace treaty that allowed Christians access to the Holy Land.
In 1198 Pope Innocent III proposed a new Crusade, this time against Egypt, another Christian land conquered by the Muslims.
The French again answered the call. They turned to the Venetians for transportation, but did not have enough money. The Venetians promised to give them passage if they would take Zara, a Hungarian Christian city. Pope Innocent III objected strenuously, but the crusaders ignored his orders and took Zara anyway.
Then Alexius, son of the deposed Byzantine Emperor Isaac Angelus, promised
the crusaders financial reward if they would recover his father’s throne.
Pope Innocent III wrote a letter to the crusaders prohibiting the venture, but
it didn’t reach them until after they had taken Constantinople, reinstalled
Isaac as Emperor, and made his son co-Emperor. Innocent III reprimanded the
crusaders and ordered them to proceed to the Holy Land, but most decided instead
to await Alexius’ rewards.
Alexius’ promises to the crusaders angered the Byzantines, who assassinated
Alexius. The angry crusaders then joined with the Venetians in taking the Byzantine
Empire. They conquered Constantinople on April 13, 1204, and began a three-day
siege, looting and burning and killing, even destroying some beautiful churches.
Innocent III excommunicated all who participated in the Sack of Constantinople.
The Venetians and crusaders then installed a western Emperor of Constantinople. The Byzantine government moved to Nicaea, where it ruled only part of its former territory until 1261 when Emperor Michael VIII Paleologous re-conquered it.
The Fourth Crusade was a disaster. It did not engage Muslim forces occupying the Holy Land, it further divided Eastern and Western Christendom, and it damaged the Byzantine Empire, the main buffer between Muslim aggression and the Christian heartland.
Pope Innocent III together with the Fourth Lateran Ecumenical Council, called for a second effort to take Egypt and trade it for Jerusalem.
The earlier Crusades, especially the fourth, led by laymen, had spiraled out control. This time, Innocent III put in command of the fifth Crusade Cardinal Pelagius, a strong papal legate. The German Emperor, Frederick II, had promised to lead a force, but did not show up.
The crusaders fought valiantly, and frightened Muslims offered to surrender Jerusalem. Cardinal Pelagius, however, believed that his conquest called for even more generous terms and refused. After subsequent setbacks, in 1221 Cardinal Pelagius accepted peace on terms less favorable than the Muslims had originally offered.
This was the final Crusade in which the Church played a major role.
Innocent III had allowed Frederick II several delays to let him take care of pressing matters in Germany. But the next Pope, Gregory IX, insisted that Frederick fulfill his crusade vow. Frederick stalled yet again, and Gregory IX excommunicated him.
Because Frederick had been excommunicated, too few men were willing to ride with him for a military campaign, so he tried diplomacy. He skillfully took advantage of tensions among different Muslim factions to conclude a treaty with Sultan al-Kamil of Egypt in 1229, returning Jerusalem (except for the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque), Bethlehem, Nazareth, and some other territories were returned to the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
Frederick II was then crowned King of Jerusalem in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The ceremony could not be Catholic, as Frederick was still excommunicated. Frederick II was still Emperor of Germany, and so he had to rule the Kingdom of Jerusalem from a distance. It did not work very well, as the local barons declined to work with his representatives.
Louis IX of France led a crusader force to again attack Egypt in the hope of negotiating for Palestine. They took Cairo, but at great cost. The Muslims then took Louis IX prisoner, and traded him for a city the crusaders had captured. Louis IX remained in the area for several years to negotiate for the release of prisoners and strengthen Christian presence in the region.
Muslims continued to attack Christian territories in the Holy Land. Louis IX,
wanting to atone for his failure, led the last Crusade as well.
This time Tunis in North Africa was the initial target. When the Crusader force
arrived, many of them, including Louis IX, died of the plague. Charles of Anjou,
Louis’ brother, came with Sicilian ships to take the survivors home.
When Pope Urban II called for an armed expedition in 1095 all Christendom responded. Many priests preached the Crusade, some on their own adding incendiary elements contrary to Urban II’s call and to St. Augustine’s just war criteria.
In medieval Europe the fable of Jews as Christ-killers was widespread. Some crusaders went further. A Jewish chronicle from that time explains, “Now it came to pass that as [the crusaders] passed through the towns where the Jews dwelled, they said to one another: ‘Look now, we’re going a long way to seek out the profane shrine and to avenge ourselves on the Ishmaelites, when here, in our very midst, are the Jews – they whose forefathers murdered and crucified him for no reason. Let us avenge …”
During the ninth and tenth centuries the trading towns along the Rhine river experienced a lot of economic activity. There were opportunities for enterprising traders, and the Jews were among the first to seize them. Christian burghers already in these cities resented the Jews as financial competitors as well as Christ-killers. Another Jewish chronicle from that time relates that whenever the crusaders arrived, “… the local burghers would harass us, for they were at one with them in their intention to destroy vine and root all along their way to Jerusalem.”
In Spring 1096 a large band of riffraff, not associated with the Church or the main army, descended on the Rhineland towns. The local burghers unlocked the city gates for the rampaging crowd. The Jewish chronicle continues, “The enemy arose against them, killing little children and women, youth and old men – all on one day. The priests were not accorded honor nor the elders grace; the enemy showed no mercy for babes and sucklings, no pity for women about to give birth.” This Jewish account shows that priests tried to stop the massacres. But the rampaging crowd paid no attention. In response, the rabbis reawakened a tradition with origins in the Hasmonean Revolt and the Roman persecutions, the Kiddush HaShem (Hebrew: Sanctification of the Name of God), obligatory willingness to die as a Jewish martyr rather than commit idolatry, commit a sexual offense, or commit murder. For all other transgressions, the sages emphasized that the person should commit the act and live.
If the crusaders had seen anti-Judaism as heroic, their chroniclers would have emphasized the Rhineland massacres. But most Christian chroniclers of the day did not mention them at all. Albert of Aachen, one of the few to mention the massacres, condemned them as “in a spirit of cruelty.” Similarly, when crusaders attacked Jews in Jerusalem in 1099 and Acre in 1104 it was a total war against a resisting population, of which Jews were a minor part. The Jews in Tyre and Ascalon were not harmed, since their leaders surrendered without resistance. This warfare was brutal but typical in the medieval era.
Some Muslims today say that their attacks on innocent civilians in the United States and Israel were payback for the Crusades. This is a remarkable argument.
The appropriate point of departure is 622 AD, not 1095. The Christians had gained all of their territories by free and voluntary conversion. During the first four centuries of Islam’s existence it took some two-thirds of all Christian territory by military conquest and conversion at sword point. The Crusades were a defensive response to four centuries of Muslim war. The crusaders never attacked Arabia, the Muslim homeland. They fought only to recover Christian territories conquered by Muslims.
But even if we take the Crusades as the starting point, why wait seven centuries for payback? The last Crusade was completed in 1270. If the Crusades called for payback, Muslim forces remained more powerful than Christian forces for three centuries. It was only in 1571 that the Holy League, an alliance of the Papal States, Spain, Venice, and Genoa sent an armada of ships against the Turkish armada. The Battle of Lepanto, a stirring victory for the Holy League and a bitter defeat for the Turks, marked the start of Islam’s military decline.
If a Christian military expedition were to conquer Saudi Arabia today including Makkah and Madinah we can be certain that the Muslims would fight fiercely to regain it. One cannot take two-thirds of a people’s land with its most holy places and not expect an all-out effort to get them back.
The most grave abuses, the Sack of Jerusalem in the First Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople in the Fourth Crusade, were strictly against papal orders. While their effects were serious, they were three days each over a period of two centuries.
The papal directives were always consistent with St. Augustine’s just war doctrine. CCC 2309 The emperors who led the expeditions, and some of the crusaders, participated in the nature of our fallen race by breaching their vows.
If the Church had not supported the Crusades the Muslims would foreseeably have conquered all of the remaining Christian lands including the Papal States. All Christianity would have ceased to exist. All Judaism would probably have ceased to exist as well. We would all have been Muslims.
Still, the Church concluded from the whole experience that its mission is spiritual rather than temporal war.
Copyright © 1999-2008 Martin K Barrack. All rights reserved.