The Benefits of the Crusades

The crusades took place over a span of nearly two hundred years, affecting the entirety of the then-known world. Various popes initiated them over the years in hopes of repressing the tide of Islam that was sweeping across Europe. The reason for this was two fold: the church wanted to ensure that Christianity and its culture would not be destroyed by Muslim forces, as well as regain Jerusalem so that Christians would once again be able to go on pilgrimage there. The crusades are often considered Christianity's largest disaster, as they seldom accomplished their original purpose and usually served only as vehicles for death, destruction, and heightened enmity between people groups. However, despite the negative consequences of the crusades, many benefits also developed as a consequence of them.

To understand the consequences of the crusades, it is necessary to first learn about them. Pope Urban II called the First Crusade on November 27, 1095, at the Council of Clermont. Muslims had captured Jerusalem in 638, and four hundred and fifty years later the Pope called on the people to retake Jerusalem in the name of God. He also planned on recapturing Antioch in order to help Alexios I, the ruler of Constantinople. In order to persuade people to join the crusade, he stated that anyone who joined the army would receive forgiveness of all of their sins. It is believed that Urban had been planning for a military conquest for some time before this, and he was startled by the eager response to his speech by the common masses. Instead of a controlled military army, regular civilians went on pilgrimage under the leadership of charismatic preachers. Many of these untrained and unarmed armies, such as the one led by the preacher Peter the Hermit, suffered terrible defeats at the hands of the Muslim army. Many did not even complete the journey to Palestine before falling to local authorities. Sadly, however, one group of crusaders managed to travel to the Rhineland, where they massacred entire communities of Jews. Many Christians saw Jews as the people who had killed Christ, and instead of traveling great distances to kill Muslims they decided to attack the "enemies" that lived much closer nearby. Eventually, the armies became more organized and managed to win several cities back from the Turks on their way to Jerusalem. After a long period of siege in the city of Antioch, the army managed to defeat the Turks and marched on towards Jerusalem. On July 15, 1099, the crusaders retook the city of Jerusalem, thus fulfilling the purpose of the crusade and providing "evidence" that God approved of it.

The Second Crusade started approximately fifty years after the first one, in 1147. Edessa, the first city to be taken by the crusaders in the First Crusade, was recaptured by Muslims in 1144. Edessa was fairly important in the West, so Pope Eugenius III declared the Second Crusade in order to retake it. By this time, however, a single monarchy ruled rather than many princes, and it took some time for King Louis VII to gather support for the crusade. In 1146, however, under the influence of Bernard of Clairvaux, terrific enthusiasm for the crusade developed. Bernard then decided that the king of Germany, Conrad III, should lead alongside Louis VII, and their armies as well as others started the crusade in May 1147. As they crossed Anatolia, the armies continually suffered losses from attacks by the Turks. By the time they arrived at Acre, there was a drastically fewer number of soldiers, and the leaders knew that it would no longer be possible for them to retake Edessa. Instead, they besieged Damascus, and when they failed to capture it they returned home. The optimism once felt about crusading fell dramatically after the failure of the Second Crusade, and for many years successive popes could not arouse enough enthusiasm to form another crusade.

In 1187, Saladin, the grand vizier of Egypt, took control of Jerusalem and many of the surrounding areas. Most Catholics cared deeply for Jerusalem and made pilgrimage to it every year, so Pope Gregory VIII was able to do what the popes of the past forty years had not. He was determined to regain the Holy Land, and enlisted the help of three kings in order to do so. In 1189, Frederick I of Germany traveled by land and Philip II of France and Richard I of England. Unfortunately, Frederick drowned on the way to Acre. Shortly after the two remaining armies captured Acre, Philip grew disenchanted with the proceedings and headed back towards France. This left Richard alone to fight for Jerusalem, but quickly a stalemate occurred between the two opposing armies. Eventually, in September 1192, a truce was declared. The crusaders kept a number of port cities along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, but the Muslims kept Jerusalem. However, members of each faith were allowed to visit the other's side's territory. Despite the fact that Christians could now enter Jerusalem, it was still held by the Muslims, and many Christians felt that the final outcome of the crusade was not worth its cost in lives and effort.

The precarious truce between the Muslims and Christians soon led to the start of the Fourth Crusade. Many Christians felt that it was their duty to God to attempt to take Jerusalem out from under Muslim rule. Therefore, in August of 1198 Pope Innocent III declared a new crusade. Instead of being led by kings, this crusade was led by many different barons. They hoped to free Jerusalem by putting pressure on Muslim forces in Egypt, and they hired a Venetian fleet in order to transport the crusaders there. Unfortunately, they greatly overestimated the number of men who would enlist, and were not able to pay the Venetians the price they had agreed upon in the Treaty of Venice. In order to receive more time to pay their debt, the crusaders made a deal with the doge of Venice. First, they helped the Venetians conquer the Christian city of Zadar, and in payment received some of its spoils. Next, they sailed on to Constantinople, where they planned on placing someone on the throne who could pay off their debts. For this dubious honor they chose Alexios Angelos, who promised to support them if they helped him depose his uncle and ascend the throne. In July 1203, Alexios became king, but the crusaders quickly discovered that he did not have the funds to pay off their debt, and had no interest in helping them once he did have funds. By this time the crusaders and Venetians alike were completely bankrupt, and were furious at Alexios' betrayal. In April 1204, they attacked Constantinople, sacked it, and installed a Latin emperor. After forming this "Latin empire," which strained the relationship between East and West to beyond repair, most of the Crusaders went back home. They never made it to the Holy Land, let alone retake Jerusalem. This crusade is often considered the most disastrous of all of the crusades, as the crusaders did not do what they pledged to do but instead attacked two Christian cities, including Constantinople.

Determined to recover Jerusalem and ensure that the coastal strip held by Christians was not attacked by Muslims, in 1212 a large group of peasants set off towards the Holy Land. This crusade, popularly known as the Children's Crusade, did not involve children at all. Instead, the crusaders were mostly peasants, similar to the people led by Peter the Hermit in the First Crusade. The discrepancy stems from the fact that the Latin word pueri, which means 'lads,' was often used derogatorily by nobles to denote peasants. Though the church did not start the Children's Crusade, in 1217 the church sanctioned the Fifth Crusade. The crusaders traveled to Egypt, where they laid siege to and eventually captured Damietta. Eager to reclaim his city, the sultan of Egypt offered to return extensive areas of land to the Christians that they had once held and suggested implementing a truce that would last for thirty years. Unfortunately, both of these offers were turned down, and 1221 the crusaders left Egypt without any substantial prize being gained.

The Sixth Crusade, led by Emperor Frederick II, has also been considered an adjunct of the Fifth Crusade. One reason that the crusaders in Egypt did not accept the sultan's offers was because they expected Frederick to arrive shortly, and did not want to make any decisions for him. However, Frederick did not arrive in Egypt until 1228, after a delay of thirteen years. The only reason that Frederick went on crusade at all was because the pope was pressuring him to do so; in fact, the pope excommunicated him until he finally left for Egypt. Frederick decided that the easiest and best way to recover Jerusalem would be through political maneuvering. He allied with Egypt against the city of Damascus, and with their help the crusaders managed to regain most of Jerusalem. They also won a narrow strip of land going from the Christian seaport cities to Jerusalem, so that Christians could journey safely to the Holy Land. Though Frederick had guaranteed that there would be peace for some time, many of his contemporaries such as the patriarch of Jerusalem, the Knights Templar, and the pope were furious with him for not doing more.

A series of shorter crusades that accomplished little followed the Sixth Crusade. The Barons' Crusade, which took place from 1239 to 1241, consisted of two separate armies of English and French crusaders led by two counts of France and an earl of England. After traveling to Palestine, they received an enormous amount of territory through diplomatic means. Despite this, the Christians gained little in power because in order for any real change in power over the Holy Land to occur, matters in Egypt needed to be altered. To this end, King Louis IX of France set out towards Egypt in 1244, as a way of thanking God for his recovery from an illness. The fact that the Muslims under the guidance of the sultan of Egypt had retaken Jerusalem also helped him to reach this decision. Unlike many of the past leaders of crusades, Louis spent an extensive amount of time preparing for the crusade, and his army was well equipped and trained. In August 1248, the Seventh Crusade was launched from France. Louis' army spent some time in Cyprus, and then quickly captured Damietta in under a year's time. Unfortunately, after that point the army dithered during the march towards Egypt. The crusaders, including Louis himself, were all captured by Turks, and were forced to retreat after giving up Damietta as a ransom. After this embarrassment, however, the king chose not to return to France with his army. Instead, he went to the Holy Land and lived there for four years, raising morale there tremendously. Though he did not accomplish his original goal of retaking the Holy Land, Louis did help pave the way for future crusaders. In 1267, Louis took up the cross again in response to a new army, led by the new sultan Baybars, which was sweeping across the land. He hoped to convert Tunisia to Christianity and gain the Tunisians' support, so he and his crusaders sailed there. Upon reaching Carthage, however, Louis fell ill and died. His army returned home, though Edward of England and his crusaders went on towards Jerusalem. Because Edward had only a very small army, he could do little against the sultan's forces. Finally, in 1291, the Muslims attacked Acre and completely destroyed the Christian settlement there. Most of the Christians were either killed or captured and sold into slavery, and Acre was demolished. With that terrible defeat at the hands of the Muslims, the era of European influence in the Holy Land was finished.

After the demolition of Acre, more crusades occurred over the next few centuries. However, the Muslims continued to win battle after battle as they moved across Europe, managing to destroy many Christian strongholds. As the Christians began to realize that Jerusalem would never again be under Christian rule, they lost their enthusiasm for the crusades. Some people, however, were against the crusades from the beginning for various reasons. Peter the Venerable, who lived from 1092 to 1156, believed that it was wrong to fight against the Muslims. Instead, he opted for trying to convert the Muslims peacefully. Francis of Assisi had the same viewpoint; he believed that the crusaders' acts of violence were a direct contradiction to the message of the gospel. He traveled to Egypt in 1219 to preach to the sultan, who listened to him but did not convert. Raymond Lull, a Spanish monk of the Franciscan order, is considered "the first great European missionary to Muslims" (qtd. in Huff 144). He went on mission trips to North Africa, set up missionary schools, and learned Arabic before being martyred at the age of eighty. These men are just three of the people who did not agree with the violent response of the church to the Muslim invaders. Perhaps if more people had agreed with them, the wars between Muslims and Christians could have been averted. Unfortunately, none of these three were very successful in their missionary endeavors. What is even more unfortunate, however, is that their efforts are often overlooked in Christian history.

Recently, there has been a flood of negativity towards the crusades. Many people have come to believe that the crusades were driven by greed, and in actuality had little to do with the intention of promoting Christianity. Despite this outlook, the fact is that the crusades were actually meant to be an act of love- "an errand of mercy to right a terrible wrong" (Madden 1). Christians were determined to protect themselves and their way of life against the Muslims, who had already captured two thirds of the Christians parts of the world. The Christians were also determined to free Jerusalem and the rest of the Holy Land, which they felt was a holy place because so much of Jesus' ministry took place there. They took up the cross, not in hopes of gaining wealth, but for God and for the forgiveness of their sins. In fact, many of the crusaders sold everything they had, and plunged into debt as well, for the opportunity of going on a crusade. Ineffectual leaders, bloody wars, and the tragic murders of civilians marked the many years that the crusades encompassed. Despite this, however, there were many good consequences to the crusades. Interestingly, the crusades led to the economic and social development of Europe. Before the crusades occurred, the Christian areas of Europe were more primitive than the areas that the Muslims were conquering. During the crusades, however, Europe broke out of its period of isolation and started to become one of the world's leading powers. Trade increased between the East and the West, which helped to dissolve the feudal system as a merchant class formed. The disappearance of the feudal system helped the poor people of Europe, many of whom were no longer forced to live in the miserable conditions that they had been in before. The peasants were also helped by their role in the First Crusade. Before the crusades, the poor were looked down upon by the nobles, who contemptuously called them pueri, or lads. During the First Crusade, however, peasants took the central role in fighting, and from this stemmed the idea that poverty in the name of Christ was a good thing to have. In addition, the Christians absorbed a great deal from the Muslim culture during the Crusades: they learned to take baths, obtained items such as silk and dye, learned algebra, and decided to give more rights to women, among many other things. Piety increased throughout Europe, as more and more people flocked to the church. Many people who usually showed little interest in the church became caught up in the passion of others around them, and decided to become crusaders to obtain forgiveness for their sins. As relics were discovered in the Holy Land and brought back to the Christian areas of Europe, there was a resurgence of interest in the church. As Karen Armstrong says in page one of her article, "with the crusades, the West found its soul. It began cultivating its own literary, artistic and spiritual traditions."

The crusades started in 1095, when Pope Urban II called the First Crusade, continued until 1291 at the destruction of Acre, and beyond. They encompassed two centuries and more of Christianity's history, and they cannot simply be swept aside as something that no one wants to talk about. The crusades are a bloody part of Christianity's history, during which thousands of people did not act in a Christ-like fashion. However, though Christians should feel regret for the blood that was spilled in the name of Christ, the crusades were not only the fault of the church. Both the Christians and the Muslims committed atrocious acts during the times of the crusades, and neither side is completely at fault. The church's original purpose for starting the crusades was to protect Christian culture against the Muslim armies, protect the Christians who lived in the Holy Land, and take Jerusalem back for God. Though they accomplished none of these things, many good things happened as a consequence of the crusades. Europe's economy developed, and the lives of many peasants changed for the better. More people started to attend church, and zeal for God increased dramatically. No one can guess how different the world would be today if the crusades had not occurred. Despite all of the terrible things that happened during the crusades, many good things came as a consequence of them.

Bibliography:

Armstrong, Karen. "The Crusades, Even Now." The New York Times Magazine. 1999. 31 October 2009. http://www.nytimes.com/library/magazine/millennium/m4/armstrong.html.

Housley, Norman. Contesting the Crusades. Contesting the Past. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub, 2006.

Housley, Norman. Fighting for the Cross: Crusading to the Holy Land. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008.

Huff, Livingston. "The Crusades and Colonial Imperialism: Some Historical Considerations Concerning Christian-Muslim Interaction and Dialogue." Missiology 32.2 (2004): 141-148. ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials. EBSCO. Web. 31 Oct. 2009.

Johnson, Daniel. "How to Think About the Crusades." Commentary 120.1 (2005): 46-51. ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials. EBSCO. Web. 31 Oct. 2009.

Madden, Thomas F. The New Concise History of the Crusades. Lanham, Md: Rowman & Littlefield: Distributed by National Book Network, 2005.

Madden, Thomas F. "The Real History of the Crusades." The Association for Renaissance Martial Arts. 2001. 31 October 2009. http://www.thearma.org/essays/Crusades.htm

Moosa, Matti. "The Crusades: an Eastern Perspective, with Emphasis on Syriac Sources." Muslim World 93.2 (2003): 249-289. ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials. EBSCO. Web. 31 Oct. 2009.

Riley-Smith, Jonathan Simon Christopher. The Crusades, Christianity, and Islam. The Bampton Lectures in America. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008.

Tyerman, Christopher. God's War: A New History of the Crusades. Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2006.