THE TRUTH ABOUT THE CRUSADES
Edited
by Hugh Fogelman
The
conflict started in the 600’s C.E. when Arabs conquered the area around the
eastern shore of the
The
word "crusade" (crux in Latin) means "cross.” The call to the Christian faithful for
a "holy crusade" against the Islamic infidels (non-believers
in Christ) was issued by Pope Urban II, on
Pope
Urban II saw an opportunity to win glory for the church and by having a common
foe, would help reduce warfare among European kings and nobles. Those who
joined the great expeditions sewed the symbol of the cross of Jesus on their
outer clothing. This was to be a
Holy War in the name of Jesus. By the following summer, some 200,000 knights,
men-at-arms, priests, thieves, peasants, and artisans had assembled in
During
this time, another event in history was occurring. There was hardly a time
during the Middle Ages when the Jews (also called "INFIDELS") were
not under harsh attack from feudal kings, barons, popes, bishops or preaching
friars. Under the disguise of "religious grounds," those in positions
of power started casting their eyes on the Jews’ money, their homes and their
possessions. This greed was always made to sound highly legal and righteous.
There are number of instances found in old German history books in which the
hatred for the Jew was accompanied by an undisguised love of Jewish money and
for the sake of respectability, was delicately blended with the incense of
faith and Christian morality.
Hatred
of the Jew served as a ready incendiary torch which could be lighted profitably
at all times for the purpose of diverting the attention of the Christian masses
from the misery of their daily lives in their inhumane feudal society. Jews
were once again convenient scapegoats against whom the rulers could incite the
anger of their subjects―an anger which otherwise might be directed
against themselves. The popular image was that the Jew was a son of the
Christian Devil, the Antichrist incarnated, as invented in the New Testament.
The
religious hysteria of the Crusaders mounted under Peter the Hermit's (a
preacher) impassioned verbal anti-Semitic attacks. Peter told his Christian
Knights, since the Jews were as much infidels as the Arabs and since they were
much closer than the Arabs, they might as well begin their "holy crusade
for Christ" by killing Jews along the way―a sure way for the
Crusaders to earn salvation for themselves. This precipitated a genocidal
slaughter of Jews on a staggering scale. First in
The 1st crusade (1096-1099 C.E.) Peter the
Hermit marched towards Constantinople (now Istanbul) with poorly armed and
poorly trained common people and were soon slaughtered by the Turks. He didn’t
wait for the main armies of knights, who were busy slaughtering unarmed Jews.
Separate armies of knights left
After
the First Crusade, deeply shocked by the bestiality of the Knights of the
Cross, Bernard of Clairvaux, in vein, tried to put
out the fires of Jew killings that he himself had helped light. But his pleas
against violence toward the Jews went unheeded. The incitements of his
colleagues in Christianity, Peter of Cluny and the monk Rudolph, successfully
drowned out his moderation voice; the first even declared that death was too
good a punishment for the Jews and that "Heaven had ordained that they be
reserved for great ignominy, for an existence more bitter than death."
Church
records stated that the reason the Church, the emperors, the kings, and other
princes, allowed the Jews to live among the Christians is this: "That they might always live in captivity and
thus be a reminder to all men that they
are descended from the lineage of those who crucified our Lord Jesus Christ."
Thanks to the Gospel of Matthew, this was engraved into their minds.
The 2nd crusade (1147-1149 C.E.) was due to
the fact that the Turks conquered the
The 3rd crusade (1189-1192 C.E.) followed the
Turkish recapture of the city of
The 4th crusade (1201-1204 C.E.) was the last
serious expedition against the Arabs. Pope Innocent III persuaded many French
nobles to take part in this expedition. The crusaders needed ships to take them
across the
The Children's Crusade in 1212 C.E. was not important
to history, just another tragic story. The crusaders were boys and girls
stirred by religious fever to go to the
In the 5th crusade (1217-1221 C.E.) the
Christians captured a town at the mouth of the
After
the atrocities perpetrated on the Jews during the Fifth Crusade, in Europe and
abroad, Pope Gregory IX protested to Saint Louis IX, the king of France, about
the knightly deeds of his Crusaders: "Their
excesses are horrible and outrageous, an offense against God and a dishonor to
the Holy Chair through whose privileges the Jews are protected."
A
few years later, Pope Innocent IV expressed his revulsion for the conduct of
the Knights of the Cross in the
Historic
records show when the massacre was over, 1,300 Jewish bodies of men, women, and
children were carried out of the palace.
The 6th crusade (1228-1229 C.E.) was led by
Emperor Frederick II of the
The 7th crusade (1248-1254 C.E.) was lead by
King Louis IX of
The 8th crusade, in 1270, was again led by
King Louis IX (seeking revenge). He landed his army at
In
the East, the Arabs continued to make gains against the Christians. They
captured
By
this time, Europeans were losing interest in the
As
of that time, the
Reference
Sources:
The
Book of Jewish Knowledge
The
World Book Encyclopedia
Holy
Roman Emperors pope Innocent III
Knights
& Knighthood
Knights
of Saint John Knights of Templars
Louis
IX of
Peter
the Hermit
Philip
II of
Richard
I of
Urban
II