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 CRUSADES

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CRUSADES

md the Ottoman invasion; IX. The crusade in the Sfteenth century; X. Modifications and survival of
 * he idea of the crusade.

I. Origin of the Crusades. — The origin of theCru- sades is directly traceable to the moral and political 5ondition of Western Christendom in the eleventh jentury. At that time Europe was divided into nu- iierous states whose sovereigns were absorbed in tedious md petty territorial disputes while the emperor, in jig his strength in the quarrel over Investitures. The 3opes alone had maintained a just estimate of Chris- )f Europe were threatened by the Byzantine Empire ind the Mohammedan tribes, and they alone had a 'oreign policy whose traditions were formed under Leo [X and Gregory \Il. The reform effected in the Church and the papacy through the influence of the iionks of Cluny had increased the prestige of the Roman pontiff in the eyes of all Christian nations; lence none but the pope could inaugurate the inter- lational movement that culminated in the Crusades. 3ut despite his eminent authority the pope could lever have persuaded the Western peoples to arm .hemselves for the conquest of the Holy Land had not he immemorial relations between Syria and the West avoured his design. Europeans listened to the voice )f Urban II because their own inclination and historic .raditions impelled them towards the Holy Sepulchre. ?rom the end of the fifth century there had been no jreak in their intercourse with the Orient. In the early ■he religious ideas, art, and culture of the East into the arge cities of Gaul and Italy. The Western Christians n turn journeyed in large numbers to Syria, Palestine, md Egj'pt, either to visit the Holy Places or to follow 3inai. There is still extant the itinerarj- of a pilgrira- ige from Bordeaux to Jerusalem, dated 333 ; in 385 5t. Jerome and St. Paula founded the first Latin mon- isteries at Bethlehem. Even the Barbarian invasion lid not seem to dampen the ardour for pilgrimages » the East. The Itinerary of St. Silvia (Etheria) ihows the organization of these expeditions, which vere directed by clerics and escorted by armed troops. n the year 600, St. Gregory the Great had a hospice erected in Jerusalem for the accommodation of pil- nims, sent alms to the monks of Mount Sinai ("Vita jregorii" in "Acta SS.", March II, 132), and, although he deplorable condition of Eastern Christendom after he Arab invasion rendered this intercourse more diffi-
 * heory the temporal head of Christendom, was wast-
 * ian unity; they realized to what extent the interests
 * !hristian period colonics of Syrians had introduced
 * he ascetic life among the monks of the Thebaid or
 * ult, it did not by any means cease.

As early as the eighth century Anglo-Saxons under- vent the greatest hardships to visit Jerusalem. The ourney of St. Willibald, Bishop of Eichstadt, took even years (722-29) and furnishes an idea of the raricd and severe trials to which pilgrims were subject Itiner. Latina, I, 241-283). After their conquest of he West, the Carlovingians endeavoured to improve he condition of the Latins settled in the East; in 762 'epin the Short entered into negotiations with the Caliph of Bagdad. In Rome, on 30 November, 800, he very day on which Leo III invoked the arbitration if Charlemagne, ambassadors from Haroun al-Raschid lelivered to the King of the Franks the keys of the loly Sepulchre, the banner of Jersualem, and some )recious relics (Einhard, "Annales", ad an. 800, in 'Mon. Germ. Hist.: Script.", I, 187); this was an icknowledgment of the Frankish protectorate over the Christians of Jerusalem. That churches and monas- eries were built at Charlemagne's expense is attested )y a sort of a census of the monasteries of Jerusalem lated 808 (" Commemoratio de Casis Dei" in " Itiner. 3ieros.", I, 209). In 870, at the time of the pilgrim- ige of Bernard the Monk (Itiner. Hierosol., I, 314), iese institutions were still very prosperous, and it has jeen abundantly proved that alms were sent regularly IV.— 35

from the West to the Holy Land. In the tenth cen- tury, just when the political and social order of Europe was most troubled, knights, bishops, and abbots, actuated by devotion and a taste for adventure, were wont to visit Jerusalem and pray at the Holy Sepul- chre without being molested by the Mohammedans. Suddenly, in 1009, Hakem, the Fatimite Caliph of Egypt, in a fit of madness ordered the destruction of the Holy Sepulchre and all the Christian establish- ments in Jerusalem. For years thereafter Christians were cruelly persecuted. (See the recital of an eye- witne,ss, Iahj;l of Antioch, in Schlumberger's "Epo pie byzantine", II, 442.) In 1027 the Frankish pro- tectorate was overthrown and replaced by that of the Byzantine emperors, to whose diplomacy was due the reconstruction of the Holy Sepulchre. The Christian quarter was even surrounded by a wall, and some Amalfi merchants, vassals of the Greek emperors, built hospices in Jerusalem for pilgrims, e. g. the Hos- pital of St. John, cradle of the Order of Hospitallers. Instead of diminishing, the enthusiasm of Western Christians for the pilgrimage to Jerusalem seemed rather to increase during the eleventh century. Not only princes, bishops, and knights, but even men and women of the humbler classes undertook the holy journey (Radulphus Glaber, IV, vi). Whole armies of pilgrims traversed Europe, and in the valley of the Danube hospices were established where they could replenish their provisions. In 1026 Richard, Abbot of Saint- Vannes, led 700 pilgrims into Palestine at the expense of Richard II, Duke of Normandy. In 1065 over 12,000 Germans who had crossed Europe under the command of Giinther, Bishop of Bamberg, while on their way through Palestine had to seek shelter in a ruined fortress, where they defended themselves against a troop of Bedouins (Lambert of Hersfeld, in "Mon. Germ. Hist.: Script.", V, 168). Thus it is evident that at the close of the eleventh century the route to Palestine was familiar enough to Western Christians who looked upon the Holy Sepulchre as the most venerable of relics and were ready to brave any peril in order to visit it. The memory of Charle- magne's protectorate still lived, and a trace of it is to be found in the medieval legend of this emperor's journey to Palestine (Gaston Paris in "Romania", 1880, p. 23). The rise of the Seljukian Turks, however, compromised the safety of pilgrims and even threat- ened the independence of the Byzantine Empire and of all Christendom. In 1070 Jerusalem was taken, and in 1091 Diogenes, the Greek emperor, was de- feated and made captive at Mantzikert. Asia Minor and all of Syria became the prey of the Turks. Anti- och succumbed in 1084, and by 1092 not one of the great metropolitan sees of Asia remained in the pos- session of the Christians. Although separated from the communion of Rome since the schism of Michael Crerularius (1054), the emperors of Constantinople implored the assistance of the popes; in 1073 letters were exchanged on the subject between Michael VII and Gregory VII. The pope seriously contemplated leading a force of 50,000 men to the East in order to re-establish Christian unity, repulse the Turks, and rescue the Holy Sepulchre. But the idea of the crusade constituted only a part of this magnificent i)lan. (The letters of Gregory VII are in P. L., CXLVIII, 300, 325, 329, .386; cf. Riant 's critical discussion in Ar- chives de I'Orient Latin, I. 56.) The conflict over the Investitures in 1076 compelled the pope to abandon his projects ; the Emperors Nicephorus Botaniates and Alexius Coninenus were unfavourable to a religious union with Rome; finally war broke out between the Byzantine Empire and the Normans of the Two Sicilies. It was Pope Urban II who took up the plans of Gregory VII and gave them more definite shape. A letter from Alexius Comnenus to Robert, Count of Flanders, recorded by the chroniclers, Guibert de Nogent ("Historiens Occidentaux des Croisades", od.