Charlemagne: A Necessary Evil

All throughout history, people have been fighting, there have been wars and conflicts ever since man has become ‘civilized’ enough to raise an army. And, many, many if not almost all of these conflicts have involved religion in some way or another (Ben-Meir). The question is why, and how, do people use God as justification for fighting and killing one another. Isn’t killing supposed to be wrong in God’s eyes? Whatever happened to ‘Thou shalt not Kill’? And how is it that hundreds of thousands of people have died by the hands of those who call themselves Christians?

The three monotheistic faiths, Islam, Judaism, and Christianity all essentially believe in the same God, whether His name be Allah, Yahweh, or God. They all believe in the same

forefathers like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and have essentially the same principles and beliefs. Admittedly, there are many differences, but the core of their beliefs is the same. Early founders and prophets of all three religions advocate peace and nonviolence. As Jesus instructed his disciples to ‘turn the other cheek’, Muhammad All three of these faiths hold the Hebrew Bible as a sacred writing, which contains the Ten Commandments written by God and given to Moses on Mount Sinai (King James Version: Exodus 20:1–17). The sixth commandment, “Thou shalt not kill” seems pretty straightforward, a believer is not to take the life of another, ever. Period, end of discussion. That’s the way it appears to be in this passage, but yet, one religious leader after another has somehow found room in ‘God’s will’ for violence. How’s that work? When we think of Religious wars, a lot of us automatically think of the Crusades, all those bloody battles that took place in the Holy Roman Empire during the Dark Ages in Europe, and then perhaps ISIS or Al-Qaeda. A number of others come up as well, at least that’s the way it is for me. But has it always been this way? So when did God start telling these people to kill others?
Christianity was outlawed in Rome until Emperor Constantine was converted to Christianity, which later became the official religion of Rome. Europe didn’t become Christianized until it began to be influenced by the Romans and through missionaries. Rulers like the Frankish King Charlemagne also contributed to the spread of Christianity through their conquests and influence on the population.
And while Charlemagne is generally remembered to be a great man, beloved by all, even some of his actions are questionable as to whether or not they were that of a true Christian.

While expanding his empire across Europe, Charlemagne did remember that he was indeed a Christian, and converted many of the tribes he conquered, to Christianity. However, when 4,500 Saxons resisted, they were slaughtered ("Charlemagne"). But, for better or for worse, by 1000 AD Christianity had spread like wildfire throughout most of Europe, and the Catholic Church, who had crowned our friend Charlemagne the Emperor, had risen to power. Meanwhile, the Seljuk Turks had taken Jerusalem and were threatening Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire (“Crusades”). Near the end of the eleventh century, Emperor Alexius wrote a letter to Pope Urban the II that called for the assistance of his fellow Christians in West (“Crusades”). And, Pope Urban, was more than happy to assemble an army for such a worthy cause, and he also hoped that it might improve the relations between the two

churches.
Pope Urban called for a Crusade to take back the Holy Land from the Muslims and promised all those who fought would receive their sins forgiven.

This was enough to convince about 60,000 Europeans, many of them peasants to start on the First Crusade to the Holy Land ("THE CRUSADES TO THE HOLY LAND”). Many of the soldiers who went on the Crusades also hoped to acquire land and riches and return a war hero. This was the first time the Catholic Church had seen penitential warfare- “warfare in the service and defense of the Church for the ‘remission of your sins’”("THE CRUSADES TO THE HOLY LAND”). The whole mentality of the Crusades was to destroy any other beliefs including paganism and Judaism, which lead to all kinds of violence and persecution, with Jews becoming a common target, even entire Jewish communities were slaughtered ("How Christianity Rose to Dominate Europe."). Even the Christians were not safe, as many were killed in settlements along the way. Pope Urban was the one who brought out this idea that it was okay to kill non-Christians, and, even beyond that, IF you went to the Holy Land on a Crusade, you received a free ticket to heaven even if you died there. Does this sound a little bit familiar? Perhaps a little like those who truly believe that they’re gaining salvation by blowing up a group of innocent people along with themselves? Or flying a plane full of passengers into building full of people? Well, the First Crusaders marched to Jerusalem leaving death and

destruction in their wake, and when they finally captured Jerusalem, they slaughtered hundreds of men, women, and children. ("Crusades.”) During the First Crusade, thousands of innocent people were killed, and countless have been killed since because of these kinds of misconceived ideas and misdirected people. The hatred caused by such wars isn’t easily erased, just look at the anti-semitism in Europe that exploded during the holocaust. The complete polarization between Islam and Christianity, The tensions even today between Jews and Christians is apparent in the news as we hear of radical groups, not only of Muslims. Ironically, conflict more often occurred within the religions than between them (Perry). During the Reformation, especially in the Thirty Years War, battles between Christians destroyed parts of Europe, and it is estimated that twenty percent of the German population was killed. (‘Thirty Years War”) Conflict between Muslim Sunnis and Shiites has torn apart the Middle east.
So you can see that perhaps maybe not all of these religious wars were actually corresponding to beliefs and characteristics to that faith. It just so happens that Pope Urban II saw the request of Emperor Alexius as a chance to improve relations between the East and the West ("How Christianity Rose to Dominate Europe." ) So perhaps he thought it necessary to bend the rules just a little. I’d like to say that maybe he truly believed he was acting in God’s will when he declared “Deus “le volt”-God wills it! (THE CRUSADES TO THE HOLY LAND). And assured his followers that they would be saved by going on the Crusades. The way