The strive for power is often done at the expense of the lives of others. This idea is largely seen throughout history but is more specifically seen in the popes’ crave for power during the Crusades. The Crusades were a series of military campaigns from 1095 to the end of the 13th century that were religiously aimed at taking back the Holy Land from Islamic rule. The Crusades started when the Byzantine Empire was losing territory to the Turks, who was starting to gain control of Anatolia, the main population of the empire. To solve this, the Byzantine Empire asked Pope Urban II for troops from the West to help defeat the Turkish threats. As a result, Urban II made a speech to the Western Christians about reclaiming the Holy Land from Muslim …show more content…
control, which ended up receiving tremendous responses from citizens ― thus starting the first Crusade. The knights, lords, kings, and the popes would be the ones to participate in this Crusade, each having a different motivation. Although some may argue that the popes were religiously motivated to fight in the Crusades because they wanted to reunite the two branches of Christianity, in fact, they were predominantly motivated because the popes wanted to reduce the population and assert rule over secular rulers and others. The fact that Pope Urban II used the Crusades to help reduce Europe’s excessive population helps to convey how the pope’s primary motivation to fight in the Crusades was political. Before the Crusades, during the High Middle Ages, destructive invasions such as the Vikings started to lessen, thus establishing a sense of peace throughout Europe. As a result, Europe quickly repopulated, and the population started to get exceedingly large. To resolve this problem, Pope Urban II decided to use the Crusades as a way of reducing the population through deaths. He realized using the Crusades would help, “reduce Europe’s surplus population, not only through combat deaths but also through resettlement in the East, and they would give Europe’s knightly class something to do.” hence indicating how Urban II wanted to use the Crusades for political purposes by reducing the population through combat deaths and resettlement (Document E). By using the Crusades to help give people tasks, the pope was easily able to convince the people into going to war, consequently causing a decrease in the population after the many lives lost in doing this. Furthermore, by persuading the people to fight in the Crusades, there would also be a possibility of them resettling in the East, which once again helped the pope solve his problem of the exceeding population. Therefore, the fact that Pope Urban II used the Crusades to his advantage as a way to reduce the population proves how the popes were politically motivated to fight in the Crusades. The popes making secular rulers and others submissive under him through the use of the Crusades indicates how the popes were politically motivated to participate in the Crusades.
As a pope of the Western Empire, Pope Urban II wanted more power over earthly rulers, such as kings and noble vassals. This conflict was known as the Investiture Controversy, which was the struggle of power between the Pope and the political system. This controversy started after the Kings had intruded the pope’s sacred right to run his own business by picking the men who constituted the church. As a result, in order to gain more papal authority over the kings, Urban II decided to shift “the theatre of action in this political conflict to an arena where medieval kings had traditionally reigned supreme, the battlefield. In doing so, Urban usurped the prerogative most secular rulers had claimed traditionally to declare an enemy and muster troops for battle,” conveying how Pope Urban II used the Crusades to assert more authority over the secular rulers by claiming their prerogative of declaring an enemy and mustering troops for battle (Crusades). Through these actions, Pope Urban II was able to boost his position and take control of the battlefield, despite the fact that it was originally meant to be ruled by kings. Moreover, another pope who wanted to assert papal authority over others was Innocent III, who during the Fourth Crusade, wanted to, “impose a Christian monarchy over the whole of the known world. He had long wanted the Eastern Orthodox Church to bow to the authority of Rome,” thereby indicating how like Urban II, Innocent III had also used the Crusades to his political advantage as a way to take control of the Eastern Orthodox Church (Crusades). Innocent III had realized, by using the Crusades, he would be able to gain papal leadership not just over kings, but also over papal leadership in the East as well, thus causing this to serve as a motivation for him in the Crusades. By
gaining papal leadership, Innocent III would have more power and authority over others, therefore making people submissive under his rule. Overall, the fact that both Innocent III and Urban II had both used the Crusades to assert more authority over others shows how the popes were consistently politically motivated to fight in the Crusades. Although one may argue that the primary motivation of the popes in the Crusades was to unite the two branches of Christianity, in fact, it was not, because instead of uniting the church, Pope Innocent III used most of the Crusades to kill the Cathar Christians. During the eighth to ninth century, power in the papal authority had become weak. As a result, Pope Gregory VII spent his reign too preoccupied with reasserting the authority of the church to respond to pleas from Constantinople for aid. However, although he was busy, Pope Gregory VII still kept alive the hope of reuniting the two branches of Christianity through the use of the Crusades. In 1198, Pope Innocent III decided to act on Pope Gregory VII’s plan and, “call for another Crusade. He hoped that this would help stop the quarreling between the two Christian Churches: the western Catholic Church based in Rome and the eastern (or Greek Orthodox) Church in Constantinople,” hence showing how one of Pope Innocent III’s prime motivations was uniting the branches of Christianity (The Crusades). By having the Byzantines and the Romans fight together in the Crusades. Pope Innocent III would be able to unify them under one common cause ― to regain the Holy Land ― and stop the feud between both branches. However, while this is true, Pope Innocent III instead used most of the Crusades not to unite the branches, but to instead kill the Cathars. The Cathars, a type of Christian, believed that only the poor were Christ’s true followers, and had refused to believe that priests and bishops offered a path to salvation. Innocent III believed that the Cathars were heretics, and was determined to wipe them out through the Crusades. Therefore, Innocent III, “called a crusade, urging Christians throughout Europe to rid Christendom of the Cathars...Their goal was mass murder. Not a single inhabitant of the town was spared. This genocide against the Cathars and others whom the pope saw as heretics lasted for twenty years,” conveying how instead of trying to unite the Christians together, Innocent III instead simply tried to put an end to a part of Christianity (Origins of the Crusades). The fact that Innocent III spent twenty years trying to kill the Cathars displays how his primary motivation was actually killing the Cathars, and not uniting the two branches. Furthermore, the inconsistency of Innocent III’s motivations throughout the Fourth Crusade also shows how the pope’s prime motivation was not always to unite the branches. Therefore, the Fourth Crusade does not reflect Innocent III’s religious motivation of uniting the two branches, but rather his true motivation of using the Crusades to kill the Cathars. Overall, even though the popes used the hope of unifying the two branches of Christianity as a religious motivation to fight in the Crusades, the popes also used the Crusades to minimize the endlessly growing population and to gain power over earthly rulers, suggesting that the popes were ultimately more politically motivated than religious. Pope Urban II perceived the Crusades as a chance to kill off/resettle some of the exceeding population, thus at the same time, giving people purpose. Additionally, he and Innocent III had also utilized the Crusades as a way of gaining more power and authority over others, while also increasing their papal leadership. Although the Crusades may have been used to unite the two branches of Christianity, it was overall instead used to wipe out the Cathars. Ultimately, the Crusades displays how power can influence one to act in certain corrupt ways, such as declaring a war and risking the lives of many just to gain the power to benefit oneself. Power can cause one to focus on their own desires, rather than others, despite the fact that they may be affecting others at people’s expense. The Crusades also relates to modern society today, where leaders who strive for power engage in corrupt behaviors such as bribes, and hacking the system to gain power. Moreover, the Crusades also conveys how there is always another motive at hand, and how leaders can get away with many things since the followers would believe that the behaviors the leaders are engaging in are for the greater good―not realizing it is actually for the leader’s own benefit.
Foss explains, “What Urban needed was an enterprise, clearly virtuous in serving the ends of Christiandome… in these moments of reflection, the popes mind turned towards Jerusalem.” Urban II reflects back on the first taking of the Holy City after the defeat of the Byzantine Empire in 1071, and begins to question what his people know about the Turkish race and really the ideology of Islamic thought. Foss goes on to examine the ignorance of westerners and needed to be “reminded [by the pope] of the infamous heathens, their cruelty and hatred of Christians,” hoping this would justify the first Holy Crusade. However, Foss identifies the creativity of the Pope’s language to persuade the knights and army of the people to embark on the Holy Crusade based on the Muslims cruel actions turned onto their fellow Christians. Claiming the Muslims “Killed captives by torture…poor captives were whipped…and others were bound to the post and used as a target for arrows.” Foss examines the Popes words as an effective effort of persuasion in creating an army of crusaders to help clean “…Holy places, which are now treated with ignominy and polluted with Filthiness” and any sacrifice in Jerusalem is a “promise of a spiritual reward… and death for
After hearing about Pope Urban II’s pronouncement, huge amounts of people are now moving across Europe! However, most of these first responders seem to be religious people as opposed to lords and knights. Since taking back the Holy Land is not as important to these knights and lords, it is understandable that they haven’t been rushing to fight.
The First Crusade is often cited as one of the most damnable consequences of religious fanaticism. A careful inspection of the circumstances and outcomes, however, will reveal a resultant political restructuring of Europe under the banner of Christendom. The purpose of this investigation is to investigate Pope Urban II’s motives in initiating the First Crusade, with a particular focus on the consolidation of the Western Church’s influence in Europe. Among the primary sources that will be consulted are the letter sent by Patriach Alexios of Constantinople to Urban, and an account of Urban’s speech at Clermont. Relevant excerpts from both of these primary sources, as well as contextual evidence and a wide array of historiography, will be taken
In document 1 by Pope Urban II, he stated that the Christians in the west should defend their fellow brethren in the east. He went on to state that Romania had been conquered and had to be taken back from the Turks and Arabs. The subjects had to fight for the land that they stand on to continue being good Christians. If you died fighting for this, you would get instant remission of sins, meaning you would be forgiven for all of their sins. He was the Pope; therefore, he stood on a different level than his subjects, and did not know how they felt about this matter. He had absolute power over everyone as the leader of their religion. In document 2 by Ekkehard in his book Hierosolymita, he praises the speech that Pope Urban gave in 1095 and told of how it le...
Kings often struggled with the Church over power and land, both trying desperately to obtain them, both committing atrocities to hold onto them. Time and time again, the Popes of the postclassical period went to great extremes to secure the Church’s position in the world. Both the Crusades and the Inquisition are examples of this. D...
Both the Crusaders and the Muslims wanted power. In contradiction the church wanted to reunite Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire with the Roman Catholic Empire giving the Church extra power. Baldwin of Boulogne is a key example in portraying the Crusader’s quest for power; splitting off from the rest of the army and traveling east until he reached Armenian where he would establish himself as ruler. Like Boulogne, Bohemond of Taranto also abandoned the majority to better his own personal status—he took over as Prince of Antioch. Through these two prominent figures we see that power was a necessity to the leaders of this era; and unfortunately the people look up to their leaders and do likewise. However, if these Crusaders were fighting for “religious factors” then they would recognize that God holds the ultimate power and they are nothing without him. But these power hungry individuals obviously lacked humility...
In the perspective of the Pope if the land is won over he gains more authority, wealth, and property. The Crusade for the Pope was more of the land then the ideology. The spiritual preference was the way of manipulating the people into agreeing and joining.
When Pope Urban II called for a Crusade to liberate Jerusalem from Muslim forces and also to aid the Byzantine Empire which was under Muslim attack both Permit the Hermit and Godfrey of Bouillon volunteered to be in the crusade in order to help the crusaders take back the Holy Land and Liberate it and to assist the Byzantine Empire. They both led people in the Crusade and went into battle. This meant that they had to kill people if they ever wanted to control the areas they were trying to take over. Both of their men would capture towns and cities that they come across and eliminated everybody in it until they reach Jerusalem and capture
During the Crusades, the Pope’s aspiration for power originated from political reasons. In 1095, there were many problems in the Christian land the Pope couldn’t do much about. For example, there was a great deal of fighting between knights and nobles, and the Pope had very little power (Visual, NA). When the Church tried to reform it by ordering a truce, it did not work. So when the Pope saw the holy land was controlled by Muslims that did not allow them to go there, he decided to use that as a way to restore order in the Church (Crusades, NA). He knew it would solve the problems he was faced with because it would send all the fighting knights away to war, and if they captured Jerusalem he would have control over the most sought out land, giving him power (Crusades, NA). He knew that many knights won’t want to leave the land when they can claim the land that another knight left when they went to war. So to ensure more knights’ participation, he promises remissions from all sins committed. However, the Pope knew he must convince more people than just knight to win Jerusalem and that reason is what Urban states in his speech. “Or rather the Lord, beseech you as Chris...
The significance of Pope Urban II’s role in the First Crusade has been debated amongst historians. Monks and Clerics dominated literature in Europe during 1095-1120 and therefore their testimony emphasised upon the religious impact of Pope Urban in conceiving the expedition of the crusades often holding him up as a man of great significance. However, this is one perspective of the significance of Pope Urban between 1095-1120 but some Historians have attempted to broaden their research and use different methodology to investigate this perspective and thus have drawn a range of conclusions and created different interpretations of the First Crusade and the significance of Pope Urban II and the Papal response. Thomas Asbridge’s overall interpretation is that the First Crusade was an attempt for Pope Urban II to seek Church reform by expanding their power and to unite all Christians as there has been tension between
In order for the crusades to begin, the Christians needed to gather an army to travel and fight the forces of Muslims. With all the power being held by monarchies at this time, the church needed to be cleaver in order to gain troops to put their lives on the line. To gain the support of these warriors and dedication of men, Pope Urban II (1088-1099) challenged those morals of men by telling them to grab their weapons and join the holy war to recover the land of Jerusalem. It was not the challenge that convinced men to take part in this war. The promise of “immediate remission of sins” attracted the men to stand up for their religion and beliefs while at the same time, promising them a trip to heaven when life comes to an end. With this statement, men instantly prepared for battle which in a very short period of time gave the church power which has been held by the monarchies. Men of rich and poor prepared for battle, some wearing ...
Pope Urban beckoned for the Christian people to take back the holy land only on the values that he set in the recollections, “The Call for Crusade” whereas the values are pretty much broken when the crusaders sack the Christian city of Constantinople from “Annals” Pope Urban was under minded ultimately by the Christian warriors and leaders.
In the 11th century, Christianity underwent many changes. The church split in 1054, after many years of lack of communication between the east and west. The church also had many problems on its own, where power-hungry, greedy popes and bishops ruled the church. This continued in 1095, when Pope Urban II preached the First Crusade to aid emperor Alexius and the Byzantines against the Turks. This was a call from God to aid the Christian Byzantines against the “enemies of Christ”--those who were not Christian and were living in the Holy Land--but in reality, was only a move for power. The Crusades were caused primarily by the desire for political and economic gain.
Vanessa Brake says the same thing. “Pope Urban II launched the First Crusade by calling upon his fellow Christians to reclaim the Holy City of Jerusalem, and to seek revenge on the followers of Islam, whom he accused of committing horrendous crimes against Christendom”. These men for whatever reason; selfishness, self-glory, riches, power, fear, godly power, took up the cross to the Holy Land to fight the foreign threat.
...f Pope Urban II. The Turks were expanding their land into the Catholic Church reach; this new fear of even more land loss to the Turks as well as the ideal of claiming Jerusalem for the Catholic Church lead to the start of the First Crusade a “Holy War.” This land never belonged to any European country, yet the Church deemed it fit for the European countries to capture it as well as the lands in between. Pope Urban II called back all the churches bishops and abbots back to Vatican. Once these religious leaders returned back to the Vatican, the Pope made a decree to them, “‘Concerning this Affair, I, with Suppliant prayer – not I, but the Lord – exhort you, heralds of Christ, to persuade all of whatever class, both knight and footmen, both rich and poor, in numerous edicts, to strive to help expel that wicked face from our Christian lands before it is too late.’”