The Crusades Causes

The Crusades were a series attacks against the Muslim people in Jerusalem in an effort to take back the Holy Land. The causes of the Crusades are highly debated, but religious devotion is the obvious cause for Pope Urban the Second to call upon the Crusades. The religious reasons that lead to the creation of the Crusades is that the Christians wanted to take back Jerusalem, add another reason. The economical and political reasons that could oppose the religious reasons are that the Crusades were caused because people wanted to gain more riches and possessions and that Pope Urban wanted to protect the Byzantine empire from the Seljuk Turks. Although the economical and political reasons were the causes of the Crusades, the religious reasons

have proved to be the main contributors to the creation of the seven Crusades.

The Crusades The Holy Land held great value to the Christian religion because it was where Jesus was born and where he lived and died. Pope Urban greatly stressed the fact that the Christians should sacrifice their lives in order to serve God in the Crusades. Incentives such as the remission of sins, eternal life in heaven, and the chance to gain more land, were introduced to motivate more Christians into reclaiming Jerusalem. Pope Urban had announced in the council of Clermont, “Accordingly undertake this journey for the remission of your sins, with the assurance of the imperishable glory of the Kingdom of heaven”. He also went to great lengths, as to exaggerate the Seljuk Turks’ actions to the Christians in able to stir other Christians to battle in the Crusades. Through the urgency of Pope Urban to reclaim Jerusalem, and the incentives that are being given to Christians, it blatantly proves that religious devotion was the main cause in the creation of the Crusades.

The Crusades were believed to have bore special religious benefits for the Christians and it was a huge cause of the Crusades. Pope Urban had announced that any Christian that took part in the Crusades were to be forgiven for their sins, even if they succeeded or died on the journey. It raised the popularity of the Crusades immensely, and it encouraged many Western European countries to participate in the Crusades. When Pope Urban first proposed the idea of a Crusade in the council of Clermont, he introduced incentives such as remission of sins and that you could get more land by going in the Crusades. Pope Urban obviously needed a lot of knights and the forgiveness of sins proved to attract more people than the possibility of gaining land. Ekkeherd, a monk and German historian, wrote about the unity of Christians through Pope Urban’s promise for the remission of sins, “(After Urban had aroused there spirits of all by the promise of forgiveness to those who undertook the expedition with single hearted devotion,) toward one hundred thousand men were appointed to the immediate service of God from Aquitaine and Normandy, England, Scotland, Ireland, Brittany, Galicia…”. Pope Urban needed knights to commence the Crusades, and the forgiveness of sins was the huge cause, which made the Crusades a reality. Religious devotion proved to be a gargantuan factor to the causes of the Crusades, and it was the impetus that allowed the Crusades to happen.

An economical reason for the Crusades which could oppose this religious reason, is that the Crusades were caused because people wanted to seek more possessions and riches.

Although it is seen as a cause of the Crusades, it is rather a source of inspiration and motivation for the Christians to take part in the Crusades. It was not going to achieve much for the Western Christian churches, but only to benefit the Crusaders. An observation written by a Muslim noble, Usmah Ibn Munqidh, during the Frank’s arrival near Acre in Israel proves that new lands and possessions were just personal desires. He writes about how the Franks arrived in near Acre on ships and that they promised him and the Muslims safe conduct, but instead destroyed their ships and stole their possessions. They were meant to only pass through Acre to reach Jerusalem, but decided to pillage the region for their own benefit. It proves that the possibility of gaining riches and land in the Crusades was only a motivation to stir the Christians into joining the Crusades, and that it steered the Crusaders off their objective of reaching

Jerusalem.

The need for military support from the Byzantine empire was also a factor which caused the formation of the Crusades, but it was not the main cause.

The Byzantine empire was under attack from the Seljuk Turks and Alexius Comnenus, the emperor of the Byzantine empire, required help from Western Europe. Knights were sent for support, but during the Fourth Crusade, defending the Byzantine empire was not made an important priority, and the Crusaders therefore pillaged Constantinople for their own benefit. Pope Innocent the Third was outraged to hear that the Crusaders destroyed Constantinople, saying in the reprimand of papal legate, “It was your duty to attend to the business of your legation and to give careful consideration, not to the capture of the Empire of Constantinople, but rather to the defense of what is left of the Holy Land…”. Through the quote, it is proved that defending the Holy Land was a higher priority than attacking the Byzantine empire. Furthermore, Pope Innocent the Third did not mention that defending the Byzantine empire was the Crusaders’ ‘business of their legation’ and therefore means that the cause is very trivial, or it has been neglected. Although defending the Byzantine empire was a cause of the Crusades, it did not last long and did not contribute much to the creation of the other

Crusades.