The Primary Purpose Of The First Crusade

The Primary Purpose of the First Crusade

The history of the Crusades in the early parts of the 11th century is one that was filled with battles fraught with much adversity and hardship, along with their shares of success in accomplishing the church’s goal of reclaiming as much control over the Holy Land as possible. The First Crusade is no exception to this. This campaign had a very specific objective laid out by the church, which was successfully accomplished and equally brought some control back to the church as future crusades did. However, in order to obtain the outcome that this crusade ultimately had, the Christian knights sent from the Roman Catholic Church would have to massacre the city’s Muslim and Jewish population and fight to regain the city back from Muslim control. In addition, there was a general sentiment that “Christendom [was] excessively trampled upon by all” and that the faith was being disregarded and unfairly treated by those who were against it, such as the Muslim population. Therefore, it is fair to reason that the first crusade was primarily about freeing Jerusalem from the grips of Muslim rule and returning it back to the rule of the Roman Catholic Church. Due to the sacred significance of Jerusalem to the Christian faith, the urgency of relinquishing and freeing the city from Muslim rule was the primary objective that the first crusade successfully fought for.

In Christianity, Jerusalem was (and still is) a revered and sacred city that held significant meaning to the faith. As one source puts it, “its name resonates in the hearts of Christians, Jews, and Muslims alike and echoes through centuries of shared and disputed history.” There is much to say about how Jerusalem is significant to the Christ...

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...ders prevailed at the end, overtook the Muslims in Jerusalem, and the holy city was once again was back in the rule of Pope Urban II and the Church.

As seen, the primary purpose of the first crusade was to reclaim the holy city of Jerusalem back to the Church. The Church had made a statement in the first crusade, sending a message to everyone that they would not stand down for what they wanted and would respond accordingly to claim what rightly belongs to the Christian faith. Many people who had sacrificed their lives fighting for what they believed in paved the way for victory and did not die in vain. At the end, Jerusalem may have found favor with people of rival faiths, but was always in the sight of the Church and from the start was always destined to rightly belong to it, no matter what circumstances or turmoil took place that tried to say or prove otherwise.