The Pros And Cons Of The Crusades

The crusades for the most part, are largely misunderstood. The Crusaders were not gullible, or stupid to travel so far, but rather, patriots for Christ. Although Europe was left in poor hands, they were still cheered on. The crusades were, in fact, triggered by Muslim aggression.

The first of three points is this: the crusaders fought primarily for the cause of Christ. Unlike Islam, the Christians had no well-defined concept of holy war in the middle ages. Christ had no need for an army. The word ‘crusade’ actually comes from the Latin ‘cruce signati’ which translates those signed by the cross‘’. The knights and nobles of the crusades went, not because the Pope commanded them, but out of a true necessity to liberate the lands of their savior. The thought that God would bless them with victory as He had done long ago for His people, where they not His people as well? Would God, not dispel the infidel Turks as He had scattered the Philistines long ago? Yes, these were some of the most faithful Christians you could meet. They were going to die for what they thought was God’s will. That is simply dumbfounding (Madden 2).

My second of three points is: the crusades were not cheap.

At first, this doesn’t sound like much of a problem, after all, weren’t the crusaders mostly nobles and knights? Actually the antithesis is true; the majority of the crusaders were relatively poor. But because of this they were able to simply get up and go whereas the nobility had to wait and prepare for the journey. Though they thought that they were to be protected by God the crusades, more often than not, were a one way trip. This simple fact had a tendency to split families with grief (Nicholson 143). The crusades didn’t only go on in the east, there were also crusades against pagans, heretics, and enemies of the

church.
The third and final point that I’ll make is this: Muslim aggression mainly triggered the crusades. Like the Reconquista, in Spain, the crusades began as a result of Muslim conquest of Christian territories. The Muslims started a thing called jihad, or holy war, the Byzantines thought that ‘holy war’ would have been a good excuse for re-taking the lands of Anatolia, which had been taken from them by the Turks. Byzantinum was under attack and needed military assistance, fast (Madden 27). What reason had the Turks for this conquest? The answer is the Mongols. In around 1260 A.D., the Mongols invaded the Seljuk sultanate. Completely shattering it into smaller, more easily conquered divisions. The Mongols brought to Islam eastern ideas which were neither appreciated nor accepted. The Muslim Turks frequently attacked Christians while fighting among themselves. The Seljuk Turks drove the Mongols out of the Middle East. They were united under Saladin. The Muslims, Sunni or Shiite, were out to make people convert or die.
As we have seen, the crusades were at the fault of the Muslims and that the crusaders had produced an all-out sense of synthetic vigour when it came to the topic of protecting the Holy Land. These men were ready to lay their lives on the line for what they thought was God’s plan. Just as any true patriot will die for the freedom of his country. The crusaders gave their lives for Christ. I challenge you to give your lives to Christ. Share the good news of Christ to all nations.