The Glory of the Crusades (7 page)

Wars of Conversion?

A final brief clarification is in order. Despite the belief of modern-day critics, the Crusades were not wars of conversion comparable to those that had helped Islam spread by the sword. Indeed, engaging in warfare simply for the conversion of others was never a criterion for just war, nor does the historical record indicate that this is what motivated the Crusaders. For the individual Muslim, conversion to Christianity was (and still is) rare and dangerous; any such conversions were only a subsidiary benefit to the Crusaders, who saw their expeditions primarily as defensive, just, holy wars designed to reclaim Christian territory from the hands of aggressive and harassing Muslims. “The Crusaders weren’t fighting in the East to save the souls of unbelievers or to extend the bounds of the Christian religion. They fought to win salvation for themselves and to recover or defend sites that were sacred to their faith.”
112

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Urban's speech at the council of Clermont in November 1095 gave birth to the Crusading movement that would span several centuries in the life of the Church. The Crusades began in the Church, were fostered by the Church, and were fought by baptized warriors who loved the Church. Urban pleaded with the knights of medieval Europe to embark on an armed pilgrimage to liberate the Holy City of Jerusalem. The story of those who responded is one of great drama, adventure, miracles, and divine protection.

42
Indeed, there are five different schools of historians, each advocating a different definition of the Crusades. The Generalists believe any Christian religious war fought for God was a Crusade. The Popularists think a Crusade was an eschatological expression of the people. The Traditionalists view only those expeditions launched toward Jerusalem or for its recovery as Crusades. The Pluralists posit that the Crusades were not discrete campaigns but rather continuous expeditions throughout the world. Finally, the Traditional-Pluralists believe the eight traditionally numbered Crusades to the Holy Land and Egypt assist in understanding the general movement but also acknowledge the Crusades took on different forms and encompassed many regions.

43
Jonathan Riley-Smith, “The Crusading Movement and Historians,”
The
Oxford Illustrated History of the Crusades,
ed. Jonathan Riley-Smith, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), 8.

44
Tyerman,
Debate
, 77. In the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries the terms “holy war” and “war of the cross” were used to describe the Crusades.

45
The words are from Pope Pius II (r. 1458–1464), the only pope to actually take the Crusader vow. Norman Housley, “Pope Pius II and Crusading,”
Crusades
, vol. 11, The Society for the Study of the Crusades and the Latin East, (Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2012), 221. Other terms used were
iter
(journey),
expeditio
(expedition), and
peregrinatio
(pilgrimage).

46
Riley-Smith,
The Crusades
, xxxi.

47
Ibid., 15.

48
These ingredients are defined in Jonathan Riley-Smith,
What Were the Crusades?
, (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2002), 2–3.

49
Jonathan Riley-Smith,
The Crusades
, 15.

50
Jonathan Riley-Smith,
The Crusades, Christianity, and Islam,
4.

51
Ibid., 5.

52
Tom Holland,
In the Shadow of the Sword—The Birth of Islam and the Rise of Global Arab Empire,
(New York: Doubleday, 2012), loc. 952. Kindle edition.

53
A professor at the University of Münster has recently opined that Mohammed is a figure of myth. See Holland, loc. 764.

54
Ibid., loc. 721. Kindle edition.

55
The opinion of a sixth-century Christian as quoted in Holland,
In the Shadow of the Sword,
loc. 3792. Kindle edition.

56
It was reported that they drank their victims’ blood during battle. See Holland,
In the Shadow of the Sword
, loc. 3800. Kindle edition.

57
Holland,
In the Shadow of the Sword
, loc. 3800. Kindle edition.

58
Ibn Ishaq,
The Life of Muhammad: A Translation of Ibn Ishaq’s Sirat Rasul Allah
, trans. A. Guillaume (Oxford University Press, 1955), 106. Quoted in Robert Spencer,
The Truth about Muhammad—Founder of the World’s Most Intolerant Religion
(Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 2006), 42.

59
For the numbers of raids see Ibn Ishaq in Tom Holland,
The Forge of Christendom—The End of Days and the Epic Rise of the West
(New York: Doubleday, 2008), 424. For the name of Mohammed’s sword see Holland,
The Forge of Christendom
, 82.

60
Holland,
In the Shadow of the Sword
, loc. 5623. Kindle edition.

61
Salih Muslim in Holland,
In the Shadow of the Sword
, loc. 64. Kindle edition.

62
Muhammad ibn Umar al-Waqidi,
Kitab al-Maghazi
, vol. 3 (London: Oxford University Press, 1966), 1113. Quoted in Efraim Karsh,
Islamic Imperialism—A History
(New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2006), 19.

63
Qur’an 9.29.

64
See Qur’an quote in Karsh, 19.

65
Holland,
The Forge of Christendom
, 237. The church was rebuilt in 1048 and then renovated and expanded by the Crusaders after the liberation of Jerusalem.

66
Ibid., 235.

67
Ibid., 236.

68
Yahya ibn Said, ed. And trans. Ignati Kratchkovsky and Alexander Vasiliev, in
Patrologia Orientalis
, ed. René Graffin and François Nau (Paris, 1907–), 23:502–12. Quoted in Andrew Jotischky, “The Christians of Jerusalem, the Holy Sepulchre and the Origins of the First Crusade,”
Crusades
, vol. 7, The Society for the Study of the Crusades and the Latin East (Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2008), 45.

69
Jonathan Sumption,
Age of Pilgrimage—The Medieval Journey to God
(Mahwah, NJ: HiddenSpring Books, 2003), 257–258.

70
Hilaire Belloc,
The Crusades—the World’s Debate
(Rockford, IL: TAN Books and Publishers, Inc., 1992 reprint), 17. René Grousset considers the loss at Manzikert “one of the worst disasters in European history.” See Grousset,
The Epic of the Crusades
, trans. Noel Lindsay (New York: Orion Press, 1970), 3.

71
Jonathan Riley-Smith,
The Oxford Illustrated History of the Crusades
, 1.

72
There are five different accounts of Urban’s speech, all written well after the event, although it is probable that most of the authors were present or at least compiled their version of the speech from those who were present. The five authors are Fulcher of Chartres, who was present at Clermont but did not write his account until 1101; Robert the Monk, who wrote his account in 1107 and may have been present; Baldric of Dol, who may have been present, wrote his account c. 1108–1110; Guibert of Nogent, who may have been present, wrote his work in 1109; William of Malmesbury, who was not present at Clermont, wrote his work in 1129.

73
Jonathan Riley-Smith,
The First Crusaders, 1095–1131
(Cambridge University Press, 1997), 33.

74
Robert the Monk,
Historia Hierosolymitana
, in
The First Crusade—The Chronicle of Fulcher of Chartres and Other Source Material
, ed. Edward Peters, (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998), 28.

75
Robert the Monk, in Peters, 27.

76
Canon of the Council of Clermont in Peters, 37.

77
Pope Bl. Urban II,
Letter to His Supporters in Bologna
in Peters, 44.

78
Christopher Tyerman,
God’s War—A New History of the Crusades
(Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press: 2006), 32–35.

79
Ex. 15:3

80
See 1 Sam. 15:3 and 2 Macc. 15:27–28.

81
John 18:11, Matt. 26:51, and Luke 22:51.

82
For Jesus’ acknowledgement of the centurion’s faith, Matt. 8:5–13; Luke 7:2–9. For the centurion at the Cross, Matt. 27:54, Mark 15:39, and Luke 23:47.

83
Acts 10.

84
Sts. Sebastian and Mercurius are two examples.

85
Aristotle,
Politics,
Books I & VII.

86
Tyerman,
God’s War
, 32.

87
Catechism of the Catholic Church
, 2309.

88
Tyerman,
God’s War
, 35.

89
Jonathan Riley-Smith,
The Crusades
, 13.

90
See Humbert of Romans, “
Sermo I ad peregrinos crucesignatos
,” in
Crusade Propaganda
, ed. Maier, 212 in Jonathan Riley-Smith,
The Crusades, Christianity, and Islam
, 40.

91
Tyerman,
God’s War
, 75.

92
John France, “Patronage and the Appeal of the First Crusade” in
The Crusades—The Essential Readings
, ed. Madden, 195–196.