CRUSADES
545
CRUSADES
md the Ottoman invasion; IX. The crusade in the
Sfteenth century; X. Modifications and survival of
- he idea of the crusade.
I. Origin of the Crusades. — The origin of theCru- sades is directly traceable to the moral and political 5ondition of Western Christendom in the eleventh jentury. At that time Europe was divided into nu- iierous states whose sovereigns were absorbed in tedious md petty territorial disputes while the emperor, in
- heory the temporal head of Christendom, was wast-
jig his strength in the quarrel over Investitures. The 3opes alone had maintained a just estimate of Chris-
- ian unity; they realized to what extent the interests
)f Europe were threatened by the Byzantine Empire ind the Mohammedan tribes, and they alone had a 'oreign policy whose traditions were formed under Leo [X and Gregory \Il. The reform effected in the Church and the papacy through the influence of the iionks of Cluny had increased the prestige of the Roman pontiff in the eyes of all Christian nations; lence none but the pope could inaugurate the inter- lational movement that culminated in the Crusades. 3ut despite his eminent authority the pope could lever have persuaded the Western peoples to arm .hemselves for the conquest of the Holy Land had not he immemorial relations between Syria and the West avoured his design. Europeans listened to the voice )f Urban II because their own inclination and historic .raditions impelled them towards the Holy Sepulchre. ?rom the end of the fifth century there had been no jreak in their intercourse with the Orient. In the early
- !hristian period colonics of Syrians had introduced
■he religious ideas, art, and culture of the East into the arge cities of Gaul and Italy. The Western Christians n turn journeyed in large numbers to Syria, Palestine, md Egj'pt, either to visit the Holy Places or to follow
- he ascetic life among the monks of the Thebaid or
3inai. There is still extant the itinerarj- of a pilgrira- ige from Bordeaux to Jerusalem, dated 333 ; in 385 5t. Jerome and St. Paula founded the first Latin mon- isteries at Bethlehem. Even the Barbarian invasion lid not seem to dampen the ardour for pilgrimages » the East. The Itinerary of St. Silvia (Etheria) ihows the organization of these expeditions, which vere directed by clerics and escorted by armed troops. n the year 600, St. Gregory the Great had a hospice erected in Jerusalem for the accommodation of pil- nims, sent alms to the monks of Mount Sinai ("Vita jregorii" in "Acta SS.", March II, 132), and, although he deplorable condition of Eastern Christendom after he Arab invasion rendered this intercourse more diffi-
- ult, it did not by any means cease.
As early as the eighth century Anglo-Saxons under- vent the greatest hardships to visit Jerusalem. The ourney of St. Willibald, Bishop of Eichstadt, took even years (722-29) and furnishes an idea of the raricd and severe trials to which pilgrims were subject Itiner. Latina, I, 241-283). After their conquest of he West, the Carlovingians endeavoured to improve he condition of the Latins settled in the East; in 762 'epin the Short entered into negotiations with the Caliph of Bagdad. In Rome, on 30 November, 800, he very day on which Leo III invoked the arbitration if Charlemagne, ambassadors from Haroun al-Raschid lelivered to the King of the Franks the keys of the loly Sepulchre, the banner of Jersualem, and some )recious relics (Einhard, "Annales", ad an. 800, in 'Mon. Germ. Hist.: Script.", I, 187); this was an icknowledgment of the Frankish protectorate over the Christians of Jerusalem. That churches and monas- eries were built at Charlemagne's expense is attested )y a sort of a census of the monasteries of Jerusalem lated 808 (" Commemoratio de Casis Dei" in " Itiner. 3ieros.", I, 209). In 870, at the time of the pilgrim- ige of Bernard the Monk (Itiner. Hierosol., I, 314), iese institutions were still very prosperous, and it has jeen abundantly proved that alms were sent regularly IV.— 35
from the West to the Holy Land. In the tenth cen-
tury, just when the political and social order of Europe
was most troubled, knights, bishops, and abbots,
actuated by devotion and a taste for adventure, were
wont to visit Jerusalem and pray at the Holy Sepul-
chre without being molested by the Mohammedans.
Suddenly, in 1009, Hakem, the Fatimite Caliph of
Egypt, in a fit of madness ordered the destruction of
the Holy Sepulchre and all the Christian establish-
ments in Jerusalem. For years thereafter Christians
were cruelly persecuted. (See the recital of an eye-
witne,ss, Iahj;l of Antioch, in Schlumberger's "Epo
pie byzantine", II, 442.) In 1027 the Frankish pro-
tectorate was overthrown and replaced by that of the
Byzantine emperors, to whose diplomacy was due the
reconstruction of the Holy Sepulchre. The Christian
quarter was even surrounded by a wall, and some
Amalfi merchants, vassals of the Greek emperors,
built hospices in Jerusalem for pilgrims, e. g. the Hos-
pital of St. John, cradle of the Order of Hospitallers.
Instead of diminishing, the enthusiasm of Western
Christians for the pilgrimage to Jerusalem seemed
rather to increase during the eleventh century. Not
only princes, bishops, and knights, but even men and
women of the humbler classes undertook the holy
journey (Radulphus Glaber, IV, vi). Whole armies
of pilgrims traversed Europe, and in the valley of the
Danube hospices were established where they could
replenish their provisions. In 1026 Richard, Abbot
of Saint- Vannes, led 700 pilgrims into Palestine at the
expense of Richard II, Duke of Normandy. In 1065
over 12,000 Germans who had crossed Europe under
the command of Giinther, Bishop of Bamberg, while
on their way through Palestine had to seek shelter in
a ruined fortress, where they defended themselves
against a troop of Bedouins (Lambert of Hersfeld, in
"Mon. Germ. Hist.: Script.", V, 168). Thus it is
evident that at the close of the eleventh century the
route to Palestine was familiar enough to Western
Christians who looked upon the Holy Sepulchre as the
most venerable of relics and were ready to brave any
peril in order to visit it. The memory of Charle-
magne's protectorate still lived, and a trace of it is to
be found in the medieval legend of this emperor's
journey to Palestine (Gaston Paris in "Romania",
1880, p. 23). The rise of the Seljukian Turks, however,
compromised the safety of pilgrims and even threat-
ened the independence of the Byzantine Empire and
of all Christendom. In 1070 Jerusalem was taken,
and in 1091 Diogenes, the Greek emperor, was de-
feated and made captive at Mantzikert. Asia Minor
and all of Syria became the prey of the Turks. Anti-
och succumbed in 1084, and by 1092 not one of the
great metropolitan sees of Asia remained in the pos-
session of the Christians. Although separated from
the communion of Rome since the schism of Michael
Crerularius (1054), the emperors of Constantinople
implored the assistance of the popes; in 1073 letters
were exchanged on the subject between Michael VII
and Gregory VII. The pope seriously contemplated
leading a force of 50,000 men to the East in order to
re-establish Christian unity, repulse the Turks, and
rescue the Holy Sepulchre. But the idea of the crusade
constituted only a part of this magnificent i)lan. (The
letters of Gregory VII are in P. L., CXLVIII, 300,
325, 329, .386; cf. Riant 's critical discussion in Ar-
chives de I'Orient Latin, I. 56.) The conflict over the
Investitures in 1076 compelled the pope to abandon
his projects ; the Emperors Nicephorus Botaniates and
Alexius Coninenus were unfavourable to a religious
union with Rome; finally war broke out between the
Byzantine Empire and the Normans of the Two
Sicilies. It was Pope Urban II who took up the plans
of Gregory VII and gave them more definite shape.
A letter from Alexius Comnenus to Robert, Count of
Flanders, recorded by the chroniclers, Guibert de
Nogent ("Historiens Occidentaux des Croisades", od.
