CHRISTIANITY Welcome to our Christianity webpage, part of Dr. Gowler's Religion 100 class. Here you will find insightful writing about several aspects of Christianity. Please use the tabs below to navigate. This webpage was created by Adnan Rashid, Sharmin Shariff, Jacob Gise, and Niel Kuttappan. HOME           Christianity first became a prominent religion during the Middle Ages. By 1200 C.E., there were only a few places left in Europe that were non-Christian. The fact that this new religion “preached a gospel of mercy and hope, offered divine help, promised an afterlife, treated the sick, and aided the poor,” led to its rapid growth (Molloy, 380). Christianity is based on having faith in a man named Jesus and following the works of his teachings. “During the fourth and fifth centuries and thereafter,” the growing number of “Christians all over Europe made pilgrimages to visit the lands where Jesus had lived and died, and the Emperors Constantine and Justinian had built churches there to encourage this practice” (Molloy, 383) However, the freedom and ability to make these pilgrimages would not last forever.           “Muslims took control of Jerusalem in the eighth century, and by the eleventh century, Christian pilgrimage had become severely restricted.” (Molloy, 383) This was seen as a severe problem to Christians; they needed a solution that guaranteed their safety in their pilgrimages to the “Holy Land.” This solution—“attempts to take over the Holy Land” via “military expeditions…[that] at the time…[were] considered high religious ideal[s]”—was called the Crusades. The Crusades happened for many reasons; a safer pilgrimage being only one.           Christians believed strongly in their faith and felt the need to exercise it in every way possible. Runicman states how: The desire to be a pilgrim is deeply rooted in human nature. To stand where those that we reverence once stood, to see the very sites where they were born and toiled and died, gives us a feeling of mystical contact with them and is a practical expression of our homage. And if the great men of the world have their shrines to which their admirers come from afar, still more do men flock eagerly to those places where, they believe, the Divine has sanctified the earth. (Runciman, 38 –redbook-) The desire to be at the places where Jesus once walked compelled Christians to travel from near and far. “But the success of the pilgrimage depended on two conditions: first, that life in Palestine should be orderly enough for the defenseless traveler to move and worship in safety; and secondly, that the way should be kept open and cheap. The former necessitated peace and good government in the Moslem world, the latter the prosperity and benevolence of Byzantium.” (Runicman, 50) Knowing these facts, Christians would not stop till these conditions were met.           The Greek Orthodox Church of the Byzantine Empire (capital Constantinople) experienced much turmoil from attacks by Muslims (Turks) during the 11th century. Because of these altercations and the wars being fought, Byzantium called upon Rome to help them take back the Holy Lands and restore peace. Wanting to make amends with The Byzantine Empire, the Pope took these requests into great consideration.           The main issue at hand was whether or not a Holy War was the Christian task to undertake. Much discussion of the issue took place in the Western Christendom on the notion of a holy war. Finally on November 18, 1095, Pope Urban II opened the Council of Clermont—a council of French prelates and nobles at Clermont in Auvergne. At this council Pope Urban made a speech that told of the oppression of the Christian Churches in the east: “The Seldjuks had occupied Asia Minor; the churches and Holy Places had been destroyed and defiled by heathens. Now even Antioch, the city of St. Peter, had been taken.” (Mayer, 9 ) Here the pope called upon all men to help their Christian brothers in the east and to restore peace to Christendom. “The success of this appeal was extraordinary. Deus lo volt—God wills it—was the cry which went up form the listening crowd.” (Mayer, 10)           The Crusades were also seen as a way to unite European Christians in a common cause. Pope Urban saw this as a chance to make the kings and noble vassals be submissive to him under his spiritual leadership. Soon knights and soldiers left their petty quarrels and traveled to the East to fight against the infidel. “To reward them for their service they might take possession of the lands…[and] receive spiritual benefits.” (Runicman, 91) Also many lower class men could have their taxes cancelled and resist arrest by joining the Crusades.           The Council of Clermont is marked as the starting date of the Crusades. To start The First Crusades, nobles and peasants marched across Europe to Constantinople. “With the support of the Byzantine emperor, the knights, guided by Armenian Christians, tenuously marched through Seljuk controlled territories in modern Turkey and Syria to Jerusalem. In June 1099, the Crusaders began a five-week siege of Jerusalem, which fell in July 1099.” The Crusaders then seized many of the cities on the Mediterranean coast with intentions to build fortified castles in the Holy Land, to protect their new territories (DMATC). Molloy states how, “Europeans took control of Israel and kept it for almost two hundred years, until they lost their last bit of Israel, at Acre near the port of Haifa, in 1291.” (Molloy, 383)           These efforts to help the Eastern Church of Byzantium against the Muslims and recapture the Holy Lands to make for an easier, safer route of pilgrimage led to many different attacks. Each different attack or “war” was given a number as to which Crusade it was to be called. These numbers are assigned chronologically (example: First Crusade, Second (1147–49) and Third (1189–92) Crusades, Fourth Crusade (1202 – 1261), etc…). Historians focus on these four major crusades, but list up to as many as twelve. The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s website states how: In 1147–49, the Second Crusade, championed by the abbot Bernard of Clairvaux, attempted to take Damascus in Syria. The campaign was a dismal failure because the Muslims had regrouped. Led by Salah al-Din (Saladin), Muslim forces advanced across Syria and finally retook Jerusalem in October 1187. By the end of the Third Crusade (1189–92), however, Crusader forces had gained Cyprus and the city of Acre. With each crusade, relations between the Byzantines and the Western forces became more estranged. The Fourth Crusade set out in 1202 with Egypt as its goal. After choosing sides in a dynastic dispute in Byzantium, however, the Crusades turned their siege upon Byzantium's capital, Constantinople, to collect an enormous sum of money that had been promised for their earlier support. The city was sacked in 1204, its rich treasures divided between the Venetians, the French, and other Crusaders. The Latin Empire of Constantinople was established with Baldwin of Flanders as emperor. In 1261, the Byzantines regained the city. Successive crusades were launched to the Holy Land. The Seventh and Eighth Crusades, in 1248 and 1270, were sponsored by Louis IX, who died in Tunisia. In 1291, the Crusader city of Acre fell, and the era of Latin Crusader kingdoms ended. Calls for new crusades over the next centuries were increasingly ignored. (DMATC) Due to many reasons—poor tactics, lack of strong leadership, etc…—the Crusades failed in their overall goals.          Many things—good and bad—occurred due to the Crusades. “The suffering inflicted on Muslims and Christians alike was appalling, and most crusaders died not of wounds but of illness. Many Eastern Christians, too, died at the hands of crusaders because they were mistaken for Muslims.” (Molloy 383) Christianity was also being seen as promoting the ideal of a soldier who kills for religious reasons, which was an idea very foreign to the teachings of Jesus. However, many benefits for Europe came out of the Crusades. “When crusaders returned home from Israel and Syria, they brought back foods and recipes, medicines, Persian carpets, architectural ideas, songs and musical instruments, poetry, and new ways to appreciate life.” Also hospitals run by religious workers were established along Crusade routes (Molloy 384).          Ultimately, the Crusades did not succeed in regards to their primary purpose. Christianity did not keep control of the Holy Lands, and ties with the Eastern Church were not strengthened. Many people looked down on the Crusades and saw then as “religious enthusiasm gone badly astray.” (Molloy 383) Although the Crusades may have been a down period in the history of the Christian Church, they are nonetheless a prominent factor in how the Christian religion is structured today. For the most part, Christians see this as the wrong way to react and tend to strongly stray from the concepts of a “Holy War” in today’s society. With the teachings of Jesus preaching love, forgiveness, kindness, and many more qualities that are considered morally good, the way to accomplish tasks is no longer done by violence, but by peace and love. Works Cited: Mayer, Hans Eberhard. The Crusades. Great Britain: Oxford University Press, 1972. Molloy, Michael. Experiencing the World’s Religions: Tradition, Challenge, and Change- Third Edition. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2005 Runciman, Steven. A History of The Crusades: Volume I. England: Cambridge University Press, 1962. Timeline of Art History: The Crusades. Metropolitan Muesem of Art. 2007. November 19, 2007 .