First Crusade: Causes behind a religious bloodbath

[rug]

Gregory Elder, For the Redlands Daily Facts
Posted: 11/25/2011 02:00:03 PM PST

This Sunday marks one of the more odd and grim moments in the history of religion, and an event which continues to plague us right down to the present day.

On this day, in the year 1095, Pope Urban II met with the nobility of western Europe at the Council of Clermont, in what is now southern France, and summoned the First Crusade to fight the forces of Islam in the east. The crusade would be launched the following year and saw a brutal military victory in the city of Jerusalem in July of 1099.

The causes and effects of the events of Nov. 27 are long and complicated, and while they cannot be simply reduced to religious prejudice, that issue nonetheless remains a significant motive.

The long-term causes of the First Crusade lie in the planting fields of Europe. From the fall of the Roman Empire in the fifth century A.D., much of Europe lived on the edge of starvation. But around A.D. 1000, there was a significant agricultural revolution. European peasants and lords began to shift from a two-field planting system to a three-field system.

http://www.redlandsdailyfacts.com/news/ci_19412101

[Leontius]

1. The Comneni were one of the most remarkable and talented

of all the dynasties of Byzantium too bad their immediate successors were such a miserable lot. "Byzantium and the Crusades" by Jonathan Harris gives a good overview of the time and is well worth the read.

[rug]

2. Thanks for the tip.

It's a fascinating time with the early coalescence of nations using anything at hand to advance themselves.

[Major Nikon]

3. Religion was (and is) simply used as a tool of war

It wasn't much different than any other tool of war. The horse, shield, sword, and armor were all things which made war more efficient by enhancing the physical aspect of soldiers. Religion is a tool used to enhance the mental aspect of war. So certainly religion wasn't the cause, it was simply the means used to effect the outcome.

[Adsos Letter]

4. I just received a newly published work on the apocalyptic element of the First Crusade.

Armies of Heaven: The First Crusade and the Quest for Apocalypse by Jay Rubenstein (Nov 1, 2011)

Several of the crusades had a distinct eschatological element to them, and reflected something in European Christian culture beyond a mere rhetorical device. By no means the only motivational element, but certainly an element in the socio-economic mix. Much like the current support for Israel among certain sectors of evangelical Christianity.

I'll be interested to read Rubenstein's take on this, since so much has already been written about the causes of the First Crusade.

edit: grammar and punctuation; the bane of my on-line life... :D