Religion in the Middle Ages
By Jake, Raymond, Chris and Patrick
The Crusades
The year was 1095, Pope Urban II preached to a crowd of French peasants, calling them to band together to fight their common enemy, the Muslims in modern-day Palestine. The monk Peter of Amiens took it upon himself to lead the First Crusade. A crusade is a religious war launched by the Christians to either expel or convert pagans to Christianity. They were usually led by a European king, including Richard the Lionheart, or a warrior monk such as the Knight's Templar.
The First Crusade
On that eventful day in Clermont, France Pope Urban II started a two-hundred year war over control of Jerusalem and all of the Holy Land. Soon after Peter of Amiens, Godfrey of Bouillon led an army composed of overtly religious French and Flemish soldiers, and together they made a formidable fighting force.
Over the course of the next three years, the crusade finally crossed through Constantinople into the land of Islam. Once capturing several forts, including Antioch in Syria, the army had reached the doorstep of Jerusalem, the city of God. They laid siege to the city, and in 1099 they finally broke through the gates. The Muslim warriors inside were quickly annihilated, and the Crusaders brutally massacred every civilian in the city, Muslim and Jew alike, they established several Crusader States; the County of Tripoli, the Principality of Antioch, the County of Edessa, and most importantly the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Godfrey was elected "Protector of the holy Sepulcher" on the point that he refused to be called king in the land of Jesus Christ, but the Seljuks were formulating a plan to retake the city.
The Third Crusade
After the unsuccessful Second Crusade to reinforce Jerusalem, Pope Gregory VIII launched a crusade in 1189. This was prompted by the brilliant Sultan Saladin kicking those Christians right out of the city. There was only one man with enough power and intelligence to challenge Saladin and his empire. His name the equally brilliant Richard I of England, more commonly referred to as Richard the Lionheart.
Richard's army hired a Genoese fleet to transport them to the Holy Land. Meanwhile, King Guy of Lusignan gathered an army of men-at-arms and laid siege to the port city of Acre. But Saladin had other plans; he attacked and besieged the besiegers, creating a trailblazing type of double siege. In the midst of the siege, a series of diseases broke out on both sides, claiming the lives of many, including a French queen and her daughters. In June, Richard arrived and ordered a series of siege engines to be built to assault the city, it fell the next month.
En route to the city of Jaffa, Richard was ambushed by Saladin and his army. Richard quickly countered the attack, and sent his knights to flank the enemy, and in no time he had won the battle.
After capturing Jaffa, Richard set his headquarters there, but it was suddenly swarmed by thousands of Saladin's soldiers, but the Sultan was having trouble keeping his troops under control. The small force of remaining Crusaders barricaded themselves in the citadel of the city, and waited for reinforcements. Meanwhile, Richard, who was unaware of the situation, was sailing to Jaffa, when a priest swam out to warn him of the dangers of the city. Richard then landed at the city and triumphantly won it back with a force of only 55 men. In the next month, Saladin and Richard met one final time, but this time not on the field of battle. They agreed on a treaty which granted Jerusalem to the Muslims, but allowed for unarmed Christian pilgrims to visit the city, and just like that, the Third Crusade was over.
The Crusades helped to bring down Feudalism in the way that many nobles were either killed or lost all fund during the wars, but that did not stop the crusading spirit. Many other crusades followed, including the Fourth Crusade which ended in the ransacking of Constantinople, and the ill-fated Children's Crusade, but they all had the same goal: eliminating pagans from either Europe or the Holy Land. These holy wars will always go down as one of the most perplexing events in history.
Bibliography
Harpur, J. (2005). The crusades an illustrated history. London, UK: Carlton
Books Limited
Riley-Smith, J. (1995). The Oxford illustrated history of the crusades, New
York, New York, USA: Oxford University Press
Inquisition
"Ok, ok I'll convert; just get me off this rack!!!" A man screamed, as his limbs where ripped off his body. This is most likely an average day during the Inquisition. The Inquisition was a bloody and gory time. This time period was about converting people to Christianity, if you didn't you would be, well, killed! There where two Inquisitions, the Spanish and Medieval , but they both took place during the Medieval Era.
Torture would be used once and then a different torture for different information. These where the rules of torture (there were not many). Torture was used to get people to convert to convert to Christianity. There where hundreds of torture machines, but here are three. the Rack: A device that would stretch the victim's limbs off or dislocate them. The device worked by two cranks turning to rollers that where attached to the victim's limbs and where pulled in opposite directions. Another machine is the Ducking Stool: The victim would be tied to a stool that would be ducked in freezing water throughout the day (or 24 hours). Lastly, the Thumbscrew was a device that would crush your fingers and toes with steel teeth. The pain would make anyone squeal.
As you can see the Inquisition was a bloody and cruel time, filled with killing and violence. We look down on the people who promoted the Inquisition. I hope you learned something volently new.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
(2009) Inquisition. Retrieved (April 2009), from http://Grolier.com
(2009) Inquisition. Retrieved (April 2009), from http:// World Book.com
(2009). Middle Ages. Retrieved (April 2009), from http:// middle ages.org/uk
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The Church and the Pope
Ahh… The Middle Ages. The time of power, religion, the Holy Grail. kings and queens, knights and emperors, and the Pope. The most powerful man next to the Emperor, was the head of the Medieval Church. Though they are minor popes, they still contributed a lot to medieval civilization.
The Pope had many papal duties. As the head of the Catholic Church, they have to make sure that it is running as it should be, and are accountable for bishops and priests across the world. Popes are of the Roman Catholic faith and must try to spread Catholicism to smaller countries. They host World Youth Day. The papal term lasts from the time of the election till death. They reside in Vatican City, the smallest country in the world. In Medieval Times, they had more power than the king and equivalent power to the emperor.
There were hundreds of Popes, but only a handful reigned during Medieval Times.
St. Peter was the 1st pope. He was not a medieval Pope, but he is extremely important. For instance, an entire church was named after him. An example of a medieval Pope was Pope Gregory, who was elected in 590 A.D. Pope Urban started the 1st crusade, and Innocent started the 4th. Innocent was the most influential pope during Medieval Times and did much to strengthen papal authority, or the power that the Pope has, in the church. This is why Popes had more power than the king.
Along with the Popes comes the church. There were some significant differences between then and now. During services, the priest would speak away from the crowd, as if having a conference with God and the crowd would just scrutinize. They were also spoken in Latin. As already has been mentioned, the church was more powerful than the government. It also "fashioned" the lives of followers. The interior was also different. Bascilla was the main cathedral design. It was very elegant, with lots of stained glass windows and statues, usually depicting saints or martyrs, people who died for their faith.
I know that many of you go to Sunday Mass nowadays, but sometime you should go to the National Cathedral in D.C and get a taste of an old time cathedral. Maybe you could take a trip to the Vatican and investigate where the Pope resides. Or merely go to a Latin service. Whatever you settle on, it is good to check out Catholic history at its premium.
Kenneth, P. (2009). InnocentIII. World Book Encyclopedia. Retrieved April 14, 2009, from http://www.worldbookonline.com
Burke, R. (2009). Pope. World Book Encyclopedia. Retrieved April 14. 2009, from http://www.worldbookonline.com
http://www.galenet.galegroup.com
World Almanac. (2008). Chronological list of popes. Retrieved April 15, 2009, from http://www.ebscohost.com
*Special Thanks To Jake*
Monks, Nuns and Pilgrimages
By Patrick
"For God and Country!" yells a monk as he thrusts a mighty sword in the chest of a crazed Pagan. Wait a second!! Monks don't kill, (this was my original thinking). Well, apparently the 10 commandments meant nothing to anybody back along time ago. And what time exactly was this?!?! It was 1200-1400 AD, or better known as the MIDDLE AGES!. When Knights battled, and Monks and Nuns waged war on annoyed Pagans, when many people traveled to the holy land in search of religious knowledge!
Well, back to the killer monks. Not all monks were confined to the church. I mean look at the Knights Templar, they went around terminating every Muslim that dared to go near Jerusalem. They were deployed to protect Christian crusaders. Christian's didn't bring enough people to the blasted Middle East! Now much of the Holy Land was controlled by Muslims which apparently annoyed Pope Urban II to the point that he felt the need to launch the first crusade, which was a blood bath, and given there were no rules of engagement in 1099, every man woman and child was slaughtered. Not something you would associate with the following of Christ. Well back to the manpower problem with the crusaders, The Knights templar were deployed to Palestine to protect the taken land and make sure the Muslims didn't put a foot in it. One universal sign you were a member of the Knights Templar was there was always a big red cross emblazoned on all your clothing (sorry no underwear). They were also always controlled by the church and strictly nobody else. Another organization of warrior monks strictly controlled by the church was the Teutonic Knights or the Teutonic order or the House of the Hospitalers of Saint Mary of the Teutons, man that's a mouthful. The Teutonic Knights originally helped injured crusaders. They were a German order and proceeded to wage war on the Pagan people of the south shore of the Baltic Sea in the name of Christ.
A new war sprang up in the Middle East as Jerusalem fell to the Muslims in 1187, because of this; holy army members of the Roman Emperor Fredrick I Barbarossa established a German hospital in Palestine. Its purpose is to care for injured crusaders, but also aided Christian Pilgrims. For military purposes they had to convert the (Ha, Ha how ironic) hospital into a military order where the Teutonic Knight's would be stationed. The Teutonic Knights were made up of Priests, Knights (really?) and laypeople. Now that you've been informed of the warrior monks, prepare to be amazed by their female counterparts, NUNS!
Nuns were not too important back in the day, but I can tell you it wasn't a happy way to live, you had to go around helping the poor, elderly, sick (who usually had the black plague or something incurable) homeless and crippled. You did not live in luxury and you sat and prayed. Not to fun eh'? Now another part of life usually practiced by the followers of God were pilgrimages.
Pilgrimages were taken to one's religiously important land. For Muslims (you had to take one at least once) there homeland was Mecca, Arabia where Muhammad was said to live. For Christians it's Jerusalem and Nazareth, Palestine where the Christ child was born and preached.
Well I've taken you into the swirling darkness that is the middle ages and be happy you didn't live in a time where an insane monk was thrusting a sword into your chest.
Bibliography
I wish to thank Jake Nicastro and Chris Duncan for their answers to my wild and insane questions.
(2009). Teutonic knights. ABC Clio on the Web. Retrieved April
19, 2009, from http://www.ABC.clio.com
(2009, April 16). Knights templar. ABC Clio on the Web.
Retrieved April 20, 2009, from http://www.ancienthistory.abc.clio.com
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