§ 55. THE FOURTH CRUSADE. 277
Sophia and at once set about to introduce Latin priests and subdue the Greek Church to the pope.
The attitude of Innocent III. to this remarkable transac tion of Christian soldiery exhibited at once his righteous indignation and his politic acquiescence in the new responsi bility thrust upon the Apostolic see.1 He appointed the Venetian, Thomas Morosini, archbishop; and the Latin patri archate, established with him, has been perpetuated to this day, and is an almost unbearable offence to the Greeks.2 If Innocent had followed Baldwin's suggestions, he would have convoked an oecumenical council in Constantinople.
The last of the Latin emperors, Baldwin III., 1237-1261, spent most of his time in Western Europe making vain ap peals for money. After his dethronement, in 1261, by Michael Paheologus he presents a pitiable spectacle, seeking to gain the ear of princes and ecclesiastics. For two hundred years more the Greeks had an uncertain tenure on the Bosphorus. The loss of Constantinople was bound to come sooner or later in the absence of a moral and muscular revival of the Greek people. The Latin conquest of the city was a romantic epi sode, and not a stage in the progress of civilization in the East ; nor did it hasten the coming of the new era of letters in Western Europe. It widened the schism of the Greek and the Latin churches. The only party to reap substantial gain from the Fourth Crusade was the Venetians.3
1 He wrote to Baldwin that, while it was desirable the Eastern Church should be subdued, he was more concerned that the Holy Land should be rescued. He urged him and the Venetians to eat the bread of repentance that they might fight the battle of the Lord with a pure heart.
2 The Greek patriarch had left the city reduced to a state of apostolic pov erty, of which Gibbon, LXI, says that "had it been voluntary it might per haps have been meritorious."
8 Pears concludes his work, The Fall of Constantinople, by the false judg ment that the effects of the Fourth Crusade were altogether disastrous for civilization. He surmises that, but for it, the city would never have fallen into the hands of the Turks, and the Sea of Marmora and the Black Sea would now be surrounded by "prosperous and civilized nations," pp. 412 sqq. There was no movement of progress in the Byzantine empire for the Crusaders to check.
278 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1040-1294.
§ 56. Frederick II, and the Fifth Crusade. 1229.
ROHRICHT : Studien zur Gesch. d. V. Kreuzzuges, Innsbruck, 1891. — HAUCK, IV. 752-764, and the lit., §§ 42, 49.
Innocent III.'s ardor for the reconquest of Palestine con tinued unabated till his death. A fresh crusade constituted one of the main objects for which the Fourth Lateran Coun cil was called. The date set for it to start was June 1, 1217, and it is known as the Fifth Crusade. The pope promised £30,000 from his private funds, and a ship to convey the Crusaders going from Rome and its vicinity. The cardinals joined him in promising to contribute onetenth of their incomes and the clergy were called upon to set apart one-twentieth of their revenues for three years for the holy cause. To the penitent contributing money to the crusade, as well as to those participating in it, full indulgence for sins was offered.1 A brief, forbidding the sale of all merchandise and munitions of war to the Saracens for four years, was ordered read every Sabbath and fast day in Christian ports.
Innocent died without seeing the expedition start. For his successor Honorius III., its promotion was a ruling pas sion, but he also died without seeing it realized.
In 1217 Andreas of Hungary led an army to Syria, but accomplished nothing. In 1219 William of Holland with his Germans, Norwegians, and Danes helped John of Brienne, titular king of Jerusalem, to take Damietta. This city, situated on one of the mouths of the Nile, was a place of prime commercial importance and regarded as the key of Egypt. Egypt had come to be regarded as the proper way of military approach to Palestine. Malik-al- Kameel, who in 1218 had succeeded to power in Egypt, offered the Christians Jerusalem and all Palestine, except
1 Plenam suorum peccaminum veniam indulgemus. See Mansi, XXII. 1067 ; Mirbt, Quellen, 126, Gottlob, 137 sq.