RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Crusades
Brindisi for Syria, though laden with the papal excommunication. Through diplomacy he achieved
unexpected success, Jerusalena, Naz- 4. The Fifth, areth, and Bethlehem being delivered Sixth, and to the Christians for a period of ten Seventh years. The papal interests represented Crusades, by the Templars brought on a con- 1228-70. flict with Egypt in 1243, and in the
following year a Korasmian force summoned by the latter stormed Jerusalem. Europe's last efforts appear in the two unsuccessful crusades of Louis IX. of France, against Cyprus, Egypt, and Syria in 1248-54 and against Tunis in 1270. With the fall of Antioch (1268), TripoU (1289), and Acre (1291) the last traces of the Christian occupation of Syria disappeared.
First among the results of the Crusades is to be counted the great increase they brought about in
the power of the Church and of the 5. Power papacy. The achievements of the of Papacy religious wars fell far behind expec- Increased, tations; but the idea became firmly also Intol- fixed that the pope at the head of erance. armed Christendom had effected the
conquest of the Holy Sepulcher. It was he who gave the call to arms, who supplied the necessary means from the treasures of the Church, who showered on the warriors of the cross privileges and benedictions, and who led them on through his legates; and, though the actual work of battle fell to the secular princes, the latter were held firmly in the control of the hierarchy by their irrevocable crusader's vow. Through the instrumentality of his legates, who now became an important part in the ecclesiastical administration, the pope drew to himself increased authority within the Church. A more material source of strength was the riches which inured to the Church as a result of the sacrifices of individuals in providing themselves with the means for making the crusade. Princes and knights sold or mortgaged their estates, and the Church was the readiest and unchallenged purchaser in the open market. The popes drew a special profit from this state of affairs, for, whereas during the twelfth century the bishops were accustomed to contribute out of their funds toward the cost of the military expeditior.s, after the Lateran Council of 1215 these bounties were claimed by Rome as the supreme leader of the holy war and became the basis of a regular tax that was enforced throughout Europe long after the fall of the last Christian citadel in the East. Further, the crusades acted as a powerful incentive to the growth of the spirit of religious intolerance. From warfare against the non-believer, whether Mohammedan, Jew, or pagan, it was not a far step to war against the heretic. Here, too. Innocent III. appears as an epoch-maker when he ventured to turn the secular arm against the internal enemies of the Church and to preach a crusade of extermination against the Albigenses of southern France. The Inquisition with all its horrors could never have taken such deep root but for the awakening of religious passions which marked the Crusades. As an offset It can hardly be maintained that European knowledge profited by the wars with the Mohammedans.
The introduction of the study of Aristotle in the West is to be ascribed rather to the friendly relations which prevailed between Christians and Saracens in Spain and Sicily. Nor is it absolutely certain that Western art was materially enriched by contact with Byzantium and Syria; the numerous objets d'art brought back as booty from the East did no more than influence the development of a decorative art by supplying models for imitation.
On the other hand, it would be impossible to overestimate the stimulating effect of the Crusades on the spirit of devotion in Christian Europe. In the papal emissaries entrusted with 6. Devotion the preaching of the crusade the first Stimulated, popular preachers of the Middle Ages Absolution are met with. The clerics left their Extended, churches and addressed the multitudes in the field and public squares; to them in large measure may be traced the fervent, imaginative eloquence of the later mendicant monks. The questionable practise of searching out localities supposedly connected with sacred tradition and the establishment therein of ceremonies endowed with peculiar efficacies now arises. The period is one of tradition-making, which up to the present day has plunged the geography of Palestine into confusion. The pilgrim who after the fall of Acre was shut off from the greatest shrine of Christian worship turned to the sacred places of the West or of his own land, and the creation of such centers and objects of devotion became an important function of the Church. The worship of relics extended enormously and the trade in holy remains was carried on in all conceivable forms and not without the grossest absurdities or deceptions. The body of legend increased and the Virgin became an especially favorite subject of presentation in narrative and art. It would also seem that the great importance of the rosary, which before this period appears prominently only in isolated instances, is to be regarded as dating from the thirteenth century, when it developed under the influence of the similar feature of Mohammedan worship known as tasbih.
Of portentous importance was the effect wrought by the Crusades on the system of absolution. Originally immunity from the penalties of transgression was granted only to those who assumed the cross out of purely religious motives; but as early as Celestine III. (d. 1198) the mere contribution of money toward an expedition against the infidel was rewarded with at least partial remission, while Innocent III. granted complete remission to one who sent a substitute to the field. And inasmuch as one might be absolved from his crusader's vow on the payment of a sum of money, and absolution eventually was offered for such minor acts of piety as the mere listening to an exhortation to take the cross, it is evident that wide opportunities, indeed, were offered for escape from the penalties of sin.
The Crusades were not without effect on the Renaissance and the Reformation. Friendly intercourse with the Mohammedan world brought Europe into contact with accomplishments and virtues which were felt to be lacking at home. Men became aware of a moral system independent of
Crusades Cudworth