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Bible Dictionaries
Croisade, or Crusade
Charles Buck Theological Dictionary
or May be applied to any war undertaken on pretence of defending the cause of religion, but has been chiefly used for the expeditions of the Christians against the infidels for the conquest of Palestine. These expeditions commenced A. D. 1096. The foundation of them was a superstitious veneration for those places where our Saviour performed his miracles, and accomplished the work of man's redemption. Jerusalem had been taken and Palestine conquered by Omar. This proved a considerable interruption to the pilgrims, who flocked from all quarters to perform their devotions at the holy sepulchre. They had, however, still been allowed this liberty, on paying a small tribute to the Saracen caliphs, who were not much inclined to molest them. But, in 1064, this city changed its masters. The Turks took it from the Saracens; and being much more fierce and barbarous, the pilgrims now found they could no longer perform their devotions with the same safety. An opinion was about this time also prevalent in Europe, which made these pilgrimages much more frequent than formerly: it was imagined, that the 1000 years mentioned in Revelation 20:1-15 : were fulfilled; that Christ was soon to make his appearance in Palestine to judge the world; and consequently that journeys to that country were in the highest degree meritorious, and even absolutely necessary.
The multitudes of pilgrims who now flocked to Palestine meeting with a very rough reception from the Turks, filled all Europe with complaints against those infidels, who profaned the holy city, and derided the sacred mysteries of Christianity even in the place where they were fulfilled. Pope Gregory VII. had formed a design of uniting all the princes of Christendom against the Mahometaus; but his exorbitant encroachments upon the civil power of princes had created him so many enemies, and rendered his schemes so suspicious, that he was not able to make great progress in his undertaking. the work was reserved for a meaner instrument. Peter, commonly called the Hermit, a native of Amiens in Picardy, had made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem; and being deeply affected with the dangers to which that act of piety now exposed the pilgrims, as well as with the oppression under which the eastern Christians now laboured, formed the bold, and, in all appearance, impracticable design of leading into Asia, from the farthest extremities of the West, armies sufficient to subdue those potent and warlike nations that now held the holy land in slavery.
He proposed his scheme to pope Martin II. who, prudently resolving not to interpose his authority till he saw a probability of success, summoned at Placentia, a council of 4000 ecclesiastics and 30, 000 seculars. As no hall could be found large enough to contain such a multitude, the assembly was held in a plain. Here the pope himself, as well at Peter, harangued the people, representing the dismal situation of their brethren in the East, and the indignity offered to the Christian name in allowing the holy city to remain in the hands of the infidels. These speeches were so agreeable to those who heard them, that the whole multitude suddenly and violently declared for the war, and solemnly devoted themselves to perform this service, which they believed to be meritorious in the sight of God. But though Italy seemed to have embraced the design with ardour, Martin thought it necessary, in order to obtain perfect success, to engage the greater and more warlike nations in the same enterprise. Having, therefore exhorted Peter to visit the chief cities and sovereigns of Christendom, he summoned another council at Clermont in Auvergne.
The fame of this great and pious design being now universally diffused, procured the attendance of the greatest prelates, nobles, and princes; and when the pope and the hermit renewed their pathetic exhortations, the whole assembly, as if impelled by immediate inspiration, exclaimed with one voice, "It is the will of God!" These words were deemed so much the effect of a divine impulse, that they were employed as the signal of rendezvous and battle in all future exploits of these adventurers. Men of all ranks now flew to arms with the utmost ardour, and a cross was affixed to their right shoulder by all who enlisted in this holy enterprise. At this time Europe was sunk in the most profound ignorance and superstition. The ecclesiastics had gained the greatest ascendant over the human mind; and the people who committed the most horrid crimes and disorders, knew of no other expiation than the observances imposed on them by their spiritual pastors. But amidst the abject superstition which now prevailed, that military spirit had also universally diffused itself; and, though not supported by art or discipline, was become the general passion of the nations governed by the feudal law. all the great lords possessed the right of peace and war. they were engaged in continual hostilities with one another: the open country was become a scene of outrage and disorder: the cities, still mean and poor, were neither guarded by walls nor protected by privileges.
Every man was obliged to depend for safety on his own force, or his private alliances; and valour was the only excellence which was held in esteem, or gave one man the are-eminence above another. When all the particular superstitions, therefore, were here united in one great object, the ardour for private hostilities took the same direction; "and all Europe, " as the princess Anna Comnena expresses it, "torn from its foundations, seemed ready to precipitate itself in one united body upon Asia." All ranks of men now deeming the croisades the only road to heaven, were impatient to open the way with their swords to the holy city. Nobles, artizans, peasants, even priests, enrolled their names; and to decline this service was branded with the reproach of impiety or cowardice. The nobles were moved, by the romantic spirit of the age, to hope for opulent establishments in the East, the chief seat of arts and commerce at that time. In pursuit of these chimerical projects, they sold at low prices their ancient castles and inheritances, which had now lost all value in their eyes. The infirm and aged contributed to the expedition by presents and money, and many of them attended it in person; being determined, if possible to breathe their last in sight of that city where their Saviour died for them. Even women, concealing their sex under the disguise of armour, attended the camp; and often forgot their duty still more, by prostituting themselves to the army. The greatest criminals were forward in a service which they considered as an expiation for all crimes; and the most enormous disorders were, during the course of these expeditions, committed by men inured to wickedness, encouraged by example, and impelled by necessity.
The adventurers were at last so numerous, that their sagracious leaders became apprehensive lest the greatness of the armament would be the cause of its own disappointment. For this reason they permitted an undisciplined multitude, computed at 300, 000 men, to go before them under the command of Peter the hermit, and Gautier or Walter, surnamed the moneyless, from his being a soldier of fortune. These took the road towards Constantinople through Hungary and Bulgaria; and trusting that heaven, by supernatural assistance, would supply all their necessities, they made no provision for subsistence in their march. they soon found themselves obliged to obtain by plunder what they vainly expected from miracles: and the enraged inhabitants of the countries through which they passed attacked the disorderly multitude, and slaughtered them without resistance. The more disciplined armies followed after; and, passing the straits of Constantinople, were mustered in the plains of Asia, and amounted in the whole to 700, 000 men. The princes engaged in this first crusade were, Hugo, count of Vermandois, brother to Philip I. king of France; Robert, duke of Normandy; Robert, earl of Flanders; Raimond, earl of Toulouse and St. Giles; the celebrated Godfrey of Bouillon, duke of Lorrain, with his brothers Baldwin and Eustace; Stephen, earl of Chartres and Blois; Hugo, count of St. Paul; with many other lords.
The general rendezvous was at Constantinople. In this expedition Godfrey besieged and took the city of Nice. Jerusalem was taken by the confederated army, and Godfrey chosen king. The Christians gained the famous battle of Ascalon against the Sultan of Egypt, which put an end to the first crusade, but not to the spirit of crusading. The rage continued for near two centuries. The second crusade, in 1144, was headed by the emperor Conrad IIi. and Louis VII. king of France. The emperor's army was either destroyed by the enemy, or perished through the treachery of Manuel, the Greek emperor; and the second army, through the unfaithfulness of the Christians of Syria, was forced to break up the siege of Damascus. The third crusade, in 1188, immediately followed the taking of Jerusalem by Saladin, the Sultan of Egypt. The princes engaged in this expedition were the emperor Frederic Barbarossa; Frederic, duke of Suabia, his second son; Leopold, duke of Austria; Berthold, duke of Moravia; Herman, marquis of Baden; the counts of Nassau, Thuringia, Missen, and Holland; and above sixty other princes of the empire; with the bishops of Besancon, Cambray, Munster, Osnaburg, Missen, Passau, Visburg, and several others.
In this expedition the emperor Frederic defeated the Sultan of Iconium: his son Frederic, joined by Guy Lasignon, king of Jerusalem, in vain endeavoured to take Acre or Ptolemais. During these transactions, Philip Augustus, king of France, and Richard I. king of England, joined the croisade: by which means the Christian army consisted of 300, 000 fighting men; but great disputes happening between the kings of France and England, the former quitted the holy land, and Richard concluded a peace with Saladin. The fourth croisade was undertaken in 1195, by the emperor Henry VI. after Saladin's death. In this expedition the Christians gained several battles against the infidels, took a great many towns, and were in the way of success, when the death of the emperor obliged them to quit the holy land, and return into Germany. the fifth croisade was published by pope Innocent III. in 1198. Those engaged in it made fruitless efforts for the recovery of the holy land: for, though John de Neule, who commanded the fleet equipped in Flanders, arrived at Ptolemais a little after Simon of Montfort, Renard of Dampierre, and others, yet the plague destroying many of them, and the rest either returning, or engaging in the petty quarrels of the Christian princes, there was nothing done; so that the sultan of Aleppo easily defeated their troops in 1204.
The sixth croisade began in 1228; in which the Christians took the town of Damietta, but were forced to surrender it again. In 1229, the emperor Frederic made peace with the sultan for ten years. about 1240, Richard, earl of Cornwall, brother to Henry III. king of England, arrived at Palestine, at the head of the English croisade; but finding it most advantageous to conclude a peace, he reembarked, and steered towards Italy. In 1244, the Karasmians being driven out of Turkey by the Tartars, broke into Palestine, and gave the Christians a general defeat near Gaza. the seventh croisade was headed, in 1249, by St. Lewis, who took the town of Damietta; but a sickness happening in the Christian army, the king endeavoured a retreat; in which, being pursued by the infidels, most of his army were miserably butchered, and himself and the nobility taken prisoners. A truce was agreed upon for ten years, and the king and lords set at liberty. The eighth croisade, in 1279, was headed by the same prince, who made himself master of the port and castle of Carthage in Africa; but dying a short time after, he left his army in a very ill condition. Soon after, the king of Sicily coming up with a good fleet, and joining Philip the bold, son and successor of Lewis, the king of Tunis, after several engagements with the Christians, in which he was always worsted, desired peace, which was granted upon condition advantageous to the Christians; after which both princes embarked to their own kingdoms.
Prince Edward, of England, who arrived at Tunis at the time of this treaty, sailed towards Prolemais, where he landed a small body of 300 English and French, and hindered Bendochar from laying siege to Ptolemais: but being obliged to return to take possession of the crown of England, this croisade ended without contributing any thing to the recovery of the holy land. In 1291, the town of Acre or Ptolemais was taken and plundered by the sultan of Egypt, and the Christians quite driven out of Syria. There has been no croisade since that period, though several popes have attempted to stir up the Christians to such an undertaking; particularly Nicholas IV. in 1292, and Clement V. in 1311. Though these croisades were effects of the most absurd superstition, they tended greatly to promote the good of Europe. Multitudes, indeed, were destroyed. M. Voltaire computes the people who perished in the different expeditions at upwards of two millions. Many there were, however, who returned; and these having conversed so long with people who lived in a much more magnificent way than themselves, began to entertain some taste for a refined and polished way of life. thus the barbarism in which Europe had been so long immersed began to wear off soon after. The princes also who remained at home, found means to avail themselves of the frenzy of the people. By the absence of such numbers of restless and martial adventurers, peace was established in their dominions. They also took the opportunity of annexing to their crowns many considerable fiefs, either by purchase, or the extinction of the heirs; and thus the mischiefs which must always attend feudal governments were considerably lessened.
With regard to the bad success of the croisaders, it was scarcely possible that any other thing could happen to them. The emperors of Constantinople, instead of assisting, did all in their power to disconcert their schemes: they were jealous, and not without reason, of such an inundation of barbarians. Yet, had they considered their true interest, they would rather have assisted them, or at least stood neuter, than enter into alliances with the Turks. They followed the latter method, however, and were often of very great disservice to the western adventurers, which at last occasioned the loss of their city. But the worst enemies the croisaders had were their own internal feuds and dissentions. They neither could agree while marching together in armies with a view to conquest, nor could they unite their conquests under one government after they had made them. They set up three small states, one at Jerusalem, another at Antioch, and another at Edessa. These states, instead of assisting, made war upon each other, and on the Greek emperors; and thus became an easy prey to the common enemy. The horrid cruelties they committed, too, must have inspired the Turks with the most invincible hatred against them, and made them resist with the greatest obstinacy.
They were such as could have been committed only by barbarians inflamed with the most bigoted enthusiasm. When Jerusalem was taken, not only the numerous garrisons were put to the sword, but the inhabitants were massacred without mercy and without distinction. No age or sex was spared, not even sucking children. according to Voltaire, some Christians, who had been suffered by the Turks to live in that city, led the conquerors into the most private caves, where women had concealed themselves with their children and not one of them was suffered to escape. What eminently shows the enthusiasm by which these conquerors were animated, is, their behaviour after this terrible slaughter. They marched over heaps of dead bodies towards the holy sepulchre; and while their hands were polluted with the blood of so many innocent persons, sung anthems to the common Saviour of Mankind! Nay, so far did their religious enthusiasm overcome their fury, that these ferocious conquerors now burst into tears. If the absurdity and wickedness of their conduct can be exceeded by any thing, it must be by what follows. In 1204, the frenzy of croisading seized the children, who are ever ready to imitate what they see their parents engaged in. Their childish folly was encouraged by the monks and schoolmasters; and thousands of those innocents were conducted from the houses of their parents on the superstitious interpretation of these words: "Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings hast thou perfected praise." Their base conductors sold a part of them to the Turks, and the rest perished miserably. Hume's Hist. of England, vol. 1: p. 292. &c. and vol. 2: p. 280; Enc. Brit. and Mosheim's Ecc Hist.
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Buck, Charles. Entry for 'Croisade, or Crusade'. Charles Buck Theological Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/cbd/c/croisade-or-crusade.html. 1802.
