Church Reform and the Crusades

Objectives

• Know what problems were plaguing the Church and how reforms came about and by whom.

• Know who St. Francis is and what he did.

• Know what cathedrals and what the differences between Romanesque and Gothic styles are.

• Know the causes and effects of the Crusades, what the Crusades are, and a general idea of what happens during them.

• Distinguish among the main four and what the highlights are of each: 1st-Jerusalem captured by Crusaders, 2nd-nothing much, 3rd-Involves Saladin, Richard Lionheart, Philip, and Frederick and 4th-Crusaders sack Constantinople.

• Know what the Reconquista and Inquisition are.

As we saw when glancing at the wild and wildly immoral lives of Popes John XII and Benedict IX, the Roman Catholic Church maybe wasn’t as healthy and upstanding as it needed to be.

• Rural priests and even some bishops were marrying, having kids, etc., and treating their roles almost as if they were hereditary.

• The whole lay investiture mess we’ve already discussed.

• The problem of simony, which is selling church offices.

Thus, the Church was fit for some minor reform.

• This came from the Abbey of Cluny, a Benedictine monastery founded in 910.

• The founding of the Clunian order helped spark a new seriousness about the faith and in the Church.

• It took its role seriously and adhered to a holy lifestyle.

• It also opened up “branch” monasteries around western Europe, and incorporated others, which helped spread its influence.

• It also helped that its leaders were very effective and that rich nobility gave them lots of gifts.

When the main church was completed in 1131, it remained, at 555 feet in length and, with other complex buildings, covering 25 acres, the largest building in Europe until St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican was rebuilt in the 1500’s.

• Unfortunately, much of the original structure was destroyed during the French Revolution in 1790. All that’s left is most of a tower and part of the building.

• Also had a remarkable library.

Another monastic order was the Cistercians

• They applied a very strict, austere interpretation of St. Benedict’s original rules and concentrated on working and self-sufficiency.

The two orders supported a revival of the papacy and investing it with greater power. The popes took note and started reforming.

• One of them was Pope Gregory VII – yes the same one who feuded with HREmperor Henry IV over investiture.

Gregorian Reforms

• Pope Gregory VII introduces reforms aimed at those three problems mentioned earlier.

• He reasserted celibacy among the clergy, going so far as to say people didn’t have to obey bishops who allowed married priests and he also withheld revenue to such bishops.

• Fought against simony.

• And we know all about how he tried to assert Church authority over the state and how he clearly defined the Church’s position on lay investiture.

• Also strengthened the position of the pope as head of the Church.

• He died in Salerno, Italy, in exile with the great parting line, “I have loved justice and hated iniquity; therefore, I now die in exile.”

St. Francis of Assisi

• Started the Franciscan order of friars, who were traveling preachers (as opposed to monks cloistered in monasteries).

• Was the son of a very wealthy businessman who didn’t think of much of Francis’s resolution of his spiritual crisis.

• Francis eventually renounces his father and his fortune (even some of the clothes he was wearing) and strikes out for a life of poverty.

• Gained approval from the pope for his order after the pope has a dream of a poor man holding up a crumbling church.

St. Francis, aka Dr. Doolittle

Cathedrals

• From the Greek καθέδρα – seat – indicating the building is the seat of the resident bishop or archbishop

• The grand churches of Europe.

• Often very large, very ornate, very beautiful, and very amazing.

• Meant to reflect the glory of God and inspire awe in the observer

• Usually funded by wealthy merchants and nobles who wanted to leave their mark and maybe improve their chances with God.

• While you might think the form of the cathedral would have borrowed from Roman temples, you’d be wrong.

• Roman temples weren’t built to be large meeting places like churches needed to be. So cathedrals borrowed from the Romans’ large meeting places instead.

• The early cathedrals were built in the Romanesque style. These appeared massive and heavy.

• That’s because they had to be. The large buildings had large heavy roofs that required thick walls with few small windows in order to handle the weight.

• The later Gothic style, though, introduced architectural innovations to distribute the weight through other means, opening up large spaces in the walls for amazing windows.

• The two big innovations were ribbed vaults and flying buttresses.

• Vaults

• A vault is the arched shaped that helps hold up the roof. The Romanesque cathedrals used barrel vaults. These were simple arch-type structures.

• The ribbed vault provides what literally looks like a rib. This is more efficient and does a better job of distributing the weight to the wall.

• Here’s a comparison of the barrel vault of the Roomanesque Saint-Sernin Cathedral in Toulouse with the ribbed vault of the Gothic Amiens Cathedral

• Flying buttress

• The flying buttress was an external structure – a bit like an external half-arch. The weight of the roof and walls was distribute outwards to these buttresses. This took the weight-bearing responsibility away from the walls themselves and allowed for the big open spaces for windows.

• Compare these cross-sections of Saint-Sernin and Amiens.

• Here’s the difference it makes to the interior lighting:

• The later Gothic cathedrals also tended to have tall spires on the towers and pinnacles on top of the buttresses.

• Here is a comparison the floor plans of Saint-Sernin and Amiens.

• And finally, here’s a comparison of the exteriors.

Here are other examples of Romanesque styles.

• Now, Gothic:

• Cathedrals were usually oriented along an east-west axis. The main entrance was on the west end while the liturgical stuff (altar, bishop’s throne, etc.) was located in the east end. They had the shape of a Latin cross.

NaveNarthex

Aisles separated by arcades Transept

ChoirApse

• Here’s an assortment of pictures of the most well-known Gothic cathedral: Notre Dame de Paris

Crusades

• Let’s step into the WABAC Machine and go back a few weeks ago to the Byzantines.

• The Byzantines get pasted by the Seljuk Turks at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071 and they lose Anatolia.

• This is the one where the Seljuk sultan captures the Byzantine Emperor Romanus IV, gives Romanus gifts and lets him go. Then Romanus’s underlings revolt and blind him.

• Anatolia was lost, a civil war weakened the Byzantine Empire, the economy was a wreck, Normans were causing problems, and the Turks were still threatening the Empire and Constantinople itself… things had been better.

• Along comes an emperor, Alexius Commenus, who stabilizes things and he wants Anatolia back. Problem is, he needs help and so he asks the pope, Urban II, for it in 1093.

• Pope Gregory VII (yes, that Gregory VII again… we’ll be able to play Six Degrees of Gregory VII before long) originally considered a Crusade back in 1074, but he was too preoccupied with the Investiture Controversy and Henry IV at the time.

• Urban II agrees to help and calls for a holy war against the Muslim infidels occupying Jerusalem and the holy land in Palestine. Lots of people signed up.

• Causes for the First Crusade

• The Byzantine Empire needed help to retake its lost territories. Though Alexius wasn’t exactly a papal friend, he appealed to Christian unity and hinted at a reconciliation between the western and eastern churches if he got help.

• Urban felt some religious motivation, but also political ones. He could assert some authority over the eastern orthodox church and over European rulers. It was the pope, the religious leader, after all, who was declaring a war on behalf of the European powers.

• Pressure Valve

• Religious zeal had been on the increase around this time. This was a good opportunity to release some of that zeal. It helped that the knights were told that dying while fighting this holy war was a golden salvation ticket to heaven.

• The borders of European Christendom had also stabilized to some extent and all these knights had little better to do with their warrior talents than fight amongst each other and terrorize the peasants. A Crusade would give them something to do and keep them from making trouble in Europe.

“’The bearer of this ticket will go to heaven if you get slaughtered on a Crusade!’ Awesome! I’m gonna be a

knight!”

• Some people just wanted to make a name and fortune for themselves. Seemed like a good opportunity to do so when there wasn’t much of one at home. In fact, most Crusaders who volunteered were peasants.

• And finally, the Italian merchant cities that controlled all the major ports and Mediterranean shipping were all in favor of it. They were cleaning up by transporting all these Crusaders, supplying them with food and arms, getting trade routes, etc. There’s good money to be made in war.

First Crusade

• Was a complete disorganized mess.

• Many more people volunteered than either Urban or Alexius had expected: around 80,000 to 100,000 – mostly poor and with little battle training.

• There was also no centralized leadership, no organized supply chain (they thought host cities, like Constantinople would give them food or sell it at reasonable prices – the cities thought otherwise), and several different large groups of Crusaders.

• When they arrived in Constantinople as a staging ground, Alexius got some of them the heck out of there as quickly as possible before they could cause problems. Some he gave them supplies if they gave an oath of fealty to him.

• Eventually the Crusaders (less than a fourth of the original number) get to Antioch (the first Christian city in Palestine) and then Jerusalem. They lay siege to both and take the cities.

• The siege wasn’t healthy for them either. Many soldiers died during the siege. There wasn’t a lot of food or water the city, especially since the besieged had poisoned wells outside the city walls.

• The knights enter the city and proceed to kill nearly everyone in it. Men, women, children, Muslim, Jew, eastern orthodox Christian.

• One of the Crusader leaders said:

• Now that our men had possession of the walls and towers, wonderful sights were to be seen. Some of our men (and this was merciful) cut off the heads of their enemies; others shot them with arrows, so that they fell from the towers; others tortured them longer by casting them into the flames. Piles of heads, hands and feet were to be seen in the streets of the city. It was necessary to pick one's way over the bodies of men and horses. But these were small matters compared with what happened in the Temple of Solomon, a place where religious services are normally chanted. What happened there? If I tell the truth, you would not believe it. Suffice to say that, in the Temple and Porch of Solomon, men rode in blood up to their knees and bridle reins. Indeed, it was a just and splendid judgment of God that this place should be filled with the blood of the unbelievers, since it had suffered so long from their blasphemies. The city was filled with corpses and blood.

Shouldn’t we spare a few people?

Wimp.

• Eastern Orthodox shrines were looted and the synagogue was burned to the ground with most of the city’s Jews cowering inside it as sanctuary (side note: some “Crusaders” in Germany went on Holocaust pogroms against Jews, reasoning that killing any non-Christian gained the golden ticket.

• Some Crusaders cut open the stomachs of the Muslims because they were told they had swallowed their gold. They even kept watch over the burning body piles, waiting for the molten gold to stream out.

• The massacre was as much policy as bloodthirstiness.

• In the Crusaders’ minds, the city had to be purged of all pagan and heretical influences and recreated as a Latin Christian city.

• As far as the Crusaders were concerned, “Deus vult,” – “God wills it.”

Deus vult!!

Not really

!

• The aftermath is that the Crusaders succeed in capturing and controlling a strip of land along the Mediterranean in Palestine. They divide it up into four separate feudal kingdoms.

Second Crusade

• Unfortunately for the Crusaders, they were surrounded on every side but the sea by hostile forces.

• The Turks conquer the Crusader city of Edessa and the second Crusade is launched in 1144. It amounts to little and actually helps lead to Jerusalem being captured in 1187.

Third Crusade

• Jerusalem is captured in 1187 by the Muslim leader Saladin.

• As inaccurately depicted in Kingdom of Heaven. The political intrigue was different and far more complicated, and Saladin didn’t just let all the Christians leave the city.

• He was actually quite content to kill ‘em all, but Balian (Orlando Bloom’s character, who was actually considerably older than Orlando at the time) threatened to kill all 3,000 to 5,000 Muslims in the city and destroy all Islam’s holy places unless quarter was given. The compromise was that anybody who could pay the ransom could go. The 7,000 to 8,000 people who couldn’t were put into slavery.

Come on out!

Ummm…. There’s nobody home! You might as well leave! Bye bye now and thanks for the

siege.

• So a new Crusade is launched to retake Jerusalem and the holy land.

• This time, it’s led by King Phillip of France, King Richard the Lionhearted of England, and HREmperor Frederick I (Barbarossa).

• Frederick’s army was massive. So big it had to go through Asia Minor instead of by sea.

• The Byzantine emperor made a side deal with Saladin to impede Fred’s progress in exchange for safety of Byzantine’s lands.

• Fred drowns crossing a river, his army falls into disorder, fares poorly against the Muslim armies, and then a lot of them die from the plague while encamped in Antioch.

• As for Richard and Philip, they squabble over spoils, honor, who should rule the holy land, and over European power politics. So Philip took his ball and went home, leaving Richard to fight.

• Richard does rather well and he and Saladin go back and forth (with the usual atrocities on both sides, of course).

• Eventually, Richard and Saladin agree to terms that Jerusalem will remain under Muslim control but that unarmed Christian pilgrims will still be able to visit.

• Saladin (Salah al-Din) was well-respected by the Europeans both for his honor and his war skills. They thought him chivalrous.

• Side-note: Saddam Hussein thought of himself as a new Saladin, i.e. protector of Islam and the Middle-East. Ironically, though, Saladin was Kurdish, a people who Hussein oppressed during his tyranny.

Fourth Crusade

• Gets underway in 1198 and was poorly organized and financed.

• Due to European and Byzantine politics as well as the actions of the Italian merchants, the Crusaders wind up sacking Constantinople in 1204. They never even got to the holy land.

• It was the call for help from the Byzantines in 1093 that helped spur the Crusades and it wound up biting them in the Byzantine butt 111 years later.

There were other minor Crusades that didn’t accomplish much and/or were complete fiascos.

Reconquista Crusade

• The retaking of Spain by Christians.

• The Iberian Peninsula was conquered by the Muslims around 711 and had all of it had been under their control from the to the 1100’s when it started being taken back.

• The reconquering was completed in 1492 when the last Muslim outpost in the south was overrun and expelled by the combined forces of King Ferdinand of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castile (the same ones who send Christopher Columbus on his way).

• A feature of the Reconquista was the Spanish Inquisition

• There was a general Inquisition movement in Europe, but the Spanish version was especially ugly.

• It was motivated by anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim feelings.

• The goal was to search out fake Christians, i.e. those who had converted but weren’t sincere.

• People were given a grace period to come forward and confess. If they did, they had to implicate others. The others would be imprisoned, property confiscated and put on trial. They would be tortured for a confession. If confessing, they could be released, punished, or burnt at the stake.

• The estimates of the executed range anywhere from 2,000 to 35,000.

• It winds up being a secret police fear weapon since anybody could anonymously accuse anyone else. Things got ugly.

Crusade aftermath

• All this interaction with the Muslims brought back some technology and mathematics, e.g. algebra, they had lacked.

• Opened up trade routes with the east (money knows no religion)

• Weakened the power of the pope since he had called for these failed expedition.

• Strengthened the kings. All these nobles and knights had gone off and gotten killed which meant the power went to the monarchs. By extension, it weakened the feudal system.

• The Byzantines are weakened.

• Down to modern-day, Muslims are a little irked about the Crusades.