Video Transcript: Lesson 17

Unit 11 02 Internal Christian Conflicts and the Crusades 

Hello, welcome back to Christian leaders Institute World History 101. My name is Rich hamstra, it's my pleasure to be your instructor in this course, we are, at the period of time between 1001 1500 ad, we're looking particularly in this theme at the religious conflicts of that time. Previously, we've just spent some time looking at China and Asia, conflict within Buddhism and also was Buddhism and Confucianism. And now we turn our eyes to the west and look at the conflicts between between Christians, internal Christian conflicts during this this period of time, as well as conflicts between Christianity and Islam, better known as the Crusades. So those are our main topics for today. So Christian conflicts between the year 1015 100 ad are extensive. They are many, but we're going to mention two in particular. The first is the conflict between the East and the West. Between the church is centered in Rome, with the Pope in Rome, the bishop of Rome, and the church centered in the east, which is in Constantinople, and the Patriarch of Constantinople, they have done this is a mirror reflection of the eastern and western parts of the ancient Roman Empire is split under Constantine, and the Byzantium Eastern is Eastern Christianity, sometimes called Orthodox, and the western part of the Rome is the Roman Catholic Church, or basically just at that time known as the church. In 1054, there came a combination, the final step in what is called the Great Schism, 1054 AD, AD. And in this schism, the Roman Catholic pope, the pope of Rome, and the Eastern Orthodox leader, the Patriarch of Constantinople, finally excluded each other, from communion from participation in the Lord's Supper and really excluded each other and became different, very separate and very different wings of Christianity. A lot of that conflict is fueled by rivalry between the two as the two leaders, and especially we know that the Pope in Rome what to do, he was making claims of having authority over all Christians, whether in the East or in the West. And, of course, the Patriarch of Constantinople disputed that. Much to the contrary, he made the claim that he existed first, he was actually the leader of all Christians, and also some theological disputes, technical, theological disputes behind this. And there are liturgical practices that were different, different times of celebration, for instance of Easter, and different ways of worshipping. But the fundamental thing is really a political struggle between the power of the Pope in Rome, and the patriarchy in Constantinople. This becomes a conflict between Eastern Christianity and Western Christianity that still exists. To this day, although there have been some overtures to make relations better. Thus far, there is still clearly a dispute. This map reflects in the Antioch tension before the two areas that are under the authority of the two different Pope's so the green area is the area the Pope in Rome. And you can see that that's virtually all of Europe. And the purple area is the area of the Patriarch in Constantinople, including so much of the Mediterranean basis here, all of Asia Minor Turkey as it comes to know, but also this huge area, which is the Slavic principalities, principalities of Moscow and Kiev, and Russia. They are under the authority, primarily of the Patriarch of Constantinople. That's why the Russian Orthodox Church continues to have such power. So that's called the Great Schism. 1054 Eastern and Western Christianity make a definitive split.

 

We turn our eyes now more to Western Christianity and To another schism, called the Western schism, but it's also known as the papal captivity. And here's your reading assignment is the Wikipedia article on the Avignon papacy. That's a technical term, but it's also called the Western schism. Please read that this occurs in the 14th century, basically the entire century from the 1300s, but the 14th century, and it is primarily a struggle for the What authority does the pope have over secular matters? That is, it's a struggle between the various monarchs, various secular rulers and the Pope. Prior to this time, various Pope's Gregory and the like, had asserted that they had great authority over secular powers and could tell the Kings, how to run their countries and to whom to go to war with and whom to elevate, and whom to put down, and what laws they ought to follow. But during the 14th century, there are times of crisis in the papacy, where it be, it comes into conflict primarily with a monarch who is in Paris or the French monarch. On the one side, there as the French brought our cat on the other side, there is England. And I think that we've made reference before to this entire period of time, between 1015 100 and even extending, much beyond. In Europe, Western Europe, is very much the story of the struggle between France and England. And this is just, in some respects, a reflection of that this captivity, the papacy. So England favors the pope who is in Rome, but the King of France, decides that he's going to exert his secular control over the papacy. He makes his way he threatens to depose the Pope, who is in Rome sends his armies, the pope there dies, actually, before the armies get there. But the armies of France come, and they take the Pope, the next pope, to southern France, to the town of Avignon. And now suddenly, we have two different Pope's one still enrolled, favored by the Italian states and favored by England and the other in France. And in France, it's called the Avignon or the papacy in captivity. So that occurs in 1309. So early in the 14th century, Bob Clampett dismissed he himself his French, he's a French Pope. And the French king moves, the, as I said, moves of the papacy and the Enclave, the Cardinals are all the trappings Musa to Avignon, France, where it stays there until 1376. Now, this is not fully accepted by everybody. And so there there are two different Pope's, two different authorities. And there's constant struggle between them. In 1376, actually, the pope moves back to France, I'm sorry, back to Rome. But there's still remains other posts in Avignon. They're called the anti Pope. And horribly confusing, of course, but what we see is the French king, exerting his authority over who's going to be pope, and the Pope is going to be subservient in secular matters for sure. To the French king. So the anti Pope's are an avid young, they're there for another 2530 years. And actually, there are anti Pope's, in Avignon until 1437. At that time, the papacy moves back to Rome, and there's just one Pope. But for 500 years nearly there are rival Pope's, and folks don't know who knows listen to they don't know who has authority. They don't know who speaks for the church. They don't know whose rules and regulations to follow. And it's horrendously confusing. It causes a crisis of authority and leadership in the church over western Europe.

 

This is pretty much what the king of France is looking for, for his lucky Have domination over the Pope. Here's a quote from the Wikipedia articles that I've asked you to read. And I'd like to just read it to you, it has a number of features worth mentioning. So this is about the Western schism, the papacy what is an avenue in a period of the schism, the power struggle in the papacy became a battlefield of the major powers with France supporting the Pope and avin, young, and England supporting the Pope in Rome. So again, you see France and England as the two major rivals in Western Europe. At the end of the century, still in the state of schism, the papacy had lost most of its direct political power. So prior to that the Pope had had all sorts of influence over the secular states, particularly in France, and in England, but that now disintegrates, or at least becomes much less. Because of this great schism. And the Nation States, France and England were established as two of the main powers in Europe. This is going to have historical implications for the next five 600 years, really, almost until the present day, I would say, where France and England, for the most part, are rivals. And it isn't until World War One actually that they become allies,

 

against other powers. But it also becomes a real time in which they

 

start to gain some national identity as separate entities. Remember, prior to this, the Normans who are basically French are in control of France and the royalty the leadership, the barons, the ruling class and England is fundamentally French. The division here begins to set them in separate identities, where the English become English, separate, no longer French, no longer French speaking, no longer French customs. They, the French go their own way and be and gain a national identity of their own with the French monarchy. So the Great Schism of 1054 and the Western Schism of the 14th century with the two different purposes going on, is those are two of the major controversies conflicts going on within Christianity during our period of time. I'd like to turn now to the conflict between 1015 100 between Christianity and Islam, and there are two topics in particular we're going to look at. The first is a time cluster in Spain, and the second is the crusades in Palestine. The Spanish Reconquista sets the tone and becomes the model for the later crusades that happen in Palestine. This is from a Wikipedia article and I just like to read this too. So we get a definition and understanding of what time cluster means. The reclined clusters Spanish and Portuguese for the reconquest is a period in the history of the Iberian Peninsula, that is Spain and Portugal, of about 780 years between the Umayyad conquest of Hispaniola in 711. And the fall of the Nazareth, kingdom of Grenada to the expanding Christian kingdoms in 1492. So between the years 780 and 1492. Just say how many years it is, it's over seven, that's like 700 years. Plus. There is war in the Iberian Peninsula, war between Christians, Muslims, with Jews, also as a part of that, and it is fundamentally the Christian leaders and armies provinces, trying to reassert Christian control or trying to assert Christian control over the peninsula. The require cluster was completed just before the Spanish discovery of America, the New World, which ushered in the age of the Spanish and Portuguese colonial empires. So prior to Christopher Columbus and Spain coming to South America and Latin America and the Caribbean, and actually spreading out all around the world as well as the Portuguese in Brazil in the light they had experienced 700 years of nearly ending conflict with Muslims and with Jews in the Iberian Peninsula. So this is Spain and Portugal for that period of time. And this map actually is a historical projection progression of how the battles went in the concrete conquests to when it started here in the North. Here's Aragon Castiel. You'll remember later for Nat and Isabella from Aragon, and Castiel, Mary, they wed them and that really becomes the nation of Spain. The Christians are control area at the top on the border of Spain, France, and they begin to work their way south by means of violence by means of war, and take the areas that had been held by Muslims during this period of time. So Spain is really a culture. In many respects, central Spain and southern Spain are cultures that are a real mix of both Islamic and Christian influence and Jewish influence. Because there was a large Jewish population, as well here. And here, of course, is Portugal, which is its own principality it's on. We can't really say a nation at this time, but has its own identity has its own royalty, but they become part of the Recon cluster, as well.

 

What's the point that I really like to notice is what this Ricon cluster does to the mindset of Western Europeans, particularly Western European Christianity, as it looks at Muslims, and Jews. The fundamental thing I want to point out is that Spain becomes an exclusively Catholic nation. Later on, it's going to have this thing called the Inquisition sanctioned by the Pope, in which they go after people who they suspect of heresy. And heretics can be people that they think are practicing Muslim, practicing Jews, or maybe not fully committed Christians, or then later who become critical of the church or during the Protestant Reformation times as their sympathies with the Protestants. The Inquisition goes virtually after anybody that the Church wants them to go after. But it was very clearly in Spain, a culture in which the only religion that was to be tolerated was Christianity. Muslims were either forced to convert to Christianity. And if they did, so they were often always under a cloud for generations and generations, or most often, they along with Jews, are expelled. There's a final time in 1492, after the return question is finished, that Ferdinand and Isabella decide to formally and finally exclude all Jews from their

 

realm. This is new in our history, and in our talking. Previous conquerors, of course, brought with them their religion, whether it was Islam or Christianity or Buddhism, or whatever.

 

conquerors certainly encouraged the populations to adopt the religion of the conquering country that was true in North Africa, for instance, with Arabs, and the spread of Islam throughout Africa throughout Central Asia. But it was not done at the point of the sword. conversions were not forced. And religious tolerance is almost always practiced. There are exceptions, but it's almost always practiced by conquering forces. conquerors are not interested in converting people to a different religion. They were interested in controlling their lands, having political and military economic control, but not necessarily or certainly not religious control. That's different in the Recon question. This is a holy war. This is a war that uses violence as a means to convert people to the question phase

 

there are also political ramifications the reconquest and unifies the various kingdoms. We saw on the map, there were all sorts of principalities and delight various local leaders. But now they all shape an identities that becomes known as Spanish and the Spanish culture. Portugal becomes its own nation. It has its own military, it has its own navy, it has its own kingdom. But they share the Iberian Peninsula and share the exclusive Catholic position. If yours the Reconquista gives an example of what holy war looks like, and later on this is going to be called the The War of the cross. We translate that as a crusade. In many ways, this becomes the model and an extension for the Crusades that we say, happened in Palestine, the more famous crusades of the Middle Ages. Holy War, war that converts people by violence is modeled in this reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula, against the Muslims, and Jews. That model is taken over them by the Crusades. We're going to turn to that next. The topic of the crusades, and I'll have you read this Wikipedia article on the Crusades. There's a lot of detail in that article, I don't know that you have to remember every one of the details I don't think that's necessary. But I would like you to have a clearer sense of the scope of the Crusades and how they worked and they didn't work. The Crusades to Palestine, which was intensely called the Holy Land by Christians. The Crusades to Palestine formally began in 1095. Ad after the Byzantine Empire loses the Battle of Nantucket in 1071. And when we talked about the Turkish invasion, we talked about the importance of this battle, how the Byzantine emperor at the time, lost that battle and recognize began to recognize that he could not stop the Turkish invasion that was coming from the east. In 1095, Emperor Alexa first request to help Pope Urban the Second for military support in order to protect the Byzantine Empire, the eastern empire, from the Saluki Turkish advanced into Asia Minor. Now remember, that didn't tend to before so just just prior to this, the Eastern and Western churches have the Great Schism they split. They're in complete conflict with each other. But after massacred the eastern empire, the Byzantines and the Eastern Church recognize they cannot go it alone. They need to help the West. And so they appeal to Pope Urban the Second send us some military assistance. Well, urban, the second, who is felt at the time, decides to respond to this appeal with a series of sermons. He also calls church councils for the Western churches and fires up the bishops of the arts, bishops. In this great sermon, he calls them together and cause for European armies, to go to war against the Turks. And again, he doesn't just say, hey, we need some military support. This becomes a holy war. This becomes what in our context, we understand as a jihad. This becomes a way to forcely convert the land, convert the inhabitants if they won't convert, if the infidels will not change their ways, they will be slaughtered. So this holy war also has political implications. For instance, this becomes a great way for Pope Orban the second to assert the dominance of the Western Church over the Eastern Church. Remember the Great Schism we talked about? The western church begins to get its way. It also speaks to a huge internal problem within Europe. And that is they had to Huge problem at this time, around the year 1000, to 1000, to 1100. And later on as well, a huge problem was what to do with all the arm fighting men, who the various kings and lords of the manor, supported and armed and had ready to go.

 

But often didn't have an enemy to fight, or didn't have an enemy to fight who wasn't their neighbor, or who wasn't their own subjects in their own little kingdoms. We romanticize and literature the time actually romanticizes the notion of the Knights, the Knights of the Round Table, for instance, or the various knights who act was great chivalry, for instance. The class of knights are fundamentally a highly armed, numerically small, because it takes so much to arm them to supply them. But highly armed, well protected mercenary groups. They are the elite soldiers whose kings and local barons gather around them. Mostly in order to protect the kings and the barons, themselves. They are a private guard, in other words, but they weren't always busy, they had a lot of downtime. And in this downtime, what happened is they began to use their military might and use all this great weaponry against their fellow citizens. And so violence against the weak and the poor in particular, was a huge problem. In these societies, the knights would go out, roaming and pillaging the countryside, and the kings often weren't going to start them because, hey, these diets are there to protect them to protect the kings. And so the problem of these rampaging knights is huge at this time, they needed to have a unifying purpose, a unifying goal, and they needed to have a unifying non european enemy, for Urban the Second jumped at this opportunity to send these knights away, get him Europe, send them overseas, and let them fight the Turks over in Palestine. In his in one of his sermons, to the Great Council of Claremont to when he called and 1095, in order to rile up Europe for the Crusades. Pokolbin the second recognises that what is called the subversion of partial violence is effective in dealing with secular violence. In other words, as I just said, what to do with these knights, who are causing all sorts of problems within society, how to get them out of the country and get them fighting an enemy that's non European. Urban, the second uses the crusades in this in this way. This is a quote from one of his sermons that illustrates exactly this point. That if you recall, very early in the course, we talked about the there was three primary sources and secondary sources. This is one of those primary sources. We haven't used a lot of those. But this is actually a quote from the Pope's sermon. Alright, so frank, we learned that in some of your provinces, no one can venture on the road by day or by night without injury or attack by high women, and everyone. paradigmatically everyone understood that the high women were really the knights and their hands and their Squires and no one is secure, even at home. Let us and reenact the law of our ancestors known as the truce of God. Let me comment the truth of God was an attempt by the church to limit the times of violence. There were two things the truce of God and the peace of God. These are religious laws that the church tried to enforce it said that hate no fighting on these days no fighting for instance on Sundays. No fighting later on during Lent. These are all just attempts to, to tamp down the violence caused by the Knights that have been reenact the law of our ancestors known as a truce of God. And now that you have promised to maintain the peace among yourselves,

 

okay? You are obligated to sucker your brother in the east. So I'm going to your job, be a peace with each other at home. Your job is to go help your brothers in the East that is by dantian empire. And now notice how the language becomes so violent, menaced by an accursed race, only alienated from God. So it's fine to go out and slaughter these people. They, God hates them. God hates them, you ought to hate them. And if you're going to hate them, you may as well put them to the sword. This new deal dehumanizing de spiritualizing of making their enemies who are not of their own face, making them worthy of death because they're not of their own face. We saw that in the Reconquista. And now we see that as a significant feature, the Crusades, the holy appliquer of Our Lord is polluted by the filthiness, of an unclean nation. And now we get to another reason for the Crusades. And that is, they were told that the holy places of the Holy Land, the places where Jesus walked, for instance, the holy sepal occur, that refers to the place where Jesus is buried and for which he rises. Bethlehem, the side of the Nativity, and many, many, many, many, many other places, which of course, are under Turkish control. were being violated in a religious way, not just occupied, but were being violated and the Christian face was being denigrated by these unclean people. Recall the greatness of Charlemagne that's almost a direct reference to the recount cluster. Because his grandfather Charles of tours was one of the famous ones who stopped help to stop the Muslim invaders, invasion. Back in the seven, hundreds and Charlemagne continue that during his rule 18 800 and beyond. Almost valiant soldiers, descendants of Invincible ancestors Do not be degenerate, led all hatred departs from among you. All calls and all wars cease to receive directly that the Pope is using this common enemy in Palestine common enemy of Muslims, as a way to unify Western Europe. Start upon the road to the holy separator to rest that land in the wicked race and subjected to yourself. Go conquer, kill the infidel, make this place holy. This is a sermon from Pope Urban, the second one of those that got the Crusades going. There are also lots of political reasons and economic reasons for the Crusades. The Turks, as we talked about, were in control at this time of the Silk Route said they were limiting access. Genoa and Venice. City States and Italy were the economic powerhouses of the time. They were right at the end of the Silk Road, they would take all the goods there who traveled back and forth and they would distribute those to Western Europe and they were making money hand over fist and they wanted to trade with the east. And they also wanted to along the way, bypass Constantinople. So they were looking for more direct route trade routes between basically China, India, and Europe. And Arabs could provide this by bringing things up into Palestine. For Palestine, it could come. For instance, support of Java is very important. It can come from their right to gentleman, and then

 

also a great time of tremendous spiritual anxiety in Western Europe. The year 1000 was approaching the millennium. And there were plenty of speculations and plenty of preachers that Jesus is coming back any day now. Similar message to what we hear these days, sometimes we know he's coming back, the time is right, the millennium is over. And there's all this anxiety that people are going to be left behind, or they're not going to be included in Jesus new kingdom that's coming. They saw the world coming to an end and their own lives coming to an end. And part of seeking is salvation part of seeking this kingdom of God or kingdom of heaven, is on everyone's mind. Death, is it ever, in this world is an ever present reality and Western Christianity begins a almost total focus, that the meaning of salvation is that when I die, I go to heaven. That's a very, very limited, truncated small view of what the Christian faith is all about. Certainly, an everlasting life with God, his Christian hope, that the Christian faith is about this world and about this life. More so I would say, about two worlds to come. But in this medieval time, in which life is so insecure, and the millennium is coming, people's thoughts are turned over and over and over to Jesus returned. The church has a monopoly on salvation. The only way people can be assured that they're going to enter eternal life is if the church grants and salvation. And the deal that the church makes is that if you go on one of these crusades, you become a crusader. We're going to give you a free pass, we're going to give you an indulgence, we're going to give you the remission of your sins. You will have eternal life. It is promised that if you go and if you're martyred, all the better. You enter into eternal life now, but even if you go on this crusade, even if you go on this great pilgrimage of the cross, you will inherit eternal life. Well, how can this be passed up? by so many? The church exerts this sort of influence and power. Well, this is a good quote from the Wikipedia article on the Crusades. But I wanted to point it out. In particular, because this describes the First Crusade. There are four and all but this describes the First Crusade which is often called the People's Crusade, to be called the disaster, crusade as well. Here's a quote. This is after Urban the Second sermon. Almost immediately, Peter the Hermit led 1000s of mostly poor Christians out of Europe, in what became known as the People's Crusade. He claimed he had a letter from heaven, instructing Christians prepared to prepare for the eminent Apocalypse by seizing Jerusalem. So Pierre, the hermit claims to be a prophet. God has given him a letter that says if you go seize Jerusalem, then Jesus will return the kingdom of God will come. the motivations of this crusade include a Messianism of the poor, inspired by an expected mass ascension into heaven in Jerusalem. So when Jesus comes, when we go to Jerusalem, Jesus will return and you will be snatched up raptured is the word to choose these days, you will be stashed up into heaven just as he was. This inspired 1000s and 1000s and 1000s of European poor people to leave behind their very mean life and start on the road to Jerusalem and no clue would ever go and many had never ventured more than a few miles from their home is that now they're on the road to Jerusalem totally unprepared. This happens in continental Europe in particular, and in the dramatic places, especially So Germany witnesses the first incidents of major violent Europe pee and anti semitism. So as these masses in mobs of disorganized, ill equipped, poor, hungry, starving people begin to make their way south out of Europe, they come upon Jewish communities and they destroy them. Jews are now seen as infidels. Jews are now seen as enemies Jews are now seen as people whom you can slaughter because that's what God wants you to do.

 

When these crusaders massacre, massacre Jewish communities in what has become known as the Rhineland, massacres inspired worm's mind and Cologne, the range of anti Jewish community was broad, extending from limited spontaneous violence to full scale military attacks. Crusaders journey despite advanced some Alexis remember, he was the emperor in Byzantium to wait for the nobles you know, wait for the Knights Wait, wait for the leaders to come but they were not going to wait. He wanted them to wait and nicea really before they entered into the conflict zone. But the People's Crusade did not wait. Pierre the hermit did not wait. Only 3000 survived an ambush by the Turks at Clapton's. One of the battlegrounds in the Crusades, the First Crusade, the First Crusade is virtually wiped out by the Turks. Gainesville ground has no no results, except that it illustrates what happens with a pocket apocalyptic profits take over the imagination and take over the hopes of the poor folks. continues to quote the enthusiastic response to Urban's preaching from all classes in Western Europe established a precedent for other crusades. Volunteers became crusaders by taking the public vital and very important, particularly for the Knights that they're bound by these vows. They vow to pilgrimage and deliberate or to conquer Palestine the holy land as a part of their holy war. In return for this Val, they received Planoly plenary indulgences, that means they are given a certificate that assures them of salvation and eternal life from the church. Some were hoping for a mass ascension into heaven to Jerusalem and or God's forgiveness for all their sins. This is a way for them to seek their redemption to earn their redemption by going on this pilgrimage. And so others, others participated satisfy feudal obligations. They have promised their Lord that they would follow the Lord's commands and if the Lord said you're going to go on a crusade to Palestine, the knights and so when to obtain glory and honor or to seek economic and political gain, not a few went in order to establish themselves in their own kingdoms in Palestine, and sure enough, that's what comes basically the Second Crusade. So this crusades, we can notice a couple things were Urban the Second in that sermon addressed to Europeans he called them Franks, the Frank Frankish race. All Europeans were basically understood to be French at that time, including the English who were prized the Norman culture. But the English and French are not the only ones to participate in the Crusades, Germany has mentioned and also some significant Italian and Spanish participation. In all there were four crusades that are generally recognized from 1095 until 1291. The first Crusade I mentioned is ended in disaster was a massacre of just about all of the poor folks who went the Second Crusade gained some territory along the coast recaptures Jerusalem eventually. The third crusade is often referred to as a crusade within Europe, because many of the people included the spread of Christianity into Lithuania and the like via the Teutonic Knights. And the Fourth Crusade is actually not against Turkey. It is actually the Italian state fund mercenary In order to go attack, content, they sack Constantinople, they burn the churches. And for a while they control

 

that part of the, the Byzantine Empire. You can imagine how this Fourth Crusade cements the division that we started with in this session, that great schism between the Eastern Church and the Western Church is now totally set in concrete by this Fourth Crusade. So we can ask about the results of the Crusades. And long term results politically, militarily, spiritually, are absolutely minimal. The kingdoms that are established in the Holy Land, do not last for very long. They're soon overwhelmed by the Turks and then later on by the Mongols, and then by the Ottoman Empire. They do not rescue Constantinople, eventually it does fall to the Ottomans, although it does extend its life for a few 100 years. Their spiritual influence was minimal. They do change Europe, however, very little change in Palestine. But Europe changes significantly. Because of these crusades, culturally. What happens is that Europe is exposed through the Crusades and through this period of time, is exposed to what the east and well, particularly the Arabs, but others knew in Islamic lands, the kinds of learning and understanding many, many things of culture understanding, particularly the understanding of the ancient empires of Greece, and Rome. I know it's hard to conceive of, but prior to the year 1000, almost no, your Europeans knew much, if anything about Aristotle, Plato, about the great Greek so the Greek civil of his civilization, they knew almost nothing concretely or specifically about the Romans. They maybe had an awareness that there was some old ancient empire they they saw the aqueducts still standing they they walked on these roads. But they wondered where do they come from, who built them they didn't know, the great places in Rome that we might now celebrate and go visit like the Colosseum or the Pantheon. no understanding of what those places where no understanding really what Roman law was much about, there's some customs to follow, but no depth of understanding until the Crusades come. And knowledge from the east that's preserved in the east, gets transferred and brought back to Western Western Europe. So suddenly, Western Europe is learning all about Hindus and they're learning about Persians and they're learning about Greeks and Romans. They're learning about mathematics, developed extensively by Arab scholars. There's a reason that algebra is Arabic is Arabic name. And perhaps the concept of zero is brought from India, to Arab into Western Europe. They learn all sorts of new ways of doing well. Warfare. Science, Medicine, in particular, takes great strides, and philosophy. The scholarship of the world, this historical scholarship had been preserved in Islamic and Byzantine schools and academies. That knowledge now gets passed to Western Europe because of the Crusades, not the least, because there were many refugees from the Byzantine Empire who brought their Greek and Latin texts with them as they migrated and sought refuge in the West. These changes paved the way for some of the more significant cultural and theological changes that are going to happen in Western Europe during this period of time a little bit later. theologically, there's no Thomas Aquinas, no founding of the Scholastic movement, which changed the entire theological position of the Roman Catholic church without the influence of Aristotle, and Aristotle comes to the west by By way of these eastern scholars, particularly Islamic scholars,

 

and later the Renaissance, which is really trying to recapture the glories of ancient Rome, and the Greek notion that the human being is really the measure of all things, what we might call basic humanitarian ism, which lies at the real heart of the Renaissance in Western Europe, that would not have been possible, had it not been for the cultural exchange that happens because of the Crusades. So while the Crusades have really minimal effect, in political ways, they have huge effect, both in cementing the division between the Eastern and Western church and opening the Western Western Europe, up to the learning that had been preserved in the Islamic and Byzantine world. Spiritually, it is a great time of change as well, people began to focus on relics, pieces of things that are brought back from pilgrims in crusaders bring back with a pieces of the cross, for instance, or this holy stone, or this piece of cloth or worn by Elijah or by Moses, or by Jesus, or by Peter. cathedrals are built, often to house these relics, and people come to worship them and to observe them to get a touch of the holy. Remember, there's a sense in which the Holy is just completely outside this world is, it's the other world that's here I have a little piece of the cross and I can touch this. And I or at least I can see it, and I can pray by it. And I can put a devotional offering, I can light a candle here. These are ways of touching the divine. And this gets a huge bump, a huge increase after the Crusades and also really cements the church's power in granting salvation. Especially the power of indulgences. We will see this come full circle in the 16th century. That's actually the next course. But when we get to Martin Luther, and we see how significant the selling of indulgences, and the granting of indulgences is to the Protestant Reformation, and the next great revolution in Christianity. The church said we control salvation, there's no afterlife without the church. And if you anger us, if you bother us, if you cross us, we will exclude you. excommunicate is a formal terms, we will exclude you from salvation. And this happened with great regularity, particularly the Pope's who would exclude kings, and then the kings would come and do penance, and then the Pope would accept them again. It was a way often for the Pope's to exert spiritual power over. Finally, so what are the conflict between Christianity and Islam? In the context of the Crusades, those of us with a Western European heritage, the Crusades are tremendously significant. In our story, it's a major part of Western European story and a major part of Christianity's story that is much less true of Islam. I mean, just not that. Islamic people or Muslims are aware that there were these crusades, but they are not seen as pivotal moments that the way it is in the West. This is often because really, the Crusades expat effect is really a very limited very small area geographically. The Turkish conquest was much greater it was Asia Minor, down almost to Egypt. The Turks are in this period of time, not just a war with the Crusaders, they are at war with their Muslim neighbors, their war in Syria, they're at war in Egypt. There's no such thing as most unified Muslim ethos that responds to the Crusades are saying, these are wholly invaders. We got to join all together and kick them out. They thought of it primarily as a problem that the Turks had with with Bahrain dantian.

 

Plus, following the Crusades, the Mongol invasion that dominates this entire region is much more open. overwhelming for the region, then the Crusades changes things for Islamic countries much more than the Crusades. And then after that the Ottoman Empire that arises, we talked about that, and really has control into the 20th century, early 20th century, the Ottoman Empire becomes a much more significant factor in Palestine in the Holy Land. It overwhelms whatever, whatever influence the Crusades may have had culturally or politically or economically. So for Christianity, the Crusades are a big deal. For most of the Islamic world, it's

 

for most for Christians, and I think this is the most significant point I want to make about the Crusades.

 

For Christians, the Crusades, the Middle Ages. Introduced and the Reconquista in Spain introduced the justification of violence as a means to advance the face. You make converts at the edge of the sword, if they will not convert, they're dead and they deserve to die.

 

Suppose the call of the Crusaders was a dance vote. God wills it. God wants it. And they saw themselves as indeed, Knights, crusaders, pilgrims, advancing God's will, to violence. This introduces, well, perhaps not introduces, but certainly cements within European culture.

 

An intolerance for any other religion and a justification to use violence against those people of other faiths. So, again, the beginning of the next course, we'll have Spanish and Portuguese and later English and French, Dutch and

 

Italian and all sorts of Christians from Western Europe, spread it out throughout the globe, and establishing their empires and violence is used over and over and over and tolerated and condone, as a method of conversion in the new colonial areas, crusades, make that acceptable. And one wonders Could there have been, for instance, a Hitler justified justifying to the German people, that the eradication of non Christians and people would enact in a Christian way that their extermination was an act of devotion. Acceptable. History does not repeat itself, but it does set tone and walk in certain rhythms.

 

The Crusades have been romanticized in the West. My wife's alma mater. They are known as the Knights mile the lover known as the Crusaders. When those schools were established, those names chosen. Those were notions of great honor.

 

I think it's time to rethink or at least be very careful with what we think of your crusade. Thank you for your attention today. Next week we turn next time we turn to a new topic. We'll look at some of the political and cultural changes that happened in this period of time and some a few, just a few of our selected areas. And soon, we'll be wrapping up this course. Thank you. God bless today.