crusades
At the time of the Crusades, the official church had become corrupt and politically motivated. It should be noted, too, that crusaders did not take vows to "go on crusade." The very term crusade, in English or in any other language, is a much later invention. What we call "crusades," contemporaries knew as "pilgrimages" or even simply "journeys." Aside from a tiny elite, people were illiterate and even if they could read, there was no access to a Bible or any scriptural teaching. It was an age of superstition and magic, where visions, signs and wonders were claimed by many. The masses' only source of knowledge about God was whatever the often corrupt and greedy clergy decided to teach. The early crusades broke new grounds for the power of the Church. It gave the Pope the highest order of command and brought about new religious vows. The crusade was a holy war, which differed from earlier wars against the enemies of Christendom in that it was waged by command of the pope. In order to ignite the fire of the Crusades, the Pope had to take existing theology about violence and warfare and
They said that an act of warfare against the infidel, i. He then usually received a cloth cross which he could place on his clothes to signify his new status. The crusader's property and people were then placed under the protection of the Church, and he was to begin preparing to leave. With many people facing what they believed could be countless years in purgatory, it is no wonder that tens of thousands willingly gave themselves to the cause of killing the "infidel". Until this time a Christian soldier had to do penance for any violence in order to reduce the time he would spend in purgatory before going to heaven. The indulgence was later seriously abused, and the word acquired a justifiably obnoxious connotation. If he did not discharge his vow within a certain period of time, he might be excommunicated by the church until he kept his word. Regardless of motivation, an individual underwent a specific ceremony before he could be considered a "crusader. Crusading vows were usually taken in response to official preaching of a crusade by licensed churchmen. the Muslims, was in itself an act of penance, and if a Christian were to lose his life so doing, he would go straight to heaven. Violence was considered a necessary evil, but nevertheless still evil. " The ceremony evolved somewhat over the centuries, but its general outlines remained the same. They were supposed to be taken only by fighting men or those who could otherwise contribute to a military effort, and they were not to be taken without the permission of the crusader's wife, since his long absence would deprive her of what was delicately called "marital rights" (Pope Innocent III, in need of troops for his crusading proposals, changed this in the thirteenth century, but in doing so he violated longstanding Church tradition and the plain intentions of canon law).
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Acceptance Essays
