Na Essay, Research Paper

The Medieval Christian tradition of Holy War was turned against Muslims, Jews, and fellow Christians alike. The crusades were a time of confusion for most people, yet today we look back at them as a turning point. The Crusades were Christian military expeditions undertaken between the 11th and the 14th century to recapture the Holy Land (Jerusalem) from the Muslims. The word crusade, which is derived from the Latin crux “cross”, is a reference to the biblical Christians that carry crosses. Crusaders wore a red cloth cross sown on their tunics to indicate that they had assumed the cross and were soldiers of Christ. The First Crusade was called by Pope Urban II, and was provoked by the rise to power of the Seljuk Turks, which interfered with traditional Pilgrimage to Palestine. The Pope promised spiritual benefits to warriors willing to fight under Christian banners. The Crusaders captured Jerusalem in 1099 and massacred its inhabitants, establishing a kingdom there under Godfrey of Bouillon. The Second Crusade

How affected Jews

The first great persecution of the Jews took place during the age of the Crusades. Then the Black Death (1347-54) – which affected the Jews as badly as all others – was blamed on the Jews. One by one the rulers of western Europe expelled them

Other religious groups in Europe were affected by the Crusades, especially the Jews. They suffered the most during the First and Third Crusades. Their religion dictated that they should commit suicide rather than submit to the sacrilege of Christian baptism. Therefore, when attacked by pilgrims in a number of German cities in 1096, mass suicides and mercy killings were common. Similarly, after the coronation of Richard I of England, resentment against the wealth of the Jews resulted in riots and massacres. Also included in Christian feeling was hatred for those they believed murdered Christ, resulting in outbreaks of mindless mob actions of unspeakable atrocity. The Jews were safe as long as they had money to led the European rulers, but lost all protection when that money ran out (mostly because many who borrowed never bothered paying the money back.) After the recapture of Jerusalem many Jews moved to Palestine because the Saracens were far more tolerant of Judaism than the Christians.