Crusades: The Catholic Church In The Middle East

Superior Essays
Hook - Try to envision an infamous organization that was known for slaughtering hundreds of thousands of innocent people. Men, women, and children alike. This organization committed hundreds of hate crimes against innocent individuals simply because they shared different moral values and beliefs. I am sure many of you are thinking that “ISIS” fits this description, but the organization that I am talking is Catholic Church in the eleventh century.

In this essay I will be examining the history of the Catholic Church and their involvement in issues in the Middle East. I hope to share my opinion with you, the reader, by using historical evidence, strong synthesis, and a strong sense of understanding. I will try and relate the “Crusades” to the modern day tragedies cause from Middle Eastern hate groups like “ISIL.”

The Crusades were extraordinarily interesting, and lengthy religious battles that lasted from the 11th century all the way to the 13th century. There were seven major crusades and they all involved a variety of different countries and cultures. However, the main two combatants were Western Europe Christians, and many different Islamic denominations. The Christian Crusaders were originally ordered by
…show more content…
Quite honestly, I am disgusted by the lack of compassion, mercy, and love the Christians showed. I am ashamed that a religious group, especially one which I appreciate and respect, would do such a thing. I am aware that popes in the past have “apologized” for the church 's actions, but in my opinion, I think that the Catholic Church should formally apology for all the pain and suffering that they have caused that still goes on in the world today. Not enough of the ISIS hate crimes are related back to the crusades and what The Church did to the Middle East. I hope to see some improvement from the church in many aspects in the next few

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    The Crusades Dbq

    • 735 Words
    • 3 Pages

    During the 11th and 12th centuries, the Christian nations held most of Europe, and Muslim advances had been stopped for the most part. The only nation that remained threatened by the Arab advances were the Byzantines. This threat to the Byzantine Empire sparked the Crusades, a series of military campaigns with the purpose of recapturing Christian holy sites. These campaigns gave more power to the Pope, and the campaign also gave more power to the Christian nations that participated. The primary reason the Europeans joined the Crusades was religious motivation and the will to drive Muslims out of the Holy Land.…

    • 735 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Throughout history, one can find examples of a nation trying to expand its borders and grow stronger, wealthier, and more influential, but during the High Middle Ages the Catholic Church takes on a mission to take back the Holy Land from Muslim Control. The Crusades are a special event that only occur during the High Middle Ages, and in no other era of history does one find the Catholic Church put together a military campaign to take control another land. While some historians look back upon the Crusades as a purely religious expedition, others consider them to be the conquest of new lands in order to grow in power and wealth. Imperialism within the Middle Ages can be seen as both similar to other ages in history and different because the reasoning…

    • 819 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The First Crusade began in 1096 after Pope Urban II’s speech at the Council of Clermont in 1095. One version of Urban’s Speech at Clermont was recorded by Fulcher de Chartes, a priest who also participated in the Crusades. While this version of Pope Urban II’s speech is one of the more reliable sources of the said speech, there is still a great chance for bias especially as Fulcher de Chartes was a crusader himself. This one speech, whether or not it was an accurate recording of what Pope Urban II actually said, was one driving force behind the First Crusade. This First Crusade was, at least officially, an effort to help the Byzantine Empire to reclaim the Holy City of Jerusalem from the Ottoman Turks.…

    • 2326 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The crusaders went to the Holy Land many times. There were eight major Crusades, all of them were a failure except the very first one. The crusaders wanted to take back the Holy Land from the Muslims. The Crusades were a curious mix of God and warfare, two of the chief concerns of the Middle Ages (pg 289). The Crusades were based on the idea of a holy war against the infidels or unbelievers (pg 291).…

    • 670 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Inquisition Vs Reformation

    • 1076 Words
    • 5 Pages

    If you look back on the History of the Catholic Church, two major events that happened at around the same time, will pop out at you. These are the Reformation and the Inquisition. The reformation was a movement to break off from the Church. Lead by the hot-headed Luther, the Reformation is seen to many as a break away from the old, outdated, and corrupt Catholic Church. If you look closer, you can see it was a rejecting of the Church, with flawed Philosophy and distorted logic that was filled with much bloodshed.…

    • 1076 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Crusades Dbq Essay

    • 788 Words
    • 4 Pages

    There are many historians who have differing views regarding the First Crusade in 1095 C.E. Popular questions that tend to arise with this topic are what initially caused the Crusade? What factors led to their successes and failures? How did the Crusades effect areas of Europe and the Middle East? Different historical perspectives attempt to answer these lingering questions with factual representation.…

    • 788 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    In 1095-1291, the Crusades was a series of war between the Christians and the Muslims waging the power over the land of Jerusalem. Christians wants the land of Jerusalem because that land is a holy land. The Pope encouraged the Christians to join this huge war as a Crusader to take away the land of Jerusalem, from the Muslim people, who originally lived in. Both sides had their own holy sites so they both wants the land so they can pray freely. Therefore, Christians had to go to war with the Muslims by traveling from Europe to the land, Jerusalem.…

    • 286 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The First Crusade, also the most successful, began with the speech of Pope Urban II at Clermont on 27 November 1095, and was initially a response to the request for armed aid against the Turks made by the Byzantine Emperor Alexius I. However, its purpose quickly shifted and it in turn became the largest mass pilgrimage of the eleventh century, though it differed from all the others in once crucial respect, in that it was, at the same time, a war, one set against what was by some referred to as the ‘savagery of the Saracens’. Though there is a certain level of difficulty in defining what a crusade was in regards to the use of the word by the medieval people , a related question that gives a substantial amount of insight into what constituted a crusade involves the motivations that the knightly elite who answered Urban II’s call to arms had for taking the cross.…

    • 1914 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Crusades Dbq

    • 284 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Between 1095 and 1291 the Crusades to the Eastern Mediterranean took place, promoted by the papacy. Rome had been asked by Christian emperor in Constantinople, Alexius Commenus, to assist him in fighting back the Seljuk Turk’s expansion and occupation and recover the lost territories. Pope Urban II added the argument of redeeming the Holy Land from infidel Muslim expansion and occupation and harassing Christian pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Over the course of the Crusades, the many differences existing between Western and Eastern Christians became irreversible. Historian and notable expert on the crusades Christopher Tyerman states in his most recent research that the crusades were wars justified by faith conducted against real or imagined enemies defined by religious and political elites as perceived threats to the Christian faithful.…

    • 284 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Causes Of The Crusades

    • 1045 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Muslim unification, which was the main cause of The Crusades, began with the Turks, who were a nomadic people who swept across the Middle East, taking land and fighting the Byzantine Empire along the way (Crusaders Arrive at Constantinople). The tension already had been running high between competing religions, and this was getting too close for the taste of the Byzantine Empire. Alexius I Comnenus pleaded with the pope to send help, and in 1905 Pope Urban II rallied, France, Italy, and Germany to arms, flying under the Red Cross banner to “protect the Christians in the East from Muslim attack and recapture the Holy Land from the Muslim Turks” (Crusaders Arrive…

    • 1045 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Maren Hance Professor Rick Cherok History of Christianity September 20th, 2017 God's Battalions: The Case for the Crusades by Rodney Stark Book Review Rodney Stark, author of God’s Battalions: The Case for the Crusades, writes about how Crusaders, which were holy warriors, considered themselves to be true servants in God’s battalions. Author Rodney Stark, Professor of Social Sciences at Baylor University, clears up and explains many misunderstandings about the Crusades in this book. In his book, Stark examines each of the Crusades and address the myths presented in each one.…

    • 760 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The Roman Catholic Church longing for power over the Byzantium Empire maybe perceived as a major factor that formed the First Crusade, nevertheless the significance of the battle of Manzikert, Pope Urban II’s speech and the supposed threat of the Muslims in Europe are undeniably crucial in the launch of this historical event. By Christians losing a important battle that resulted in more tension with the Islam, and the Pope Urban II creating a damaging, biased image of Muslims people in order to allow and encourage Christians to commit the sin of murder for the sake of God’s wishes, and above all demonizing Islam so Christianity can remain the most powerful religion, thus intensified the already strained relationship between these antithetic religions. Although this isn’t the first conflict between Christianity and Islam, this episode single handily set these two religions on a path towards deep-seated animosity and enduring enmity that would last for centuries. The causes and effects of the First Crusade have greatly impacted the view of Christianity and Islam because one is seen as associated with what is right and moral, whereas the other even today is still pictured as being deviants and corrupt.…

    • 2031 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Crusades Religious Wars

    • 585 Words
    • 3 Pages

    I believe the Crusades were mainly the series of religious wars. Which was taken by the Latin Church between the 11th and 15th centuries. For example, the Christian knights had waged a war against the Muslims in Jerusalem in an attempt to reclaim the Holy Land. Also the reason why they waged a war was so they could gain more control.…

    • 585 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The author indicates how dissimilar the commonly written books about the Crusade war by most Western writers are in regards to that war. The book summarizes almost 200 years of the Crusade war into 293 pages by noting and quoting different sources from the Arab authors and eyewitnesses. It is not only detailed but also mentions different perspectives, hence a significant revelation for the general audience. The aim of this paper is to discuss and remark on these diverse viewpoints as explained by Amin Maalouf, including reviewing the book and showing how it influences the readers. At the beginning of the Crusade, Arabs were caught unawares by the religious zealotry by the Christians.…

    • 753 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Brilliant Essays

    Keith L. Barnes Jr. March 10, 2016 CHHI 301-B11 The Crusades Many associate the Crusades as a dark period in Church history and are commonly referred to with disgust and anger. Most people associate the Crusades with religious persecution and unrestrained cruelty and death. However, despite the fact that there were definite atrocities performed, the Crusades began with a very noble purpose against a very real threat. Under the command of Pope Urban II’s, 1905 the crusades begin to merge efforts to answer the request of Alexius I of the Eastern Byzantine Empire. He made the call to the Western church to assist in the upcoming invasion of the Muslims in an effort to secure Jerusalem, the Holy Land.…

    • 1474 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Brilliant Essays

Related Topics