The crusades were a sponsored way for the “papacy to take the holy city of Jerusalem from the Muslims” (McKay et al., 2014). Although the church did not condone fighting and threatened excommunication, the councils did allow armed conflicts defending Christianity. The crusades were originally started by Pope Urban II in answer to a plea for help from the Byzantine Empire to fend off the Turks who were not allowing the pilgrims to make their pilgrimages to holy sites without trouble. Pope Urban II offered “indulgences that lessened a crusaders’ penance for their sins” (McKay et al., 2014). The crusaders thought, and were under the impression, that the fighting was a path for salvation, a way to go straight to heaven when they died. Moreover, …show more content…
This crusade was met with many disputes regarding leadership, was riddled with “supply issues, starvation and disease” (McKay et al., 2014). Nevertheless, the Turks were defeated and the “four smaller kingdoms of Jerusalem, Edessa, Tripoli, and Antioch were established” (McKay et al., 2014). Towns were then built up and strengthened defensively to protect against a new takeover from the Muslims. The second crusade 1147-1148 CE began when Edessa fell to Muslim reconquest and St. Bernard of Clairveaux rejuvenated the Christians to rise up again for a second crusade with armies that came mostly from Germany and France. The crusaders returned home with nothing to celebrate. In the Middle East, the Muslim states were “politically fragmented, Saladin reorganized the Middle East first with the unification of Egypt and then Syria. He then went on to reclaim Jerusalem” (McKay et al., 2014). The third crusade 1189-1192 was the attempt by Christians to take it back along with the help of Frederick Barbarossa of the Holy Roman Empire, Richard the Lion-Hearted of England, and Philip Augustus of France. This crusade ended in a pact/treaty between Richard and Saladin allowing Christian pilgrims to continue to make their pilgrimages