In 1095, Pope Urban II called for a crusade to fight for the Holy Land of Jerusalem. Before the Crusades began, Alexius I Komnenos, Emperor of the Byzantine Empire, asked Pope Urban II for help to fight against the Seljuq Turks. The Seljuq Turks had previously taken all of Asia Minor from him. At the council of Clermont, Pope Urban II confronted a decently sized crowd and promoted the idea of everyone going over to recover Palestine by assisting the Greeks defeat the Muslims. The response was incredible. Several thousands of warriors decided to fight alongside of many other warriors chasing after the same goal. The crusaders were mainly fairly wealthy men who owned plenty of land in Europe, but gave it up to assert themselves in the holy
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The wars could be defined as direct response to Muslim aggression (The Real History of the Crusades).
Power between the three most dominant religions bounced back and forth for many, many years. Ultimately no particular religion “won”, but each religion is free to do as it pleases to this day. As of right now, Christianity dominates the world as the most practiced religion, at 2.2 billion adherents which is 31.50% of the world’s population.
Pope Urban II gave the crusaders two goals. First of them being, to rescue the Christians from the East. After his success, due to Pope Innocent III he later wrote, “ How does a man love according to divine precept his neighbor as himself when, knowing that his Christian brothers in faith and in name are held by the perfidious Muslims in strict confinement and weighed down by the yoke of heaviest servitude, he does not devote himself to the task of freeing them? ...Is it by chance that you do not know that many thousands of Christians are bound in slavery and imprisoned by the Muslims, tortured with innumerable torments?” Therefore, Professor Jonathan-Riley Smith stated that crusading was an act of love, not hostility or
The wars could be defined as direct response to Muslim aggression (The Real History of the Crusades).
Power between the three most dominant religions bounced back and forth for many, many years. Ultimately no particular religion “won”, but each religion is free to do as it pleases to this day. As of right now, Christianity dominates the world as the most practiced religion, at 2.2 billion adherents which is 31.50% of the world’s population.
Pope Urban II gave the crusaders two goals. First of them being, to rescue the Christians from the East. After his success, due to Pope Innocent III he later wrote, “ How does a man love according to divine precept his neighbor as himself when, knowing that his Christian brothers in faith and in name are held by the perfidious Muslims in strict confinement and weighed down by the yoke of heaviest servitude, he does not devote himself to the task of freeing them? ...Is it by chance that you do not know that many thousands of Christians are bound in slavery and imprisoned by the Muslims, tortured with innumerable torments?” Therefore, Professor Jonathan-Riley Smith stated that crusading was an act of love, not hostility or