God’s Warriors

Why risk death to defend the Church? – Melissa 2003

There were four main reasons why medieval people risked their lives by joining the Crusades and going off to fight. But the main reason was that they knew that, if they died, they would go straight to Heaven for it.

The Crusades began when the Turks took over Palestine. They had stopped pilgrimages in Jerusalem and invaded Christian land in the east of Europe. The Pope had promised the Christians in the east that he would help. In 1095 he preached a sermon, which applied, to all the Christians to win back the Holy Land from the Muslims (Saracens). The Pope at his sermon, used a lot of Propaganda, to persuade the Christians to go and win back the Holy Land. For example, he told everyone that if you die while on the way there, you would go straight to Heaven! A quote from the Pope’s sermon claims:

The Saracens have attacked them and have pushed deep into Christian land. They are killing a great number of Christians. They are destroying churches and land. In the name of God I beg you to drive out these foul creatures. Pope Urban II’s sermon

The Crusaders knew, that when they went on this ‘pilgrimage’ to Jerusalem that they would go straight to Heaven when they died. But that only applied if you didn’t turn back, for then you would go straight to Hell. In the Pope’s sermon, he quoted to the people:

If you die on the journey or if you are killed in battle against these Saracens all your sins will be forgiven at once. God Himself has given me the power to tell you this. Pope Urban II’s sermon

So now the people knew that it was true if ‘God Himself’ said that they would go straight to Heaven. This was a great offer in medieval times. Another quotation from a French writer:

People heard that the Pope would grant a pardon to all who went on a crusade. That is the only reason people went. 1204

Many of the knights who went on the crusade, were going for their king and country, and also were not as willing to go as the peasants who knew that they were going to heaven. Here a French crusader wrote a love letter to his wife and it goes like this:

Alas, my darling! It breaks my heart to leave you, but I must go to the Holy Land. That is where I will win paradise and praise and your true love. 1190

But one letter shows that a crusader may have been stealing:

My Dear wife, I now have twice as much silver, gold and other riches as I had when I set off o this crusade.

In the nine crusades between the years 1095 and 1291 thousands of knights were killed in the Holy Land. But meanwhile, Christians and Muslims became friends and traded ideas. For example, the Muslims gave us numerals, fortifications, new ideas about maths and medicine, Plants like Lemons and melons and luxuries like carpets, mirrors and perfumes.

It was obvious that the Crusades happened because the Pope used Propaganda. But also it is obvious that the church was able to control people’s lives. But on this crusade, most of the people only went so they would go to heaven. In fact, the people believed the Pope so much, they followed a goose in one crusade!

In this crusade we managed to trade ideas with the Muslims. For example we now have the carpet because we traded with the Muslims.