Voices of the Crusaders  

Article by Antony Lowe. Edited by Helen Doherty. Additional Research by Robyn Hall. 

‘What is right is null and void and what is forbidden is now made licit  

The sword is cutting and blood is spilt’ 

– from an anonymous Muslim poet writing about the First Crusade. 

Throughout history ideology has led to war, whether that is religious, or through political ideological difference. In the early stages of the last millennium the East was coated in the blood of both Christian and Muslim soldiers, fighting for ideology, namely religious ideology. The religious claim for Jerusalem from both religions caused a war of prolonged suffering. This religious zeal becomes evident if one examines the contemporary voices surrounding the reasons why Western crusaders left their homes; their wives and children; and in the case of noblemen, left their estates. Why did men uproot everything and travel thousands of miles to fall and die on the hot earth of a foreign land? The answer lies in what we can call religious fever, their zeal and religious devotion to the holy site of Jerusalem. Of course there are other causes for the Crusades, political and so forth, but this does not explain why the ordinary man travelled halfway across the world to defend the cross. Therefore if we attempt to hear the voices of the Crusaders we can detect their religious ideology, and the reasons they went to war. We cannot condemn the Crusaders like we can condemn say the Fascist ideology which led to war, because the concept of a holy war was so entrenched in their psyches that they thought they were acting out the will of God. The fear of damnation was so fierce in this period that men would do anything to achieve salvation, and that is what the Crusades offered them. 

The First Crusade, launched in 1095AD has been said to have arisen from the Council of Clermont by Pope Urban II, whose rallying and passionate plea for troops represents the causes of the Crusade. Contemporary accounts of the Crusades suggest the Pope’s rhetoric contained reasons for religious fervour. Contemporary accounts of the speech show the religious fever behind the Crusades. In Robert of Rheims’ account of Urban’s speech, Urban states that ‘Race of the French, race chosen by God as is radiantly shown in your deeds…a grave report has come from lands around Jerusalem and from Constantinople…that a people from the Kingdom of the Persians, a race alien to God has invaded the Lands of the Christians…they have cut down by pitiable murder and have either razed the churches of God to the ground or enslaved them to the practice of their own rites’. He goes on to suggest that ‘These men have destroyed the altars; they cut open the navels of those whom they chose to torment with a loathsome death’. This all formed part of the news that reached Christian ears of a Muslim attack on Jerusalem, it represents the deep seated ideological conflict between Muslims and Christians apparent at that time. It also forms the springboard for establishing motivations behind the Christian ideology concerning the Crusade. 

Another account of the Council of Clermont was written by Guibert of Nogent, he writes ‘one reads in the sacred and prophetic writings that this land was the inheritance and the holy temple of God before the Lord walked and appeared there’. He goes onto establish that ‘Many bodies of the Saints that had slept arose and came to the Holy City’. Therefore again he suggests that the Crusaders were motivated by concern for their holy sites. He also suggests that ‘until now you have fought unjust wars: you have often savagely brandished your spears at each other in mutual carnage only out of greed and pride. Now we are proposing you fight wars which contain the glorious reward of Martyrdom, in which you can gain the title of present and eternal glory’. Thus the notion of a religious, holy and just war is paramount and is one of the most crucial messages to arise from the Council of Clermont. The Muslim attack on Jerusalem, reports also reached the crusaders of Muslims throwing stones into the Holy Sepulchre, spurred the idea of holy vengeance within European Knights. This is consolidated by Baldric of Bourgueil writing in 1108AD who states that ‘Christian blood, which has been redeemed by the blood of Christ is spilled and Christian flesh, flesh of Christ’s flesh, is delivered up to the execrable abuses and appalling servitude’. This again references the treatment of Christian citizens of Jerusalem at the hands of the Muslim army. 

Thus the Council of Clermont provides a valuable insight into the mindset of the Christian soldiers; they went to war with the sound of screaming Christians in their ears, knowing that their holy land was being taken over. This is also shown in letters from Pope Urban II, one such letter to the ‘faithful of Flanders’ reads ‘We believe that you brethren learned long ago from many reports the deplorable news that the barbarians in their frenzy have invaded and ravaged the churches of God…worse still they have seized the Holy City of Christ’. 

Another source that can attest to the religious fervour is the Crusade Charters in which European nobles set out their intention to join the Crusades. One such record is by a Knight by the name of Montmerle who states ‘be it known to the faithful of Christ, now, and in the future that I Archard of Montmerle, knight, of the castle that is called Montmerle, excited by the same intention as this great and enormous upheaval of the Christian people wanting to go to fight for God against the pagans and Saracens…desiring to go there armed have made arrangements’. This point is also referenced in the rallying of the Third Crusade (1189-1192AD). Simon De Thimèon states that ‘In the name of the holy and undivided Trinity…Simon, an energetic soldier is about to set out for Jerusalem in the expedition of the soldiers of Christ’. Furthermore an entry of 1188AD concerning Henry, Count of Namur states ‘Henry in consideration of fear and love of the highest and sole Lord is about to set of for Jerusalem with holy devotion on an expedition of a Christian army’. The Crusade Charters then talk of a Christian army, driven by religious ideological zeal. 

The question remains then, why was this religious zeal so encouraged by the Council of Clermont? Why was the Christian ideology so raw and ferocious at this particular time? Scholars such as Jonathan Phillips have postulated theories to this end. Phillips contends that the medieval society in question was violent and that the concepts of Knightly violence led people to seek penance and fostered a deep concern for salvation, this was coupled with a general situation in Medieval Europe in which religion pervaded every aspect of life. The cult of saints was on the rise and people acknowledged religious zeal to be a prime motivator. Urban offered salvation, ‘Whoever for devotion alone, not to gain honour or money, goes to Jerusalem to liberate the Church of God can substitute this journey for all penance’. Thus Urban equated the Crusade to a pilgrimage and in an age where charged religious penance and salvation were of top priority.

Furthermore Phillips also establishes that this zeal caused war because holy war was a justified concept in the period to deal with enemies of the Christian faith. Particularly evident in the writings of St Augustine of Hippo who suggested that the notion of Christian violence commanded by God through the Pope was justified, as long as it was purely for religious means. The concept of holy war is also suggested in Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians, in which he suggests ‘put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wills of the devil…taking the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation… the breastplate of righteousness’. Although not a physical war, more a metaphorical notion of suffering, this passage was interpreted by Bernard of Clairvaux when recruiting for the Second Crusade to be a sufficient rallying call to holy war. Therefore the Crusades would be a war to recapture the holy land, and save the Christians of Jerusalem from suffering; it offered a religious mission through which the ordinary man could achieve salvation. This is highlighted in the contemporary voices of the Crusade Charters and in the rhetoric surrounding the Council of Clermont. 

There are some historians who contend that the Crusades arose out of political and social situations such as the conquering of large stretches of the Byzantine Empire by the Umayyad Caliphate (Islamic leader) and the subsequent plea from the Byzantine emperor Alexius I to the Pope. Yet it is apparent from the plethora of contemporary sources that the mind of the ordinary knight and soldier was spurred by religious fever. There may be a multitude of other causes to the Crusades, political and so forth but it is apparent that the largest motivator for the European nobility was religious; no one can discount the obvious religious zeal that the crusading knights had. European nobles had the pleas of Urban II ringing in their ear, and the promise of indulgences (certificates for time off in purgatory) as a reward from the Church was too great an offer to miss. One can also suggest that the war arose from a deep seated ideological rivalry between Christianity and the Muslim east, the Christian devotion to the holy site of Jerusalem was threatened by the Muslin advance (they also believed Jerusalem to be sacred, as the Dome of the Rock is built over a sacred rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque in which it is said Muhammad was transported from Mecca to Jerusalem in a night journey and ascended to Heaven from it). Thus the ideological clash forced notions of holy war to come to the forefront, and soldiers and nobles were spurred on to protect their faith, and in the process achieve salvation.

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