ABSTRACT
The scope of crusading evolved rapidly over the period analysed in this book. The notion of a justied holy war against the enemies of Christianity – with spiritual rewards for the participants – touched a nerve in western society that reected contemporary military advances in Spain, Sicily and Eastern Europe, as well as the growing authority of the papacy in providing real leadership for the Catholic Church. Obviously, the crusade to the Holy Land was the most prestigious theatre of holy war, but, as Urban II recognised (see Document 2 ii), other arenas should not be neglected. Spiritual rewards were authorised for the Iberian peninsula in 1096 and full equality with the Holy Land probably emerged by 1114, or, at the latest, 1123. Crusading was to expand into other areas as well. At the time of the First Crusade there were signs that the schism between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, which dated from 1054, was beginning to heal. However, the cordial relationship between Pope Urban and Emperor Alexios would fall foul of the tensions between the crusade leaders and the Greeks and, particularly, the territorial ambitions of Bohemond of Taranto. In 1106 Pope Paschal II extended (or tacitly accepted) a widening of the scope of crusading to include an attack on the Byzantine Empire, with a papal legate preaching full spiritual rewards for all participants. While this may be seen as an important, if neglected, forerunner of the sack of Constantinople in 1204, as we will see later, political developments in the twelfth century led to a period of positive relations between the Latin East and Byzantium. The pagans of the Baltic and Eastern Europe were not the subject of a crusade until 1147, but as early as 1108 clerics had drawn attention to the parallel of ghting the enemies of Christ and avenging the death of Christians in this region (in this case, missionaries). It was the Second Crusade that brought the Baltic into parity with the Holy Land and Spain and, as we saw earlier, the campaigns of 1147-48 represented an unprecedented and broad-ranging effort to
expand the borders of Christianity in three different areas. We have also noted the award of spiritual privileges against opponents of Pope Innocent II (1130-43) during the papal schism of the 1130s and against Christians who allied with Muslims in Iberia in 1196, as well as against Markward of Anweiler in southern Italy three years later. Some popular movements associated with the First Crusade tried to extend the concept to encompass the Jews in the West, but secular rulers were unwilling to allow such disorder in their towns and churchmen did not want to disobey biblical injunctions against the killing of Jews. For these reasons the Jews were not formally targeted by the crusade authorities, which condemned such attacks. When outbreaks of anti-semitism occurred in 1146-47 Bernard of Clairvaux and King Conrad III acted quickly to stamp them out. Taking all of these theatres of war together, crusading proved to be a exible concept, capable of serving the needs of secular and ecclesiastical powers against the enemies of Christendom, allowing both to advance their authority as well as offering the hope of salvation and material gain for the people. As noted earlier, the distinction between the secular and the spiritual should not be over-emphasised – it was perfectly possible for a pious ruler such as King Afonso Henriques of Portugal to want to extend his territory for both religious and earthly motives.
