Calling The First Crusade - Best Movie Trailer Ever
Urban II, the new pope, delivered a dramatic speech at the Council of Clermont in November 1095. It was the starting gun for The Crusades.
(this is part two of twelve about The Crusades as a movie series)
The pilgrimage paths to Jerusalem got shut down, and Christendom freaked out. In 1095, the pope called for an “armed pilgrimage” to reclaim access to the Holy Land and to liberate Jerusalem.
The audience agreed, exclaiming “Deus vult!” meaning “God wills it!” How did this happen?
Always fighting
This wasn’t an idea out of the blue. A lot of territory changed hands in the past few decades. The Reconquista was cranking in Spain. The Normans had conquered Muslim Sicily. The Turks had conquered the eastern territories of the Byzantine Empire.
The warrior elite of Europe fought each other ALL THE TIME. Popes had been looking for a way to direct this aggression onto a foreign foe rather than on their neighbors. Maybe if fighting could be directed to The East, it might mean more peace at home.
“Let those who have been accustomed unjustly to wage private warfare against the faithful now go against the infidels and end with victory this war which should have been begun long ago.”
Byzantine Politics
For centuries, Byzantium had been the greatest state in Christendom. After they were defeated at Manzikert in 1071, the Seljuk Turks moved into Asia Minor and created the Sultanate of Rum in what had been the heartland of the Byzantine empire.
The Byzantine emperor in Constantinople waved his arms to get the attention of the pope in Rome. The Turks invaded the Holy Land! Jerusalem was not that important to the Byzantines, whose main focus was getting back eastern Asia minor from the Turks.
Also, ever since the church split definitively into eastern and western halves in the Great Schism of 1054, popes had been trying to heal the rift and unite the church again. Plus, getting everyone aligned with the pope’s plan would increase the prestige of the papacy. A crusade was win-win-win for the pope.
Jerusalem, Jerusalem
It’s hard to overstate how important Jerusalem was in the minds of medieval Christians in Western Europe. Medieval maps were oriented with east at the top because that’s where Jerusalem was. As the site of Jesus’s crucifixion and resurrection, Jerusalem was considered the center of everything, the axis mundi.
“Jerusalem is the navel of the world.”
The people of Jerusalem didn’t call for a crusade, and probably didn’t want one. The city was part of the Roman Empire for hundreds of years before being conquered by Muslim armies in 637 AD. After 400+ years of rule by Islamic powers, the majority of the population of the Holy Land may not have been Muslim, but the guys in charge were. Christians and Jews had to pay a special tax, the jizya, but that had been the rule for centuries.
The call
The pope called on Christians to “take the cross” on a pilgrimage to liberate Jerusalem. Those who swore the oath would sew a cross on their shoulder to announce their obligation to all that crossed their path.
Anyone who undertook this crusade would be granted a plenary indulgence, meaning that when they died, all their sins would be forgiven, and their soul would go directly to heaven without having to suffer in purgatory. And these knights who made their living by the sword had racked up A LOT of sins.
“All who die by the way, whether by land or by sea, or in battle against the pagans, shall have immediate remission of sins.”
Given the Indulgence, the lure of Jerusalem, the chance of worldly treasures, and the opportunity for adventure, this message was enthusiastically received by nobles and peasants alike.
Timing is everything
The crusaders were completely unaware that the timing of the First Crusade was fortunate because of political tensions in the Islamic world. Just like in Europe, the Muslim kingdoms jostled for advantage against their neighbors.
The Sunni Abbasid caliphate ruled in Baghdad, but did not exert full control of the Sunni Seljuk Turks in Syria and Turkey. The Abbasid caliph had even less influence with the Shiite Fatimids of Egypt, who had made Cairo their capital in 973. The Islamic Golden Age was still thriving in this period, but Muslim political unity was a thing of the past.
Jumping the gun
Pope Urban II set the Feast of the Assumption, August 15, 1096 as the departure date for the crusade. Dutifully, the nobles of Europe planned and organized their forces around that goal. The people, however, could not wait. Peter the Hermit rustled up a crowd of German and French peasants and set out for Constantinople in March 1096.
On their way up the Rhine River, this motley gang of commoners and lesser knights attacked Jewish communities in Europe and caused trouble for every kingdom they stumbled through. These untrained, poorly armed soldiers marched to Asia Minor where they were immediately slaughtered by a Seljuk army. The few survivors fled back to Europe.
While not officially counted in the Big Eight Crusades, this first wave of crusaders is called the People’s Crusade. It was not an auspicious start to the crusades. But just a few months later, the First Crusade would begin for real.
The call for crusade resonated with its audience, both the soldiers who would go on the pilgrimage and fight, and with the folks who stayed at home and supported them with prayers and donations. The call struck a chord.
It was like seeing a movie trailer that gives you chills. You just can’t wait to see the movie. Superfans will speculate online about the storyline, the stars, who that masked character in the trailer really is. Hype builds to more hype.
People will line up outside the theater dressed in costume hours before the show, even though they bought tickets online and their seats are already reserved. They stand in the rain anyway. Who cares? They are PUMPED UP!
Usually, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment. Can even the greatest film exceed your unrealistically high expectations? Sometimes, not just in a galaxy far away, movies can be magic.
