298 Crusades Lecture 6 Feb 12

Question 0

1. When Gregory VII had been preparing his war, he had made reference to the Holy Sepulchre, combining the ideas of confession and penance with war for the Holy Land (we’ll see this more on Thursday)

Answer 0

.

Question 1

2. Urban II would use Jerusalem as part of his campaign for Crusade, speaking of the Muslim conquest and ravages to the eastern church.

“Worse still, they have seized the Holy City of Christ, embellished by his passion and resurrection, and…have sold her and her churches into abominable slavery…we visited Gaul and urged most fervently the lords and subjects of that land to liberate the eastern churches…and imposed on them the obligation to undertake such a military enterprise for the remission of all their sins.”

Answer 1

.

Question 2

3. Urban would encourage people “to go to Jerusalem to drive out the heathen”

Recruits “are heading for Jerusalem with the good intent of liberating Christianity.”

So why were people amenable to this message?

Answer 2

.

Question 3

4. In the 11th c., Jerusalem defined an ideal as much as a real city.

Spiritual condition and aspiration.

Its attributes could be geographically transposed to create a virtual reality in relics and shrines.

Answer 3

.

Question 4

5. Liturgy created scenes from Jerusalem in the mass or enacted whole episodes, as in the popular Easter plays.

These offered a glimpse of the Holy City.

Answer 4

.

Question 5

12. Jerusalem played a prominent part in eschatological literature popular in western moasteries, cathedrals, and courts from at least the 10th c.

Final scenes of Judgement at the end of the world.

Answer 5

.

Question 6

18. Church reform movement was pursued by evangelists living and preaching a return to the Apostolic life. Jerusalem was part of this.

Answer 6

.

Question 7

6. In the 10th and 11th c. Jerusalem became the most meritorious goal of pilgrimage.

Associated with Christ’s life, Passion, and Resurrection.

Answer 7

.

Question 8

9. Increase in pilgrimage to Jerusalem in the 11th c. Result of Byzantine power in the Balkans and eastern Mediterranean under Basil the Bulgar Slayer (d. 1025).

Answer 8

.

Question 9

7. Pilgrimage becoming so common and popular that one mid-11th c. chronicler noted that a trip to Jerusalem was in danger of becoming a fashionable social accessory rather than an act of piety.

Answer 9

.

Question 10

8. 1009, Fatimid caliph of Egypt, al-Hakim, had destroyed the church of the Holy Sepulchre, causing outrage in the Christian community.

Answer 10

.

Question 11

10. News of the destruction of the church of the Holy Sepulchre spread in the West. Possible that Pope Sergius IV (1009-1012) encouraged the creation of a Christian relief fleet.

Answer 11

.

Question 12

11. Christian chroniclers recorded how Jewish communities in France were blamed for inciting al-Hakim and were violently persecuted in consequence.

Answer 12

.

Question 13

13. Esp in 1030s and 1060s huge bands of pilgrims went east.

Answer 13

.

Question 14

Nature of pilgrimage changing.

Pro-active, not just reactive
Merits
Purgatory

Answer 14

.

Question 15

Pilgrimage becomes more popular due to a change in the teaching of penance.
Confess. Express contrition. Make restitution through penance, which is meant to be a genuine change in the self.
Change; starts to become proactive. Even if I haven’t sinned, I can perform pilgrimage to store up credits. Build up spiritual good will. Called merits. Not to be used after the fact for sinning, but to be used for Purgatory.
Purgatory a newly developing idea in the 11th century. Second- chance at salvation. Expression of God’s mercy.
Not an invention of the Church. Began at the grassroots level. Popular belief later ratified by the Church.
Salvation now truly in the individuals’ hands.

Answer 15

.

Question 16

Change in depiction of Christ
Pre- 1095 most popular depiction was of Jesus as a king on a throne. Angry judge. Holding a sword.
German gods a scary bunch. Powerful. Awe the appropriate attitude toward them. That attitude become transposed onto the Christian god.
Post: angry king gives way to the crucifix. Agony and suffering. Pity. Pietà also becomes popular. The humanization of Christ.

More approachable Christ is, the more prominent Mary becomes, the more we can hope to reach heaven. Pilgrimage can thus be a hopeful experience.

Answer 16

.

Question 17

14. The difficulties of the journey only made it more attractive.

Story of the Great German Pilgrimage from 1064-65

Answer 17

.

Question 18

15. 1064-65. Mass German pilgrimage to Jerusalem, said to number 7000.

Members wore crosses, according to some sources

Answer 18

.

Question 19

16. The story of the pilgrimage and its various struggles was known in the west.

Answer 19

.

Question 20

17. The pilgrims were attacked outside Tripoli and outside Caesarea. Ultimately they were relieved by the emir of Ramla. They made it to Jerusalem in the end, then returned home.

Answer 20

.

Question 21

19. Peter Damian (d. 1072), hermit and cardinal, exerted strong influence on successive popes.

Enthusiast for the Jerusalem pilgrimage and propogated the cult of the cross

Answer 21

.

Question 22

20. Use of the symbol of the cross at Clermont signalled a pivotal concern for Jerusalem

Answer 22

.

Question 23

21. The cross the crusaders would wear was part military banner, part personal insignia, part mystical symbol

Relic, totem uniform

Answer 23

.

Question 24

22. Urban a cardinal in Rome, surrounded by relics of Jerusalem and the Holy Land

Christ’s umbilical chord
Christ’s foreskin
Christ’s blood
Pieces of the Cross
Various other objects associated with Christ personally
Relics of the Holy Land Saints
Rocsk from Bethlehem, Mount of Olives, river Jordan, Calvary, and Holy Sepulchre

Answer 24

.

Question 25

23. 11th c. shift away from local saints to saints with worldwide appeal: Virgin Mary

Answer 25

.

Question 26

24. People did not simply travel to Jerusalem. Many westerners ended up living in that region, and the crusaders were met by westerners at every turn.

EG
Hugh Bunel had committed a notorious murder in the 1070s, decapitating Mabel of Belleme in one of her castles as she was relaxing after her bath.
Persued by Mabel’s sons, William the Conquerer’s agents and bounty-hunters, Hugh fled.
Ended up in Byzantium.
Lived in the Muslim world for 20 years and met up with the Crusaders outside the walls of Jerusalem

Answer 26

.

Question 27

25. Growing number of westerners in the east as pilgrims, visitors, merchants, mercenaries, and settlers.

Communication with the west.

Problem for Muslims: pilgrims are loud

Answer 27

.

Question 28

26. Information reaching the west may have sounded an increasingly strident note in portraying depredations of the Seljuk Turks (even if false or overblown)

Alexius sent frequent messages about the oppression of the Lord’s sepulchre and the desolation of all the churches

Answer 28

.

Question 29

27. Western obsession with Jerusalem may have been strong enough to have persuaded Alexius I to cite the liberation of Jerusalem and Holy Sepulchre in enticing western nobles into his service in the years before 1095.

Men who were part of Robert Guiscard’s armies joined Alexius after the failed 1080/81 campaign.

Answer 29

.

Question 30

28. In Muslim religious tradition, Muhammad had made his night journey up to heaven from Jerusalem

Answer 30

.

Question 31

29. In classical Muslim historiography, deliberately symbolic was the entrance into Jerusalem of the caliph, Umar, in February 638

Answer 31

.

Question 32

30. Umar had negotiated a peaceful surrender of the city, Umar entered the city on a donkey or camel, dressed in coarse, dirty robes

Answer 32

.

Question 33

31. Umar whent to the terrace on which the Jewish Temple had stood, the supposed site of Muhammad’s ascent, and ordered the clearance of the site and the construction of a small mosque

Answer 33

.

Question 34

32. The shrines, churches, and synagogues of the Jews and Christians were left untouched.

This iconic moment from the 7th c. resonated for centuries

Answer 34

.