The Crusader Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Crusader - Essay Example ians but as the time passed, popes and Christian kings used it for their own political benefit2 and this benefit was based on blood shedding of thousands of Christians and Muslims. Modern exploration of crusades is commenced by Erdmann’s work, Die Entstehung des Kreuzzugsgedankens3 in the year 1935. According to him crusades were the product of the eleventh century. They were a means of transmitting the active military towards another place. They can be regarded as products of the reform movement which were used to purify the church and the Christian society as a whole. In Erdmann’s opinion the apparent aim of the crusades was Jerusalem. The rescue of the Holy City was the motivation that made Pope call the First Crusade or it was according to Erdmann’s view, in the defense of Eastern Christians. The actual words of Urban II are still unknown but according to Cowdrey, the pope was worried about the holy city i.e. Jerusalem and that was when the first crusade was given birth. There is little criticism received to Erdmann’s work but Cowdrey criticized it. In his opinion, the crusades are linked to the Cluniac reform4. George VII (1073-85), Victor III (1086-7) and Urban II (1088-99) are examples in this context. Historians also believed that the medieval men could not take up the religious words uttered by them. They believed that the post Enlightenment era was full of people who talked about profiting the world hereafter but actually they were into profiting the existing world for themselves. The modern investigations led by Jonathan Riley Smith have proved it to the world that the number of men and women who participated in the crusades is larger than known to history. The crusade army was a mix of rich, poor, saints, sinners and all of them had some kind of motivation to do so. Pope Urban’s preaching motivated the people for the First Crusade which was successful for them as well because the drive for it was â€Å"spiritual†5. Muslims were not