BUT ALL THESE DIFFERENT QUARRELS WERE FORGOTTEN WHEN THE TURKS
TOOK THE HOLY LAND, DESECRATED THE HOLY PLACES AND INTERFERED
SERIOUSLY WITH THE TRADE FROM EAST TO WEST. EUROPE WENT CRUSADING
During three centuries there had been peace between Christians and
Moslems except in Spain and in the eastern Roman Empire, the two states
defending the gateways of Europe. The Mohammedans having conquered
Syria in the seventh century were in possession of the Holy Land. But
they regarded Jesus as a great prophet (though not quite as great as
Mohammed), and they did not interfere with the pilgrims who wished
to pray in the church which Saint Helena, the mother of the Emperor
Constantine, had built on the spot of the Holy Grave. But early in the
eleventh century, a Tartar tribe from the wilds of Asia, called the
Seljuks or Turks, became masters of the Mohammedan state in western
Asia and then the period of tolerance came to an end. The Turks took
all of Asia Minor away from the eastern Roman Emperors and they made an
end to the trade between east and west.
Alexis, the Emperor, who rarely saw anything of his Christian
neighbours of the west, appealed for help and pointed to the danger
which threatened Europe should the Turks take Constantinople.
The Italian cities which had established colonies along the coast of
Asia Minor and Palestine, in fear for their possessions, reported
terrible stories of Turkish atrocities and Christian suffering. All
Europe got excited.
Pope Urban II, a Frenchman from Reims, who had been educated at the
same famous cloister of Cluny which had trained Gregory VII, thought
that the time had come for action. The general state of Europe was
far from satisfactory. The primitive agricultural methods of that day
(unchanged since Roman times) caused a constant scarcity of food. There
was unemployment and hunger and these are apt to lead to discontent and
riots. Western Asia in older days had fed millions. It was an excellent
field for the purpose of immigration.
Therefore at the council of Clermont in France in the year 1095 the
Pope arose, described the terrible horrors which the infidels had
inflicted upon the Holy Land, gave a glowing description of this
country which ever since the days of Moses had been overflowing with
milk and honey, and exhorted the knights of France and the people of
Europe in general to leave wife and child and deliver Palestine from
the Turks.
A wave of religious hysteria swept across the continent. All reason
stopped. Men would drop their hammer and saw, walk out of their shop
and take the nearest road to the east to go and kill Turks. Children
would leave their homes to “go to Palestine” and bring the terrible
Turks to their knees by the mere appeal of their youthful zeal and
Christian piety. Fully ninety percent of those enthusiasts never got
within sight of the Holy Land. They had no money. They were forced to
beg or steal to keep alive. They became a danger to the safety of the
highroads and they were killed by the angry country people.
The first Crusade, a wild mob of honest Christians, defaulting
bankrupts, penniless noblemen and fugitives from justice, following the
lead of half-crazy Peter the Hermit and Walter-without-a-Cent, began
their campaign against the Infidels by murdering all the Jews whom
they met by the way. They got as far as Hungary and then they were all
killed.
This experience taught the Church a lesson. Enthusiasm alone would not
set the Holy Land free. Organisation was as necessary as good-will and
courage. A year was spent in training and equipping an army of 200,000
men. They were placed under command of Godfrey of Bouillon, Robert,
duke of Normandy, Robert, count of Flanders, and a number of other
noblemen, all experienced in the art of war.
[Illustration: THE FIRST CRUSADE]
In the year 1096 this second crusade started upon its long voyage.
At Constantinople the knights did homage to the Emperor. (For as I
have told you, traditions die hard, and a Roman Emperor, however poor
and powerless, was still held in great respect). Then they crossed
into Asia, killed all the Moslems who fell into their hands, stormed
Jerusalem, massacred the Mohammedan population, and marched to the
Holy Sepulchre to give praise and thanks amidst tears of piety and
gratitude. But soon the Turks were strengthened by the arrival of fresh
troops. Then they retook Jerusalem and in turn killed the faithful
followers of the Cross.
[Illustration: THE WORLD OF THE CRUSADERS]
During the next two centuries, seven other crusades took place.
Gradually the Crusaders learned the technique of the trip. The land
voyage was too tedious and too dangerous. They preferred to cross the
Alps and go to Genoa or Venice where they took ship for the east. The
Genoese and the Venetians made this trans-Mediterranean passenger
service a very profitable business. They charged exorbitant rates,
and when the Crusaders (most of whom had very little money) could
not pay the price, these Italian “profiteers” kindly allowed them to
“work their way across.” In return for a fare from Venice to Acre, the
Crusader undertook to do a stated amount of fighting for the owners of
his vessel. In this way Venice greatly increased her territory along
the coast of the Adriatic and in Greece, where Athens became a Venetian
colony, and in the islands of Cyprus and Crete and Rhodes.
[Illustration: THE CRUSADERS TAKE JERUSALEM]
All this, however, helped little in settling the question of the Holy
Land. After the first enthusiasm had worn off, a short crusading trip
became part of the liberal education of every well-bred young man, and
there never was any lack of candidates for service in Palestine. But
the old zeal was gone. The Crusaders, who had begun their warfare with
deep hatred for the Mohammedans and great love for the Christian people
of the eastern Roman Empire and Armenia, suffered a complete change
of heart. They came to despise the Greeks of Byzantium, who cheated
them and frequently betrayed the cause of the Cross, and the Armenians
and all the other Levantine races, and they began to appreciate the
virtues of their enemies who proved to be generous and fair opponents.
Of course, it would never do to say this openly. But when the Crusader
returned home, he was likely to imitate the manners which he had
learned from his heathenish foe, compared to whom the average western
knight was still a good deal of a country bumpkin. He also brought
with him several new food-stuffs, such as peaches and spinach which
he planted in his garden and grew for his own benefit. He gave up the
barbarous custom of wearing a load of heavy armour and appeared in the
flowing robes of silk or cotton which were the traditional habit of
the followers of the Prophet and were originally worn by the Turks.
Indeed the Crusades, which had begun as a punitive expedition against
the Heathen, became a course of general instruction in civilisation for
millions of young Europeans.
[Illustration: THE CRUSADER’S GRAVE]
From a military and political point of view the Crusades were a
failure. Jerusalem and a number of cities were taken and lost. A dozen
little kingdoms were established in Syria and Palestine and Asia Minor,
but they were re-conquered by the Turks and after the year 1244 (when
Jerusalem became definitely Turkish) the status of the Holy Land was
the same as it had been before 1095.
But Europe had undergone a great change. The people of the west had
been allowed a glimpse of the light and the sunshine and the beauty of
the east. Their dreary castles no longer satisfied them. They wanted a
broader life. Neither Church nor State could give this to them.
They found it in the cities.