“I became a crusader for God
and go there because of my sin.
May He see to it that I come back
because one lady grieves for me, and that I should meet her with honor:
that is my request.
But if she changes love
may God let me die"
(Albrecht von Johannesdorf. Translated by M. Lushchenko)
History is like a pendulum. First it goes one way, then the other. At first, the crusaders went on campaigns to Syria and Tunisia, now crowds of refugees from Syria and North Africa are moving to Europe, and both of them were attracted and are still attracted by the hope for a better life. We do not want to work here for ourselves, but we will go to where everything has already been done for us, or we will ask God, and he will give us everything. Here it is - the laziness of human nature. However, to begin with, that is, in order to understand the reasons for the so-called crusades to the East, let's mentally go to medieval Europe and try to imagine what we would see there if we had a fantastic "time machine" in our hands. Well, first of all, the cities are small in size, and the villages still consist of only a few houses. Roads are most often unpaved, and there are very few paved with stone, and even those remained from the era of the Ancient World and Roman rule, as well as stone bridges in the form of arches standing on the rivers.
Sermon by Pope Urban II on the occasion of the First Crusade in the square in Clermont. 1835 Painting by artist Francesco Aets (1791 - 1882).
But the castles of the feudal knights rise everywhere. Any hill or hill is fortified, and Christian monasteries are also fortified. However, in some ways this picture is quite different from the images we are used to from childhood, born through viewing pictures in the history textbook of the Middle Ages. Not all castles are made of stone. Not at all! Many - and there are most of them around - are just rough structures of wood covered with lime. And some of them are also covered with … cow skins! This was not done for the sake of aesthetics - because what aesthetics is this, but to protect them from incendiary arrows, because their owners had to fight each other, or even with the king himself, very often at that time!
We will undoubtedly notice that construction is going on everywhere here. Not only fortifications were built, but also numerous cathedrals - at first squat and massive Romanesque type. Well, and later, from the XII century, - directed into the sky and decorated with spiers and towers - Gothic cathedrals. Interestingly, lumberjacks and blacksmiths are valued more in this society than tillers. After all, it is they who, by common efforts, bring down forests, cutting them down for arable land. That is why, by the way, woodcutters are so often mentioned in Western European fairy tales: this profession at the beginning of the Middle Ages was very honorable and responsible. After all, nine out of every ten Europeans lived in villages separated from each other by uncultivated lands and forests, in which wolves and wild boars lived. Lumberjacks not only uprooted the forest, but also made it passable.
However, what's the point in the fact that there was at least some kind of connection between the castles of seniors and rather rare cities, when people very often do not have enough food, which we can also read about in the same fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm. Drought, hurricane, locust raids - and now entire regions are forced to starve and pray to God for intercession. And who else could they hope for, except God? After all, their master in the castle often starved, as they themselves - his unfortunate peasants, because he was fed from their own labors. End of the XI century. became a particularly serious test for everyone. Yes, forests were cut down, castles and monasteries were built, but the success of agriculture led to the fact that the population of Europe began to grow. And although every second woman at that time died in childbirth, because the midwives did not wash their hands, the number of eaters began to increase everywhere. Moreover, the number of children in the families of knights-feudal lords increased especially rapidly, whose living conditions were still better than those of the same peasants. And there would be nothing wrong with that, only each feudal lord, according to custom, transferred all the lands and the castle to his eldest son, who inherited all his rights and property. But what then could the younger ones do? Someone became a priest, someone went to the royal service, but many did not find a place for themselves and became the most real robbers who robbed everyone in a row. The Church tried to limit the arbitrariness of the feudal lords, introducing the so-called "God's world" - that is, the time when it was forbidden to fight, but this did not help much.
It is not surprising that in conditions of constant robberies and murders, to which were added periodic crop failures, droughts and deaths of livestock, people were looking for salvation in religion. That is why the number of pilgrims to holy places - and above all to the Holy Sepulcher in Palestine - has constantly grown. So, in 1064 alone, Bishop Gunther of Bamberg brought seven thousand pilgrims there, who dreamed of being cleansed of their sins in this way and subsequently ending up in paradise. And everyone had to be fed and provided with lodging. But there were even smaller groups and they all strove to Jerusalem in order to walk with their feet on the slabs on which Christ's foot stepped and, venerating his shrines, to gain the grace of the Lord, and with it health and good luck in business!
The Arabs who owned it did not interfere with the Christians, but very often they cruelly insulted their religious feelings. So, in 1010, the Caliph Hakim, for example, ordered the destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, and the Pope in response immediately began to preach a holy war against Muslims. However, Hakim soon died, the destroyed buildings were restored, and the war did not begin.
But what did it do? Life in Europe became more and more difficult from year to year, and the only, in fact, hope for salvation - the legendary shrine of Christianity, the Holy Sepulcher - was in the hands of Muslims, and it became more and more difficult to worship it. There was only one thing left to do: to return by force the relics from which almost every Christian of that era expected his salvation. This is how the campaigns to the East, so well-known to the whole world, began, which later received the name "crusades" and this is how the first crusaders appeared in Europe.
However, they did not appear here immediately and not suddenly. That is, we seem to know that the first such campaign to the East was proclaimed by Pope Urban II in 1096, but he only said about it aloud. But who exactly thought about this for the first time? Who nurtured this idea, had it in mind, doing everyday worldly affairs? Or at that time there was still some kind of intellectual center, from where it spread among many people, and already one of the popes was its main spokesman.
The French historian Louis Charpentier tried to find answers to these questions. He believes that for the first time the idea of a campaign against the infidels for the liberation of the Holy Sepulcher, and maybe for some other important goals - who knows, came to the mind of the pope of the thousandth year - Sylvester II. He managed to force the noble seigneurs, who had previously traded with robbery and robbery, to accept the "truce of God", that is, he was truly a "good shepherd", although the Roman Catholic Church does not recognize him as especially holy! Before his election as Pope, he was a Benedictine monk Herbert, and he became famous as a talented mathematician, inventor and, as such, even improved the church organ. Moreover, having completed his studies in Spain, he by no means longed for war with the Moors, who by this time had seized a significant part of Spain, by no means. He put forward his idea of a crusade, having before him the main goal - Jerusalem, which was revered at that time as the center of the world.
At the same time, the influence of the Christian Church in Europe grew continuously, the Western feudal lords crowded out the Byzantine ones, and Duke Guillaume also conquered England. That is, the power of Rome was very harshly extended to the very outskirts of Christian Europe. Pope Gregory VII, known as the “Pope of Canossa” and the enlightened reformer of the calendar, and … also a Benedictine, contributed to this, since he put a lot of effort into getting all the same Normans to establish their power in southern Italy! Gregory VII decided to personally lead the campaign against the infidels. 50,000 enthusiasts agreed to follow him, but a conflict with the German emperor forced him to abandon this idea. His successor, Pope Victor III repeated the call of his predecessor, promising its participants forgiveness of sins, but did not want to personally participate in it. The inhabitants of Pisa, Genoa, and a number of other Italian cities, constantly suffering from the raids of Muslim pirates, equipped a fleet, sailed to the shores of Africa and burned two cities in Tunisia there, but this expedition did not receive a wide response in Europe.
By the way, Gregory VII also intended to support Byzantium in its struggle against the Turks. So it is not at all surprising that in 1095 another pope and again the Benedictine Urban II once again proclaimed a campaign to the East. Surprisingly, this has not been done even earlier. But if all these popes were Benedictines … then does this not mean that this idea was born precisely among the monks of the Order of St. Benedict, and found its concrete embodiment in this appeal ?! Another thing is that it would be more correct to say that the real inspirer of the campaign was by no means the Pope, but the beggar hermit Peter Amiens, nicknamed the Hermit, a native of Picardy. During his visit to Golgotha and the Holy Sepulcher, seeing the oppression from the Muslims, he felt strong indignation. Having obtained a letter from the patriarch asking for help, Peter went to Rome to see Pope Urban II, after which, dressed in rags, barefoot, and with a crucifix in his hands, he went through the cities of Europe, everywhere preaching the idea of a campaign for the liberation of Eastern Christians and the Holy Sepulcher. Moved by his eloquence, the commoners saw him as a saint, and even, as many authors write about it, “they revered it as happiness to pinch off a piece of wool from his donkey as a keepsake”. So the idea of the campaign spread among the masses very widely and became really popular.
But, of course, no propaganda can be successful if it is not based on a very specific action, event or … information about it, even if not always accurate. Indeed, the events in the East influenced what was happening in the West in the most direct way, although in the absence of modern superliners and satellite communications, news from there had been waiting for years! So not entirely accurate was the information that was in the words of Pope Urban II at the Cathedral of Claremont, where he said literally the following: “From the borders of Jerusalem and from the city of Constantinople, important news came to us, and even before very often it reached our ears, that the people of the Persian kingdom, a foreign tribe, alien to God, a stubborn and rebellious people, unsettled in heart and unfaithful to the Lord in their spirit, invaded the lands of these Christians, devastated them with sword, plunder, fire …] captured, who, if not you, whom God has exalted before all the power of arms and greatness of spirit, dexterity and valor to crush the heads of enemies who oppose you? " But the powerful enemy of the Christians was not at all the people from the Persian kingdom, but the Seljuk Turks - Muslim nomads of the Turkic tribes, whose leaders considered themselves to be the descendants of a certain Seljuk. The Seljuk Turks came from Central Asia, in the 11th century they invaded Persia under the leadership of Togrul, and by the middle of the century advanced to the Middle East. In 1055 the Seljuks conquered Baghdad, the richest city in the Middle East, and by 1064.seriously pressed Georgia, conquered Armenia and Azerbaijan. Four years later, in 1068, under the leadership of Sultan Arslan, they began to conquer the territory of the Byzantine Empire. Although, on the other hand, it was these details that were not important. As the saying goes - "there would be a man, but there would be wine for him!"
Western European knight of the XI century. was like a metal statue.
And Byzantium was no longer the great power that Europe was equal to in everything, as the heir to the great Roman traditions. Two centuries of continuous wars with the Bulgarians, Russians and South Italian Normans forced her to send her troops to the north, then to the Mediterranean Sea, and the struggle for power did not stop inside the country itself. When the Turks threatened them on the eastern borders of the empire, the Byzantines threw large forces against them, but on August 26, 1071, in the battle of Manzikert, they suffered a serious defeat, as a result of which the Byzantine emperor Roman IV Diogenes himself was captured by the Seljuks. Then, in 1077, on the occupied lands, the Turks founded the Konya (or Rumskiy, Romeyskiy) Sultanate - a state with the capital in Konya, and gradually expanded their borders to almost all of Asia Minor. The new emperor of Byzantium, Alexei I Comnenus, no longer had the manpower to fight such a serious enemy. But I still had to do something. And then, in despair, he turned with a letter to Pope Urban II, and asked for his assistance in liberating the lost lands with the help of the military force of the Western countries, capable of fighting the expansion of the "peoples of the Persian kingdom" from the East. Pope liked the message of the basileus for two reasons at once. First, he now had the opportunity to lead the conquest of the Holy Land under perfectly legitimate circumstances. Secondly, by sending a significant part of the soldiers to the East, he removed them from Europe, which immediately solved many problems.
And on November 18, 1095, Pope Urban II convened an episcopal council in Clermont, which was supposed to solve a number of pressing church problems. Since the council was held in France, it was mainly attended by French bishops. But, completing the council on November 27, the Pope made a public speech in front of a huge crowd of people, in which he no longer addressed the prelates, but directly to the people in the square in front of the palace, where the cathedral was held. And although the exact text of it did not reach us, many of those who heard it, it is so engraved in their memory that later they were able to write it down and, even if in their own words, bring it to our days.
In particular, what was said there can be read in the "Jerusalem History" of Fulcherius of Shatrsky (French priest, chronicler of the First Crusade), who in this story informs that, having outlined to the audience all the circumstances associated with the confrontation between Eastern Christians and their Turkish conquerors, the Pope said the following: “I am not asking you about this matter, but the Lord Himself, therefore I call you, the heralds of Christ, to gather all of you - horse and foot, rich and poor - and hasten to provide help to those who believe in Christ, in order to turn away, thus, that filthy tribe from the ruin of our lands. I speak about this to those who are here, and I will pass it on to others [later]: this is what Jesus commanded! To all those who, having gone there, on the way or during the crossing, or in the battle with the pagans, finish their mortal life, they will immediately receive the remission of their sins. And from this I promise all those who are going to go there, that the Lord has given such a right. What a shame it would be if a tribe so despicable, base, serving the devil overcomes a people endowed with faith in the almighty Lord and glorified in the name of Christ. How many reproaches you will be from the Lord Himself if you do not help those who, like you, have believed in Christ. Embark on the glorious battle against the unbelievers, which is beginning, the Pope said, and those who, as usual, waged here frequent wars against the believers will be rewarded. And those who robbed before will become the wars of Christ. Let those who previously fought against their brothers and relatives fight worthily against the barbarians. Perpetual rewards are now being handed out to those who formerly served for the merchant's pitiful solidity. Those who previously [vainly] tormented their body and soul will now fight for a double reward. The poor and the poor now, there will be rich and well-fed; the enemies of the Lord are here, there they will become his friends. Those who intend to set off on the road, let them not postpone it, but having gathered together in suitable places, they will spend the winter and next spring, led by the Lord, set off as quickly as possible."
Western European knight of the XI century. and the device of the shield.
It is clear what eloquence is, and even from the lips of the viceroy of Christ on earth, it simply could not fail to find a response in the hearts of those gathered, and they immediately shouted that God wants it so! As a sign that they had chosen their path, those gathered in the square in Clermont seemed to immediately began to sew crosses on their clothes. And here we meet with yet another historical incongruity. So, the same Fulcherius of Shatrsky wrote: “Oh, how pleasant and joyful it was for all of us to see these crosses, made of silk or embroidered with gold, which the pilgrims, whether they were warriors, clergy or laity, wore on their cloaks, after at the call of the pope they made a vow to go [on a campaign]. Truly, the soldiers of the Lord, who were preparing for battle for the glory of [his name], should rightfully be marked and inspired by such a sign of victory. " And the question immediately arises, how, then, other authors report that the pilgrims cut kerchiefs into strips or tore off strips of cloth from their clothes and sew them onto their cloaks? Moreover, in a number of places it is indicated that these crosses were made of red fabric, but also scarlet and white, while others, they say, completely burned out a cross on their bodies!
It would not be at all surprising if we knew that these crosses were prepared for those gathered in Clermont in advance (!), Because with the wealth of the popes, it was not a big problem to sew and even embroider several thousand crosses with gold. And then, well, who at that time constantly wore clothes of red and white, not to mention the completely dubious then "headscarves"! So, most likely all these crosses, and in large numbers, were prepared in advance, and already here, in Clermont, they were handed out to everyone who wanted to, in order to further warm up their religious feelings and also a sense of their own importance. After all, the crosses embroidered in gold (although it may be that it was just a golden gimp), were a very valuable thing, and were … just beautiful! It could have been ribbons of red and white silk, which were rewound into pieces and cut off right here on the spot, while the "crusaders" themselves sewed them onto clothes in the shape of a cross! That is, the crosses of the first crusaders were of the simplest form: either in the form of a classical Greek straight cross with equilateral ends, or they were Latin crosses, or maybe someone even had a papal cross. After all, there were more crossbars on it, and suddenly more holiness will descend on the person wearing this cross?
Servilier helmet XIII - XIV Served as a helmet-comforter under the "big helmet". However, the same helmets were the main means of protection for the warrior in 1099 (Municipal Museum Torres de Quart de Valencia, Valencia, Spain).
Moreover, it is interesting that no one has yet called this "event" a "crusade". As before, the word "expeditio" or "peregrinatio" was used - "expedition" or "pilgrimage", that is, it seemed to be about an ordinary pilgrimage, but with weapons. And the pope also promised its participants the complete abolition of all penances imposed on them, that is, the forgiveness of their previous sins. But the crusaders themselves - for the most part, dark and ignorant people (because at that time it was necessary to look for others!) Hardly understood such subtleties. Most likely, most of them naively believed that the Pope generally forgave them all sins, both past and all future, because they did not just go on a campaign, but on a campaign for the faith, and even overshadowed by the sign of the cross!
Rice. A. Shepsa
