Crusades
Why the first crusade took place *.
The idea of a Crusade was born in Clermont in 1095. Such a movement had never occurred before, reuniting as it did the richer and poorer members of society, people from both North and South, the non-religious and priests, all joined together by a Christian ideal, the true source of their identity. It was also the birthplace of the ideology of conquest, a refusal of other ways of life which would result a few centuries later in the enslavement of the New World.
Clermont in the XI century? A town on an elevation, protected by a wall, surrounded by towers and huddled up close to its cathedral. A twentieth century visitor would be surprised by the number of church towers, there were around fifty churches in Clermont and its surrounding area, as well as by the importance of its suburbs; evidence of its trading activities.
In 1095, Clermont, at the heart of a region marking the transition between North and South, was the stage for a significant religious event, a synod. The church had watched, impotent, for two centuries while internal wars, rape, pillage, massacres carried out by the high and mighty, and corruption involving the clergy went unpunished. When Odilon, Abbot of Cluny, spoke out against these practices, he was supported by Pope Gregory. This was the beginning of the major religious reforms of the XI century. The Abbey at Cluny, founded in 910 by the Duke of Aquitaine and William the Pious, Count of Auvergne, was the spearhead, along with its outposts at Saint-Alyre de Clermont and Mozac.
Several synods were held in succession to fight against this brutality. The concepts of the Peace of God and Truce of God came into being. In 990, a synod took place in Le Puy, followed by another in 1002 and in 1095 by the synod at Clermont to add more detail to these new concepts. Why Clermont? Several reasons can be suggested. The presence of Cluny monasteries encouraged Pope Urban II to come to this town since the clergy already had reforming ideas.
Auvergne was at the centre of the Kingdom of France but not under the control of the crown or a duchy. In theory, it was the property of the Count of Auvergne, vassal of the Duke of Aquitaine who was himself a vassal of the King of France. In fact, in the X century, it had separated from Aquitaine and played Capetians, Aquitaines and Burgundians against each other. It was the bishop, head of a powerful seigneury, who set out territorial boundaries in such a way that Auvergne was able to present a united front against threats from a number of seigneuries. It can be suggested that a key reason for this choice was the quarrel between the Church and King Philip I of France, who had been accused of bigamy for kidnapping and marrying the Count of Anjou’s wife. No town was better suited than Clermont as the place to investigate the case for excommunicating a King of France, since Clermont paraded its independence from the Capetians. On the 14 November 1095, Urban II arrived in Clermont where he was received by Bishop Durand. A huge crowd had gathered on the streets to try and see him: commoners, lords and clergy. The presence of the Pope gave the ceremony a certain gravitas, but they were not ceremonial meetings. Church abuses were condemned, decisions were reached regarding differences between La Chaise-Dieu and Cluny, between Archambaud de Bourbon and Souvigny, rules relating to the Truce of God and the excommunication of King Philip I, who was lodging at the time in the Abbey of Mozac, near Riom.
Urban II (1095) preaching the first crusade. (Bibliothèque Municipale et interuniversitaire - Clermont-Ferrand)
Following the synod, on the 27 November, the Pope "went out to an open space since there was no building large enough to hold everybody who was there". It is not known exactly where this place was. Historians have speculated about this. Some think that it might be the Champ Herm, at the bottom of the Portus, and which would later become Place Delille. Others consider that it was the Place d’Espagne. Four chroniclers have left differing accounts of this encounter, which only makes it more difficult to interpret the message.
This is how Foucher de Chartres reported it: "And so I exhort and plead with you - it is not I who exhorts you but the Lord himself -, you the Heralds of Christ, to persuade everybody, no matter what their position in society, cavaliers or pedestrians, rich or poor, to preach frequently the need to go quickly to the aid of Christians and to repel the destructive peoples far from our lands. I say this to everybody here and summon all those who are absent - Christ orders it. I say to all those who leave and who die on the way, either on land or at sea, or who lose their life fighting the pagans, remission for their sins will be granted. And I grant this to those who take part in this journey, in virtue of the authority granted to me by God..." On hearing these words the crowd shouted: It is God’s will!
*(article from Massif Central magazine, Special Issue n°1)
The call of Clermont, between West and East
Did witnesses to this emphatic conclusions immediately understand its implications? It was the conjunction of a number of economic and political interests, of emotion and faith which would make it such a clarion call. Remember that at the time, Christians were very attached to pilgrimages, as the success of local pilgrimages shows us: Saint Martial in Limoges, Saint Gerald in Aurillac, Saint Julian in Brioude all attracted pilgrims from far away; the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela was often a life-defining goal while the pilgrimage to Jerusalem was the one which was dreamt about most often, and the most mythical: a large number of Christians, particularly clerics, tried this pilgrimage, sometimes risking their life... to save their soul!
It is difficult to describe the feelings of Christians when they learnt that Seljuk Turks had invaded Palestine. It must be said that these Turks had a bad reputation. Speculation rose that they would forbid pilgrimages, that they massacred Christians. Worry and rumour abounded. It was even said that the Holy Sepulchre had been profaned. But when Urban made his call, he was also answering more political concerns. The world in the middle of the XI century was experiencing major changes: faced with a Western world marked by political fragmentation, rivalry between the different lords, and mainly rural inhabitants, the East was another world, very urban and well organised but not very well known, in spite of some commercial contacts.
By the X century, the Muslim world was divided into numerous kingdoms which were either independent or vassals of the Fatimid Caliphate. Islam had conquered the Maghreb and most of Spain. From 1030, Aragon and Castile began to reconquer parts of Spain. This soon became a fight against Islam, encouraged by the papacy. In 1095, this conquest was stalled.
Finally, Christians had been divided since 1054. The Byzantine empire no longer recognised the Pope’s authority and the two churches failed to understand each other. The Turkish defeat of the Byzantines at Mantzikert and the wars which followed were a cause for concern. It is known that the Byzantine emperor had asked the Pope several times to facilitate the recruitment of mercenaries. It was only a small step from there to calling the Christians of the West to his aid. By setting free eastern Christians, the Pope’s authority would be enhanced, which might result in Christian reunification.
Urban could also see another advantage of encouraging "armed pilgrimage". Talking about the Peace of God was easier than making it happen. To put an end to the violence and disorder which was the order of the day, it seemed like a good idea to channel the energy of the younger people into a glorious adventure where they would attain paradise, since this was a collective form of salvation.
Clermont - Le Puy - Jerusalem: from armed pilgrimage to Jihad
He can be seen travelling through towns and cities and preaching in many places. The poor became so passionately caught up that they began to sell whatever possessions they owned. A troop of 20,000 pilgrims, mainly from Lorraine and Southern Germany, set off in August 1096. They crossed the Rhine, entered Hungary and reached Constantinople preceded by a reputation for pillage and massacre. In spite of warnings to take care by the emperor Alexius 1, they crossed the Bosporus and entered Asia, where most of the pilgrims were massacred by the Turks, apart from some groups of scouts travelling ahead of the main group. Peter the Hermit resurfaced in Antioch in 1098 and then at the siege of Jerusalem where he emboldened the crusaders. He then reappeared in the West, bearing relics. The second expedition was more organised. The Pope chose the bishop of Le Puy, Adhemar de Monteil, to lead it. As papal legate, he accompanied the nobles from Velay and Auvergne, along with Raymond de Saint Gilles, Count of Toulouse. Their troop was made up of cavaliers accompanied by servants and members of the general populace.
Franks from the Midi, the Ile de France, Normans, Sicilians set off. At Byzantium, Alexius made them swear allegiance and make a promise, soon forgotten, to return to Byzantium the territories lost to the Turks. Once in Syria, the Franks met with success, helped by Muslim weakness. Antioch and Jerusalem were taken in bloody victories.
Peter the Hermit preaching the crusade.
Painted by Dunouy (XVIII century), Musée des Beaux-Arts de Clermont-Ferrand
The Franks founded three states along the coast as a solid barrier between Islam and the Mediterranean and, at the request of the Armenians in Edessa, created a state which drove a long wedge into Muslim lands. However, this success was more fragile than it appeared. The Byzantines, shocked by the behaviour of the Franks, did not totally accept this conquest. Weakness in the Muslim world, while it existed, was not permanent. In the second quarter of the XII century, re-emerged under Nur al-Din and his nephew Saladin. Everything was done to make unification of the Islamic world a reality and Jihad (holy war) with a powerful, organised army, became the motivating ideology.
One by one all the towns in the Frank states were retaken. The crusades were the first, violent, meeting between two worlds - the confrontation of two civilisations with innumerable consequences. Interpretations of this event have varied over the centuries. Even today, reading works dedicated to the crusades, different conclusions can be reached.
Horror in the name of God
We no longer count horrors committed in the name of God. The taking of Jerusalem, in July 1099, was one of the first in history but not the last in terms of violence.
"Once in the town, our pilgrims chased and massacred the Saracens, as far as Solomon’s temple where they had gathered and where they fought strongly against us all day, to the extent that the whole temple flowed with their blood... Then, happy and crying tears of joy, our people went to venerate the Holy Sepulchre of our Saviour Jesus and were acquitted of their debt to him." (Fulcher of Chartres). Previously during the siege of Antioch, Adhemar of Monteil, bishop of Le Puy, had ordered that "a payment of twelve deniers should be made immediately to anybody who brings the head of a Turk. Once the prelate had received some heads, he ordered that they by placed on the end of very long poles in front of the very eyes of the enemy..."
Gilbert of Nogent
See the map of the crusades:
But the crusaders did not even wait to be in Muslim lands to carry out massacres, in disregard of the Peace of God.
Once Peter the Hermit had gathered together an immense army he resolved to march across the land of the Hungarians. The uncontrollable rabble did not hesitate to carry out major excesses against the peaceful population of the area. Driven by unimaginable madness, the foreigners soon came to trample on the inhabitants of the country.... even while these inhabitants, Christians, generously offered their brothers everything they had to sell... Driven by miserable rage, (the crusaders) set fire to public barns, took young girls and subjected them to all sorts of violence, dishonoured marriages, tore off or set fire to their hosts’ beards..."
Gilbert of Nogent
The crusades and posterity
Against Islam, an idea was born in 1095: the crusade. This idea only died in 1291 with the recapture of Saint-Jean d’Acre by the Egyptians and reappeared in the XV, XVI and even XVII centuries when there were Solitary Crusaders. People have often dreamt of the crusades, with a very rich iconography, songs, tales (often written later) reinforced the myth, such as the "Triumphal Song" by Emmanuel des Essarts and Antony Violet, composed for the 8th centenary of the first crusade in Clermont. Over the centuries, the crusades became a political argument. In the XIX century, the East was fashionable and Chateaubriand used the spirit of the crusades in 1811, in his "Journey from Paris to Jerusalem", a militant text where he developed the barbarity of Islam and his desire to fight it, even with arms.
But from the Middle Ages, the idea of crusade had its detractors who criticised the abuses perpetrated, such as Voltaire in his "Essay on Manners" where he criticised the concept in the name of tolerance.
However, for a long time, school textbooks, particularly the History of France by Malet and Isaac, marked generations of French schoolchildren by asserting that Western economic development had its origins in the crusades. It was stated that Europe had the Crusades to thank for a certain art de vivre, apricots, dates, words such as alcohol, bazaar, cheque, sorbet, syrup, the Black Madonnas, Ambert paper, the prosperity of Genoa or Pisa.
Today, historians take a more qualified view and consider that commercial contacts with the Arab world had existed for a long time prior to the Crusades. Wasn’t Spain the true point of contact between the two civilisations? However, the Crusades, which made between 4 and 5 million victims, resulted in the final conquest of the Mediterranean and defined the West’s southern boundary.
The concept of armed pilgrimage is also criticised; the idea of conquest which, even it is not accompanied by colonisation, resembles it closely. Finally, today we are more conscious of what the other thinks. In the East, the Crusades also serve as a reference. Political and religious authorities in the Arab world constantly refer to Saladin, the fall and retaking of Jerusalem.
Claude Grimmer
Lecturer at the University of Clermont 1
