Old Blind Dog left a link in a comment to this interesting article written by Thomas F. Madden, a medieval history professor and co-author of a book about the crusades.
So what is the truth about the Crusades? Scholars are still working some of that out. But much can already be said with certainty. For starters, the Crusades to the East were in every way defensive wars. They were a direct response to Muslim aggression—an attempt to turn back or defend against Muslim conquests of Christian lands.
Christians in the eleventh century were not paranoid fanatics. Muslims really were gunning for them. While Muslims can be peaceful, Islam was born in war and grew the same way. From the time of Mohammed, the means of Muslim expansion was always the sword.
I guess the whole "Christianity is evil, look at the Crusades" mantra is actually another example of liberal self-hatred for Western culture.
4 comments:
Oh, sure, Christianity isn't evil, per se. I mean, sure, the medieval church forced every citizen to give 10% either money or goods every years; baptisms had to be paid for, as did marriages, and burials; oh, and in order to go to heaven, you had to be buried on holy ground.
Additionally, if you were told a loved one was in purgatory, the only way you could get them up to Heaven was to purchase prayers for them. How many prayers it took to get them out of purgatory? We'll tell ya when it happens.
No, it wasn't evil, it was just really, really good at swindling the populace. Which is why it was immensely wealthy.
carsick said:
"Wow. Do you really only need ONE "expert's" opinion to base your final opinion on?"
History, like science, does not respond well to consensus opinion. It only takes one scientist or historian to be right. So the answer to your question is, "Yes!"
Thanks for the plug, LG. This is my blog for those that don't know about it. Lots of controversial stuff there.
So Christians weren't aggressors during the Crusades. All the Jews they slaughtered on their way to take out the evil Muslims will be glad to know that.
Interesting how they undertook the Crusades to "protect" Christianity - and wound up sacking Constantinople...
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