Crusades and Pope Urban Essay Example for Free

Crusades and Pope Urban Essay The Christian Crusades occurred around the 11th and the 12th century are very many and complex. The Christian Crusades has built a tense relationship between the Christians and Islamic. This essay will explain the causes and effects of the Medieval Crusades. The importance of the holy lands as stated in the Islamic bible, Koran, and the Christian bible is the most significant cause of the Christian Crusades. Religious rivalry between the 2 religions was caused by the fact that both of these religions believed in 2 different gods. The Islam’s thought that there god was the true god whilst the Christians believed that there god was the one and true god. The fact that the Islam’s believed there god was the one and true, brought anger to the Pilgrims who were on a quest to take back the Holy lands which were Bethlehem, Nazareth and Jerusalem, which were controlled currently by the Muslims since 638AD. But as more and more pilgrims came to visit the Holy lands, Seljuk Turks, Saracens, took over the lands and denied more Pilgrimages to the Holy Lands. This brought great anger to Pope Urban II. Pope Urban II was responsible for the very first Christian Crusade. He started this by giving an extremely influential speech to all Christians in Europe and Medieval time saying that the Saracens were turning Christian Churches into Mosques which were Muslim churches. Pope Urban II then told all Christian men and European Christian Princes to go on a crusade to take back the Holy lands. The Pope also stated to these Christian men that by fighting in this holy war they would reach heaven. So the Christian Crusaders set their target on regaining one of the Holy lands which was Jerusalem. The result of the first crusade was not too good for the Muslims as 70,000 Muslims had died trying to flee from the city or fight to protect their city. A reason that explains the cause of the Christian Crusades, are the Christian men, the Knight class and Princes. Prior explains how Pope Urban II speech influences the Christian men, Knight classes and Princes of Europe to go on a crusade against their rivalry religion and to gain back the Holy Lands. Pope Urban II says to all these men that go on to their crusade, that if they do not fight back against the Saracens, god will not clear there sin. This was another reason for the Christian Crusade. Pope Urban II â€Å"blackmailing† these men to go to the Holy lands was a reason for why the Christian Crusades began in the first place. The Knight class were all men that wanted to fight. Since the age of seven, pagers, who were the first stage into becoming a knight, were taught special skills to fight. Every Crusader that was going on to gain back the lands had a sign on their tunics when they went to fight. This sign resembled St Johns Cross. The medieval Crusades have brought a strong intensity in these to religions that are still quite tense nowadays. Pope Urban II speech had urged men to go on this holy crusade and both the Koran and bible having two of the same holy places caused tension between these two religions. This essay has given the causes and effects of the holy crusades.