Crusader Religion

Crusader Religion

By the siege and fall of Jerusalem, the religion of the crusaders was full of mysticism. God had, in some ways, become someone that the crusaders communicated with regularly, whether directly or indirectly. The crusaders claim talk to the saints so regularly that they seem to straddle the line of sanity. The constant communication with the saints and God shows the need the crusaders had to hold onto something concrete in their hectic lives. Everything from the name of the crusading army to the testaments of crusaders that God had punished or blessed them, shows the crusaders looking for or creating something to justify their actions on crusade.

Religion while on the crusades turned into a way of survival. With hunger, sickness, and death all around the crusading army, soldiers and leaders of the army needed something to keep them sane. Religion is the perfect motivating factor for the soldiers, it talks of a God who can conquer any army in the world and who protects those that are loyal to his name; if "God wills victory," than no man can stop that from happening (Peters, 250).

For that reason, the name of the crusading army was "The Knights of Christ" (Peters, 245). Any army with the name and symbols of the Lord could never fall to any army created my mere men. Much of the religiosity of the crusades seems to derive from motivating factors. Whether planned or not, many of the religious stories passed on of communication with saints and holy signs, seem to be motivating factors for the troops; possibly to motivate them to carry on for God and not to pay attention to the hardships each one of them was enduring. Perhaps those leaders of the crusades were trying to gain some control over their troops in a setting where they did not have control over most of the environments around them.

The Fall of Jerusalem: The version of Raymond d'Aguilers, shows the disorganization of the crusading army once they had reached Jerusalem. Many of the leaders were "quarreling" with each other over the right to rule Jerusalem and rights to certain lands inside the city. Then Raymond d'Aguilers tells what Bishop Ademar said to Peter Desiderius:

Speak to the princes and all the people, and say to them: "You who have come from distant lands to worship God and the Lord of hosts, purge yourselves of your uncleanliness, and let each one turn from his evil ways. Then with bare feet march around Jerusalem invoking God, and you must also fast. If you do this and then make a great attack on the city on the ninth day, it will be captured. If you do not, all the evils that you have suffered will be multiplied by the Lord. (Peters, 253-254)

The statement by Bishop Ademar shows that the punishment by the lord is a crucial motivating factor. According to d'Aguilers, the princes and people were assembled and this message was passed on with many holding the belief that God was displeased with the army and that they must make amends between themselves for the God who suffered on the cross for all of them so "he will open the city to us and give us judgment upon His enemies and ours" (Peters, 254).

The most important weapon in the crusades was the assistance of the Lord. This can be seen in the letter which the crusaders sent to Pope Paschal II to tell him of the victory the army of God had achieved. The crusaders write of the siege of Antioch, how God "humbled" the army so much that "there were scarcely a hundred good horses in our whole army" (Peters, 293). Then God opened the city gates and allowed the army of God to conquer the great city, and "delivered the Turks and all of their possessions into our power" (Peters, 293). When the crusaders "did not worthily magnify God who had done this" (293), the Turks overran them and forced the army to stay inside the city. The soldiers suffered greatly from sickness and hunger until God revealed "His lance" to them.

The letter of victory sent back to Pope Paschal II, makes God appear as having regular communication with the crusaders, and as the Greek or Roman gods were known to do, God meddles in human affairs. God is constantly displeased with the army, making them suffer, and then delivering the cities of the infidel, sometimes with great ease (Peters, 293). Looking to God for guidance, even talking directly to God, could also be considered one of the tools soldiers and leaders used to maintain a grip on reality. The belief that God was watching over these men could have been the only thing that kept them alive through the incredible misery of the crusades.

Throughout the crusades, written accounts commonly refer to the suffering that soldiers had to endure. By the time the army reached Antioch and Jerusalem,