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August 11 - October 9, 2017
What Henry proposed, and Paschal accepted, was that the emperor would give up any claim to the right of investiture of bishops, as long as the church gave up all the feudal privileges that prelates had, and which made them powerful potentates.
civil rulers could not afford to give up the right to name and invest bishops as long as these were also powerful political figures.
Then the people of Rome rebelled against the emperor, who left the city taking as prisoners the pope as well as several cardinals and bishops.
The cardinals then hastened to elect a new pope, lest the emperor intervene in the election.
The decision of Gelasius to flee to France was a sign of the new direction in which papal policy was being forced.
popes began looking to France as the ally who would support them against the German emperors.
It was decided that prelates would be elected freely, according to ancient usage, although in the presence of the emperor or his representatives.
the granting of all feudal rights, privileges, and possessions, as well as of the symbols thereof, would be in the hand of civil authorities.
In the end, the program of the reforming popes succeeded.
the reformist popes, while they insisted on the monastic ideal of celibacy, did not do the same with the ideal of poverty.
in the interest of self-preservation, rulers had to make sure that those who occupied such important positions were loyal to them.
But in fact those possessions were used for personal profit, and for achieving the ambitious personal goals of bishops and others who in theory were not owners, but guardians.
Among the many ideals that captivated the imagination of Western Christendom during the Middle Ages, no other was as dramatic, as overwhelming, or as contradictory, as was the crusading spirit.
The Muslims, at first defeated because they were divided among themselves, eventually were united in a common front that expelled the crusaders.
For centuries, Christians had held the Holy Land in high esteem, and pilgrimages to its holy places had become one of the highest acts of devotion.
Therefore, the call to go to a foreign land as soldiers of Christ was received with enthusiasm by many, both of the lower classes and of the nobility.
They also practiced their war against the infidel by killing thousands of Jews.
Hungry and discouraged, the crusaders began to doubt the wisdom of the entire enterprise.
an eyewitness boasting of the holiness of the Christian army says: “We did nothing evil to them, but simply speared them through.”
the reason why the crusaders had achieved their measure of success was that the Muslims were not united—
Although some scholars today tend to think that there is a measure of exaggeration in them, contemporary reports declare that all the defenders were killed, as well as many civilians.
Many of the crusaders now felt that their task was done, and prepared to return home.
it became customary for small bands of armed men to leave Europe for a time of service in the Holy Land.
The fervor of the Crusade also continued among the masses.
it is not altogether correct to speak of the “Crusades” as a series of isolated campaigns.
The preaching of Bernard of Clairvaux was very different, for it sought both to organize an army of relief for the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and to refute the fiery preaching of those who advocated a mad rush to Jerusalem.
The Fourth Crusade, called by Innocent III, was an even greater disaster.
In preaching the Crusade, Foulques declared that the poor were elected by God to fulfill this great task. All could participate in this project.
They then named Baldwin of Flanders emperor of Constantinople, and thus was founded the Latin Empire of Constantinople (1204–1261). A Latin patriarch of Constantinople was also named, and thus, in theory at least, East and West were reunited.
The net result of the entire episode was that the enmity of the Greek East toward the Latin West grew more intense.
Out of these two foci would come the long struggle against Islam known in Spain as the Reconquista (“the reconquest”).
alliances across religious lines—as well as marriages between Muslims and Christians—were not uncommon.
Saint James became the patron saint of the struggle against the Muslims,
Muslim lands were soon divided into a multitude of small kingdoms. It was then that the Spanish Reconquista gained strength.
Spain and Sicily—the latter taken by the Normans in the eleventh century—were the only areas where the military campaign against Islam was permanently successful.
The most obvious consequence of these various episodes was the increased mistrust and enmity between Christians and Muslims, as well as between Latin and Byzantine Christians.
the Crusades and the Spanish Reconquista enhanced the power of the papacy.
Increased contacts with the Holy Land turned people’s attention to the historical narratives of the Bible, and devotion came to center on the humanity of Jesus.
The monastic ideal took a new direction with the founding of the military orders.
instead of spending their time in meditation or in study, they were warriors.
legends arose claiming that the Templars were indeed a heretical society that held to ancient Gnostic teachings.
The crusading spirit was also used to combat heresy.
for years to come the crusading ideal would be used in different circumstances, quite apart from the original intent of retaking the Holy Land.
renewed contact with the Muslim world had far-reaching consequences.
From Spain and Sicily, the works of these philosophers, as well as of Aristotle himself, were introduced into Western Europe, where in the thirteenth century they would give rise to a great deal of philosophical and theological activity.
the age of the Crusades witnessed the development of cities and of an economy where trade once again became active.
the development of an economy where trade was increasingly important and was done on the basis of money and letters of credit gave rise to new sources of wealth.
Soon they would be allies of the monarchy against the excessive power of the high nobility; eventually, in the French Revolution, they would overcome both the crown and the nobility.
it also found expression in theology, in missionary work, and in architecture.
The growth of cities, trade, and the monetary economy brought about changes that were not always welcome.
