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Just as Urban and Eugene III before him had done, Innocent understood how useful the crusade could be as a bolster for the power of the papacy. But whereas his predecessors had largely aimed the weapon against enemies outside the Christian world, Innocent decided to turn it inward as well. Besides using crusading to hound Muslims and pagans, he would deploy it (or allow it to be deployed) against heretics and dissenters within the Christian world. This was a momentous turn of events. Thanks to Innocent, the thirteenth century would see an explosion in crusade preaching throughout the western
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