 9 Dec 2005 @ 03:13
History forgotten is often repeated.
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IV. ULTIMATE FAILURE AND VARIOUS CONSEQUENCES OF THE CRUSADES
A. None of the goals of the crusades were accomplished. Although some concessions were made by the Moslems in regard to the safe passage of pilgrims, Jerusalem ultimately remained under Moslem control. The Byzantine empire ultimately fell to the Moslems in 1453, and Constantinople became Istanbul. Finally, rather than serving as a means to reunite the eastern and western churches, the crusades increased the animosity between the two factions.
B. Thousands of lives were lost including the lives of several thousand children who set out for the "Holy Land" in what is known as the children's crusade.
C. "Again, the Crusades gave occasion for the rapid development of the system of papal indulgences, which became a dogma of the medieval theologians. The practice, once begun by Urban II at the very outset of the movement, was extended further and further until indulgence for sins was promised not only for the warrior who took up arms against the Saracens in the East, but for those who were willing to fight against Christian heretics in Western Europe." (Schaff, HISTORY..., vol. 5, p. 291)
D. And so, in the crusades we see the inception of the Inquisition, under which any one considered a heretic was in danger of torture and even death at the hands of f the Roman Catholic Church. "From warfare against the non-believer,...it was not a far step to war against the heretic....The Inquisition with all its horror could never have taken such deep root but for the awakening of religious passions which marked the Crusades." (NEW SCHAFF HERZOG ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RELIGIOUS KNOWLEDGE, vol. 3, p. 317)
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