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The Crusades raise deep questions about the human heart. What is the nature of a "good" society? How do we restrain evil? Can "good" be defined by Christian doctrine? If so, how shall destructive ideas (called "heresy") be eliminated from society? Such questions are not buried in the twelfth century. Thoughtful Christians today, concerned about the moral decline in our own society, are asking essentially the same questions.

So, a second way to answer the question about Christian sponsorship of the Crusades is to check the ideals of the times. We might call these "more distant causes" or "internal motivations."

One can scarcely speak of a single motive in a movement embracing hundreds of thousands of people over several centuries. Still, a look at three principal ideals of crusaders helps explain their motivations.

Pope Urban II and other preachers of the Crusades wanted to defend Christian society. In launching the First Crusade, Urban reportedly exhorted his listeners, "You must carry succor to your brethren dwelling in the East. … The Turks have attacked them, … occupying more and more the lands of those Christians." They have "destroyed the churches and devastated the kingdom of God." If Christians permitted them to go unchallenged, "they will extend their sway more widely over many faithful servants of the Lord."

Furthermore, Christians of the time believed that violence, if used rightly, was a proper means of defending Christians. Augustine had laid down the principles of a "just war": it was conducted by the state; its purpose was the vindication of justice, meaning the defense of life and property, and it respected noncombatants, hostages, and prisoners. For Augustine, a just war's purpose was to achieve peace. Even in waging war, a follower of Christ must "cherish the spirit of a peacemaker."

Unfortunately, this ideal evaporated in the heat on the way to the Holy Land. The just defense of Christians faded from view, and Christians became increasingly inflamed with avenging the wrongs perpetrated against Christians and their holy places—especially Jerusalem.

En route to the Holy Land, crusading mobs destroyed Jewish communities in the Rhineland, raping, plundering, and murdering. And in the Holy Land, even Muslim noncombatants, women, and children, were slaughtered. In the fervor of a crusade, the noble end justified the ignoble means.

Many crusaders were also motivated by the honor of knighthood. The clearest portrait of the ideal knight came from English philosopher John of Salisbury, who wrote, "What is the office of the duly ordained soldiery? To defend the church, to assail infidelity, to venerate the priesthood, to protect the poor from injuries, … to pour out their blood for their brothers … and, if need be, to lay down their lives. The high praises of God are in their throats, and two-edged swords are in their hands."

The First Crusade, as originally designed, was composed of nobles from France, Germany, and Italy. The pope envisioned the Crusades partly as an outlet for restless, pugnacious nobles. "Gentle knights were born to fight," wrote one French chronicler, "and war ennobles all who engage in it without fear or cowardice." Urban wanted to enlist the knight for the glory of God.

Unfortunately, honor, in historian J. Huizinga's words, is "a strange mixture of conscience and egotism." In addition, though the crusaders formally took high moral and spiritual vows in "taking up the cross," history shows that greed motivated some of them, at least some of the time. This mixture of knightly motives led too often to brutality.

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May (Web-only) 2005, Vol. 49