xxiv Introduction: The World of the Crusades depict the pope as reinstating the Peace and Truce of God, condemning knights who violate their principles, and calling them to repentance and obedience. The pope then emphasized the suffering and abuse of Christians and holy places in the East, with some accounts providing graphic and disturbing details of murder, rape, and the desecration of churches. In the words of historian Thomas Madden, “For knights steeped in a culture of militant Christianity, these were stories to make the blood boil.” The pope then pointed out that God had provided sinful Western knights, who, to this point, had only sinfully abused their fellow Christians, with a means of redemption, by calling on them to employ the deadly tools of their profession in defense of Eastern Christians and Christ’s patrimony in the Holy Land. Moreover, Urban II took the unprecedented step of framing the expedition in the context of an armed pilgrimage, offering a plenary indulgence to those who took part. In response, those in attendance at the pope’s speech reportedly began to come forward taking vows to participate in the expedition among enthusiastic cheers of “God wills it!” THE FIRST CRUSADE AND ITS SURPRISING SUCCESS After Urban II’s calling of the First Crusade, a period of recruitment and organiza- tion took place throughout many parts of Europe. Because Urban II had framed the crusade in the context of an armed pilgrimage, it was unique from past examples of Christian holy war. Those who volunteered were required to take vows, just like any pilgrim, committing them to chastity, obedience, and humility. A pilgrimage was not supposed to be a time of frivolity or celebration, but rather a time of hard- ship and suffering, which is what made it penitential. Crusade preachers, begin- ning with Urban II at Clermont in 1095, always emphasized the hardship aspect of crusading in exchange for its penitential benefits. Certainly, the crusades had high death and injury rates, with historian John France estimating a 75 percent cas- ualty rate for the First Crusade, but crusading was also massively expensive, caus- ing considerable anxiety among some of its participants. Once the crusaders had secured funding, often through mortgaging or selling their properties, they could then buy the provisions they needed to begin the crusade and, hopefully, maintain themselves through various means for its duration. Even after such preparations, the crusaders sometimes found themselves in famine-like conditions and suffering from starvation. There were some who participated in the First Crusade who were, undoubt- edly, driven by less than pious motivations, including greed, but current historians have generally embraced the idea that religious inspirations, even pious ones, were the single greatest motivator of the earliest crusaders. This view has largely been
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