The Crusades Dbq Essay

The Crusades were a series of political and military conquests led by the Catholic Church to gain back the Holy Lands. There were four crusades of the Middle Ages and the Children’s Crusade. The launching of the Crusades changed the role of the church as it became a military system and the church’s relationship with the Muslim world became more hostile. The launching of the Crusades changed the role of the church because as the church gained more power it became more of a military symbol. The church gained power during the crusades like the power to torture heretics. One of the ways Christians tortured heretics was by hanging them by their arms and jabbing them with spears (Document 3). The Inquisition was a demonstration of the church gaining more power because before the Crusades began, the church was not able to question people, but when they began, the church was able to torture people for information. The Christian Church also became a symbol of military power with the launching of the Crusades because it could send armies to far off lands, including Jerusalem and Constantinople (Document 4). The Fourth Crusade ended at Constantinople because they could not make it to Jerusalem. Pope Urban II, with the launching of the Crusades, was also able to grant people promises and slander other religions. He granted people “ Remission for sins and… imperishable glory in heaven… for fighting the enemies of Christ” (Document 5) The Pope feels this way about Muslims because they took over the Holy Lands that the Christians wanted. He wanted control of Jerusalem for himself so Christians would be able to make their pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the “remission of sins” (Doc 5) that he promised. A document from a soldier actually fighting in the Crusades would be monumentally useful in understanding motives for joining the Crusades because it would give first-hand accounts and reason for doing so from someone who actually experienced the power of the Pope’s words and