PART I.

THE CRUSADING TEMPLARS’ MENTALITY

When the first Crusade began, Europe was just emerging from the Dark Ages. On the one hand, there was poverty, hunger and ignorance, fights for authority and territory between duchies and little kingdoms and various feudal lords. On the other, a series of barbarian invasions from the north had turned Europe into a nearly unlivable continent. The trade and guilds that had just begun to arise were not enough to meet the people’s needs and establish a strong authority in Europe.

Amidst this time of chaos, the Catholic Church became the chief powerful and influential institution, with the support of the priests and clerics who wielded great influence over the lay public.

With their superior education, members of the Church attained a level of learning and awareness quite superior to that of both the ignorant populace and the largely uneducated aristocracy. However, a succession of some popes, the heads of the most organized power of their time, used these advantages and opportunities for their own purposes in a number of most strategic ways. They sometimes departed from the purpose of their foundation and became increasingly focused on worldly authority, and even subjugated many kings and aristocrats in Europe to their decrees.

Pope Urban II

At the summit of the Vatican’s power, Pope Urban II declared war. The Holy Land, which for centuries had been under Muslim control, were to be won back. Supposedly, the Pope’s goal was quite noble—from the Christians’ point of view: to have Christians in control of the Holy Land. But Urban II’s decision to start the first Crusade was never limited to that purpose alone.

As mentioned before, the lands ruled and influenced by the Papacy labored under great hardship and shortages. Merchants arriving from the East spread tales about the great wealth the Muslims possessed, about exotic fruits never heard of in Europe, and of the lavish clothes and treasures the Middle East enjoyed. And those became the chief motive that powered the Crusades.

The Papacy of the time planned a combination of occupation and colonization, expecting to seize a good deal of the wealth of the East and thus, even more political power. As a result, the Vatican longed to attain an ultimate victory over its rivals in Europe, who were figures of temporal authority. But while doing so, the Church set aside the pacifism, humility, and non-violence which were the very fundamentals of Christianity and thus abandoned its own 1,000-year-old tradition.

While selecting those to fight in the Crusades, anti-Christian practices were observed and thus began the Crusaders’ violent, cruel and ignorant reputation. The Papacy used every method at its disposal to increase the number of the soldiers, enlisting even excommunicated sinners and criminals into the army, assuring them that their sins would be forgiven if only they fought for Christendom.

Ignorance was the common failing among a great deal of the participants. These people did not know enough about the essential tenets of their own Christian religion, but were even more ignorant about Islam.

Thus, contrary to what is commonly assumed, their motives for joining up in the Crusade were as not religious or idealistic at all, but rather to obtain a share of Eastern riches. The kings and the local aristocrats, who had been in nearly constant conflict with one another, went on a kind of joint adventure, combining their respective armies, hoping to extend their wealth. This class, which had many internal rivalries, was usually acting on its own initiative, since there was no unity in the group. The vassals, who were essentially the feudal lords’ slaves, joined in the war to gain their freedom.

Among these Crusaders, the number of those who set off only on behalf of the Church was limited to only a small group. One source describes this situation as follows:

The Crusaders perpetrated terrible massacres right from the beginning of the conflict. The blood spilt during this slaughter is described in historical accounts as being “knee-deep.” Some 40,000 people are estimated to have lost their lives.

The participants in the First Crusade succeeded in capturing Jerusalem in 1099 and committed a terrible massacre there.

The French knights wanted more land. Italian merchants hoped to expand trade in Middle Eastern ports . . . . Large numbers of poor people joined the expeditions simply to escape the hardships of their normal lives.1

The Crusaders gave the impression of an unorganized, undisciplined and uncontrolled mob more than a unified army. They did what was expected of them and even in the very first Crusade, committed some of the greatest massacres of known history. Directly after conquering Jerusalem, they slaughtered almost the whole populace, who consisted mostly of Muslims and Jews.

Historical accounts described the blood spilled in the course of this massacre, in which approximately forty thousand people were killed, as “knee deep.” Actually, the original founders of the Knights Templar were not well-educated intellectuals trained in the scholastic traditions of the Church. Most of them were ignorant and vulgar warriors who joined the Crusade for such purposes as adventure, spoils, reputation and prestige. Nevertheless, the attitudes they demonstrated shortly after the founding of their sect revealed that these poor French aristocrats were far from being Christians and were actually in pursuit of darker goals. These soldiers, whose ambition and greed was an outgrowth of their poverty, would soon, after a series of events, develop into one of the greatest and most dangerous powers of medieval Europe.