In the XI - XIII centuries. The Catholic Church organized the crusades, the purpose of which was to proclaim the liberation of Palestine and the "Holy Sepulcher" from the Muslims, which, according to legend, was in Jerusalem. The true goal of the campaigns was to seize lands and plunder the eastern countries, the wealth of which was then spoken about in Europe.
In the armies of the crusaders, with the blessing of the Pope, special monastic-knightly organizations were created: they were called spiritual-knightly orders. Entering the order, the knight remained a warrior, but he took the usual vow of monasticism: he could not have a family. From that time on, he unquestioningly obeyed the head of the order, the grand master, or the grand master.
The orders were subordinate directly to the pope, and not to the rulers on whose lands their possessions were located. Having seized vast territories in the East, the orders launched wide activities on the "holy land".
The knights enslaved the peasants, both local and those who came with them from Europe. Plundering cities and villages, engaging in usury, exploiting the local population, the orders accumulated enormous wealth. The plundered gold was used to buy large estates in Europe. Gradually, the orders turned into the richest corporations.
The first was founded in 1119, the Order of the Templars (Templars). Initially, it was located near the place where, according to legend, the Jerusalem temple stood. He soon became the richest.
Going on a crusade, large feudal lords and knights often mortgaged their lands and other property in the European offices of the order. Fearing robbery on the way, they only took a receipt in order to receive the money upon arrival in Jerusalem. So the Templars became not only usurers, but also the organizers of banking. And it brought them enormous wealth: after all, many crusaders died on the way, not having time to reach Jerusalem …
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The second was the Order of the St. John Hospitallers. It got its name from the hospital of St. John, who helped sick pilgrims. At the end of the XXI century. the third Teutonic Order was formed. Later he moved to the shores of the Baltic Sea, where in 1237 he united with the Order of the Swordsmen. The United Order of the Swordsmen brutally exterminated and plundered the local tribes of Lithuania, Latvian and Estonian. He tried to seize Russian lands in the 13th century, but Prince Alexander Nevsky defeated the knightly army on the ice of Lake Peipsi on April 5, 1242.
In the XI - XII centuries. in Spain three orders arose. They were created by the knights in connection with the reconquista, a struggle aimed at driving the Arabs out of Spain.
In the XIV - XV centuries. European kings, creating centralized states, subjugated spiritual and knightly orders. So, the French king Philip IV the Handsome cruelly dealt with the richest of them - the Order of the Templars. In 1307 the Templars were accused of heresy. Many of them were burned at the stake, the property of the order was confiscated, replenishing them with the royal treasury. But some orders have survived to this day. For example, in Rome, the Order of the Johannites still exists - this is a reactionary clerical (ecclesiastical) institution.
CHILDREN'S CROSS TRAVELS
In the summer of 1212, along the roads of France and Greece, boys from 12 years of age and older were moving in small groups and in whole crowds, dressed in summer clothes: in simple canvas shirts over short pants, almost all barefoot and with bare heads. Each had a red, even and green cloth cross sewn on the front of their shirt. They were young crusaders. Colorful flags fluttered over the processions; on some there was an image of Jesus Christ, on others - the Mother of God with the baby. With loud voices, the crusaders sang religious hymns glorifying God. Where and for what purposes were all these crowds of children sent?
For the first time at the very beginning of the XI century. Pope Urban II called on Western Europe to crusades. This happened in the late autumn of 1095, shortly after the gathering (congress) of churchmen ended in the city of Clermont (in France). Pope addressed the crowds of knights, peasants, townspeople. monks, gathered on the plain near the city, with an appeal to start a holy war against Muslims. Tens of thousands of knights and village poor from France, and later from some other countries of Western Europe, responded to the pope's call.
All of them in 1096 went to Palestine to fight against the Seljuk Turks, who shortly before that captured the city of Jerusalem, which was considered sacred by Christians. According to legend, there allegedly was the tomb of Jesus Christ, the mythical founder of the Christian religion. The liberation of this shrine served as a pretext for the Crusades. The crusaders attached crosses of fabric to their clothes as a sign that they were going to war with a religious goal - to expel the Gentiles (Muslims) from Jerusalem and other holy places for Christians in Palestine.
In reality, the goals of the crusaders were not only religious. By the XI century. land in Western Europe was divided between secular and church feudal lords. According to custom, only his eldest son could inherit the land of the lord. As a result, a large layer of feudal lords was formed who did not have land. They longed to get it in any way. The Catholic Church, not without reason, feared that these knights would not encroach on its vast domains. In addition, the clergy, led by the Pope, sought to extend their influence to new territories and profit from them. Rumors about the riches of the countries of the Eastern Mediterranean, which were spread by pilgrim travelers who visited Palestine, aroused the greed of the knights. The popes took advantage of this by throwing a cry “To the East! ". In the plans of the knights-crusaders, the liberation of the "Holy Sepulcher" had a third-rate importance: the feudal lords sought to seize overseas lands, cities, and wealth.
At first, the peasant poor also participated in the crusades, suffering severely from the oppression of the feudal lords, crop failures and hunger. Dark, needy farmers, mostly serfs, listening to the sermons of the churchmen, believed that all the calamities they were experiencing were sent down on them by God for some unknown sins. The priests and monks assured that if the crusaders were able to win the "Holy Sepulcher" from the Muslims, then the almighty God would take pity on the poor and ease their lot. The church promised the crusaders the forgiveness of sins, and in case of death, the right place in paradise.
Already during the first crusade, tens of thousands of poor people perished, and only a few of them reached Jerusalem together with strong knightly militias. When in 1099 the crusaders captured this city and other coastal cities of Syria and Palestine, all the riches went only to the large feudal lords and knighthood. Having seized the fertile lands and flourishing trading cities of the "Holy Land", as the Europeans called then Palestine, the "warriors of Christ" founded their states.
The outside peasants received almost nothing, and therefore in the future fewer and fewer peasants participated in the crusades.
In the XII century. the knights had to equip themselves for war under the sign of the cross many times in order to keep the occupied territories.
However, all of these crusades failed. When at the beginning of the XIII century. For the fourth time, French, Italian and German knights girded themselves with a sword at the call of Pope Innocent III, they did not go against the Muslims, but fell on the Christian state of Byzantium. In April 1204, the knights seized its capital Constantinople and plundered it, showing what all the magnificent phrases about the salvation of the "Holy Sepulcher" were worth. Eight years after this shameful event, children's crusades took place. Medieval monks-chroniclers tell about them like that. In May 1212, a twelve-year-old shepherd boy, Etienne, came to the abbey of St. Dionysius in Paris from somewhere unknown. He announced that he was sent by God himself to lead the campaign of children against the "infidels" in the "Holy Land." Then this little boy went to villages and towns. In squares, at crossroads,in all crowded places, he made passionate speeches to crowds of people, urging his peers to get ready for the journey to the "Holy Sepulcher." He said: “Adult crusaders are bad people, greedy and greedy sinners. No matter how much they fight for Jerusalem, nothing comes of them: the almighty Lord does not want to give the sinners victory over the infidels. Only blameless children can receive God's grace. Without any weapons, they will be able to free Jerusalem from the rule of the Sultan. At the command of God, the Mediterranean Sea will part before them, and they will cross the dry bottom, like the biblical hero Moses, and take away the "holy coffin" from the infidels. No matter how much they fight for Jerusalem, nothing comes of them: the almighty Lord does not want to give the sinners victory over the infidels. Only blameless children can receive God's grace. Without any weapons, they will be able to free Jerusalem from the rule of the Sultan. At the command of God, the Mediterranean Sea will part before them, and they will cross the dry bottom, like the biblical hero Moses, and take away the "holy coffin" from the infidels. No matter how much they fight for Jerusalem, nothing comes of them: the almighty Lord does not want to give the sinners victory over the infidels. Only blameless children can receive God's grace. Without any weapons, they will be able to free Jerusalem from the rule of the Sultan. At the command of God, the Mediterranean Sea will part before them, and they will cross the dry bottom, like the biblical hero Moses, and take away the "holy coffin" from the infidels.
“Jesus himself came to me in a dream and revealed that the children would deliver Jerusalem from the yoke of the Gentiles,” the shepherd said. For greater persuasiveness, he raised some kind of letter above his head. "Here is a letter," Etienne asserted, "which the savior gave me, instructing me to lead you on an overseas campaign for the glory of the Lord." Chronicles (chronicles) tell right there, right in front of numerous listeners, Etienne performed various "miracles": he seemed to restore sight to the blind and heal cripples from ailments with one touch of his hands.
Etienne became widely known in France. At his call, crowds of boys moved to the city of Vendome, which became a gathering point for the young crusaders.
The naive stories of the chroniclers do not explain where such an amazing religious zeal came from among children. Meanwhile, the reasons were the same, which at one time prompted the poor peasants to be the first to move to the East. And although the movement of the crusaders in the XIII century. it was already discredited by the predatory "exploits" and major failures of the knights and was on the decline, yet the people did not completely extinguish the belief that God would be more merciful if they succeed in recapturing the holy city of Jerusalem. This faith was strongly supported by the ministers of the church. The priests and monks sought to extinguish the growing discontent of the serfs against the masters with the help of a "godly cause" - the crusades.
Behind the holy fool (mentally ill) shepherd boy Etienne were clever churchmen. It was not difficult for them to teach him to do the "miracles" prepared in advance. The crusading "fever" seized tens of thousands of poor children, first in France and then in Germany. The fate of the young crusaders was very deplorable. 30 thousand children followed the shepherd Etienne.
They passed Tours, Lyons and other cities, feeding on alms. Pope Innocent III, the instigator of many bloody wars under the religious banner, did nothing to stop this insane campaign. On the contrary, he said: "These children are a reproach to us adults: while we sleep, they are happy to speak up for the Holy Land."
Not a few adults joined the children on the way - peasants, poor artisans, priests and monks, as well as thieves and other criminal rabble. Often, these robbers took food and money from the children that the surrounding residents gave them. The crowd of crusaders, like a rolling avalanche, increased along the way.
Finally, they reached Marseilles. Here everyone immediately rushed to the pier, expecting a miracle: but, of course, the sea did not part before them. But there were two greedy merchants who offered to transport the crusaders across the sea without any payment, for the sake of the success of the "work of God." The children were loaded onto seven large ships. Off the coast of Sardinia, off the island of St. Perth, ships were caught in a storm. Two ships, along with all the passengers, sank, and the other five were taken by shipbuilders to the harbor of Egypt, where inhuman shipowners sold the children into slavery.
At the same time, 20 thousand German children embarked on a crusade with the French children. They were carried away by a 10-year-old boy named Nikolai, taught by his father to say the same thing as Etienne. Crowds of young German crusaders from Cologne moved south along the Rhine. With difficulty, the children crossed the Alps: from hunger, thirst, fatigue and disease, two-thirds of the children died; the rest of the half-dead reached the Italian city of Genoa. The ruler of the city, deciding that the arrival of such a multitude of children was nothing other than the intrigues of the enemies of the republic, ordered the crusaders to immediately get out. The exhausted children went on. Only a small part of them reached the city of Brindisi. The sight of the ragged and hungry children was so pitiful that the local authorities opposed the continuation of the campaign. The young crusaders had to return home. Most of them died of hunger on the way back. According to eyewitnesses, the corpses of children were lying uncleaned on the roads for many weeks. The surviving crusaders turned to the pope with a request to release them from the vow of the crusade. But the Pope agreed to give them a reprieve only for a while until they reach adulthood.
Some scientists tend to consider the terrible page in history - children's crusades to be fiction. In fact, the children's crusades were, not a legend. Many chroniclers of the 13th century tell about them, who compiled their chronicles independently of each other. The children's crusades were the result of the calamities of the working people and the pernicious influence of religious fanaticism, which the Catholic churchmen in every possible way fanned among the people. They were the main culprits in the mass death of the young crusaders.