[B-Chan]

Thomas F. Madden is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of History at Saint Louis University. He is author of A Concise History of the Crusades and co-author of The Fourth Crusade.

[Pyro7480]

BUMP!

[Onelifetogive]

He makes the Crusades sound like a spring-break trip to Ft. Lauderdale.

His next book: "The Inquisitions : Brutal Catholic Tyranny or a Marshmallow Roast?"

[Dumb_Ox]

Myth 1: The Crusades were wars of unprovoked aggression against a peaceful Muslim world.

I'm surprised he didn't mention Manzikert.

[RobbyS]

Good, except that I have read somewhere that at the time of the First Crusade Christians were faily numerous in the area. In any case, it is remarkable to me that liberals lack a liberal education.

[Flying Circus]

Bump

[LiteKeeper]

read later

[GirlShortstop]

Myth 1: The Crusades were wars of unprovoked aggression against a peaceful Muslim world.

This is as wrong as wrong can be. From the time of Mohammed, Muslims had sought to conquer the Christian world.

Bump

[TotusTuus]

Christos Voskrese!

BUMP!

Might be helpful to those interested to let them know that the whole issue of Catholic Dossier on www.catholic.net from where this article came from is dedicated to an examination of the Crusades.

[The_Reader_David]

While this article does do well to correct the freethinker's false retelling of the Crusades as proof of the evil of organized religion, it overlooks a number of things.

First, the some of the accusations against the Crusaders do have more basis than the article suggests. While the Fourth Crusade's Sack of Constantinople is well-known, it is generally forgotten that the First Crusade also beseiged the Imperial capital (read The Alexiad of Anna Comnena for details). This attack was plainly motivated not by piety but by the designs of the Norman Kingdom of Sicily against the Empire.

Second, the northern Crusades of the Teutonic Knights, defeated by St. Aleksander Nevsky, when they turned aside from forcible conversion of the Baltic pagans to an attempt to reduce Holy Russia to papal rule, are ignored.

As a result, the article understates the current Pope's apology: his apology to the Orthodox was broad enough to cover not only the Fourth Crusade, but the Seige fo Constantinople during the First, and the attack on Russia by the Crusading Teutonic Knights.

The article is also unfair to Runciman. Runciman was a Byzantinist, one of the first generation of Western European scholars to reject Gibbon's refusal to recognize the continuation of the Roman Empire after the retirement of the last Western Augustus in 476, and to consider the history of the great Christian civilization, which called itself The Roman Empire, and had its capital at Constantinople. It was surely his fondness for his subject, and his familiarity with the way in which the Byzantines (as even Anna Comnema occasionally calls the Romans dwelling in and near Constantinople) regarded the Crusaders (once they arrive) which colored his view.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

"Myth 5: The Crusades were also waged against the Jews."

During the First Crusade the Knights also attacked a city of "Paulicians(heritics)" in Asia.

Before one criticizes the crusades you should all read several different books about them and the culture of the times. It is best to argue from a position of knowledge than from hearsay.