This document complicates the standard assertion that the Crusades were a Christian-Muslim conflict and the intention was to return the holy land to Christian rule, because many non-Muslims, including Jews and Christians were killed by the depraved crusaders. Jews, including women and children were unnecessarily, maliciously, and brutally tortured in these savage attacks- with no good reason other than they happened to be in the way, they didn’t believe the same way, and the crusaders just felt like pillaging cities, and killing people. Fellow Christians- Bulgarians and Hungarians- were also mascaraed, as an initial back and forth conflict, which had arisen between the crusaders and the respective group of Christians because of the refusal to sell to them food and clothing, turned into an ugly and vicious war (The Crusades, p 48). In all, thousands of Jews and Christians were killed before the crusaders ever made it to the Byzantine Empire. By the time the peasant army had reached Constantinople few people in the army remained.
Urban’s speech could have led the crusaders to act in the ways outlined by Albert of Aachen because of the promoted values, according to Pope Urban, that could be gained by fighting the crusades for Christ. It was all about gain. First, there was practical value or that of pragmatism: Pope Urban swore that any crusader leaving family or property would have those things overseen by the papacy. Then there was spiritual gain: he used scripture to reference the analogy of leaving loved ones for the sake of Christ- and promised that they would have forgiveness of their sins, and eternal glory. Then there was political value: This was a time of religious fervor, and it was the duty of those who called themselves “Christians” to yield in the aid and help out their fellow brothers and sisters. Those that heeded the call would be recognized with worldly and spiritual honor accordingly (The Crusades p. 40,41). The desire to attain these values probably created a vacuum of ethnocentrism leading the crusaders to actions of contempt and apathy (after all, such facets of deep-seeded belief, including religious fanaticism and ethnocentrism, are at the core of wanton murder such as genocide). The ideology that ‘the ends justifies the means’ is a central theme seen through the lens of these horrific atrocities committed by the crusaders.
Albert Aachen evaluates the crusaders’ anti-Judaism by recapping the events through a moral relativist view. The actions committed by the crusaders were ad lib, savage, and abominable, without remorse or regard for human life, and he makes no small mention of his opinion in regards to it in the text “They killed the women, also and with their swords, pierced tender children of whatever age and sex” (The Crusades p. 52). It’s apparent that Albert of Aachen was affected by these brutal killings and viewed the actions of the crusaders as being morally flawed, and unsound to the cause, though he makes mention it is because of the evil in these crusader’s hearts that these murders were committed. He says, “So the hand of the Lord is believed to be against the pilgrim who had sinned by excessive impurity, and fornication, and slaughtered the exiled Jews through greed of money, rather than the sake of God’s Justice, although the Jews were opposed to Christ" (the Crusades, p. 52). So, it seems as long as the killings are justified in the name of Christ (and for the sake of God’s justice) it is permitted, but for the sake of pure human reason/motivation it is not. This reveals to us that Christians have historically explained events by justifying the nature of their cause to God. In doing so, this takes the responsibility away from those who committed such horrific acts; lifts it right off their backs and instead shoulders it onto God. This is how such atrocious events can historically take place- and yet are deemed justifiable- maybe even necessary or deterministic- by those same people. The thinking seems to be, As long as God permits it (whatever that may be), it’s okay. Such reasoning seems to be at the heart and center of the Crusades, and all religious warfare.