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¶ … Rhineland Massacre: Holy War or Papal Politics?
The Rhineland Massacre of 1096 was one of the first large-scale slaughters of the Jews in the Middle Ages, and was followed by a series of mass genocides in Europe, in which Jews were targeted. Although often discussed within the context of the First Crusade, the Rhineland Massacre was actually part of the Popular Crusade, a prelude to the First Crusade. These crusades, or Holy Wars, were a response by the Christian people of Europe to an appeal for help, given by Pope Urban II on behalf of the Byzantine Emperor, Alexius I Comnenus.
The original appeal was for soldiers to go East to the Holy Land in an effort to take the land from the Arabs and Turks that were claiming it as their own, and claim the land on behalf of the Latin Christendom. However, this appeal for help involved...
In reality, the papal motives were not as "holy" as the reclaiming of land.
In my research paper, I will assess the circumstances leading up to the Rhineland Massacre, and attempt to show that those circumstances led to the attempts by the papacy to drive the Arabs, Turks, and Jews from the lands. In order to fully understand the reasons behind the Rhineland Massacre, I will examine the social, economic, and political environment of Europe during the time immediately prior to the crusades. The examination of these aspects will reveal the true motives of the papacy in relation to the crusade.
This topic fascinates me, in part, because of the nature of the subject itself. The Church, usually referred to as an institution of faith and as "God's Church," should by all rights be…
Bibliography
Primary Sources
Kray, August C. The First Crusade: The Accounts of Eyewitnesses and Participants. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton, 1921.
Riley-Smith, Louise and Jonathan. The Crusades, Ideas and Reality, 1095-1274. Documents of Medieval History 4. Edited by G.W.S.
The shifting perceptions of 1096, particularly when seen against the backdrop of the historical "reality, have much to teach us." The development of the Rhineland Massacres, often looked at in history as a linear first example of official Jewish mass persecution by the Christians, wavers in importance to the modern scholar, as well as the modern Jew and Christian. Was it a warm up for mass persecution, or a warm up
Kilij Arslan, having seen saw how easily his army had defeated the Frank invaders at minimal cost, grossly underestimated at his great cost the much more disciplined and formidable European crusading armies that followed. (McFall 5, "Ill-Fated Crusade....") The Second Wave The 'second wave' of crusaders -- elite contingents of effective military force led by local leaders and knights from different parts of Europe took a little longer to organize and
Crusades Motivating Factors Of the several theories about motivating factors for the Crusades, the most interesting one is that the late eleventh-century people were in the West suffered from anxiety "verging on alarm" related to their salvation.[footnoteRef:1] In fact, the prevailing theory along this line is that Pope Urban II successfully co-opted the collective apprehension of the faithful in his 1095 clarion call.[footnoteRef:2] Urban convinced the people that they could win remission
" In fact, the support of the burghers was critical to the slaughter of the Jews in Mainz, for they unlocked the city gates for the crusaders. Despite the fact that the fortifications around the Jewish population could only protect them so much, no where in Speyer's decree does it say that others would come to their aid in another situation like Mainz. A paper signed by the Bishop can only