Unit 2: Religion: Consensus and Conflict

1. Unit 2: Religion: Consensus and Conflict Christianity

2. Christianity

3. The Importance of Jerusalem For the Jews: - Capital city of Judea after the return from Babylonian exile. - The site of the ancient temple built by King Solomon.

4. The Importance of Jerusalem For Christians: • Jesus Christ was crucified by the Romans outside Jerusalem.

5. The Importance of Jerusalem For Muslims: • Muslims believe that the prophet Muhammad made his night journey into the Heavens from Jerusalem and that Jerusalem would be the site on which the Resurrection would take place on the Last Day. • After Mecca and Medina, it is the holiest city in Islam.

6. I. The Faith • Born in Nazareth – the Holy Land. • His birth is believed by Christians to be the fulfillment of prophecies in the Jewish Old Testament which claimed that a Messiah would deliver the Jewish people from captivity. • From the age of 29-30: spent three years teaching, healing and working miracles.

7. I. The Faith • “Christians” began separating themselves as a faith distinct from Judaism when: 1. Paul, a Jew who originally rejected the idea of Jesus as the son of God, converted and spread Jesus’s message. (executed by Roman authorities – 65 CE) 2. The Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE.

8. II. Persecution and Struggle:The Death of Jesus Christ • Jesus’ popularity among the people of Palestine was growing. • He rode into Jerusalem on a donkey and was mobbed by supporters. • The next day he raided the Temple, the heart of the Jewish religion, and attacked money-changers for defiling a holy place. • Shortly after, Jesus was arrested….why? Who did he threaten?

9. II. Persecution and Struggle:The Death of Jesus Christ • Jesus threatened the authority of Jewish religious leaders - by criticizing some of their practices, he was winning over many followers - Joseph (Caiaphas), the Jewish leader of the Sanhedrin and High Priest of the Temple in Jerusalem, felt his authority threatened by Jesus. - the Sanhedrin was the Jewish council that controlled civic and religious laws in Palestine

10. II. Persecution and Struggle:The Death of Jesus Christ - Caiaphas owed his position as leader of the Sandhedrin to the Romans. He needed to keep order in Palestine if he as to keep their support. • Caiaphas did not want to be humiliated by Jesus in Jerusalem during Passover when the city was packed with Jewish pilgrims. - He had Jesus arrested and put on trial by the Sanhedrin.

11. II. Persecution and Struggle:The Death of Jesus Christ 2. Jesus was a threat to Roman imperial authority: - Pontius Pilate, the Governor of Judea, owed his career to the Roman imperial authorities. His job was to keep the peace in his province. - He had only 6,000 troops to keep the peace in Jerusalem which had a population of 2.5 million Jews during Passover. - Since the Jewish religious authorities wanted to see Jesus dead, Pilate sacrificed him to preserve Roman rule and his own career.

12. Jesus on Trial

13. II. Persecution and Struggle:The Death of Jesus Christ • Caiaphas rigged the trial and violated some key rules that applied to Jewish trials: 1. It was night – Jewish trials had to take place during the day. 2. It took place on a feast day which was prohibited. 3. It took place in Caiaphas’s house – it should have been conducted in the council chambers

14. II. Persecution and Struggle:The Death of Jesus Christ • Caiaphas got Jesus to claim that he was the son of God. He accused Jesus of blasphemy. The Sanhedrin agreed and ordered Jesus to be put to death. 2 PROBLEMS: 1. The Sanhedrin DID NOT have the authority to execute 2. Blasphemy against the God of the Jews WAS NOT a crime under Roman Law.

15. II. Persecution and Struggle:The Death of Jesus Christ • Caiaphas altered Jesus’s claim from being the son of God to being the King of the Jews which was a crime of sedition against Rome punishable by death. • Jesus refused to respond to Pilate’s question of if he thought he was the King of the Jews. • Pilate did not believe Jesus was guilty, a threat to Roman authority, or a revolutionary. • Pilate announced that Jesus was innocent. The mob that gathered outside called for Jesus’s crucifixion.

16. II. Persecution and Struggle:The Death of Jesus Christ • Pilate offered a choice allowed during the “Passover Amnesty”: - execute a convicted murderer Barabbas or Jesus • The crowd chose Jesus. • Pilate was thought to have committed suicide in 37 CE – not long after Jesus was crucified.

17. Jesus Questioned by Pontius Pilate

18. Jesus: Crucifixion and Resurrection • New Testament account of Jesus trial and crucifixion: John 18:1 - 19:24.

19. II. Persecution and Struggle • Roman persecution of Christians: - 64 CE - Nero - 303 CE - Diocletian

20. III. The Spread of Christianity • 313 CE - Emperor Constantine converts to Christianity - Proclaims official tolerance of all religions • 391 CE - Emperor Theodosius makes Christianity the official religion in Rome.

21. III.Spread of Christianity

22. III.Spread of Christianity • For the most part, Christianity spread through Europe peacefully. - Exception: Charlemagne’s conquest of the Saxons. - The wars lasted from 772-804. They were characterized by forced conversions, deportations, and massacres. - 4,500 Saxons were executed by Charlemagne in Verden

23. III.Spread of Christianity “If any one of the race of the Saxons hereafter concealed among them shall have wished to hide himself unbaptized, and shall have scorned to come to baptism and shall have wished to remain a pagan, let him be punished by death.” - from Charlemagne’s “The Capitulary for Saxony”

24. III.Spread of Christianity “If any one shall have formed a conspiracy with the pagans against the Christians, or shall have wished to join with them in opposition to the Christians, let him be punished by death; and whoever shall have consented to this same fraudulently against the king and the Christian people, let him be punished by death.” - from Charlemagne’s “The Capitulary for Saxony”

25. III.Spread of Christianity

26. IV. Holy War: Christians Against the “Others” • The Crusades • The “Reconquista” – Spain • The Conquistadors and Christianity in South America

27. IV. Holy War: The Crusades The Crusades were launched in 1095 by Pope Urban II at the Council of Claremont. Why…? • Retake the Holy Land and other Christian areas from the Muslims • Stop the spread of Islam, especially into Christian territory 3. Byzantine Emperor Alexis asked for the Pope’s help to fight against the growing Seljuk Turkish threat

28. IV. Holy War: The Crusades Reason # 1: 1071 – Seljuk Turks defeated the Byzantine Army at Manzikert. * 1085 - Seljuk Turk conquests of Antioch, Syria. - Antioch was one of the most important Christian cities in the Eastern Orthodox Byzantine Empire

29. IV. Holy War: The Crusades Reason # 1: Stories of Muslim persecution of Christians and of harassment of Christian pilgrims to Jerusalem. - 1009-1010: Fatimid (Egyptian Shiite) caliph al- Hakim’s destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulcre in Jerusalem.

30. IV. Holy War: The Crusades Reason #2: Approximately two-thirds of the ancient Christian world had been conquered by Muslims by the end of the 11th century: - Palestine, Syria, Egypt, parts of Anatolia (Turkey)

31. IV. Holy War: The Crusades Reason #3: The growing military threat of the Seljuk Turks to the Byzantine Empire. * Problem for the Christians: in 1054 the Eastern Orthodox and Catholic Church’s split. No longer one Christian Church. * Pope Urban II accepted the request from Alexis for help. It was a way for him to be recognized as the main authority in the Christian world.

32. Pope Urban II Speech at the Council of Claremont: The Problem • “For your brethren who live in the east are in urgent need of your help, and you must hasten to give them the aid which has often been promised them. For, as the most of you have heard, the Turks and Arabs have attacked them and have conquered the territory of Romania [the Greek empire] as far west as the shore of the Mediterranean and the Hellespont, which is called the Arm of St. George. They have occupied more and more of the lands of those Christians, and have overcome them in seven battles. They have killed and captured many, and have destroyed the churches and devastated the empire. If you permit them to continue thus for awhile with impurity, the faithful of God will be much more widely attacked by them.”

33. Pope Urban II Speech at the Council of Claremont: The Solution • “On this account I, or rather the Lord, beseech you as Christ's heralds to publish this everywhere and to persuade all people of whatever rank, foot-soldiers and knights, poor and rich, to carry aid promptly to those Christians and to destroy that vile race from the lands of our friends. I say this to those who are present, it meant also for those who are absent. Moreover, Christ commands it.”

34. Pope Urban II Speech at the Council of Claremont: The Reward • "All who die by the way, whether by land or by sea, or in battle against the pagans, shall have immediate remission of sins. This I grant them through the power of God with which I am invested. O what a disgrace if such a despised and base race, which worships demons, should conquer a people which has the faith of omnipotent God and is made glorious with the name of Christ! With what reproaches will the Lord overwhelm us if you do not aid those who, with us, profess the Christian religion!”

35. IV. Holy War: The Crusades Crusade #1 (1095-1099) – Christians win. • Pope Urban II was French. First Crusading army was made up mostly of French. - Muslims referred to Crusaders as “Franks” - Crusaders referred to Muslims as “Saracens”

36. IV. Holy War: The Crusades • Crusader victories led to the creation of “Crusader States” in the Middle East: - Jerusalem (Israel) - Edessa (Turkey) - Antioch (Syria) - Tripoli (Lebanon)

37. IV. Holy War: The Crusades • Reasons for Crusader victory: 1. Highly motivated, fanatical troops – believed they were fighting for God. 2. Muslim disunity - Shiite Egyptian Fatimids caliphate disliked the Sunni Abbasid Caliphate from Baghdad (Arabs). - Arabs disliked the “barbarian” Turks who were later converts to Islam. Seljuk Turks tended to get along better with Sunni Arabs. - Lack of unity among the various Turkish tribes of Anatolia. - At different times, various Muslim armies allied with the Crusaders to defeat their local rivals.

38. The “Holiness” Of Holy War “As we advanced we had the most generous and merciful and most victorious hand of the Almighty Father with us.” - Raymund of Aguiles

39. The Crusaders as God’s “Chosen People” “ It is my belief that, pre-elected by God long before and tested in such a great disaster, they (Crusaders) were cleansed of their sins, just as gold is proven three times and is purged by fire seven times.” - Fulcher of Chartres

40. IV. Holy War: The Crusades Crusader Massacres – First Crusade: • Ma’arrat al Nu’man (Syria) 1098 - Crusaders promised security for the population if they surrendered. Muslim population rejected the terms. - Over the course of three days, between 20,000 and 100,000 people were killed.

41. IV. Holy War: The Crusades “They (the Franks) killed a great number under torture. They extorted people’s treasures. They prevented people from getting water, and sold it to them. Most people died of thirst…They destroyed the walls of the town, burned its mosques and houses and broke the minbars.” - Ibn al-Adin

42. IV. Holy War: The Crusades • "In Ma'arra our troops boiled pagan adults in cooking-pots; they impaled children on spits and devoured them grilled." – Radulph of Caen, Christian soldier • "Not only did our troops not shrink from eating dead Turks and Saracens; they also ate dogs!" - Albert of Aix, Christian soldier • The poorer soldiers "roasted the bruised body of a Turk over a fire as if it were meat for eating, in full view of the Turkish forces." - From the Historia Hierosolymitana, compiled by Guibert of Nogent.

43. IV. Holy War: The Crusades "I shudder to say that many of our men, terribly tormented by the madness of starvation, cut pieces of flesh from the buttocks of Saracens lying there dead. These pieces they cooked and ate, savagely devouring the flesh while it was insufficiently roasted." - Fulcher of Chartres, Bishop and author of A History of the Expedition to Jerusalem

44. IV. Holy War: The Crusades Crusader Massacres – First Crusade: 2. Jerusalem (July, 1099) - “The Franks killed more than 70,000 people in the Aqsa mosque, among them a large group of Muslim imams, religious scholars, devout men and ascetics from amongst those who had left their homelands and lived in the vicinity of that Holy Place.” - Ibn al-Athir

45. IV. Holy War: The Crusades • “They collected the Jews in the “church” and burnt it down with them in it. They destroyed shrines and the tomb of Abraham.” - Ibn Taghribirdi

46. IV. Holy War: The Crusades “Many fled to the roof of the temple of Solomon, and were shot with arrows, so that they fell to the ground dead. In this temple almost ten thousand were killed. Indeed, if you had been there you would have seen our feet colored to our ankles with the blood of the slain. But what more shall I relate? None of them were left alive; neither women nor children were spared.” - Fulcher of Chartres, “The Siege of the City of Jerusalem”

47. IV. Holy War: The Crusades “Some of our men cut off the heads of our enemies; others shot them with arrows, so that they fell from the towers; others tortured them longer by casting them into the flames. Piles of heads, hands and feet were to be seen in the streets of the city. It was necessary to pick one’s way over the bodies of men and horses.” - Raymund of Aguiles

48. IV. Holy War: The Crusades “In the Temple and porch of Solomon, men rode in blood up to their knees and bridle reins. Indeed it was a just and splendid judgement of God that this place should be filled with the blood of the unbelievers since it had suffered so long from their blasphemies.” - Raymund of Aguiles

49. IV. Holy War: The Crusades Crusader views of the Muslims: “They are a vial and abominable race, absolutely alien to God and meet only for extermination.” - Armstrong, pg. 183.

50. IV. Holy War: The Crusades Crusade #2 – (1147-1149) – Muslims win. • Triggered by the Muslim reconquest of Edessa – 1144. • The next Crusade was not just an act of charity and war to win back holy places, it was an act of redemption. – Bernard, Abbey of Clairvaux. • Some Crusaders went to Spain to fight the Muslims there.