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The history of the Crusades has long being a debatable issue among historians of the Middle Ages, from contemporary times until nowadays. The background of such a movement is quite interesting if one takes into consideration the long lasting conflicts between the Pope and the European leaders and the relations between East and West which since the 4thc had been rather unstable. The authority of the Pope, the schism of the church, the invasion of the Germanic Tribes had rendered the relations between the East and the West rather "hostile". Apparently, the Emperor of the Byzantine Empire wanted to regain the old glory of the Roman Empire but on the other hand the rising power of the Pope and the Western European rulers rendered his efforts unsuccessful. If such were the circumstances, how did then Alexius Comnenus asked the Pope to "help" him in order to defeat the Arabs? Was it a political movement or a desperate request? If either was the case, the reaction of the Pope appears to be peculiar. What was the motive that led him to "assist" the Byzantines? never before had he been any concern about the situation of the Christian world in the Byzantine territories. Rome was far away and the papacy had been occupied with several problems the last years, as a result it looked rather difficult for the Pope to be engaged with the Eastern religious or even political problems. Taking in consideration all the above subjects, this paper is going to examine in detail the causes of the first and the second crusade, the motive of the Pope and the other western rulers to "help" Byzantines. In addition, the contribution of the monastic orders to the organization of the crusades and the establishment of the crusader states will be further analyzed. Finally the paper will close with a critical analysis of the information stated .

Around the second half of the 11th century, the Byzantine Empire was ruled by Alexius Comnenus. Back then the Emperor had managed to stabilize and secure the frontiers; he had expelled the Normans from the Balkans and had achieved in stopping the advances of the Turks towards the Byzantine territories. He had not though been able to reconquer the territories that the Turks had occupied in past times. On the other hand he had to protect the Danube border, as well as to assure that the Normans will not attempt for another time to invade the Balkans. The situation was even worst in the area of Asia Minor where Byzantium had lost a large number of lands and only kept some coastal areas with a small military force compared to the armies of the hostile neighboring states. Thus, facing all the above threats, the Byzantine Emperor, decided to appeal to the Pope for mercenary supplies. (Brundage, p. 14-15 ) In 1095 he sent a Byzantine Embassy at Piacenza, where a council of bishops was taking place.

At the council of Piaceza the Byzantine legates were allowed to demonstrate their appeal in an open meeting. There, they emphasized the religious aspect of their appeal, which implied that Christians of the West had as their duty to liberate the Holy places and relief their fellow Christians from the Muslim burden. They also added that the presence of Turkish armies near the borders of the eastern empire was not only a threat for the Byzantines but also for the whole Christian world . The first move had been completed. The European leaders were presented with an appealing offer to go and fight for their religion and the protection of their fellow Christians.

When the council ended the Pope headed towards France were he called another Council of bishops- the Council of Clermont on 18 November. In this council the Pope gave a speech in which he exposed his arguments about the reasons why the European leaders had to go to the East and fight against the Arabs and the Muslims in order to liberate the Holy Places. Descriptions about the miserable living conditions and the persecution of the Christians in Jersualem were overemphasized, in order to achieve the goal of a Crusade. ( Norwich, 1995, p. 31-32 ) . If one attempts to study his speech he will find out that all the sentences and the words that the Pope used such as "....The Persians have taken some of these Christians as captives into their own country; they have destroyed others with cruel tortures......" or "Who is to revenge all this , who is to repair this damage, if you do not do it? You are the people upon whom God has bestowed glory in arms, greatness of spirit, bodily agility and the courage to humble the Proud locks of those who resist you "( Brundage, 1962, p. 18-19), are carefully selected so as to appeal to the audience and have as a consequence an immediate result. However , this was not the kind of help that the Byzantine Emperor had imagine, he had asked for a supply in his mercenaries forces not the organization of a crusading movement. Somehow, he feared now that the huge masses that were mobilized under the Pope's appeal , were not going to be so much helpful and beneficial to the Empire but to the West. Nonetheless he had but to accept and cooperate with them.

Despite the worries of the Byzantine Emperor the first Crusade turned out to be a success. In June 1097 Nicaea was captured, in July the Seljuck Turks were defeated in Dorylaeum Anatolia, in June 1098, Antioch was occupied and finally in July 1099 Jerusalem fell to the hands of the Latins. The whole Muslim population of Jerusalem was massacred and the Jews living there were burnt. But the Crusaders had achieved their goal, the victory was on their side and they felt proud and good Christians about that. (Norwich, 1995, p. 42-43 ).

From then on as the rule of the Latins was secured in the above mentioned states, and some territories of Asia Minor were given back to the Byzantines, it was believed that the whole affair was settled down and that only a few reinforcement of the local armies would be needed temporarily. In vain, around 1100s AD , Edessa, a territory ruled by Latins, in Asia Minor , was besieged by the Muslims. The news reached Pope Eugenius III in autumn 1145 AD. He organized , at the beginning a crusade in which only the French King Louis VII, was supposed to participate. At that time the best disciplined soldiers were the French, for this reason the Pope believed that a single official French crusade would be better for any other multinational one. Eventually, this crusading movement was enriched by the German army, which despite its big number was not as good in quality as the French army. The third force that joined the second crusade was a group of fishermen and sailors who attempted to sail from the Kentish ports through Gibraltar to the Outremer. All the three groups were unsuccessful. Germans were exhausted and were defeated due to their undisciplined army . French were engaged in internal family conflicts and finally the ships which carried those fishermen and sailors were sunk. The second crusade had perhaps achieve nothing important except that it increased the hatred between the French and the Byzantines. ( Duggan, 1963, p. 107-120 ).

Having concluded the brief historical overview of the first and the second crusade, we focus now on the causes of the crusading movement. Two major categories can separate the causes: Those that refer to the situation in Europe and the motives of the European leaders to go and fight in a place such far away from the motherland ( Political Causes ), and those that led the Pope to organize such a universal mobilization. What were his motives? Where they purely religious or political as well ?

To begin with, during the year 1000 AD, in Europe it is observed a slight but steadily increasing trend of overpopulation. Food and shelter were no longer enough to supply the European population. People felt the need to expand and spread in other places. An opportunity for that was the occupation of territories in Asia Minor and the subsequent establishment of European Families within them. The second cause- which in a way is the effect of the overpopulation phenomenon in ruling families- was the fact that several times there were many sons in a ruling family. Initially, the first inherited the title and the second went to a monastery. What about the rest? A crusade was a good opportunity for them to conquer and establish their authority without having to fight with their brothers for their father's land. The third reason is the economic benefits of the European "countries". This reason mainly refers to the Italians. Accordingly, the Genovesians, the Pisans and the Venetians joined the crusades in order to expand their commercial exchanges and enrinch their treasury. Their ambitions were clearly economic ones, their interest was the expansion of trade across the Outremer and trade with the Muslims. ( Murphy, 1974, p. 12-13 ).

As we can see, under the above analysis, a crusade , practically speaking, could solve many problems for those times. Apart from the religious incentives that the Pope had promised to the Europeans , a crusade opened the road to the East, and allowed the Westerners to take the monopoly of the Eastern trade from the Byzantines, and by that reducing the commercial power of the Byzantine Empire.

On the other hand , it is obvious that the Pope and the church reinforcement, played an important role in the organization of the crusading movement. In order to understand better the causes which led the Pope to organize Holy expeditions to the East, it is interesting to examine certain events which in a way prepared the ground for the crusading movement.

To begin with, an important issue which preoccupied a series of Popes, was the Investiture Controversy. The whole conflict took place mainly between the Pope and the Emperor of Germany (HRE). In few words, the debate was based on the question of who was going to appoint the bishops of Germany and North Italy, the Pope or the Emperor. After having witnessed a number of excommunications and conflicts it was decided under the Emperor Henry IV and the Pope in the Concordat of Worms in 1122 that the bishops in Germany would be appointed by the Emperor and the appointment would be ratified by the Pope and the opposite for the bishops of North Italy. (Mayer, p. 2 )

The effects and the consequences of such an issue are reflected in the preaching of the First Crusade. In particular, out of this event it was clear that the Pope wanted to impose a secular rule apart from the already established religious rule. On the other hand, the ruler of the HRE was not willing to allow such a political system. As a consequence a clash was brought in surface. This religious and political instability, in the sense that it was not clarified which were the real powers of the Pope, brought a chaos in the society of the Middle Ages. The Pope tried to take advantage of this uncertainty, by the appeal of the Emperor Alexius I, and in order to appear as a secular ruler, he tried to impose the Crusades. By being the Chief organizer, "Chief author of the expedition"(p29,Riley-Smith), he was able to appear as a ruler superior to all other secular rulers. In several cases, he even impose a crusade (King of France-Louis VII ). It seems that he used his religious authority to overcome the humiliation that had been caused upon him during the conflict of the Investiture. It appeared that he wanted to regain his prestige as the chief ruler, superior to everybody, just below God. This issue, consists in my opinion Pope's primary incentive in initiating the crusading movement.

The second, equally important cause were the benefits of the Pope in intervening and controlling the eastern Orthodox church which at that time was a weak institution. With a possible unification of the two churches under his authority , he could achieve to influence politics in both East and West. Out of our sources , we know that around 1090 a treatise, conducted by archbishop of Bulgaria, was concluded between Alexius and the Pope. In order to avoid the discussion of certain critical theological issues, the archbishop excused the acceptance of the use of the term "filioque" to the "poverty of the latin language". He could not realize that the Pope's subsequent step was to "rule"(control) over the Orthodox Church. For him, it seemed natural for the two churches to follow a united path. What he had not noticed though was that, this "united path" would be under the guidance of the Pope. (Runciman,1964, p. 103 )

The pope had managed to secure an agreement under which he appeared as the Common Superior religious ruler over the two churches, he moved on, 5 years later, to the organization of the crusading movement. The letters between him and Alexius unfortunately were not preserved but out of recorded contemporary documentation one can guess that the Pope should have been promised something in return, in order to preach the crusade. Never before had he been concerned about the Christian world in the East. Consequently it is evidently assumed that some kind of religious superiority should have been granted to him by the Byzantine Emperor Alexius Comnenus.

The last issue which is discussed in this paper concerns the Military Orders and their contribution in the formation of the Crusading states. When the first Crusade ended and the conquest of Jerusalem was completed, the problems of the defense of a single western state in the East arose. The Byzantine Empire could not assist the "newly" created states neither militarily nor by all means, economically. Thus the burden of the military defense of Jerusalem and the surrounding Latin states was left to the Western Europeans.

At the beginning a small force of knights was established, in order to protect the people and to guard and keep open the public roads. Under king Baldwin, a house was granted to the them near the Temple of Jerusalem (from which their name was derived-Templars ). The above small pact became a formal association when the Knights took a vow before the Patriarch of Jerusalem, following the monastic principles of poverty, obedience and chastity. Once, their institution begun to have a more clear mission; it was made clear that their existence in Palestine confined both the religious and the military duties. They were the "poor Knights of Christ" as they usually presented themselves. They were , by all means, a military Order , an institution which base was religious but used the war in order to protect its pilgrims from the Infidel. Their rule was officially determined by two papal documents, one at the Council of Troyes in 1128AD and another by Pope Innocent II in 1139 AD. By those times they were called Templars and remained in history under this name.

The first clear offensive attitude did not happen not until 1147 with the coming of the Second Crusade. It was then that the treat of a Muslim reoccupation was very close, they had to fight against the Infidel in order to protect the Holy Lands. The movement of the Templars inspired other groups of people as well. One of them was the knights of the Hospital of St. John the Baptist, who remained in history under the name of Hospitalliers. Their original goal was to provide health care for the pilgrims in Jerusalem. ( Barber, 1974, p. 226-230 ). In several documents their action was regarded as simple charity. There was at least at the beginning little indication of any military activity.

Little by little though, we have some evidence of defensive militaristic campaigns. In 1143 AD they were granted a large number of horses, used usually for war. Moreover in 1142 until 1144 they had a military arrangement with Raymond of Tripoli , in order to defeat the Muslims. (Forey, 1994, p. 77-81). Around 1170 AD a traveler recorded that the Hospitalliers , on the one hand were hospitalizing many people in their castles but also on the other hand they were " instructed in all arts of war, for the defense of the lands of the Christians against the incursions of the Saracens.". Between 1150 and 1180 , the warlike activities increased rapidly, contributing in this way in the general defense of the Christians of the Outremer against the Muslims. (Barber, p. 230-232 ).

Having established its power, the Order several times by then acted against the privileges of the latin rulers of Jerusalem. Often, in order to survive, it was more profitable for them to ally with a strong power. The Frankish kingdoms of that time were very small and weak. The Muslims, on the other hand , was a powerful nation. Consequently, the Military Orders prefer to rely upon the Muslims, than upon the Frankish rulers. This was the first indication of the Decline of the Military Orders. Little by little, their initial goal faded, they were no longer completely fighting against the Infidels. The foreigners for them were the crusaders, and it appears that often they did not welcome their involvement. One explanation for such an attitude could be the fact that the Orders felt attached to their places. They had spent years in the Outremer, trying to put an order in the life of the people (Christians or Muslims ) ; The coming of the crusaders often disturbed and upset the life of those people, and sometimes the Orders had to work harder in order to reestablished stability among the people of the Outremer. ( Barber, p. 235-237).

Taking into account all the above discussion on the First and the Second crusade, as well as the contribution of the Military Orders in establishing and defending the Latin states of the east, one can easily draw a number of conclusions concerning the Crusading movement. First of all there is clear evidence that the first crusade was not a sudden phenomenon; the political and religious conflicts of the issue of the Investiture Controversy, the overpopulation trend of the first hundred years of the 11th century, the continuous religious conflicts between the East and the West, lay the path of a general European mobilization under the authority of the Pope. Moreover, it is interesting to see that in this whole upheaval , there was no consideration of what to do with the conquered state afterwards, as a result the appearance of the Military Orders came as a solution to this problem of defense. Initially, the Military Orders were one of the most important sources ( if not the only ,in several cases) of manpower. Apart from their military and religious activities, they also took care of educating the people and providing the necessary medical services whenever it was needed. Little by little though they started feeling a sense of belonginess , they were members of the society of those places, consequently they cared more than any other ambitious latin ruler who came as a conqueror, and whose only concern was to fight and win over the Muslims. This unwelcome attitude, resulted in the failure of the crusades that will follow and the Decline of the Military Orders as an institution.

The first crusade had proven a successful movement. But one after the other the later crusades would fail to meet their goals, initiating in this way a period of long lasting conflicts which will have its climax on the conquest of Constantinople in 1204 AD, under the 4th Crusade. In this paper we have tried to show how the problems with the organization of the First and the Second Crusades begun. We have also proven that the rise of the Military Orders might have appeared as a solution but it was a temporary one. The troubles multiplied and what seemed to be initially a "divine" gift will ended up causing more troubles than it could solve. Thus, we can conclude that on the one hand the Military Orders provided a great assistance to the organization of the Crusader states of the Outremer but gradually they distinguished themselves from the official Western European policy and acted according to their "personal" estimations.

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