Dark Ages
The period of dark compared to the brightness of ancient Rome and Greece. The church invented the monastery to preserve the Christian culture been under the later Roman Empire.
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The picture on this page: A crusader castle at Sidon, near Beirut in Lebanon.
Crusades (wars of the cross)
In the eleventh century Christians grew worried when the Turks conquered Palestine and captured Jerusalem (1076). The Turks were Muslims, and stopped Christian pilgrims from traveling to the Holy Land. When the Emperor of Constantinople asked the Pope for help against the Turks, Pope Urban II called a great Council at Clermont in France (1095). He promised pardon for sins to all Christians who would go to fight the Turks, and so the Crusades “wars of the cross” began.
All sorts of men went on the Crusades. Knights loved fighting and hoped to win glory and lands. Poor people wanted a change from their lives of toil in the fields. All Crusaders felt they were fighting for God. They wore a cross for their badge and shouted 'Deus Vult' (God wills it) as their battle-cry.
There were eight Crusades in all. The most successful was the First Crusade (1096-1099). Jerusalem was captured and Christian kingdoms were set up in the lands which had been won. In 1187 the Turks took back Jerusalem. This led to the Third Crusade (1190-1192). This was the most exciting Crusade, for among those who joined it was King Richard the Lionheart, the most famous soldier in Europe. Richard recaptured Acre but could not take Jerusalem, for the Turks also had a great and clever leader named Saladin. The later Crusades were not important. The Crusaders lost their zeal and began to quarrel among themselves. The Turks were skillful fighters and were not easily beaten.
Meanwhile, some Christian knights formed themselves into Military Orders (called Templars and Hospitallers). They took vows like monks and lived in the Holy Land. There they built great castles with large round towers and thick walls. Their task was to help pilgrims and defend them from the Turks.
Europeans learned much from the Turks. They brought back spices and sugar and found out how to make paper and fine silk. They learned, more about mathematics and astronomy which the Turks had learned from the Chinese and the Arabs. Above all, Europeans and Turks learned to respect each other's courage and ideas.
