Catholic Thought discussion

Final stretch! Thank you for making it this far with us! I know I have really enjoyed this book. Will comment further soon!!!

Leslie

Chapter 19 “The Pope, Judge of Kings” (1073-1085)

The new reformer Pope Gregory VII set about to establish his relationship with the kings. German emperor Henry IV grew to adulthood and surprisingly despite his mixed education from different influences at first showed proper respect for the pope. Pope Gregory worked to eradicate simony and appointment of bishops by noblemen.

Henry IV took a turn against the pope and outright revolted and Pope Gregory excommunicated him. Carroll’s chapter describes an adventure story of how a repentant Henry traveled over the Alps with his wife and child in winter to ask the pope for forgiveness. The German diet however deposed King Henry IV and appointed another which caused a civil war 1077-1080. Henry disobeyed the pope again and Pope Gregory excommunicated him again.

Pope Gregory VII in the later years of his papacy had great struggles with Henry IV, other Germans, and Normans. Some of these from the point of view of present time seem dubious with the recognitions, withdrawal of recognition, sanctioning warfare are actions that Carroll calls “political blunders (p. 511). Carroll also defends him with “what else he could have done” (p. 510).

We go back to Spain and complicated dealings, betrayals, and new wars involving new converts to Islam, black Moslems from Africa, a controversial king Alfonso VI and El Cid.

Chapter 20 “The Cross to Jerusalem” (1085-1100)

The first third of this chapter is history Spain involving the time of El Cid during the last quarter of the 11th Century. It’s Christians fighting the Moslems, Moslems fighting other Moslems even. These struggles involve mostly the Northern half of Spain from Valencia to Toledo.
Then the chapter moves to the First Crusade. Carroll makes a good point that Christians of Europe, North Africa, and what we now call the Middle East had been under attack for 450 years. The First Crusade which began in 1095 was not an act of “unprovoked Christian aggression. Up to this time all the aggression had been Muslim” (p. 529). There were still hundreds of thousands of Christians living in Moslem occupied lands.

The First or the “People’s Crusade” was an amateur conglomeration despite the good efforts. It was without leadership and easy target for experienced Moslem warriors. Carroll describes the many different groups and leaders who marched and sailed towards the Byzantine Empire. It was followed by a real army from France. Emperor Alexis was naturally very suspicious as it wasn’t very long previously that some of the Western Christians fought Byzantium but the two sides reached an agreement. The Crusaders proceeded East in what is today Turkey, taking Nicaea first, then towards Antioch which was what is now Southernmost Turkey near the Mediterranean during spring and hot summer of 1097. It took about a year to take and establish possession of Antioch. Bohemond emerged as the leader of the Crusades. He was son of French Norman Robert Guiscard, and Alberada of Burgundy. But after Antioch was taken a dispute arose over the course of action between Bohemond and rival dominant Crusade leader Raymond of Toulouse. This led to much trouble in proceeding to Jerusalem.

Bohemond and his army defected, stayed in Antioch, and a much smaller Crusade army under Raymond marched barefoot, as pilgrims, toward Jerusalem in the winter of 1099. By June the 1200 knights and perhaps 12,000 foot soldiers reached Bethlehem first. They took Jerusalem and in an un-Christian way sacked the Moslem population on July 15th.