Crusades Essay -- Religion, Power Struggles, Christian Church

Power struggles have always been occurrences that have had the ability to plague an entire nation. While evidence of this fact can be seen all throughout history, it is especially evident within medieval times. Specifically, power struggles developed between the Roman church and various groups such as non-believers, Muslims, kings, and even common people all throughout the High Middle Ages. As a result, Christian fighters, known as â€Å"crusades,† were asked to fight for their beliefs by the pope in order to take back land that non-believers lived on as well as eliminate anyone who challenged the authority of the church hierarchy. It was not hard to convince most people to become crusaders and many documents throughout history can show one exactly why this was. Due to the fact that Roman church figures were very good at convincing people of what God wanted, people were easily persuaded by their love for God, hate for infidels as well as heretics, and need to feel noble which convinced them to become crusaders. After the fall of the Roman Empire during the 5th century, the Christian church became very powerful. It owned vast regions of land and played an important role in the economy. The church became so powerful â€Å"that the western church announced its independence from secular rulers and it’s power over them, and it established authority over rulers and commoners alike (Wiesner 172).† People who were not faithful to the Christian church or simply did not believe its people should have that much power were very upset with this shift in authority. Immediately issues occurred as other groups and figures challenged the church for power. First off, it is easy to see that the largest component that drew people to be crusaders was their ... ...God and partly an honorable and brave act that men gained confidence, reward, and importance from joining. After reviewing documents of crusaders it is easy to see that most went to battle because they were easily persuaded to do anything for God, they felt a true hatred for the infidels and heretics, as well as the sense of importance and nobility the soldiers gained from going to battle. Crusades played a major role in the High Middle Ages and even though they were not terribly successful, they still are very famous historical figures. This act of God was to help deal with the internal and external conflict that the Roman Church was having in trying to remain in power. However, it also displays that people of this time were very susceptible to persuasion and even propaganda. This period of time truly emphasizes how far people will go in order to obtain power.