From the 12th century, papacy states commanded or authorized crusades against the Muslims in the near east. The Papacy of papal states referred to the republic of the church states or saint peters. These were the jurisdictions of central Italy over which the pope had sovereignty from 756 to 1870. [1]On the other hand, the crusader states were the feudal polities formed by the Latin catholic leaders of the first crusade after the conquest’s political deception. Thus, research indicates that there is a close relationship between the papacy states and the crusader states. [2]Contemporary chroniclers such as canon lawyers, annalists, and preachers reveal that during the middle age, the Papacy’s command to the crusaders for such crusades beard a critical and profound effect on Christianity in terms of social, religious, and political aspects. Therefore, it is eminent that the links between the crusader states and the papacy states helped develop and foster Europe’s Christian Society. The research indicates that crusaders were huge and elaborately organized while using vast numbers of professional soldiers. Therefore, this discussion provides a clear understanding of the relationship between the Papacy and the Crusader States (1227-1​‌‍‌‌‍‌‍‍‌‌‌‍‌‍‍‌‍‍‍​234). 

[3]The period between 1227 to 1234 was a crucial moment for the pope’s formation of the crusading activity due to the pope had begun to authorize and promote crusades against the heretics for the first time. Therefore, history considers this a significant decision because the Papacy had previously concentrated much of its efforts on authorizing the crusades against the Muslims in Spain and the holy land. [4]In his book “the origin of the idea of crusade (1935), Carl Erdmann argues that since late antiquity, the church had significantly endorsed wards against the heretics, which was an internal threat to the Christian Society than it was for the external Muslims. However, the popes had realized that the notion of such an internal crusade could not attract popular support. Therefore, Carl Erdmann indicates that the crusade’s idea had to be transformed by the Papacy and accorded a new goal for it to the motivating force in history. [5]Thus, this included the recovery of the holy land. [6]The transformation was effectively and successfully achieved because of the revived relationship between the Papacy and the crusaders in transforming the crusading’s objectives.

[7]Furthermore, Carl Erdmann considers a crusade as any form of the holy war authorized by the Papacy. However, the concept of this definition is yet to be accepted and adopted by many crusaders who often argued that for other criteria other than the papal authorization, especially the papal grant and the taking of the vows by the crusaders during the plenary indulgence. Based on the conception, it is fundamental to acknowledge that there was no medieval Latin word for a crusade, which challenges Carl Erdmann’s definition further. [8]Nevertheless, Carl Erdmann’s definition is groundbreaking. It contributes to developing the idea of crusades across Europe authorized by the papacy states, which was quite different from the fundamentally associated holy land crusaders. [9]Moreover, it is revealed that the papacy states were afraid and concerned with the spread of the Cather heresy across Europe. [10]Therefore, they encouraged the 12th century popes to employ the power of crusade that had previously been wielded on the Muslims to push for wars against the European Christian enemies, such as the heretics. Therefore, it is apparent that the papal states significantly took advantage of the crusader’s states to wage wars against their enemies. Thus, the papacy states took advantage of the crusader states’ power to wage wars against their enemies by authorizing the popes to engage the idea of crusade attack and defeat the enemies just like they had used it against the Muslims.

[11]The relationship between the papacy states and the crusader states was furthered by the belief and perception that the Papacy enemies were heretics based on the ancient church teachings. [12]Thus, the Papacy used the crusaders to declare that any person who attempted to seize the prerogative of the roman catholic church, which Christ conferred, was considered a heresy due since their actions tended to abuse Christ himself. Thus, Peter Damian argued using the crusading that a heretic was an individual who set aside the papal privileges and failed to display obedience or desire to seek advice from the apostolic. [13]To a certain, the Christians of the 12th century through Europe viewed the Papacy as the fundamental and the ultimate spiritual authority in the world. Besides, the Papacy was thought to be at the height of the temporal jurisdiction. Besides its ability to exercise lordship over the territories that spread over central parts of Italy, where the crusader states belonged, the popes perceived it worth to directly intervene in various aspects of the secular social and political activities and expect the cooperation of the secular arm, which were the crusaders to defeat the heresy. Decades before the popes authorized for crusades against the heresy, the papacy states predecessors tried to sanction. They authorized wars against the people who were perceived to be the enemies of the church. At the same time, promising or vowing to gain spiritual benefits for the people who fought on behalf of the popes and the church. The Papacy also prescribed similar actions against the routers’ employers and called the faithful to protect and defend the Christians for the remission of their sins. The church also used the crusaders to promise that indulgence for eternal reward and sins to the people who lost their lives in southern France, assuring them the same protections provided to the pilgrims to Jerusalem. The popes revealed that “Indeed we receive under the church’s protection those, who, with the ardor of faith, shall have taken up that labor to fight…just as those who visit the tomb of the Lord.”

However, the popes’ call for the military action involving no suggestion of the crusader states authorization against the heretics within the southern part of France. There is no clear mention of the votive responsibilities, and the apparatus need to take the cross. Research indicates that Alexander III didn’t even consider military actions against the Cather heretics but promised a coercive aspect of the routiers. [14]Unfortunately, it appears to be unlikely because the pope was already campaigning against the heretics. Besides, evidence shows that by the 12th century, fears of the heresy were significantly centered around the caters and the Waldenses. As a result, the third Lateran church had spoken about the increasing participation of the church in the heretics in southern France while the papacy state’s concern about the same issue and other heretical groups was being expressed. The papal concerns were further echoed by the big number of western European clergy members in their sermons, theologians, and the canon lawyers in their respective treatises. [15]The majority of the clerics’ biggest concern was that Christianity was probably going to be undermined by the growing number of heretical doctrines. [16]Simultaneously, the popes were looking to limit and prevent more damage to Christianity by chasing the policy of deliberately and willingly encouraging the heretics incorporation in the church while also using the crusaders to condemn the heresy for the continued pursuance of the doctrines and beliefs. However, the Cather heresy remained radical and opposed Christianity in its absolute dualist nature.

[17]While the secular legislation and ecclesiastical debates against the heretics persisted in the mid of the 12th century, the Christian Society decisively became accustomed to the consistent and frequent papal demands and called for crusades against the Muslims. [18]At this time, the Urban 11 had already preached in the first crusade, leading to continued crusades to the near east. [19]Even though families or members of the families had not attended the crusades, most Western Christians had already learned of the tales about the crusader states and the role of the military in protecting the pilgrimage areas and ensuring the survival of the Latin presence in Christ’s places and passion. Therefore, when the popes authorized fresh crusaders, they often started their letters by recounting the present, disastrous, and near East situation. This was to display the crusaders’ solidarity to the world in defeating the Muslims of the near east and their potentials for defeating the aversive effect of the heretics who were determined to beat the impact of Christianity.

Contrary to many people’s expectations, the crusades instigated by the popes against the heretics were quite unfamiliar and unsuccessful to many Christians. However, this later changed under the innocent III. This is because he became more fascinated by the heresy and hoped to define what it meant to be a heretic. Therefore, he strongly believed that heresy would continue to grow unless it got active support and insisted that its supporters were pernicious to many Christians. Eventually, innocent III called for the Albigensian crusade against the heretics in France. Due to his position, other popes started seeking to inspire other Christian faithful to participate in the crusades against the heresy. At this particular juncture, the enemy was not the hated Muslim infidel, who for a long period of time had impeded the pilgrimage and upset the byzantine empire and caused misery in the crusader states as well as retaking Jerusalem. Instead, the hated were the heretical groups that lived in Christian Europe.

The calling for crusades against the popes’ heretics appeared to be the obvious progression to most Christians, including the clergymen and the clerics. This is because they perceived heretical beliefs and practices to be perverted. They viewed heretics to be causing disruption and damaged the temporal and spiritual frameworks of medieval Society. [20]This reveals that the absence of the tradition of crusading against the heretics could be hard for the papacy states to justify and manage to explain the significance of these crusades to Christians as pilgrimages because the Papacy had already done for the crusades of the holy land before. Therefore, it was not surprising that the later popes used the same language: the crusaders when calling for crusades against the new enemy (heretics) as they had always done when facing enemies. [21]Therefore, the call for the crusaders was to reassure the faithful of their similarity in both enterprises. Generally, the above section indicates that the relationship between the crusader states and the papacy states is new. It was a long-established relationship where the Papacy relied on the crusaders for dealing with the confronting enemies. The study shows that the Papacy was using the crusaders to confront their enemies.

In conclusion, this discussion has broadly described the relationship between the papacy states and the crusader states between 1227 to 1234. Their discussion has established that there were close ties between the popes and the crusaders. The study reveals that throughout the 12th century, the popes continued to authorize crusades to the east to attack the Muslims. With the clergy’s support, the Papacy also institutionalized and expanded the idea of crusading against the Muslims and the heretics to comprise the military actions against the heretics. Therefore, the Papacy started an organization for political crusades against its enemies, some of whom were accused of heresy. That is the enemy of the papacy states. However, the popes were not directly responsible for all that took place under the crusade. However, they increasingly attempted to exert centralized regulations and controls over the crusading enterprise and utilized the concept “crusade” to prevent and protect the Latin Christendom’s orthodox purity while defending the papacy states from the temporal enemies.

References

Harris, M.E., 2008. The idea of paradigm in church history: the notion of papal monarchy in the thirteenth century, from Innocent III to Boniface VIII (Doctoral dissertation, University of Birmingham). https://etheses.bham.ac.uk/id/eprint/129/1/Harris08MPhil.pdf

Jones, Bryn. “Welsh contacts with the papacy before the Edwardian conquest, c. 1283.” PhD diss., University of St Andrews, 2019. https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/10023/18284/BrynJonesPhDThesis.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y

Linehan, Peter. The Spanish church and the papacy in the thirteenth century. Flight. 4. Cambridge University Press, 2005. https://books.google.co.ke/books?hl=en&lr=&id=-XVm_gJWb2sC&oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=Linehan,+Peter,+The+Spanish+Church+and+the+Papacy+in+the+Thirteenth+Century+(Cambridge,+1971)&ots=9oOCDB-Jwp&sig=C2TAMn_wahdgWsTUm_VXrGCsFOY&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Linehan%2C%20Peter%2C%20The%20Spanish%20Church%20and%20the%20Papacy%20in%20the%20Thirteenth%20Century%20(Cambridge%2C%201971)&f=false

Logan, F. Donald, Excommunication and the Secular Arm in Medieval England: A Study in Legal Procedure from the Thirteenth to the Sixteenth Century (Toronto, 1968) https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/church-history/article/abs/excommunication-and-the-secular-arm-in-medieval-england-a-study-in-legal-procedure-from-the-thirteenth-to-the-sixteenth-century-by-loganf-donald-studies-and-texts-15-toronto-pontifical-institute-of-medieval-studies-1968-239-pp/59AC497E460F539888DB13B02AE2C088

Lunt, William E., Financial Relations of the Papacy with England to 1327 (Cambridge, MA, 1939) https://search.proquest.com/openview/2040074a431522e50e356ddb97cc362a/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1819329

Mesley, Matthew Michael. “The Construction of Episcopal Identity: The Meaning and Function of Episcopal Depictions within Latin Saints’ Lives of the Long Twelfth Century.” (2009). https://ore.exeter.ac.uk/repository/bitstream/handle/10036/94260/MesleyM.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y

Nicholson, Graham. “The Understanding of Papal Supremacy as revealed in the Letters of Pope Gregory the Great.” Theological Studies 11 (1960): 25-51. https://www.medievalists.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/Understanding-of-Papal-Supremacy.pdf

Rist, R. (2016). The Medieval Papacy, crusading, and heresy, 1095-1291. http://centaur.reading.ac.uk/65562/1/9789004299856%20Rebecca%20Rist%20(2).pdf

Smith, T. W. (2013 Pope Honorius III and the Holy Land Crusades, 1216-1227: A Study in Responsive Papal Government (Doctoral dissertation, University of London). https://pure.royalholloway.ac.uk/portal/files/17744581/2013smithtwphd.pdf

Smith, T.W., 2013. Pope Honorius III and the Holy Land Crusades, 1216-1227: A Study in Responsive Papal Government (Doctoral dissertation, University of London). https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/28904246.pdf

[1] Smith, T. W. (2013). Pope Honorius III and the Holy Land Crusades, 1216-1227: A Study in Responsive Papal Government (Doctoral dissertation, University of London).

[2] Nicholson, Graham. “The Understanding of Papal Supremacy as revealed in the Letters of Pope Gregory the Great.” Theological Studies 11 (1960): 25-51.

[3] Nicholson, Graham. “The Understanding of Papal Supremacy as revealed in the Letters of Pope Gregory the Great.” Theological Studies 11 (1960): 25-51.

[4] Rist, R. (2016). The Medieval Papacy, crusading, and heresy, 1095-1291.

[5] Linehan, Peter. The Spanish church and the papacy in the thirteenth century. Flight. 4. Cambridge University Press, 2005

[6] Harris, M.E., 2008. The idea of paradigm in church history: the notion of papal monarchy in the thirteenth century, from Innocent III to Boniface VIII (Doctoral dissertation, University of Birmingham).

[7] Smith, T.W., 2013. Pope Honorius III and the Holy Land Crusades, 1216-1227: A Study in Responsive Papal Government (Doctoral dissertation, University of London).

[8] Smith, T. W. (2013). Pope Honorius III and the Holy Land Crusades, 1216-1227: A Study in Responsive Papal Government (Doctoral dissertation, University of London).

[9] Rist, R. (2016). The Medieval Papacy, crusading, and heresy, 1095-1291.

[10] Harris, M.E., 2008. The idea of paradigm in church history: the notion of papal monarchy in the thirteenth century, from Innocent III to Boniface VIII (Doctoral dissertation, University of Birmingham).

[11] Smith, T. W. (2013). Pope Honorius III and the Holy Land Crusades, 1216-1227: A Study in Responsive Papal Government (Doctoral dissertation, University of London).

[12] Jones, Bryn. “Welsh contacts with the papacy before the Edwardian conquest, c. 1283.” PhD diss., University of St Andrews, 2019.

[13] Rist, R. (2016). The Medieval Papacy, crusading, and heresy, 1095-1291.

[14] Smith, T.W., 2013. Pope Honorius III and the Holy Land Crusades, 1216-1227: A Study in Responsive Papal Government (Doctoral dissertation, University of London).

[15] Logan, F. Donald, Excommunication and the Secular Arm in Medieval England: A Study in Legal Procedure from the Thirteenth to the Sixteenth Century (Toronto, 1968)

[16] Rist, R. (2016). The Medieval Papacy, crusading, and heresy, 1095-1291.

[17] Lunt, William E., Financial Relations of the Papacy with England to 1327 (Cambridge, MA, 1939)

[18] Smith, T. W. (2013). Pope Honorius III and the Holy Land Crusades, 1216-1227: A Study in Responsive Papal Government (Doctoral dissertation, University of London).

[19] Rist, R. (2016). The Medieval Papacy, crusading, and heresy, 1095-1291.

[20] Mesley, Matthew Michael. “The Construction of Episcopal Identity: The Meaning and Function of Episcopal Depictions within Latin Saints’ Lives of the Long Twelfth Century.” (2009).

[21] Rist, R. (2016). The Medieval Papacy, crusading, and heresy, 1095-1291.