The Crusades... One of the brightest bloody and mysterious pages of history - the story of inhuman courage and inhuman cruelty, religious fanaticism and subtle intrigues, greed and heroism. The fates of the mad Peter the Hermit, the brave Godfrey of Bouillon, the brave Richard the Lionheart and many other liberators of the Holy Sepulcher, whose exploits were sung in ballads and exalted by their contemporaries - and called crimes by their descendants. What was it really like? Science has not yet given a definitive answer to what, over the course of several centuries, motivated the countless armies that rushed to Palestine for the sake of “liberating the Holy Sepulcher.” Sincere faith? Religious fanaticism? Thirst for profit? Dreams of military glory? This book, written very vividly and imaginatively, is similar to an adventure novel, but, nevertheless, it is serious. scientific research, dedicated to one of the most heroic eras in the history of European civilization. Joseph-François Michaud managed to present a wide panorama with true artistry religious wars XI-XIII centuries and did it so voluminously and impressively that even today, in the context of a new round of religious and ethnic cataclysms, his book has not lost its relevance.
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THE CRUSADES AND THEIR HISTORIOGRAPHER JOSEPH-FRANCOIS MICHAUD
Here we, perhaps, will stop Mr. Michaud, so that under our pen his impressive and brilliant narrative does not turn into that “endless and boring story”, fraught with “boring monotony”, against which he himself warns at the end of the thirteenth book.
Michaud is a historian who is extremely passionate about his subject. He once mentioned in passing that, like the commoners in the First Crusade, he was constantly looking for “his Jerusalem,” in other words, the line at which the story should have stopped. And I couldn't find it. The more he delved into the material, the more he was drawn forward - further, further, even further. So in book XIII, speaking about the “Sixth Crusade” as a complete degeneration of the idea, he nevertheless devoted more than one and a half volumes of his five-volume work to further events, most of which are no longer directly related to the Crusades. This, in particular, although with reservations, can be said about the military expeditions of Louis IX, known as the Seventh and Eighth crusades.
Louis IX, King of France (1226-1270), nicknamed "The Saint", was a great reformer who laid the foundations for a strong, centralized monarchy. However, both Crusades led by him by no means belong to the outstanding aspects of his activity; they brought him a crown of martyrdom, but not glory; It is not without reason that a certain historian noted that the only remarkable thing about them is that these are “the campaigns of Louis IX.” Indeed, both of them, being a hopeless attempt to revive a dead movement, have only a relative connection with the Holy Land, since the Seventh Campaign (1246-1250) was sent to Egypt, and the Eighth (1270) to Tunisia, and both, not yielding no results, they turned out to be fatal for their organizer: the Seventh Campaign ended in captivity, from which they had to be ransomed, and the Eighth – in the death of Louis.
It is characteristic that by this time the idea was already so outdated that even the king’s closest associates refused to go on the last Crusade. At the same time, Christians lost the remnants of their colonies in the East. In 1261, the inglorious existence of the Latin Empire ended - the Emperor of Nicaea, Michael Palaiologos, quietly entered the capital of the revived Byzantium, in 1268 the crusaders lost Antioch, in 1289 - Tripoli, and in 1291 the long-suffering Ptolemais, the last stronghold of the crusaders in Palestine, fell. Meanwhile, new forces appeared and new problems arose, very far from the Crusades. Another hurricane swept through the East - the Tatar-Mongols, the warlike and strong state of the Mamelukes grew, in the West there was a consolidation of feudalism and the formation of centralized class monarchies. In a word, a new page of history was on the way, which we are not going to open here. Instead, let us try to determine what the Crusades really were and what was the role of Joseph-François Michaud as their describer and interpreter.
Under the name of the Crusades, modern historiography understands a mass movement of a military-colonization nature undertaken by the European population to the East - to Western Asia and partly to North Africa, and took place from the end of the 11th to the second half of the 13th century.
At the heart of this movement are the most important changes in the field of economics, as well as social and political relations that took place in Western Europe at the specified time. This time begins a new period in the history of the European Middle Ages, usually called the period of developed feudalism (XII-XV centuries). Its prerequisite is the rapid growth of production, improvement of technology, increase in productivity and ultimately the separation of crafts from Agriculture, leading to the formation of a medieval city. All this inevitably leads to an increase in the population of Europe, and hence the tendency to find, occupy and cultivate undeveloped areas: clearing forests and swamps, developing wastelands, establishing new settlements - all these are phenomena of internal colonization, which especially intensified in the second half of the 11th century. Then, along with internal colonization and for the same reasons, external colonization also occurs. Thus, the Normans captured southern Italy and Sicily, founded their colony there, trying to penetrate from here to the Balkan Peninsula. Even earlier, the same Normans founded a colony at the mouth of the Seine, which became the core of the Duchy of Normandy. French knighthood flocked en masse to Spain, where at that time the Reconquista was going on - the reconquest of territory by Christians from the Arabs. And the Italian cities of Genoa and Pisa in the 80s of the same century undertook a number of expeditions to North Africa. All these and similar actions are a manifestation of external colonization, a kind of preparation for the Crusades and, in essence, phenomena of the same order as the Crusades.
In all these enterprises, as in the Crusades themselves, the secular rather than the religious incentive comes to the fore. The thirst for land, the thirst for spoils - this is what primarily pushes the population of Western Europe to the East. This is easy to verify by considering the activities of different social strata that took part in the Crusades.
Let's start with the large feudal lords - princes and barons, leaders of the crusader militias. These gentlemen are going to the East with the clear goal of establishing their own states there. At the same time, they do not necessarily strive to reach Jerusalem for the sake of liberating the Holy Sepulcher; if they manage to capture more or less large holdings along the way, they go no further. Thus, in the First Crusade, which was especially characteristic in this sense, Baldwin separated along the way and, having settled in Edessa, forgot about the general goal of the campaign. He was followed by Bohemond of Tarentum, who captured Antioch and did not move further. And Raymond of Toulouse was going to do the same thing in Tripoli, and only the rebellion of the army forced him to abandon the plan. We see the same thing in the Fourth Crusade with its ephemeral Latin Empire and its associated feudal principalities, who hastened to organize large barons.
Ordinary knighthood acted in the same way, having correspondingly smaller appetites and mainly limiting itself to booty and robbery. The same Michaud has a great many examples. The crusading knights plunder along the way in Europe, and in Constantinople, and in the Turkish possessions, and in Jerusalem - wherever they set foot for a “sacred” purpose. This shouldn't be surprising. The development of feudalism led to the creation of large landowner families, the father often had 10-12 sons who, apart from noble blood, had nothing in their souls; “a long sword and an empty wallet” - this is how such offspring will later be called. These were half-poor and penniless knights, “horseless” ones, as they were called, but what was a knight without a horse like? Let us remember that in the First Crusade the people's militia was led by the knight Walter, nicknamed Golyak, a typical representative of such a group. Not counting on an inheritance, unable to feed themselves at home, such knights went abroad in huge numbers, primarily to places where, according to rumors, they could gain wealth. It should be noted, however, that not only the poorest, but also the middle knighthood, which, in the conditions of the growth of the commodity economy, was constantly ruined and tied up by moneylenders who took up to 80%, looked at the Eastern Campaign, which, by the way, gave a moratorium on debts, as a natural way out and the path to salvation.
Speaking about similar motives that moved feudal lords of various grades to the East, we, of course, will not deny that among them there were unselfish people devoted to the Christian faith, who were inspired by it and acted in the name of God. Such believers (sometimes even to the point of fanaticism) were especially common in the early crusades, while the idea was fresh. The example usually cited is one of the leaders of the First Crusade, Godfrey of Bouillon, “a knight without fear or reproach.” Indeed, Gottfried repeatedly showed himself to be an ideological crusader; he was never involved in the petty feuds of the princes, and he never took advantage of his position for personal gain. Michaud considers Tancred to be just as “ideological,” but not all later historians agree with him here.
Along with barons and knights, cities also took part in the Crusades, primarily the trading centers of Northern Italy. Striving to expand the arena of his actions, the wealthy patriciate of Venice and Genoa realized what enormous benefits a successful advance to the East promised him, where he could, having established his footing, establish trading posts and establish direct relations with Muslim countries. In this regard, it should be noted that the cautious Venetians and Genoese did not immediately join the movement, and moved away from it as soon as they realized that it itself was in a state of crisis and was approaching collapse. The culmination here was the Fourth Crusade, when, at the hands of the crusaders, Venice crushed its rival Byzantium, gaining enormous territorial and economic benefits.
But if it is not difficult to understand the reasons for the participation of large feudal lords, knights and rich townspeople in campaigns, then at first glance it is completely incomprehensible what led the countless crowds ordinary people, above all the peasants who took such a large part in the movement, especially in the First Crusade. To answer this question, it is necessary to take a closer look at the life of the peasant towards the end of the 11th century.
The general rise in production and the growth of the commodity economy that we noted also had its downside: it turned out to be the social stratification that began in the countryside. Many feudal lords, drawn into commodity-money relations in order to obtain a product that could be sold on the market, sharply increased the exploitation of serfs. As a result, many peasants went bankrupt, lost their last, and turned into beggars. This process was exacerbated by local famines and associated epidemics that swept across Western Europe at the end of the 11th century. Here, for example, is the situation during the eight years preceding the First Crusade, as evidenced in the chronicles of that time.
1087 – plague in many areas; panic among the population.
1089-1090 – “fire disease”, which began with a fever and killed within three days; struck Spain and France, where entire villages became extinct.
1090 - a terrible famine that engulfed a number of regions of France and Germany.
1091 – continuation of famine.
1092 – loss of livestock, human mortality; The seeds for sowing have barely been collected from the harvest.
1093 – the chronicles are silent about disasters; visible respite.
1094 – again plague in Germany, France, Holland; in a number of areas there is an epidemic of suicides.
1095 – plague and famine; they are accompanied by popular unrest: arson, attacks by the poor on the rich.
It is not surprising that under these conditions the population saw all sorts of signs in the sky: eclipses, pillars of fire, etc. They expected the end of the world. First, the “Last Judgment” was scheduled for the thousandth year, then for 1033, then for 1066... Life was so full of disasters, both natural and caused by continuous wars, that a peculiar psyche developed - a constant expectation that private catastrophes would merge into one common and the world will perish. And so, the population of villages and estates became accustomed during these disasters, trying to save their lives, to run wherever they could, leaving their homes and looking for new ones. Of course, such a hungry, embittered crowd of “rabble” was capable of any excesses - from robberies to pogroms, as the First Crusade already showed. However, the peasant detachments, who were going to no one knows where and no one knows why, could not live without looting, since, unlike the feudal lords, they did not have food supplies. The poor and oppressed went to the Crusades, dreaming of a better fate and freedom. And since it soon became clear that neither one nor the other would happen, the “rabble” quickly cooled down to the campaigns and did not take part in the latter (after the fourth), as well as the cities, leaving the field of activity to the “nobles.”
These are the general reasons that moved different segments of the population. feudal Europe. It remains to be seen why they were directed specifically to the East, and why precisely at the very end of the 11th century. It would seem that the first of these questions is idle: after all, it was in the East that the Christian shrines were located - Jerusalem and the Holy Sepulcher, which, in theory, were the goal of the campaigns. This is undeniable, but in fact this is not the only issue - and here, as we will see, the problem of purpose is closely linked with the chronological issue.
In the 11th century, the Seljuk Turks appeared in Asia Minor, took possession of the Baghdad Caliphate, inflicted a series of terrible defeats on Byzantium and came almost close to Constantinople, while the Pechenegs began to threaten the Byzantine capital from the West. It seemed that Constantinople had come to an end. Hemmed in within his walls and without a fleet, he could not even communicate with his possessions on the Balkan Peninsula. Given such a desperate situation, the Eastern Empire began to seek help in different parts of Europe. Emperor Alexei Komnenos sends out pleading letters to both Russian princes and Western feudal lords. He describes the hopeless situation of the empire, which is about to be captured by the pagans, who will take possession of the untold riches of the empire. Calling Western feudal lords to Constantinople, Alexei offered them what Byzantium had accumulated over the centuries, so that everything would not go to the infidels. Apparently, such letters, which appeared in the West just at the end of the century, had a strong effect. They were read and discussed, as a result of which a definite goal of disparate movements emerged: a campaign to Palestine through Byzantium and Turkish possessions with the goal, among other things, of taking possession of the riches of the East. And the West has known about these riches for a long time thanks to pilgrims who went to worship holy places.
Catholic Rome played a significant role in organizing the Crusades. The high priests of the Western Church by this time had become serious political force, actually leading the feudal lords. It was not for nothing that the Byzantine emperor, among others, turned to the pope for help: he could not help but support him, since the campaign to the East promised the expansion of church influence and strengthening of authority catholic church. Already the reformer Pope Gregory VII (1073-1085) was preparing to recruit an army against the Seljuk Turks, but the struggle with Emperor Henry IV prevented him from fulfilling this plan. It was carried out by one of Gregory’s successors, Pope Urban II (1068-1099), who called all believers to holy war against Muslims. His speech was very skillfully constructed. Along with heavenly blessings, he promised future crusaders purely earthly ones. Having seduced them with the prospect of rich spoils, he promised benefits on debts, the care of the Church for the families of absent people, and much more. The popes continued to strive to lead the movement. The culmination of their successes was beginning of XIII century, when, as a result of the Fourth Campaign, Innocent III (1198-1216) managed (though not for long) to unite the Latin and Greek churches under his supremacy. The pontificate of Innocent III was the height of success of the papacy. Then it went downhill. The heated struggle with the secular, imperial power coincided with the decline of the crusade movement and, in turn, weakened it.
Among the campaigns themselves, the First and Fourth stand out especially. The first, which united different categories of the population of the West and took place on a huge scale, showed all the strengths and weaknesses of the movement, its successes and failures, the actions of the leaders and ordinary crusaders in different conditions, inconsistency between slogans and actions; in fact, studying this campaign alone is enough to understand the nature of all Crusades. The fourth, which began with a plan for a general attack on the Muslims and resulted in the defeat and plunder of the Christian state - Byzantium, clearly highlights the true essence of the movement when the camouflage cover is torn off from it; this was the beginning of the end, as clearly evidenced by the “Children’s Crusades” that soon took place; Naturally, after all this, only pitiful attempts remained to revive the disgraced movement, which had no future.
What were they anyway? general results Crusades? And were they? Obviously, the campaigns ended in complete failure. They brought incalculable suffering and disasters both to the majority of their participants and to the peoples on whose territory they took place. And yet they were of considerable importance for medieval Europe, accelerating the pace of its social and political development. The mere departure to the East of the most restless elements of the feudal world - and this was accurately noted by Michaud - contributed to the creation centralized states in the West. At the same time, a long stay in the East and acquaintance with its more high economy largely changed the way of life of Western European feudal lords, leading to an increase in their needs, which, in turn, stimulated the rapid development of a commodity economy, the process of transition to cash rent and the liberation of a significant part of the peasants from serfdom. One of the most important consequences of the Crusades was the weakening of Byzantium and the Muslims of the Middle East in Mediterranean trade and the strengthening of the role of European merchants in it - especially Venetian and Genoese. Finally, European countries were undoubtedly influenced by higher eastern technology and culture. Europeans learned many new types of plants, knightly society, previously uncouth and rude, became more polished - the importance and quality of courtly poetry increased, heraldry, tournaments, the cult of serving a lady and much more appeared, which is the specificity of the 13th-15th centuries in the West.
This is how the Crusades, their nature and significance are presented in the light of modern historical science. But what was the role of the French historian Joseph-François Michaud in terms of studying and popularizing this multifaceted and chronologically extended movement?
To understand this, we must first briefly look at the historiography of the Crusades that preceded Michaud.
It began during the movement itself: a number of writers - authors of chronicles - were simultaneously participants in one or another campaign. Their assessment remained unambiguous and had no options. One of these chroniclers, Guibert of Nogent, accurately formulated it in the title of his work: “The Acts of God through the Franks” (Gesta Dei per Francos). Indeed, contemporary writers had no doubt that everything here from beginning to end was the work of God, that the crusaders pursued only one lofty goal - liberation from the infidels of the Holy Sepulcher, and that in order to achieve this goal, all means, including the hecatombs of Jerusalem and Constantinople, were good and are sanctioned from above.
The erudite historiography of the 16th-17th centuries changed little. So the erudite Calvinist Bongar, who collected and began to publish monuments from the time of the Crusades, gave his work the same name: “The Acts of God through the Franks.”
The reaction to this point of view was the 18th century, the Age of Enlightenment. French (and not only French) writers and philosophers of this time ridiculed the idea of the Crusades. For them it was something absolutely incomprehensible, the quintessence human stupidity and medieval barbarism. This is, in particular, how the great Voltaire looked at the Crusades, who did not spare sarcasm against “priestly fanaticism.” It is clear that such a view explained the essence of the Crusades no more than the concept of medieval chroniclers and scholars.
Only the 19th century brought a more capacious and comprehensive attitude to the subject under consideration. At the beginning of the century, the so-called romantic school emerged, and Michaud turned out to be its brightest representative.
His biography is extraordinary. He was born in 1767 in Albana (Savoie) into a wealthy family. In the third year Great Revolution(1791) moved to Paris and, in accordance with his convictions, began to work in the royalist press. Soon he became one of the editors of the famous newspaper Cotidienne. It didn't go unnoticed for him. In 1795 he was arrested, sentenced to death and, miraculously escaping it, for a long time hid in the Jura mountains. Back to social activities after the 18th Brumaire, Michaud, however, did not get along with Bonaparte, retaining his former royalist sympathies, as a result of which his literary works were confiscated by the Napoleonic police. In 1813 he was elected to the Academy, in 1815 he became a deputy of the lower house, which ended his political career. Already in these years, Joseph-François became famous for his historical and literary works and the publication of medieval memoirs, then he participated in the creation of the first volumes of the major “Biographie universelle” (54 volumes), undertaken by his younger brother. In 1822, Michaud completed his fundamental work “History of the Crusades” in 5 volumes, plus 2 volumes of bibliography. The book was a huge success and was reprinted 6 times in the first 12 years alone. In the early 30s, sixty-two-year-old Michaud traveled to the East, to Syria and Egypt, with the goal of getting acquainted with the places of action of the crusaders; the result of this trip was the addition to new editions of the “History of the Crusades” and 7 volumes of “Letters from the East” (1833-1835). In addition to all this, Michaud published 4 more volumes of the “Library of the Crusades,” which was a collection of medieval sources. The historian died in 1839.
Of all Michaud's works, the five-volume History of the Crusades, translated into major European languages and has taken a strong place in historiography. Although subsequent criticism revealed a number of errors and shortcomings in it, it remained a classic and to this day the most thorough work on this topic.
Soviet historiography, accustomed to labeling, dealt with Michaud's work rather harshly. The author was accused of complete idealism, distortion of history, varnishing the Catholic Church and the entire movement as a whole. Only a few historians of that time gained the courage to challenge such slander. Thus, the late academician E.A. Kosminsky wrote: “This work is, as it were, a response to the disdain for the Middle Ages that was so often evident among historians of the Enlightenment. Voltaire and the English enlighteners considered the era of the Crusades uninteresting, boring, full of stupidity and cruelty committed in the name of religion. Michaud wants to rehabilitate the Middle Ages, and in particular the Crusades, to show the extraordinary wealth of this era in the sense of spiritual life, to point out the high nobility that was shown by the Christianity of the West in its struggle with the Islam of the East."
Michaud, of course, was an idealist and a deeply religious Christian, which, as it now turned out, was not at all bad. His author's concept is simple. He sees in the Crusades a kind of constant struggle between two principles: the sublime and the base, the good and the evil. The sublime principle is the desire to embody the Christian idea, selfless heroism, generosity towards the enemy, self-sacrifice in the name of a high goal; base - rudeness, cruelty, thirst for prey, unscrupulousness in means, trampling on ideas for the sake of profit. In the course of the movement, first one tendency, then another, wins; in the first campaigns the sublime prevails, in the latter - the low, as a result of which the movement ultimately comes to complete collapse. Michaud is often naive, sometimes inconsistent; however, all this is redeemed by the extraordinary abundance of material and a sincere desire to understand it. As for the “distortion of history” and “varnishing,” these are obvious overexposures, since the historian tried to the best of his ability to be objective and did not hide the shadow sides of what was being described - this follows from his “Preface” and from the text itself, which the reader can easily make sure.
The last circumstance, apparently, was fully taken into account by the second translator, S.L. Klyachko, who worked almost half a century after Butovsky and made an abridged translation of Michaud’s epic, luxuriously published by the Wolff Partnership in 1864. Unfortunately, the translation was not worth such a prestigious publication. Klyachko showed neither knowledge of the language, nor knowledge of history, nor the ability to write a text. The translation is full of gross errors both in historical and geographical names and in proper names, and even in events. Due to an oversight, strange incidents were allowed to happen when, for example, Louis IX dies in one chapter, and in the next he is resurrected and dies again. An unsuccessful selection of text makes Klyachko’s work boring and virtually unreadable, and G. Doré’s wonderful illustrations cannot help the matter.
We, of course, took into account the mistakes of our predecessors. In the translation now proposed, while maintaining the general composition of Michaud’s work and its division into “books” or chapters (which, by the way, was neglected by previous translators) with the main dates in the margins, we first of all focused on the main thing: the First, Third and Fourth crusades, which completely define the movement as a whole. There are a minimum of deviations from Michaud's text, a maximum of facts he communicates, and a desire to convey his style. Everything else, subordinate to the main goal, is given selectively, in brief retelling. Of the extensive Appendices of Michaud, we considered it appropriate to give only two, the most important in our opinion. I would like to believe that our translation will be appreciated and find its reader.
A. P. Levandovsky
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Soon, crowds of new Christians poured in from the depths of Gaul, hastening to worship the cradle of the belief they had just adopted. The route, or roadbook, compiled specifically for the pilgrims, served as their guide from the banks of the Rhone and Dordogne to the Jordan River and on the way back from Jerusalem to the main cities in Italy. In the first years of the 5th century, we meet the Empress Eudoxia, wife of Theodosius the Younger, on the way to Jerusalem. During the reign of Heraclius, the troops of the Persian Shah Khosroes II surged into Palestine; after a ten-year struggle, victory remained on the side of the Christian emperor. He returned to the sanctuary of Jerusalem the tree of the Life-giving Cross, stolen by the barbarians; He walked barefoot through the streets of the holy city, carrying on his shoulders all the way to Golgotha this instrument of human redemption. This procession was a solemn holiday, the memory of which the church celebrates to this day under the name of the Exaltation of the Honest Life-Giving Cross. IN last years VI century left Piacenza with the pious companions of St. Antoninus, to honor with worship the places consecrated by the traces of the Divine Redeemer. The road worker bearing his name provides very interesting information about the state in which the Holy Land was at that time; while Europe was worried among the various disasters of war and revolutions, Palestine rested in the shadow of Golgotha and, as if for the second time, became the land of promise. But this peace and prosperity was not to last long.
Banks of the river Jordan
Out of the chaos of religious and political unrest, among the ruins cluttering up the weaker, wavering and divided East every day, a man emerged with a bold plan to usher in a new faith, to found a new kingdom. It was Muhammad, son of Abdullah, from the Quraysh tribe. He was born in Mecca in 570; was at first a poor camel driver, but was gifted with a passionate imagination, energetic character, lively mind and had a deep knowledge of the Arabian peoples, their inclinations, tastes and needs. The Koran, which he spent 23 years composing, although it preached pure morality, at the same time addressed the coarsest passions of the human heart and promised the wretched inhabitants of the desert the possession of the whole world. Abdullah's son, when he was 40 years old, began to preach his teachings in Mecca, but after 13 years of preaching he had to flee to Medina, and with this flight of the Prophet to Medina, July 16, 622, the Muslim era begins. It did not take Muhammad much time to conquer all three Arabia, but poison interrupted his victories and life in 632. The war and the preaching of his teachings were continued by Abu Bekr, Muhammad's father-in-law, and Omar, who conquered Persia, Syria and Egypt. Amru and Sergius, the governors of Omar, brought Jerusalem under their rule, which they bravely defended for four months. Omar, who came in person to accept the keys of the defeated city, ordered to build big mosque on the spot where Solomon's temple stood. During the life of the caliph, who inherited the power of Abu Bekr, the fate of Palestinian Christians was not yet very disastrous, but after the death of Omar they had to endure every kind of shame and plunder.
The Muslim invasion did not stop the pilgrimage. At the beginning of the 8th century we meet in Jerusalem the Bishop of Gaul, St. Arnulf, the description of whose interesting journey has been preserved to this day, and 20 or 30 years after that, another bishop, Gilebald from the Saxon country, visited the Holy Places, about whose journey the story of his relative-nun has been preserved. The infighting between different Muslim parties seeking supreme power had a disastrous effect on Palestinian Christians; The horrors of persecution weighed on them for a long time, interrupted only by short rests, and only during the reign of Harun al-Rashid, the greatest caliph of the Abbasid dynasty, calmer days came for them. Charlemagne at this time extended his rule in the West. Mutual respect between the great Frankish sovereign and the great Caliph of Islam was expressed through frequent embassies and luxurious gifts. Harun al-Rashid sent the keys to the Holy Sepulcher and the Holy City as a gift to Charlemagne: this offering contained political idea and something like a vague premonition of the Crusades.
At this time, European Christians visiting Jerusalem were received in a hospice, the establishment of which is attributed to Charlemagne. At the end of the 9th century, monk Bernard, a Frenchman, visited the Holy Places with two other persons of monastic rank; he saw this hospitable institution of the Latin Church, consisting of 12 houses or hotels; a library was opened here for pilgrims, as in other hospice houses founded in Europe by Charlemagne. The use of this pious institution included fields, vineyards and a garden located in the Valley of Jehoshaphat. The desire to acquire particles of relics, as well as trade settlements, contributed to the multiplication of these trips overseas; Every year on September 15, a fair opened in Jerusalem: the auction, as usual, took place in the square of the Church of St. Maria Latin. Merchants from Venice, Pisa, Genoa, Amalfi and Marseille had their offices in different countries in the East.
Travel to Holy places began to be imposed in the form of public punishment and a means of atonement. In 868, a noble Breton ruler named Frotmond, who had killed his uncle and the least of his brothers, was sentenced to travel three times to the Holy Land to receive full remission of his crimes. Censius, the Roman prefect, who, in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, insulted the pope by seizing him in the altar and imprisoning him, was condemned to mourn his guilt at the foot of the Holy Sepulchre.
These frequent travels established fraternal relations between Eastern and European Christians. Letter from Elijah, Patriarch of Jerusalem, written in 881 to Charles the Younger and great family Christian West, seems to us a solemn expression of these joyful and pious relations. The Patriarch describes the unfortunate situation of the Jerusalem church: the poor and monastics are threatened with death from hunger; there is not enough oil for the lamps of the sanctuary; Jerusalem Christians appeal to the compassion of their European brothers. No evidence has reached us that would explain how Christian Europe responded to this touching message, but we can assume that the two monks sent with a letter from Elijah did not return empty-handed.
Joseph-François MichaudJoseph Francois Michaud(1767-1839) - French historian originally from Savoy.
In 1791 he moved to Paris, where in the magazine “La Quotidienne” he so energetically stood up for royal power that in 1795 he was arrested and sentenced to death. He fled to Switzerland, where he wrote the satirical poem “Le printemps d’un proscrit” (Paris, 1804; additional ed., 1827).
Traveling to Syria and Egypt to collect additional materials on the history of the Crusades, he published “Correspondance de l’Orient” (Par., 1833-35). Together with Poujoula, he published the Collection des mémoires pour servir à l'histoire de France depuis le XII siècle (1836-39, I-XXXII).
Links
- // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: In 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 extras). - St. Petersburg. , 1890-1907.
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- (Michaud, 1767 1839) French. historian originally from Savoy; in 1791 he moved to Paris, where in the magazine La Quotidienne he so energetically stood up for royal power that in 1795 he was arrested and sentenced to death. He fled to Switzerland, where he wrote...
- (French Michaux) French first and last name. Famous bearers of the surname Michaud, Alexander Frantsevich (1771 1841) Russian military leader of the Napoleonic wars. Michaud, Alfred (1859 1937) French lawyer and Esperantist. Misha... Wikipedia
- (Michaud), Joseph Francois (19.VI.1767 30.IX.1839) French. romantic historian directions. Royalist aristocrat, sentenced to execution during the French. revolution of the late 18th century, M. fled from France; returned after establishing the Consulate. Ch. work M.... ... Soviet historical encyclopedia
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Appendix to the article French Academy ... Wikipedia
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