Western Civilization.p

Medieval Religion and Thought167

cutions, most of which were based on the blood libel
that Jews sacrificed Christian children as part of their
rituals (see document 9.5). It was no accident that such
crusading princes as Richard Lion-Heart and St. Louis
IX supported the expulsion of Jews from their lands.
The general climate of intolerance may also have
affected the treatment of homosexuals. Though for-
mally condemned by church doctrine, homosexuality
appears to have been tolerated until the mid-thirteenth
century. A substantial literature on homosexual love
had been created by clerical writers in the great days of
the Hildebrandine reform. After 1250, for reasons that
are not clear, virtually every region of Europe passed
laws making homosexual activity a capital crime. These
laws, and the sentiments they reflected, remained in ef-
fect until well into modern times.
In personal terms, few of the crusaders gained the
wealth and status they sought, but for western women of
the upper classes the Crusades were probably beneficial.
Many accompanied their husbands to the Middle East
where they astonished the Muslims with their freespo-

ken manners. Those who stayed home often assumed the

role of managers and defenders of the family’s estates. In

either case their independence and economic value were

often enhanced. At the level of international politics the

Crusades were the beginning of the end for the Byzan-

tine Empire. Fatally weakened by the Fourth Crusade,

the Greeks continued to lose ground until they were at

last overwhelmed by Turkish expansion in 1453. The

Venetians, as the architect of Greek misfortunes, bene-

fited for a time by establishing a series of colonies on

Greek soil. In the end these, too, were lost to the Turks.

Of more permanent value was the increase of trade

in Eastern luxury goods. The Crusades, by bringing

western Europeans into contact with a more technolog-

ically advanced civilization, fueled their growing taste

for spices, silks, damascus cutlery, and similar items.

The Eastern trade not only broadened cultural perspec-

tives, at least in a material sense, but also encouraged

capital accumulation, especially in the Italian towns.

A related benefit was the improved knowledge of

engineering, stonemasonry, and fortification that was

DanubeR.

PoR.

Ebro

R.

Rhi

neR

.

Ni

leR

.

Black Sea

Atlantic

Ocean

Tigris

R.

Red

Sea

Mediterranean Sea

SELJUKS

COUNTY OF

EDESSA

PRINCIPALITY

OF ANTIOCH

COUNTY

OF TRIPOLI

KINGDOM OF

JERUSALEM

Jerusalem

Acre

Tripoli

Antioch Edessa

Damietta

Manzikert

Hattin

Cairo

Alexandria

Paris

Bruges

Vézelay

Ratisbon

Lisbon

Genoa

Pisa

Venice

Marseilles Zara

Tunis

Corsica

Sardinia

Sicily

Crete Cyprus

0 300 600 Miles

0 300 600 900 Kilometers

Crusader states

First crusade, 1096–1099

Second crusade, 1147–1149

Third crusade, 1189–1192

Battle site

MAP 9.2

The Crusades