The Barons' Crusade: A Call to Arms and Its Consequences

Conclusion

Conclusion In March 1239 Pope Gregory IX sent a letter to the leaders ofthe Barons' Crusade that was, in one sense, a pointless instruction.1 He ordered the duke of Burgundy and the counts of Bar, Champagne, Montfort, and Vendome to be prepared to depart for the Holy Land by 24 June 1239. Since they had no intention of doing otherwise, all having declared their intention to campaign in the Holy Land and all having declined the pope's directive to campaign in Latin Greece, the instruction was akin to closing the stable door after the horses had bolted. In another sense, though, the letter did have a purpose. The leading crusaders had apparently criticized the pope for diverting funds from the Holy Land to the Constantinople expedition and neglecting the business of the Holy Land. "[We have] received your letter:' replied the pope, "from the tenor of which we gather that crusaders and others are led to no little astonishment that . . . we intended to withdraw the legacies and other means [of funding] that we lately conferred upon you for the Holy Land?' Gregory admitted that he had "provide[d] for the [Latin] empire from the aid deputed for the [Holy] Land:' but justified his policy in language remarkably defensive for a medieval pope. Rather than explaining the reasons why Constantinople needed help, he instead invoked the general principle that as the head of the Christian people the pope had the responsibility, and therefore the right, to allocate crusade resources as he felt would most benefit Christendom as a whole: We are compelled to reach out shrewdly for [the empire's] aid. . . . For if Mother Church abandoned the Latin empire as if lost, leaving it neglected, whose protection could be expected? And if its dire circumstances were not to arouse compassion, then who shall console it in its adversities?2 Given the results of Gregory's attempts at protection, we might well question how much consolation the empire could have felt. The crusaders , Gregory knew, had rejected his assertion that he could allocate Conclusion 179 funds raised for the Holy Land as he saw fit. Gregory here emphasizes the Church's responsibility as a mother to all Christian nations rather than strategy or ends. The letter draws attention to the high principles that had inspired the diversion of funds and crusaders to Constantinople . It suggests that the pope had promoted the venture not to keep his ally John ofBrienne in power in Constantinople, but rather to carry out his duty to protect the Christian people. In this book I have taken the pope's crusade appeal, voiced on behalfofMother Church, and traced its consequences everywhere it was heard. When we compare the consequences of the appeal across Christendom , we see that they varied widely from place to place. One aspect of this call was Gregory IX's attempt to make it universal and to establish means for the crusade to be a universal Christian activity. Christians did not, however, respond universally as Christians, nor did they put aside other differences to come together in their identification as Christians . One of the most important consequences we see in tracing the course ofthis crusade, therefore, must be its failure as a vision of Christian unity. There had been a tremendous response when Gregory IX preached a crusade for the Holy Land in 1234, although not from Italy, Germany, or Spain. When, the following year, he directed that vows and funds be diverted to aid the Latin empire of Constantinople, he saw the widescale rejection of his ideas that Christians could best aid the Holy Land by campaigning in Latin Greece and that the two campaigns were equivalent. Although his call was largely unsuccessful, it failed in different ways in the various regions where he pressed his case. In Hungary, Gregory failed to convince King Bela to take the crusade vow at all, despite granting Bela a string of concessions that included the right to occupy Bulgaria and to organize its Church, appoint ecclesiastical officials , and delimit dioceses after such a conquest. In the course ofthe negotiations Bela did, however, persuade Gregory to turn away from the papal policy of separating the minority and Christian populations in Hungary. The crusade, therefore, eased pressure upon Jews, Muslims, and Cumans under the control of the Hungarian monarchy. In northern France Gregory tried to persuade Thibaut of Champagne , who had sworn to crusade to Jerusalem, to commute his vow to the Latin empire. When Thibaut resisted...