At the time of the Crusades, the official church had become corrupt and politically motivated. It should be noted, too, that crusaders did not take vows to "go on crusade." The very term crusade, in English or in any other language, is a much later invention. What we call "crusades," contemporaries knew as "pilgrimages" or even simply "journeys." Aside from a tiny elite, people were illiterate and even if they could read, there was no access to a Bible or any scriptural teaching. It was an age of superstition and magic, where visions, signs and wonders were claimed by many. The masses' only source of knowledge about God was whatever the often corrupt and greedy clergy decided to teach. The early crusades broke new grounds for the power of the Church. It gave the Pope the highest order of command and brought about new religious vows.The crusade was a holy war, which differed from earlier wars against the enemies of Christendom in that it was waged by command of the pope. In order to ignite the fire of the Crusades, the Pope had to take existing theology about violence and warfare and turn it on its head. Until this time a Christian soldier had to do penance for any violence in order to reduce the time he would spend in purgatory before going to heaven. Violence was considered a necessary evil, but nevertheless still evil. Popes Gregory VII and Urban II changed that. They said that an act of warfare against the infidel, i.e. the Muslims, was in itself an act of penance, and if a Christian were to lose his life so doing, he would go straight to heaven. Many Crusaders extended this concept to include killing Jews too. With many people facing what they believed could be countless years in purgatory, it is no wonder that tens of thousands willingly gave themselves to the cause of killing the "infidel". Regardless of motivation, an individual underwent a specific ceremony before he could be considered a "crusader." The ceremony evo...
