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On this day in 1095 Pope Urban II made a speech.The setting was the Council of Clermont in France.Urban, indeed all of Europe, was alarmed at the aggression of the Turks in the East, who had taken the Holy Land and were invading the Eastern Roman Empire. Urban therefore addressed the Council asking them to help their Christian brethren in the East. As Robert the Monk recorded, Urban put it, apparently, this way: “Deus vult!… God wills it!”Thus began the First Crusade.In another version of Urban’s history-shaping speech recorded by one Fulcher of Chartres, Urban also addressed corruption in the...

A rare scarab amulet newly unearthed in Tel Aviv reveals the ancient Egyptian presence in this modern Israeli city. Archaeologists excavating the ancient city of Jaffa, now part of Tel Aviv, have long uncovered evidence of Egyptian influence. Now, researchers have learned that a gateway belonging to an Egyptian fortification in Jaffa was destroyed and rebuilt at least four times. They have also found the scarab, which bears the cartouche of the Egyptian Pharaoh Amenhotep III... Scarabs were common charms in ancient Egypt, representing the journey of the sun across the sky and the cycle of life. Jaffa was the...

A new report by Britain’s Department for Education and Skills notes that an increasing number of schools are dropping the teaching of the Holocaust from history lessons to avoid offending Muslim students. The report, titled Teaching Emotive and Controversial History, also observes that many teachers are reluctant to discuss the Crusades because the lessons frequently contradict what is taught in local mosques... 30 non-Muslim children at an elementary school in Scotland were required to visit a mosque in Glasgow, where they were instructed to recite the shahada, the Islam declaration of faith, which states, “There is no god but Allah...

Tel Aviv, Israel, Jul 16, 2012 / 04:08 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Israeli archeologists have found more than one hundred gold coins from the time of the Crusades, when conflict arose between Muslims and Christians over control of the Holy Land. “It is an unusual find. We don’t have much gold from the time of the Crusades,” said Oren Tal, a professor at the University of Tel Aviv who led the investigation. The treasure was found in the ruins of a castle in Arsuf, a strategic bastion during the Crusades of the 12th and 13th centuries. The 108 coins –...

A pot of gold from the Crusades worth up to $500,000 has been found buried in an ancient Roman fortress in Israel. The coins were buried by Christian soldiers of the order of the Knights Hospitalier as the Crusaders faced an unstoppable attack by a huge Muslim army. The knights were annihilated in April 1265. The coins - worth a fortune even in 1265 when they were thought to have been buried - were deliberately hidden inside a broken jug to prevent them being discovered. The fortress was destroyed in April 1265 by forces of Mamluks who overwhelmed the Crusaders...

Why was there a sudden need to recover the city where Jesus Christ lived and was crucified? The answer, writes Peter Frankopan, lies in the imperial capital of Constantinople. On November 27, 1095, Pope Urban II stood up at the Council of Clermont in central France to make an important announcement. Persians (by whom he meant the Turks), “a people rejected by God,” had risen up against the Christians in the East, he said. It was imperative for the knighthood of Europe to rush to defend their brethren. Take up arms, he urged, and defend the faithful who were suffering...

This year marks the 800th anniversary of the Children's Crusade. The celebration began early. There are some intriguing parallels, and contrasts, with OWS as it sputters into the new year. In the spring and summer of 1212, crowds of young people gathered around two charismatic boys: a shepherd from near Chartres called Stephen and a twelve-year-old from Cologne, Nicholas. Stephen claimed that he had received a letter from Jesus, delivered in person, and Nicholas reported a conversation with an angel. The boys had been told to lead a Crusade to the Holy Land. (snip) Tea-Partiers want to protect children; Occupiers...

Once in a while I go to Wikipidea in order too at last try and remove some of the socialist drivel from there site. It is a futile effort I know but sometimes I come across pages or sentences Stalin and Hitler would be proud. Today I ran into this page on racial superiority. I will let you decide here are some of the better lines I found: Supremacism or racial superiority I will start with this one:“President George W. Bush’s support for fundamentalist Christianity has been linked to his having a “Christian supremacist vision” in his policies in the...

... [P]ervasive negative attitudes toward Islam go far deeper into the American psyche even than these manifestations suggest, for contempt toward the religion of Mohammed is a foundational pillar of Western civilization. That it is unacknowledged only makes it more pernicious. European Christian imagination jelled — as European, as Christian, and as imagination — around the mythic 732 triumph of Charles Martel over “infidel’’ Muslim forces in a battle near Poitiers, France. That may seem like an eternity ago and a world away, but still-powerful attitudes that show up in suspicions of widespread Muslim “radicalization’’ were generated then. In epoch-shaping...

In 2001, former president Bill Clinton delivered a speech at Georgetown University in which he discussed the West’s response to the recent terrorist attacks of September 11. The speech contained a short but significant reference to the crusades. Mr. Clinton observed that “when the Christian soldiers took Jerusalem [in 1099], they . . . proceeded to kill every woman and child who was Muslim on the Temple Mount.” He cited the “contemporaneous descriptions of the event” as describing “soldiers walking on the Temple Mount . . . with blood running up to their knees.” This story, Mr. Clinton said...

Historical facts say that Islam has been imperialistic—and would still like to be, if only for religious reasons. Many Muslim clerics, scholars, and activists, for example, would like to impose Islamic law  around the world. Historical facts say that Islam, including Muhammad, launched their own Crusades against Christianity long before the European Crusades.Today, Muslim polemicists and missionaries, who believe that Islam is the best religion in the world, claim that the West has stolen Islamic lands and that the West (alone) is imperialistic.One hardline Muslim emailer to me said about the developed West and the undeveloped  Islamic countries: 'You...

Many historians had been trying for some time to set the record straight on the Crusades -- misconceptions are all too common. These historians are not revisionists, but mainstream scholars offering the fruit of several decades of very careful, very serious scholarship. For them, current interest is a "teaching moment," an opportunity to explain the Crusades while people are actually listening. It won't last long, so here goes. With the possible exception of Umberto Eco, medieval scholars are not used to getting much media attention. We tend to be a quiet lot (except during the annual bacchanalia we call...

We are about to follow the fortunes of this extraordinary thing which still calls itself Islam, that is, "The Acceptation" of the morals and simple doctrines which Mohammed had preached. I shall later describe the historical origin of the thing, giving the dates of its progress and the stages of its original success. I shall describe the consolidation of it, its increasing power and the threat which it remained to our civilization. It very nearly destroyed us. It kept up the battle against Christendom actively for a thousand years, and the story is by no means over; the power of...

The Austrian Mint in Vienna is issuing the second coin in its €10 silver commemorative series "Tales and Legends in Austria". The theme of the new coin is the captivity of the English king, Richard I, on his homeward journey from the Third Crusade in 1192 and the legend of his loyal friend and troubadour who is said to have discovered in which castle the king was being held. Austria 10€ Richard the Lionheart Silver Coin The first part of the story is indeed history. Richard, called the "Lionhearted" even in his lifetime, mortally offended Duke Leopold V of Austria...

May I begin, by saying, I love this country, the United States of America, It is the greatest hope in the history of our planet, save the works of the prophets of God. I add that I have never voted for a Democrat - and I probably never will - although JFK did cut taxes and I wish he had lived longer. Also: I believe that we were endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights, foremost being the freedom of speech. Jim Robinson, Thank you. So: If I be banned for what I am about to write, then I...

Evangelical book catalogs promote books such as Planet Earth: The Final Chapter, The Great Escape, and the Left Behind series. Bumper stickers warn us that the vehicle’s occupants may disappear at any moment. It is clear that there is a preoccupation with the idea of a secret rapture. Perhaps this has become more pronounced recently due to the expectation of a new millennium and the fears regarding potential Y2K problems. Perhaps psychologically people are especially receptive to the idea of an imminent, secret rapture at the present time. Additionally, many Christians are not aware that any other position relative to...

In the book Fire From Heaven: Life in an English Town in the Seventeenth Century, the late Yale historian David Underdown tells a story of how the Puritans of Dorchester adopted an unusual tactic to assist the town's poor: they opened a brewery. As in many English towns of the 17th century, problems of overcrowding led many residents and their children to the edge of destitution. But the Puritans' vision of salvation was holistic: the godly would demonstrate their souls' transformation by God in good works. They would not allow their fellow families to go hungry while they had the...

Buzz about the 2012 presidential election is already in full swing. But with no real Republican front-runner, really, anyone is game. We’ve been hearing Mitt Romney’s name tossed around as a potential for a while now, but two weeks ago we started hearing another familiar name: Jon Huntsman. While Huntsman doesn’t have the same national profile as Romney, he has gained status as the ambassador to China and might become more of a threat in the upcoming year. Can you imagine—TWO Mormons (gasp) both running for president? Now, I understand my next thought doesn’t apply to every Mormon, BUT, I...

The film Kingdom of Heaven shows conflicts between Muslims and Christians in the twelfth century after the Second and before the Third Crusade, and dramatically culminates with the short siege and fall of Jerusalem to the Muslims in 1187. It is an amazing Hollywood version of the period, but it certainly is not factual history. Such misconceptions, nevertheless, have contributed to the situation today in which “the Crusades” have become virtually synonymous with supposed Christian cruelty and intolerance. The Crusades actually were motivated in part by the desire of Christians in the West to help fellow Christians in the East....

Thomas Madden is chair of the history department at St. Louis University and author of: “A Concise History of the Crusades”, In October 2004 Zenit, the International News Agency, interviewed him. Madden: The following are some of the most common myths and why they are wrong.