Catholic Empire Vs Byzantine Empire

1371 Words6 Pages
During the 11th century in Europe, different civilizations coexisted surrounding the Mediterranean sea (Crusader’s Map). In Western Europe, there were the Catholic Kingdoms. To the east, was the Byzantine Empire and the Islamic Caliphates. The Catholic Kingdoms were in Western Europe and followed feudalism. In this feudal society, every person was born into a specific class, each which had different roles and different rights (Class Notes Dec 15 2014). “Feudalism was a loosely organized system of rule in which powerful local lords divided their land holdings among lesser lords. In exchange, these lesser lords pledge service and loyalty to the greater lord” (Ellis 186). Highest in this Feudal Society were the kings who were the most powerful…show more content…
Their religion and the Catholic Kingdom's was similar as both were branches of Christianity. But even though their beliefs were relatively similar, those of the Byzantine Empire did not believe that the Pope was the highest authority. They did not believe in the spiritual authority of the Pope. Things operated differently in the Byzantine Empire, this empire was ruled by an emperor and he controlled both political and religious matters. The capital of the Byzantine Empire was Constantinople, which was later captured by the Islamic Caliphates and was renamed as Istanbul (Ellis…show more content…
Pope Urban II who was supposedly the closest to God was a fraud and went completely against Jesus’s words and teachings (“The Crusades”). He was known to be very ambitious. He often announced that “God wills it”, but in reality he did not (Pope Urban II). Jesus did not embrace war like Pope Urban II did. Jesus was always all about peace and love, even with his enemy. Urban hais said in his speech that “On this account I, or rather the Lord urge you as Christ’s heralds... to carry aid promptly to those Christians and to destroy that vile race from the land of our friends” (Pope Urban II). Superficially it sounds as if the Pope is making himself sound as if he is a God, or someone with a very high authority. He uses the Lord’s name as a way to persuade those of the Catholic Kingdoms to participate in the Crusades. Also, the Pope refers to the people of the Byzantine Empire as friends. SInce the Pope and the Patriarch of this empire had excommunicated each other these two were more enemies than friends (Ellis 237). Pope Urban II tried to persuade people into joining the crusade by constantly linking the motives with religion. Since no one dared to go against religion at this time in history, they were more likely to listen and go to war. People feared the Pope in a sense. They did not want to disobey God so they were obliged to go and fight. Though their mentality was different than the Pope’s

    More about Catholic Empire Vs Byzantine Empire

      Open Document