Cruel Crusades
From Mr Christopher J. Walker Sir: Piers Paul Read doesn't say, in the course of his boisterous defence of the Cru- sades (`The Crusades were self-defence', 8 January), why Christianity — which had become a universal religion — suddenly felt the need in the 11th century to fetishise the land of its Founder. Pilgrimage to Jerusalem was continuing unhindered; the condition of native Palestinian Christians was no worse than before. Yet, suddenly, zealous mobs of barbarous northern Euro- peans descended on the place and, follow- ing their massacre of Jews along the Rhine, killed every living thing in the Holy City. (William Rufus proved that he had some dignity about him by forbidding his clergy from going on the rapacious trip.) Surely the cause lay in Europe. Shouldn't we hear something about the coming of the Nor- mans, or the struggles between the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor?
Christopher J. Walker
cjw@dircon.co.uk
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