Rhineland Massacre First Crusade

¶ … Rhineland Massacre: Holy War or Papal Politics?

The Rhineland Massacre of 1096 was one of the first large-scale slaughters of the Jews in the Middle Ages, and was followed by a series of mass genocides in Europe, in which Jews were targeted. Although often discussed within the context of the First Crusade, the Rhineland Massacre was actually part of the Popular Crusade, a prelude to the First Crusade. These crusades, or Holy Wars, were a response by the Christian people of Europe to an appeal for help, given by Pope Urban II on behalf of the Byzantine Emperor, Alexius I Comnenus.

The original appeal was for soldiers to go East to the Holy Land in an effort to take the land from the Arabs and Turks that were claiming it as their own, and claim the land on behalf of the Latin Christendom. However, this appeal for help involved much more than just a plea for military assistance. In reality, the papal motives were not as "holy" as the reclaiming of land.

In my research paper, I will assess the circumstances leading up to the Rhineland Massacre, and attempt to show that those circumstances led to the attempts by the papacy to drive the Arabs, Turks, and Jews from the lands. In order to fully understand the reasons behind the Rhineland Massacre, I will examine the social, economic, and political environment of Europe during the time immediately prior to the crusades. The examination of these aspects will reveal the true motives of the papacy in relation to the crusade.

This topic fascinates me, in part, because of the nature of the subject itself. The Church, usually referred to as an institution of faith and as "God's Church," should by all rights be upstanding, and willing to accept those around them. Yet while researching the Rhineland Massacre, I discovered that the Jews were targets of animosity and hatred in the Middle Ages, even by the Christians. The Jews were well-known for lending money, a practice which went against the Christian faith. I found it disturbing to learn that the Rhineland Jewry never collected on loans made to the Church following the Massacre, and that all records of those loans were lost. In addition, the long-term effects of the crusades on the Jewish psyche, culture, and history are arguably as far reaching as those of the Holocaust in World War II, and I feel a discussion of the first slaughter of the Jews is relevant to any history discussion because of that.