2007-12-03 11:01:55 · 5 answers · asked by garda0354 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
It's not as if there were a standard form for initiating these things. The first crusade was definitely initiated by a pope to reclaim the Holy Land from infidel Muslims (among other, more rewarding reasons). Subsequent crusades, often initiated by ambitious nobles, had different targets, different participants, and different levels (often varying) of ecclesiastical sanction. The "Children's Crusade", for example, was actually just a horrible scam. The "crusade" against the Cathars was undertaken in southern France, a purge of heresy rather than-- whatever a "crusade" is supposed to be. They didn't have numbers. Lazy historians added numbers to keep them separated, and they don't even agree.
2007-12-03 11:11:07 · answer #1 · answered by skepsis 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Off the top of my head I would have guessed the first four. Historians vary on how many expiditions should even be called Crusades, as they became less effective and less organized as they continued on. Only the first three even made it to Jerusalem.
Edit: Wikipedia has a detailed covering of the Crusades and does a fair job of showing the difficulty in "counting" crusades. It states that most of the crusades were Church-sanctioned.
2007-12-03 11:08:43 · answer #2 · answered by Nightwind 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
9
2007-12-03 11:10:02 · answer #3 · answered by James O 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I always thought that there were seven fully sacntioned crusades.
2007-12-03 11:09:05 · answer #4 · answered by ghostwolf 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Add the Holocaust and the War on Terror.
2007-12-03 11:05:56 · answer #5 · answered by mythkiller-zuba 6 · 1⤊ 2⤋