Neff explained how Crusaders would have called their mission a "pilgrimage," adding, "They were basically taking an oath to go on pilgrimage to Jerusalem," taking after the mother of Constantine Saint Helena. He said it was actually a "popular" thing to do in the Middle Ages "if you had the means to do so."
"Once in your life, you would try to travel to the Holy Land, to the place where Christ had walked and where he administered to people. And they had done this, even when it was ruled by Muslims, for a long time," Neff explained. "But what increasingly happened was they were unable to do so. There would be violence against pilgrims. Pilgrims would be attacked by bandits. They would have their ships attacked. They would be sold into slavery and then need to be ransomed."
Neff said that Christians would have to raise money for ransom for the Pilgrims who had been taken by Muslims in the middle east, what he says was "one of the first sort of international charitable things that we have in history."
This increasing aggression, he said, was what built up to the ultimate "armed pilgrimage" that led to the Crusades.
Watch the full episode below.
