the pope acquired a right to tax for his purposes within the domain of independent States.
How Clergy Grew Rich
Papal Ambitions
The clergy and the Church grew rich because unable to alienate their own estates, they bought in the property and domains of princes, dukes, and counts, who sold all to enter upon the Holy War. For two centuries this went on among the most fruitful of the many methods by which the Church added to her temporal substance. The Church, by the Crusade, established the principle that religious wars were just, and for five centuries the principle was indorsed with blood. Incidentally the hurling back of the Mohammedan advance occurred, but the hunger for papal dominion spurred on the popes to bless those who fought. Called defensive at first, they quickly became aggressive, and many a Crusading band hacked at the Jews before carving a path through to Mohammedans.
Chivalry took on a more religious tone through the Crusades, if indeed it was not in some countries directly born of the wars of the cross.
Principles of Chivalry
Most of the principles of chivalry were Christian in the quality of conduct, if not always of motive. To be just, generous, brave, the defender of weakness, and to be pure in life were certainly Christian duties. The Crusades gave a great field
for such virtues. But, alas! it was only to Christians that these virtues were obligatory. The knight often became a devil ranging over lands wrested from Saracen control.
But respect for women, undoubtedly enhanced by chivalry, took high ground in the reverence for the Virgin, and, while it did not secure chastity, gave some check to the master passion of the human race.
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