The Religious Impetus. While political and economic motivations undeniably entered into the Crusades of the Middle Ages, they were motivated by religious ideals. The successive campaigns launched to recover the Holy Land of Jerusalem and the surrounding territories were viewed as holy wars against the Muslim "infidels" and fought for the glory of God and the good of all Christendom. The name "Crusader" refers to the emblem of the cross presented to Crusaders by papal legates, a badge signifying that its bearer was not a soldier of any earthly king, but of Christ. "God wills it," those present at the Council of Clermont in France declared in 1095, shortly before the First Crusade. This declaration, which became the Crusaders' battle cry, summarizes the medieval view of the Crusades as a divine undertaking.

The Islamic Threat. More than four hundred years before the First Crusade...