2013, ISBN: 0957567308

Taschenbuch

[EAN: 9780957567306], Neubuch, [PU: Skycat Publications], CRUSADERS, POPE INNOCENT III, CONSTANTINOPLE, 12TH CENTURY HISTORY, 4TH CRUSADE, BYZANTINE EMPIRE, This is a story told by a chil… Mehr…

[EAN: 9780957567306], Neubuch, [PU: Skycat Publications], CRUSADERS, POPE INNOCENT III, CONSTANTINOPLE, 12TH CENTURY HISTORY, 4TH CRUSADE, BYZANTINE EMPIRE, This is a story told by a child of a great crime committed in the name of God. In this it is signal but not unique, in these days almost a commonplace. A Christian crusade called by Pope Innocient III in 1199 to redeem the holy city of Jerusalem ended five years later in the siege and occupation of the Christian city of Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire. An army of devoted men enlisted in an honourable cause was diverted to a desperate and dishonourable action ending in robbery, rape and murder, and the destruction of a culture and an empire. The great cathedral of St Sophia was desecrated and despoiled, churches and libraries were ravaged, statues, monuments and mosaics were shattered, precious relics of ancient Greece and early Christianity were stolen and scattered throughout Europe, the vast wealth of a thousand years of empire was seized and squandered, a whole population was dispersed, a whole civilisation was destroyed.<