Ideology of the crusades under Innocent III

The term Kreuzzugsideologie regulated by the church is being used relativel y undifferentiatedly up to now. If you look at the papal notifications conc erning the crusades which were published from the end of the 11th century u p to the second half of the 13th century you will find out that there isn't any homogeneous ideology at all. Looking at the three questions: why-who-f or what purpose people should go to the crusades it becomes quite evident b y reading the relevant papal bulls that there wasn't any continuous curial concept as a theoretical background of the wars. Except during the pontific ate of Innocent III(1198-1216) a systematic politics was developed which in tended to take hold of the entire Christian World and to make people go to the crusade. It only deserves the name of an ideology in the sense of an ex tensively arranged procedure. Without any impending military reason in the Near East Innocent III wanted all the social classes-from the highest nobil ity to the lowest poor-should devote themselves to the events concerning th e crusades and whilst doing so they should feel obliged to the vassalic ide as of Christ as a heavenly feudal lord. As a representative of Christ and n ew Melchisedech, Innocent saw himself in the position to act as a leader at the head of the christianitas obliged to the ideas of the crusades all ove r Europe. This consistent draft of the politics concerning the crusades fel l into the period of military inactivity by the Islamic World at the beginn ing of the 13th century whereas the real times of fights before 1198 and af ter 1216 had only produced unsystematic and hectic actions of propaganda by the curia but not a coherent concept. Only in the years of Innocent III wa s there an episode of a real Kreuzzugsideologie as an instrument of the pap al claim to power.