Europe and the First Crusade

The great restructuring of power in the Christian west at the beginning of the second millennium did not change the meaning of the notion of Europe as inherited from the previous two centuries. Rather, it brought forth new co ncepts to describe the unity of western Christians, thus marginalizing "Eur ope" as a potential bearer of collective identity. Foremost among those new unitary concepts was Christendom-a concept closely linked with the rise of the papal monarchy and the launching of the First Crusade as the pope's ow n war. By analyzing eleventh-century sources and literature connected with the First Crusade, the author shows that the term Europe-used in merely its geographical sense or in connection with the ancient myth of Europa and th e legend of Japheth-had little relevance for the practical and spiritual co ncerns of that age.