By Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira
Election of Boniface I, Marquess of Montferrat as leader of the Fourth Crusade.
It is entirely certain – all historians say so – and it is obvious that many crusades were made by emperors or kings with commercial purposes. They would promote war against the occupation of the Holy Land but had political designs of earthly dominance and commercial purposes.
If we had been alive at that time we would have made a crusade against the emperors of false crusades and would have said, “this is a false crusade… it is either a false crusade or at least a false spirit has penetrated this crusade; and so we advise everyone not to adhere to it, because they will mix the two mentalities and adulterate the crusade movement.”
Doge Enrico Dandolo Recruiting for the Fourth Crusade. Painting by Jean LeClerc.
I am not aware that any temporal lord did that, or whether the Church issued calls for the spirit of the crusades to be kept pure. It is possible that such calls existed, but they did not point out the guilty ones. And for us, without pointing out the guilty ones the thing would not work.
The second observation we would make, it would be necessary to attack the place in which the adversary found himself, in order to strip him of power, influence, and so forth, so he would be unable to start that rubbish once again.
Enrico Dandolo parleys with Alexios V Doukas. Drawing by Gustave Doré.
There is in this a perfecting of the fighting spirit which experience has led us to recognize as indispensable, but which at that time they did not see it like this.
(Excerpt from an Almoço Tuesday, Jan. 30, 1990 – Nobility.org)
