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The increased wealth that started to accumulate after 1000 gave us the most famous saint after the apostles: St. Francis (b. 1182). Also: St. Dominic (b. 1170). Twelfth and Thirteenth centuries: other mendicant orders: Augustinians, Trinitarians, Servites, Carmelites.

Perhaps ironically, it also gave us the Crusades. With increase wealth, came the increase ability to go on the offensive. For centuries, Europe had been defending itself, but now it found itself reborn, youthful, strong, and vibrant.

The emergent Seljuk Turks gave them the impetus. These Muslim converts were kind of like today's ISIS: militant and uncompromising. They took over large parts of modern day Turkey and couldn't understand why infidels were allowed to make pilgrimages to the Holy Lands, so they started attacking these unarmed groups.


The Pope responded by sending armed guards, whetting an appetite for war.

There were also calls from Constantinople, today's Istanbul, for help against the Turks.

Eventually leading to Pope Urban II's call for a crusade.

The Crusades were temporarily successful, resulting in the establishment of crusading kingdoms that lasted nearly a hundred years, but they were eventually vanquished by Muslim arms and demographics . . . just as will happen with Europe.

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