Medieval Europe : Rise and Spread of Christianity | ICSE Class 7 History & Civics Notes

This note covers medieval Europe, the Roman setting of Christianity, Jesus’s life and teachings, the spread of Christianity, Constantine and Constantinople, the decline of Roman rule in the west, Byzantium, the Crusades, the Church, monasteries and historical evidence.

What was the background to medieval Europe?

What does medieval mean?

Medieval means belonging to the Middle Ages, the period between ancient and modern history. In Europe, it refers broadly to the fifth to fifteenth centuries. These boundaries help organise the past; they do not mean that everyone’s life changed at the same moment.

An empire is a large territory containing different peoples under one ruling authority. The Roman Empire surrounded the Mediterranean Sea and included territories in Europe, North Africa and western Asia. Its population spoke different languages and followed different religious traditions.

The Roman emperor was the ruler of this empire. Roman government linked distant regions, but the empire did not remain politically united for its entire history. Its western and eastern regions eventually followed different paths.

Did the same period begin everywhere together?

The beginning of medieval history differed between regions. In India, the early medieval period is commonly associated with changes from about the eighth century, including the growth of regional kingdoms. A European date cannot simply be applied to the whole world.

Historical evidence means surviving material that helps us investigate the past. Changes in rulers, settlements, landholding and religious institutions help historians identify transitions. A period name is useful when it draws attention to these changes rather than hiding them behind a single date.

In western Europe, the weakening of Roman authority allowed new kingdoms to develop. Land became central to power and protection. In the east, Roman imperial government continued. Meanwhile, Christianity spread across political boundaries and survived the collapse of Roman rule in the west.

Note: The fall of the western Roman Empire did not mean the immediate end of the eastern Roman Empire, Christianity or all Roman traditions. Political change and religious change followed different timetables.

How did Christianity originate in Roman Palestine?

Where did Jesus live?

Christianity is the religion centred on Jesus Christ and his teachings. It originated in Palestine in the early first century of the Common Era. Common Era, abbreviated CE, is the dating system used here; BCE means Before the Common Era.

Palestine was a region in the eastern Mediterranean. Roman conquest brought it under Roman power before Jesus’s lifetime. Judaea was a territory within this region. Roman authority formed the political setting in which Jesus lived and taught.

Jesus was born in Bethlehem. He was Jewish and lived within a Jewish religious environment. Judaism is the religion of the Jewish people, centred on belief in one God. Jewish communities contained different views and practices rather than forming one uniform group.

What happened during and after his teaching?

Jesus attracted followers through his teaching. His criticism of religious hypocrisy, meaning outward displays of goodness without sincere conduct, brought him into conflict with some religious leaders. These disputes must not be turned into a claim that all Jewish people opposed him.

Jesus was put to death by crucifixion, a form of execution in which a person was fastened to a cross. Roman authority carried out his execution. This places his death within the system of Roman rule as well as the religious tensions surrounding his teaching.

Christians believe in Jesus’s resurrection, his rising from the dead. This is a religious belief central to Christianity. His followers continued to spread his teachings after his death. Christianity therefore began before the European Middle Ages and later became deeply influential in medieval Europe.

What were the main teachings of Jesus?

How should people treat one another?

Jesus taught love for God and love for one’s neighbour. Here, neighbour means other people towards whom one has a duty of care, rather than merely someone living nearby. Love was expressed through conduct, including concern for people in need.

Compassion means recognising another person’s suffering and responding with kindness. Jesus’s teachings encouraged care for the poor and vulnerable. A person’s wealth or high position was not a substitute for goodness, humility or concern for others.

Forgiveness means giving up a desire for revenge against someone who has wronged us. Jesus taught forgiveness and love even towards enemies. This challenged the idea that hostility must be answered with more hostility.

Humility means freedom from an exaggerated sense of one’s own importance. Jesus criticised hypocrisy and encouraged sincerity. Religious practice was to be connected with the way a person treated others, rather than used to display superiority.

Why do these teachings remain relevant?

These principles invite reflection on how people respond to poverty, conflict and unfair treatment. Their relevance lies in connecting beliefs with everyday behaviour. Compassion and selfless service also provide grounds for respectful comparison with good teachings in other religions.

Recognising shared values does not mean that all religions have identical beliefs or histories. Nor does describing a teaching prove that every follower has practised it. The ideals of a religion and the actions of particular people must be examined separately.

Why did Christianity spread, and what did Constantine change?

What helped the message travel?

Jesus’s followers carried his teachings beyond their original setting. Missionaries are people who travel or work to spread a religion. Christian communities grew as believers taught others, worshipped together and supported one another.

Roman routes and connections between towns helped people and ideas move. Christianity’s message reached people of different backgrounds. Its spread was a process involving human contact, religious commitment and the formation of communities, rather than one event in one city.

Christians faced persecution, meaning hostile treatment because of their beliefs, at different times under Roman rule. The experiences of Christian communities were not identical everywhere. The later support of an emperor therefore marked an important change in their relationship with political authority.

How did imperial support make a difference?

Constantine was the Roman emperor whose support helped Christianity gain a stronger public position. His turn towards Christianity is dated to 312 CE. Support from the ruler gave the Church protection and helped its influence grow.

The Church, with a capital letter, means the organised Christian religious community and its institutions. A church, with a small letter, can mean a building used for Christian worship. The growth of buildings and the growth of an institution are related but distinct developments.

By 324 CE, Constantine was sole ruler of the empire and began establishing Constantinople as a second capital. The new capital connected imperial government with the growing influence of Christianity. Constantine did not found the religion: its beginnings lay several centuries earlier.

Christianisation means the process through which Christianity spreads among a population and becomes dominant. In the Roman Empire this was gradual and complex. Older beliefs did not disappear overnight, and different communities adopted Christian practices at different rates.

Why did Roman rule decline in the west, and how did east and west differ?

What weakened western imperial authority?

The Roman Empire had a very large territory to govern and defend. Conflicts within the empire and pressure along its frontiers weakened its unity. Arrangements with neighbouring peoples over trade, military service and settlement broke down, and attacks increased.

The Goths, Vandals and Franks were Germanic peoples who played important parts in this transition. Germanic peoples means groups speaking related languages whose earlier homelands lay in northern and central Europe. The historical label barbarian was used by Greeks and Romans for outsiders. It reflects their viewpoint and should not be treated as proof that these peoples lacked culture.

In 378 CE, Goths defeated Roman armies at Adrianople. In 410 CE, Visigoths, one group of Goths, sacked Rome. Sacking means violent plundering of a captured place. These events show serious military pressure, but neither event alone explains the entire decline.

By the fifth century, western imperial authority had broken down. Germanic rulers established kingdoms in former Roman territories. Political unity weakened, while Roman traditions and Christian institutions continued to influence the new societies.

What comparison prevents confusion?

Late antiquity refers broadly to the fourth to seventh centuries of the Roman world. The contrast between east and west matters: there was no single collapse affecting every region in the same way. Christianity’s spread and Rome’s political decline overlapped, but overlap does not prove that one simply caused the other.

How did Constantinople become the centre of Byzantium?

What was the new capital?

Constantinople was Constantine’s new capital at the earlier city of Byzantium, on the site of present-day Istanbul. Its site was surrounded by sea on three sides. The city became a major centre of imperial government and Christianity.

Byzantium, or the Byzantine Empire, is the name used for the continuing eastern Roman Empire. Its emergence was a transformation of Roman rule in the east, not the arrival of an entirely unrelated civilisation.

The eastern empire preserved a central government while western territories passed into different kingdoms. Its towns, trade and wealth supported imperial power. Christianity formed an important part of its religious life, while Roman political traditions continued within it.

How did Justinian try to strengthen the empire?

Justinian was a Byzantine emperor who tried to recover former Roman territories in the west. He recaptured Africa from the Vandals in 533 CE. His campaigns in Italy against the Ostrogoths, another Gothic group, caused extensive destruction there.

The effects of conquest could therefore differ between the ruler’s ambitions and the lives of the people in conquered lands. Recovering territory did not necessarily restore prosperity. The devastation in Italy helped prepare the way for the Lombards, another Germanic people, to invade.

In the early seventh century, war with Iran again threatened the eastern empire. Byzantium recovered lost provinces in the 620s CE, but soon faced further territorial losses during Arab expansion. The continuing empire was powerful, yet its boundaries and resources remained under pressure.

The Byzantine story connects ancient Rome with medieval Europe and western Asia. It explains how Roman imperial traditions survived beyond the loss of western unity, and why Constantinople remained central to later struggles involving Christian rulers and their neighbours.

Which social groups shaped Christian life in medieval Europe?

What role did the clergy play?

The clergy are people holding recognised religious offices, including priests and bishops. A priest led local worship and taught the faith; a bishop supervised a wider Christian community. In western Europe, the Pope, based in Rome, headed the western Church.

Most villages had a church where people gathered on Sundays for prayer and a sermon, a religious talk. Clergy therefore helped shape local religious life. Their influence also reached beyond worship because the Church owned land and had its own laws.

How were rulers and nobles involved?

Nobles were members of a privileged landholding group. Rulers and nobles gave land to the Church, creating links between religious and political power. Clovis, king of the Franks, and the Franks converted to Christianity in 496 CE.

The Frankish king Charlemagne received the title Holy Roman Emperor, a western imperial title linked to the Pope’s authority, from Pope Leo III in 800 CE. The Pope sought his support. This illustrates cooperation between religious authority and a ruler; it did not recreate the old Roman Empire unchanged.

How did peasants and ordinary believers participate?

Peasants were agricultural workers who cultivated the land. They formed a major part of medieval society and supported landholders through work and payments. The Church was entitled to a tithe, a tenth share of their yearly agricultural produce.

The laity means ordinary members of a religious community who do not hold clerical office. Lay Christians took part in worship, festivals and religious journeys. They were not simply spectators: their work, payments and participation helped sustain Christian institutions.

The three social categories of clergy, nobles and peasants describe an influential way of organising medieval society. These groups had different duties and unequal power. Understanding all three prevents the history of Christianity from becoming merely a list of emperors and Church leaders.

How did monasteries influence learning and daily life?

What was life in a monastery?

A monastery was a religious community in which people lived under a shared rule. Male members were monks and female members were nuns. Their communities were often far from towns and villages, unlike clergy who lived among local people.

Monks and nuns committed themselves to religious life and did not marry. Their time included prayer, study and manual labour, such as farming. Except in a few cases, men and women lived in separate communities.

Saint, abbreviated St, is a title recognising a person’s holiness in Christian tradition. Well-known foundations included St Benedict’s monastery in Italy in 529 CE and Cluny in Burgundy in 910 CE. Benedictine means associated with St Benedict and his rule for monastic life. Shared rules organised work, reading, obedience and the use of property.

What did monasteries contribute?

1. Religious practice: communities devoted regular time to prayer and religious reading.
2. Education: monasteries developed attached schools or colleges, giving them a role in organised learning.
3. Care: attached hospitals connected religious communities with the treatment and care of others.
4. Work and culture: farming supported community life, while artistic and musical activities contributed to religious culture.

Monasteries grew from small communities into establishments often containing several hundred members, large buildings and landed estates. This growth increased their social influence. Their history therefore includes both the ideal of a disciplined life and the practical management of wealth and resources.

The woodcut shows a seated monk working at a sloping desk with an open manuscript. Books appear on shelves behind him. A manuscript is a text written by hand.

Reference: NCERT Class 11, The Three Orders, printed page 93, unnumbered woodcut

From the thirteenth century, some monks became friars, travelling preachers who lived on charity rather than remaining based in a monastery. This shows that religious service could take different forms, even within communities committed to Christian life.

Why did the Crusades begin, and what were their consequences?

What were the Crusades?

The Crusades were a series of religiously sanctioned military expeditions. Here the term refers to expeditions from western Europe directed towards the eastern Mediterranean and the Holy Land. The Holy Land means the region associated with the life of Jesus.

Jerusalem was especially important to Christians because of its association with Jesus. It was also sacred to Jews and followers of Islam. Islam is the religion founded by the Prophet Muhammad in the seventh century; its followers are Muslims. A pilgrimage is a journey to a sacred place. Pilgrims and crusaders should not be treated as identical: a religious journey is not necessarily a military expedition.

The growing power of the Seljuk Turks, a Turkish ruling power in western Asia whose rulers followed Islam, increased pressure on Byzantium. Appeals for help, concern for holy places and religious enthusiasm contributed to the call for a crusade.

Pope Urban II called for the First Crusade in 1095 CE. Crusaders captured Jerusalem in 1099 CE. Participants had differing motives, including religious commitment and hopes of gaining power or land. A shared religious banner did not make their aims identical.

What effects did these wars have?

The Crusades caused loss of life, destruction and hostility between communities. Their religious purpose did not make their violence consistent with the teaching of compassion. Their consequences need to be judged through what happened to people as well as what leaders hoped to achieve.

The expeditions also increased contacts between parts of Europe and the eastern Mediterranean. Travel and trade accompanied these contacts, although such connections had existed before the Crusades. It would be misleading to claim that Europeans first encountered eastern goods or learning because of these wars.

Lasting control of the Holy Land was not secured. The Crusades left a mixed legacy of intensified connections and deepened conflict. They belong to a later phase of medieval history, many centuries after the first Christian communities and Constantine’s support for Christianity.

What impact did the Church have on medieval society?

How did religion shape the rhythm of life?

The Church influenced worship, festivals and ideas about proper behaviour. A parish was an area under the care of a priest. The local church brought members of a parish together, while religious festivals gave a shared pattern to the year.

Christmas celebrated Christ’s birth. Religious holidays offered overworked peasants time away from labour. Although these days were intended for prayer, people usually spent a good part of them enjoying themselves and feasting. Religious and social life were closely connected.

Older beliefs and folk traditions continued alongside Christianity. The spread of a religion did not immediately replace everything people had previously believed or practised. This is another reason to understand Christianisation as a gradual process.

How did religious institutions influence power and culture?

The Church was a major landholder and political power. Land grants and payments supported its institutions. Bishops had the use of extensive estates, so their influence involved wealth and authority as well as religious teaching.

Large churches called cathedrals became important centres in medieval towns. In France, their construction from the twelfth century drew contributions of labour, materials and money. As building progressed, the surrounding areas became more populated; completed churches attracted pilgrims.

Monastic schools, hospitals, books and music connected religious life with learning and care. These activities help explain why the Church mattered beyond the hours spent in worship. Religious institutions could organise resources and preserve records over long periods.

Church life also attracted criticism. By the fourteenth century, writers questioned the ease and luxury of some monks. The word some matters: criticism of particular religious figures does not establish that every monastery or member of the clergy behaved in the same way.

What sources help us understand this history?

How do different kinds of evidence help?

A historical source is material used to investigate the past. No single source tells us everything. Accounts of beliefs, records of property and surviving buildings answer different questions, so historians compare them rather than treating them as interchangeable.

The Bible is the Christian collection of sacred writings. Its New Testament contains accounts of Jesus’s life and teachings and of his early followers. It is important for understanding Christian beliefs and how early Christians presented their faith.

Roman written evidence includes histories, letters, speeches, sermons and laws. An inscription is writing cut or engraved on a durable surface, such as stone. Papyrus was a writing material made from a reed-like plant growing beside the Nile.

Langland’s poem Piers Plowman, dating from about 1360 CE to 1370 CE, contrasts the ease and luxury of some monks with the pure faith of ploughmen, shepherds and poor labourers. It provides evidence of criticism of monastic life.

Geoffrey Chaucer, who lived from about 1340 CE to 1400 CE, wrote The Canterbury Tales. Its comic portraits include a nun, a monk and a friar, while its verses describe journeys to shrines, including Canterbury. These literary accounts help us explore religious life and pilgrimage.

Abbot Suger, who lived from 1081 CE to 1151 CE, described enlarging the church at the Abbey of St Denis because of overcrowding on feast days. His account also describes costly new windows and craftsmen appointed to care for them, providing evidence of church building and expenditure.

Why must evidence be interpreted?

Church records of births, marriages and deaths help historians study families and population. Land records reveal ownership and obligations. Songs and stories offer clues about festivals and community life, although a story is not automatically a literal account of events.

A monastic rule tells us how monks were expected to behave. It does not establish that every monk followed every rule. Similarly, an impressive religious building shows resources devoted to construction but cannot, by itself, reveal the personal beliefs of everyone living nearby.

Comparing evidence helps distinguish religious teaching, political decisions and everyday practice. It also makes room for different experiences within the same period. A ruler, peasant, monk and travelling pilgrim could participate in Christian society in very different ways.

What timeline connects the rise of Christianity with medieval Europe?

A timeline arranges events in time order. This one connects changes in religion, imperial government, kingdoms and monasteries. All numbered years below use the Common Era. The opening entry identifies a century rather than claiming an exact year for Christianity’s beginning.

What does the sequence explain?

Christianity began under Roman rule, gained imperial support and continued after western imperial unity broke down. Conversion among the Franks and the development of monasteries show later stages of its influence. The Crusades came much later than these beginnings.

The sequence also separates kinds of change. A ruler’s conversion concerns personal belief and political support; the founding of a monastery concerns religious community life; a military victory concerns control of territory. Dates become useful when connected to these different developments.

Events occurring one after another do not automatically have a simple cause-and-effect relationship. Rome’s difficulties had several causes, and Christianity spread through several channels. Use the timeline alongside explanations of people, institutions and regional differences to understand the transition to medieval Europe.

Glossary

• Medieval — Belonging to the Middle Ages, broadly the fifth to fifteenth centuries in European history.
• Christianity — The religion centred on Jesus Christ, his teachings and the beliefs of his followers.
• Crucifixion — A form of execution in which a person was fastened to a cross.
• Resurrection — The rising of Jesus from the dead, a central belief within Christianity.
• Christianisation — The process through which Christianity spreads among different groups and becomes their dominant religion.
• Byzantine Empire — The continuing eastern Roman Empire, with its capital and imperial government at Constantinople.
• Clergy — Members of a religious community who hold recognised offices, including priests and bishops.
• Laity — Ordinary members of a religious community who do not hold official clerical positions.
• Tithe — A tenth share of peasants’ yearly agricultural produce to which the medieval Church was entitled.
• Monastery — A religious community whose members live together under a shared rule of life.
• Friar — A member of a religious group who travels to preach and lives on charity.
• Pilgrimage — A journey to a sacred place undertaken as an expression of religious devotion.
• Crusades — Religiously sanctioned military expeditions, including western European campaigns towards the Holy Land in the Middle Ages.
• Parish — A local area and Christian community under the religious care of a priest.
• Manuscript — A text written by hand, such as a book used for study in a monastery.

Common errors and misconceptions

• Misconception: Christianity began in medieval Europe. Correct: It originated in Palestine in the early first century CE, before the European Middle Ages.
• Misconception: Constantine founded Christianity. Correct: He supported a religion that had begun centuries earlier and helped strengthen its public position.
• Misconception: All Jewish people opposed Jesus. Correct: Jesus was Jewish, his followers came from that setting, and disputes with some leaders do not justify collective blame.
• Misconception: Rome’s decline ended its empire everywhere together. Correct: Western imperial authority fragmented while the eastern Roman Empire continued around Constantinople.
• Misconception: Christianity’s spread immediately erased earlier beliefs. Correct: Christianisation was gradual and complex; older beliefs and customs continued alongside Christian practices.
• Misconception: Monks devoted their entire lives to prayer without working. Correct: Monastic life included study and manual labour, and monasteries also supported education, care and culture.
• Misconception: A pilgrimage and a crusade were the same. Correct: Pilgrimage meant a sacred journey, while the Crusades were military expeditions with religious sanction.
• Misconception: The Crusades created all contact between Europe and the East. Correct: Such contacts already existed; the expeditions intensified some connections while causing destruction and hostility.

Exam-style questions with model answers

Q1. Christianity originated in Palestine in the early first century CE. Constantine supported it in the fourth century. Europe’s Middle Ages began in the fifth century. Using these facts, explain two errors in the statement, “Constantine founded Christianity in medieval Europe.” [2 marks]

1. Christianity originated in Palestine before the European Middle Ages, so medieval Europe was not its place or period of origin.
2. Constantine supported an existing religion centuries later; supporting its spread did not make him its founder.

Q2. Jesus taught love for one’s neighbour, compassion towards people in need and forgiveness instead of revenge. Using these teachings, explain three ways his message connected belief with conduct. [3 marks]

1. Love for one’s neighbour required concern for other people. Belief was therefore connected with how a person treated others, rather than remaining merely a private claim.
2. Compassion encouraged a practical response to suffering. Caring for people in need expressed kindness through action.
3. Forgiveness challenged revenge. It encouraged people to overcome hostility rather than treating further hostility as the necessary response to wrongdoing.

Q3. Consider these facts: Rome faced internal disputes and frontier attacks; western imperial authority fragmented into kingdoms; the eastern empire continued around Constantinople; Christianity survived in the west. Explain four features of this transition. [4 marks]

1. Internal disputes weakened political unity within the Roman Empire. Its difficulties cannot therefore be explained through attacks from outside alone.
2. Frontier attacks added military pressure to these internal difficulties. Several interacting pressures contributed to the transition.
3. The western territories fragmented while the eastern empire continued. The change was therefore different in the two regions.
4. Christianity survived the breakdown of western imperial rule. The end of one political system did not mean the end of its religious institutions.

Q4. Monasteries organised prayer, study and manual labour. They developed attached schools or colleges and hospitals, and contributed to music and other arts. Using only this information, explain five roles of monasteries. [5 marks]

1. Monasteries organised religious life through prayer. This made them communities in which shared worship was a regular and important part of daily activity.
2. They supported study and education. Study within the community and attached schools or colleges connected religious life with organised learning.
3. They required manual labour. Members therefore combined religious activities with practical work instead of spending their entire time in prayer.
4. They provided a setting for care through attached hospitals. This connected religious institutions with the needs of people requiring treatment.
5. They contributed to culture through music and other arts. Their influence consequently extended beyond worship into forms of artistic expression.

Q5. A pilgrimage is a journey to a sacred place. The Crusades were religiously sanctioned military expeditions towards the Holy Land. They caused destruction and hostility, increased some existing contacts, and did not secure lasting control of the Holy Land. Explain five distinctions or consequences using these facts. [5 marks]

1. A pilgrimage is a journey to a sacred place, whereas the Crusades were religiously sanctioned military expeditions. A pilgrimage does not necessarily involve fighting or conquering territory.
2. The Crusades caused destruction. Warfare damaged places and disrupted the lives of people in the affected regions.
3. The Crusades increased hostility between communities. Their violence harmed relationships and deepened conflict despite their religious justification.
4. Some contacts increased, but those contacts already existed. The Crusades should therefore be described as intensifying connections rather than creating every connection.
5. Lasting control of the Holy Land was not secured. Military campaigning did not result in permanent achievement of that territorial aim.

Q6. A monastic rule prescribes prayer and work, a land record describes ownership, and a surviving church building shows resources devoted to construction. Explain what each source helps investigate and why the rule alone cannot prove actual behaviour. [4 marks]

1. The monastic rule helps investigate expected conduct. It shows that prayer and work were prescribed parts of community life.
2. The land record helps investigate ownership. It provides evidence about property rather than directly establishing what everyone believed.
3. The church building helps investigate construction and resources. Its existence shows that resources were devoted to a religious building.
4. The rule states an expectation, not proof of universal obedience. Other evidence is needed to judge whether members actually followed it.

Key takeaways

• Christianity began in Palestine before the European Middle Ages and later became deeply influential across medieval European society.
• Jesus’s teachings connected love, compassion, forgiveness and humility with the way people should treat one another.
• Constantine’s support strengthened Christianity, while Christianisation remained a gradual and complex process across different communities.
• Western Roman authority fragmented into kingdoms, while the eastern Roman Empire continued with Constantinople as its capital.
• Clergy, rulers, nobles and peasants participated differently in Christian society, reflecting unequal resources, duties and political power.
• Monasteries combined prayer, study and labour with wider contributions to education, care, music and other arts.
• The Crusades intensified some existing contacts but also caused destruction and hostility without securing lasting control of the Holy Land.
• Historical understanding requires comparison of religious writings, records and material remains, with a distinction between ideals and actual behaviour.

Test yourself

What does medieval mean in European history?

It means belonging to the Middle Ages, broadly the fifth to fifteenth centuries in Europe.

Where and when did Christianity originate?

Christianity originated in Palestine in the early first century CE, before the European Middle Ages.

Why is Constantine important in this history?

His support strengthened Christianity’s public position, and he established Constantinople as a second imperial capital.

What continued after western Roman authority broke down?

The eastern Roman Empire continued, while Christianity and many Roman traditions survived in the western regions.

How did clergy differ from laity?

Clergy held recognised religious offices; laity were ordinary community members who did not hold those offices.

What activities formed part of monastic life?

Prayer, study and manual labour formed part of monastic life, alongside contributions to learning, care and culture.

Why is pilgrimage not another word for crusade?

Pilgrimage means a sacred journey; a crusade was a military expedition undertaken with religious sanction.

What is the limitation of using a rule as evidence?

A rule shows expected conduct, but it cannot alone prove that everyone behaved in the prescribed way.