CHAPTER SIX THE FIFTH CRUSADE: 1213–21 In moving on at this juncture to discuss the Polish involvement in the crusading movement in the thirteenth century, we should start by indicat- ing the fundamental changes in the character of the whole phenomenon in the new century. The loss of Jerusalem and the failure of the Third Crusade had made those behind the movement aware of the fact that the previous crusading formulae had outlived their usefulness. They had been the effect of extempore propaganda and diplomatic initiatives, and prima- rily relied on the religious enthusiasm of the masses, but having no united leadership they were fated to suffer from the development of animosity between the participants, and also from a weak financial base. It became clear that without eliminating these weaknesses future crusades would be destined to share the fate of their predecessors.1 In such a situation, Pope Innocent III (1198–1216)—one of whose principal aims was the recovery of Jerusalem during his pontificate—undertook a far-reaching reform of the crusading movement. Putting into action a programme which consistently increased the authority of the Church, the Pope had no doubts that the re-organisation of the crusading movement had to mean its close associa- tion with the structures of the Church. This was intended on the one hand to make the mechanisms of recruitment and financing more efficient, and on the other hand to guarantee the Pope’s exclusive leadership and full control over the whole movement. This new direction was foreshad- owed by the first crusade-related document issued by Innocent III, the bull Post miserabile dated to August 1198, in which the Pope ordered the creation in the Church provinces of a special commission which would be 1 On the reform of the crusading movement at the beginning of the thirteenth cen- tury, see for example Schwerin, “Die Aufrufe der Päpste”, pp. 92ff.; E. H. McNeal and R. L. Wolff, “The Fourth Crusade”, in HC, 2, pp. 155–8; T. C. Van Cleve, The Fifth Crusade, ibid., pp. 377ff.; Powell, Anatomy of a Crusade, pp. 15ff..; Mayer, The Crusades, pp. 217ff.; Roscher, Papst Innozenz III und die Kreuzzüge, pp. 51ff.; Ch.T. Maier, Preaching the Crusades: Mendicant Friars and the Cross in the Thirteenth Century (Cambridge, 1998), pp. 2ff. In the Polish literature these changes were discussed in the most detail by J. Umiński, Henryk arcybiskup gnieźnieński zwany Kietliczem (1199–1219) (Lublin, 1926), pp. 120–2. 148 chapter six responsible for promoting the crusading ideals.2 At the same time, by the use of directly addressed letters, he encouraged local churches to engage actively in preaching on the crusade, and in supporting its organisation with a donation of one-fortieth of the donor’s income.3 In separate docu- ments, the Pope also asked for the financial support of the Cistercians and Premonstratensians.4 None of these measures prevented the next expedition (1202–04), known to historians as the Fourth Crusade, from ending in fiasco.5 This expedition was from the beginning poorly financed and badly organised; control over it slipped rapidly from the Pope’s hands, and it was taken over by the Venetians, ending in an attack on Christian Constantinople and the creation of the Latin Empire (1204–61). This course of events clearly con- firmed the need to carry out further reforms of the crusading movement, and justified the thrust of the changes begun by Innocent III. The papal conception was most fully developed in two documents, which together comprised the organisational foundations of the next expedition, which this time was intended to be a universal one. The first document was the encyclical Quia maior, published in April 1213,6 and the second was the decree Ad liberandam Terram Sanctam, issued on 30th November 1215 at the Fourth Lateran Council.7 Quia maior repeated the privileges granted to crusaders—remission of sins, protection of the absentee’s property, suspension of debts—and well-known already from the twelfth century onwards, but also confirmed a few genuinely revolutionary changes pro- posed by Pope Innocent. Above all, the Pontiff guaranteed a full crusader’s 2 Innocentii III Romani pontificis opera omnia, PL, 214 (Paris 1855), 312. At the head of such a commission were supposed to stand the archbishop, two bishops and a repre- sentative of both the Templars and Hospitallers; see Roscher, Papst Innozenz III und die Kreuzzüge, p. 67. 3 Innocentii III Romani pontificis, PL, 214, 828–36; CIR, pp. 144–8. 4 PL, 214, 826–8. Letters were sent to all Cistercian and Premonstratensian abbots, call- ing on them to donate a fiftieth part of their income to the fund for the organisation of the new crusade; these are the only documents of Innocent III of 1198 which one may suspect also went to Poland. The list of addressees of the papal bull of that year indicates that Poland was beyond the area reached by the promoters of the crusade. 5 See McNeal and Wolff, “The Fourth Crusade, pp. 1ff.; J. Godfrey, 1204: The Unholy Crusade (Oxford 1980); L. Buenger Robbert, “Venice and the Crusades”, in HC, 5, pp. 413ff.; Mayer, The Crusades pp. 196ff. 6 Innocentii III Romani pontificis, PL, 216, ed. J. P. Migne (Paris 1855), 817–22; Regesta Pontificum Romanorum inde ab a. post Christum natum MCXCVIII ad a. MCCCIV, ed. A. Potthast, (hereafter ‘Potthast’), 1 (Graz, 1957), 4725; BP, 1, 100 (English translation in CIR, pp. 118–24). 7 Innocentii III Romani pontificis, PL, 217, 269–73; Potthast, 5102 (English translation in CIR, pp. 124–9). .