History of Christianity Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ==== Baltic wars (1147β1316) ==== When the [[Second Crusade]] was called after [[County of Edessa|Edessa]] fell, the nobles in Eastern Europe refused to go to the Near East.{{sfn|Fonnesberg-Schmidt|2007|p=65}} The [[Balts]], the last major polytheistic population in Europe, had raided surrounding countries for several centuries, and subduing them was more important to the Eastern-European nobles.{{sfn|Fonnesberg-Schmidt|2007|pp=23, 65}} These rulers saw crusade as a tool for territorial expansion, alliance building, and the empowerment of their own church and state.{{sfn|Firlej|2021β2022|p=121}} In 1147, Eugenius' ''[[Divina dispensatione]]'' gave eastern nobility indulgences for the first crusade in the Baltic area.{{sfn|Fonnesberg-Schmidt|2007|p=65}}{{sfn|Christiansen|1997|p=71}}{{sfn|Fonnesberg-Schmidt|2009|p=119}} The [[Northern Crusades]] followed intermittently, with and without papal support, from 1147 to 1316.{{sfn|Christiansen|1997|p=287}}{{sfn|Hunyadi|Laszlovszky|2001|p=606}}{{sfn|Fonnesberg-Schmidt|2007|pp=65,75β77}} Priests and clerics developed a pragmatic acceptance of the forced conversions perpetrated by the nobles, despite the continued theological emphasis on voluntary conversion.{{sfn|Fonnesberg-Schmidt|2007|p=24}} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page