Nonetheless, it would be a Roman pope who launched the crusades, prompting tens of thousands of Latins to take up arms and fight in the name of Christianity. This remarkable feat, in and of itself, served to extend and strengthen papal power, but the preaching of these holy wars should not be regarded as a purely cynical self-serving act. The papacy’s role as the progenitor of crusading did help to consolidate Roman ecclesiastical authority in regions like France and, to begin with at least, crusader forces looked as though they might follow the pope’s commands, functioning almost as papal armies. Even so, more altruistic impulses probably also were at work. Many medieval popes seem earnestly to have believed that they had a wider duty to protect Christendom. They also expected, upon death, to answer to God for the fate of every soul once in their care. By constructing an ideal of Christian holy war in which act of sanctified violence would actually help to cleanse a warrior’s soul of sin-the papacy was opening up a new path to salvation for its Latin ‘flock’.
尽管这样，罗马教皇仍然发动了十字军东征，怂恿成千上万的基督徒拿起武器以耶稣基督之名而战。这个“不寻常的攻击”对其自身来说扩大、加强了教皇的权力。但是，鼓吹圣战不应该被认为仅仅是一场愤世嫉俗的自我表演。罗马教廷的角色是十字军东征的创始者和发起人。十字军使得罗马教权至少在欧洲的部分地区如法兰西实现了统一。并且，十字军开始被认为是听命于教皇、行使教会军队职能的武装。即使这样，更多救世主义的冲动也开始出现。中世纪的多位教皇似乎发自内心的认为他们有一个更大的使命——保卫基督教世界。他们也期待着在临死之前告诉上帝关于每一个曾经他们关注过的灵魂的现实。在塑造基督教圣战的灵魂的过程中，“一种将暴力神圣化的表演事实上会使一名骑士洗净罪恶的灵魂从而是他得到救赎”这一观点逐渐在基督教徒之中流行开来。

各位吧友，几天不见！这几天楼主忙于班务和志愿者面试，无力更新。今日恢复，预祝各位吧友国庆假期愉快！

In fact, the crusades were just one expression of much wider drive to rejuvenate western Christendom, championed by Rome from the mid-eleventh century onward in the so-called ‘Reform movement’. As far as the papacy was concerned, any failings within the Church were just the symptoms of a deeper malaise: the corrupting influence of the secular world, long enshrined by the links between clergymen and lay rulers. And the only way to break the stranglehold enjoyed by emperors and kings over the Church was for the Pope Gregory VII (1073-85). Gregory ardently believed that he had been set on Earth to transform Christendom by seizing absolute control of Latin ecclesiastical affairs. In pursuit of this ambition, he was willing to embrace almost any available means-even the potential use of violence, enacted by papal servants whom he called ‘soldiers of Christ’. Although Gregory went too far, too fast and ended his pontificate in ignominious exile in southern Italy, his bold strides did much to advance the twinned causes reform and papal empowerment, establishing a platform from which one of his successors (and former adviser), Pope Urban II(1088-99), could instigate the First Crusade.
事实上，十字军东征仅仅表现了一种企图实现更大欲望的野心：在十一世纪中期的所谓“改革运动”的大背景下恢复以罗马教廷为中心的基督教世界。直到罗马教廷对教会的日益腐败和在世俗世界日益败坏的名誉感到不安，并且最终在世俗社会彻底失去了信誉，对上帝的信仰仍然是连接教会和世俗封建主的纽带。皇帝和国王打破教会抑制并从中得以取乐的唯一途径便是承认上帝赋予他的至高无上的权力。这一观点最大的鼓噪者和最激进的支持者是教皇格里高利七世（1093——1085年在位）。格里高利坚信，他来到人间的目的就是改造基督教世界，将其彻底置于说拉丁语的神职人员的控制之下。为了实现他的野心，他的所作所为达到了登峰造极的程度——甚至有潜在的暴力倾向。他还组建了他称之为“主的战士”的教皇侍卫。尽管格里高利走得太快太远，以至于在意大利南部的流放生涯中结束了他一切可耻的所作所为。他大胆的所作所为也导致了他的继任者和顾问——教皇乌尔班二世所推行的相似的教会改革以及教会至上的政策。乌尔班二世在此基础上发动的第一次十字军东征。