Do you think the Crusades were caused by religious devotion or the desire for political and economical gain?

Crusades were caused by religious fundamentalist. You have to remember that middle east has always been a controversial territory. Christianity and Islam always fought for more power. How do they get power? Convert as many people as you can...

With crusades, invading party also had upper hand in attaining properties and wealth. so they did have political and economic gain.

The Crusades started by greedy Popes and Kings wanting gold and land. Religious devotion was used as an end to get people to become soldiers to die for pope and kings. No one is going to die just to make a greedy man richer.

Jesus and 1st century Christians avoided mixing in any politics or national wars. History shows those who became Christian while in the military resigned while Christians refused to join. Jesus showed them their wars were not fleshly but spiritual. Their loyalty was to the Kingdom of God and not earthly political governments.

A mixture of the two. The Popes were pretty keen on reclaiming Jerusalem for Christianity, thereby hastening the Second Coming, and stemming the growth of Islam. The kings of Europe who contributed armies to the Crusades would have agreed, but they were also interested in getting a foothold in the Middle-East to control its natural resources expand profitable trade opportunities with India and China.

Today I tend to believe the non-profit Crusades were caused by political and economical gain. That's why the non-profit Pope of Italy, in lustful pursuit of political power and more money, started them.

Totally because of Political and monetary gain. At the time of the Crusades, people were being tortured and killed for owning Bibles! If it were for religious devotion, they would not have been upset that people owned Bibles. They had changed some of the things in the Bible at that time and didn't want the common folk to know about it.

They took out the "you shall not make for yourself an idol" commandment and split the last one in two so it would still add up to ten. This was done so they could add idols of the saints in the church to bring in the pagans who were rebelling because they didn't want to give up their idols and festivals. This is one of the reasons Christmas is a Pagan holiday. It was a celebration to the sun god and the Church changed it to a celebration to the Son of God. They wanted the pagans devotion and along with it, their money.

They destroyed 3 countries because they refused to believe and therefore send their money to the church. Heruli ,Vandals ,and the Ostrogoths . They could have let them survive but they didn't because they may have led a revolt against the Church because they were aware of the truth and refused to give their money to the Church.

The Bible, the one they had possession of.... did not condone the actions of the Church at that time. There was no Biblical reason for them to have killed so many. The only reason could have been World domination, and economic power.

Edit: ..... and again (by the thumbs down), I have ticked off the catholics because of speaking the truth. ( I don't hate catholics, I hate the catholic religion and what they have done... there is a difference)

The Crusades were hatched by the vatican to seize the Holy Lands. It was done in the name of "Christianity" in my opinion to justify the bloodshed. Many innocent people were killed because the popes claimed to be God's "vicar" on earth, and anyone who dared to think otherwise was stampeded. The 12th Crusade (the "Children's Crusade") was absolutely the most appalling of them all. Children who were social outcasts as the result of the rape of young Jewish maidens by Roman soldiers and used as fodder for the vatican's ambitions-- simply unexcusable.

You had different classes, you had the political, religious and warrior (military), and citizen. The citizen and the warrior class was devoted to The Lord of the worlds but the political and religious were combined and they had a different idea, which is why politics and religion should not be mixed. Religion and social law perhaps.

I think that it was for political and economical gain. Read some of the books and articles on the Crusades and see how much they gained.

Part of it was fear. Because people did wars back then. And it was war. But they didn't recognize the enemy back then. The Church territories were being overtaken by Islam & Christians persecuted. But then just like today, it is hard to know the enemy.

Obviously some of the acts of war were un Christ like.

Like burning up Jewish people in a synagogue & walking around it in Jesus Name. This is totally sickening. Then the dream of the power of the cross for a symbol. The cross represents that Jesus shed his blood for our sins & also for the sins for the whole world. So? We aren't suppose to kill someone for rejecting the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The reason this started was because of fear & Christians were persecuted first. You can do an archaeology study & find the early Churches that were destroyed & then they are found around some old Mosques today.

Political and economical gain.What denomination is the largest in the world ?

Real Christianity is never a majority.Remember

I said "real ".