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Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow 287.: Papal Protection of Crusaders. Innocent III Takes the King of the Danes under his Protection, 1210. - A Source Book for Mediaeval History. Selected Documents Illustrating the History of Europe in the Middle Age

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Collection: Primary Sources
Subject Area: History

287.: Papal Protection of Crusaders. Innocent III Takes the King of the Danes under his Protection, 1210. - Oliver J. Thatcher, A Source Book for Mediaeval History. Selected Documents Illustrating the History of Europe in the Middle Age [1905]

Edition used:

A Source Book for Mediaeval History. Selected Documents Illustrating the History of Europe in the Middle Age, ed. Oliver J. Thatcher and Edgar Holmes McNeal (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1905).

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287.

Papal Protection of Crusaders. Innocent III Takes the King of the Danes under his Protection, 1210.

We commend you because, fired with zeal for the orthodox faith and for the praise of God and for the honor of the Christian religion, you have taken the cross and have drawn your royal sword to repress the cruelty of an infidel people [the Turks]. And we also give you our apostolic favor, and take under the protection of St. Peter as well as under our own your person and your kingdom with all your possessions, decreeing that so long as you are engaged in this work all your possessions shall remain intact and free from all molestation. Nevertheless we urge upon you to take all possible precautions to protect you and yours, in order that you may not suffer any loss.1

[1 ] From this sentence it may be inferred that the papal protection was not always respected. It sometimes failed to protect the possessions of a crusader from violence and seizure.