Every crusade was both more and less than a religious war. No one had a monopoly on brutality, and economic motivations mattered as much as religious ones.
Historian Frank Oakley rejects the idea that that Greece and Rome were secular. He insists that the “seedbed" for individual rights lies in the Latin Middle Ages.
These books offer two rewards: a lot of fascinating information, and an opportunity to think hard about history and being human. But they prompt some questions too.
Sexual misdeeds, false identities, cult worship, theft, and murder; if this astonishing tale were not true, it could be the work of an accomplished mystery writer.
