Between the Crescent and the Cross Episode 6 - In the Shadow of the Pharaohs

<p>"In the middle of the journey of our life I came to myself within a dark wood where the straight way was lost. Ah, how hard a thing it is to tell what a wild, and rough, and stubborn wood this was, which in my thought renews the fear!"  -Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy</p> <p>After the failure of the Fourth Crusade it should have been clear that the movement was losing its way. But rather than look inward and discover why the crusade failed, Pope Innocent III and his successors Honorius III and Gregory IX chose to renew the effort to recapture Jerusalem. The two crusades born from this would be complete and utter failures. Crusading was beginning to lose its luster, especially as the Papacy kept getting in its own way. </p> <p>Image: "The Battle of Damietta 1218" Anonymous, 13th Century </p>