The word “martyr” appeared 1 times in this article's opening at its peak in October 6, 2023. Today the opening carries none. 2 remain further down the article, where a reader arriving from a search result does not go.
Measured, not asserted. Every count, date and revision on this page was taken from Wikipedia's own history and checked against the live article. The words quoted are theirs.
Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-02. “martyr” appeared 1 times in this article's opening at its peak. Today the opening has none; the body has 2.
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The opening as it read in October 6, 2023
Framework of Christian holy war This article is about the ideology and institutions associated with crusading. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem The crusading movement was a framework of ideologies and institutions that described, regulated, and promoted the Crusades . Members of the Church defined the movement in legal and theological terms based on the concepts of holy war and pilgrimage . Theologically, the movement merged ideas of Old Testament wars that were instigated and assisted by God with New Testament ideas of forming personal relationships with Christ . The concept of crusading as holy war was based on the ancient idea of just war , in which an authority initiates the war, there is just cause, and the war is waged with pureness of intention. Adherents saw Crusades as special pilgrimages – a physical and spiritual journey under the authority and protection of the Church. Pilgrimage and crusade were penitent acts and they considered participants part of Christ's army. While this was only metaphorical before the First Crusade, the concept transferred from the clergy to the wider world. Crusaders attached crosses of cloth to their outfits, marking them as followers and devotees of Christ, responding to the biblical passage in Luke 9 :23 which instructed them to carry one's cross and follow Christ . Anyone could be involved and the church considered those who died campaigning martyrs. After the First Crusade the movement became an important part of late-medieval western culture, impacting politics, the economy and society. Crusading was strongly associated with the recovery of Jerusalem and the Palestinian holy places. The Holy Land was considered the patrimony of Christ, and its recovery was on the behalf of God. The historic Christian focus on Jerusalem as the setting for Christ's act of redemption was fundamental for the First Crusade and the successful establishment of the institution of crusading. Campaigns to the Holy Land had enthusiastic support. However, Crusades did also occur outside the Holy Land: the Iberian Peninsula ; north-eastern Europe, against the Wends ; the Baltic region ; against heretics in France, Germany, and Hungary; and into mainly Italian campaigns against the papacy's political enemies. Common to all was papal sanction and the medieval concept of one Christian Church ruled by the papacy and separate from non-believers, so that Christendom was geopolitical. Crusading was a paradigm that grew from the encouragement of the Gregorian Reform of the 11th century and the movement declined after the Reformation . The ideology continued after the 16th century but in practical terms dwindled in competition with other forms of religious war and new ideologies.1
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 1178445589.
The opening as it stood in 2025 18 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Framework of Christian holy war This article is about the ideology and institutions associated with crusading. Pope Urban II 's call for the First Crusade at the Council of Clermont (from the late-15th-century Passages d'outremer by Sébastien Mamerot ) The crusading movement began in 1095 with Pope Urban II 's call for the First Crusade at the Council of Clermont , aiming to liberate eastern Christians and Jerusalem from Muslim rule.Associating warfare with the penitential practice of pilgrimage to the Holy Land , Urban granted spiritual benefits to participants.By then, church reforms had strengthened papal authority over Western Christendom , while conflicts with secular rulers fostered the concept of Christian holy wars, blending classical just war theories , biblical precedents , and Augustine 's teaching on legitimate warfare.The idea of armed pilgrimage resonated with the Christocentrism of the age, prompting widespread enthusiasm as tens of thousands joined the crusade.Economic expansion in Western Europe, the decline of traditional Mediterranean powers, and Muslim disunity facilitated western advance, allowing the crusaders to triumph and consolidate their conquests into four Crusader states .Their defence inspired further crusades , while the papacy extended the same spiritual benefits to campaigns against other opponents, including Muslims in Iberia , pagans in the Baltic , and rivals of papal authority across various regions.The crusades gave rise to distinctive institutions and ideologies, leaving a profound mark on medieval societies across Europe and the Mediterranean.Although crusading appeals primarily targeted the warrior class by invoking chivalric ideals, the campaigns' success relied on the active involvement of other social groups, including clergy , burghers and commoners.Women , though discouraged from participating, were nonetheless involved —as crusaders, proxies for absent husbands, or victims.While many crusaders were drawn by the promise of crusade indulgence (the remission of sins ), material incentives also played a role.Most crusades were launched via papal bulls , and participants signified their commitment by "taking the cross"—sewing a silk cross onto their robes.Periodic surges of popular enthusiasm sparked unsanctioned " popular crusades ".Initially funded through improvised means, crusades began, from the late 12th century onward, to rely increasingly on papal taxation of clerical income and the sale of indulgences.
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Today
“martyr” appeared 1 times in this article's opening at its peak. Today the opening has none; the body has 2. Read the current article and compare.
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Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.
Where the word went
It left the opening. It did not leave the article. Wikipedia moved it down the page, where a reader arriving from a search result will not reach it.
“martyr” now appears 2× under Indulgence, 29% of the way down the article
Sections that no longer exist
Present on 6 October 2023, absent today. A heading can vanish because the section was deleted or because it was renamed or merged, and we have not separated those here, so treat this as a list of what to check rather than a verdict.
Christianity and war2,949 characters
Penance and indulgence2,938 characters
Knights and chivalry2,861 characters
Common people2,681 characters
Perception of Muslims3,361 characters
Birth4,178 characters
12th century6,050 characters
13th century12,986 characters
14th century3,948 characters
15th century5,016 characters
Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.
