What constitutes a Crusade?

[Lizardo]

1.I had long thought there had only been 4 Crusades commisioned by the Pope however my friend says there were 8? Including the Teutonic and Catharism's eradication were these comissioned by the Pope at the time and were they popular with the Barons at the time, were the Teutons commisioned by the Pope and did the Pope order the Pagan eradication in the Baltics or did the Teutons start it and later the Pope acknowledge it and what constitutes a Crusade in your eyes?

2. The current Pope is a marxist my catholic friend is ashamed, so hypothetically if there was another Crusade to oust Islam from Europe and retake Constantinople, Ancyra, Levant and Rome can it be called a Crusade if declkared by Non catholics?

[Lizardo]

Reserved.

Anybody out there, *cricket cricket*

[lars573]

There were more than eight. Numbered crusades in the Levant and north Africa total 9. Plus the Baron's crusade between the sixth and seventh. In the Baltic you had the Wendish, Livonian, and Prussian crusades. In the Balkans you had Crusade of Nicopolis, Crusade of Varna, and the Bosnian Crusade. You also had the Babary Crusade, and Alexandrian Crusade. Plus the Aragonese Crusade and Albigensian Crusade (the one against the Cathars). All of these were sanctioned as crusades by the Pope. And cover a period of 400 years.

[Fragony]

A church-sanctioned war should should cover it