The Crusades, The Sack of Constantinople, and The Massacre of the Latins

I used to talk to a lot of Eastern Orthodox Converts a good bit on the net but after a while I stopped. It might have been the type of Eastern Orthodox Convert I met up with but the conversations got nowhere. Within five minutes though it seems that every Convert would bring up the Sack of Constantinople.

Joe Hargrave has done a good post on this at Byzantine Villainy: The Fourth Crusade Revisited

As he starts out:
This post may not garner as much attention, since I am going to address relations among Christians, as opposed to those between Christians and Muslims, but I feel it is equally important. For another old canard is often floated around in discussions about the Crusades – that the noble, peace-loving Eastern or Byzantine Christians were the perpetual victims of the rapacity and greed of the Latin Crusaders.

He brings up something that must be known to see this in context. That is “The Massacre of the Latins”

Now I am not sure why the Massacre of the Latins has allowed to be almost forgotten but Sack of Constantinople has not. Of course one does not excuse the other!!

However when engaging an Eastern Orthodox on this subject I think it is very important to bring it up.

We see sadly that the wound on the Body of Christ has fault on both sides