Editing Fourth Crusade (section)

=== Modern assessment ===
The prominent medievalist [[Sir Steven Runciman]] wrote in 1954: "There was never a greater [[crime against humanity]] than the Fourth Crusade."<ref>{{cite book |author=Runciman |title=History of the Crusades |volume=3 |page=130}}</ref> According to historian Martin Arbagi, "The diversion of the Fourth Crusade in 1204 was one of the great atrocities of medieval history, and Pope Innocent III placed most of the blame on Venice".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Arbagi |first=Martin |date=2007 |title=The Medieval Crusade. |url=https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&issn=00182370&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA162576163&sid=googleScholar&linkaccess=abs |journal=The Historian |volume=69 |issue=1 |pages=166–168 |doi=10.1111/j.1540-6563.2007.00175_61.x |s2cid=145135119}}</ref> The controversy that has surrounded the Fourth Crusade has led to diverging opinions in academia on whether its objective was indeed the capture of Constantinople. The traditional position, which holds that this was the case, was challenged by Donald E. Queller and [[Thomas F. Madden]] in their book ''The Fourth Crusade'' (1977).{{sfn|Queller|Madden|1997}}

Constantinople was considered as a bastion of Christianity that defended Europe from Muslim invasion, and the Fourth Crusade's sack of the city dealt an irreparable blow to this eastern bulwark. Although the Greeks retook Constantinople after 57 years of Latin rule, the Crusade crippled the Byzantine Empire. Reduced to Constantinople, north-western Anatolia, and a portion of the southern Balkans, the empire fell when the Ottoman Muslims captured the city in 1453.<ref>{{cite book |last=Sherrard |first=Philip |title=Byzantium |publisher=Time-Life |year=1967 |pages=166–167}}</ref>

Eight hundred years later, [[Pope John Paul II]] twice expressed sorrow for the events of the Fourth Crusade. In 2001, he wrote to [[Archbishop Christodoulos of Athens|Christodoulos]], [[Archbishop of Athens]], "It is tragic that the assailants, who set out to secure free access for Christians to the Holy Land, turned against their brothers in the faith. The fact that they were Latin Christians fills Catholics with deep regret."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ewtn.com/footsteps/words/CHRISTODOULOS_5_4.htm |title=In the Footsteps of St. Paul: Papal Visit to Greece, Syria & Malta – Words |website=EWTN |author=Pope John Paul II |date=2001 |access-date=2006-03-26 |archive-date=2009-12-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091204015424/http://www.ewtn.com/footsteps/words/CHRISTODOULOS_5_4.htm }}</ref> In 2004, while [[Bartholomew I]], [[Patriarch of Constantinople]], was visiting the [[Apostolic Palace|Vatican]], John Paul II asked, "How can we not share, at a distance of eight centuries, the pain and disgust."<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3850789.stm |title=Pope sorrow over Constantinople |work=[[BBC News]] |date=June 29, 2004}}</ref> This has been regarded as an apology to the Greek Orthodox Church for the massacres perpetrated by the warriors of the Fourth Crusade.{{sfn|Phillips|2004|p=xiii}}

In April 2004, in a speech on the 800th anniversary of the city's capture, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I formally accepted the apology. "The spirit of reconciliation is stronger than hatred," he said during a liturgy attended by Roman Catholic Archbishop [[Philippe Barbarin]] of Lyon, France. "We receive with gratitude and respect your cordial gesture for the tragic events of the Fourth Crusade. It is a fact that a crime was committed here in the city 800 years ago." Bartholomew said his acceptance came in the spirit of [[Easter]]. "The spirit of reconciliation of the resurrection... incites us toward reconciliation of our churches."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.incommunion.org/articles/issue-33/news-issue-33 |work=In Communion |title=News |issue=33 |author=Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I |date=April 2004 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071009183904/http://incommunion.org/articles/issue-33/news-issue-33 |archive-date=2007-10-09}}</ref>

The Fourth Crusade was one of the last of the major crusades to be launched by the Papacy, though it quickly fell out of Papal control. After bickering between laymen and the papal legate led to the collapse of the [[Fifth Crusade]], later crusades were directed by individual monarchs, mostly against Egypt. In one instance, the [[Sixth Crusade]] succeeded in restoring Jerusalem to Christian rule for 15 years.