Editing Persecution of Christians (section)

====Northern (Baltic) crusades====
The Northern (or [[Baltic crusades]]), went on intermittently from 1147 to 1316, and the primary trigger for these wars was not religious persecution but instead was the noble's desire for territorial expansion and material wealth in the form of land, furs, amber, slaves, and tribute.<ref name="Dragnea2">{{cite book|last=Dragnea|first=Mihai|title=The Wendish Crusade, 1147: The Development of Crusading Ideology in the Twelfth Century|publisher=Routledge|year=2020|isbn=978-0-367-36696-4|location=NY}}</ref>{{rp|5,6}} The princes wanted to subdue these pagan peoples and stop their raiding by conquering and converting them, but ultimately, Iben Fonnesberg-Schmidt says, the princes were motivated by their desire to extend their power and prestige, and conversion was not always an element of their plans.<ref name="Iben">{{cite book|last=Fonnesberg-Schmidt|first=Iben|title=The popes and the Baltic crusades, 1147–1254|publisher=Brill|year=2007|isbn=9789004155022}}</ref>{{rp|24}} When it was, conversion by these princes was almost always as a result of conquest, either by the direct use of force or indirectly when a leader converted and required it of his followers as well.<ref name="Iben" />{{rp|23,24}} "While the theologians maintained that conversion should be voluntary, there was a widespread pragmatic acceptance of conversion obtained through political pressure or military coercion."<ref name="Iben" />{{rp|24}} The Church's acceptance of this led some commentators of the time to endorse and approve it, something Christian thought had never done before.<ref>[[Alfred Haverkamp|Haverkamp, Alfred]]. Medieval Germany: 1056–1273. Trans. Helga Braun and Richard Mortimer. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988. p.g. 157–158</ref>{{rp|157–158}}<ref name="Iben" />{{rp|24}}