4th Crusade

Informal separation between the Orthodox East and the Latin West. Renaissance origin, Greek exposure (Aristotelian) to western powers and thinkers. A Latin Christian armed expedition called by Pope Innocent III. The stated intent of the expedition was to recapture the Muslim-controlled city of Jerusalem, by first defeating the powerful Egyptian Ayyubid Sultanate. However, a sequence of economic and political events culminated in the Crusader army's 1202 siege of Zara and the 1204 sack of Constantinople, rather than the conquest of Egypt as originally planned. This led to the partition of the Byzantine Empire by the Crusaders and their Venetian allies. In the aftermath, Pope Innocent III said, "These ‘soldiers of Christ’… They stripped the altars of silver, violated the sanctuaries, robbed icons and crosses and relics… the Latins have given example only of perversity and works of darkness, No wonder the Greeks call them dogs!"