Forms: α. 6 croisad, croysade, (croissard), 6–8 croisade, (7 crossiade); β. 7 croisada, (croy-), cruysado, (crossado), 7–8 croisado, croy-; γ. 7–8 crusada, cruz-, 6–8 crusado, cruz-; δ. 8– crusade. [= mod.F. croisade (= OF. croisee), Pr. crozada, Sp. cruzada, It. crociata, med.L. cruciata (cruzata), being in the various langs. the fem. noun of action formed on pa. pple. of cruciāre, crociare, cruzar, croiser to CROSS, lit. a being crossed, a crossing or marking with the cross, a taking the cross: cf. the early F. croisement. The earliest and only ME. equivalents were CROISERIE (13–15th c.), and CROISEE (15–17th c.), from the corresponding OF. words. In 16th c. French, croisée was displaced by croisade, with the new ending -ade, adapted from the -ADA of Provençal and Spanish. This croisade appeared in Eng. c. 1575, and continued to be the leading form till c. 1760 (see Johnson’s Dict.). About 1600, the Sp. cruzada made its appearance under the forms crusada and crusado (see -ADO); a blending of this with croisade produced two hybrid forms, viz. croisado (-ada), with French stem and Spanish ending, frequent from c. 1611 to 1725, and crusade, with Spanish stem and French ending, mentioned by Johnson, 1755, only as a by-form of croisade, but used by Goldsmith and Gibbon, and now universal. From 15th to 17th c. occasional attempts to adopt the med.L. and other Romanic forms, as cruciat, -ada, -ade, cruceat, were made: see CRUCIADE.]
1. Hist. A military expedition undertaken by the Christians of Europe in the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries to recover the Holy Land from the Mohammedans.
α. 1577. Harrison, England, III. iv. (1878), II. 29. At such time as Baldwine archbishop of Canturburie preached the Croisad there.
1616. Jas. I., Remonstr. Right of Kings, Wks. 445. All such … as undertooke the Croisade became the Pope’s meere vassals.
1753. Chesterf., Lett. (1774), IV. 6. His history of the Croisades.
1769. Blackstone, Comm., IV. 416. The knight errantry of a croisade against the Saracens.
β. 1611. Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., IX. xx. (1632), 965. A Croisado against the Turkes.
c. 1645. Howell, Lett., IV. xix. (1892), 592. A Croisada to the Holy Land.
1758. Chesterf., Lett., cxxxi. This gave rise to the Croisadoes, and carried such swarms of people from Europe to the … Holy Land.
γ. 1631. Weever, Anc. Fun. Mon., 793. To preach the Crusado.
a. 1678. Marvell, Poems, Britannia & Raleigh. Her true Crusada shall at last pull down The Turkish crescent and the Persian sun.
1765. H. Walpole, Otranto, v. (1834), 249. Until his return from the crusado.
δ. 1706. Phillips, Croisado or Crusade.
c. 1750. Shenstone, Ruined Abbey, 118. Here the cowl’d zealots … Urg’d the crusade.
1755–73. Johnson, Crusade, Crusado: see Croisade.
1781. Gibbon, Decl. & F., III. lxi. 546. The principle of the crusades was a savage fanaticism.
1841. W. Spalding, Italy & It. Isl., II. 318. A single campaign of the first crusade, that of 1099, embraces the whole action of the piece.
1856. Emerson, Eng. Traits, Relig., Wks. (Bohn), II. 96. The power of the religious sentiment … inspired the crusades.
b. transf. Any war instigated and blessed by the Church for alleged religious ends, a ‘holy war’; applied esp. to expeditions undertaken under papal sanction against infidels or heretics.
1603. Florio, Montaigne, II. xxvii. (1632), 393. George Sechell … who under the title of a Croysada, wrought so many mischiefes.
1624. Bp. Mountagu, Gagg, 95. Urban the eight, that now Popeth it, may proclaime a Croisado if hee will.
1681. Burnet, Hist. Ref., II. 122. Afterwards croisades came in use; against such princes as were deposed by popes.
1875. Stubbs, Const. Hist., III. xviii. 106. Commander of a crusade against the Hussites.
2. fig. An aggressive movement or enterprise against some public evil, or some institution or class of persons considered as evil.
1786. T. Jefferson, Writ. (1859), II. 8. Preach, my dear Sir, a crusade against ignorance.
1839. De Quincey, Recoll. Lakes, Wks. 1862, II. 184. This new crusade against the evils of the world.
1855. Milman, Lat. Chr. (1864), IV. VII. i. 25. Dunstan’s life was a crusade … against the married clergy.
Mod. The Temperance crusade.
† 3. A papal bull or commission authorizing a crusade, or expedition against infidels or heretics.
1588. (title) The Holy Bull and Crusado of Rome, first published by the Holy Father, Gregory the XIII.
1643. Prynne, Sov. Power Parl., App. 64. They concluded to crave ayd from all Christian Princes, and a Crossado from the Pope against the Moores.
a. 1677. Barrow, Popes Suprem., Wks. 1859, VIII. 50. To summon or commissionate soldiers by croisade, &c. to fight against infidels.
1724. T. Richers, Hist. Royal Geneal. Spain, 247. The Pope, willing to help the King to sustain this War, sent him the Croisade, by which Means he raised 300,000 Ducats.
1771. Goldsm., Hist. Eng., I. 317. The pope published a crusade against the deposed monarch.
† 4. Span. Hist. A levy of money, or a sum raised by the sale of indulgences, under a document called Bula de la cruzada, originally for aggression or defence against the Moors, but afterwards diverted to other purposes. Obs.
The sale of the indulgences granted under the Bula became a permanent source of revenue, held by the kings of Spain in consideration of expenses incurred by them as champions of Catholicism and in the conversion of the American Indians. A board for the collection and administration of these revenues was created in the 16th c. called Consejo de la Cruzada, the court or tribunal of the Crusade.
1579. Fenton, Guicciard., I. (1599), 30. The moneys gathered in Spaine … vnder colour of the Croysade. Ibid., XII. 566. The Pope had transferred to the king of Aragon for two yeares the moneys and collections called the Croissards of the realme of Spaine.
1630. R. Johnson’s Kingd. & Commw., 531. His Subsidies which he levieth extraordinarily (of late times for the most part turned into ordinary, as his Croisados).
1655. Digges, Compl. Ambass., 288. To suffer a levy of money to be made vvithin his Dominions, termed by the name Crusado, for the maintenance of the Turkish Wars.
1716. in Lond. Gaz., No. 5480/3. The President of the Cruzada is ordered to draw up a perfect Account of the intire Produce of the Cruzada, as well in Spain as in the Indies.
1760–72. trans. Juan & Ulloa’s Voy. (ed. 3), II. VII. xii. 132. Here [Peru] is also a court of inquisition, and of the croisade.
† 5. A marking with the cross; the symbol of the cross, the badge borne by crusaders. Obs.
1613. Zouch, Dove, 43. Like the rich Croisade on th’ Imperiall Ball.
1641. Prynne, Antip., 299. He tooke up the Crossado and went … with King Richard … to the warres in the holy Land.
1700. Tyrrell, Hist. Eng., II. 772. He took upon him the Crusado, i.e. Vowed an Expedition to the Holy-Land.
† b. fig. (with allusion to ‘cross’ in the sense of trial or affliction). Obs.
1654. R. Whitlock, Ζωοτομια, 531. The Noble Order of the Cruysado Heaven bestoweth not on Milk-sops. Ibid., 533. The Cruysado, or Crosse of Christ, above all Orders taken up by the Potentates of the World.
6. attrib.
1750. Carte, Hist. Eng., II. 706. The crusado troops of cardinal Beaufort.
1764. Harmer, Observ., XVIII. i. 43. The Croisade army arrived there in the end of May.
Crusade, obs. f. CRUSADO, Portuguese coin.
