Original sentence: Likewise, some modern historians in the west express moral outrage - for example Steven Runciman, the leading western historian of the Crusades for much of the 20th century, ended his history with a resounding condemnation: "High ideals were besmirched by cruelty and greed.. the Holy War was nothing more than a long act of intolerance in the name of God".This contrasting view is not recent, as Christians have in the past struggled with the tension of military activity and teachings of Christ to love ones enemies and to turn the other cheek
Edited sentence: At the same time, the pre-Renaissance Europe of the High Middle Ages was just beginning to recover from its (hypothesised) 700-year cultural stagnation following the fall of the Roman Empire.Likewise, modern historians in the west express moral outrage - for example Steven Runciman, the leading western historian of the Crusades for much of the 20th century, ended his history with a resounding condemnation: "High ideals were besmirched by cruelty and greed.. the Holy War was nothing more than a long act of intolerance in the name of God".The Arab view of barbarism is in part supported by the contrast that the Crusades occured during the "Islamic Golden Age" (750–1200), which Arab historians saw as a Muslim period of particular wealth and enlightenment, although some scholars disagree with this hypothesis.This contrasting view is not recent, Christian "holy war" is, and always has been, inherently contradictory - sanctified slaughter (and self-sacrifice) in the name of Christ, whose teachings said to love ones enemies, to turn the other cheek to the aggressor, and who warned those who took up the sword died by the sword