Re: Inhumane Weapons

On Tue, 14 Nov 2000 14:54:20 -0800 (PST), Brian Burger
<yh728@victoria.tc.ca>
wrote:

>This reminds me of the Pope's attempt at arms control in the late
middle
>ages: the crossbow was so terrible a weapon that it was no longer to be
>used by Christians - when they were fighting other Christians.
>
>Against infidels, Arabs, pagans, and similar, it was prefectly
acceptable
>to use a crossbow.

It was a "terrible weapon" because it allowed relatively untrained
peasants to
penetrate the armour of noblemen. In fact, crossbows were less effective
than
longbows, in range, rate of fire, and armour penetration. But longbows
required a higher degree of skill to operate. You could also aim at
precision
targets easier with crossbows, hence their use in seige warfare. On the
battlefield, they were much less effective.

Allan Goodall		       awg@sympatico.ca
Goodall's Grotto:  http://www.vex.net/~agoodall

"Surprisingly, when you throw two naked women with sex
toys into a living room full of drunken men, things 
always go bad." - Kyle Baker, "You Are Here"