Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of Abbreviations
- Map of Western Europe, the Mediterranean and the Latin East (c.1145)
- Introduction
- 1 The Monastic Response to the First Crusade
- 2 The Foundations of Crusading Spirituality, 1095–c.1110
- 3 Pilgrimage, Mimesis and the Holy Land, 1099–c.1149
- 4 The Cistercian Influence on Crusading Spirituality, c.1128–1187
- 5 The Introduction of Crusading to Iberia, 1096–c.1134
- 6 The Development of Crusading Spirituality in Iberia, c.1130–c.1150
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
1 - The Monastic Response to the First Crusade
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of Abbreviations
- Map of Western Europe, the Mediterranean and the Latin East (c.1145)
- Introduction
- 1 The Monastic Response to the First Crusade
- 2 The Foundations of Crusading Spirituality, 1095–c.1110
- 3 Pilgrimage, Mimesis and the Holy Land, 1099–c.1149
- 4 The Cistercian Influence on Crusading Spirituality, c.1128–1187
- 5 The Introduction of Crusading to Iberia, 1096–c.1134
- 6 The Development of Crusading Spirituality in Iberia, c.1130–c.1150
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Crusading, Pilgrimage and Monasticism
On 7 October 1096 Pope Urban II addressed a letter to the brethren of the congregation of Vallombrosa. He was writing in response to news he had received about the desire of certain members of that congregation to join the armed pilgrims of the First Crusade who were setting out from the West to liberate Jerusalem and the Holy Land from the perceived oppression of Islam. It was Pope Urban's intention to clarify to the Vallombrosans the Church's position on participation in the crusade by those who had already sworn themselves to a monastic life:
This is, indeed, the right kind of sacrifice, but it is planned by the wrong kind of person, for we were stirring the spirits of knights for this expedition … we do not want those who have abandoned the world and have vowed themselves to spiritual warfare either to bear arms or to go on this journey – in fact, we forbid it.
Urban went on to describe the inherent spiritual danger of the crusade for professed religious, before concluding that the full force of papal sanction – the ‘sword of apostolic excommunication’ – would be used against those who went against his injunction; he also instructed that all the monasteries of the Vallombrosan congregation should be made aware of the contents of his letter.
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- Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2008