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
Conclusion
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
Shortly after his release from a Cairo gaol, probably in the summer of 1103, the first crusader Odo Arpin of Bourges was travelling home to France with a number of years of campaigning and later incarceration in the East behind him. According to Orderic Vitalis, Odo Arpin had stopped en route for an audience with Paschal II, where he had sought the pope's advice about his future spiritual welfare. Paschal was said to have acknowledged the penitential value of Odo Arpin's endeavours in the Holy Land and described how the crusade had acted as a spiritually cleansing experience, but he also enjoined Odo Arpin not to return to the ‘muddy road’ of secular life:
Look into your heart, my son … and apply [yourself] to the correction of your life. You have been cleansed by confession and penance, and girded with the raiment of holiness through your difficult pilgrimage and the agonies of martyrdom … Secular life is a muddy road, which you should shun at all costs for fear of becoming spattered and losing the crown of the sufferings by which you are glorified. Take care, therefore, not to be like the dog returning to his own vomit or the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire. Never again bear arms against Christians, but shun worldly pomps like one of the true poor of Christ. So as a follower in the footsteps of Christ (imitator vestigiorum Christi) in works of justice, renouncing your own will through hope of a heavenly reward, you will find bliss in winning the prize of your heavenly calling with the faithful in Abraham’s bosom.
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- Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2008