Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Maps and Figures
- Introduction
- 1 ‘Justinian’s Laws, not the Lord’s’: Eugenius III and the Learned laws
- 2 Curial Politics and Papal Power : Eugenius III, the Curia, and Contemporary Theological Controversy
- 3 The Cistercians, Eugenius III, and the Disputed York Election
- 4 Eugenius III and the Crusades to the East
- 5 Eugenius III and the Northern Crusade
- 6 The Benefits of Exile
- 7 Eugenius III and France: the Protected Protector
- 8 A Golden Rose and the Deaf Asp that Stoppeth her Ears: Eugenius III and Spain
- 9 Eugenius III and the Roman Commune
- 10 Eugenius III Reclaims the Patrimony of St Peter
- 11 Eugenius III’s Privileges to Cistercian Houses
- 12 Eugenius III at Cîteaux, 1147
- 13 Eugenius III and the Church in the Crusader States
- Index
4 - Eugenius III and the Crusades to the East
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 December 2020
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Maps and Figures
- Introduction
- 1 ‘Justinian’s Laws, not the Lord’s’: Eugenius III and the Learned laws
- 2 Curial Politics and Papal Power : Eugenius III, the Curia, and Contemporary Theological Controversy
- 3 The Cistercians, Eugenius III, and the Disputed York Election
- 4 Eugenius III and the Crusades to the East
- 5 Eugenius III and the Northern Crusade
- 6 The Benefits of Exile
- 7 Eugenius III and France: the Protected Protector
- 8 A Golden Rose and the Deaf Asp that Stoppeth her Ears: Eugenius III and Spain
- 9 Eugenius III and the Roman Commune
- 10 Eugenius III Reclaims the Patrimony of St Peter
- 11 Eugenius III’s Privileges to Cistercian Houses
- 12 Eugenius III at Cîteaux, 1147
- 13 Eugenius III and the Church in the Crusader States
- Index
Summary
Abstract
While some historians have generally assigned to Bernard of Clairvaux an overwhelmingly dominant role in the Second Crusade, others have accused Eugenius III of ‘remarkable passivity’. This chapter suggests that the pope's suitability and competence to organize the crusade has been seriously underestimated and offers further investigation to lead towards his rehabilitation. In particular, an examination of the background to Eugenius III's crusade encyclical Quantum praedecessores of 1 December 1145 and the process which resulted in the reissuing of this letter on 1 March 1146 reveals that the pope's circle of advisors played a more influential role in determining the form of the encyclical than has hitherto been thought. Quantum praedecessores represented a real landmark in the development of crusading.
Keywords: Quantum praedecessores; Edessa; Alberic; cardinal bishop of Ostia; Divini dispensatione I; Zangī; ruler of Aleppo and Mosul; Bernard of Clairvaux
Bernard's unanimous election as Pope Eugenius III provoked a scathing reaction from his fellow-Cistercian, Abbot Bernard of Clairvaux:
God have mercy on you [the papal Curia]; what have you done? … What reason, what counsel, made you … suddenly rush upon this rustic, lay hands upon him when hiding from the world, and, knocking away his axe, mattock or hoe, drag him to the palatine, place him upon a throne, clothe him in purple and fine linen, and gird him with a sword…? Had you no other wise and experienced man amongst you who would have been better suited to these things? …Ridiculous or miraculous? Either one or the other… I fear that he may not exercise his apostolate with sufficient firmness.
Other contemporaries described the pope as a man of eloquence and wisdom, but the pervasive words of Abbot Bernard – buttressed by his hagiographers’ reports of countless miracles during his preaching tour – have tended to colour historians’ views of Eugenius and his suitability to steer a crusade. This, in turn, has caused them to assign Bernard an overwhelmingly dominant role in the campaign and thereby to seriously underestimate Eugenius's contribution to the history of the crusades. Barber wrote that the abbot ‘almost single-handedly put together a crusade which neither pope nor king [Louis VII, 1137–80] had been able to launch on their own, and consequently the Second Crusade bears Bernard's stamp’
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Pope Eugenius III (1145–1153)The First Cistercian Pope, pp. 125 - 146Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2018