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The Formation of the ‘Crusade Idea’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2011

E. O. Blake
Affiliation:
Senior Lecturer in History, University of Southampton

Extract

In order to understand the crusading movement it has always been necessary to define what was understood by the ‘crusade’ as a religious exercise within the Christian tradition. This attempt to identify the ‘crusade idea’ goes back to the earliest commentators on the First Crusade, but has gained increasing vitality during the last thirty years. It is not a matter of weighing the relative importance of, on the one hand, the religious and, on the other, the secular or political motives, but of describing the content of the nova religio as such. In this sense Erdmann, who first set up the subject as capable of disciplined study, traced the antecedents in socio-religious forms of behaviour without which the Kreuzzugsidee could not have been conceived, regarding it as in its essentials formulated at the launching of the First Crusade, with Jerusalem as only a minor and ancillary target. Alphandéry, to single out another notable contributor to this type of study, diagnosed the dramatic emergence of a distinctive idée de croisade during the very course of the First Crusade, concentrated on the deliverance of the Holy Places, a unique experience never to be wholly repeated. Another notion of the ‘crusade’ was developed by Rousset—an institution de salut with its characteristic ideology, entertained generally during the first half of the twelfth century.5 There are studies also of the ideas associated with crusading in the crusade appeals, preaching, justification and criticism of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, in the forms of procedure, and in Latin and vernacular poetry.

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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1970

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References

page 11 note 1 For the literature to 1955 see X Congresso Intemazionale di Scienze Storiche 1955, Relazioni, iii., 547 ff. For more recent studies see Mayer, H. E., Bibliographic zur Geschichte der Kreuzzüge, Hannover 1960Google Scholar and Atiya, A. S., The Crusade, History and Bibliography, Indiana 1962Google Scholar. Cf. also Saunders, J. J., Aspects of the Crusades, Canterbury, N.Z., 1962, ch. iGoogle Scholar.

page 11 note 2 Alphandeéy, P. and Dupront, A., La Chrétienté et l'idée de Croisade, i, Les Premières Croisades (L'Evolution de l'Humanité xxxviii) Paris 1954Google Scholar, (cited hereafter as Alphandéry-Dupront, i.), 32.

page 11 note 3 Erdmann, C., Die Entstehung des Krcuzzugsgedankens, Stuttgart 1935Google Scholar.

page 11 note 4 Alphandéry-Dupront, i.

page 11 note 5 Rousset, P., Les Origènes et les Caractères de la Première Croisade, Neuchâtel 1945Google Scholar and X Congresso Intenazionale …, Relazioni, iii. 547–63.

page 11 note 6 See below, 30.

page 12 note 1 The problem is further complicated by the absence of a Latin word for ‘crusade’ in eleventh and twelfth-century usage, Rousset, op. tit., 70; Villey, M., La Croisade, essai sur la formation d'une thiérie juridique, L'Eglise et l'état au moyen âge, ed. Arquillière, H.-X., vi. Paris 1942, 248–54Google Scholar.

page 12 note 2 Erdmann, op. cit., esp. 105, 123, 309.

page 13 note 1 Ibid., 252–53, 268–69, 272, 300–01, 313. Also much of the evidence for the growing ecclesiastical acceptance of the miles comes from a limited range of sources, especially associated with Cluny, Cassino and Fleury.

page 13 note 2 For the pre-history of the crusade indulgence the works of Gottlob, A., Kreuzablass und Almosenablass, Stuttgart 1906Google Scholar and Paulus, N., Geschichte des Ablasses in Mittelalter, Paderborn 1922Google Scholar are still indispensable. Cf. Poschmann, B., Der Ablass im Licht der Bussgeschichte, Bonn 1948, 5456Google Scholar.

page 13 note 3 Op. cit., esp., for what follows, 10–27.

page 13 note 4 Gottlob, op. cit., 204–7. But cf. Paulus, op. cit., 31 ff.

page 13 note 5 Alphandéry-Dupront, i. 20–26.

page 14 note 1 See Erdmann, op. cit., 149–53, 210–11; Alphandéry-Dupront, i., 30–31; Gregorii VII Registrum (ed. E. Caspar, M.G.H. in usum scholarum, Epistolae Selectae), i. 46, 69–71; ii. 31, 165–68; ii. 37, 173. Cf. Ullmann, W., The Growth of Papal Government in the Middle Ages, 3rd. ed. 1965, 306–08Google Scholar.

page 14 note 2 Ullmann, op. cit., 306, esp., n. 4.

page 14 note 3 See the explicit reference to Gregory's plan in the Liber Pontificalis, cited by Ullmann, op. cit., 307, n. 2; cf. Erdmann, op. cit., 308–09.

page 15 note 1 Of attempts to define aspects of popular piety in a social context the studies of Schreiber, G., Gemeinschaften des Mittelalters, 1948Google Scholar, are still the most suggestive. Otheruseful insights are gained from recent work on the Truce or Peace of God movement; see esp. Hoffmann, H., Gottesfriede und Treuga Dei, M.G.H. Sckriften, xx., Stuttgart 1964Google Scholar and Töpfer, B., Volk und Kirche zur Zext der beginnenden Gottesfriedensbewegung, 1957Google Scholar. The chronology of developing feudalism supports at first sight the notion that crusading might have been adopted as something of a ‘status symbol’ of the new feudal groupings emerging from among the seniores and assuming the traditional functions of an older nobility. But the composition of the crusade force was too heterogeneous and the current state of research on the nobility in Francia is too fluid to allow any certain conclusions. See, e.g., Duby, G.La Soctéié aux XIe et XIIe sièles dans la région mâconnaise, Bibliothèque Générale de l'école Pratique des Hautes Etudes, XVe section, Paris 1953, 196–99Google Scholar, and for a view of the ritterliche Laienreligiosität as the chief carrier of the crusade idea see Waas, A., ‘Der Heilige Krieg’, Die Welt als Geschichte, xix. (1959), 211–22Google Scholar and Geschkhte der Kreuzzüge, i. 30–52.

page 15 note 2 Erdmann, op. cit., 185 ff., 310–31; cf. Ullmann, op. cit., 308, n. 1; Wentzlaff-Eggebert, F.-W., Kreuzzugsdichtung des Mittelalters, Berlin 1960, 79CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

page 15 note 3 Alphandéry-Dupront, i. 44–65. This should be compared with Cohn, N., The Pursuit of the Millennium, London 1957, 3374Google Scholar.

page 15 note 4 Alphandéry-Dupront, i. 10 ff.

page 15 note 5 See Erdmann, , ‘Endkaiserglaube und Kreuzzugsgedanke im 11. Jahrhundert’, Zeitschrift f. Kirchengeschichte, Dritte Folge, ii. li (1932), 384414Google Scholar.

page 15 note 6 One must not of course assume that this sympathy for the Jerusalem pilgrimage and warfare was necessarily widely distributed throughout ecclesiastical circles. The evidence collected by Erdmann and Alphandéry is not extensive in bulk, and there are examples of important voices raised in opposition. See Erdmann, Entstehung, 212–49, 275.

page 16 note 1 Ullmann, op. cit., 307.

page 16 note 2 See above, 14.

page 16 note 3 Ullmann, op. cit., 307.

page 16 note 4 Ibid., 307, n. a with references. Cf. Alphandéry-Dupront, i. 23–24, 75–76.

page 16 note 5 See Erdmann's argument that Gregory VII ‘appropriated to a high degree the ethical idea of Christian knighthood’ (op. cit., 197 ff.).

page 16 note 6 The comparison is most suggestive if this version of the legend can be dated before the First Crusade. But it has force also if it belongs only to the first quarter of the twelfth century. See ibid., 276 ff.; Ullmann, op. cit., 307, n. 2, 308, n. 1; Alphandéry-Dupront, i. 51–52.

page 17 note 1 Reg., i. 46, pp. 69–70.

page 17 note 2 Erdmann uses sources written before 1100 only (op. cit., 279, n. 121; 364–65, 375. Cf. Alphandéry-Dupront, i. 33–35; Unfortunately Urban II's Kreuzzugspolitik is excluded from A. Becker, Papst Urban II, 1. Teil, M. G. H. Schriften, 19/I (1964), being reserved for a second volume.

page 17 note 3 Alphandéry-Dupront, i. 35–42.

page 17 note 4 H. Hagenmeyer, Die Kreuzzugsbriefe aus den Jahren 1088–1100, Innsbruck 1901, 137.

page 17 note 5 Ibid., 136.

page 17 note 6 Ibid., 164f.

page 17 note 7 Op. cit., 306–07, and especially Excursus V, 363–77.

page 18 note 1 Erdmann accepts that an example of such ‘crusade indulgences’ is found as early as 1063 (op. cit., 125).

page 18 note 2 Ibid., 307, 374.

page 18 note 3 Council of Clermont, canon 2 (Mansi, Sacrorvm Conciliorum Nova et Amplissima Collectio, xx. 815, c. 2). Cf. Urban II's letter to Bologna:’.… qui illuc non terreni cornmodi cupiditate sed pro sola animae suae salute et ecclesiae liberatione profecti fuerint, paenitentiam totam peccatorum, de quibus veram et perfectam confessionem facerint … ’: Hagenmeyer, op. cit., 137.

page 19 note 1 Alphandéry-Dupront, i. 33–35, 47–56, 61–65, 78–79.

page 19 note 2 Ibid., i. 90–97.

page 19 note 3 Ibid., 95, 97, 128–9.

page 20 note 1 Ibid., 100–20. wholly derived from Raymond of Aguilers. Cf. H. H. and L. L. Hill, Raymond IV de Saint Gilles, 73–80.

page 20 note 2 Especially Robert of Rheims and Guibert of Nogent; see below, 25; Alphandéry-Dupront, i. 37–41.

page 20 note 3 Cf. Beumann, , ‘Kreuzzugsgedanke und Ostpolitik in hohen Mittelalter’, Hist. Jahrbuch, lxxii. (1953), 120, n. 38Google Scholar, who, following Erdmann, makes the particular point that the deliverance of Jerusalem can be shown to have been developed as the objective after the event in the literature from 1105.

page 21 note 1 Hagenmeyer, op. cit., 167–73.

page 21 note 2 Ibid., 164–65.

page 21 note 3 This sense of satisfaction seems to lie behind the boast of Stephen of Blois to his wife that his wealth had doubled since his departure: ibid., 149.

page 21 note 4 Cf. Alphandéry-Dupront, i. 20 on the characteristics of pilgrimage ritual and organization and Rousset (op. cit., 146) also for this ‘stratégic spirituelle’.

page 21 note 5 Recueil des Hisloriens des Croisades, Historiens Occidentawc, (R.H.C. Occ), iii. 235; P.L., civ. 591.

page 21 note 6 R.H.C.Occ, iii. 238; P.L,, civ. 594.

page 22 note 1 R.H.C.Occ, iii. 269; P.L., civ. 626–27.

page 22 note 2 Cf. Munro, D. C., ‘A Crusader’, Speculum, vii. (1932), 327–31Google Scholar.

page 22 note 3 R.H.C.Occ, iii. 324; P.L., civ. 828. The miles ‘adhuc positus in terris, jam gloriabatur in coelis’, R.H.C.Occ., iii. 409; P.L., civ. 883.

page 22 note 4 R.H.C.Occ, iii. 384; P.L., civ. 869.

page 22 note 5 R.H.C.Occ, iii. 391; P.L., civ. 871.

page 22 note 6 R.H.C.Occ, iii. 412–13; P.L., civ. 885–87.

page 22 note 7 R.H.C.Occ, iii. 375–76; P.L., civ. 864.

page 22 note 8 R.H.C.Occ, iii. 464–65; P.L., civ. 922.

page 22 note 9 M.G.H., Scriptores, vi. 222.

page 23 note 1 See Alphandéry, , ‘Les Citations Bibliques chez les Historiens de la Première Croisadé, Rev. de l'histoire des Religions, cxcix. (1929), 138–57Google Scholar. Only on citation clearly occurs in more than one account: ‘Beata gens, cuius est Dominus Deus eius, populus quem elegit’ (Ps., xxxii.); in Ekkehard, Raymond, Fulcher and Robert of Rheims.

page 23 note 2 Fulcher, R.H.C.Occ, iii. 328; P.L., clv. 831.

page 23 note 3 Ed. R. Hill, 92, 6; cf. 40, 62, 70, 72, 76, 80, 81, 85. For an emphasis on the protection of the cross see 15, 37, 83 and the allusions to the New Testament ascribed to the preaching of Urban II.

page 23 note 4 Ibid., 58.

page 23 note 5 Ibid., 60.

page 23 note 6 Ibid., 65–67.

page 23 note 7 Ibis., 74.

page 23 note 8 Ibid., 90.

page 24 note 1 Cf. Gesta Francorum, xi.; Alphandéry-Dupront, i. 82; Runciman, S., A History of the Crusades, Cambridge 1951, i. 328–31Google Scholar; for the evidence especially Hagenmeyer, H., Anonymi Gesta Francorum, Heidelberg 1890, 4892Google Scholar. Albert's dates are variously given, e.g. as late as c. 1150 by Alphandéry.

page 24 note 2 Hagenmeyer, Kreuzzugsbriefe, 167–73.

page 24 note 3 This is stressed by Alphandéry with reference especially to Robert of Rheims and Guibert, but for a more detailed examination see Boehm, L., ‘Die “Gesta Tancredi” des Radulf von Caen’, Hist. Jahrbuch, lxxv (1956), 4772Google Scholar (cf. Glaesener, H., ‘Raoul de Caen, Historien et Ecrivain’, Rev. Hist. Eccl, xlvi (1951), 521Google Scholar) and ‘“Gesta Dei per Francos”— oder “Gesta Francorum”? Die Kreüzziige als historiographisches Problem’, Saeculum, viii (1957), 43–81. For Albert of Aix see Knoch, P., Studien zu Albert von Aachen, Stuttgarter Beiträge z. Geschichte und Politik, i, 1966Google Scholar.

page 24 note 4 R.H.C.Occ, iv. 11; P.L., clxvi. 1063.

page 24 note 5 M.G.H. Scriptores, vi. 212.

page 24 note 6 R.H.C.Occ., iv. 272; P.L., clxvi. 389.

page 25 note 1 See above, 24.

page 25 note 2 See Alphandéry, art. cit.; Boehm, art. cit., Saeculum, viii.

page 25 note 3 R.H.C.Occ, iv. 223; P.L., clxvi. 789.

page 25 note 4 Cf. Smalley, B., The Study of the Bible in the Middle Ages 2nd. ed., Oxford 1952, 243–45Google Scholar.

page 25 note 5 R.H.C.Occ, iv. 237; P.L., clxvi. 806.

page 25 note 6 R.H.C.Occ., iii. 739; 881–82; P.L., civ. 677, 757–58; e.g. Is., xliii, 56; lx., 9–11, 15, 16; xi., 10.

page 25 note 7 E.g. Is., lxvi., 10; M.G.H. Scriptores, vi. 218, 266.

page 25 note 8 Ibid., 266–67, using I. Cor., x. 11; Ps., cl. 17; Eccle., xxxvi. 15; Is., lxvi. 10.

page 25 note 9 R.H.C.Occ, iv. 100–01; P.L., clxvi. 1142.

page 25 note 10 Cf. Alphandéry-Dupront, i. 150.

page 25 note 11 Cf. Boehm, art. cit., Hist. Jahrbuch, lxxv., 69–70, but also Glaesener, art. cit., 7, who sees Ralph's Tancred as ‘penetrated as none other, except perhaps Godfrey of Bouillon, with the idea that the crusader must fight for the conquest of the two kingdoms, to gain possession first of the terrestrial Jerusalem as a preparation for gaining the celestial’.

page 26 note 1 R.H.C.Occ, iv. 14–15; P.L., clxvi. 1067–68.

page 26 note 2 R.H.C.Occ, iv. 19; P.L., clxvi. 1072.

page 26 note 3 R.H.C.Occ, iv. 95; P.L., clxvi. 1137.

page 26 note 4 A common sentiment in this context (cf. Gregory VII, above, 16), but a special favourite with Baudri, R.H.C.Occ, iv. 30, 44, 46, 71; P.L., clxvi. 1083, 1094, 1096, 1118.

page 26 note 5 R.H.C.Occ, iv. 124, 223, 225, 245; P.L., clvi. 685, 789, 791–92, 816. Cf. Boehm, art. cit., Saeculum, vii. 43–81.

page 26 note 6 R.H.C.Occ, iv. 381, 481; P.L., clxvi. 473, 550. Cf. also his account of a vision of St. Ambrose, R.H.C.Occ, iv. 416; P.L., clxvi. 502 and Alphandéry-Dupront, i. 150.

page 26 note 7 R.H.C.Occ, iv. 493, 551; P.L., clxvi. 559, 604.

page 26 note 8 Cf. Alphandéry-Dupront, i. 147–54; Runciman, op. cit., ii. 249, 252.

page 26 note 9 See Villey, op. cit., 197–206 and in X Congresso Internationale. …, Relazioni, iii. 578; also Gaztambide, J. Goni, Historia de la Bula de la Cruzada en Espana, Victoria 1958Google Scholar, but cf. the review by Engels, O. in Hist. Jahrbuch, lxxxi. (1962), 348–49Google Scholar.

page 27 note 1 It is frequently cited as an example of the ‘crusading epic’, but, it seems, only in the general sense that it was influenced from ‘a great source of inspiration which was flowing strongly through all this eventful century, viz., the war against the infidel’: Crossland, J., Medieval French Literature, Oxford 1956, 206Google Scholar. This is not the place to refer to the vast literature on the Song of Roland. The examples chosen by Rousset (op. cit, 114, 115, 121, 124, 126–8) show no more than this. He regarded the gestes as expressing the idéal de croisade even though there is no mention of the Holy Land, indulgence or cross: ibid., 112. Cf. Erdmann, op. cit., 264–65; Wentzlaff-Eggebert, op. cit., 77–9, 8 for an interesting comparison between the French and German Song of Roland; also Waas, op. cit., i. 41ff.

page 27 note 2 Erdmann, op. cit., 229ff. and Wentzlaff-Eggebert, op. cit., 5–6, 330–33 for a summary of Bonizo's De Vila Christiana. Cf. Maurer, F., ‘Das Ritterliche Tugendsystem’, Deutsche Vierteljahrschrift f. Literaturwissenschaft u. Geistesgeschichte, xxiii. (1949), 274–85CrossRefGoogle Scholar and G. Ehrismann, Geschichte der Deutschen Literatur bis zum Ausgang des Mittelalters, ii. 16–17, 41, 149f., 278.

page 27 note 3 For what follows see De Laude Novae Militiae: P.L., clxxxii. 921–40, esp. 923–34. Cf Alphandéry-Dupront, i. 158–59; Rousset, op. cit., 154–68; Willems, E., ‘Citeaux et la seconde croisadé, Rev. d'hist. eccl, xlix. (1954), 116–51Google Scholar.

page 27 note 4 P.L., clxxxii. 924: ‘securus interimit, interit securior’.

page 27 note 5 Chronica, ed. Hofmeister, A., Scriptores Rerum Germanicarum, (1912), 320Google Scholar.

page 27 note 8 Cf. Wentzlaff-Eggebert, op. cit., 48–49. For a somewhat similar analogy relating to the expedition against the Slavs made in 1108 see Beumann, art. cit., 119.

page 28 note 1 The Second Crusade as seen by Contemporaries’, Traditio, ix. (1953), 213–79Google Scholar.

page 28 note 2 Ibid., 265.

page 28 note 3 See also Beumann (art. cit.), who discusses the relationship of the crusades against the Wends in 1147 to the Jerusalem pilgrimage.

page 28 note 4 Constable, art. cit., 265; cf. Villey, op. cit., passim, especially 243–68 and in X Congresso Intemazionale …, Relazioni, iii. 557–91. It is accepted that Eugenius III built consciously on the precedent set by Urban II, but he is credited by some with a further development in the concept of the indulgence: Gottlob, op. cit., 106–09; Constable, art. cit., 249–52.

page 28 note 5 Cf. Constable, art. cit., 248–49, 253, 265; Gottlob, op. cit., 106–09; Scherwin, , Aufrufe der Paepste, Historische Studien, 301 (1937), 75Google Scholar; Villey, La Croisade, 106–11, 206, 270.

page 29 note 1 Ep., 363: P.L., clxxxii. 565.

page 29 note 2 De Consideratione: P.L., clxxxii. 743.

page 29 note 3 Ep., 363: P.L., clxxxii. 566.

page 29 note 4 De Consideratione: P.L., clxxxii. 743–44.

page 29 note 5 It is essential to read St. Bernard together with the various comments on the crusade made by the group of writers discussed above. This bears out Rousset's conclusion that Bernard ‘no doubt contributed to developing the ideal of the crusade, but he has not played a decisive part. St. Bernard can not have formed an ideal which had already existed for half a century’ (op. cit., 163). The ideal had not existed all this time, but the imagery and vocabulary shared by St. Bernard was being developed. But see Wentzlaff-Eggebert's claims for Bernard's original contribution (op. cit., 20–28). Cf. also E. Willems, art. cit., 116–51.

page 30 note 1 Wentzlaff-Eggebert, , Kreuzzugsdichtung des Mittelalters, Berlin 1960CrossRefGoogle Scholar and cf. also Ritterliche Lebenslehre und Antike Ethik’, Deutsche Vierteljahrschrift f. Literaturuuissenschaft und Geistesgeschichte, xxiii. (1949), 269–72Google Scholar. See also Bumke, J., ‘Studien zum Ritterbegriffim 12. und 13. Jahrhundert’, Beihefte zum Euphorion, zeitschriftf. Literaturgeschichte, 1. Heft, Heidelberg 1964, 112–14Google Scholar. For the themes of crusade appeals and preaching the essential studies are Cramer, V., ‘Zur Geschichte und Characterisierung der Kreuzzugspredigt’, Das Heilige Land, 7980 (1935–6)Google Scholar; ‘Die Kreuzzugspropaganda der Paepsté, ibid., 81 (1937); ‘Kreuzzugspredigt und Kreuzzugsgedanke von Bernhard von Clairvaux bis Humbert von Romans’, ibid., 81–82 (1937–38); and Schwerin, U., Aufrufe der Paepste, Historische Studien, 301 (1937), 43, 63, 97Google Scholar. For recent study of other signs of the influence of the crusade on the poetry of the period see Szklenar, H., Studien zum Bild des Orients in Vorhoefischen Deutschen Epen, (Palaestra, 243), Goettingen 1966Google Scholar.

page 30 note 2 See for instance Das Itinerarium Peregrinorum, ed. Mayer, H. E., M.G.H., Schriften, 18, Stuttgart 1962, 278Google Scholar: ‘imperator Fredericus sacre peregrinationis assumit insignia et veri formam peregrini tam exteriore habitu quam interiore depromit affectu’. Cf. Waas, op. cit., ii. 67–67 for poets who display the Kreuzzugsgeist.

page 31 note 1 Compare Innocent Ill's mobilisation of the crusade concept against the Albigensian heresy, his emphasis on the original papal motive for crusading in justifying the Fourth Crusade (on the grounds that the Church of Constantinople had returned to her mother, the Roman Church), and his evocation of a rounded image of the Jerusalem iter in preaching the Fifth Crusade.

page 31 note 2 For an early example see Flahiff, G. B., ‘“Deus Non Vult”. A critic of the Third Crusadé, Medieval Studies, 1947Google Scholar, and for its later development Throop, P. A., Criticism of the Crusade, Amsterdam 1940Google Scholar.