298 Crusades Lecture 12 March 7 Flashcards
Many western observers associated the Jerusalem expedition’s uniqueness with a general manifesto of
Spiritual redemption
Ecclesiastical discipline
Christian expansion
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Example of the first crusaders did not, however, lead to a succession of large expeditions east, especially after disaster of 1101.
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No mass movement emerged.
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The images, attitudes, and actions of the First Crusade disseminated across western society widely, but fitfully
Often as rhetorical evangelical tropes as much as calls to arms
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Popes integrated aspects of Urban’s expedition into their authoritarian role as leader and protector of Christendom, within and beyond its frontiers
Holy war’s language used against papal enemies in Italy; bandits in northern France; Muslims in Outremer and Spain
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Let’s start with some of the reception of the First Crusade
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Awareness of it pervaded western elite culture
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Scale and rapid production of histories by eyewitnesses and others. Remininiscences of returning veterans
Unparalleled in medieval history
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Most of the texts originated in monasteries and cathedrals, but reflected and excited secular interests: local heroes; national pride.
Stirring tales of faith, bravery, suffering.
Theologians distilled the message of God’s immanence and Christian duty
Miracles and butchery
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Accurate knowledge of Islam and the Prophet remained almost non-existent in the West until translation of the Koran in 1140s by Peter the Venerable.
Brief quickening of interest in 1099. Most accounts rely on Byz sources and polemics or mangled accounts from Spain and returning pilgrims
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Most discussion of Muslims remains racist and ignorant, never rising above the charactitures of medieval romances and epics.
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The histories of the crusades created an adventure-story narrative that fed the language of preaching.
See, for example, the calls to crusade at Clermont by Urban
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Not everyone saw this favorably. in mid-12th c., Gerhoh of Reichersberg, saw it as creating a creeping puritanism.
“no one dares to sing dirty songs in public”
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There were close connections between the warlike laity and their families with religious houses.
Interwoven social context for reminiscence, sermon, encyclical, chroncile, song
Physcial context of visual reinforcement
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Success of First Crusade silenced critics of the Gregorian propotion of penitential warfare
Encouraged papacy to brand its enemies as fit targets of holy war
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Penitential war also useful for secular conflicts.
Higher clergy in northern France used this vocabulary and grants of remission of sin to encourage the policing of lawlessness in the region.
Even when the malefactor, Thomas of Marle, was a crusade veteran and made immortal int he Chanson d’Antioche.
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Thomas of Marle’s career of pillage belied the myth that service in crusade engineered a form of spiritual conversion.
Qualities that produced mayhem in Europe had not been suppressed, only channelled elsewhere (And hopefully to a good cause)
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But for all this praise and lionizing of the Jerusalem expedition, early 12th century was not an “age of crusade”
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Rather, it was pilgrimage that became the prime focus, not armed conflict.
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Links with Jerusalem established the domestic respectability of lords, esp. kings.
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