Scholarly record
GOD WANTS IT! WHAT WERE THE OBJECTIVES OF GOD ACCORDING TO THE CRUSADE PROPAGANDA?
Abstract
It is well known that the crusades were represented in propaganda as wars wanted by God. In the propaganda sources sometimes we see a slogan that God personally calls people to participate in the crusades. A lot of chronicle accounts describe God's help to crusaders during their expeditions to the East supported by accounts of miracles. At the same time, nobody has noted that the liberation of the Holy Land was probably not the only purpose of the crusades. From the first crusade onward the crusade was expected to go well only when the crusaders did not commit many sins. Some sources allow us to affirm that the papacy had the idea that God would allow the crusaders to enter and settle in Palestine only when they would merit it by the absence of sins. The Holy Land must be liberated, but only by people with pure souls. Furthermore, in the thirteenth century there was a spread of the idea that God could destroy the Saracens on his own, but tested his faithful in order to know how faithful they actually were. In fact, all the ideas together suggested that the liberation of the Holy Land was not the main goal of God, which in fact was to bring to this land only faithful people without sins who would settle there being elected by God.
Publication Impact Profile
Publication details
References15
Rousset P. Les origines et les caractères de la première croisade. Neufchâtel, 1945. P. 71-72; Völkl M. Muslime - Märtyrer - Militia Christi. Identität, Feindbild und Fremderfahrung während der ersten Kreuzzüge. Stuttgart, 2011. P. 83.
Fulcherii Carnotensis Historia Hierosolymitana / hsgg. von H. Hagenmeyer. Heidelberg, 1913. P. 134; Roberti Monachi Historia Iherosolimitana // Recueil des historiens des croisades. Historiens Occidentaux. T. 3. Paris, 1866. P. 729; William of Malmesbury. Gesta Regum Anglorum. Volume 1 / ed. R. A. B. Mynors. Oxford, 1998. P. 602.
Guibert de Nogent. Dei gesta per Francos et cinq autres textes / ed. R. B. C. Huygens. Turnhot, 1996. P. 86, 88; Baldrici episcopi Dolensis Historia Jerosolimitana // Recueil des historiens des croisades. Historiens Occidentaux. T. 4. Paris, 1879. P. 95; Roberti Monachi Historia Iherosolimitana. P. 723.
Völkl M. Muslime - Märtyrer - Militia Christi. Identität, Feindbild und Fremderfahrung während der ersten Kreuzzüge. Stuttgart, 2011. P. 83-98.
Itinerarium Peregrinorum et gesta regis Richardi / ed. W. Stubbs. London, 1864. P. 275.
Munro D. C. The Speech of Urban II at Clermont 1095 // American Historical Review. 1906. Vol. 11. № 2. P. 239.
Siberry E. Criticism of Crusading, 1095-1274. Oxford, 1985. P. 72-95.
Roberti Monachi Historia Iherosolimitana. P. 829; Baldrici episcopi Dolensis Historia Jerosolimitana. P.19.
Eugenii III pontificis Romani epistolae et privilegia. Epistola XLVIII. Ad Ludovicum regem Galliarum. De expeditione in terram sanctam suscipienda // Patrologia Latina. Vol. 180. Col. 1064.
Coelestini III pontificis Romani epistolae et privilegia. Epistola CII. Archiepiscopis et episcopis per Angliam constitutis scribit exercitus in Orientem profectos propter dissensiones non explevisse exspectationem // Patrologia Latina. Vol. 206. Col. 971.
Cole P. J. Preaching the Crusades to the Holy Land, 1095-1270. Cambridge-Massachusets, 1991. P. 223-225.
Innocentii III Romani pontificis regestorum sive epistolarum liber sextus, pontificatus anno VI, 202 // Patrologia Latina. Vol. 215. Col. 107-108.
Bernard von Clairvaux. Sämtliche Werke lateinisch/deutsch. Band III. Innsbruck, 1992. Brief 363. P. 313.
Innocentii III Romani pontificis regestorum sive epistolarum liber decimus, pontificatus anno XVI, 28 // Patrologia Latina. Vol. 216. Col. 817.
Maier C. T. Crusade Propaganda and Ideology. Model Sermons for the Preaching of the Cross. Cambridge, 2000. P. 186.
View or Download full articleAccess options
SWS access login
Login as SWS Scientific CommitteeLogin as SWS Scientific PartnerLogin as SWS AuthorAuthors and approved SWS contributors will read and export their own linked papers after identity matching by SWS profile, email and SGEM GlobalID.
For librarian assistance: [email protected]
Purchase Instant Access
- Article can be downloaded after successful payment.
- Article may be used according to SWS library access terms.
- Article cannot be redistributed.
