Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T15:36:48.488Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Missionaries and Crusaders, 1095–1274: Opponents or Allies?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Elizabeth Siberry
Elizabeth Siberry*
Affiliation:
Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The Christian missions to the Muslims in the Near East during the Central Middle Ages have already attracted much attention from historians, but as yet no real attempt has been made to analyse the relationship between those who advocated peaceful conversion by means of preaching and teaching, in other words a programme of missionary work, and the crusaders, who sought to defeat the enemies of the faith in battle. In the past, historians have tended to portray advocates of missions as opponents of the crusades and it has been suggested that by the late thirteenth century, as a result of a series of Christian defeats in the Near East. the missionary ideal had won a great deal of support and that this was one of the factors which contributed towards the decline of the crusading movement. The aim of this paper is to challenge this thesis. The first step towards this reappraisal will be to examine the attitude of certain prominent supporters of a policy of peaceful conversion towards the crusades.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 20: The Church and War , 1983 , pp. 103 - 110
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1983

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Examples of the extensive literature on this subject are Daniel, E.R., The Franciscan concept of mission (Kentucky 1975)Google Scholar and Richard, [J.], [La papauté et les missions d’Orient au moyen âge XIIIe-XVe siecles (Rome 1977)].Google Scholar

2 Throop, [P.A.], [Criticism of the crusade. A study of public opinion and crusade propaganda (Amsterdam 1940)] p 288 Google Scholar; Runciman, S., ‘The decline of the crusading idea’. Relazioni del X congresso intemazionale di scienze storiche. Storia dei medievo, vol 3 Google Scholar. Bibliotheca storica sansoni, nuova serie vol 24 pp 650, 652; Prawer, [J.], [Histoire du royaume Latin de Jérusalem, 2 vols (Paris 1970) l]pp 389–90 Google Scholar: Stickel, [E.], [Der Fall von Akkon (Frankfurt 1975)] pp 224–40.Google Scholar

3 See Bishko, C.J., ‘Peter the Venerable’s journey to Spain’ Studia Anselmiana 40 (1956) pp 163–75.Google Scholar

4 Kirtzeck, J., Peter the Venerable and Islam (Princeton 1964) pp 14, 27-30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5 Ibid p 231.

6 See ibid pp-20-3, 161; Leclercq, J., Piene le Vénérable (Abbaye Saint Wandrille 1946) pp 248-9.Google Scholar

7 Berry, [V.G.], [’Peter the Venerable and the crusades’ Studia Anselmiana 40 (1956) pp 141-62.Google Scholar

8 Peter the Venerable, Letters, [ed Constable, G. 2 vols (Cambridge, Massachusetts 1967)] I p 141.Google Scholar

9 Peter the Venerable, ‘Sermones tres’ ed Constable, G., Revue Bénedictine 44 (1954) pp 232–54.Google Scholar

10 Berry pp 147-50, 154-62.

11 Peter the Venerable, Letten I p 220. See also Constable, ‘Opposition to pilgrimage in the Middle Ages’, Studies in religious life and thought — eleventh and twelfth centuries (London 1979) pp 136-7.

12 See Richard pp 34-7; Schwinges, R.C., Kreuzzugsideologie und Toleranz (Stuttgart 1977) p 273.Google Scholar

13 Oliver of Paderborn, Die Schuften ed H. Hoogeweg (Tübingen 1894) p 299.

14 ‘Un serventois, plait de déduit de joie’ Chansons de croisade, edd J. Bédier and P. Aubry (Paris 1909) pp 252-3.

15 See Longnon, J., ‘Les vues de Charles d’Anjou pour la deuxième croisade de Saint Louis: Tunis ou Constantinople’ Septième centenaire de la mort de Saint Louis (Paris 1976) pp 191–2, 195.Google Scholar

16 ‘Fortz tristors es e salvaj’a retraire’, ‘Les derniers troubadours de la Provence’ ed P. Meyer, Bibliothèque de l’école de chartes 30 (1869) p 286.

17 See Stickel p 233; Prawer p 389.

18 S Bonaventure, ‘Vita Sancti Francisci’ Golubovich, series 1, Annali voi 1 pp 33-5; Thomas of Celano, ‘Vita Sancti Francisci’ ibid p 17.

19 ‘L’estoire de Eracles’ RHC Occ II, pp 348-9.

20 For this thesis see Bréhier, L., ‘Les missions franciscaines au moyen âge’ Saint François d’Assise: son oeuvre-son influence 1226-1926, edd Lemaître, H. and Masseron, A. (Paris 1927) pp 288–9 Google Scholar; H. Daniel-Rops, Cathedral and crusade: studies of the Medieval church, 1050-1350 trans. J. Warrington (London 1957) p 501; G. Basetti-Sani, ‘Francis of Assisi’, Concilium 7 (1968) pp 9-10.

21 See James of Vitry, Lettres ed R.B.C. Huygens (Leiden 1960) pp 132-3.

22 Richard pp 41-7.

23 See ‘Bulle d’Innocent IV pour la croisade’ ed Delorme, P.F., Archivům Franciscanum Historicum 6(1913) pp 386–9 Google Scholar; Urban IV, Registres ed J. Guiraud (Paris 1901) I no 326.

24 Matthew Paris accused the friars of greed and complained that they gave the cross indiscriminately to the poor, the old and the sick; Chronica maiora ed H.R. Luard (London 1872-80) IV pp 9, 133-4, 635; V pp 188-9, 400-1, 405.

25 Paulinus of Venice, ‘Chronologia magna’ ed Golubovich (Florence 1913) II p 87; Vincent of Beauvais, ‘Memoriale omnium temporum’ MGH SS XXIV p 161; Salimbene, [’Cronica’, MGH SS XXXII] p 218.

26 Moorman, History p 301.

27 Marsh, Adam, ‘Epistolae’ ed Brewer, J.S., Monumenta Franciscana 2 vols (London 1955) [ pp 416, 431,434-7.Google Scholar

28 See Throop pp 11-23, 69-104, 115-213.

29 See Mortier, R.P., Histoire Jes maîtres généraux de l’ordre des frères prêcheurs 2 vols (Paris 1903) I pp 521–3, 527-32.Google Scholar

30 Humbert of Romans, ‘Opus tripartitum’ [ed Brown, E., Fasciculus reram expetandarum et fugiendarum 2 vols (London 1690) II] p 195.Google Scholar

31 Peter Lombard, ‘Sententia’ PL 192, col 711. See also Riley-Smith, J.S.C and Riley-Smith, L., The Crusades: Idea and reality 1095-1274 (London 1981) pp 9, 29, 54.Google Scholar

32 Gratian, ‘Decretum’ Corpus iuris canonici ed A. Friedberg 2 vols (Leipzig 1879-81) Causa 23 quaestio 6 canon 4: 1. See also Summa ‘Elegantius in iure divino’ seu Coloniensis, edd Fransen, G. and Kuttner, S. (New York 1969) p 74.Google Scholar

33 See Walter Map, De nugis curialium ed James, M.R. (Oxford 1914) p 47 Google Scholar; Niger, Ralph, De re militari et triplici peregrinationis Ierosolimitane ed Schmugge, L (Berlin 1977) pp 65–6, 168, 196.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

34 Aquinas, Thomas, Summa Theologka ed Caramello, P. (Rome 1962) II ii quaestio 10 art 8.Google Scholar

35 Bacon, Roger, Opus maius ed Bridges, J.H. 3 vols (London 1897-1900) III pp 120–2. Google Scholar

36 Idem, ‘Opus tertium’ and ‘Compendium studii philosophiae’ ed J.S. Brewer, Operu quaedam hactenus inedita (London 1859) pp 86, 402-3.

37 Humbert of Romans, ‘Opus tripartitum’ p 196.

38 William of Tripoli, ‘De statu Saracenorum’ ed Prutz, H., Kulturgeschichte der Kreuzzuge (Berlin 1883) pp 517–18.Google Scholar

39 See Throop pp 120, 122; Prawer pp 389-90.

40 For further details, see Bloomfield, M.W., ‘Joachim of Flora: a critical survey of his canon, teachings, sources, biography and influence’ Traditici 13 (1957) pp 249–313.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

41 See Reeves, M., Joachim of Fiore and the prophetic future (London 1976) pp 2–22.Google Scholar

42 Joachim of Fiore, Expositio super Apocalypsim (Venice 1527) fol 133v-134v and Liber Figurarum edd Tondelli, L., Reeves, M. and Hirsch-Reich, B., 2 vols (Turin 1953) II Pl.14Google Scholar. See also Daniel, E.R., ‘Apocalyptic conversion: The Joachite alternative to the crusades’ Traditio 25 (1969) pp 137–9 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Siberry, J.E., ‘Criticism of Crusading, 1095-1274’ (unpub. Cambridge Ph.D. thesis, 1982) pp 240-3Google Scholar.

43 See Reeves, M., [The] influence of prophecy [in the later Middle Ages: A study in Joachimism (Oxford 1969)] p 518.Google Scholar

44 Idem ‘Abbot Joachim’s disciples in the Cistercian Order’ Sophia 19 (1951) p 367.

45 Salimbene pp 236-7.

46 Pseudo Joachim, Super Hieremiam Ptophetam (Venice 1525) fols 2v, 50v, 57r -58r. For a similar prophecy see Reeves, Inßuence of Prophecy p 312.

47 Pseudo Joachim, Super Esaiam Prophetam fol 56v and Praemissiones (Venice 1517); Reeves, Influence of Prophecy p 521.

48 Salimbene pp 492-5.

49 See Reeves, M., ‘History and Prophecy in medieval thought’ Meâievaha et Humanística new series 5 (1974) pp 63–4 Google Scholar.