1st Edition

The Crusades, Holy War and Canon Law

By James A. Brundage Copyright 1991
    304 Pages
    by Routledge

    This volume is concerned, above all, with the legal background and the juristic issues behind the ideology and practice of the medieval Crusades. This is an area that the author was the first to investigate systematically, and there are two particular reasons for his approach: one, the conviction that the historical phenomenon of the Crusades can only be adequately understood within the context of the legal systems that permeated the age; the other, that so much of the documentary evidence ” be it charters, decrees even chronicles ” was produced by people whose perceptions had been shaped by the law. A number of articles focus on the roles of individual crusaders, or address ideological questions, including the very concept of Holy War. Others deal with practical issues and the nature of the obligations incurred by a crusader, and examine the consequences these had, both for the institutions of medieval Europe and for the crusader's own family relationships. Ce recueil s'attache avant tout au contexte légal et aux questions juridiques qui se trouvent à la base de l'idéologie et de la pratique des Croisades au Moyen Age. L 'auteur a été le premier à entreprendre des recherches de façon systématique dans ce domaine; deux raisons précises sont à l'origine de cette démarche premièrement, la conviction que seule la connaissance du contexte des systèmes légaux dont l'époque était imprégnée, permet de bien comprendre le phénomène historique des Croisades; deuxièmement, le fait que quantité de documents ” temoins ” chartes, décrets, ou encore chroniques ” sont l'oeuvre de gens dont la perception était grandement influencée par la loi. Un nombre d'études se concentrent sur la rôle individuel de certains croisés, ou s'adressent à des questions d'idéologie, y compris le concept même de la Guerre Sainte. D'autre traitent de questions d'ordre pratique, ainsi que de la nature des engagements contractés par le croisé; ils en examinent le

    Contents: Adhemar of Puy: the bishop and his critics; An errant crusader: Stephen of Blois; The Crusade of Richard I; Two canonical quaestiones; Richard the Lion-Heart and Byzantium; The army of the First Crusade and the crusade vow: some reflections on a recent book; The votive obligations of crusaders: the development of a canonistic doctrine; 'Cruce signari': the rite for taking the cross in England; A note on the attestation of crusaders' vows; St Anselm, Ivo of Chartres and the ideology of the First Crusade; Holy war and the medieval lawyers; The limits of the war-making power: the contribution of medieval canonists; A 12th-century Oxford disputation concerning the privileges of the Knights Hospitallers; A transformed angel (X. 3.31.18): the problem of the crusading monk; The 13th-century Livonian Crusade: Henricus de Lettis and the first legatine mission of Bishop William de Modena; The crusader's wife: a canonistic quandary; The crusader's wife revisited; Marriage law in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem; Christian marriage in 13th-century Livonia; Prostitution, miscegenation, and sexual purity in the First Crusade; Second thoughts; Index.

    Biography

    James A. Brundage

    'This book will be a useful work of reference to history and theology students at both undergraduate and post-graduate level. It will also be a welcome acquisition for post-doctoral researchers in the fields of Crusades, Canon Law and the history of medieval women.' Theological Book Review