This study was devoted to the preaching and mobilization of the Third Crusade, a subject that has not received meaningful scholarly attention so far despite the enormous historical significance of this expedition. The study set out by tackling two important methodological dimensions that have accompanied us throughout: first, a pivotal issue consisted in the question of which sermon material is pertinent to the crusades and specifically the Third Crusade, while being confronted with the fact that âcrusade sermonâ is an anachronistic category that cannot help us in the selection of sources. Second, the strong narrativity in crusade studies, largely dependent on the chronicles, required review, since these accounts are so poor when it comes to preaching activities. The same scholarship ignored the vast sermon material which provides us with a far more diverse picture and thus thwarts the story that scholars have told to date. This study harvested the corpus of the nine preachers of the Third Crusade (c.630 texts) for crusade-related material, concluding that 42 texts are definitely pertinent to this purpose. Among these, 30 have been categorized as holding high crusade potential, that is, the crusade is their primary purpose, whereas 12 hold possible crusade potential, in agreement with a sermonâs model nature. Among those with high potential, a causal relationship with mobilizing the venture has even been asserted in 25 cases (instead of only a thematic relationship), that is, contributing to these efforts was the textâs primary concern. These 42 texts include, for example, eight sermons on the cross, three on Advent, and four on Palm Sunday (see table 8). They also include eight sermons that broach the events of 1187 as well as ten texts that contain strong allusions to the same (see table 9). In sum, rich materials have been unearthed that allow the Third Crusade to be examined in unprecedented depth as to the questions of what one preached and how preaching operated. These results show how worthwhile it is to consider sermon material broadly and without bias (that is, without being obstructed by modern categories or notions of established genres). The crusade presents itself as an intrinsic part of the contemporary preaching agenda, therefore such material can certainly help with understanding the mobilization of these ventures as well as the spirituality surrounding specific crusade motifs.
This study broached the issue of determining the crusade potential of these texts from different angles: first, a meticulous analysis has unearthed how one may encounter the crusade therein, spanning a number of approaches such as a sermon announcing a holistic program (hence including the crusade and the earthly Jerusalem) or developing crusade-related identities (such as militant examples). The tables provided in this study concisely depict the parameters which permitted the assertion of crusade potential in a specific case (especially tables 9â11). Second, these results were corroborated by other crusade-specific texts, as the corpus of crusade-related elements assembled them (table 1). This substantiated that a specific element had at least a crusade echo, but often even a crusade-specific coloring in the contemporary discourse. For example, Ez. 9 was a pivotal reference for making sense of the events of 1187, while database searches show that it was hardly used before 1187. Third, the textual analyses were corroborated by the four dimensions of context that confirmed and encouraged the textsâ entanglement with the crusading purpose. After a sermon had revealed high potential, the same was corroborated, for example, by its media context presenting it within a cluster of crusade materials or being preceded by a prologue that announces such a purpose. The contextualization proved, therefore, that my textual analyses followed the right track: consequently, one can unearth the crusading purpose of sermon texts with some methodological creativity and a multi-angled approach. This is very much indebted to a discourse analysis, which delivers analytical categories and helps to bring order to the evidence.
This study started with the assertion that seven of the nine preachers remain invisible in the chronicle reports, and that crusade scholars relied far too heavily on these accounts, which are not representative sources. This is not surprising, since it is not to be expected that preaching events were usually remodeled into historiographical narrativesâthis was an absolute exception. Most preachers and most preaching activities remain invisible in chronicles and, consequently, in previous scholarship. This even pertains to the most eminent preachers of their age such as Alan of Lille, as well as to those who were closely connected with political protagonists, such as Ralph Ardens, Richard Lionheartâs chaplain. As a result, this study fundamentally shifts the existing story regarding the question of who preached the crusade: numerous agents were active far beyond the spotlight shone on popular figures and large recruitment events. This included anonymous figures who yet left us their sermon texts, evidence that proves their expertise and activity in the field. These surfaced in a twofold manner: on the one hand, in the form of specific texts that only survived anonymously; and on the other, via the archeological evidence of the codices that all presented unique compositions. This finding demonstrates that anonymous editors and preachers were active in reusing and implementing the materials provided by the renowned mastersâand this in varying geographical and institutional settings. Every existing codex can be read as evidence of the materialâs use in a specific context; this is the very reason why it was composed. This is substantiated by their form and composition; they were not meant for preserving an authorâs works in a library, but were vitally entangled with preaching efforts, supplying material for this purpose. In some cases, it was even possible to relate a codex to a preacherâs biography (such as with Alan of Lille) or a specific historical context.
Regarding both the vast number of surviving sermons and their practice-related nature permeating the manuscripts, the rich materials of the late 12th century point to another essential result, encouraging what other scholars have already argued. Popular and frequent preaching did not fall out of the sky with the friars, but it drew on a steady process of development that originated at least in mid-12th-century Paris. By the end of the century, these efforts and the corresponding written material were already elaborate and widespread. This includes the rich transmission of preaching aids (especially Distinctiones), as well as idiosyncratic experiments that tried to find new ways to supply others with preaching material (for example, Henry of Albanoâs treatise). As a result, scholars often underestimated the importance of popular preaching for the period preceding the friarsâand this preaching was significantly intertwined with and fueled by the objective of mobilizing and preparing crusades. These results also contest the idea that a crusade was imposed or orchestrated by the Curia. The widespread protagonists show that it was a much more diverse affair, probably including quite a number who acted more or less independently of papal policies (even just considering the cumbersome nature of long-distance communication). Preachers were essential brokers who set trends on a local level; they were much more important than the pope for shaping ideas and mobilizing specific groups. Furthermore, this study has shown how worthwhile it is to consider sermons through a historianâs lens, that is, relating them to historical phenomena, instead of considering them as mere spiritual or theological texts existing in a vacuum. Refuting the notion of model sermons being timeless and unspecific, it demonstrated how profoundly these sources can contribute to understanding historical phenomena. A historian sees different things in these texts than scholars from other disciplines; we therefore need more historians using these as a source and bringing them more into the mainstream of the historical discipline. This approach has great innovative potential, being adaptable for both further crusade ventures and sermonsâ entanglement with other historical phenomena.
This study not only thwarts the existing story as to the dissemination and operating mode of the preaching effort, but also as to the nature of the expedition itself. The sermons have shown how omnipresent and boldly eschatological beliefs surface; and these were intrinsically interwoven with the Holy Land as the stage for the End of Days. This called historical agents to travel to this region when they believed the End was nigh, as expressed itself in the massive Third Crusade. These beliefs articulated themselves in a number of pivotal ideas such as the notion that Jerusalem had been in an eschatological state since the days of the First Crusade, or that the earthly city was a literal gateway to heaven, or the creative use of prophecies in the sermons, often adapting their verb tenses to assert a prophecyâs fulfillment, a most meaningful device. These ideas also demonstrate that the Third Crusadeâs preachers were building on existing discourses that had been alive since 1099 (especially visible in the use of Is. 11:10 and the adaptation of its verb tense, a phenomenon found throughout the century). This finding indicates that eschatological beliefs were not only pertinent to the Third Crusadeâeven though the events of 1187 granted them particular urgencyâbut there is still much potential for developing our understanding, an endeavor that would benefit from the consideration of further sermon collections.
Similarly, the eschatological lenses help with making sense of what was happening during the crusade itself. They help in explaining why the massive army under Barbarossaâs command dissolved soon after his death, since it was now clear that he could not be the Last World Emperor. They help with understanding Richard Lionheartâs self-perception when he commanded the (in military terms unnecessary) slaughter of thousands of Muslims, since he embodied the role of the Last Emperor, eager to fulfill the prophecy that Joachim of Fiore had uttered to him (an unprecedented massacre among âthe pagansâ). The lenses provided by the sermons thus transform the understanding of the expeditionâs nature and course, once more profoundly shifting the existing story, and contesting the approach of viewing such phenomena through rational or military lenses. While the reader may recall that this study does not claim that sermons were the only factor at play in the maze of mobilization or in shaping crusade spirituality, its results show that sermons were undeniably an important factor. These sources deliver new explanations for historical events and actions. This also demonstrates why it needs historians, not so much to write history, but to critically review the writing of history. The chronicles, on the other hand, only contain a limited number of eschatological elements for a simple reason: such beliefs were obviously disappointed by the crusadeâs failure (especially obvious with Barbarossaâs death), an outcome that fundamentally distorted the picture, but shaped an eventâs commemoration and hence the modern narrative. A glance into the First Crusadeâs chronicles corroborates this argument, where eschatological beliefs are still exorbitant, since this expedition did not disappoint them. Considering sermon texts and other sources created prior to a venture is thus essential to understanding its drives and outlooks. This can contribute to understanding the ideas that crusaders had in their minds, and why they deemed it worthwhile to leave their homes behind, departing on such a burdensome and dangerous journey.
The notion that preaching primarily addressed the fighting class, another idea stemming from modern rational lenses, likewise requires revision. The sermons and the preachersâ other efforts do not show such a limitation, quite the contrary: they conceive throughout of a pan-Christian agenda, understanding crusading as the duty of all Christendom. This surfaced specifically in sermons (for example, by Ralph Ardens) that even call on university audiences to go on crusade. It is another significant result that I have not found a single utterance that would prohibit monks from crusading, whereas the preachers very much involved them in the efforts (such as Henry of Albanoâs treatise being addressed to his brothers in Clairvaux). Sometimes, they even joined the venture themselves (such as Baldwin of Canterbury). This stands in sharp contrast to Bernard of Clairvaux, and this study explained this egalitarian drive through the vivid eschatological outlook, since the final battle would only know the righteous and the damned, but no kings, monks, or peasants. The sermons have shown that crusade-related texts addressed a variety of audiences, encompassing different purposes such as instructing other clerics in crusade preaching (six such texts have been identified; see table 6). Thus, one cannot identify a crusade-related sermon by its audience, critically because âcrusadersâ were a far too heterogeneous group and a temporary identity, overlapping with or replacing other types of identity.
Pertinent results have also been unearthed as to how the preachers constructed their vision of the Holy Land and subsequently transmitted this to wide audiences. They did not care about collecting actual information, neither about the current events nor as to using earlier sources such as the chronicles of the First Crusade or Peter the Venerableâs works on Islam. They developed their vision solely on the basis of the Bible, since this was the right source in their understanding, the divine revelation, which contained everything they needed for preparing a crusade. This includes, for example, the construction of typological ties, understanding the crusadersâ actions as a repetition or embodiment of biblical precedent (significantly visible in the conception of the sea, causally linked to the Exodus), or a prognosis for the future by implementing prophecies (and often dragging them into the present via their adaptation). This also includes specific biblical verses that provided lenses for describing and hence for imagining and commemorating the events in East (for instance, via Job 9:24 or Ez. 9:4). In terms of a discourse analysis, the Bible was the pivotal instrument for constructing knowledge and thus for developing a historical reality; this is even more pertinent considering the historical situation of the Holy Landâs factual distance and invisibility in daily life in the West. Even though this may be a common approach for a religion of the book, this study argued that these dynamics were fueled by conflicts within the early University of Paris. Whereas the early scholastics increasingly studied non-biblical texts, in particular ancient philosophical works, the reformers took issue with these developments and emphasized even more that all knowledge must come from the Bible (epitomized with 1â¯Cor. 2:2 in many texts). This made other sources of knowledge suspicious or even dangerous, but at least worthless for the rationale of crusade preparation. One thus observes how a specific institutional context very much affected a historical context, the crusade movement.
This leads to the issue of crusade-specific language and terminology, an essential point of departure for this study, very much related to the challenge of identifying sermon texts pertinent to the crusading purpose. This studyâs rich materials have shown that one must not limit oneself to specific terms (such as crucesignati), since the linguistic devices that may verbalize âthe crusadeâ or âcrusadersâ are far too manifold and versatile, being also subject to authorial creativity. Several of our authors tried to establish new terms in reaction to the events of 1187, in order to make sense of the situation, thereby engendering terminological diversity (such as Ralph Ardens with aquilae for crusaders or Peter of Blois with facies testamenti for the Cross relic). Although specific terms and biblical references may lend themselves to the crusade, they cannot claim exclusivity for verbalizing this purpose. We must always approach such texts unbiased, remaining open to new linguistic forms that may express âthe crusade,â that is, the meaning of a journey to the East and the Churchâs defense against its diverse enemies. There is also a simple reason why an unequivocal terminology did not exist: exegesis and liturgy provided the language for perceiving and theorizing the phenomenon, thus interweaving it intrinsically with daily religious practice. A motif like Jerusalem is always pertinent to crusading when used in this periodâeven though the historian must still try to determine a textâs crusade potential. Even though expeditions to the Holy Land undoubtedly had their idiosyncrasies, owing to the regionâs place in salvation history and the End of Days, one observes that the Holy Landâs spaces and other crusade ideas were used in manifold contexts such as for agitating against scholasticism, as visible with Alan of Lille and Prevostin of Cremona.
The methodological devices that this study developed have the potential to find application in future research on sermons and crusade mobilization, but more generally on how the Christian meta-structure (exegesis, liturgy, apocalypticism) can help us in understanding the crusade movement. This study thus pushes the developments that the field has seen in recent years a step further by offering concrete tools for asserting a sermon textâs crusade pertinence (see tables 9â11). These tools can be applied to other contexts, for example, the Second Crusade or the vast unpublished materials from the 13th century that are still waiting. The study asserted within the entire corpus of sources (c.630 sermons) that c.7 per cent of the texts have crusade potential, whereas c.4 per cent even betray a causal relationship with crusadingâbut altogether, c.22 per cent have found consideration, that is, texts containing crusade-related elements. All these can serve the examination of crusade spirituality, even if we cannot pin down the purpose of mobilization. These are highly pertinent sources for crusade studies that should find their way into the scholarly mainstream far more often, especially into the large narrative depictions of such expeditions. Considering that we have around 140,000 sermon texts for the period between 1150 and 1350, and presupposing that the amount of crusade material is similar overall, we can surmise that the following numbers are still waiting in the archives: if c.4 per cent of the 140,000 sermons betray a causal relationship with crusade mobilization, this makes around 5600 texts. If c.7 per cent hold crusade potential, this makes around 9800 texts. And if c.22 per cent contain crusade motifs, this makes the enormous number of c.30,800 textsâwhereas previous research has only tackled around 100 texts. Vast masses of material are still waiting to be scrutinized by scholars, which also requires time-consuming work with manuscripts. This study has shown ways for harvesting such and for determining the crusade in the same. Considering such in future research can very much transform our understanding of the crusade movement and its forces, as this study did specifically for the Third Crusade by revising numerous notions of previous scholarship, reviewing the prevalent narrativity in modern historiography, and offering a far more nuanced picture of how mobilization operated.
In agreement with a discourse analysis, this included moving beyond the single text: this has been achieved (a) through a comparative perspective within the entire corpus that unearthed numerous parallels, patterns, and hence a vivid preaching agenda; (b) by bringing order to the evidence, including clarifying the purpose and value of particular genres (with the essential sketch at the studyâs outset); the outcome of this very much informed the various tables; and (c) by considering the manuscripts as archaeological artefacts for the materialâs use and dissemination. Furthermore, (d) this study kept a comparative perspective with letters (including switching a textâs label between letter and sermon), since these sources substantiate the spatial and societal distribution of ideas, proving that the ideas presented in the sermons undeniably left a clerical or monastic register. Similarly, (e) it examined the nine preachersâ involvement in several mechanisms of mobilization: their writings are not haphazard survivors, but they were essential protagonists who shaped and organized several devices for recruiting crusaders. This included their extensive contacts with bishops who were mobilizing the crusade and/or participating in it. Finally, (f) this study anchored the sermon texts classified as crusade-related in their historical context with the help of the liturgical calendar: this meant identifying preaching occasions such as councils or preaching tours at the time of a liturgical feast a sermon is ascribed to. This endeavor yielded numerous fitting occasions. All these approaches thus substantiated and corroborated my analyses of the texts, making clear that the sermons identified were indeed close to the mobilization of the Third Crusade and meant for broad lay audiences. Thanks to a discourse analytical approach, this blended investigating their contents with the events and mechanisms of mobilizing crusader armies.
The preachers investigated in this study, both the nine authors and the anonymous protagonists who edited and reused their material, were all distributing the preaching agenda of the Third Crusade as well as a general discourse that stemmed from the events of 1187. This discourse had a momentous impact, as visible, for example, in Innocent IIIâs opening sermon for the Fourth Lateran, which was very much indebted to readings that the Third Crusadeâs preachers established. This microcosm not only sheds light on the particular expedition, but helps with understanding several significant phenomena developing thereafter. This includes the strenuous drive for popular preaching that would fuse into the establishment of the friars; the relentless crusading efforts of the succeeding decades (including developing the concept of crusading); the further development of the universities and, thus, of the organization of learning and knowledge; and overarching church policies, for example, as to the issue of heresy that would lead to the establishment of inquisitorial procedures. The Third Crusade and the preachers that made this expedition were the pivotal origin or at least a vital boost for all these developments. As a result, it is not too much to say that those preachers, in the microcosm of preparing this expedition, a time of heightened productivity and emotional outburst, significantly shaped the further development of European history and culture.