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Essays in Medieval Studies, Volume 30, 2014, pp. 113-140 (Article)

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DOI: 10.1353/ems.2014.0005

For additional information about this article

http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/ems/summary/v030/30.ordman.html

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Chapter 8

Was It an Embarrassment of
Rewards? Possible Relationships between Religious Devotion
among Participants in the Second
Crusade, 11451149, and Their
Losses in the Field
Jilana Ordman
Benedictine University

According to the chroniclers who recorded the events of the Second Crusade
(11451149) and the bulls, letters, and sermons of its organizers, this expedition
was conceived with the goal of replicating the First Crusade of 10951099. But
these were very different undertakings with very different outcomes.1 Unlike the
1095 expedition, that of 1145 initially focused on the East but expanded during
recruitment to include additional missions to Iberia and the Baltic.2 While the
1095 crusade had achieved a dramatic victory in the East, only the 1147 Siege of
Lisbon, part of the Iberian mission undertaken to aid Alfonso VII of Castile and
Leon (11051157), was entirely successful. Military efforts in the Baltic resulted
in slight territorial gains, while those undertaken in the East failed entirely.
This article examines two elements shared by the First and Second Crusades:
the rewards for service offered to participants, and the expressions of religious devotion among them during their recruitment and in the field. Spiritual rewards in the
form of papal grants of forgiveness of sin and penance were offered both to those
who set out in 1146 and to those who did so in 1095. In 1146 these rewards were
in fact presented as based on those that had been promised in 1095. But in 1146 to
these rewards was also added the protection of participants families and possessions during their absence, as well as limited permission for looting. This expansion
suggests that the Second Crusades organizers recognized and sought to appeal to a
wider range of motives among participants. Given the success of the First Crusade,
and the purely spiritual motives that clerical chroniclers and secular epistolary authors presented in the expression of religious devotion by its participants, it must be
asked whether the Second Crusades chroniclers and epistolary authors presented
evidence of similar levels of devotion as evidence of participants motives. Or could
chroniclers have presented the material rewards offered to participants as lessening
the spiritual purity of their motives, thus suggesting an explanation for their defeat?
Essays in Medieval Studies 30 (2015), 113140. Illinois Medieval Association. Published
electronically by Project MUSE at http://muse.jhu.edu.

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Jilana Ordman

Historians have long examined the spiritual rewards offered to the First
Crusaders. The 1095 expedition was not the first military expedition for which the
papacy had granted spiritual rewards to participants.3 But many agree that Pope
Urban IIs (10881099) grant of remission of penance and/or sin to those who
participated in the First Crusade was a culmination of this practice, successfully
combining the ideas of holy war and pilgrimage.4 The popes influential call for
knights to travel to the East occurred at the Council of Clermont in November
1095. This stop was halfway through his tour of Frankish territories, a journey he
initially undertook to garner lay aristocrats support for his papacy during a period
of unrest in Rome.5 Clerics and prominent laymen attended the meeting at Clermont,
an event similar to others at which bishops and abbots had sought aristocrats and
their vassals participation in the Peace or Truce of God movements.6 The popes
recruitment sermon for the expedition to the East was delivered at the end of the
council. Segments of this sermon survive in the works of secular and regular clerical
crusade chroniclers. Whether authors reported this sermon from their own memory
or wrote according to others texts, their accounts provide the details that they
sought to portray as having resonated most strongly among the popes audience.7
Chroniclers described Pope Urban II presenting the motives that he wanted to
drive Christians participation in the expedition, as well as the rewards they would
be granted. They were to be motivated to action by personal ties to one another,
by the desire to defend all members of the faith throughout greater Christendom,
and by their devotion to God and Christ. Speaking to an audience familiar with
organized military action, the pope fit these human relationships into a secular
framework of duty to superiors and fellow knights, as well as of responsibility
to the weak.8 To highlight the devotional nature of the mission, he stressed that it
was to be undertaken according to and for the achievement of spiritual ideals. The
rewards the pope offered were entirely spiritual; the primary material elements of
the expedition he described were the physical suffering crusaders would experience and the sacrifices they would make as they sought those spiritual rewards.
In chroniclers most detailed descriptions of the spiritual rewards that Pope
Urban II granted crusaders, he explained that those who took the journey out of
devotion would receive remission of sin or penance, as well as heavenly peace,
glory, or martyrdom, from himself as pope, according to Gods will.9 Crusaders
would prove their devotion in their willingness to defend the Lord and fellow
Christians on a mission that would include innumerable sacrifices. One anonymous
chronicler described the pope warning potential recruits of the miserias, paupertas,
persecutiones, egestates, infirmitates, nuditates, famem, sitim et alias huiusmodi
[misery, poverty, nakedness, persecution, want, illness, hunger, thirst, and other
discomforts] that they would face.10 But these threats were intended to attract,
rather than frighten, potential recruits. According to the Anonymous chronicler,
the pope explained, Sicuti Dominus ait suis discipulis: Opertet vos pati multa
pro nomine meo. [As the Lord said to his disciples, It is required that you suffer

Was It an Embarrassment of Rewards?

115

many things for my name.].11 Participating knights were thus offered a way to
imitate Christ and his disciples.
The pope did mention, and condemn, the potential desire for material gain on
the part of the crusaders. Baldric of Dol reported that the pope stated, Horrendum
est, vos in Christianos rapacem manum extendere. [It is horrible that you extend a
rapacious hand against Christians.] (Historia Ierosolymitana, 15). But he assured
them, minus malum est in Sarracenos gladium vibrare, singulare bonum est; quia
et caritas est, pro fratricus animas ponere. [It is less evil to brandish your sword
against Saracens, and even a singular good, because it is charity to lay down your
life for your brothers.] (15). The fight against Christians enemies was apparently
never done from greed, from the popes perspective. Other surviving sources that
provide accounts of recruitment for this mission similarly illustrated Pope Urban
IIs focus on spiritual motives. Bishop Lambert of Arras, who attended the Council
of Clermont, organized his notes into a list of canons approved thereknown now
as the Liber Lamberti Atrebatensis.12 A single canon referred to the expedition to
the East, explaining that for those who undertook the expedition out of devotion
rather than for the attainment of honor or money, the journey would be considered
all of his penance.13
Pope Urban II described the rewards participants would receive in letters he
sent to Flanders, Bologna, and Tarragona, written soon after the Council of Clermont. Only the letter to the Bolognese directly mentioned recruits potential desire
for wealth and the danger to themselves and their property posed by participation
in the mission. As he explained,
Qui illuc non terreni commodi cupiditate sed pro paenitentiam
totam peccatorum, de quibus veram et perfectam confessionem
fecerint, per omnipotentis Dei misercordiam et archiepiscoporum
et episcoporum qui in Galliis sunt auctoritate dimittimus, quoniam res et personas suas pro Dei et proximi caritate exposuerunt.
[Those who travel not for the desire for goods of this world, have
made a true and perfect confession, will be relieved of penance
for all of their sins by the mercy of Almighty God, the prayers of
the archbishops and bishops who are in Gaul, and my authority,
since they have exposed their property and themselves to danger
on account of charity for their neighbor.]14
That the audience of the letter, the clergy and people of Bologna, may have
included men affiliated with the new university and law school thereand thus
concerned with burgeoning juridical theorymay have encouraged the popes
specificity.15 It is clear that participation in the First Crusade out of desire for wealth
was condemned in a number of sources. In this letter to the Bolognese the pope in

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Jilana Ordman

fact made it clear that exposing oneself and ones property to danger out of devotion to the faith was evidence of mens religious devotion and a sacrifice necessary
for their earning of spiritual rewards. It was not enough to simply not seek more
wealth: a crusader must seek to sacrifice what he already had.
Fifty-one years later, Pope Eugenius III (11451153) called for warriors to
engage in a new expedition to the East. He did so in a papal letter issued to the
king of the Franks from Rome, soon after his contentious election.16 Issuing this
letter was itself a challenge: after hearing of the loss of the city of Edessa he sent
out Quantum praedecessores for the first time on December 1, 1145. It was issued
again on March 1, 1146, after he learned that the initial letter may not have been
received.17 Because the pope was unable to travel to preach for recruitment and did
not trust that the new letter would arrive, he sought clerics to personally present
the letter for him.18 As a young man, Eugenius, while still Bernardo da Pisa, had
been a monk under Abbot Bernard of Clairvaux (11151128). So as pope he called
on his former abbot to become the primary preacher for the expedition, granting
him authority concerning participants recruitment that would be second only to
his own.19 The March 1 edition of Quantum praedecessores became the first public
call for crusade participation, delivered as a sermon by Abbot Bernard at Vzelay,
France, on March 31, 1146.20
Much like Pope Urban IIs sermon, Pope Eugenius IIIs Quantum praedecessores explained the motives he sought among Christian warriors for their joining
a military expedition to the East, as well as the rewards he would grant them.
Describing himself as following in the footsteps of his predecessor Pope Urban
II, Pope Eugenius III asked his readers or listeners to emulate the actions of those
who had previously successfully undertaken such a mission.21 Francorum regni
fortissimi et strenui bellatores, et illi etiam de Italia [the most courageous and
strongest of the French kingdom, and also those of Italy] had hurried to answer
Urban IIs call to action, he wrote, caritatis ardore succensi [inflamed by intense
love] (QP 1146, 90). The pope repeatedly returned to the religious devotion and
courage of the First Crusaders, reminding listeners of their forefathers link to the
East.22 The city in which the savior had suffered had been returned to Christian
hands, he explained, per gratiam Dei et patrum vestrorum studium [through the
grace of God and effort of your fathers] (90).23 But because Edessa had been ab
inimicis crucis Christi capta est, the pope wrote, ecclesie Dei et toti Christianitati
periculum immineat [captured by many enemies of the cross of Christ . . . there
is imminent danger to the Church of God and all Christianity] (91).
According to Pope Eugenius III, Christians had lost Edessa nostris et ipsius
populi peccatis . . . quod sine magno dolore et gemitu proferre non possumus
[on account of our sin and those of its people themselves . . . that we are not able
to mention without great grief and wailing] (QP 1146, 90). Physical or material
punishments for sin were expected, but Christians could avoid both further sins
and punishment by acting with greater devotion to the faith.24 Equally important,

Was It an Embarrassment of Rewards?

117

the enemies through whom the divine punishment was being delivered could be
stopped. Maximum namque nobilitatis et probitatis indicium fore cognoscitur
[it will be evidence of the greatest nobility and goodness], the pope explained, for
Christians everywhere strenue defendantur [to be bravely defended] by the sons
of the First Crusaders (90). Achieving what their ancestors had done would not
only help the new crusaders save other Christians from further punishment but end
their own sinfulness as well.
Pope Eugenius III offered spiritual rewards to recruits. He granted to those
qui tam sanctum tamque per necessarium opus et laborem devotionis intuitu
suscipere et perficere decreverint, illam peccatorum remissionem, quam prefatus
predecessor noster papa Urbanus instituit [who out of admirable devotion decide
to take up and complete so holy and necessary a labor and work, the remission
of their sins, as our aforesaid predecessor Pope Urban instituted] (QP 1146, 91).
A participant who reached his destination or died along the way would receive
remissionem et absolutionem for all sins quibus corde contrito et humiliato
confessionem susceperit . . . et sempiterne retributionis fructum ab omnium bonorum remuneratore percipiat [remission and absolution for all his sins for which
with a humble and contrite heart he undertakes confession . . . and he will receive
the fruit of eternal reward from the remunerator of all] (92).25
But Pope Eugenius III also introduced a new element to crusade recruitment,
an offer of material protections to those who undertook the expedition. These
protections in fact appeared before grants of spiritual rewards in his QP 1146. The
pope introduced them as enacted so that recruits could sanctum iter puro corde
inceperint [begin so holy a journey with a pure heart] (QP 1146, 92). Mens material concerns were clearly seen as an impediment to their focus on spiritual goals.
To reduce such distractions, the pope offered papal protection of the dependents
and personal properties of those who vowed to crusade (91). Vassal knights who
needed financial assistance to participate in the mission were to seek it from their
lords. But if their superiors did not help, Eugenius III granted them the right, by
papal authority, to pledge their lands, homes, and other possessions to the Church
or any of the faithful in exchange for such assistance (92). In contrast to what Pope
Urban II had presented in his sermon, it was apparently no longer necessary for
participants to expose their loved ones and personal property to danger in order to
receive spiritual rewards.
However, these spiritual rewards and new material protections came with new
expectations for participants in the crusade. Pope Eugenius III required that these
warriors follow new behavioral restrictions for their own benefit and that of the
mission. They were to leave behind valuable garments, armor, weapons, and even
hunting animals that could display wealth, inspire envy, or otherwise impede their
devotional focus (QP 1146, 9192).26 But these mens military capabilities were
not to be disrupted by these restrictions. They were to fight using talibus armis,
equis et ceteris, quibus vehementius infideles expugnent, totis viribus studium et

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Jilana Ordman

diligentiam suam adhibeant [such weapons, armor, horses, and other military
implements that will allow them to] violently conquer infidels, with all men focusing
on their own effort and diligence] (92). Crusaders religious devotion and courage
were to be displayed through their actions, with no extraneous display of wealth.
Abbot Bernard of Clairvauxs presentation of Pope Eugenius IIIs QP 1146
at Vzelay was a resounding success.27 According to crusade chronicler Otto of
Freising, the excitement of this meeting resulted in recruits from every location from
which attendees had come (Gesta Friderici I. Imperatoris, 58). At its end, King
Louis VII called for a new meeting in mid-February 1147, to plan for the expeditions departure soon afterward. During the intervening year Bernard of Clairvaux
traveled throughout eastern and western Frankish territories to preach for crusade
recruitment.28 His successful recruitment through sermons and letters has been
credited to his adjusting Pope Eugenius IIIs call for participants to convey a personal message to varied audiences.29 But this appeal to wider audiences ultimately
resulted in papal approval of additional missions beyond that which had originally
been planned for the East, as Bernards enthused listeners called for them.30
Historians and editors of Bernard of Clairvauxs letters have linked seven to
ten of those that survive to his crusade recruitment efforts. Three of these were likely
to have been presented as sermons.31 While Pope Eugenius III told his audience to
defend what their predecessors had done, Abbot Bernard instead called his readers
or listeners beatem dixerim generationem [the blessed generation] because of
the opportunities for salvation available to them (Epistola 363, 314). This was a
time so full of divine mercy, he asserted, that nec tam copiosum in patres nostros
gratiae munus effudit [not even our fathers received such a rich outpouring of
grace] (Epistola 458, 435). God was aiding this generation of crusaders by offering them spiritual safety in exchange for their opposing new threats to the faith.
Abbot Bernard told them to see themselves as personally honored, rather than called
only to live up to their ancestors.
According to Abbot Bernard, the promise of divine salvation should prevent
warriors who participated from experiencing fear of sin for their professional
activities. The abbot wrote, intuemini pietatis abyssum, et confidite, peccatores.
. . . Si vellet punire vos, servitium vestrum non modo non expeteret. [Consider
the depth of (the Lords) pity, sinners, and have confidence. Were he intent on
punishing you, he would not ask this service of you.] (Epistola 363, 31314).
Fighting to aid God should relieve warriors of their fear of divine punishment for
their sins, and thus of their fear of death in battle. Non vult mortem vestram,
sed ut convertamini et vivatis [he does not want your death but that you turn to
him and live] (Epistola 363, 314). Bernard further wrote, securum conflictum
ineat, ubi sit et vincere gloria, et mori lucrum [safe is the battle in which it is
glorious to conquer and a profit to die] (Epistola 458, 436). God would help
warriors survive such a conflict if they fought to become closer to him, and they
would be rewarded with further closeness if they were to die in the field. The

Was It an Embarrassment of Rewards?

119

abbot also encouraged Christians who were not warriors to join the expedition. To
merchants who could transport troops or provide supplies, he explained, Materia
ipsa si emitur, parvi constat; si devote assumitur humero, valet sine dubio regnum
Dei [the cost is small, the reward is great; if devotion is clearly borne from the
beginning, without a doubt the gain will be the kingdom of God] (Epistola 363,
315). All who participated from religious devotion would be rewarded, no matter
what their contribution.32
Bernard of Clairvaux also supported and preached for recruitment for at least
one additional mission to a new destination that became part of the Second Crusade.
His mid-March 1146 letter to clerics and laymen gathered in Magdeburg, Germany,
was also a sermon he had delivered at a gathering at Frankfurt earlier that year.33
After hearing of Saxon and German nobles desire to undertake a mission against
the Polabian Slavs, called the Wends, he had offered his support. According to the
abbot, God had inspired many ad faciendam vindictam in nationibus et extirpandos
de terra christiani nominis inimicos [to take vengeance on these enemy peoples
and remove them from Christian lands] (Epistola 457, 432). The abbot saw this
mission as necessary for the safety of the Christian faith throughout the world.
Suscitavit proinde semen nequam filios sceleratos, he wrote, paganos, quos,
ut pace vestra dixerim, nimis diu sustinuit christianorum fortitude. [Evil seed
has raised up evil sons, pagans, whom, it could be said, the bravery of Christians
has endured too long.] (432). Enemies of the faith were growing in number, and
Christians now had to confront them.
Bernard of Clairvaux assured readers and listeners that Saxons and Germans
who armed themselves and set out for the north would receive the same indulgentiam peccatorum quam et his qui versus Ierosolimam sunt profecti [indulgence of
sins as those who have departed toward Jerusalem] (Epistola 457, 433). However,
to reduce attrition from the mission to the East, only Christians who had not vowed
to go to Jerusalem were encouraged to go north (433). These new recruits would
be required to follow material restrictions similar to those that had been presented
to crusaders who had already agreed to travel east, but with some modifications. In
the letter he wrote in early 1147 to Duke Wladislaw of Bohemia and other nobles
in the region, the abbot called on potential participants in the northern mission to
reduce their outward display of wealth.34 But they were permitted to wear gold
or silver armor if they felt that their enemies, seeing it glitter in the sun, would
be filled with terrore [terror] (436). They were, however, specifically forbidden
from making truces with the enemy for financial gain, donec, auxiliante Deo, aut
ritus ipse, aut natio deleatur [until, with Gods help or by his own rites, the people
shall be wiped out] (433). Popes had not stated this restriction concerning the first
or second expeditions to the East. Such concerns reflect the history of failed German and Saxon missionary activity and trade ventures to the Baltic region going
back to the tenth century.35 Outbreaks of violence were regularly ended by Wends
agreements to treaties that included their conversion to Christianity and peaceful

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Jilana Ordman

trade with southern Germans and Saxons, but these rarely lasted beyond the reign
of one northern leader and more violence ensued.36
Bernard of Clairvauxs success in recruitment throughout Europe encouraged Pope Eugenius III to dispatch more letters. Adopting the abbots approach to
recruitment, papal letters after QP 1146 focused on the participants loyalty to God
as their leader as well as on the gifts he would grant them. The popes letter and
sermon, named by modern historians Divini dispensatione I, from October 1146,
and Divini dispensatione II, from April 1147, presented the crusade as a personal
sacrifice Christians would undertake, under divine leadership.37 In Divini dispensatione I, Eugenius told his Italian readers and listeners that the king of the Franks
and his warriors were following Gods will by regnum terrenum pro Christi amore
postponit atque propriam personam ultimis periculis et etiam morti exponit [laying aside earthly rule and personal property on account of love of Christ, setting
out into the greatest danger and even death] (19394). The pope reassured this
audience that illis, qui tam sanctum iter tamque pernecessarium opus et laborem
deuotionis intuitu suscipere et perficere decreuerint [those who choose to undertake
both this holy journey and very necessary work and sacrifice out of devotion, that
it will exhaust them to complete] (194), would receive the same spiritual rewards
and material protections previously offered to recruits. That mens willingness to
make sacrifices was presented as equally important as the actual sacrifices may
have aided recruitment, by concentrating on the intention to sacrifice as much as
on the accomplishment of the act itself.
In Divini dispensatione II Pope Eugenius III told the huge number of participants setting out in April 1147 for all of the crusades destinations that
Divini dispensatione consilii factum credimus, quod tanta
multitudo fidelium de diversis mundi partibus ad infidelium
expugnationem accingitur, et fere tota Christianorum terra pro
tam laudabili opere commonetur.
[We believe a plan was made by divine direction, such that a great
number of the faithful from different parts of the world would
be made ready to overcome infidels, to such a degree as to be
remembered with praise for their labor in almost all Christian
lands.] (PL 180:1203A1203B)
These participants included Europeans ready to venture East, the
Rex quoque Hispaniarum contra Saracenos de partibus illis
potenter armatur, de quibus jam per Dei gratiam saepius triumphavit. Quidam etiam ex vobis tam sancti laboris et praemii
participes fieri cupientes, contra Sclavos caeterosque paganos

Was It an Embarrassment of Rewards?

121

habitantes versus Aquilonem ire, et eos Christianae religioni

subjugare, Domino auxiliante, intendant.
[(The) king of the Spanish powerfully armed against Saracens of
those parts, and also those of you who are desiring both that the
holy work be done and to participate in the reward, by traveling
to the north against the Slavs and other pagan inhabitants intending to subjugate them to the Christian religion with the Lords
help.] (col. 1203B)38
As Bernard of Clairvaux had done, the pope forbade those opposing the
Slavs from making truces or accepting tribute in lieu of their enemies conversion
(cols. 1203B1203C).
Though Giles Constable described no single author presenting all the missions
together as a linked military expedition, Pope Eugenius IIIs final letter concerning
them suggests that he himself conceived of the crusade as such.39 Crusaders on all
the missions were promised the same forgiveness of penance and sins, in exchange
for their undertaking the mission out of religious devotion rather than the desire
for personal aggrandizement. Nonetheless, distinctions are seen in the papal grants
of spiritual rewards and protections of material interests offered to participants.
The material protections that the pope granted to participants varied based on their
destinations. He guaranteed protection for the families, properties, and wealth of
men going to the East. But he did not offer the same to those traveling to northern
Europe or to the Iberian Peninsula.
All of this successful recruitment of participants for the expedition against
enemies of the faith, as described by chroniclers after the crusade, resulted in non
est recognitum vicinis temporibus nec auditum a diebus saeculi tantum convenisse
exercitum [an army of a size neither heard of from in ages past nor recognized
near our time].40 Departures of the monarchs and others forces on these missions
occurred from spring through the end of the summer 1147.41 But the outcome of
these missions was not that for which Pope Eugenius III and Abbot Bernard of
Clairvaux, not to mention the participants themselves, had hoped. By July 1148
the expedition to the East had failed. At the same time, the mission to the Baltic
achieved short-lived success. But the mission about which Pope Eugenius III
and Abbot Bernard of Clairvaux had written and preached the least successfully
conquered Lisbon even before the end of 1147. Do chroniclers of these separate
missions present religious devotion and papally granted rewards to participants
as having played a role in their outcomes, or were these concerns purely part of
recruitment efforts?
For the clerical authors who wrote of the Second Crusades mission to the
East, religious devotion shaped crusaders joining of the expedition. In chroniclers
accounts of the recruitment of King Louis VII and King Conrad III, God moved the

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Jilana Ordman

Christian kings to join the expedition to expiate their guilt for personal sin, to fulfill
familial responsibility, or to thank him for the virtues he granted them.42 Participant
chronicler Bishop Otto of Freising, who traveled to the East as chaplain to his half
brother, King Conrad III, described devotion to the faith as the basis of the entire
mission.43 Christians of all ranks had taken up arms against enemies of the faith
(Gesta Friderici I. Imperatoris, 9). Nullus sani capitis hanc tam subitam quam
insolitam mutationem ex dextrea excelsi provenire non cognosceret, the bishop
wrote, and attonita mente non obstupesceret [no one sane would not recognize
that this so sudden and unusual a transformation came from the right hand of the
highest . . . and with an amazed mind not be astounded] (60). Yet chronicler Odo
of Deuil, a Benedictine abbot at St. Denis who traveled east as chaplain to King
Louis VII, suggests that warriors showed less excitement for the mission. He wrote
that a sermon about violence against Christians in the East that had been delivered
by Bishop Godfrey of Langres, who accompanied Bernard of Clairvaux, fletum
plurimum excitat [aroused many people to sorrowful weeping], but they did not
volunteer to participate until their king, Louis VII, had done so (De profectione
Ludovici VII, 6).44 Once he had joined the crusade, they eagerly vowed to undertake the journey; nonetheless, it should be noted that, by making reference to their
delayed vows to crusade, Odo represented King Louis VIIs men as paying as
much attention to their earthly lord as to their heavenly one. Earthly loyalty may
have been driving their participation to a greater degree than religious devotion.
Both Otto of Freisings and Odo of Deuils descriptions of crusaders devotion to the faith decreased dramatically during the mission itself. The positive side
of humans relationship with God was described most when pilgrimage sites were
reached. According to Otto, the crusaders entered Jerusalem and toured holy sites,
cum multa cordis devotione celebrantes [celebrating with much devotion of the
heart] (Gesta Friderici I. Imperatoris, 8889). However, throughout the expedition, divine expressions of displeasure were described as affecting Christians with
greater frequency than divine support. For example, though struggles at sea near
Antioch in which crusaders survived were not attributed to God, Otto described a
flash flood that destroyed the German camp early in the mission as assumed to have
been divine punishment rather than a natural disaster (see for examples pp. 66, 88).
Chronicler Abbot Odo of Deuil never described the expedition itself as a
divinely inspired expression of devotion. Focusing on crusade organizers and
individual crusaders actions as guiding the mission, he generally gave more attention to the crusaders actions than to their devotion to the faith. King Louis VII had
joined the mission out of devotion, but the abbot attributed little religious devotion
to him during the mission itself. Odo presented sacrifices that the king made on
the mission as evidence of his wisdom and piety, but he neither showed Louis as
thanking God for the opportunity to make them nor described him as crediting
his own traits to divine influence (see, for example, De profectione Ludovici VII,
142). Nonetheless, King Louis VII was portrayed as instrumental to crusaders

Was It an Embarrassment of Rewards?

123

devotion to the faith once they were in the field, and he became even more so as
their mission became less successful. Early in the mission, when many Franks left
Constantinople without him, an eclipse made them verebatur ne ille qui super alios
fide lucebat . . . proditione Graecorum aliqua portione sui luminis privaretur [fear
that the king, who above all others shone with faith . . . had been deprived of some
part of his light by the treachery of the Greeks] (De profectione Ludovici VII, 82).
Despite the risk that losing a leader so close to God would make it more difficult to
fulfill the missions goals, Odo did not depict the crusaders calling for divine aid.
When the mission seemed least likely to succeed, Abbot Odo suggested that
crusaders devotion to their king was in fact equal to their devotion to the faith or
the mission. To spur them on when he asked them to march from Adalia to Antioch,
King Louis VII reminded the crusaders that whether they were fighting for their
king or acting out of penitence they should work to achieve the missions goals,
since both types of participants would be coronari ut martyres quorum Deus animas de tali sumit labore [crowned as martyrs, whose souls God takes to himself
from such labor] (De profectione Ludovici VII, 130). Yet the king was ultimately
only able to convince them to continue with offers of military supplies and the
suggestion of future material rewards. The crusaders, after agreeing to continue,
attributed their decision to their loyalty to his leadership, and to their own poverty,
rather than to devotion to the faith (136). According to Odo, they believed that the
acts of their predecessors had been acts of devotion but that the challenges they
faced from lack of supplies made them unable to participate with the same focus
(132). This decision was made without reference to duties to God or the faith, or
the need to fight with diligence, all of which had been presented during recruitment
as important aspects of an ideal crusaders character. But immediately before a
battle the crusaders still exclaimed, vadimus in mortem, sed Deo volente valere
poterit vitare praesentem [we hurry into death, but God willing this present life
will prevail] (136).
In their letters to the regents ruling in their absence, King Louis VII and King
Conrad III made similar minimal references to devotion to God or the faith. In both
monarchs letters, God provided only slight assistance, for which he had not been
asked. King Louis VII reported no prayers or requests for assistance from crusaders,
and though King Conrad III requested prayers for the missions success from his
regent and his regents monks, he did not describe himself or his men as praying for
such aid themselves.45 Though the German king mentioned no successes brought
about by God, King Louis VII described the Franks journey to Constantinople as
having been achieved with Gods aid and asserted that Gods mercy had enabled
their safe and happy arrival.46 However, in at least one difficult conflict, the king
of the Franks described himself as having been saved by divine grace (36., 496).
Similarly, King Conrad IIIs letter after the mission ended with the failure of the
siege of Damascus included his attribution of his good health to Gods mercy (no.
197, 357). But the only aid requested and received in either monarchs letters is

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found in King Conrad IIIs first letter to Abbot Wibald of Corvey. In this instance
he described the king of the Franks and his men, after being asked for assistance,
as fideliter ac devote [faithfully and devotedly] helping him (no. 195, 355). Both
monarchs expressed religious devotion when the mission seemed threatened. But,
as seen in Odo of Deuils chronicle, the king of the Franks reliably helped fellow
Christians when asked. God, who had not been asked, did not provide aid.
Gods will, which had provided the impetus and the opportunity to fight
enemies of the faith, and by which crusaders were to be rewarded, was ultimately
used by chroniclers to explain the failure of the various missions. According to
chronicler Otto of Freising, because crusaders still enjoyed spiritual benefits even
after their failureas we have seen, the intent to make sacrifices was enough to
gain divine rewardthe missions outcome did not determine its usefulness in
leading men toward salvation. After describing crusaders belief that the difficulties on the mission were humans fault, caused by errors made by both crusaders
and Byzantines, Abbot Odo also identified a divine cause of their difficulties.47 He
argued that their struggles had been provided by God to test crusaders patience
and to give them an opportunity for spiritual growth (De profectione Ludovici VII,
132). However, the abbot admitted his doubts, writing:
Sii dicamus sanctum illum abbatem spiritu Dei ad excitandos
nos afflatum fuisse, sed nos ob superbiam lasciviamque nostram
salubria mandata non observantes merito rerum personarumve
dispendium reportasse, non sit a rationibus vel antiquis exemplis
dissonum. (91)
[If we should say that the holy abbot was inspired by the spirit
of God to arouse us but that weby reason of our pride and arrogancenot observing the beneficial mandates, have deservedly
suffered loss of property and persons, it would not be at variance
with the logical processes or with ancient examples.]
While the expeditions organizers and recruiters had been divinely inspired,
the crusaders themselves had strayed too far from the requirement of spiritual focus
that Pope Eugenius III and Abbot Bernard placed on them. Though Abbot Odo
does not say so, it seems that the popes effort to ensure that participants in this
expedition were undistracted by material concerns had not worked. Losses they
suffered in the field, and the military loss in the East itself, were thus a product of
their own errors.
Like the chronicle of Bishop Otto of Freising, letters by Louis and Conrad
described crusaders efforts as dependent on Gods will, with positive and negative
results. The king of the Franks explained that he trusted in God to not abandon
him and his men, and that negotium suum ad gloriosum perducet effectum [he

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125

would lead his business to a glorious conclusion] (36., 496). But some things on
earth seemed to be beyond divine will. King Conrad III closed his last letter, at the
end of the mission, explaining that he and his men had accomplished in partibus
illis vel deus voluit vel homines terre permiserunt [all that God allowed us to do
in these regions, and that the men of the land permitted] (no. 197, p. 357). If the
mission was being undertaken by divine will, it was up to God to allow crusaders
to carry it out however he chose, with little regard for crusaders actions or the
outcome of the mission.
Chroniclers reports about the mission to the Baltic presented a similar mix
of devotional ideals and secular engagement in a military campaign. The German,
Saxon, and Polish military leaders on this mission, aided by Danes in the Baltic, all
hoped to gain firmer economic and political control of the region. The mission fit
conveniently into the framework of the crusade to the East, but it was in fact part of
an older mission of expansion. German leaders had seized Baltic territory as early
as the tenth century, and the early twelfth century had seen a potential call for a
crusade, the Magdeburg Appeal of 1107/1108, produced at the court of Archbishop
Adalgod von Osterberg of Magdeburg (11071119).48 But the primary chronicler
of the 1147 Baltic conflict, Helmold of Bosau, depicted little devotion among the
crusaders of whom he wrote. He first stated that the crusaders motivation to join
the mission was religious zeal, ulturi mortes et exterminia, quae intulerunt Christicolis [to avenge the death and destruction that had been brought to worshippers of
Christ] (Chronica Slavorum, 220), but described few expressions of this devotion
during the mission. Crusaders prepared to fight signo crucis insignita [signed
with the sign of the cross] (228) at Demmin, but they resolved their difficulties
during that conflict by making treaties with the enemy rather than by calling for
divine aiddespite such truces having been expressly forbidden by both Abbot
Bernard of Clairvaux and Pope Eugenius III. Helmold made no condemnation of
the crusaders actions and, unlike the chroniclers of the expedition to the East, made
no reference to divine will. After the numerous failed efforts against northern Slavs
and Wends in the past, this outcome was not surprising.
In contrast to crusaders in both the East and the Baltic, participants in the
successful Lisbon mission were frequently described as expressing devotion to their
faith. The most informative source for the mission is a chronicle, De expugnatione
Lyxbonensi, written circa 1147114949 by the Anglo-Norman priest Raol as a letter to Osbert of Bawdsey, a cleric connected to the Glanvil family.50 Not much is
known about this author, but scholars argue that the text reflects his biblical and
classical education and knowledge of canon law.51 Richard W. Kaeuper describes
this chronicle as presenting a perfect blend of devotional ideals and the challenges
twelfth-century warriors faced concerning honor, obligation, and shame.52
Raol explained the mission, and participants motivation to join it, in his description of a sermon by the Bishop of Porto, Pedro II Pites, delivered to crusaders
on their arrival in Iberia. This bishops explanation of why Christians should fight

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in Iberia was comparable to that which was given by Pope Eugenius III and Abbot
Bernard of Clairvaux in their recruitment for the mission to the East. The bishop
thanked Christ for crusaders zelum legis Dei in cordibus habentes . . . impetu
Spiritus ducente [holding zeal for the law of God in their hearts . . . the holy spirit
leading] them to Iberia (De expugnatione Lyxbonensi, 7273). Participants in the
mission were Beata gens [blessed people], divinely granted sensum ut vias
discipline intelligerent; divitias ut adimplere possent que pie cuperent [sense so
they would understand discipline, and riches so they could accomplish what they
piously desired] (7071).53 In this sermon the bishop approved of material wealth
when it served a devotional purpose. But, as was the case for participants in the
other missions, the bishop required warriors in Lisbon to limit their displays of
wealth or status (De expugnatione Lyxbonensi, 72). He assured combatants that
they would be rewarded for their efforts, praising their joining the pilgrimage to
Lisbon to eternum a Deo consequerentur premium [seek an eternal reward from
God] even without moving on to Jerusalem (7071).
But in addition to relating clerical admonitions to the crusaders for them to
act out of devotion, Raol described these men as displaying this motive from the
time of their departure from Dartmouth, England. While on board their ships they
agreed to restrictions on the collection and display of wealth and on sexual activity,
and to participation in weekly religious observance (De expugnatione Lyxbonensi,
55). According to David S. Bachrach, this frequency of confession and communion
was greater than crusaders would have participated in at home.54 But despite such
regulations, participants on the mission became overcome with intense sorrow at
hearing syrenes [sirens] wailing and laughing when they entered rough seas, and
believed it was God punishing them peregrinationis sub conversionem [for the
redirection of their pilgrimage] (6061). Here Raol suggests that the crusaders had
not intended to go to Lisbon on their way to the East. Historians such as Thomas
Asbridge have taken such concern to mean that the men felt that this detour was
unplanned, and a deviation from their vow to journey to the East.55 After all, these
crusaders departure from Dartmouth in May 1147 occurred less than one month
after the delivery of Divina dispensatione II at Troyes in April of that year. This
seems likely, especially since, as John H. Pryor has pointed out, neither Raol nor
the sermons he attributed to other clerics presented the mission as having been approved by Pope Eugenius III.56 Perhaps the authors portrayal of the crusaders in
Lisbon was shaped by doubts he had, or assumed others would have, concerning
this mission as devotionally and especially penitentially equal to that which was
being undertaken in the East. He thus would have wanted to ensure that readers
or listeners would hear of its participants living up to papal ideals for crusaders
religious devotion.
Raols description of crusaders response to the threat of a storm at sea again
shows his emphasis on their religious devotion. The penitents, Raol wrote, peccata
et negligentias cum luctu confitentes et gemitu . . . inundatione lacrimarum diluentes, in ara cordis contriti Deo sacrificabant [were confessing sins and negligence

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127

with lamentation and groaning, offering sacrifices to God on the altar of a contrite
heart] until they reached calmer waters (De expugnatione Lyxbonensi, 6061).
According to Raol, such expressions of fear and sorrow garnered divine aid. The
crusaders survival of rough seas was evidence that God wanted to punish them
with correction but not kill them (60). Dispensatio divina nullum preteriret, he
wrote, imo etiam coelestis benefici singulare privilegium se accepisse unusquisque
gratularetur [divine grace passed over none, indeed each one was congratulating
himself to have received the unique privilege of a heavenly favor] (6061).
In Raols chronicle, crusaders religious devotionrepaid by divine assistancewas the key to victory on the mission. These mens belief in God helped
them triumph over those suffering from a lack of this devotion, fidei ignorantie
error [the error of ignorance] (De expugnatione Lyxbonensi, 15455). Raol saw
this knowledge of the faith as part of a personal relationship in which God rewarded
crusaders for their demonstrations of faith. Crusaders doubted their success at the
time of the final siege. Raol described himself responding by encouraging them
to dramatically express religious devotion, in a sermon he delivered. He told crusaders, Flectentes genua proni in terram decubate; rea tundite pectora, Domini
prestolantes auxilium. Veniet enim. [Bend your knees and lie prone upon the
ground. Strike your guilty breasts while you await the aid of the Lord. For it will
come.] (154155). This display resulted in divine assistance and victory. According
to Raol, God pro nobis decertasti [fought for us] (18485).
To conclude, to return to the question from which we began, did chroniclers
of the Second Crusade present participants expressions of religious devotion as
evidence of their motives for joining and carrying out their missions? Did the increased material rewards offered to participants lessen the spiritual purity of their
motives, in the eyes of contemporary observers, and thus provide chroniclers with
a possible explanation for their defeat? In short, was the religious devotion, or its
lack, described among crusaders on their missions and the expansion of material
protections offered to participants on the mission to the East ever linked to the
outcomes of the Second Crusades missions?
As we have seen, Pope Eugenius III presented himself as continuing the work
of his predecessor Pope Urban II and calling on potential recruits to do the same.
But understanding the challenges that participants in the expedition that he hoped
to organize would face, the pope offered recruits his protection of their families
and land, freedom to sell or trade land they held from a higher-ranking warrior in
order to raise money for their own participation, and even forgiveness of interest
on debts. Such offers were intended to reduce the material distractions that the
pope believed would impede some mens vows to crusade, as well as impeding
their devotional focus while on the expedition. Restrictions that the pope and the
crusade recruiter Abbot Bernard of Clairvaux placed on mens displays of wealth
while on the expedition could serve the same purpose. The pope, the abbot, and
presumably the recruits themselves had the material concerns of warriors venturing
forth for a lengthy, distant conflict in the forefront of their minds.

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Bernard of Clairvaux had presented similar recruitment concerns and ideals

in his letters and in sermons, but with a greater focus on his listeners special calling
by God and their need to take advantage of the forgiveness he offered them through
the pope than on their need to live up to the achievements of their forefathers.
However, the special attention Bernard paid to his listeners resulted in support of
the German and Saxon plan to undertake an armed mission to the Baltic region.
This was a continuation of their already long-lasting conflict with the Slavic Wends
in the area, but because of short-lived Christian victories in the region it was one
that Bernards audience justified as the retrieval of stolen Christian territory from
enemies of the faith. This interpretation of the conflict was understood by the pope
and likely factored into his approval of men recruited for the crusade assisting
kings in Spain against Muslims there. Christians had been trying to expand their
influence and territorial holdings on the Iberian Peninsula for as long as they had
been doing so in Lisbon, so it was reasonable for the pope to approve efforts on all
frontsor at least reasonable for him to link what secular aristocrats in Iberia and
southern Germany were already planning, and what local clerics in those regions
were calling for, to the crusade efforts in the East.
With this collection of missions all setting out at the same time, and meeting varying outcomes, their clerical chroniclers were faced with the challenge of
explaining their failures and successes. These chroniclers had forbears they could
emulate in the chroniclers of the First Crusade, but those authors had simply had
successes to present. Gods aid had achieved victory for those men. The two chroniclers of the mission to the East discussed above took two different perspectives.
Bishop Otto of Freising did not see the crusades primary benefit, the spiritual
rewards that participants received, as being lessened by participants losses in the
field. They had sworn to sacrifice, and their loss in fact heightened their achievement of this oath. The men about whom he wrote had not dramatically displayed
devotion and had likewise received little aid in the field, but this, too, may have
heightened their sense of having made sacrifices in the field.
On the other hand, Odo of Deuil linked this missions failure to the pride and
arrogance of the crusaders. He argued that there was no way to understand the will
of God, but the fact that his account of the mission puts more emphasis on mens
loyalty to their monarchs than on their expressions of religious devotion suggests
that he saw something lacking in their faith. While Odo did not directly link the
material protections offered by Pope Eugenius III to the crusaders failure in the
field, he did represent the crusaders as plagued by material deprivation in the field
and thus influenced by King Louis VIIs promises of wealth and earthly security
to a greater degree than they were by devotion to their faith. For Odo, the results
of the crusade were conclusive: the struggles and losses of crusaders in the East
had been provided by God to test their patience and give them an opportunity for
spiritual growth. But without humility and devotion to the faith such a loss would
be of no benefit to them.

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That this tenuous balance between the crusade as a spiritual mission and its
earthly material risks and rewards was culturally acknowledged can be seen in the
letters of King Conrad III and King Louis VII. These monarchs showed their own
devotion to the faith but saw the expedition to the East more as a personal challenge to their secular leadership than as an opportunity to express intense religious
devotion and to actively seek divine aid. They seemed to believe that God was
overseeing their activities in the field and would aid them in the achievement of
some victories. But the physical presence of one another, and their enemy, was a
more consistent influence in their experience of war.
In his condemnation of pride and arrogance among participants in the mission
to the East, Odo of Deuil also condemned crusaders for not observing the mandates
placed on them by the crusades organizers. This fault was clearest, however, in
Helmold of Bosaus account of the mission against the Wends. Abbot Bernard of
Clairvaux described would-be participants in this mission as desiring to undertake
it out of religious devotion, and it was for this reason that Pope Eugenius III had
approved it. But this missions chronicler, Helmold of Bosau, a former missionary
in the Baltic region, was not a participant in it. He described no expressions of
religious devotion in the field among these crusaders and casuallywith no personal condemnationdescribed their violation of injunctions against truces with
the enemy put in place by both the abbot and the pope. The successes achieved on
this mission were short-lived, and crusaders returned to southern Germany after
their loss at the Battle of Demmin. Helmold, writing after this loss, seems to have
seen this mission simply as a continuation of the conflicts undertaken in the region
since the tenth century. For him, this was in no way a crusade.
The mission to Lisbon recounted by the priest Raol presented a scenario entirely opposite to that of the Baltic mission. This chronicler, anxious to defend and
justify the military activities of participants in the Lisbon mission, described them
following ecclesiastical prescriptions and proscriptions to the greatest extent possible out of fear that their mission itself would be seen as too great a deviation from
papal ideals for the journey to the East. Raol presented the missions participants as
actively expressing religious devotion, in everything from restrictions on behavior
and their attitude toward wealth to their dramatic efforts to gain divine attention and
support. This chronicle depicted participants in the Lisbon mission as achieving
the devotional goals of the mission and dramatically expressing penitence to earn
divine assistance. Its organizer in Iberia, Bishop Pedro II Pites, supported the use
of wealth for the benefit of devotional activities: the acceptable use of resources
that Pope Eugenius III and Abbot Bernard of Clairvaux had described. For Raol
and, as he likely hoped, for his readers or listeners, this was why its participants
achieved the only lasting military success of the Second Crusade.
As other historians had put forth, Raols chronicle did show a successful
balance of secular military and devotional ideals. When seen in the context of the
other chronicles of the Second Crusade discussed here, the tensions inherent in the

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first half of the twelfth century come across clearly. All Christian warriors would
be represented by clerical chroniclers, or, with the increase in literacy, in their own
letters, as maintaining a delicate balance between spiritual ideals of closeness to
God and secular, material success. Sacrifices had to be promised in the hope they
would not be necessary or brought on those who made them by divine will. Wealth
might be granted by divine will before or during such an expedition but had to
be carefully directed toward purely devotional goals. These challenges presented
Christian warriors with an embarrassment of rewards.
Notes

Translations from Latin in this article are my own unless otherwise noted. My
sincere gratitude to those who aided me with this publication, especially Dr.
Elizabeth Weber.

The Second Crusade has been the focus of less scholarship than both the First
Crusade and the study of crusades in general. Key monographs and articles
focusing on this crusade include Bernhard Kugler, Studien zur Geschichte des
zweiten Kreuzzuges (Stuttgart, 1866; Amsterdam, 1973); Giles Constable, The
Second Crusade as Seen by Contemporaries, Traditio 10 (1953), 21379;
Virginia Gingerick Berry, The Second Crusade, in A History of the Crusades,
ed. Kenneth M. Setton, vol. 1, The First Hundred Years, ed. Marshall W.
Baldwin (Philadelphia, 1955; Madison, 1969), pp. 463512; Aryeh Grabos,
The Crusade of King Louis VII: A Reconsideration, in Crusade and Settlement: Papers Read at the First Conference of the Society for the Study of the
Crusades and the Latin East, Presented to R. C. Smail, ed. Peter W. Edbury
(Cardiff, 1985), pp. 94104; Michael Gervers, ed., The Second Crusade and
the Cistercians, intro. by Giles Constable (New York, 1992); Jonathan Phillips and Martin Hoch, eds., The Second Crusade: Scope and Consequences
(Manchester, 2001); and Jonathan Phillips, The Second Crusade: Extending
the Frontiers of Christendom (New Haven, 2007).

For the military missions of 11461149 as one expedition, see Constable, Second Crusade, p. 256. For the more recent argument that within a century after
the crusade these missions were not considered a single expedition, see Peter
W. Edbury, Looking Back on the Second Crusade: Some Late Twelfth-Century
English Perspectives, in Gervers, Second Crusade, pp. 16365. For discussion
of revising the Constable thesis, see John H. Pryor, Logistics and the Second Crusade, in Logistics of Warfare in the Age of Crusades: Proceedings of
a Workshop Held at the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Sydney, 30
September to 4 October 2002, ed. John H. Pryor (Aldershot, 2006), pp. 77, 88.

See for discussion Paul E. Chevedden, Canon 2 of the Council of Clermont

(1095) and the Goal of the Eastern Crusade: To Liberate Jerusalem or To Liberate the Church of God?, Annuarium historiae conciliorum; internationale

Was It an Embarrassment of Rewards?

131

Zeitschrift fr Konziliengeschichtsforschung 37, no. 1 (2005), 9193; Chevedden, Canon 2 of the Council of Clermont (1095) and the Crusade Indulgence,
Annuarium historiae conciliorum 37, no. 2 (2005), 27577; and John Gilchrist,
The Papacy and War against Saracens, International Historical Review 10
(1988), 18384.
4

See, for example, Carl Erdmann, The Origin of the Idea of Crusade, trans. M.
W. Baldwin and W. Goffart (Princeton, 1977), pp. 76, 115, 12224, 13839,
17274, 214, 263, 270, 293, 308, 316, and 34348; Norman Housley, Contesting the Crusades (Malden, 2006), p. 35; and John Gilchrist, The Erdmann
Thesis and Canon Law, in Edbury, Crusade and Settlement, p. 37. Also see Ian
Stuart Robinson, Gregory VII and the Soldiers of Christ, History 58 (1973),
178; James A. Brundage, Holy War and the Medieval Lawyers, in The Holy
War, ed. Thomas Patrick Murphy (Columbus, 1976), pp. 125, 193; Jonathan
Riley-Smith, Crusading as an Act of Love, History 65 (1980), 17792,
reprinted in The Crusades: The Essential Readings, ed. Thomas F. Madden
(Oxford, 2002), pp. 4950; Louise Riley-Smith and Jonathan Riley-Smith, The
Crusades: Idea and Reality (London, 1981), pp. 45; Herbert E. J. Cowdrey,
Canon Law and the First Crusade, in The Crusades and Latin Monasticism,
11th12th Centuries (Aldershot, 1999), reprinted from The Horns of Hattin, ed.
B. Z. Kedar (Jerusalem/Aldershot, 1992), pp. 4148; and Matthew Gabriele,
The Last Carolingian Exegete: Pope Urban II, the Weight of Tradition, and
Christian Reconquest, Church History 81, no. 4 (2012), 796814.

Robert Somerville, The Councils of Urban II, vol. 1, Decreta Claromontensia, Annuarium Historiae Conciliorum, Supplementum No. 1 (Amsterdam,
1972), pp. 451; Edward Peters, Introduction, in The First Crusade: The
Chronicle of Fulcher of Chartres and Other Source Materials, ed. Edward
Peters, 2nd ed. (Philadelphia, 1998), p. 18; John France, The Crusades and the
Expansion of Catholic Christendom, 10001714 (New York, 2005), p. 44; and
Christopher Tyerman, Fighting for Christendom: Holy War and the Crusades
(Oxford, 2004), pp. 78, 27. For Urban II engaging in similar tours throughout
the Alps to secure the support of high-ranking clergy, see Colin Morris, The
Papal Monarchy: The Western Church from 1050 to 1250 (Oxford, 1989), p.
56. For Urbans preaching for recruitment to the crusade after the council at
Clermont, see Thomas Asbridge, The Crusades: The Authoritative History of
the War for the Holy Land (New York, 2010), p. 40; Jonathan Riley-Smith,
The Crusades: A History, 2nd ed. (New Haven, 2005), pp. 1725; and Marcus
Graham Bull, Knightly Piety and the Lay Response to the First Crusade: The
Limousin and Gascony, c. 9701130 (Oxford, 1993, 1998), pp. 25674, 28288.
Also see Giles Constable, Charter Evidence for Pope Urban IIs Preaching
of the First Crusade, in Canon Law, Religion and Politics: Liber Amicorum
Robert Somerville, ed. Uta-Renate Blumenthal, Anders Winroth, and Peter
Landau (Washington, DC, 2012), pp. 22832.

Jilana Ordman

132
6

Peters, Introduction, p. 21. For the Council of Clermont as a Peace and

Truce of God meeting, see Tomaz Mastnak, Crusading Peace: Christendom,
the Muslim World, and Western Political Order (Berkeley, 2002), pp. 4849.

Marcus Graham Bull, Muslims and Jerusalem in Miracle Stories, in The

Experience of Crusading, vol. 1, Western Approaches, ed. Marcus Graham Bull
and Norman Housley (Cambridge, UK, 2003), p. 22. For medieval authors
desire to actively interpret rather than solely recollect events, see Matthew
Gabriele, An Empire of Memory: The Legend of Charlemagne, the Franks, and
Jerusalem before the First Crusade (New York, 2011), p. 6. For the constructed
nature of recorded sermons, see Penny J. Cole, The Preaching of the Crusades
to the Holy Land, 10951270 (Cambridge, MA, 1991), pp. 18, 1033.

See for examples Fulcher of Chartres, Historia Hiersolymitana, ed. Heinrich

Hagenmeyer (Heidelberg, 1913), 1.3, p. 323; Baldric of Dol, Historia Ierosolymitana, in Recueil des Historiens des Croisades, Historiens Occidentaux, vol.
4 (Paris, 1879), 1.4, pp. 1214; and Guibert of Nogent, Dei gesta per Francos
et cinq autres textes, ed. R.B.C. Huygens, Corpus Christianorum Continuatio
Mediaevalis (Turnhout, 1996), 2.4, p. 140.

9 Fulcher, Historia Hiersolymitana, 1.3, p. 324; Baldric, Historia Ierosolymitana, 1.4, p. 15; and Robert of Reims, Historia Ierosolimitana, in Recueil des
Historiens des Croisades, Historiens Occidentaux, vol. 3 (Paris: Acadmie
Impriale des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, 1866), 1.2, p. 729. Jean Flori argues
that the pope intended only to offer remission of penance and a gift of eternal
happiness, but authors reported that he had promised remission of sin and
martyrdom. See Jean Flori, Ideology and Motivations in the First Crusade,
in Palgrave Advances in the Crusades, ed. Helen J. Nicholson (New York,
2005), pp. 20, 22.
10 See, for example, Anonymous, Gesta Francorum et aliorum Hierosolymitanorum, ed. and trans. Rosalind Hill, intro. by Roger Mynors (London, 1962),
1.1, p. 1. For a discussion of the possible identity of this unknown chronicler,
see John France, Chapter 1: Byzantium in Western Chronicles before the First
Crusade, in Knighthoods of Christ: Essays on the History of the Crusades
and the Knights Templar, Presented to Malcolm Barber, ed. Norman Housley
(Aldershot, 2007), pp. 34.
11 Anonymous, Gesta Francorum 1.1, pp. 12.
12 The Council of Clermont produced sixty-one canons preserved in written form
in fourteen varied manuscripts. The oldest of these texts, composed during and
immediately following this council, was this record book from the episcopate
of Bishop Lambert of Arras. For the manuscripts of the canons, see Somerville,
Councils of Urban II, 1:79, 142.
13 Liber Lamberti 2*, in Somerville, Councils of Urban II, 1:74. For Somervilles
numbering system of the canons in this and other manuscripts, see pp. 7071.

Was It an Embarrassment of Rewards?

133

14 III. Epistula Urbani II papae ad Bonienses, in Epistolae et chartae ad historiam primibelli sacri spectantes quae supersunt aevo aequales ac genvinae.
Die Kreuzzugsbriefe aus den Jahren 10881100, ed. Heinrich Hagenmeyer
(Innsbruck, 1901; Bibliolife, 2009), p. 137. For the translation that aided
mine, see Edward Peters, 10. Urbans Letters to His Supporters in Bologna,
September 1096, in Peters, First Crusade, p. 44.
15 For an overview of the study of Roman law in the early Middle Ages, see
Charles M. Radding and Antonio Ciaralli, The Corpus Iuris Civilis in the
Middle Ages: Manuscripts and Transmission from the Sixth Century to the
Juristic Revival (Leiden, 2007). For the role of Bologna in the development
of juridical science at the time of the First Crusade, see James Brundage,
Medieval Canon Law and the Crusader (Madison, 1969), p. 34.
16 Editions of Eugenius IIIs texts used here are found in Eugenius III Romani
pontificis Epistolae et privilegia, Patrologiae Cursus Completus, Series Latina
(hereafter referred to as PL), ed. J. P. Migne (Turnhout, 1970), 180:1203A
1204A; Recueil des Historiens des Gaules et de la France (hereafter referred
to as RHGF) vol. 15, ed. J.-J. Brial and L. Delisle (Paris, 1878), pp. 42930;
Rolf Grosse, berlegungen zum kreuzzugsaufruf Eugens III. von 1145/46.
Mit einer Neuedition von JL 8876, Francia 18 (1991), 9092; and Rudolf
Hiestand, ed., Vorarbeiten zum Oriens Pontificius III: Papsturkunden fr
Kirchen im Heiligen Lande (Gttingen, 1985), pp. 19395.
17 Phillips, Second Crusade, p. 64. Grosse agreed with Erich Caspars 1924 argument that French messengers drove the pope to issue a new call to crusade.
See Grosse, berlegungen, p. 86, referring to Caspar, Kreuzzugsbullen
Eugens III, Neues Archiv 45 (1924), 285305.
18 Grosse, berlegungen, pp. 8790. For Eugenius III calling on large numbers
of preachers, see Phillips, Second Crusade, pp. 50, 58, and 76; and Virginia
Gingerick Berry, Peter the Venerable and the Crusades, in Petrus Venerabilis,
11561956: Studies and Texts Commemorating the Eighth Centenary of His
Death, ed. Giles Constable and James Kritzeck (Rome, 1956), p. 143. For the
numbers being smaller because of challenges to the popes authority, see John
G. Rowe, The Origins of the Second Crusade, in Gervers, Second Crusade,
p. 85.
19 For Bernards receiving auctoritate predicandi animosque cunctorum ad hoc
commovendi [authority for preaching and moving the hearts of everyone to
this] from the pope, see Otto of Freising, Gesta Friderici I. Imperatoris, in
Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores rerum Germanicarum in usum
scholarum vol. 46, ed. G. Waitz (Hanover, 1912, 1978), 1.35, p. 55. For the
abbot demonstrating his respect for papal authority by preaching after being
told to do so by the pope, see Godfrey of Clairvaux, Vita Prima Bernardi,
3.4.9, PL 185:308C308D; and Otto, Gesta Friderici I. Imperatoris, p. 58.

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20 Jill N. Claster, Sacred Violence: The European Crusades to the Middle East,
10951396 (Tonawanda, 2009), p. 147. Otto of Freising provided a full account of Abbot Bernards delivery and audience members responses but claimed
that he presented the delivery of the December text issued from Vetralla. See
Otto, Gesta Friderici I. Imperatoris, p. 57. Grosse and Hehl have explained
the unreliability of Ottos account, noting differences between the manuscripts
also seen by others. The March text provided more detail than the December
text concerning papal limitations on ostentatious clothing and hunting animals.
This change might have come at the request of the French envoys, reflecting
what they thought best suited their countrymen, but it may have also showed
their support for Cistercian church reform. See Grosse, berlegungen, pp.
8586; and Ernst-Dieter Hehl, Kirche und Krieg im 12. Jahrhundert: Studien
zu kanonischem Recht und politischer Wirklichkeit (Stuttgart, 1980), p. 126.
21 Eugenius III, Quantum praedecessores, March 1146 (hereafter QP 1146), in
Grosse, berlegungen, p. 90. Subsequent references to this edition are given
by page number in the text.
22 See Phillips, Second Crusade, p. 52.
23 The First Crusade had created a tradition of participating in successful armed
expeditions to the East for many Europeans and, in the case of a few families, of
settlement and leadership in the region. William Purkis, Crusading Spirituality
in the Holy Land and Iberia, 10951187 (Woodbridge, UK, 2008), p. 90; Phillips, Second Crusade, p. 4; Riley-Smith, Family Traditions and Participation
in the Second Crusade, in Gervers, Second Crusade, p. 101; and Phillips, The
Murder of Charles the Good and the Second Crusade: Household, Nobility
and Traditions of Crusading in Medieval Flanders, Medieval Prosopography
19 (1998), 6465, 70, 7475.
24 See Susanna A. Throop, Zeal, Anger and Vengeance: The Emotional Rhetoric of Crusading, in Vengeance in the Middle Ages: Emotion, Religion, and
Feud, ed. Susanna A. Throop and Paul R. Hyams (Burlington, 2010), p. 194;
and Phillip Buc, La Vengeance de Dieu, de lExgse Patristique la Rforme Ecclsiastique et la Premire Croisade, in La Vengeance 4001200,
ed. Dominique Barthlemy, Franois Bougard, and Rgine Le Jan, intro. by
Franois Bougard (Rome, 2006), pp. 45967.
25 Hehl argues that aside from admitting guilt in confession before setting out,
there were no personal acts of penance required of participants for them to
gain heaven. Hehl, Kirche und Krieg, p. 127.
26 These restrictions are similar to those placed on the clothing, weapons, and
hunting animals of milites possessions in Bernard of Clairvauxs texts composed for the Order of the Knights of the Temple. See Bernard of Clairvaux,
Liber ad Milites Templi de Laude Novae Militiae, Sancti Bernardi Opera 3
(Rome, 1963), pp. 22039.

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27 Penny J. Cole wrote that there is little evidence of what the abbot of Clairvaux
actually said, but Phillips argued that QP was Bernards sermon because of the
timing of the gathering as well as the excitement generated in the audience. See
Cole, Preaching of the Crusades, p. 42; Jonathan Phillips, Papacy, Empire
and the Second Crusade, in The Second Crusade, Scope and Consequences,
ed. Jonathan Phillips and Martin Hoch (Manchester, 2001), p. 20; and Phillips, Second Crusade, p. 68. Bishop Otto of Freising explained that before the
meeting the abbot was already gladio verbi Dei fortiter accingitur [bravely
equipped with the sword of the word of God]. Otto, Gesta Friderici I. Imperatoris, p. 58. Subsequent references to Ottos work are given by page number
in the text. For the translation to English that informed mine, see The Deeds
of Frederick Barbarossa, trans. Charles Christopher Mierow with Richard
Emery (New York, 1953).
28 Christopher Tyerman, Gods War: A New History of the Crusades (Cambridge,
MA, 2006), p. 281; and Hehl, Kirche und Krieg, pp. 12934. For a detailed map
of Bernard of Clairvauxs recruitment journey, including miles traveled and
an estimate of days traveled, also see Donald Francis Firebagh, St. Bernards
Preaching of the Second Crusade (masters thesis, Syracuse University, 1959),
p. 100.
29 Constable, Second Crusade, p. 245; Firebagh, St. Bernards Preaching, p.
27; and Phillips, Second Crusade, pp. 6870. The editions of Bernards texts
used in this essay are found in Jean Leclercq and H. M. Rochais, S. Bernardi
Opera (hereafter referred to as SBO), vols. 78 (Rome, 1977). English translations of Bernards texts are all informed by those of Bruno Scott James: The
Letters of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, trans. Bruno Scott James, intro. by Beverly
Mayne Kienzle (Gloucestershire, 1998). Accounts of Bernards sermons and
travel during recruitment for the Second Crusade are also found in the Vita
Prima Bernardi, PL 185:222643.
30 Bernard of Clairvauxs success in recruitment has led historians to see the
abbot as more important to the expedition than the pope was. Jonathan RileySmith argued that the abbot transformed the situation when initial interest
in an expedition to the East seemed in danger of waning. Riley-Smith, Crusades, p. 121. Thomas F. Madden described this crusade as born by papal
pronouncement but having drawn breath from the words of St. Bernard.
Madden, The New Concise History of the Crusades (Lanham, 2005), p. 52.
Similarly, Christopher Tyerman described the pope as having a remarkably
passive role in the organization of the expedition, besides its approval and
authorization. Tyerman, Gods War, p. 275. Phillips has argued that the pope
took an active role in the inception of the new expedition and that historians
have simply allowed the abbot to overshadow him. However, the pope did not
act alone: he was influenced to an equal or greater extent by a formidable body

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of churchmen present at the curia. Phillips, Second Crusade, pp. xxiiixxv,
4044. I argue that Bernard of Clairvaux, Epistola 237: As totam curiam
Romanam, quando elegerunt Abbatem Sancti Anastasii in Papam Eugenium,
SBO 8, pp. 11315; Epistola 238: Ad ominum Papal Eugenium prima, SBO
8, pp. 11521; and Epistola 247: Ad Dominum Papa, SBO 8, pp. 14041,
all reflect the abbots close relationship with Eugenius III. That relationship
began when the young Pope Eugenius was the novitiate Bernard of Pisa under
Abbot Bernard of Clairvaux. Even after the pope gained his position in the
Church, the abbot may have felt it necessary to continue to act as his mentor
and thus to play a leading role in the Second Crusade.

31 Constable numbers Bernard of Clairvauxs crusade recruitment texts at nine

or ten. See Constable, Second Crusade, p. 245. For the letters likely to have
been composed for presentation as sermons, as seen in their repeated phrases
and concepts related to crusading, see Purkis, Crusading Spirituality, p. 88;
and Firebagh, St. Bernards Preaching, pp. 28, 30. These letters are Letter
to the Archbishops of Eastern Francia and Bavaria, Letter to the English
People, and Letter to the Duke Wladislaus, and the Nobles and People of
Bohemia. For Letter to the Archbishops of Eastern Francia and Bavaria in
Latin, see Bernard of Clairvaux, Epistola 363: Ad archiepiscopos orientalis
Franciae et Bavariae, SBO 8, pp. 31117. The Latin text of Bernards Letter
to the English People is extant only in Bibliothque nationale, MS lat. 14845,
fol. 257. For the Letter to the Duke Wladislaus, and the Nobles and People of
Bohemia, see Bernard of Clairvaux, Epistola 458: Ad Wladislaum ducem,
magnates et populum Bohemieae, SBO 8, pp. 43437. Subsequent references
to these letters will be given by page number in the text.
32 si devote assumitur humero is literally if it is begun with devotion on the
shoulder. This could refer literally to the sign of the cross affixed to a participants garments or metaphorically to their outward exhibition of faith.
33 Bernard of Clairvaux, Epistola 457: Ad universos fideles, De expeditione in
Terram Sactam. Festum SS. Petri et Pauli indicit, quo die apud Magdeburgum
sunt conventuri, SBO 8, pp. 43233. For the Wends, the contra hostes crucis
Christi, qui sunt ultra Albi [enemies of the cross of Christ who are above
the Elbe], see Bernard, Epistola 457, p. 433. For this gathering occurring
at Frankfurt, also see p. 433. Subsequent references to Epistola 457 will be
given by page number in the text. The abbot may have also written a letter
concerning the Lisbon mission. See Bernard of Clairvaux, Epistola 308: Ad
Alfosum Portugalliae regem, SBO 8, p. 228; translated in BSJ, Letter 397:
To Alphonsus, the Illustrious King of Portugal, p. 469. Alan Forey argued
that this false letter first appeared in a seventeenth-century chronicle known
for relying on documents that were not genuine. See Forey, The Siege of
Lisbon and the Second Crusade, Portuguese Studies 20 (2004), 3; and Hehl,
Kirche und Krieg, p. 134.

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34 Bernard of Clairvaux, Epistola 458: Ad Wladislaum ducem, magnates et

populum Bohemieae, in SBO 8, 434-437, SBO 8, pp. 4347. Here, Epistola
458, 436.
35 See Friedrich Lotter, The Crusading Idea and the Conquest of the Region East
of the Elbe, in Medieval Frontier Societies, ed. Robert Bartlett and Angus
MacKay (Oxford, 1989), pp. 26970; Robert Bartlett, The Making of Europe:
Conquest, Colonization and Cultural Change, 9501150 (London, 1993), pp.
3334; Pagatha Taylor, Moral Agency in Crusade and Colonization: Anselm
of Havelberg and the Wendish Crusade of 1147, International Historical
Review 22, no. 4 (2000), 757; and Iben Fonnesberg-Schmidt, The Popes and
the Baltic Crusades, 11471254 (Leiden, 2007), p. 23.
36 Taylor, Moral Agency, p. 758; and Fonnesberg-Schmidt, Popes, p. 35.
37 For Eugenius III, Divina dispensatione I, see Hiestand, Vorarbeiten zum Oriens
Pontificius III, pp. 19395: Eugenius episcopus seruus seruorum Dei. Venerabilibus fratribus archiepiscopis, abbatibus, prepositis ceterisque ecclesarum
prelatis per Italiam constitutis salutem et apostolicam bendictionem. [Bishop
Eugene, servant of the servants of God. To his brother archbishops, abbots,
provosts, and others ecclesiastical prelates by means of Italian foundations
greetings and apostolic blessing.] This letter was written as Abbot Bernard of
Clairvaux was entering German territory after Vzelay and according to Phillips
was intended to be presented in the abbots absence as a sermon to Italians. See
Phillips, Second Crusade, p. 93. For the letter known as Divina dispensatione
II, see Eugenius III, PL 180:1203A1204A: 166. Ad expeditionem sacram
adversus Slavos in Pomerania populos excitat. Regem Hispaniarum quoque
scribit bellum contra Saracenos Iberiae comparare. [The people are excited to
undertake a sacred expedition against the Slavs in Pomerani. The King of the
Spanish also writes to undertake a similar war against the Saracens in Iberia.]
Because northern Italy was at peace in the winter and spring of 1147, Pope
Eugenius III was able to travel across the Alps to meet with King Louis VII
and his aristocrats at Troyes during their preparations for the expedition and
deliver this letter and sermon. See Phillips, Second Crusade, p. 97; Hehl, Kirche
und Krieg, pp. 13536; and Giles Constable, Two Notes on Anglo-Flemish
Crusaders, in Crusaders and Crusading in the Twelfth Century (Burlington,
2008), p. 302. Subsequent references to Divina dispensatione I and II are given
by page number in the text.
38 Three Iberian rulers were linked by political relationships with one another as
well as with Frankish crusading families. King Afonso VII of Leon-Castille
(11051157), King Afonso Henriques (11091185), and Count of Barcelona
Ramon Berenguer IV (11131162) had all heard of the popes earliest call
to crusade from Archbishop Raimundo of Toledo (11251152), who was at
Vetralla when QP was first issued. See Joseph F. OCallaghan, Reconquest
and Crusade in Medieval Spain (Philadelphia, 2004), pp. 4145.

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39 See Constable, Second Crusade, p. 215.

40 Helmold of Bosau, Chronica Slavorum, ed. Bernard Schmeidler, trans. Heinz
Stoob, 2nd ed. (Darmstadt, 1973), 1.49, p. 216. My translation here is informed
by that of Heinz Stoob and Francis Joseph Tschan, ed. and trans., Chronicle
of the Slavs (New York, 1935), p. 172. Subsequent references to this edition
are given by page number in the text.
41 Phillips, Second Crusade, p. 135; and Berry, Second Crusade, pp. 48183.
42 According to chronicler Odo of Deuil, at King Louis VIIs Christmas gathering
at Bourges in December 1145 the king announced secretum cordis sui [a
secret of his heart], his desire to go on pilgrimage, to the bishops and secular aristocrats of his territory. Odo de Deuil, De profectione Ludovici VII in
orientem 1, ed. and trans. Virginia Gingerick Berry (New York, 1948), p. 6.
Subsequent references to this edition are given by page number in the text. For
Louis VIIs gathering at Bourges, see Berry, Second Crusade, pp. 46768;
Marcus Bull, The Capetian Monarchy and the Early Crusade Movement: Hugh
of Vermandois and Louis VII, Nottingham Medieval Studies 40 (1996), 45; and
Phillips, Second Crusade, p. 62. Otto of Freising explained that Louis desired to
fulfill a pilgrimage vow that his brother Philip had died before accomplishing.
Otto, Gesta Friderici I. Imperatoris, p. 54. Historians have found that Louiss
desire for pilgrimage may have come from his religious devotion, in this case
his desire to perform penance for having burned the church at Vitry, in which
townspeople were hiding, during his occupation of Champaign in 11421144.
See Grabos, Crusade of King Louis VII, pp. 9596; and Jonathan Phillips,
Holy Warriors: A Modern History of the Crusades (New York, 2009), p. 80.
But Grabos has also suggested that since the kings conflict with Thibaut of
Blois-Champagne and others had not ended at Vitry, his desire for a penitential
pilgrimagepossibly recommended by Bernard of Clairvauxhad plenty of
fuel. Grabos, Crusade of King Louis VII, pp. 9697. Concerning the German king, according to Philip of Clairvaux, who traveled with Abbot Bernard
during his recruitment, after a private sermon in which the abbot told the king
to thank God for the gifts of courage, health, and wealth he had been granted,
he burst into tears and proclaimed his willingness to participate as repayment
for divine gifts. See Phillip of Clairvaux, Liber Sextus seu miracula a sancto
Bernardo per Germanium, Belgium Galliamque patrata, anno 1146, in Vita
Prima Bernardi, PL 185:381B382B.
43 Bishop Otto was related to a number of powerful aristocrats in Germany and
Austria, most notably King Conrad III and the later emperor Frederick. See
Ray C. Petry, Three Medieval Chroniclers: Monastic Historiography and
Biblical Eschatology in Hugh of St. Victor, Otto of Friesing, and Orderic
Vitalis, Church History 34, no. 3 (1965), 282.
44 Bishop Godfrey was a relative of Bernard of Clairvaux, who had followed him
into the Cistercian order. See William of St. Theoderic, Vita Prima Bernardi

Was It an Embarrassment of Rewards?

139

9.45, PL 185:253B. Penny J. Cole described this sermon as similar to Pope

Urban IIs presentation at Clermont in 1095 in its descriptions of events in
the East and the motives it sought from recruits. See Cole, Preaching of the
Crusades, p. 40.
45 Conrad III, no. 195, in Monumenta Germaniae Historica Diplomata regum et
imperatorum Germaniae 9, ed. Friedrich Hausmann (Vienna, 1969), p. 355.
Subsequent references to Conrads letters are given by letter and page number
in the text.
46 Louis VII, 36. Ludovici Francorum Regis ad Sugerium, in RHGF 15, pp.
49596. Subsequent references to this letter are given by page number in the
text.
47 For Odos references to human errors, for example, the crusaders trusted in
the Byzantines too casually instead of remaining obedient to King Louis VII,
and the Byzantines double-crossed them. See Odo, De profectione Ludovici
VII, p. 136.
48 Przemyslaw Urbanzyk and Stanislaw Rosik, Poland, Polabia and Pomerania,
in Christianization and the Rise of Christian Monarchy: Scandinavia, Central
Europe, and Rus, c. 9001200, ed. Nora Berend (Cambridge, UK, 2007), p.
307; and Marian Dygo, Crusade and Colonization: Yet Another Response to
the Magdeburg Charter of 1108, Questiones medii aevi novae 6 (2001), 319.
For the identity of the author as a Flemish cleric living in eastern Saxony, see
Giles Constable, The Place of the Magdeburg Charter of 1108 in the History
of Eastern Germany and the Crusades, in Vita Religiosa im Mittelalter: Festschrift fr Kaspar Elm zum 70. Geburtstag, ed. Franz J. Felten and Nikolas
Jaspert, in collaboration with Stephanie Haarlnder (Berlin, 1999), p. 285.
Historians believe the letter authentic as to the time of its composition and its
awareness of the political and territorial situation of eastern Saxony, but there
is disagreement over whether or not it was actually intended to circulate; see
Constable, Place of the Magdeburg Charter, pp. 28788.
49 Raol, De expugnatione Lyxbonensi. The Conquest of Lisbon, ed. and trans.
Charles Wendell David (New York, 1936, 2001). All translations of this source
are from this edition. Subsequent references to this edition are given by page
number in the text.
50 Harold Livermore, The Conquest of Lisbon and Its Author, Portuguese
Studies 6 (1990), 13. For the dating of the text to no later than 1149 based
on the authors description of places he visited before he returned to settle in
Lisbon, see Pryor, Logistics and the Second Crusade, p. 91; and Matthew
Bennett, Military Aspects of the Conquest of Lisbon, 1147, in Phillips and
Hoch, Second Crusade, p. 71. For the intended recipient of the letter, also see
Jonathan Phillips, Foreword, in Raol, De expugnatione Lyxbonensi, p. xx;
Phillips, Ideas of Crusade and Holy War in De expugnatione Lyxbonensi (The
Conquest of Lisbon), in Holy Land, Holy Lands, and Christian History, ed. R.

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140

W. Swanson (Woodbridge, UK, 2000), p. 125; and David S. Bachrach, Religion

and the Conduct of War, c. 3001215 (Woodbridge, UK, 2003), p. 130.
51 See Phillips, Foreword, p. xxi; Pryor, Logistics and the Second Crusade,
pp. 9091; Phillips, Ideas of Crusade, pp. 124, 126, 132; Bachrach, Religion,
pp. 13031; Bennett, Military Aspects, p. 71; and Hehl, Kirche und Krieg,
pp. 25961.
52 Richard W. Kaeuper, Holy Warrior: The Religious Ideology of Chivalry (Philadelphia, 2009), pp. 8687.
53 Raol described the bishop explaining, from Psalm 33.12, Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, and the people whom he hath chosen for his own
inheritance.
54 Bachrach, Religion, p. 132.
55 Asbridge, Crusades, pp. 21314.
56 Pryor, Logistics and the Second Crusade, p. 91.