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God’s Bounty, Pauperes and the Crusades of 1096 and 1147
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 January 2016
Extract
Cease, therefore, your discords, let your quarrels fall silent, your wars become quiescent, and let the disagreements of all controversy be put to sleep. Start the journey to the Holy Sepulchre, get that land off the criminal race and make it subject to you, that land the possession of which had been given by God to the sons of Israel, which – as the Scripture says – is flowing with milk and honey.
Robert the Monk was present at the famous Council of Clermont in 1095, at which Pope Urban II launched the First Crusade by announcing that there would be a major expedition against the pagans to assist the Christians of the East. According to Robert, Urban reminded his listeners of the journey of the Children of Israel from Egypt; a journey in which God’s bounty several times saved Moses and his followers from famine and thirst. The report of another eyewitness at Clermont, Baldric (or Baudri) of Dol, reinforces the hkelihood that the Book of Exodus was in the thoughts of those who listened to Urban.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Studies in Church History , Volume 46: God’s Bounty? The Churches and the Natural World , 2010 , pp. 66 - 77
- Copyright
- Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 2010
References
1 Robert the Monk, Historia Iherosolimitana, RHC Oc. 3: 717–882, at 728:‘Cessent igitur inter vos odia [vos discordiae], conticescant jurgia, bella quiescant et totius controversiae dissensiones sopiantur. Viam sancti Sepulcri incipite, terram illam nefariae genti auferte, eamque vobis subjicite, terra illa filiis Israel a Deo in possessionem data fuit, sicut Scriptura dicit, quae lacte et melle fluit’ (referring to Exod. 3: 8, 17; 13: 5; 33:3).
2 Baldric of Dol, Historia Hierosolymitana, RHC Oc. 4: 1—in, at 16: ‘Ecce, Deo gratias, jam Christianis ituris, duo ultronei processere viri; ecce sacerdotium et regnum; clericalis ordo et laicalis ad exercitum Dei conducendum concordant. Episcopus et comes, Moysen et Aaron nobis reimaginantur.’
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31 Ibid.
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35 Ekkehard, Frutolfs und Ekkehards Chroniken, ed. Schmale and Schmale-Ott, 141.
36 Baldric of Dol, Historia Hierosolymitana, RHC Oc. 4: 17; Albert of Aachen, Historia Iherosolimitana, ed. S. B. Edgington (Oxford, 2007), 58.
37 Duncalf, F., ‘The Peasants’ Crusade,’ AHR 26 (1920-21), 440–53 Google Scholar, argues in favour of good logistical planning by Peter and his followers, but see Kostick, C., The Social Structure of the First Crusade (Leiden, 2008), 95–103 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.