The Christianization of War: How the Church Reform Movement Incentivized Armsbearing Elites to Conquer the Holy Land

TY - JOUR

T1 - The Christianization of War

T2 - How the Church Reform Movement Incentivized Armsbearing Elites to Conquer the Holy Land

AU - Doucette, Jonathan Stavnskær

AU - Møller, Jørgen

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2024 J. S. Doucette and J. Møller.

PY - 2024/7/8

Y1 - 2024/7/8

N2 - The crusades that began around AD 1100 are among the most staggering examples of how religious ideas can be reinterpreted to justify warfare. How can we explain this “Christianization” of war and how can we explain its resonance in medieval Europe? This paper argues that the eleventh-century church reform movement, made possible by the ninth- and tenth-century Carolingian state collapse, incentivized its lay supporters to go on crusade as part of the struggle to spread its religious program. This relationship was strongest for the First Crusade; it weakened for subsequent crusades as the new and revolutionary ideas about penitential warfare became widely accepted following the surprising (and bloody) conquest of Jerusalem in 1099. Using data on the location of crusaders between 1096 and 1192 — and instrumenting for proximity to the church reform movement using distance from its place of origin (Cluny Abbey in Bourgogne) — we provide evidence in support of this argument.

AB - The crusades that began around AD 1100 are among the most staggering examples of how religious ideas can be reinterpreted to justify warfare. How can we explain this “Christianization” of war and how can we explain its resonance in medieval Europe? This paper argues that the eleventh-century church reform movement, made possible by the ninth- and tenth-century Carolingian state collapse, incentivized its lay supporters to go on crusade as part of the struggle to spread its religious program. This relationship was strongest for the First Crusade; it weakened for subsequent crusades as the new and revolutionary ideas about penitential warfare became widely accepted following the surprising (and bloody) conquest of Jerusalem in 1099. Using data on the location of crusaders between 1096 and 1192 — and instrumenting for proximity to the church reform movement using distance from its place of origin (Cluny Abbey in Bourgogne) — we provide evidence in support of this argument.

KW - Catholic Church

KW - Christianization of war

KW - Crusades

KW - Medieval Europe

KW - Reform Movement

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85210171506&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1561/115.00000072

DO - 10.1561/115.00000072

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85210171506

SN - 2693-9290

VL - 4

SP - 189

EP - 219

JO - Journal of Historical Political Economy

JF - Journal of Historical Political Economy

IS - 2

ER -