I raised this query in the current "Bulletin" (no.16, 1996) of the Society
for the Study of the Crusades and the Latin East, but would like to raise
it here as well:
According to the chronicler Rigord, whose translated account appears in the
'Grandes Chroniques' (ed. J. Viard, vol.6, p.244, s.a.1198), a monk of the
Abbey of Saint-Denis named Herluin, described as "nez estoit de Paris,
granz clers et bien lettrez en la saint Escriture" preached the cross in
Brittany, attracting a "grant multitude de Bretons", only for the movement
to end in disorder at Acre for want of adequate leadership. P. Alphandery
and A. Dupront (La chretiente et l'idee de croisade, vol. 2, p.72, n.2)
believe that the monk Herluin was a disciple of the charismatic preacher
Fulk of Neuilly, who was drawn into preaching what became the 4th crusade.
I could find nothing about Herluin's crusade in the few remaining Breton
chronicles, and G.A. Lobineau, Histoire de Bretagne, vol. 1 (Paris, 1707),
p.178, simply repeats Rigord.
Herluin's crusade is a highly interesting episode. Here we have an educated
Paris monk leading and preaching a crusade in Brittany, c.1200 or so. He
would, most probably, have been an authorized crusade preacher.
Are there any other Breton or monastic sources which refer to him? Are
there any reports about the finale to this crusade in Outremer? I couldn't
find anything in the post-William of Tyre chroniclers of the Holy Land. All
information gratefully received.
Gary Dickson
University of Edinburgh
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