JiscMail Logo
Email discussion lists for the UK Education and Research communities

Help for MEDIEVAL-RELIGION Archives


MEDIEVAL-RELIGION Archives

MEDIEVAL-RELIGION Archives


MEDIEVAL-RELIGION@JISCMAIL.AC.UK


View:

Message:

[

First

|

Previous

|

Next

|

Last

]

By Topic:

[

First

|

Previous

|

Next

|

Last

]

By Author:

[

First

|

Previous

|

Next

|

Last

]

Font:

Proportional Font

LISTSERV Archives

LISTSERV Archives

MEDIEVAL-RELIGION Home

MEDIEVAL-RELIGION Home

MEDIEVAL-RELIGION  December 2001

MEDIEVAL-RELIGION December 2001

Options

Subscribe or Unsubscribe

Subscribe or Unsubscribe

Log In

Log In

Get Password

Get Password

Subject:

Re: Crusades, just wars, and such

From:

Dennis Martin <[log in to unmask]>

Reply-To:

Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture <[log in to unmask]>

Date:

Sat, 1 Dec 2001 07:17:21 -0600

Content-Type:

text/plain

Parts/Attachments:

Parts/Attachments

text/plain (40 lines)

medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture

Why "nothing but fear for one's soul"?  Only those who do not take sin or heaven or hell very seriously will see this as a mere, small limitation on what one may do in warfare.  The issue is not that this was the only brake on soldiers but the issue is how many soldiers believed that judgment awaited them upon death.  Those of us who live in peace and security (or thought we did until recently) may assume that even medieval folk, who did believe in heaven and hell and judgment, viewed it as something abstract and far off and hence not really relevant to today's battle.  Judging from the firefighters who lined up en masse to make their confessions and receive absolution before entering the World Trade Centers (according to Fr. George Rutler, one of the first priests on the scene apart from the fire department chaplain, Fr. Judge), those who live closer to the presence of danger may be inclined to see these matters less abstractly.

Members of the modern "knowledge class" (Peter Berger's term) may, perhaps, see journalists as the chief means of keeping people honest rather than people's own internal beliefs, which are so foreign to us.  Given the way most journalists today, in a herd mentality, pick and choose villains, letting some egregious public malefactors off the hook because every one does X or Y and pillorying others (usually those of opposite political persuasions from the journalistic knowledge class), I'd put more faith in the internalized faith (as semi-pagan and superstitious as it may have been) of medieval soldiers than I would in the moral judgment of modern war correspondents of the Boomer Generation whose views on the morality of war were shaped by Vietnam era pieties, themselves justified by a cynical attitude about war born o self-segregation from those who actually served in the military.  We have today in our university culture a pool of individuals who have virtually zero personal experience with soldiering and military life, more so probably than at any other time in modern university history.  The reality of military culture is, today, I think, very different from what most of us in our ivory towers think it is.  We would do well to exercise some caution in making assumptions about how soldiers think and what motivates them.

What I write here is written in that spirit of caution--as suggestions to consider in regard to the question of justified warfare in the Middle Ages.

The promise of a martyr's death for Crusaders did not mean that they could willfully commit mortal sin and expect heaven, even if it might have been so interpreted.  See Bernard's _On the New Knighthood_.

I must also comment on the widespread assumption that the Crusades, at least the First Crusade, were totally unjust.  Since the 18thc, for a variety of reasons, the Islamic conquests of the 7th-11th century have been minimized by western intellectuals.  They should not be distorted negatively but neither should they be whitewashed.  It's past time for some reassessment and at least some Crusade historians are perhaps beginning that process, but their work has yet to filter into the consciousness of the broad spectrum even of medievalists, let alone Western intellectuals (or journalists) in general.

Dennis Martin
>>> [log in to unmask] 11/30/01 19:18 PM >>>
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
I suspect that in the Roman Empire and Middle Ages,
when there were no journalists there searching for a new and controversial
angle on a story, there was nothing but fear for one's soul to stop one
committing battlefield excesses, and dispatching prisoners. It is also worth
remembering that unless a statement of absolution, as in the case of the
Crusades, was made in advance, medieval knights (and ther soldiers?), were
required to undertake penance after combat. Presumably, the prospect of
steep financial penalty, enforced pilgrimage, or some other act of
penitance, would have discouraged many from perpetrating atrocities. The
immediate and worldly prospect of a tangible penitentiary act of this kind
would probably have had been a more effective way of enforcing the notion of
Just War than an abstract and deferred threat to one's soul. 

**********************************************************************
To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME
to: [log in to unmask]
To send a message to the list, address it to:
[log in to unmask]
To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion
to: [log in to unmask]
In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to:
[log in to unmask]
For further information, visit our web site:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html

Top of Message | Previous Page | Permalink

JiscMail Tools


RSS Feeds and Sharing


Advanced Options


Archives

March 2024
February 2024
January 2024
December 2023
November 2023
October 2023
September 2023
August 2023
July 2023
June 2023
May 2023
April 2023
March 2023
February 2023
January 2023
December 2022
November 2022
October 2022
September 2022
August 2022
July 2022
June 2022
May 2022
April 2022
March 2022
February 2022
January 2022
December 2021
November 2021
October 2021
September 2021
August 2021
July 2021
June 2021
May 2021
April 2021
March 2021
February 2021
January 2021
December 2020
November 2020
October 2020
September 2020
August 2020
July 2020
June 2020
May 2020
April 2020
March 2020
February 2020
January 2020
December 2019
November 2019
October 2019
September 2019
August 2019
July 2019
June 2019
May 2019
April 2019
March 2019
February 2019
January 2019
December 2018
November 2018
October 2018
September 2018
August 2018
July 2018
June 2018
May 2018
April 2018
March 2018
February 2018
January 2018
December 2017
November 2017
October 2017
September 2017
August 2017
July 2017
June 2017
May 2017
April 2017
March 2017
February 2017
January 2017
December 2016
November 2016
October 2016
September 2016
August 2016
July 2016
June 2016
May 2016
April 2016
March 2016
February 2016
January 2016
December 2015
November 2015
October 2015
September 2015
August 2015
July 2015
June 2015
May 2015
April 2015
March 2015
February 2015
January 2015
December 2014
November 2014
October 2014
September 2014
August 2014
July 2014
June 2014
May 2014
April 2014
March 2014
February 2014
January 2014
December 2013
November 2013
October 2013
September 2013
August 2013
July 2013
June 2013
May 2013
April 2013
March 2013
February 2013
January 2013
December 2012
November 2012
October 2012
September 2012
August 2012
July 2012
June 2012
May 2012
April 2012
March 2012
February 2012
January 2012
December 2011
November 2011
October 2011
September 2011
August 2011
July 2011
June 2011
May 2011
April 2011
March 2011
February 2011
January 2011
December 2010
November 2010
October 2010
September 2010
August 2010
July 2010
June 2010
May 2010
April 2010
March 2010
February 2010
January 2010
December 2009
November 2009
October 2009
September 2009
August 2009
July 2009
June 2009
May 2009
April 2009
March 2009
February 2009
January 2009
December 2008
November 2008
October 2008
September 2008
August 2008
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
February 2008
January 2008
December 2007
November 2007
October 2007
September 2007
August 2007
July 2007
June 2007
May 2007
April 2007
March 2007
February 2007
January 2007
December 2006
November 2006
October 2006
September 2006
August 2006
July 2006
June 2006
May 2006
April 2006
March 2006
February 2006
January 2006
December 2005
November 2005
October 2005
September 2005
August 2005
July 2005
June 2005
May 2005
April 2005
March 2005
February 2005
January 2005
December 2004
November 2004
October 2004
September 2004
August 2004
July 2004
June 2004
May 2004
April 2004
March 2004
February 2004
January 2004
December 2003
November 2003
October 2003
September 2003
August 2003
July 2003
June 2003
May 2003
April 2003
March 2003
February 2003
January 2003
December 2002
November 2002
October 2002
September 2002
August 2002
July 2002
June 2002
May 2002
April 2002
March 2002
February 2002
January 2002
December 2001
November 2001
October 2001
September 2001
August 2001
July 2001
June 2001
May 2001
April 2001
March 2001
February 2001
January 2001
December 2000
November 2000
October 2000
September 2000
August 2000
July 2000
June 2000
May 2000
April 2000
March 2000
February 2000
January 2000
December 1999
November 1999
October 1999
September 1999
August 1999
July 1999
June 1999
May 1999
April 1999
March 1999
February 1999
January 1999
December 1998
November 1998
October 1998
September 1998
August 1998
July 1998
June 1998
May 1998
April 1998
March 1998
February 1998
January 1998
December 1997
November 1997
October 1997
September 1997
August 1997
July 1997
June 1997
May 1997
April 1997
March 1997
February 1997
January 1997
December 1996
November 1996
October 1996
September 1996
August 1996
July 1996
June 1996
May 1996
April 1996


JiscMail is a Jisc service.

View our service policies at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/policyandsecurity/ and Jisc's privacy policy at https://www.jisc.ac.uk/website/privacy-notice

For help and support help@jisc.ac.uk

Secured by F-Secure Anti-Virus CataList Email List Search Powered by the LISTSERV Email List Manager