medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Re: [M-R] Redemption of Crusading Vows - question
The original principle of indulgence was that the physical hardships of traveling to the Holy Land and fighting and perhaps dying were sufficiently large that they could directly substitute for the penance on a man’s confessed sins. The struggle was inherently meritorious enough to replace penance.
Bernard of Clairvaux, during the 2nd Crusade, offered a different theological approach, in which the struggle was not inherently meritorious, but only contingently meritorious. God had voluntarily placed himself in a position of needing assistance from Christian knights so that these knights could earn their way to Heaven. They weren’t really doing anything worth the waiver of penance, but God had mercifully decided to treat their actions as meritorious. But this sort of theology seems to have made some uncomfortable, because after the 2nd crusade, indulgences reverted back to the earlier formulation for the rest of the century.
But after the failure of the 4th Crusade, Innocent III returned to the principle of contingent merit, because it solved a couple of problems. The desire for the indulgence was so strong that inappropriate people were taking crusading vows, such as women, elderly men, and men who were the only sources of support for their families. Additionally, the 4th crusade had go awry in large part because of insufficient funding. By employing the principle of contingent merit, Innocent solved these problems. An indulgence could now by shared by more than one person. So if a woman takes the crusade vow, she isn’t supposed to go on crusade to earn the indulgence; rather, she is supposed to gave money so that a knight can go in her place. Both receive the indulgence but only one goes. Guilds and religious fraternities occasionally collected funds to allow one of their members to go on behalf of the whole group. Under the original principle of inherent merit, substitutionary crusading wasn’t possible, but under contingent merit, all could participate and earn the entire indulgence.
Sorry if this is a long answer to a short question.
Andrew E. Larsen
On 9/7/08 6:19 AM, "Cecilia Gaposchkin" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Dear all,
I have just been reading about the redemption of crusading vows. One well documented case involving a nobleman's redemption involved his payment of a sum of money great enough to fund one miles for one year to go to the holy land. For this, the nobleman received his plenary indulgence.
Can someone tell me about the said "miles" who would go in the nobleman's stead. Would he received the spiritual benefits of crusading? Would he get a plenary indulgence? Is this a kind of "two for one" deal? Or would the sum for the redemption, so calculated, be actually sent to the curial war chest, rather than actually fund a replacement crusader.
Thoughts and knowledge will be appreciated.
thanks
cecilia
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