Elite and Popular Perceptions of Imitatio Christi in Twelfth-Century Crusade Spirituality
| Autor: | William J. Purkis |
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| Rok vydání: | 2006 |
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| Zdroj: | Studies in Church History. 42:54-64 |
| ISSN: | 2059-0644 0424-2084 |
| DOI: | 10.1017/s0424208400003831 |
| Popis: | From the time of the proclamation of the First Crusade in 1095 to at least the first decade of the twelfth century, there was an apparently universal understanding amongst the people of Christendom that those who joined the pilgrimage-in-arms that set out to liberate Jerusalem and the Holy Land should be regarded as imitators of Christ. This was remarkable, for the imitation of Christ was understood by contemporaries to be the paramount ideal of spiritual perfection and, before 1095, only attainable by a total withdrawal from the world and a commitment to a monastic way of life. Yet with Pope Urban II’s Clermont sermon, the spirituality that was previously the preserve of those milites Christi who fought spiritual battles in the cloister was now also available to those who fought for Christ in the world. As the biographer of one prominent first crusader famously put it, before the proclamation of the crusade, his subject was ‘uncertain whether to follow in the footsteps of the Gospel or the world. But after the call to arms in the service of Christ, the twofold reason for fighting inflamed him beyond belief.’ |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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