Turning Judas into a Crusader: Local Reform and Crusade Propaganda in Thirteenth-Century Cambrai

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
LUO WANG
Keyword(s):  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
European Society ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Moral Reform ◽  
Ritual Performance ◽  
Fourth Crusade ◽  
Low Profile

Crusade preaching in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries has often been studied as a centralised programme devised and deployed by the papacy for reform purposes. This article examines the career of John of Cantimpré, a relatively low-profile priest operating at the local level, who none the less was deeply engaged in crusade campaigns as integral to the moral reform of European society. This study first analyses an unusually sophisticated ritual performance in which a usurer was transformed into a crusader as part of a preaching event orchestrated by John of Cantimpré on the eve of the Fourth Crusade, and then investigates the representation of him as a methodical preacher who associated local concerns, such as usury and predatory lordship, with the crusading enterprise.

Byzantine Scyphate Bronze coinage in Greece

1961 ◽  
Vol 56 ◽  
pp. 42-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. M. Metcalf
Keyword(s):  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Good Deal ◽  
The Other ◽  
Purchasing Power ◽  
Byzantine Empire ◽  
Market Place ◽  
Fourth Crusade ◽  
Unusual Form

The Byzantine coinage in the twelfth century was of three kinds. There were gold nomismata, with a purchasing power which must have been a good deal greater than that of a present-day five-pound note, and also nomismata of ‘pale gold’—gold alloyed with silver—of lower value; at the other extreme there were bronze coins, smaller than a modern farthing, which were the coinage of the market-place; intermediate, but still of low value, there were coins about the size of a halfpenny, normally made of copper lightly washed with silver. The silvered bronze and the gold were not flat, as are most coins, but saucer-shaped. The reason for their unusual form is not known. Numismatists describe them as scyphate, and refer to the middle denomination in the later Byzantine system of coinage as Scyphate Bronze, to distinguish it from the petty bronze coinage. Scyphate Bronze was first struck under Alexius I (1081–1118). Substantive issues were made by John II (1118–43), and such coinage became extremely plentiful under Manuel I (1143–80) and his successors Isaac II (1185–95) and Alexius III (1195–1203). After the capture of Constantinople in the course of the Fourth Crusade, the successor-states to the Byzantine Empire at Nicaea, Salonica, and in Epirus continued to issue scyphate bronze coinage, although in much smaller quantities, until after the middle of the thirteenth century.

Traveling Sets and Ritual Performance

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sherry D. Fowler
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Ritual Performance ◽  
Over Time

Two wooden sculpture sets of Six Kannon, the thirteenth-century set from Daihōonji in Kyoto attributed to the artist Higō Jōkei and the fourteenth-century set from Tōmyōji in the Minami Yamashiro district of Kyoto, are well-documented sets that show the history, modifications, and movement of the cult. Copious inscriptions inside images in the respective sets reveal diverse sponsorship, from an elite female patron in the former to a huge group of patrons from a variety of backgrounds in the latter. Extant thirteenth- to fifteenth-century written records on ritual procedures, such as Roku Kannon gōgyōki, which focused on Six Kannon, contribute to the knowledge of how the rituals related to Six Kannon were performed as well as how the Six Kannon functioned in response to different needs, such as assisting with the six paths, protecting the dharma, or bolstering sectarian heritage, throughout their changing circumstances and movement over time.

Crusader Sources from the Near East (1099–1204)

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Edbury
Keyword(s):  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Near East ◽  
Literary Works ◽  
Fourth Crusade ◽  
Latin East

This chapter discusses the Crusader sources from the near East that originated between 1099 and 1204. There are no letter collections from the Latin east that were written during the twelfth century, but there are several letters from the east that contain invaluable contemporary evidence for relations between the crusaders and Alexios Komnenos. Aside from examining letters, the chapter studies the literary works that were composed by the Latins in the east, as well as the literary works written in the thirteenth century which relate to the events from before the Fourth Crusade.

‘They Do It Like This in Romania’

2021 ◽  
pp. 193-208
Author(s):  
James Morton
Keyword(s):  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Cultural Change ◽  
Canon Law ◽  
Southern Italy ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
Legal Authority ◽  
Religious Ritual ◽  
A Value ◽  
Church Hierarchy

Chapter 10 explores the changing uses of Byzantine canon law among the Italo-Greeks in the thirteenth century. The Greek churches and monasteries of southern Italy became increasingly integrated into the administration of the Roman church following the Fourth Lateran Council (1215). Nonetheless, as the Salentine Group shows, some Italo-Greeks continued to copy nomocanons as late as the fourteenth century. Chapter 10 argues that the manuscripts retained a value as sources of cultural authority, explaining and justifying Greek religious ritual, even as they lost their value as sources of legal authority. To illustrate this point, the chapter begins with a discussion of Nektarios of Otranto’s Three Chapters, a polemical work of c. 1220–1225 that relies heavily on citations of Byzantine canon law to refute Latin attacks on Greek rites and customs. It then considers who these refutations were aimed at, looking in particular at the abortive attempt of Archbishop Marinus of Bari to outlaw Greek baptism in 1232 as a specific example of Latin criticism. It notes, however, that criticism like this from the official church hierarchy was rare and that controversy was probably more restricted to an unofficial, local level. The chapter concludes by examining evidence that canon-law based defences of Greek religious practice were not just aimed at Latins but also at other Greeks. As many Italo-Greeks began to adopt (consciously or otherwise) Latin rites into their worship, more conservative sections of the community attempted to resist such cultural change by mobilising canon law as polemic.

Learning from the Confessional in the Later Thirteenth Century: Contributions to Human Sexuality, Daily Life, and a Science of Nature

2019 ◽  
Vol 88 (2) ◽  
pp. 293-315 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irven M. Resnick
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Human Activities ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Human Sexuality ◽  
Sexual Practices ◽  
Moral Reform ◽  
Private Lives ◽  
General Terms ◽  
Seal Of Confession

Implementation of the canons of the Fourth Lateran Council dramatically expanded the practice of auricular confession among laypeople. Although the Council's canons also insist upon the seal of confession in order to keep the content of confessions secret, thirteenth-century authorities differ over the boundaries of the seal. As a result, the “secrets” of confession are often revealed in at least general terms in order to provide preachers with entertaining exempla for moral or doctrinal instruction. What is revealed from confession not only provides a window onto medieval private lives, but it also provided confessors with information about human activities—especially sexual practices—that might otherwise be unavailable to them. With such information, learned confessors not only encouraged moral reform but also defended claims of Aristotelian biology on human nature and sexuality.

A mission to the Orthodox? the Cistercians in Romania

1976 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 169-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brenda M. Bolton
Keyword(s):  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Popular Belief ◽  
Fourth Crusade ◽  
The World ◽  
East And West

It has been said that Innocent III shared the popular belief existing at the beginning of the thirteenth century that the world would end in 1284. Perhaps this is the reason why throughout his pontificate he was eager to resolve the divisions facing mankind. These divisions were reflected in the deviations of the heretic, the beliefs of the infidel and the schism of the eastern church. In the first of these Innocent was meeting success, albeit in varying degrees, for example in Languedoc. The second and third needed his further attention. He was of the opinion that a renewed crusading effort in both east and west would be able to achieve mass conversions amongst Jews and Muslims. To this end the fourth crusade of 1204, mounted mainly by the Cistercians, came into being.

scholarly journals Opowieść o zdobyciu Konstantynopola przez uczestników czwartej wyprawy krzyżowej (6712/1204) w średniowiecznej ruskiej tradycji historiograficznej

2016 ◽  
pp. 109-152
Author(s):  
Zofia A. Brzozowska
Keyword(s):  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Literary Work ◽  
Valuable Resource ◽  
Old Russian ◽  
Fourth Crusade

The Old-Russian account about the siege of Constantinople by participants of the Fourth Crusade in 1204 has survived in several East Slavic historiographical texts and represents primarily an independent literary work. Certainly, the earliest of these texts is the Novgorod First Chronicle. It is an older edition preserved only in one copy – the so-called “Synodal manuscript”, which was written in the middle of the thirteenth century. At that time the story was written. Its author could have taken information about the events he described directly from eyewitnesses. His account of events is characterized by objectivity and credibility and constitutes a valuable resource for the study of the Fourth Crusade

Gregory IX, Frederick II, and the Liberation of the Holy Land, 1230-9

2000 ◽  
Vol 36 ◽  
pp. 192-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Björn Weiler
Keyword(s):  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
European Society ◽  
General Council ◽  
Holy Land ◽  
Breathing Space ◽  
Failed Attempt ◽  
Papal Authority

Gregory IX is rarely associated with the affairs of the Holy Land. In fact, he is most widely known for initiating the conflict between imperial and papal authority which was to occupy European society for most of the thirteenth century. After all, the conflict with Emperor Frederick II had been among the defining features of Gregory’s pontificate. In September 1227, barely six months into office, he excommunicated Frederick, and in 1241 he died after a failed attempt to try Frederick before a general council. Consequently, the period of concord between 1230, when peace was made with Frederick in the Treaty of San Germano, and March 1239, when the Emperor was excommunicated for a second time, has been described as an interlude, a breathing space, allowing both Frederick and Gregory to muster the means and arguments for their final show-down.

The Myth of the White Monks' “Mission to the Orthodox”: Innocent III, the Cistercians, and the Greeks

Traditio ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 70 ◽  
pp. 237-261
Author(s):  
Chris Schabel
Keyword(s):  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Common Assumption ◽  
Fourth Crusade ◽  
Latin West ◽  
Cistercian Order ◽  
Pope Innocent Iii ◽  
Greek East ◽  
Almost All

In the early thirteenth century, numerous Cistercian monasteries were founded in the former Byzantine territories conquered in the context of the Fourth Crusade. According to the standard narrative, put forth in the 1970s, Pope Innocent III sent the Cistercians on a “mission to the Orthodox,” but the mission was a failure, because the White Monks soon abandoned almost all of their houses in Frankish Greece and Constantinople without having “converted” the Greeks. In the light of recent research on the aftermath of 1204 and on the Cistercian Order, this paper argues that the Frankish rulers took the initiative to found Cistercian monasteries in the Greek East for the same reason that they did so in the Latin West: to cater to the Latin rite aristocracy. This Cistercian mission was a success, since the Cistercian establishments in Greece generally existed as long as the Western nobility survived to patronize and protect them. There is no evidence that Innocent intended the Cistercians to be missionaries in Romania since, contrary to a once common assumption, the papacy did not view the Greeks as requiring the same kind of missionary activity that was deemed necessary in lands inhabited by pagans or heretics.

Conversion by Coercion

2020 ◽  
pp. 151-173
Author(s):  
David W. Kling
Keyword(s):  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
European Society ◽  
Church And State ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
Economic Pressure ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Christian Conversion ◽  
Latin Church ◽  
Universal Rule

As Christian European society expanded geographically and as the Latin Church insisted on its universal rule, the perceived contamination of Christians by “religious aliens” accelerated intolerance by church and state authorities, mobs, and vigilante groups. This chapter examines the forced conversions of Jews and pagans. In four incidents of Jewish conversion, the threat of violence or of some kind of negative consequence (e.g., economic pressure) constituted if not forced conversions then certainly pressure to convert. Jews, however, were only one group, and a relatively small one, targeted for forcible Christian conversion. Throughout the medieval period, thousands of pagans were brought into the Christian fold by forcible means—from Charlemagne’s eighth-century campaign against the Saxons to the Sword Brothers’ thirteenth-century campaigns against the Lithuanians and Estonians.

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