Schmoeckel, Mathias, Vom „gerechten” zum „heiligen Krieg”? Rechtfertigung der ersten Kreuzzüge im kanonischen Recht
Abstract From "just war" to the "holy war"? Justification of the first crusades in medieval Canon law. The European history of public international law has often dealt with the concept of "just war", almost never with the "holy war". This seems to be rather an Islamic phenomenon. But ever since Urban II called for the first crusade in 1095, Europe too knew the idea of justifying war with religious reasons. Until now this phenomenon has been used to denounce the cruelty of Christianity. We need, therefore, a new critical access to this topic. The origin of the idea in 1095 has to be linked with the development of penancy and indulgencies in their terms and concepts. We will see how skeptically the canonists of the age reacted and how little representative this immediately afterwards abandoned idea was of its time. Because Europe, in the end, rejected the idea of a "holy war", this topic is an important facette of the European evolution of public international law and does not prove the cruelty of the church. This article is part of a greater research project on the influence of medieval Canon law on public international law.