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Zacour, N. P.; Hazard, H. W. (ed.) / Volume VI: The impact of the Crusades on Europe
(1989)
I: The legal and political theory of the Crusade, pp. 3-38
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I THE LEGAL AND POLITICAL THEORY OF THE CRUSADE he basic legal theory of the crusade is the moral theology of the just war. The crusade was the perfect example of the just war, justissimum bellum, and the idea of a just war was inevitably developed and refined in the course of the crusading period. Before the crusades the just war was best defined by its opposite, though a number of the fundamental concepts already existed in church decretals. At all times, the notion was closely bound up with that of martyrdom and of Christian ascesis. On many points the Christian system as a whole approximated to the Moslem teaching onjihãd. The only explicit war aim was the "recovery" of the holy places and of Christian land. The status of a man who is fighting against "the enemies of God" is the crux of crusading law. If, even when he is killed, he is not a martyr, he must be engaged simply in a good work, and the crusade became the highest and most efficacious of good works, and so of penances. Penance has always been important in canon law, and under the pressure of the crusade the related theology of indulgences developed even faster than the theory of the just war. A. Origins of the Concept of "Holy 11/ar" The idea of holy war in the west takes shape early with the conversion of the Arian Franks, and Merovingian history, at least as Gregory of Tours relates it, reflects the idea that Catholic faith is rewarded by military and political victory. The definition of martyrdom, inherited from the age before Constantine, was much more precise. True martyrdom, like baptism, wipes out sin. The martyr knows no pains, 3
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