Christian societies in Europe were structured around the existence of a warrior caste—knights—and churchmen had occasionally begun to engage more directly in warfare, no longer contenting themselves with the struggles of the soul. Rudolf I, bishop of Würzburg, died fighting the Magyars in 908. An English record known as the Abingdon Chronicle, compiled shortly before the First Crusade, describes how the abbot of Abingdon commanded a retinue of knights.
