Charlie Fenton’s Reviews > The Invention of the Crusades > Status Update

‘Another complaint which cut at the heart of the reforms of Innocent III was of the system of vow redemptions; the easy availability, which amounted to the direct sale of indulgences; and the use to which the money was put. Very large sums were raised in this way until the system broke down in the mid-fourteenth century. An unsophisticated law of demand and supply operated.’

‘Crusade preaching exposes something of the nature of crusading as devised in the late twelfth and thirteenth centuries, especially in its development beyond the specific task of recruiting to raise money and form a tool of general pastoral efforts by the church hierarchy. Because of this integration its apparatus could survive when private commitment to fighting for the Cross was overtaken‘

‘Despite Innocent III’s codification of crusade organisation, one supreme peculiarity survived the twelfth century to persist until modern times: the lack of a precise, specific and universally accepted name to describe the activity. Even after the term crucesignatus became fashionable in Latin texts after the Third Crusade, the expeditions themselves were still represented either by non-specific words’

‘Thus, although provided with an administrative pattern by the end of Innocent III’s pontificate (1216), crusading lacked consistent focus. For all its prominence in religious rhetoric, clerical commentary and secular interest, the ideas, descriptions and behaviour linked to this form of Holy War remained noticeably imprecise and malleable, lacking definition in law or language.’

‘In law and action, its operation remained confused with other habits and forms. As an awareness of a continuing tradition - as opposed to a glittering memory of the First Crusade - it grew haphazardly. For official clarity, attempted definition and some uniformity, one must look at Innocent III and beyond. The twelfth century is crusading’s Dark Ages.’