Scrutinizing crusade prehistory, the period that preceded its birth, describing its features and going deeper into the “reasons” that provoked them, without concealing the little honourable, is the essential core of the book “The holy war”, by theologian, historian and researcher Jean Flori. The volume, which has been jointly edited by the Trotta and the University of Granada, has ten chapters and 400 pages, and emphasizes, especially, the dominant characteristics of the holy war. The translation has been carried out by Rafael Peinado Santaella, professor of the Department of Medieval History and head of the Publishing House University of Granada.
According to the author of this text inquires into the multiple reasons that lead the crusaders to set out for Jerusalem, “there are multiple and varied motives, sometimes moving away from the capital subjects of the pontifical prediction. Such motives were mainly religious, as nobody doubts, but this is a vast ambit with numerous components and variants.” According to the French researcher and historian, despite people’s reticence, we can even admit that material motives could also play a secondary role in some warriors´ decision of setting off for the holy war.
Although the idea of a holy war increased during the 11th century, as all historians agree, from the age of Charlemagne there were certain trends to consecrate the Emperor’s war actions. According to Jean Flori, “these tendencies derived to a great extent from the notion of Christian Empire which had sprung several centuries before under Constantine, a notion exalted and relived by Charlemagne. Our research work –the French researcher and theologian says–, essentially focused on the 11th century, starts in a natural way in the age of Charlemagne, when the first medieval roots of the notion sprung. However, our report must sometimes break the convenient line –and often too simplistic—of chronological development to indicate, making an aside, what this idea owes to its distant ancestors of the Roman Empire, particularly to the work of Saint Augustine, generally considered as the father of the idea of just war.”
According to the author of this book “we can consider crusades as the result, the logic conclusion, almost unavoidable, of a slow process, a real doctrinal revolution that, through the centuries, lead the Church from the initial non-violence to the meritorious and consecrated use of weapons: holy war, or rather, consecrated war, as far as the concept of holy war seems unacceptable in our age.”
Further information: Prof Rafael Peinado Santaella.
Professor of Medieval History and Historiographical Sciences and Techniques.
University of Granada. Phone numbers: 958 243932 / 243651 / 650-412959.
E-mail. rpeinado@ugr.es
