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Crusades in Christendom, 1179-1588: Sources

Module description

The crusades are usually associated with armed pilgrimages of Latin European Christians against Turkish and Egyptian Muslims aimed at recovering or defending the Holy City of Jerusalem.  While this image retained its force throughout the Middle Ages, the turn of the thirteenth century witnessed the emergence of indulgences associated with expeditions under the sign of the cross directed against schismatic, heretical, and excommunicate Christians.  These attempts to realise or protect the Christian republic through sanctified violence produced campaigns in Sicily, Greece, Asia Minor, the Balkans, southern France, Germany, Italy, Bohemia, Flanders, and the English Channel, and their legacy continues to shape western society and politics today.  This module will introduce you to the contemporary sources documenting this mutation of the crusading idea as Christendom was brought within the theatre of holy war.

No knowledge of a foreign language is required

Module aims - intentions of the module

Together with its co-requisite, the module aims to:

• Introduce you to the ideas, progress, and practicalities (e.g. preaching, finance, logistics, political administration) of the various crusades against Christians through close engagement with a wide variety of sources documenting the conception, execution, and consequences of these campaigns.
• Drawing on published and translated source collections, the module will make use of papal correspondence, legal customs, narrative histories, songs, charters, and inquisitorial depositions.

Through working with the extensive primary source collections available to this module, you will develop a range of research, analytical, interpretative and communication skills that can be applied in further academic studies or in graduate careers

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Have a detailed knowledge of the different sources available for the study of crusades against Christians from a comparative and transnational perspective, together with a very close specialist knowledge of those sources upon which you focus in your seminar presentations and written work
• 2. Ability to analyse the complex diversity of the sources studied

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 3. Ability to analyse closely original sources and to assess their reliability as historical evidence. Ability to focus on and comprehend complex texts
• 4. Ability to understand and deploy relevant historical terminology in a comprehensible manner
• 5. Ability to follow the changing course of crusades against Christians from the thirteenth century through the Reformation

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 6. Independent and autonomous study and group work, including presentation of material for group discussion, developed through the mode of learning
• 7. Ability to digest, select and organise material to produce, to a deadline, a coherent and cogent argument, developed through the mode of assessment
• 8. Ability to present complex arguments orally

Syllabus plan

While the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics:

The module focusses on the expansion of crusade ideas, rituals, and practices from the thirteenth century to include various expeditions directed not against Muslims and pagans, but against Christians considered schismatic, heretical, or excommunicate in order to create a united and purified Christian republic throughout Europe.  While the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics:

• The evolution and manipulation of the idea of the crusade to encompass new enemies perceived as threatening the integrity of Christendom
• The spiritual, cultural, and political relationships between Greek and Latin Christianity
• The emergence, classification, and persecution of heretics in southern France and Bohemia
• The political question of papal independence and imperial power, particularly in the shadow of the kingdom of Sicily
• The use of military campaigns to pursue spiritual ends
• The implantation of foreign crusading dynasties in lands conquered by such crusades and the cultural exchange between ruler and ruled
• Responses and resistance to crusades against Christians
• The legacy of sanctified violence within western culture

The introductory sessions for this module will provide an overview of the subject and also expose you to the sources themselves. The seminars will focus on sources drawn from published and digitised resources, allowing you to develop their knowledge of the subject in conjunction with the close analysis of historiography provided in the co-requisite module, and to develop their skills in source analysis and acquisition. Some of the sources will be presented by individuals, others will be presented by those working in groups; and on other occasions there will be open discussion; you may also be expected to present and discuss specific sources you have found yourself from the module resources. You will be expected to prepare for seminars by reading and evaluating the relevant sources in advance, and will discuss the issues raised by them in the seminars.

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• Akropolites, George, The History, trans. Ruth J. Macrides (Oxford, 2007).
• Andrea, A.J. ‘The Devastatio Constantinopolitana, A Special Perspective on the Fourth Crusade: An Analysis, New Edition, and Translation’, Historical Reflections 19 (1993), pp. 107-49.
• Andrea, A.J. and P.I. Rachlin, ‘Holy War, Holy Relics, Holy Theft: The Anonymous of Soissons’s De terra iherosolimitana: An Analysis, Edition, and Translation’, Historical Reflections 18 (1992), pp. 147-75.
• The Cathars and the Albigensian Crusade: A Sourcebook, eds Catherine Léglu, Rebecca Rist, and Claire Taylor (London, 2014).)
• Choniates, Niketas, O City of Byzantium, trans. Harry J. Magoulias (Detroit, 1984).
• The Crusade against Heretics in Bohemia, 1418-1437: Sources and Documents for the Hussite Crusades, trans. Thomas A. Fudge (Farnham, 2002).
• Crusaders as Conquerors: The Chronicle of Morea, trans. Harold E. Lurier (New York, 1964).
• The Deeds of Pope Innocent III, trans. James M. Powell (Washington, D.C., 2004).
• Geoffrey of Villehardouin, ‘The Conquest of Constantinople’, in Chronicles of the Crusades, trans. Caroline Smith (London, 2008).
• Gunther of Pairis, The Capture of Constantinople, trans. A.J. Andrea (Philadelphia, 1997).
• James I the Conqueror of Aragon, The Book of Deeds of James I of Aragon, trans. Damian J. Smith and Helen Buffery (Farnham, 2003).
• The Old French Chronicle of Morea: An Account of Frankish Greece after the Fourth Crusade, trans. Anne van Arsdall and Helen Moody (Farnham, 2015).
• Peter of Vaux-de-Cernay, The History of the Albigensian Crusade, trans. W.A. Sibly and M.D. Sibly (Woodbridge, 1998).
• Robert of Cléry, The Conquest of Constantinople, trans. Edgar Holmes McNeal (New York, 1936).
• ‘The Statutes of Pamiers (1 December 1212)’, trans. G.E.M. Lippiatt, in McGlynn, Sean, Kill Them All: Cathars and Carnage in the Albigensian Crusade, 2nd edn (Stroud, 2018), pp. 293-304.
• Topping, Peter, Feudal Institutions as Revealed in the Assizes of Romania: The Law Code of Frankish Greece (New York, 1949).
• William of Puylaurens, The Chronicle of William of Puylaurens: The Albigensian Crusade and its Aftermath, trans. W.A. Sibly and M.D. Sibly (Woodbridge, 2003).
• William of Tudela and Anonymous, The Song of the Cathar Wars: A History of the Albigensian Crusade, trans. Janet Shirley (Aldershot, 1996).

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• ELE: https://vle.exeter.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=11352 
• De Heresi: Documents of the Early Medieval Inquisition: http://medieval-inquisition.huma-num.fr/
• Troubadours, Trouvères and the Crusades: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/modernlanguages/research/french/crusades/
• Fordham University Internet Medieval Sourcebook: https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/sbook1k.asp

Key words search

Crusades, Albigensians, Heretics, Holy Roman Empire, Sicily, Byzantine Empire, France, Mediterranean