The Wendish Crusade, 1147

The Development of Crusading Ideology in the Twelfth Century

Mihai Dragnea

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9780367366964
• eBook ISBN:
  9781000712445
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: European Medieval History

The Wendish Crusade of 1147, one of the Northern Crusades and a part of the Second Crusade, took place at a critical phase in the evolution of crusading rhetoric. The initiators and apologists of the campaign employed rhetorical devices to justify the occupation of a region and conversion of a population under the auspices of a crusade. A detailed examination of the primary sources shows that the justification of a crusade against apostates was not only a German endeavour, or the pope's will, but a political reality of the twelfth century. Therefore, the attitude of the papacy is shown to be reactive rather than proactive.

1Introduction

Our main question is how to justify a crusade that did not aim at recovering the Holy Land, but to conquer a region where the Christian presence was temporary.^* This study addresses the discussions about the relation between warfare and ideology. The initiators of the Saxon expedition against the Wends and later apologists employed moral and legal arguments to justify the conquest of a region under the auspices of a crusade. Therefore in this study we will focus on the evolution of crusading ideology and practice according to political contexts in twelfth-century Germany.

The chief instigator of the Second Crusade was the Cistercian abbot Bernard of Clairvaux, who tried to define the Saxon campaign across the Elbe as part of a great battle against all the enemies of Christendom. The crusade was called by Pope Eugene III as a response to the fall of the County of Edessa in 1144. Therefore Bernard recruited first the French King Louis VII and then the German King Conrad III to raise an army and reconquer Edessa from the Muslims. The Saxon nobles refused to participate and received papal authorization to organize a military campaign against the Wends.

In determining why the Saxons refused to march to the Holy Land, it is first necessary to place these events in a broader political context. We must therefore look at the men who led the campaign and their greedy desire to grab Wendish land instead of crusading in the Holy Land. In other words, the Saxon nobles were interested more in conquering land than winning souls. Accordingly, we must understand that for the Saxon nobility, the acquisition of land played an essential role in motivating knights to go on crusade and not to follow the opportunity for spiritual rewards in the Holy Land. Thus for the Saxons, a unity of purpose created by material and spiritual rewards does not match the reality of the situation.

The military campaign against the Wends is usually referred to as the Wendish Crusade. However, modern scholarship has questioned not only the existence of some common plans for the papacy to take on all of its enemies but also the crusading idea in the twelfth century. This is why the terminology most often used to understand the Wendish Crusade is disputed. In this book I intend to show that the Wendish Crusade is a significant turning point in crusading historiography. The difficulty that Bernard and other clerics faced in defining its purpose is highlighted in primary sources. There is no doubt that for Bernard and Eugene III, the Wendish expedition was seen in the broad framework of the Second Crusade. Bernard and later commentators reinterpreted Saxon traditions to conform to the general idea of crusading.

The Wendish Crusade took place in a critical phase in the evolution of crusade rhetoric. What the existing scholarship has not proved is the importance of the Wendish Crusade in the legitimacy of conquest and conversion of a population. Both moral and legal justifications were expressed in canon law. Our perspective argues that the Wendish Crusade offers some interesting clues to new developments in crusading ideology, as well as forced conversion. The initiators and apologists of the campaign employed rhetorical devices to justify the occupation of a region and conversion of a population under the auspices of a crusade. A comparison of the primary sources will be made to show that the justification of a crusade against apostates was not only a German endeavour, or the pope’s will, but a political reality of the twelfth century. Thus the attitude of the papacy was reactive rather than proactive.

An essential aspect is the relationship of the Saxons with their eastern neighbours. The first major records for the relationship between the two groups come from the reign of Charlemagne. In the Frankish campaign against the pagan Saxons, the Wends play an important role as allies of the Franks. As a reward, they receive from Charlemagne a large part of the Holstein region, which was inhabited by Saxons at that time. This is why the Saxon margraves and dukes sought revenge against the Wends, who were often used by the Franks to secure their borderlands. Starting with the first king of the Saxon line, Henry I, the Saxon nobles attempted to expand their realm all the way to the Oder by creating an eastern march and bringing under their control the whole territory up to the Polish border.

Missionary activity in northern Europe was highlighted by authors like Adam of Bremen (eleventh century) or Helmold of Bosau (twelfth century). Their narratives belong to a genre known as gesta episcoporum (“the deeds of bishops”), which is distinct from texts describing the deeds of kings or the history of gentes.¹ The conversion was temporary and was largely due to the military campaigns undertaken by the Saxon margraves. These campaigns were aided by the conversion of some of the Wendish leaders (e.g. the Obotrite dynasty of Nako), who maintained a tolerant political climate towards the Saxon ecclesiastical organization. The right of the Saxon margraves to conquer and administer the region across the Elbe was possible through tributary relations with Wendish leaders.²

In the late tenth century, the Wends, dissatisfied with the heavy tribute they had to pay to the Saxon nobility, rebelled. Their opposition to Saxon domination led to a mass apostasy and abandonment of the ecclesiastical centres on the eastern side of the Elbe. These insurrections put an end to the process of conversion for some time. During the first half of the eleventh century, the Ottonians and the Salians tried to regain control beyond the Elbe. Otto III’s campaigns were an attempt to protect the fragile remains of Christianity. To be part again of the imperium Christianum, it was not sufficient to submit to the Saxon dukes and pay tribute. It was also necessary to submit to the Saxon Church, into which they had been integrated in the time of Otto the Great and to which they still belonged. Suffragan dioceses of the church of Magdeburg, notably the bishoprics of Brandenburg and Havelberg, were abandoned until the twelfth century. Similar insurrections against the Saxon ecclesiastical authorities across the Elbe occured during the eleventh century.³ In some cases, Wendish princes such as Gottschalk supported the conversion process. After his death, missionary activity resumed only in the first half of the twelfth century; it was supported by illustrious bishops such as Otto of Bamberg and Vicelin of Oldenburg.⁴

Notes

*The research was conducted at the Institute of History and Archaeology (University of Tartu) and was funded by the Romanian Cultural Institute; ‘Lucian Blaga’ Postdoctoral Fellowship, no. 7177/29.05.2018. 1For recent overviews regarding the missionary activity described by these chroniclers, see Jezierski 2018: 259–263, Jezierski 2017: 115–124, Garipzanov 2011: 13–29, Kaljundi 2008: 113–127, Scior 2002. 2Althoff 1999: 278–288. 3For the Wendish apostasy and the Saxon reaction, see Dragnea 2016: 57–58, Janson 2010: 11–30, Kahl 1955: 161–193, 360–401. 4For the conversion of Pomerania by Otto of Bamberg, see Dragnea 2015: 37–48, Guth 1992: 13–23, Bartlett 1985: 185–201. For the missionary activities of Vicelin of Oldenburg, see Hoffmann 1976: 115–142.

References

Althoff, Gerd. 1999. ‘Saxony and the Elbe Slavs in the Tenth Century’. In The New Cambridge Medieval History, vol. III c.900–c.1024, ed. Timothy Reuter, 267–292. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Bartlett, Robert. 1985. ‘The Conversion of a Pagan Society in the Middle Ages’. History 70 (229): 185–201.

Dragnea, Mihai. 2016. ‘Divine Vengeance and Human Justice in the Wendish Crusade of 1147’. Collegium Medievale 29: 49–82.

Dragnea, Mihai. 2015. ‘Otto din Bamberg: Reformă Monastică și Misiune Apostolică’. In Timp, societate și identitate culturală. „Miniaturi” istorice, eds. Ileana Căzan and Bogdan Mateescu, 25–48. Cluj-Napoca: Academia Română – Centrul de Studii Transilvane.

Garipzanov, Ildar H. 2011. ‘Christianity and Paganism in Adam of Bremen’s Narrative’. In Historical Narratives and Christian Identity on a European Periphery: Early History Writing in Northern, East-Central, and Eastern Europe (c.1070–1200), ed. Ildar H. Garipzanov, 13–29. Turnhout: Brepols.

Guth, Klaus. 1992. ‘The Pomeranian Missionary Journeys of Otto I of Bamberg and the Crusade Movement of the Eleventh to Twelfth Centuries’. In The Second Crusade and the Cistercians, ed. Michael Gervers, 13–23. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Hoffmann, Eric. 1976. ‘Vicelin und die Neubegründung des Bistums Oldenburg/Lübeck’. In Lübeck 1226: Reichsfreiheit und frühe Stadt, eds. O. Ahlers et al., 115–142. Lübeck: Hansisches Verlagskontor Scheffler.

Janson, Henrik. 2010. ‘What Made the Pagans Pagans?’ In Medieval Christianitas: Different Regions, ‘Faces’, Approaches, eds. T. Stepanov and G. Kazakov, 11–30. Sofia: Voenno izdatelstovo.

Jezierski, Wojtek. 2018. ‘Feelings during Sieges: Fear, Trust, and Emotional Bonding on the Missionary and Crusader Baltic Rim, 12th–13th Centuries’. Frühmittelalterliche Studien 52: 253–281.

Jezierski, Wojtek. 2017. ‘Fears, Sights and Slaughter: Expressions of Fright and Disgust in the Baltic Missionary Historiography (11th–13th centuries)’. In Tears, Sighs and Laughter: Expressions of Emotions in the Middle Ages, eds. P. Förnegård et al., 109–137. Stockholm: Vitterhets.

Kahl, Hans-Dietrich. 1955. ‘Compellere intrare. Die Wendenpolitik Bruns von Querfurt im Lichte hochmittelalterlichen Missions- und Völkerrechts’. Zeitschrift für Ostforschung 4: 161–193, 360–401.

Kaljundi, Linda. 2008. ‘Waiting for the Barbarians: Reconstruction of Otherness in the Saxon Missionary and Crusading Chronicles, 11th–13th Centuries’. In The Medieval Chronicle, 5, ed. Erik Kooper, 113–127. Amsterdam: Rodopi.

Scior, Volker. 2002. Das Eigene und das Fremde: Identität und Fremdheit in den Chroniken Adams von Bremen, Helmolds von Bosau und Arnolds von Lübeck. Berlin: De Gruyter.

2Crusade ideology in northern Europe and Bernard of Clairvaux

The First Crusade, proclaimed by Pope Urban II for the liberation of the Holy Land in 1095, was defined as a spiritual and military action in which “taking the cross” meant engaging in a war against the “enemies of Christ”.¹ Jerusalem, liberated in 1099, was indispensable in the discourse of contemporary clergy. Its spiritual significance was also felt among the clergy of the archdioceses of Hamburg-Bremen and Magdeburg, responsible for the conversion of the Wends. The enthusiasm that dominated the hearts of the participants in the First Crusade (1096–1099) was remarkably widespread in Latin Christendom. The papacy and apologists spread the idea that the struggle against infidels was the guarantee of obtaining forgiveness of sins and the recognition of divine mercy.²

The most important preacher of the Second Crusade was Bernard, abbot of Clairvaux. At that time, Bernard was one of the most influential theologians of the Western Church. His sermons had reached all corners of Latin Christendom. Helmold of Bosau, the main chronicler of the Wendish Crusade, called him “the most notorious” (famosissimo illo).³ Through his oratorical skill, the Cistercian abbot succeeded in conveying the papal message to European kings. Bernard’s speech in Frankfurt (13 March 1147) and the encyclical issued by Pope Eugene III on 11 April (Divini dispensatione) opened a new front of the crusade.⁴ The Saxons were urged to join the crusade movement by fighting against the Wends, instead of going to the Holy Land. By doing this, the Saxons received the same spiritual privileges as crusaders in the east.⁵ The emergence of the crusade phenomenon in the Baltic region has been easily identified with the two major interests of the Saxon clergy and nobility: the desire to convert and subdue the Wends, both fuelled by the ideology of Holy War.

The Cistercian abbot had not instructed the crusaders in the East to kill the Muslims if they should refuse to convert, yet in 1147 he seemed to be proposing such me...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Foreword
• List of abbreviations
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Crusade ideology in northern Europe and Bernard of Clairvaux
• 3 Forced conversion and the new canon law (ius novum)
• 4 The conquest of a pagan territory blessed by the Church
• 5 Expanding the crusading ideal on the eastern shore of the Baltic
• Conclusion
• Index of names