Shannan+Schoemaker-+Sources+and+Annotations

Brundage, James A. //MEDIEVALCANON LAW AND THE CRUSADER.// Madison: The University of Wisconson Press,Ltd, 1969
. The book //MEDIEVAL CANON LAW AND THE CRUSADER// was written by James A. Brundage, it was published in 1969. The book is an examination of the history of the crusaders, with the goal of studying and answering several pertinent questions that many scholars have attempted to examine. Such as; "Why did men go on crusade? What motives impelled so many thousands of men over so many hundreds of years toundertake these dangerous, arduous, expensive expeditions in the first place? Further what kept them, once they had begun, from turning back en masse when they came face to face with the hazards and obstacles in their way? And if they did turn back what happened to them then?" (p. xiii). Brundage, is considered one of the foremost Medievalists, he is in particular on Medieval cannon law and the history of law he has an extensive list of works on the crusades, including but not limited to: [|(History and Previous Works Found at)] Brundage, James A. "The Crusade of Richard I: Two Canonical Quaestiones." //Speculum// 38:3 (1963): 443-452 Brundage, James A. ed. //The Crusades, Motives and Achievements.// Boston: Heath, 1964. Brundage, James A. "A Note on Attestation of Crusaders' Vows." //Catholic Historical Review// 61 (1966) Brundage, James A. "The Crusader's Wife: A Canonistic Quandry." //Studia Gratiana// 12 (1967) Brundage, James A. "The Crusader's Wife Revisted." //Studia Gratiana// 14 (1967). Brundage, James A. //Medieval Canon Law and the Crusader//. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1969. Brundage, James A. "The Army of the First Crusade and the Crusade Vow: Some Reflections on a Recent Book." //Medieval Studies// 33 (1971) Brundage, James A. //Richard Lion Heart.// New York: Scribner, 1974. Brundage, James A. "Holy War and the Medieval Lawyers." //The Holy War//. Edited by Thomas Patrick Murphy. 99-140. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1976. Brundage, James A. "Richard the Lion Heart and Byzantium." In James A. Brundage., //The Crusades, Holy War and Canon Law.// Collected Studies Series, Cs 338. London: Variorum, 1991. He also examines how those involved became crusaders and what duties did they held as well as the power structure that was put in place to assure the completion of their assigned tasks, and what return the campaigners were rewarded on their crusade for the trials they endured. Brundage delves into all of these topics and questions throughout the course of his book. He uses several types of sources, canon law, glosses including commentaries and summae, contemporary narrative accounts, and lastly administrative non-religious records. In response to these questions Brundage takes the stance that there were indeed many motives for going on the crusades and the rewards and leadership were just as varied, he examines this with the idea in mind that the crusades were a “canonistic institution” (p. xv). The book is organized in a very structured fashion moving from an examination on the idea of a pilgrimage to an assessment of the crusaders vow and onto the privileges the crusaders enjoyed in taking up the cross. The beginning primarily covers the pilgrimage tradition and on how the term pilgrimage as described in the bible actually means ‘stranger’ or ‘wanderer’ (p.5) and was only later associated with a purely religious connotation, and from their on he examines the transformation of the term as well as the different types of pilgrimages that were and have been employed throughout history. As well as the idea of a crusader being a pilgrim and the status of pilgrims in society as well as the means of which they were able to conduct their journeys. The Author moves from this original synopsis of the evolution of pilgrimage and the pilgrim to an evaluation of how the canon law designed to define the pilgrim assisted with the creation of the idea of just and unjust war, and the tradition of the holy war before the inception of the first crusade. Crusading vows also developed from the vow the pilgrim took before they embarked upon their journey to their desired sacred location. For taking this vow the crusader “enjoyed the benefits of a privileged personal status in ecclesiastical law, of guarantees of immunity, of hospitality…he was bound to fight for the declared objectives of the campaign in which he volunteered his services, and was promised a spiritual reward which took the form of a remission of the punishment merited by his sinful past”. (p. 30) Brundage examines the origination of the crusader vow as well as the multiple types of vows employed for crusaders. In the second chapter on vows he study’s and expounds upon the modifications of these laws and vows in later centuries by popes, as well as exploring the requirements of the dispensation of vows if the quest of the crusader on which they vowed had not been completed. Moving forward in the work he elaborates on the Crusader status obligations and privileges (spiritual and temporal) they acquired once they had completed their vows, specifically the “juristic consequences” they had newly obtained by committing themselves to the cause of the crusade. (p. 115) after the crusader would make their vow ( which could be made ceremoniously publically or in private if they so wished) they would then ceremoniously take up the symbol of the cross on their person to display their commitment to the cause. If the vow was “conditional, then the binding obligation did not come into being until the fulfillment of that condition” he further educates the reader on the methods of enforcing completion of the vow of the crusader (p. 121). In conclusion he states that the crusader was a pilgrim only redefined by the church for the purposes of the crusade, and if the crusader was in fact a pilgrim then the crusades can indeed be identified as a holy war, and as such the reasons for going were for religious. Through the crusader vow the crusader was able to enjoy new judicial and spiritual rights which only furthered the zeal of the laymen and noblemen in joining this ‘holy’ endeavor. Even further stating that as a religious venture the crusader was able to financially benefit from war guilt free.

Boase, Thomas Sherrer Ross. //Kingdoms and Strongholds of the Crusaders.// London: Thames and Hudson, 1971.
Thomas Boase the author of //Kingdoms and Strongholds of the Crusaders//, outlines the launching of the crusade as well as the occupation and development of the crusaders ‘kingdom’ beginning in 1071, who focuses on the artistic and structural ( as in the development and building of castles and strongholds) developement durring the crusades, as well as the influecnces each major player had in this artistic production and maturity of art as a whole. Boase creates a sort of timeline for the reader ranging from 1071 with the Battle of Manzikert, to 1571 to the ottomans capture of Famagusta at the Battle of Lepanto. However, he takes a rather unique approach to the crusades and follows the settlement and development of the European crusaders (as well as others) for the duration of the crusades. [|( Boase Biography Source)]Boase was an art historian and eventual director of the art history program at the University of London, as well at the trustee of the Brittish Museum and published several works on crusades art and architecture ( for further readings on the construction and development of medieval strongholds durring the crusades read __Castles and Churches of the Crusading Kingdom__. London: Oxford University Press, 1967 by Boase) as well as contributing to several general textbooks for art-history, he passed away in 1974 from cancer where several of his works were publilshed Posthumously.

What makes this account so valuable is his attention to detail, and use of illustrations. There are 171 black and white images in the book with 17 full page color images. These graphic’s truly make the book, an interesting read. I found his illustrations extremely helpful in my search for crusader images and certainly can appreciate the amount of time it would take to track down a lot of these illustrations with the use of the internet, let alone the amount of careful search it would have taken someone to achieve in 1970 and earlier. With his images he captures several different cultural points of views through the art work of the time, he also walks the reader through the influence European crusaders, Byzantium’s’, as well as others have on each other in terms of architecture ( in churches, strongholds, gates, etc…) and art techniques. It is also important because with the use of so many images the reader is truly able to put a face to many of the participants of the crusades as well as get a glimpse into their world as it would have looked then as well as where and what they lived in.

He uses Images of the actual castles and buildings that were built in each different groups occupation of the holy land, as a huge part of his sources however Boase also uses a variety of other sources as well as his colleagues to create his work. He uses a variety of scholarly articles and works to back up and argue his own beliefs on the settlement and kingdoms of the crusaders.

Boase, outlines the settlement of the kingdom by European Crusaders, its defense, and ultimately its defeat. After discussing the roles of the Europeans he then moves onto several other influential groups outlining their key players and the influence they had in the outcome of the crusades. He does this by having the last half of his book dedicated to them (Greece and Cyprus, Mongols and Mamluks, as well as Rhodes and Cyprus). The author presents an overview of the crusades as presented from separate points of view or at least with a specific focus on individual groups, which gives the reader a well rounded overview of the crusades rather than a Western Euro-centric point of view.

Chronicler, Unknown. //Mideval Sourcebook.// 1213. http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1212pueri.html (accessed February 25, 2010). Explains the mysterious circumstances surrounding the children’s crusade, the document is done by an unknown Chronicler, and was translated by James Brundage. The chronicler first emphasizes the fact that the event was conducted without any outward purposeful influence from adults or crusaders for the event to occur. He only defines their gusto for going as being influenced by a ‘spirit’ and it was this ‘spirit’ that drove “many thousands of boys, ranging in age from six years to full maturity” to go out and follow in the footsteps of their parents and of the knightly class. The Chronicler then describes the procession of boys who were taking up the flag, with the intention to journey to Jerusalem to complete the quest of the crusaders. The writer then describes the reaction of the people to this crusade of children “Everyone, therefore, accounted them foolish and imprudent for trying to do this”, but yet the writer does not mention any attempts at trying to stop them from leaving their homes in the beginning for such a foolish quest when as he describes they were too weak and ill prepared to do. However, what I find most interesting is the children’s response to the people telling them they were being foolish, that they were on a mission of the divine, and essentially that they were operating on orders from god to carry on their crusade, and whatever god wills they would follow, unquestioningly. According to the author the children’s crusade ended with the death of many of its participants. He does however explain that many of its participants were turned away and sent home before they ever reached danger, before mentioning that several of them died. What I found to be so interesting about this document was the fact that the author exhibits no sadness at the loss of life of these children who participated. Which leads me to assume that either he is in support of this crusade or simply believes it is out of stupidity that they went. However, he uses rather strong language in the beginning of the document to describe the spontaneity of the actions of the children which leads me to believe that he is in support of the action of the children.