BALTSKÉ KŘÍŽOVÉ VÝPRAVY. TEOLOGIE SVATÉ VÁLKY V OBLASTI BALTSKÉHO MOŘE KOLEM ROKU 1200

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal article

This notion of a biblical inspired holy war against the enemies of God and his holy church came to influence much of the theological reasoning of the crusades and the overall military campaigns that became part of the crusades. That also holds true with regards to crusading activities in the Baltic Sea Region. This paper discusses first of all the developments in the theological reasoning behind the notion of these holy and divine wars and how they came to merge with the idea of mission and crusading. In that respect, some scholars have argued that the legal tradition of the just war dating back to Roman times with an important supplement through the writings of St. Augustin slowly was put on the defensive by a more theological based notion of a biblical holy war during the high medieval period that in a more profound way came to influence the theological and practical ideas behind crusading warfare, not least in the Baltic Sea Region. The paper presents first an outline of the general developments of these ideas before looking more closely at the chronicle of Henry of Livonia and the overall developments in the Baltic Sea Region especially in the early decades of the thirteenth century. Thus, for chroniclers like Henry of Livonia and his contemporaries it made very much sense to talk about “the Lord’s Wars” as essentially the ultimate holy war taking the form of a (formal) regional crusade promising penance in the form of indulgence to those partaking in these wars along the lines of reformist popes as Eugenius III, Gregory VIII and Innocent III.

An earlier version of this paper has been published in Latvian with the title “Krusta kari: svetais kars Livonija”, in Andris SNE (ed); Vara, zeme un sabiedriba: politiskas un socialas transformacijas Austrumbaltija 12. Un 13. gadsimta, (Riga 2020), pp. 124-43.
Key Words: Holy War, Crusade, Crusading, Mission, Baltic Sea Region, Estonia, Livonia, St. Augustine. Henry of Livonia, Theology
Translated title of the contributionDE BALTISKE KORSTOG: DEN HELLIGE KRIGS TEOLOGI I ØSTERSØSOMRÅDET OMKRING ÅR 1200
Original languageMultiple languages
JournalTHEOLOGICKÁ REVUE
Volume92
Issue number4
Pages (from-to)444 – 462
Number of pages18
ISSN1211-7617
Publication statusPublished - 2021

ID: 335346690