Crusading Spirituality in the Holy Land and Iberia, c. 1095–c. 1187. By William J. Purkis. Woodbridge, U.K.: Boydell, 2008.xii þ 215 pp. $90.00 cloth.

摘要

In this lucid and measured monograph, William Purkis seeks to define andistinctive crusade spirituality in the near century between the First andnThird Crusades. As a member of what has recently been described as then“idealist” school of crusade historians, Dr. Purkis bases his approach on twonallied assumptions: that crusaders were primarily motivated by religiousnimpulses and that these laymen’s motives can be recovered from a study ofnthe literary, historical, administrative, and academic apologetics of clericalnobservers and commentators. The preaching and propaganda surrounding thenFirst Crusade, and, it is argued, the lay response, were characterized by anninnovative emphasis on Christo-mimesis, imitatio Christi, and on crusadersnfollowing the vita apostolica, both central themes of concurrent movements