Hate Preachers and Religious Warriors: Violence in the Libelli de lite of the Late Eleventh Century

Abstract

That Old Testament warriors for faith and their reception would play a role in the so called is not self-evident. This controversy has frequently been described as having been over the appointment of bishops or between a dogmatic pope and a king lacking insight. Violent confrontation gradually came to the forefront; extreme forms of propaganda and calls for violence came to play an increasingly important role. Starting in the mid-eleventh century, following a long period of weakness, the Roman Church found itself undergoing a comprehensive process of reform, manifest above all in the growth of papal authority. While searching for historical predecessors and models in the ideological struggle between church and world, this chapter focuses on the patterns of argumentation used by some of the propagandists and thus on the role assigned to the Maccabees in the legitimization of violence as the investiture controversy unfolded. Keywords:eleventh century; late eleventh century; Old Testament warriors; Roman Church