"Let Not a Remnant or a Residue Escape": Millenarian Enthusiasm in the First Crusade

Abstract

The First Crusade, which continues to attract scholarly and popular attention, was dramatic, sprawling, and complex. It involved the rapidly evolving papacy and innovative papal initiatives, the newfound military prowess and religiosity of the warrior class of Western Christendom, the emergence of popular preaching and radical views of Christianity in general and the crusading expedition in par ticular, and wide-ranging spiritual exhilaration and militancy within the broad European populace. The remarkable successes of the crusading armies that con quered Jerusalem during the summer of 1099 created a natural focus for the his torical records that were composed at the time and have continued to provide such a focus ever since. Four contemporary narratives penned by participants in the successful expedition have set the parameters for much of the subsequent recounting and analysis of this fascinating and complicated juncture in the history of medieval Western Christendom.' As attention has turned increasingly to the ideas and ideals that set in motion the innovative venture, the thinking of the organized church leadership and the baronial participants in the successful enterprise has necessarily taken pride of place. There has been awareness, to be sure, that the papal announcement set in motion unexpected responses all across the European social spectrum, but the full range of those responses has been difficult to track, largely because of the nature of the data that have survived.2 Especially intriguing has been the issue of mille narian expectations associated with the call to the crusade. A number of historians