Memorials of the Holy Places and Blessings from the East: Devotion to Jerusalem before the Crusades

Abstract

Jerusalem, the Holy Sepulchre and the liturgy of the Resurrection appear to be the origin of everything.’ Carol Heitz was emphatic about the significance of the Jerusalem ideal in shaping the liturgy and architecture of the Carolingian period. The question of how far this interest in Jerusalem lies behind the origin of the crusades has for a long time been the subject of discussion among historians. Their productivity on the subject has inevitably been increased by the occurrence of the ninth centenary of the preaching of the First Crusade at the Council of Clermont in 1095. It is agreed by almost all that there was a devotion to Jerusalem in Western Europe in the preceding centuries, but there are profoundly different views about its effect on the decision of Urban II to proclaim the crusade and on the response to his preaching. This paper does not attempt to add to this voluminous debate. It is concerned rather to explore the reasons for the reverence for the Holy Land, the forms which it took, and the changes which took place from the Carolingian period to the beginning of the crusade movement.