luttrell review later crusades
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7/29/2019 Luttrell Review Later Crusades
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Review: [untitled]Author(s): Anthony LuttrellReviewed work(s):
The Later Crusades, 1274-1580: From Lyons to Alcazar by Norman HousleySource: The English Historical Review, Vol. 109, No. 430 (Feb., 1994), pp. 109-111Published by: Oxford University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/574881
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blandly, without giving much hint of the detailed scholarly discussions about
their interpretationwhich have taken place (no mention, for instance,of Loner-
gan).For Duns Scotus, too, Coleman
providesa broad
epistemological survey,though in this case a more discriminatingone. The failure to focus on the topicof memory here is especially surprising,because of the central role it plays in
Scotus's epistemology. Yet there are compensations. The chapter ends with a
passage(pp. 498-9) putting with wonderful succinctnessthe overarchingthemes
of Scotus'swork: the worth of man's free moral choiceto turn to God in disinter-
ested love, yet the distinctness of this love from man's true final end, which
dependson God's radicallycontingent will.
Coleman devotes her concluding pages to the third strand of her approach:the comparisonbetween ancient and medievaltheories about memory andthose
of modern scientists. Many neurophysiologists seem to imagine that a physicaldescriptionof the brain can adequatelyexplain consciousness. Coleman believes
that ancient and medievalthinkers were right to think otherwise. This is a large
subject, and her discussion does no more than indicate some of the questions.As in many of the previous chapters, the reader is impressed by Coleman's
evident intellectual seriousness and boldnessbut left with the feelingthat neither
her six hundred and more closely-arguedpages,nor her wide learningand keen
intelligence,canfully encompassthe very ambitious tasks she has set herself.
TrinityCollege,Cambridge JOHNMARENBON
TheLater Crusades, 274-1I80: FromLyonsto Alcazar.By NORMANHOUSLEY
(Oxford: U.P., I992; pp. xxiv + 528. ?45; pb. ?I4.95).
THISmajorstudy, which its author describesas a 'general survey', rangeswidelyin both time and space, carriedalong by its considerableverve and brisk style.The book covers three hundred years of action which moves from Syria to
PortugalandPrussia,andencompassesdevelopmentsnot only in EasternEuropeand the Easternand Central Mediterraneanbut also within the Latin West and
outside it in the Atlantic islands,the Indian Ocean and the Americas. The subjectis dividedinto comprehensiblethemes which areexaminedthrougha non-chrono-
logical approach.Though somewhat lengthy, it makesan excellent course-bookon international affairs and conflicts across the Mediterraneanworld. A few
chapters, such as those concerning Spain, are somewhat narrowly conceived,but others will be most usefulboth to lecturersandundergraduates sconvenient
surveysof eventsand of recentthinking on matterssuch asearlyOttoman expan-
sion, Teutonic Prussiaor the politics of the Latin Levant. The various chaptersdealing with the military orders now constitute the best general treatment ofthat topic in the period afterI312.The book has virtually no notes and its select'FurtherReading',though certainlyuseful,cannot easilybe usedto control parti-cularpoints in the text.
Housley's work isprimarilyahighly extendedessay,inevitablybasedon second-
ary reading,which is devoted to the propagationof a single majorproposition:that the crusadeand many of its relatedramificationsremainedinfluential until
I58oand indeed beyond. While carrying forward the detailed treatment of theearlier crusades into the centuries following the fall of Acre in I29I, his book
blandly, without giving much hint of the detailed scholarly discussions about
their interpretationwhich have taken place (no mention, for instance,of Loner-
gan).For Duns Scotus, too, Coleman
providesa broad
epistemological survey,though in this case a more discriminatingone. The failure to focus on the topicof memory here is especially surprising,because of the central role it plays in
Scotus's epistemology. Yet there are compensations. The chapter ends with a
passage(pp. 498-9) putting with wonderful succinctnessthe overarchingthemes
of Scotus'swork: the worth of man's free moral choiceto turn to God in disinter-
ested love, yet the distinctness of this love from man's true final end, which
dependson God's radicallycontingent will.
Coleman devotes her concluding pages to the third strand of her approach:the comparisonbetween ancient and medievaltheories about memory andthose
of modern scientists. Many neurophysiologists seem to imagine that a physicaldescriptionof the brain can adequatelyexplain consciousness. Coleman believes
that ancient and medievalthinkers were right to think otherwise. This is a large
subject, and her discussion does no more than indicate some of the questions.As in many of the previous chapters, the reader is impressed by Coleman's
evident intellectual seriousness and boldnessbut left with the feelingthat neither
her six hundred and more closely-arguedpages,nor her wide learningand keen
intelligence,canfully encompassthe very ambitious tasks she has set herself.
TrinityCollege,Cambridge JOHNMARENBON
TheLater Crusades, 274-1I80: FromLyonsto Alcazar.By NORMANHOUSLEY
(Oxford: U.P., I992; pp. xxiv + 528. ?45; pb. ?I4.95).
THISmajorstudy, which its author describesas a 'general survey', rangeswidelyin both time and space, carriedalong by its considerableverve and brisk style.The book covers three hundred years of action which moves from Syria to
PortugalandPrussia,andencompassesdevelopmentsnot only in EasternEuropeand the Easternand Central Mediterraneanbut also within the Latin West and
outside it in the Atlantic islands,the Indian Ocean and the Americas. The subjectis dividedinto comprehensiblethemes which areexaminedthrougha non-chrono-
logical approach.Though somewhat lengthy, it makesan excellent course-bookon international affairs and conflicts across the Mediterraneanworld. A few
chapters, such as those concerning Spain, are somewhat narrowly conceived,but others will be most usefulboth to lecturersandundergraduates sconvenient
surveysof eventsand of recentthinking on matterssuch asearlyOttoman expan-
sion, Teutonic Prussiaor the politics of the Latin Levant. The various chaptersdealing with the military orders now constitute the best general treatment ofthat topic in the period afterI312.The book has virtually no notes and its select'FurtherReading',though certainlyuseful,cannot easilybe usedto control parti-cularpoints in the text.
Housley's work isprimarilyahighly extendedessay,inevitablybasedon second-
ary reading,which is devoted to the propagationof a single majorproposition:that the crusadeand many of its relatedramificationsremainedinfluential until
I58oand indeed beyond. While carrying forward the detailed treatment of theearlier crusades into the centuries following the fall of Acre in I29I, his book
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beginsa little beforethat datepreciselyin order to demonstrate that continuities
were not broken by the loss of Latin Syria. The post-I29Icrusades were no
mereappendix.
Thesubject
hasrecently
beenexpanded
in the later volumes
of the multi-author History of the Crusades,while without Kenneth Setton's
four volumes on ThePapacyand the Levant:1204-1f7I, Housley's book could
scarcelyhave been written. However, this book is not a potted version of such
earlier works, from which it differs in various significant respects. It belongsto a differenttradition,developed notably by JonathanRiley-Smith,which con-
siders the crusade not as a series of military campaigns and conquests but as
an institution precisely and technically defined in ecclesiastical doctrine. This
'pluralist'definition enormously widens the scope of the subject by includingas crusadesallpapally-proclaimedwarsaccompaniedby the requisite indulgences
and the appointment of a papal legate. It correctly envisagesthe earliercrusadesas developing an extensive theological and financial machinery which in later
centuries was no longer necessarily directed at the recovery of Jerusalem, at
the infidel or even at non-Latins, but was increasingly used against Roman
Christians or sometimes, however improperly, simply to raise money. In two
important earlier books and a series of articles, Housley himself carried this
approachdown to I378.Now he has taken it onward for anothertwo centuries,
raisingonce againthe question of the extent to which interpretationsapplicableto the twelfth and thirteenth centuriesare valid for the sixteenth. Conceptually
this book can be described as a generalhistory of crusadebulls and indulgences.It is, however, somewhat inflated by the inclusion of material on many move-
ments which were not 'indulgenced',one example being resistance to the Otto-
manson the partof Greeksand other Orthodox who lackedanysimilarcrusadingdoctrine.
The author evidently felt the need to cover a very broad field in order to
provide a context for his full demonstrationof the thesis that crusading deologyretained a powerful influence in the West at least into the sixteenth century.
Housley shows that the crusadepermeatedmany aspectsof conquest, of settle-
ment and of papal and seculargovernment and taxation;that it was embedded
in much Western literatureand culture; that it affectedpublic opinion and its
reactionsto the Turkishproblem;that it retainedaninfluencethroughoutsocietyand conditionedchivalricattitudes; hat it remainedaweighty factorin diplomatic
negotiationsandanti-Turkish eagues;and that the holy war was a vital religiousissue at the roots of the Reformation, not so much because of unease over the
issueof sacredviolence but ratherbecause he saleof indulgences o raisecrusadingfunds provoked fundamental theological objections among Lollards, Hussites
and others. Housley covers these and other areaswith intelligent and effective
summariesof much recent scholarshipand with many shrewd points of obser-
vation, but sometimes he is compelled to abbreviateratherdrastically.Certainambiguities seem unavoidable.For example, the twenty-two pages devoted to
the Hospitallers between I312 and I58o,while containing a number of arguable
points, must provide the most sensible outline of the topic now available.The
subject could scarcely have been ignored, yet it remains curious that a work
so explicitly devotedto the elucidationof aclearly-defined rusading hemeshould
give lengthy treatment to a group who were, by definition, by papalcommand
and by their own constitution and regulations,forbidden to become crusaders,
to take part in many types of crusade or indeed to bear arms against fellow
Christians. The Teutonic Order may have profited from a type of perpetual
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crusade which did not require specific papal proclamations, but it is not clearthat its own brethrenparticipated n it as crusadersn the technicalsense.
Housley faced the obvious dangerof
intruding
the more widely defined
'plura-list' crusade into too many spheres. Leaving aside possible reservations overwhat was or was not covered by papal crusadingbulls, it might, for example,be objected that pilgrims or members of knightly orders such as the Garter,while possibly motivated by some form of crusadingsentiment, did not form
part of any definable 'crusadingmovement'. In reality, it was largely Easternand Central Europeansrather than any Latin crusadingactivity which securedthe continuous defence of Western Europe;and Protestantsrejectedthe machi-
nery of the crusade but accepted the need for armed resistanceto the Turks.
Housley's estimate of the continued measure of support for the crusade may
well be correct, but much evidence for the state of public opinion unavoidablyderives from written sources reflecting the views of a limited public, so thatits implications remain uncertain. Salesof indulgencesdo not, Housley admits,
necessarilyindicate crusadingenthusiasm,and not all indulgenceswere for cru-sades.Furthermore,the crusadingpromisesandprotestationsof popes andkingswere often impelled by financialand diplomatic considerations;againand againthey failed to result in any effective action. Such rulers may quite genuinelyhave been moved by traditionalcrusading aspirations,but resourcessupposedlyraisedfor crusadeswere repeatedlyused in secularwars or were simply retained
by popes,rulers
andcollectors. Crusade-typewars didcontinue into the sixteenthcentury and crusadingtaxes and other parts of the crusadingmachine remainedin operation, but Housley concedes that these crusading orms were increasinglydivorced from real sentiment and practical application. Warfare had becomemore technical, more professional and, above all, more expensive, which made
personal crusading initiatives ever less feasible. The fall of Granada in I492unleashed North African and oceanic crusadingmovements, but in Spain andelsewhere convivenciawas being replaced by inquisition againstMuslims,Jews,conversos andProtestants.
Norman Housley's book has a coherent and largelyconvincing theme. It con-
tains much that is debatable and even provocative, yet it strikes an effectivebalance as a broad treatment of a major current in Western European history.Undoubtedly it constitutes a remarkableand original tour deforce which setsout a vastandimportantprogrammefor futureresearchanddiscussion.
Bath ANTHONY LUTTRELL
TheStrippingof theAltars: TraditionalReligion in England,c. i4oo-c. I180.ByEAMON DUFFY (New Haven/London: Yale U.P., I992; pp. xii + 654. ?29.95).
As HIS title indicates, Eamon Duffy's central focus is the liturgy. Two-thirdsof his book is about the forms of traditionalreligion; the last third shows howthis structure of belief was dismantled and eventually displaced.We learn hereaboutthe strippingand the stripped- not the strippers.The Reformationprocessis presented as the destructiveerasing of observancesthat were flourishingandvital, loved and understood by the great majority of the people, well into the
crusade which did not require specific papal proclamations, but it is not clearthat its own brethrenparticipated n it as crusadersn the technicalsense.
Housley faced the obvious dangerof
intruding
the more widely defined
'plura-list' crusade into too many spheres. Leaving aside possible reservations overwhat was or was not covered by papal crusadingbulls, it might, for example,be objected that pilgrims or members of knightly orders such as the Garter,while possibly motivated by some form of crusadingsentiment, did not form
part of any definable 'crusadingmovement'. In reality, it was largely Easternand Central Europeansrather than any Latin crusadingactivity which securedthe continuous defence of Western Europe;and Protestantsrejectedthe machi-
nery of the crusade but accepted the need for armed resistanceto the Turks.
Housley's estimate of the continued measure of support for the crusade may
well be correct, but much evidence for the state of public opinion unavoidablyderives from written sources reflecting the views of a limited public, so thatits implications remain uncertain. Salesof indulgencesdo not, Housley admits,
necessarilyindicate crusadingenthusiasm,and not all indulgenceswere for cru-sades.Furthermore,the crusadingpromisesandprotestationsof popes andkingswere often impelled by financialand diplomatic considerations;againand againthey failed to result in any effective action. Such rulers may quite genuinelyhave been moved by traditionalcrusading aspirations,but resourcessupposedlyraisedfor crusadeswere repeatedlyused in secularwars or were simply retained
by popes,rulers
andcollectors. Crusade-typewars didcontinue into the sixteenthcentury and crusadingtaxes and other parts of the crusadingmachine remainedin operation, but Housley concedes that these crusading orms were increasinglydivorced from real sentiment and practical application. Warfare had becomemore technical, more professional and, above all, more expensive, which made
personal crusading initiatives ever less feasible. The fall of Granada in I492unleashed North African and oceanic crusadingmovements, but in Spain andelsewhere convivenciawas being replaced by inquisition againstMuslims,Jews,conversos andProtestants.
Norman Housley's book has a coherent and largelyconvincing theme. It con-
tains much that is debatable and even provocative, yet it strikes an effectivebalance as a broad treatment of a major current in Western European history.Undoubtedly it constitutes a remarkableand original tour deforce which setsout a vastandimportantprogrammefor futureresearchanddiscussion.
Bath ANTHONY LUTTRELL
TheStrippingof theAltars: TraditionalReligion in England,c. i4oo-c. I180.ByEAMON DUFFY (New Haven/London: Yale U.P., I992; pp. xii + 654. ?29.95).
As HIS title indicates, Eamon Duffy's central focus is the liturgy. Two-thirdsof his book is about the forms of traditionalreligion; the last third shows howthis structure of belief was dismantled and eventually displaced.We learn hereaboutthe strippingand the stripped- not the strippers.The Reformationprocessis presented as the destructiveerasing of observancesthat were flourishingandvital, loved and understood by the great majority of the people, well into the
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