Overview
The history of the vexed relationship between clergy and warfare is traced through a careful examination of canon law. In the first millennium the Christian Church forbade its clergy from bearing arms. In the mid-eleventh century the ban was reiterated many times at the highest levels: all participants in the battle of Hastings, for example, who had drawn blood were required to do public penance. Yet over the next two hundred years the canon law of the Latin Church changed significantly: the pope and bishops came to authorize and direct wars; military-religious orders, beginning with the Templars, emerged to defend the faithful and the Faith; and individual clerics were allowed to bear arms for defensive purposes. This study examines how these changes developed, ranging widely across Europe and taking the story right up to the present day; it also considers the reasons why the original prohibition has never been restored. LAWRENCE G. DUGGAN is Professor of History at the University of Delaware and research fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.
Full Product Details
Author: Lawrence G. Duggan (Customer)
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd
Imprint: The Boydell Press
Dimensions:
Width: 15.60cm
, Height: 1.60cm
, Length: 23.40cm
Weight: 0.424kg
ISBN: 9781783274000
ISBN 10: 178327400
Pages: 278
Publication Date: 19 April 2019
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
,
Tertiary & Higher Education
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: In Print
This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us.
Reviews
[A] well-written account that gives the reader many examples of clerics who went to war, their participation in warfare, their role in the Crusades, and the peculiar rise of clerical military orders. it has the virtue of covering the entire span of European civilization. * CATHOLIC HISTORICAL REVIEW * Offers an important corrective to the blanket assumption that medieval canon law spoke with one unanimous voice condemning clerical participation in warfare. * AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW * Exemplary as a study of how theory and practice relate to each other. * SEHEPUNKTE *
[A] well-written account that gives the reader many examples of clerics who went to war, their participation in warfare, their role in the Crusades, and the peculiar rise of clerical military orders. it has the virtue of covering the entire span of European civilization. CATHOLIC HISTORICAL REVIEW Offers an important corrective to the blanket assumption that medieval canon law spoke with one unanimous voice condemning clerical participation in warfare. AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW Exemplary as a study of how theory and practice relate to each other. SEHEPUNKTE
