William J. Purkis – författare

An insightful new history of crusading, revealing the vital role holy places and relics played in fuelling medieval religious violenceThe Crusades have long been understood as a conquest of the Holy Land directed by the papacy in order to expand Christian control over the medieval Mediterranean world. But what motivated individual crusaders? And why were specific sites targeted over others?In this bold new account, William Purkis reveals how religious ideas fuelled generations of crusading violence in the Holy Land. Drawing on a wide range of medieval texts, images and objects, he uncovers how the prospect of losing sacred material culture played a more significant role in triggering crusade enthusiasm than the opportunities for worldly material gain. Purkis argues that these devotional concerns, which were integral to medieval Latin Christianity, were fundamental drivers for the practice of crusading.This is a fascinating and original history that shows how this period was characterised by contradiction, triumphalism and ultimately dejection.

Pilgrimage to shrines and places of particular holiness was a feature of all three major religious traditions in medieval Europe and the eastern Mediterranean. Pilgrims exposed themselves to risk and loss in order to experience the spiritual benefits of devotion to the shrine of a saint or a holy place. This authoritative and comprehensive Companion offers a thematic approach to the experience of the medieval pilgrim, from departure to return. The central focus is on how pilgrims prepared for and negotiated their journeys; what they saw and did at shrines; and how they understood their journeys. The Holy Land stands at the centre of the book, because it was the main site of pilgrimage for Jewish, Christian, and Muslim pilgrims, but pilgrimages to other sites across Europe and the Near East, and to the shrines of local saints, are also explored.

Argues for a new context for the origins and development of crusading, as an imitation of Christ.For much of the twelfth century the ideals and activities of crusaders were often described in language more normally associated with a monastic rather than a military vocation; like those who took religious vows, crusaders were repeatedly depicted as being driven by a desire to imitate Christ and to live according to the values of the primitive Church.This book argues that the significance of these descriptions has yet to be fully appreciated, and suggests that the origins and early development of crusading should be studied within the context of the "reformation" of professed religious life in the twelfth century, whose leading figures (such as St Bernard of Clairvaux) advocated the pursuit of devotional undertakings modelled on the lives of Christ and his apostles. It also considers topics such as the importance of pilgrimage to early crusading ideology and the relationship between the spiritualityof crusading and the activities of the Military Orders, offering a revisionist assessment of how crusading ideas adapted and evolved when introduced to the Iberian peninsula in c.1120. In so doing, the book situates crusading within a broader context of changes in the religious culture of the medieval West.Dr WILLIAM PURKIS is Senior Lecturer in Medieval History at the University of Birmingham.