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University of California Press

About the Book

Tomaz Mastnak's provocative analysis of the roots of peacemaking in the Western world elucidates struggles for peace that took place in the high and late Middle Ages. Mastnak traces the ways that eleventh-century peace movements, seeking to end violence among Christians, shaped not only power structures within Christendom but also the relationship of the Western Christian world to the world outside. The unification of Christian society under the banner of "holy peace" precipitated a fundamental division between the Christian and non-Christian worlds, and the postulated peace among Christians led to holy war against non-Christians.

About the Author

Tomaz Mastnak is Director of Research at the Institute of Philosophy of the Center for Scientific Research at the Slovene Academy of Sciences and Arts in Ljubljana.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

1. From Holy Peace to Holy War
The Peace of God and the Truce of God
The Peacemaking Church: From Prohibiting War to Directing the Use of Arms
No More Shedding of Christian Blood
2. The Holy Manner of Warfare
Just War, Holy War, the Crusade
Holy Wars before the Crusades
Transformation of the Church's Attitude toward War
3. Christendom and the Crusade
The First Western Union: A Common Front against the Pagans
Making the Muslim the Enemy
The Christian Offensive: Essalcier Sainte Crestienté
The Papal Monarchy and the Crusade
4. Monks, Philosophers, and Warrior Monks
Sanctification of Crime: St. Bernard of Clairvaux
The Infidels Are Unreasonable and Therefore Not Human: Peter the Venerable
Ordeal by Fire: St. Francis of Assisi
The Scientific Crusade: Roger Bacon
The Infidel's Conscience is Inviolable but Not His Life: St. Thomas Aquinas
One Language, One Creed, One Faith: Ramon Lull
5. The Fall of the Papal Monarchy and the Rise of Territorial Power
Pope Boniface VIII and King Philip IV of France
Resacralization of Kingship and the Law of Necessity
The Universalism of Territorial Power: French Dominion of the World
6. Imperialists, Separatists, and Crusaders
Vindications of the Empire
Refutation of Universal Rule
The Crusade Spirit: Still "the Will of God"

Works Cited
Index

Reviews

"An outstanding work that successfully engages a historical phenomenon of major influence on our lives today and also looks into one of the more treacherous aspects of human thought and behavior... Mastnak shows, in a robust and convincing fashion, that the crusades and the peace movement were two faces of the same coin and analyzes in compelling detail how this dynamic played itself out from the eleventh through the fourteenth centuries."—Michael A. Sells, author of The Bridge Betrayed

"An enormously important contribution to understanding how Western Europe defined itself as Christendom and then acted on that understanding to shape new and hostile relations with other parts of the world."—Gabrielle M. Spiegel, author of The Past as Text