The Second Crusade: holy war on the periphery of Latin Christendom, edited by Jason T. Roche and Janus Møller Jensen (original) (raw)

Darius von Güttner-Sporzyński The pope had realised that the flood of paganism was about to overrun the Church and he therefore sent out letters to all of Europe calling upon the faithful to fight against all enemies of the faith. Each province of the Church was ordered to fight the pagans living closest to them. 1 * This study benefited from a period of research in Denmark. I was honoured to hold a visiting fellowship at the University of Southern Denmark (2006-2007). I would like to pay special thanks to Kurt Villads Jensen, Chair of the Centre for Medieval Studies, for his mentorship and the Nordic Centre for Medieval Studies for the generous provision of research facilities. The arguments in this study have been presented, in various forms and stages of development, at the International Medieval Congress in Leeds, conferences of the London Centre for the Study of the Crusades, the Military Religious Orders and the Latin East, The Polish-Czech Medievalists conferences in Gniezno, the Ordines Militares Colloquia Torunensia Historica, and biennial conferences of the Australian and New Zealand Association for Medieval and Early Modern Studies. 1 'Per eadem tempora Romanus antistes, barbaricę tempestatis procella rem diuinam pene obrutam euersamque conspiciens, datis per Europam epistolis uniuersos Christianę credulitatis hostes ab eius cultoribus oppugnari pręcepit. Singulę autem catholicorum provincię confinem sibi barbariem incessere iubebantur': Saxo Grammaticus, Gesta Danorum, ed. Karsten Friis-Jensen, trans.