the pre-battle processions of the first crusade and the creation of militant christian<i>communitas</i>
M. Cecilia Gaposchkin
During the First Crusade warriors and retainers participated with clergy in a series of liturgically prescribed penitential processions to demonstrate worthiness God achieve military victory. This embodied participation liturgical supplication, usually reserved for clergy, bound crusaders together sacred community predicated on fighting God’s war against enemies, who were, this framework, defined as non-Christians. Further, these rituals – routine West necessarily took new meaning when enacted Holy Land, thus endowing procession, crusade, greater devotional meaning. These ritualized materialized ideological premises crusade form devotion melding penance violence.
Material Religion