| In this dissertation I examine the relationship between the primarily monastic devotion to the cross and the crucified Christ and crusade preaching. My primary sources for this study are sermons, letters, and devotional works on the cross from 1050 to 1215 written by monks, nuns, regular canons, and teachers. Through a close analysis of these texts, I demonstrate the pivotal role that the devotion to the cross as a pious act and a metaphor for penance played in the lives of those with a religious vocation. Alternatively, I show how this devotion became an integral part of crusading propaganda to encourage lay knights to take up their own penitential crosses.;In their sermons medieval preachers not only exhorted the devout religious and crusaders to carry the cross of Christ but also they also pointed toward the New Testament figures to explain the proper manner of following after the Lord. While the penitent thief carried the cross of penance, the Virgin Mary bore the cross of compassion. However, the impenitent thief wasted his suffering through his blasphemous utterances and Simon of Cyrene bore the cross of hypocrisy.;Finally, I argue that the loss of the relic of the True Cross in 1187 caused crusade preachers, especially those associated with the schools of Paris, to link the crusader's cross to the imitation of the crucified Christ. In so doing, they consciously adopted the theology of the cross which monks and regular canons had used to describe their way of life. They exhorted crusaders to suffer bodily but also instill the virtues of Christ's cross of divine love for one's fellow Christian. In this manner, they believed all Christendom could obtain the salvation which the crucified Christ had achieved through his physical and spiritual torment. |
