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Conclusion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 April 2020

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Summary

That the early crusading movement was widely understood in terms of scriptural precedent and described in scriptural language might seem like a truism hardly in need of explication. And yet, as the previous chapters have shown, to accept this and to understand it are two quite different things. Serious engagement with the biblical context of the First Crusade leads us into the deep waters of medieval notions of sacred space and time, narrative practice and genre, authority and originality, election and damnation. Indeed, this sort of engagement opens up many more questions than can be answered by any single book, and it is to be hoped that future researchers will continue to explore the interplay between history, exegesis, and theology in crusading narratives. More generally, though focused on a single, remarkable group of texts, this study has suggested the importance of taking seriously the scriptural framing and citational practices of all medieval narrative sources. Such an approach can help to clarify the linkages between closely related texts, as well as demonstrate the powerful impact of medieval educational practices and spiritual training on contemporary writers, whatever their chosen genres. Perhaps most meaningfully for scholars who work on the distant past, it brings us closer to understanding what our authors were thinking, that is, what words and chains of association were in their minds, as they wrote. By extension, an attentiveness to citation, and allegory helps us to approximate the experience of medieval readers, who were primed to appreciate and ruminate over much of what modern readers overlook in privileging facticity and chronological story lines. The multitude of biblical references found in the First Crusade's early chronicles, and in many other medieval narratives, can function as so many breadcrumbs along a trail, leading historians back into the writers’ cultural world. While some of these references were no doubt unconscious, testimony to the thoroughness with which scriptural language and diction permeated Latin writers’ minds, others are juicy morsels indeed. They reveal the indebtedness of early crusading narratives to a variety of genres, ranging from biblical exegesis and theology to pilgrimage guidebooks and polemic.

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Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Print publication year: 2020

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  • Conclusion
  • Katherine Allen Smith
  • Book: The Bible and Crusade Narrative in the Twelfth Century
  • Online publication: 26 April 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781787448506.006
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  • Conclusion
  • Katherine Allen Smith
  • Book: The Bible and Crusade Narrative in the Twelfth Century
  • Online publication: 26 April 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781787448506.006
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Conclusion
  • Katherine Allen Smith
  • Book: The Bible and Crusade Narrative in the Twelfth Century
  • Online publication: 26 April 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781787448506.006
Available formats
×