2025/04/11 by Alexander Marx · 1 voice
Arts and Humanities · #Medieval Literature and History #Reformation and Early Modern Christianity
paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/hisres/htaf005
openalex publication_date 2025/04/11 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
Abstract The Vita of Bernard of Clairvaux, penned by his friend Geoffrey of Auxerre, narrates that he required an interpreter when preaching the second crusade (1145–9) to a German audience. Interestingly, this story was recycled in several texts written at the time of the third crusade (1187–92), specifically in works by Peter the Chanter and Gerald of Wales. The article examines therefore how the story’s context and purpose shifted: defending Bernard, the later versions blamed the uninspired or even hypocritical interpreter for the second crusade’s failure. This exemplary tale epitomized reform efforts evolving around the early university of Paris; and this context explains why the tale appears predominantly in didactic texts dedicated to the instruction of preaching. Locating the crusade’s failure in the incorrect transmission of an original message helped preachers around the third crusade to rationalize misfortune in the Holy Land, just as it sensitized them not to repeat previous mistakes.