When Pope Urban launched the Crusades, in a blood curdling speech delivered at Clermont in 1095, there were some dissenting Christian voices who asked: where in the bible did Jesus call on his followers to take up a sword? But for defenders of the concept, there was more than enough violence in scripture to support an armed onslaught on the Holy Land.
An imam once said to me about the Muslim Qur’an that it was like a set of building blocks. You can use those blocks to create a message of peace or you can use them to develop a violent ideology. Most Muslims, he added, go for the former – but there are those jihadi salafist terrorists today who opt for the latter interpretation of scripture.
And so it has been with Christianity. Most Christians assume that theirs is a religion of peace – as most Muslims claim the same about Islam. But the Christian bible has the building blocks for a warlike creed if you go looking. And Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, cheerleader for the crusades, went looking!
He found no difficulty legitimising the concept of crusading, and specifically the formation of the Knights Templar, by thumbing through his bible. As a result, he became the foremost ideologue for a warrior Christianity, spread by the sword.
Bernard conjured up the idea of a “holy war” and “taking the cross”, as the act of joining the crusade. In the gospels of Matthew and Luke, Jesus declares: “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” And then, in the same gospels, Jesus says: “I have come not to bring peace, but a sword.” Just stretch the meaning a bit and Jesus Christ was instructing medieval serfs and nobles to armour up and go battling in the Holy Land.
To defend Christianity, Bernard preached that the church could deploy both scripture and cold steel. This is sometimes called the Two Sword Theory. The church wielding both a spiritual sword (the word of God) and a material sword (the sword of the state) – with the two weapons defending the one true faith.
The knight who puts the breastplate of faith on his soul in the same way as he puts a breastplate of iron on his body is truly intrepid and safe from everything… So forward in safety, knights, and with undaunted souls drive off the enemies of the Cross of Christ.
Bernard’s writings, particularly his propaganda tour de force for the Templars – In Praise of the New Knighthood – provided a theological framework for the use of violence in the service of Christ. Not everybody agreed with Bernard (for example, another Cistercian monk, Isaac of Stella, loudly opposed him), but their voices were drowned out by crusading fever, which spread like wildfire across Europe.
There was ample material in the Old Testament for Bernard to draw on to sanctify Christian warfare. God ordered his people at various times to wipe out entire populations including the citizens of Jericho – after their walls fell down. The prophet Samuel instructed Saul to kill all the Amelakites….and he meant all of them. Men, women, children, babies in arms, herds, flocks, camels, asses, etc. Or there is Isaiah’s warning to the people of Babylon: “All who are found will be stabbed, all who are taken will fall by the sword, their infants will be dashed to the ground before their eyes…”
Passages like these, and many more, were quoted to prove that the bible almost mandated violence as a way to convert the enemies of Christ.
If you would like to know more about the Knights Templar, then get your hands on a copy of my book: The Knights Templar – History & Mystery. Published by Pen & Sword and available on Amazon, Waterstones, Barnes & Noble, and WHSmith. Don’t miss out on your copy!
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