ABSTRACT
This chapter examines ways in which the nature and value of crusading were presented to potential participants. It examines the ways in which specific themes — pilgrimage, service, the past, the dangers of crusading, martyrdom and the value of suffering — were present in the work of preachers and poets of the thirteenth century, and whether any differences may be discerned in the way they wrote about these ideas. On examining these themes allows to touch on issues relating to the perceived need for crusades, the nature and demands of crusade campaigns and the rewards participants might hope to receive. The basic association of crusade with pilgrimage in preaching continued into the thirteenth century. The realities of crusading in the thirteenth century may have played a role in determining a relative shift away from the use of the idea of pilgrimage to describe the nature of crusades.
