Introduction

The Western Church applied preaching as the principal means of mass communication in the Middle Ages for the doctrinal and moral catechesis of the clergy and the laity. By the end of the eleventh century, preaching had become the medium for the transmission of a special message to Western Christianity, the papal summons for the conduct of a new religious war for the liberation of the Holy Land. This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book attempts to shed new light on the organization of crusade preaching campaigns and the evolving use of liturgy for the Holy Land during the pontificates of the first four Avignon popes, and to investigate the 11 identified crusade sermons and their preachers during this period. It focuses on the efforts of the Avignon papacy to organize preaching campaigns for the crusade to the East between 1305 and 1352.