ABSTRACT
Both the participants in the First Crusade and Europeans at large presented the conquest and liberation of Jerusalem as a miracle and a divine act. The crusaders on the march saw themselves fighting the ‘war of Christ’ (bellum Christi) as the ‘army of God’ (exercitus domini) or ‘army of Christ’ (exercitus Christi); their crusade was the ‘expedition of God and Christ’ (Dei et Domini Jhesu Christi expeditio). Christ was described as their king, their lord and their commander.1
Archbishop Manasses of Rheims writing in November or December 1099 to Bishop Lambert of Arras described the liberation of Jerusalem as ‘the result, we believe, of divine majesty rather than human might’.2 A poem composed for the occasion makes use of Psalms 95:1. ‘O come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation’ as well as Psalms 118:24: ‘This is the day which the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.’ The poet praised the glory of the Lord, who had saved the ‘City of David’ from the pagans and wrested Jerusalem from the hands of the ‘descendants of Hagar’.3 A sermon attributed to Fulcher of Chartres, composed in the first decade of the twelfth century in commemoration of the liberation of Jerusalem and intended for use during the celebrations of the day of conquest (15 July), described the event in the words of Isaiah 66 (verses 10-11, 18-20) as well as Psalms 118:23 (cf. also Matthew 21: 42): ‘This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvellous in our eyes.’4 Another participant, Raimond of Aguilers, presented the conquest as the act of God moved by prayers in His Church, thus fulfilling the promise he had made to the Fathers.5
