ABSTRACT
This essay explores the relationship between crusading masculinities and Cistercian masculinities in the Hystoria Constantinopolitana of Gunther of Pairis, with a particular focus on its hero, the Abbot Martin of Pairis. Martin was an imperfect crusader by some standards. Despite preaching the cross and taking on a leadership role over the contingent from Basel, he twice sought to be dispensed of his vows when the Fourth Crusade hit significant problems: first at Venice, and again at Zara. At Constantinople he stole an impressive haul of relics from the abbey church of Christ Pantokrator and returned with his spoils to the abbey of Pairis. In Gunther’s history, Martin features variously as an impassioned preacher, the spiritual and temporal leader of an army, as an envoy and a diplomat, a physician, a confessor, an executor, a thief, a visionary, and above all the father-figure of a spiritual community that he enriched immeasurably by the relics he brought back from Constantinople. When set against other examples of clerical masculinity on crusade, Martin’s experience provides a fascinating insight into the conflicts inherent in the presence of clergy on these expeditions, especially for those who had come from monastic backgrounds.
