PeaceDocs | Bibliography | Crusades Era, 1100–1400   

Following is an annotated bibliography of important works in the Christian peace tradition. It is based on Ronald G. Musto, The Peace Tradition in the Catholic Church. An Annotated Bibliography. New York: Garland Publishing, 1987. The selections go up to the late 1980s, and will be supplemented and hyperlinked to online sellers or resources as we go along.

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CHAPTER 6: The Era of the Crusades.

Peacemaking in Europe 1100 to 1400


See Map of Europe, 1100-1500.


General Introduction


  1. 414.Larner, John. Italy in the Age of Dante and Petrarch 1216-1380. New York: Longmans, 1984.


Most of the peace movements of this period studied by historians took place in Italy. This provides an excellent introduction to the period’s culture, politics, society, and economy, with careful attention paid to popular spirituality. Pages 243-52 provide some background and good bibliography on the Italian peace movements of the era.



  1. 415.New Cambridge Medieval History 5, c.1198–c.1300. Ed. David Abulafia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.


Essays by  Abulafia, Steven A. Epstein, J.A. Watt, Bernard Hamilton, Kenneth R. Stow, André Vauchez and others on the cultural, religious, and urban background. Peace traditions have not yet reached this consensus historiography. Peacemaking is discussed on only one page (51) in relation to the Peace and Truce of God.



  1. 416.New Cambridge Medieval History 6, c.1300–c. 1415. Ed. Michael Jones. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.

Essays by David Abulafia, Jeremy Catto, Peter Edbury, Louis Green, John Law, and others on the background to religious and cultural themes. There is no specific discussion of peacemaking in what is essentially an old-style history of institutions, economies and states. Few contemporary strains of interpretation or historiography effect this work.



  1. 417.Wikipedia

Good biographies, with some bibliography, for such peacemakers as Adalbert of Prague, Boniface (Bruno) of Querfurt, Bridget (Birgitta) of Sweden, Guibert, Hugh, Odilo, and Odo of Cluny, Odo of Beauvais, Peter Damian, Romuald, Stanislaus of Cracow, and Theobald of Provins. Use with discretion.


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Background for the Crusades


  1. 418.Alphandéry, Paul. La chrétienté et l’idée de croisade. Paris: Albin Michel, 1954.


Excellent introduction to the historiography of the Crusades in the nineteenth century, when the movement first came to the center of historians’ interests. While the book in no way takes a Marxist point of view, it does tie the interest in the historical movement to European colonialism and imperialism in the nineteenth century. The Suez Canal Project, for example, set off a new wave of French interest in the Middle East and in France’s historical role there. European interest in the decaying Ottoman Empire and the entire “Eastern Question” also roused interest in the region. Soon “crusade” had come into common parlance for any campaign involving large social forces or ideals. “Crusade in Europe,” “Crusade of Charity,” “Crusade Against Slavery,” all lent moral grandeur to the causes, and at the same time helped ennoble the original Crusade movement.



  1. 419.Brundage, James A. Medieval Canon Law and the Crusader. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1969.


Pages 3-29 provide valuable background to the very strong penitential pilgrimage tradition that predated the Crusades, and to a large extent characterized the movement for the unarmed poor, who formed the vast majority of crusaders.



  1. 420.Riley-Smith, Louise. The Crusades: Idea and Reality, 1095-1274. London: Edward Arnold, 1981.


A collection of primary sources in translation, focusing on the theme that the Crusades were “holy wars authorized by the pope.” The work is an explicit attempt to present texts that extol “sacred violence.” It was undertaken, its author notes, because “too many militant theologians, mistakenly convinced of the novelty of the premises they use, do not realize that Christians have been committed to an ideology of violence before, with very unfortunate consequences.”



420.1 Runciman, Steven. A History of the Crusades. 3 vols. Cambridge [England]: Cambridge University Press, 1987.


Still the master narrative and most accessible survey.



  1. 421.Setton, Kenneth Meyer. A History of the Crusades. 6 vols. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1955-1983.


The most comprehensive account available in English. A collection of essays by distinguished scholars, divided into volumes by general topic area.


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Chivalry and Just War: Civilizing the Soldier?


  1. 422.Althoff, Gerd. “Nunc fiant Christi milites, qui dudum extiterunt raptores. Zur Entstehung von Rittertum und Ritterethos,” Saeculum 32 (4, 1981): 317-33.


On the shift from the Peace and Truce to the Crusades and the development of chivalry as a conscious attempt by the church to tame the violence of the feudal nobility.



  1. 423.Bonnaud-Delamare, Roger. “La paix en Flandres pendant la première croisade,” Revue du Nord 39.154 (1957): 147-52.

Focuses on the peace synod called sometime between 1083 and 1092 by the Archbishop of Reims, Raynaud du Bellai. Demonstrates the confluence of the Peace and Truce with the Crusade movement.



  1. 424.Delaruelle, Étienne. “Paix de Dieu et croisade dans la chrétienté du xiie siècle,” in Paix de Dieu et guerre sainte en Languedoc au xiiie siècle. Cahiers de Fanjeaux 4. Toulouse: Privat, 1969, 51-71.

The development from the Truce of God, which provided an external control on feudal violence, to the new notion of chivalry, which internalized these controls into a new ethos of the Christian warrior, was a gradual process that led eventually to the Crusades. The Crusades, in fact, coopted many of the elements of the old Peace assemblies: the oath, a sacred literature expressing its meaning, the espousal of peace as the final aim, a militia or knighthood sworn to this peace, the depiction of the enemy as the foe of Christian peace, and the very emblem of the Peace and Truce: the Cross. The same papal bulls, mobilization of popular forces, and the end of internecine strife accompanied both movements. St. Bernard was a leader in this transformation. Delaruelle concludes that because the Crusades coopted the language of pilgrimage, peace and conversion, they were actually part of the same movements.



  1. 425.Duval, Frederic Victor. De la paix de Dieu a la paix de fer. Paris: Paillard, 1923.

The evangelical reform, which included that of the new poverty movements, made a return to the roots of Christian tradition its ideal. The Gospel ideal was therefore as incompatible with war and violence and it was consistent with poverty and penitence. Such a linkage was central to the spirituality of Peter Damian, St. Francis, and the Franciscan Third Order. Duval’s treatment is balanced, however, and the new age of reform also applied to the feudal class. Church leaders actively tried to civilize the knight through the ethos of chivalry. The Crusades themselves witnessed the new military monastic orders, and the application of just-war theory.



  1. 426.Erdmann, C. The Origins of the Idea of Crusade. Marshall W. Baldwin and Walter Goffart, trans. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1977.


The Investiture Conflict between the popes and German emperors gave birth to a whole pamphlet literature by intellectuals and propagandists on both sides. Among the more interesting discussions was the imperialist condemnation of the pope for waging war and “killing Christians for Christ.” Christ himself marked his milites with the seal of peace and love, not the banner of war. God himself desires peace. The pope brings only war. While much of this literature was obviously partisan, its popular appeal helped instill the notion that real political peace was a goal of the Christian church. The propaganda campaign also showed up the contradictions in just- and holy-war theories.



  1. 427.Grabois, Aryeh. “De la trêve de Dieu à la paix du roi. Études sur la transformation du mouvement de la paix au xiie siècle,” Mélanges offerts à René Crozet. Poitiers: Société d’Études Médiévales, 1966. 1: 585-96.


Not seen.



  1. 428.Herlihy, David. The History of Feudalism. New York: Harper & Row, 1970, 281-344.


Part Four, “Chivalry,” presents an useful series of documents tracing the rise of this ideal from the Peace and Truce of God, through the writings of Bernard of Clairvaux, the Legend of St. George, to Raymond Lull’s Book on the Order of Chivalry.



  1. 429.Holdsworth, Christopher J. “Ideas and Reality: Some Attempts to Control and Diffuse War in the Twelfth Century.” In W.J. Shiels, ed. The Church and War. Papers of the Twenty-First and Twenty-Second Meetings of the Ecclesiastical History Society. Studies in Church History 20. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, New York: Harper & Row, 1983, 59-78.

Holdsworth notes “how relatively unexamined the actual working out of Christian ideas about war within the medieval period is” and cites Russell (52) as the chief resource on the period. Focuses on the historical work of Odericus Vitalis as a good indicator of attitudes. While Odericus is favorable to peacemaking, he describes battles with more relish than peace negotiations. While clear on clerical nonviolence, he treats sex and concubinage as more serious a violation than killing. To emphasis this, apparently disparaging, point Holdsworth cites the Penitential of Theodore (see 312-326) and notes that it imposes the same penance for killing in war as for masturbation.

On the whole, while Odericus does not condemn pacifism, Holdsworth asserts that “indeed it is hard to find such [pacifism] within orthodox circles in the twelfth century, though some of the groups who came to be regarded as heretical did believe that the command to turn the other cheek had application to behaviour in society.” These long-unexamined assumptions, combined with a somewhat misguided attempt at humor, cause this article to fail the purpose of its opening remarks and make it less valuable that it might have been.



  1. 430.Leclercq, Jean, O.S.B. “Saint Bernard’s Attitude Towards War,” Studies in Cistercian History 2 (1975): 1-39.


Bernard still bears a reputation as a man of war for his vigorous support of two crusades. Yet this reputation obscures his true nature as a man of peace. He always stressed the just-war theory and preferred the militia Christi to the militia mundi, calling his followers bellatores pacifici, “peaceful warriors.” He opposed war against other Christians, heretics, and Jews. Despite this, his attitude toward the barbarian Wends (against whom the Teutonic Knights waged a war of genocide) was “ambiguous.” Leclercq’s article attempts a rehabilitation of the saint suited to modern sensibilities.



  1. 431.Lorson, Pierre, S.J. “Saint Bernard devant la guerre et la paix,” Nouvelle Revue Théologique 75 (1953): 785-803.

Bernard’s ideas of peace remained hierarchical: peace was order imposed from above, or the right ordering of the bodily parts coordinated by the head, the harmony of all things in their proper place. Yet peace could also be monastic order and calm, the feudal peace arranged by arbitration and treaty, and international peace achieved by the same means.



  1. 432.MacKinney, Loren C. “The People and Public Opinion in the Eleventh-Century Peace Movement,” Speculum 5 (1930): 181-206.


The Crusades coopted for war the energies and popular support awoken by the Peace and Truce of God.



  1. 433.Pissard, Hippolypte. La guerre sainte en pays chrétien. Paris: Picard, 1912; reprinted New York: AMS, 1980.

Pages 13-14 discuss Peter Damian’s absolute nonviolence, based explicitly on the Sermon on the Mount.



  1. 434.Renna. Renna, Thomas. “The Idea of Peace in the West, 500-1150,” Journal of Medieval History 6, 2 (1980): 143-67.


Bernard of Clairvaux stressed that the Christian must have peace, hold peace, and make peace, thus combining the mystical and purgative elements of monastic peace with the activism of the Christian peacemaking tradition. The monk, in Bernard’s eyes, was the chief agent of this synthesis.



  1. 435.—. ”St. Bernard’s Idea of Peace in Its Historical Perspective, 750-1150,” Res Publica Litteraria.


Not seen.

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Peacemaking and the New Poverty Movements


  1. 436.Chenu, M.-D., O.P. “The Evangelical Awakening.” See 438, 239-69.

Good introduction to the spirit of reform that marked the high Middle Ages: the ideal of the Gospel life of Christ and the early church, and the life of imitation that that entails in the present. This includes, of course, the strict adherence to the beatitudes, including poverty and peacemaking



  1. 437.—. “Monks, Canons, and Laymen in Search of the Apostolic Life.” See 439, 202-38.

Analyzes by group the forms of imitation of the life of the Gospels and the early church. Particularly interesting are his comments on lay spirituality and adherence to the beatitudes.



  1. 438.—. Nature, Man, and Society in the Twelfth Century. Jerome Taylor and Lester K. Little, eds. and trans. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979.


Collected essays, fundamental to understanding the poverty movements. Includes 436 and 437.



  1. 439.Clasen, Sophronius, O.F.M. “Poverty Movement,” NCE 11: 652-53.


Traces the origins of the poverty movement to northern France in the eleventh century, but ties the new poverty movements to feudal violence in a simplistic way: as the result of the Crusades. This movement, Clasen claims, brought Eastern monasticism and the imitation of Christ and the early church back to the West, thus spurring the new ideal of poverty.



  1. 440.Flood, David, O.F.M., ed. Poverty in the Middle Ages. Werl, Westfalia: D. Coelde, 1975.


A collection of essays by distinguished scholars on many aspects of medieval poverty.



  1. 441.La guerre et la paix, frontiers et violence au Moyen Age. Actes du 101e Congrès National des Sociétés Savantes, Lille, 1976. Section de Philologie et d’Histoire. Paris, 1978.


Not seen.



  1. 442.Haines, Keith. “Attitudes and Impediments to Pacifism in Medieval Europe,” Journal of Medieval History 7 (1981): 369-88.

Many of the most important of the popular religious movements of the high Middle Ages were, in fact, thoroughly pacifist and orthodox, even in their combination of poverty and millennial ideals. These movements included the Penitenti, Humiliati, Flagellants, the Great Alleluia of 1233, the Beguines and Beghards, and the lay Third Orders of the cities. St. Francis and his order were yet another example of this widespread phenomenon. Yet this pacifism was not without risk. The obligation of most communal citizens to bear arms gave rise to great resentment against those who refused to do so on any grounds. The common refusal of such pacifists to swear oaths, in imitation of the early church, went against the core of feudal bonds and made them uncomfortably akin to many heretical groups.



  1. 443.Labande-Mailfert, Y. “Pauvreté et paix dans l’iconographie romane, xie-xiie siècles.” See 446.

In iconographic programs, such as that of the church of Notre Dame in Clermont, ira (violence) is linked with avaritia (greed) in opposition to caritas (Christian love) and misericordia (mercy).



  1. 444. Langeli, Attilio Bartoli. “Il patto di Assisi: Ritorno sulla Carta Pacis di 1210.” Franciscan Studies 65 (2007): 1–7.


  1. 445.Little, Lester K. “Evangelical Poverty, the New Money Economy, and Violence.” See 440, 11-26.


The links between the evangelical ideal, economic and social realities, and the link between poverty and peacemaking



  1. 446.Mollat, Michel, ed. Études sur l’histoire de la pauvreté. Moyen Age — xvie siècle. 2 vols. Paris: La Sorbonne, 1974.

An excellent collection examining poverty as a real physical state, a religious ideal, and an intellectual and artistic theme.



  1. 447.—. “Les pauvres et la société médiévale,” Rapports du xiiie Congrès International des sciences historiques 1. Moscow, 1973, 162-80.


The poor in life and in religious ideal.



  1. 448.La pace nel pensiero, nella politica, negli ideali del Trecento. Convegni del Centro di Studi sulla Spiritualità medievale 15. Todi, 1975.


As the title indicates, it covers the entire range of peace topics from intellectual tradition to political institutions, popular spirituality, and the lives and thought of individuals.


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Popular Peace Groups: Humiliati and Poor Catholics


  1. 449.Bolton, Brenda M. “Innocent III’s Treatment of the Humiliati,” Studies in Church History 8 (Cambridge, 1972), 73-82.


The pope’s changing attitudes to the group’s orthodoxy. A good introduction to the topic.



  1. 450.Da Milano, Ilarino, O.F.M., Cap. “Umiliati,” Enciclopedia Cattolica 12: 754-56.


Good background for the origins and rapid spread of the movement, with some interesting estimates of the numbers involved.



  1. 451.Grundmann, Herbert. Religiöse Bewegungen im Mittelalter. Darmstadt: Wissenschafliche Buchgesellschaft, 1961. Trans. with new intro. as Movimenti religiosi nel Medioevo. Bologna: Mulino, 1974.


A fundamental work for the study of medieval popular spirituality, provides excellent background for the Humiliati, Poor Catholics, and the rapid spread of these and other poverty movements.



  1. 452.Laughlin, M.F. “Humiliati,” NCE 7: 234.

Outlines the origins, development, and central tenets of the group, including their refusal to bear arms. Makes some attempt to fix the social origins of the members to manual laborers and wool-industry workers.


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St. Francis and the Franciscans


  1. 453.Armstrong, Regis J. OFM, J.A. Wayne Hellmann, OFM Conv., William Short, OFM, eds. Francis of Assisi: Early Documents. 4 vols. New York, London, Manilla: New City Press, 1999.


The most comprehensive edition now in English, compiled under the auspices of the Franciscan Institute of St. Bonaventure University.



  1. 454.Cousins, Ewert, ed. and trans. Bonaventure. New York: Paulist Press, 1978.


In such works as the Tree of Life and the Soul’s Journey to God Bonaventure makes clear his idea of peace as a union with God, a quiet silence, and a universal peace of calm. Francis prepared our way to God with a path of light and peace. This edition presents English translations, with notes and bibliography. A good introduction.



  1. 455.Daniel, E. Randolf. The Franciscan Concept of Mission in the High Middle Ages. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 1975.

“St. Francis was not a pacifist, but he lived as if he were.” Daniel stresses that for Francis and the Franciscans example of life was always placed above the word. His example of peace, of reconciliation, and the forgiveness of sins set the tone for the mendicant movement more than any rules or writings. See 7-17.



  1. 456.Fortini, Arnaldo. Francis of Assisi. New York: Crossroads Press, 1981.

The peacemaking of St. Francis and of the Tertiaries that he founded were clear examples of pacifism in the Middle Ages.



  1. 457.Francis of Assisi. Francis and Clare. The Complete Works. Regis J. Armstrong, O.F.M., Cap. and Ignatius Brady, O.F.M., trans. and ed. New York: Paulist Press, 1982.


An fine English edition, in the Classics of Western Spirituality series.



457.1 —. Francis of Assisi. Early Documents. Armstrong, Regis J., J.A. Wayne Hellmann, William J. Short, eds. 5 vols. Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 1999.


An excellent new edition, with index.



  1. 458.—. Opuscula Sancti Patris Francisci Assisiensis. Cajetan Esser, O.F.M., ed. Grottaferrata (Rome): Collegio San Bonaventura, 1978.

The basic, Latin edition of Francis’ works, with scholarly annotations concerning authenticity and manuscript tradition. An analytic index of important words and ideas makes this a useful reference tool.



  1. 459.—. Writings and Early Biographies. English Omnibus of the Sources for the Life of St. Francis. Marion A. Habig, O.F.M., ed. Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1973.


A comprehensive collection of Franciscan sources in English. A true omnibus of previous editions and translations drawn from several sources, including all of Francis’ own works, all his contemporary major biographies, and the works of the Spiritual tradition, including the Fioretti (Little Flowers) and the Speculum perfectionis (Mirror of Perfection), with invaluable indices, concordances, and bibliography.

The interpretation of these Franciscan sources has been compared to that of the Gospels: problems of author’s intent, literary form, historical context and authenticity, manuscript tradition, etc. must all be addressed. Francis’ thoughts on peace are, accordingly, not gathered into single texts or easily quoted: problems of text and context dictate that one study and evaluate his life as well as his words, and pay close attention to the intent of his biographers and those who edited and preserved his own works. Nevertheless, a clear pattern of Francis as a peacemaker emerges easily from these scattered writings. Indices and concordances help assemble key materials.



  1. 460.Habig, Marion A., O.F.M. Francis of Assisi: Writer. Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1983.


The subtitle reads “Supplement to the Omnibus of Sources on St. Francis.” This includes discussion of Francis’ own works, new translations of individual letters, and a bibliographical notation on the “Ten Best Books” on Francis of Assisi.



  1. 461.McNeill, John T. “Asceticism versus Militarism in the Middle Ages,” Church History 5 (1936): 3-28.

Francis of Assisi’s conversion was one that explicitly linked peace and poverty as a witness against the alliance of feudal violence and new urban wealth. His order held its ministry of peace and peacemaking central. Such Franciscan heroes as Anthony of Padua made the call to repentance, forgiveness, and peace essential. The Franciscan Tertiaries often found themselves at odds with the civil authorities for their refusal to bear arms “against anyone.”



  1. 462.Moorman, John. A History of the Franciscan Order from its Origins to the Year 1517. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1968.

This is a standard and history of the order in English, with an good bibliography to the late 1960s.



  1. 463.O’Mahony, Donal, O.F.M., Cap. “St. Francis, Peace Spirituality and Life Style.” In Peace Spirituality for Peacemakers. Antwerp: Pax Christi International, 1983, 129-44.


A sensitive and insightful look into what made Francis a paramount Christian peacemaker: his imitation of Christ, his embrace of poverty as an alternative to the violence and exploitation of feudal society and as a sign that the truth of the Gospel is to be found in simplicity, and his understanding and celebration of the wholeness of God’s creation, which is, after all, the fullest meaning of “peace.”



  1. 464.Peregrinus, Brother, O.F.M. “Evangelical Pacifism in the Age of St. Francis.” Blessed Are the Peacemakers. Montreal: Canadian Catholic Pacifists’ Association, 1944, 58-104.


Pages 78-90 concentrate on the pacifism and peacemaking of the Third Orders.


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Peacemaking and the Third Orders


  1. 465.Duval, Frederic Victor. De la paix de Dieu a la paix de fer. Paris: Paillard, 1923.

Duval discusses the Faenza affair of 1226/7, when the Franciscan Tertiaries appealed to Pope Gregory IX to intervene on their behalf against civil authorities who were attempting to draft them into the militia in violation of their rule of nonviolence. His account is balanced, however. Tertiaries did participate in armed struggle against the pope’s enemies, as against Emperor Frederick II.



  1. 466.I Frati Penitenti di San Francesco nella società del Due e Trecento. Rome: Atti del secondo convegno di studi francescani, 1977.

Not seen.



  1. 467.Hallack, Cecily, and P.F. Anson. These Made Peace. Paterson, NJ: St. Anthony Guild, 1957.

A good, popular introduction to the work of the Franciscan Third Order in making peace. Surveys the period from 1174 to the nineteenth century, with short biographies of leading tertiaries, including Angela of Foligno, Elizabeth of Portugal, Bridget of Sweden, Elizabeth of Hungary, Delphine de Sabran, Raymond Lull, and others.



  1. 468.Hartdegen, S. “Third Orders,” NCE 14: 93-96.


A basic introduction, with brief bibliography.



  1. 469.Hefèle, H. “Die Bettelorder und das religiöse Volkslebenorder im Mittelitaliens im xiii Jahrhundert,” Beiträge zur Kulturgeschichte des Mittelalters und der Renaissance 9 (1910): 25-26.

Useful background to opposition to the Crusades in Italy, with some material on the Great Alleluia of 1233. Traces this opposition back to the poverty movements of the Humiliati, Franciscans, Dominicans, and others. Emphasizes the movement’s rapid decline after the Verona demonstration.



  1. 470.Meersseman, Giles G., O.P. Dossier sur l’ordre de la Pénitence au xiiie siècle. Fribourg: Éditions Universitaires, 1961.


This is the most comprehensive account of the Third Orders available, made even more valuable by Meersseman’s familiarity with the sources, and his editions of most of the orders’ rules, privileges, commentaries, decrees of chapters general, papal bulls, and other relevant documents. These are arranged in chronological order, and numbered consecutively for easy reference. The collection provides many examples of the Third Orders’ pacifism and their repeated efforts to retain their status as conscientious objectors in the face of government efforts to enlist them in military service. Documents are not confined to this, however. They stress the activist role of the Tertiaries in making peace among their fellow citizens. Includes documents for the Dominicans and Franciscans, the Humiliati, Poor Catholics, Poor Lombards and their Penitents.



  1. 471.—. Ordo Fraternitatis. Confraternitate e pietà dei laici nel medioevo. Rome: Italia Sacra, 1977.

A complete survey of lay fraternities from the Carolingian period into the fourteenth century, along with relevant documents. Meersseman traces the origins of the confraternities back to the early church.



  1. 472.Moorman. History.

Pages 40-45 treat the origins of the Franciscan Third Order, 216-25 its rule and controversies surrounding its provisions, 418-28 the fourteenth century, and 560-68 its development into the sixteenth century. A refusal to bear arms was central to the movement from its start, and this exemption was reinforced by papal bulls and episcopal protections against the civil authorities. Well into the fourteenth century this strict adherence to nonviolence remained a hallmark of the Franciscan Tertiaries. Moorman agrees with those historians who stress and large numbers of Third Order members and houses. He emphasizes their respected place in medieval society, and their appeal, even among the nobility, as a refuge from violence and war.



  1. 473.“The Rule of the Third Order.” In Baldwin, Christianity Through the Thirteenth Century, 350-56.


This reprints the Venice Rule of 1221 for the Franciscan Tertiaries. Poverty and simplicity are clearly joined to peacemaking here, while reconciliation with neighbors, the restoration of stolen goods, avoidance of formal oaths — and hence of feudal or even communal military loyalties — are all demanded of members. Most important, the Tertiaries “are not to take up lethal weapons, or bear them about, against anybody.” The pacifism of the rule is obvious, as is the possibility for trouble with secular government. Provision is therefore made for the intervention of the bishops on behalf of the nonviolent when the state took repressive action.



  1. 474.Tugwell, Simon, O.P. Early Dominicans. Selected Writings. New York: Paulist Press, 1982.


Pages 29-31 provide introduction to the Dominican Third Order, the Order of Penance, while pages 432-51 present English editions of several rules. “To foster mutual charity and love and harmony, to strengthen the bond of peace and to encourage everything that is good” are among the central aims of the confraternity.


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The Great Alleluia of 1233


  1. 475.Coulton, G.G. “The Great Alleluia,” in From St. Francis to Dante. Translations from the Chronicle of the Franciscan Salimbene (1221-88). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1972, 21-37.


Salimbene’s Chronicle, excerpted here in large part, with transitional commentary by Coulton, is probably the most important source for this movement. It sprang up almost spontaneously as a response to growing factional and regional strife and grew directly from Francis’ appeals to peace and reconciliation. According to Salimbene, the Alleluia was a period of great processions, devotions, and peace demonstrations held in all the cities of Italy, bringing together all ages, sexes, and classes in rejoicing, reconciliation, “joy and exaltation.” The movement was spread by a layman, Benedict of Parma, a wandering preacher who lived in poverty and urged repentance and forgiveness as the foundations of peace.



  1. 476.Fumigalli, Vito. “In margine all’ ‘alleluia’ del 1233,” BISIMEAM 80 (1968): 257-72.

The term “alleluia” signifies peace, salvation, and mercy. This movement brought together the young, old, the high and low, city and country folk, men and women. Essentially it was a religiously motivated peace movement in which the influence of the Mendicants and their Third Orders was clear.



  1. 477.Salimbene de Adam. Cronica. O. Holder-Egger, ed. MGH, Scriptores 32. Hanover, 1905-13.

An important Latin source for much of the popular spirituality of the time by an author who witnessed or knew those who witnessed the events he describes.



  1. 478.—. Giuseppe Scala, ed. 2 vols. Bari: G. Laterza, 1966.

A good, handy edition of this basic source for thirteenth-century spirituality in Italy. Pages 99-123 give a detailed account of the peace movement called the Great Alleluia.



  1. 479.Sutter, C. Johann von Vicenza und die italienische Friedensbewegung im Jahre 1233. Freiburg-im-Breisgau: J.C.B. Mohr, 1892.


Not seen.



  1. 480.—. trans. by Maria, Gelda and Olga da Schio as Fra Giovanni da Vicenza e l’Alleluja del 1233. Vicenza: Giovanni Galla, 1901.


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The Flagellants


  1. 481.Delaruelle, Étienne. “Les grandes processions de pénitents.” See 486.


A good introduction to the events and sources.



  1. 482.Frugoni, Arsenio. “Sui flagellanti del 1260,” BISIMEAM 75 (1963): 211-37.

Both the Franciscan call to reconciliation and peacemaking and Joachite expectations of the Apocalypse fueled the movement. It sprang up in the wake of the bloody battle of Montaperti in September 1260 and saw thousands of penitents descending on Rome, naked, begging God for mercy and peace. The most startling aspect of the movement was the flagellations inflicted by the marchers on themselves to demonstrate their willingness to suffer martyrdom for peace and to ask for mercy for their neighbors and enemies.



  1. 483.Leff, Gordon. Heresy in the Later Middle Ages. 2 vols. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1967. 2: 485-93.


While this is essentially a survey of heretical movements, these pages provide useful background and bibliography to the orthodox Flagellant movement.



  1. 484.Meersseman, Giles G. “Disciplinati e penitenti nel duecento.” See 486.

The Flagellant movement in the thirteenth century, with careful attention to source materials.



  1. 485.Morghen, Rafaelo. “Ranieri Fasani e il movimento dei Disciplinati.” See 486.


Not seen.



  1. 486.Il movimento dei Disciplinati nel settimo centenario dal suo inizio. Lodovico Scaramucci, ed. 3 vols. Perugia: Deputazione di storia patria per l’Umbria, 1962.

For the Flagellants.



  1. 487.Tammi, G. “Lo statuto dei Disciplinati di S. Maria Maddelena di Bergamo.” See 486.

A local rule for a group of Flagellants.


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Venturino da Bergamo


  1. 488.Altaner, A. “Venturino von Bergamo, O.Pr. (1304-1346). Eine Biographie. Zugleich ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des Domenikanerordens im 14. Jahrhunderts.” Ph.D. thesis. Breslau: University of Breslau, 1911.


Not seen.



  1. 489.Clementi, Giuseppe. Il Beato Venturino da Bergamo dell’Ordine di Predicatori (1304-1346). Storia e Documenti. Rome: Libreria Salesiana, 1904.

Traces his life and preaching.



  1. 490.—. Un Savanarola del secolo xiv. Il Beato Venturino da Bergamo. Rome: Libreria Salesiana, 1899.

An earlier version of 489.



  1. 491.Gennaro, Clara. “Venturino da Bergamo e la peregrinatio romana del 1335,” Studi sul medioevo cristiano offerti a Raffaelo Morghen. Rome: Istituto Storico Italiano per il Medioevo, 1974. 1: 375-406.


This was a great peace crusade, a flagellant pilgrimage that descended on Rome largely as a result of Venturino’s preaching of peace and reconciliation. Estimates of the movement’s strength range from an anonymous Florentine’s three million to Villani’s 10,000. Perhaps three thousand reached Rome. The processions and demonstrations stretched through Milan, Florence, Ferrara, Orvieto, Lodi, Cremona, Mantova, Siena, Viterbo and Rome and brought together all classes and social groups. Far from the grim scenes of the film-makers’ flagellants, the processions were occasions for peace festivals in the towns they passed. The “pilgrimage” image, usurped by the Crusades, was consciously used to emphasize the physical bravery, but nonviolence, of the participants.



  1. 492.Grion, A. ed. “Legenda Beati Fratris Venturini O.P.,” Bergomum 30,4 (1956): 11-110.


A good edition of an excellent source for popular peacemaking during the Middle Ages. Grion’s introduction (pp. 11-37) reviews Venturino’s life, his preaching, and his peace crusade, his journey to Avignon and examination by the pope, his preaching of a general crusade against the Turks, his journey east with the crusaders, and his death at Smyrna in 1346. He also examines the historiography, the manuscripts of the Legenda, and the work’s value as a source.

Pages 38-110 present the text. Venturino is a complex personality to study. He both preached a true nonviolent crusade of peacemaking throughout Italy in his great pilgrimage to Rome, making the pilgrims’ cry of “mercy, peace, penance” known throughout Italy. Once in Rome, however, as his orthodoxy and his right to lead such a mass movement was questioned by religious authorities, he suddenly began preaching a passagium generale, that is, a crusade against the Turks. During his inquisition in Avignon he swore to the pope that he never made a pact with anyone to make a crusade, except one “for concord and peace, and the unity of citizens.” Was this crusade his intent all along? Was it an expedient to win the pope over to his side and escape the inquisition? This is hard to say.


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The Bianchi of 1399


  1. 493.Frugoni, Arsenio. “La devozione dei Bianchi del 1399,” in L’attesa dell’età nuova nella spiritualità della fine del medioevo. Todi: Centro di Studi sulla Spiritualità Medievali, 1962, 232-48.

A review of the movement with special emphasis on their millennial expectations that their peace movement was a prelude to the new age about to dawn with the turning of a new century.



  1. 494.Tognetti, G. “Sul moto dei Bianchi del 1399,” BISIMEAM 78 (1967): 205-343.


A careful piece of history writing, reconstructing events from regional sources, many still in manuscript, separating out legend from actual events. Tognetti hypothesizes that the spirituality of Vincent Ferrer may well have been a source that percolated through the culture of Provence and emerged into the peace movement of the Genoese Riviera.

The Bianchi moved from town to town in nine-day processions, with chants of “mercy” and “peace,” abstaining from meat, going barefoot, and wearing simple white dress, all penitential elements designed to signify their inner conversion as a prerequisite to converting their neighbors to peace. The movement affected most of northern and central Italy as it converged on Rome.

Similar peace movements included that of Venturino da Bergamo in 1335, the Pistoia movement of 1402, that of Cuneo in 1464, and that of Perugia in 1476 and 1486, all with remarkably similar language to that of the Bianchi.



  1. 495.Webb, Diana M. “Penitence and Peace-Making in City and Contado: The Bianchi of 1399,” Studies in Church History 16 (1979): 243-56.


This is the best, and still the only comprehensive English, account of this movement, so named after the white (bianco) dress of its members. Webb first traces the origins and follows the course of this wave of penitential pilgrimages that swept over Northern Italy, beginning in the Piedmont and converging south on Rome, spreading from the countryside to the cities, bringing reconciliation in the wake of processions, peace demonstrations, and festivals. The Bianchi’s numbers were large, often in the thousands. The movement brought together peasants and cityfolk, the rich and poor. Webb stresses that “everywhere the Bianchi went, peacemaking was their major function.”


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Other Movements and Aspects


  1. 496.Carli, Enzo. “La pace nella pittura senese.” See 448, 225-42.

Focuses on Sienese painting, especially the great public works, “Maestà by Duccio di Buoninsegna and “Good and Bad Government” by Ambrogio Lorenzetti. Most especially in Lorenzetti’s work, peace is inseparable from reconciliation among citizens and is, above all, the work of justice.



  1. 497.De Matteis, Maria Consiglia. “La pacificazione cittadina a Firenze nelle componenti culturali di Remigio de’ Girolami.” See 448, 199-224.


Focuses on Remigio’s De bono pacis, the product of the grave political crisis of 1302-4. While Dante sought peace through a universal monarch who would impose order upon Italy’s unruly cities, this work is a plea for internal reconciliation and harmony in order to secure the survival of the Florentine republic against external enemies. Its basic outlook is Aristotelian and Thomistic: the good of the whole community is greater than that of any individual or faction.

Yet for Remigio this peace is not simply an imposed order, but the product of forgiveness of injuries and damages between citizens. Like the public state itself, it is based on Christian charity, which is the highest civic virtue. Far from hindering the happiness and virtue of the individual, the state and its peace is actually the chief means toward this human perfection. Peace is both temporal and spiritual, but unlike Thomas Aquinas, Remigio does not argue that external peace is inferior to the internal.

Also briefly traces Remigio’s intellectual sources, and the evolving meaning of peace in the Western tradition.



  1. 498.Frugoni, Arsenio. “Il giubileo di Bonifacio VIII,” BISIMEAM 62 (1950): 1-121.

Traces the history and the concept of the jubilee and the apocalyptic implications of great turnings of the century and shows the influence of Franciscan, Joachite, and Roman traditions in the feast. Then follows the history of the great pilgrimage of 1300 that brought together all classes, ages, and sexes in a spirit of penitence, reconciliation, and peacemaking in imitation of the Christians of the early church.



  1. 499.Gennaro, Clara. “Giovanni Colombini e la sua ‘brigata’,” BISIMEAM 81 (1969): 237-71.


This was a penitential movement dominated by the “Gesuati.” Poverty and reconciliation were their central motivations. The movement was centered on Siena but spread rapidly through Tuscany and Umbria in the 1360s. Members included both clergy and laity, and their influence on Siena had become so strong by the late 1360s that the authorities expelled them from the city, citing the influence of their ideas for the city’s new divisions and “depopulation.” An interesting example of how a peace movement can bring on repression and discord through its very attempts at reconciliation.



  1. 500.—. ”Movimenti religiosi e pace nel xiv secolo.” See 448, 91-112


An excellent introduction to the Italian peace movements of the fourteenth century and a basic work in medieval peace studies. Surveys the Flagellanti in Lombardy, the Genoese coast and Tuscany in 1311, Venturino da Bergamo in 1335, Giovanni Colombini at Siena from 1350 to 1360, the Disciplinati at Florence in 1377, and the Bianchi throughout northern Italy in 1399. Peace — personal, familial, socio-political and religious — was at the center of all these movements. Their roots lay in the Bible and its Apocalypse, in penitential, monastic, and Franciscan traditions. Pilgrimages involving highly visible peace demonstrations, penitence, and the refusal to bear arms were all essential parts. In such movements as Venturino da Bergamo’s the element of the nonviolent crusade was clearly emphasized.

The movements met with considerable hostility, especially in the cities, where such true pacifists as Giovanni Colombini and his followers were exiled under the accusation of dividing the citizenry. During the War of the Eight Saints in Florence (1375-78), the Disciplinati were suspected of treason by the government because of their pacifism and were eventually expelled from the city. Nevertheless, it was in the cities that the peace movements met their greatest success at bringing about reconciliation. Thus the ideal of the mendicant orders, that society’s outcasts, the marginal poveri, become a religious and social ideal were fulfilled here.



  1. 501.Manselli, Raoul. “Equilibrio politico e ideali di pace al tempo di Giovanni di Boemia.” See 448, 155-74.

All the intellectual discussions of peace and the religious movements of repentance and reconciliation of the century derive from the tormented reality of Italian politics during the period. This article briefly outlines the political maneuvering around John of Luxembourg, king of Bohemia’s role in Italy’s troubles and the ultimate political settlement that attended it. Good background.



  1. 502.Miccoli, Giovanni. “Giovanni Colombini,” Storia d’Italia. II, 1. Turin: Einaudi, 1974, 914-24.


A review of the movement set in the context of many of the spiritual and peace movements of the late fourteenth century. Other topics include Catherine of Siena, Giovanni delle Celle, and Bridget of Sweden.

Miccoli’s account of Colombini is based largely on Gennaro, but he emphasizes that the heart of the movement was a mystical transformation, not simply the imitation of Christ’s life of poverty found in many late medieval reformers. The greatest effect of the movement was among the poor and the marginal in Italian society.



  1. 503.Miglio, Massimo. “Gli ideali di pace e di giustizia in Roma a metà del Trecento.” See 448, 175-97.


Focuses on the ideas and actions of Cola di Rienzo, who led a revolution restoring the Roman republic in 1347. While Rienzo is not a peacemaker in the sense we use the word here, Miglio’s purpose is to demonstrate Roman concepts of peace by using the sources available for Cola’s revolution. These include notarial documents, the anonymous Life, Cola’s letters, and the letters of his friend and propagandist, Petrarch.

The sources make clear for us the intimate connection in late medieval thought between peace and justice, and the connection made in urban societies between these and political liberty. The sources also emphasize, however, that the justice Cola speaks of and provides is for the merchant classes of the city that will restore order and prosperity.



  1. 504.Petrocchi, Giorgio. “La pace in S. Caterina da Siena.” See 448, 9-26.


Catherine repudiated violence and factional strife within and among the Italian city-states. She was a true pacifist, who saw sin as the root of all conflict. Her concept of peace was both mystical and very practical. Peace is not simply quies, but is an activist seeking after reconciliation and reform.

Petrocchi analyzes her imagery, which is truly mystical, apocalyptic and Christocentric. Her notion of peace is linked inextricably to the welfare of the poor, the chief victims of violence. Her aims were three-fold: Christian unity, brought about in part through a crusade against the Turks; the unity of the church; and the return of the pope to Rome through nonviolent means. For her attempts to reconcile the pope to the Italian communes an assassination attempt was made on her, which she accepted as the price the peacemaker must be willing to pay.



  1. 505.Prandi, Adriano. “La pace nei temi iconographici del Trecento.” See 448, 243-59.

Traces the concept both in its etymology and in its artistic iconography in Greek, Roman and Hebrew senses. While “Peace” was always a clear symbolic figure for the Romans, in the Middle Ages peace is portrayed only once, in Siena, as a figure (see 498). In Trecento art it is relayed through the kiss of peace, through the embrace of forgiveness and reconciliation, through the dance, and through the delightful summer garden, among other images.


506-509. Blank.


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