Christopher Hatch MacEvitt. The Crusades and the Christian World of the East: Rough Tolerance. The Middle Ages Series. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007. vi + 272 pp. $49.95, cloth, ISBN 978-0-8122-4050-4.
Reviewed by Brian G.H. Ditcham
Published on H-German (March, 2009)
Commissioned by Susan R. Boettcher
In March 2008, the BBC Web site reported the sites inhabited by locals. Western settlement in fndings of a study on the genetic origins of the Crusader Palestine appears to have gone further modern Lebanese population.[1] The research re‐ down the social scale than the Prawer model sug‐ vealed faint but perceptible indications that indi‐ gests. Other writers have noted that the "segrega‐ viduals of western European origin had contrib‐ tionist" model championed by Prawer is heavily uted to the Lebanese gene pool in the historic based on the experience of the coastal cities and past--possibly a marker of intimate relations be‐ on reading the evidence of normative texts com‐ tween immigrants and local populations dating posed in the second quarter of the thirteenth cen‐ back to the era of the Crusader states. This discov‐ tury back into the very diferent world of the ery added to a growing body of evidence that twelfth--and, indeed, on more or less explicit challenges the consensus view of relations be‐ analogies with the equally diferent colonial tween the ruling elites and the mass of the popu‐ world of the early twentieth century. Christopher lation in those territories. As articulated by histo‐ MacEvitt's stimulating book explicitly rejects the rians such as Joshua Prawer, earlier research ar‐ Prawer model in favor of something rather gued that the dominant groups, west European in messier and more complex. origin and Latin Christian in religion, formed a MacEvitt examines interactions between the small colonial-type elite with minimal linkages to crusaders and local Christians, who in many areas the local populations they exploited. This inter‐ formed a majority of the population. The latter pretation has increasingly come into question. Ar‐ were themselves a complex group, deeply divided chaeological work by scholars such as Ronnie El‐ on ethnic and religious lines. In northern Syria, lenblum has disclosed the existence of previously substantial Armenian populations existed along‐ unsuspected rural settlements inhabited by popu‐ side longer established Syrian Orthodox (Jacobite) lations of apparently Western origin alongside communities; both groups embraced a view of H-Net Reviews
Christ's divine and human characteristics at odds Melkites took over; Daimbert's reputation never with the creed established at the Council of Chal‐ recovered and MacEvitt suspects that Baldwin cedon in 451. Further south, populations which may have been behind the fasco. MacEvitt notes looked to the Patriarch of Constantinople were Frankish patronage of local Christian religious in‐ more numerous; MacEvitt prefers to describe this stitutions, points to archaeological fnds which group as "Melkite" rather than the more common suggest that churches might have been shared be‐ "Greek Orthodox," pointing out that they were not tween Latin and Melkite congregations, and ex‐ "Greek" in any ethnic or linguistic sense. Ma‐ amines possible cultural transfers connected with ronites, with their own idiosyncratic view of the the cults of certain saints. His conclusion is that nature of Christ, lived in the Lebanese mountains. the various communities lived together in the The Latin church was Chalcedonian in Christology "rough tolerance" of his subtitle, not without but had other theological diferences with the stresses and confict, but nevertheless coexisting church in Constantinople; on a more political lev‐ rather better in practice than they should have el, the crusading leadership and the rulers of the done in theory. subsequent crusading states (collectively known MacEvitt's focus on Eastern Christian percep‐ as "Franks" in local parlance), had an ambivalent tions and responses provides an intriguing dis‐ relationship with the Byzantine Empire, whose placement of perspectives. It is salutary to leave ruler dominated that church. the Rome-centered perspective of much writing As a result the relationship between the about the medieval Christian world and be re‐ "Frankish" leadership and the local Christians was minded that the papacy was not always the most complex. MacEvitt examines it from the local important player. In the 1160s and 70s the aggres‐ standpoint, privileging sources created by local sive and disruptive force whose incursions into Christians whenever possible and setting their re‐ the world of Eastern Christendom alarmed Jaco‐ actions in the context of a long history stretching bites and Armenians alike was not the papacy but back to the late Roman Empire. He shows how a the Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Comnenus, with North Syrian world accustomed to fragmented au‐ his ambitions to reestablish Christian unity. The thority and short-lived warlord states ruled by pope, Chalcedonian though he was, appeared un‐ Muslim or Armenian adventurers could accom‐ threatening by comparison, and links between the modate the new Frankish contenders for power. parties fourished. Jacobite and Armenian digni‐ Armenian and Jacobite writers, often instinctively taries visited the papal court. The Jacobite Patri‐ hostile to Byzantine claims, might be severely crit‐ arch of Antioch attended the Third Lateran Coun‐ ical of individual Frankish rulers for their greed cil in 1179 at the invitation of his Latin counter‐ and pride but could also admire them, look to part, even writing a refutation of the Cathar them for patronage, and mourn their deaths. Ar‐ heresy at his request. Armenian apocalyptic menian and Jacobite clergy might involve Latin prophecies inserted a Frankish ruler in place of bishops in their internal disputes. MacEvitt sug‐ the Byzantine one as the Last Emperor of the Mil‐ gests that further south, Baldwin I of Jerusalem lennium. was happy to make use of the skills of the local MacEvitt's concentration on Eastern Christian clergy to undercut the claims of the papal legate sources, however, does has the defects of its Daimbert of Pisa (for some reason MacEvitt spells virtues. The Maronites disappear from the story his name "Daibert"). At Easter 1101, the annual altogether, presumably for lack of sources: there miracle of the Holy Fire failed to occur during a is no Melkite-authored chronicle to match service presided over by the legate at the Church Matthew of Edessa for the Armenians or Michael of the Holy Sepulchre. The fre appeared when the
2 H-Net Reviews the Great for the Jacobites. As a result it is much a distinct sense that such fgures, while they did harder to get a handle on Melkite perceptions exist, were much thinner on the ground than from sources interior to that community, and MacEvitt would like to imply. His argument that MacEvitt's handling of Melkite perspectives is cor‐ one did not have to convert to Latin Christianity respondingly less assured. The nature of his to take on knightly status implies a degree of for‐ sources also creates a North Syrian focus on Anti‐ mal "denominationalism" rather at odds with his och and, particularly, Edessa. While this is a valu‐ stress on the fuidity of boundaries between the able corrective to Jerusalem-centered accounts, it various Christian groups, which would render the would be hard to argue that the ephemeral Coun‐ whole issue of "conversion" somewhat moot--if ty of Edessa, with its tiny Frankish elite, is an en‐ Franks could pray at Melkite shrines and patron‐ tirely satisfactory model for the whole Latin East ize Jacobite holy men without ceasing to be (especially now that one has to accommodate "Latin," presumably a Melkite could take commu‐ Frankish peasant settlers into the picture for the nion from a Frankish priest without ceasing to be Kingdom of Jerusalem). The count of Edessa had Melkite. to engage more or less intensively with Armenian The biggest weakness in MacEvitt's account, warlords and Jacobite abbots in order to maintain however, falls on the Latin side of the equation. his tenuous hold on power. MacEvitt recognizes He coins the term "ecclesiastical ignorance" to the problem, but notes (fairly enough) that the cover situations in which Latin clergy and laity frst two kings of Jerusalem had both started out chose to interact with, say, Jacobite clergy in ways as lords of Edessa and suggests that they brought which glossed over the fact that, strictly speaking, "northern" perspectives to bear on ruling the the Jacobites were heretics. While attentive to kingdom. While this claim may be true, is hard to Latin sources, he does not subject them to the in‐ demonstrate. tensive reading he gives to Eastern Christian ones, MacEvitt is most comfortable working with contenting himself with the observation that they ecclesiastical sources. The chapter in which he ex‐ have little to say about local Christians. As a re‐ amines the social and legal status of Eastern sult, Latin perspectives (especially ecclesiastical Christians in the Kingdom of Jerusalem is the ones) remain rather murky. His account hints that least convincing in the book. He is no doubt cor‐ Latin rulers favored Jacobites and Armenians rect in his argument that serfdom did not exist over Melkites and that churchmen found Jaco‐ there, at least not in the sense that term is usually bites in particular more congenial interlocutors used in western European legal textbooks (but did than the more "orthodox" Melkites. It may be that it ever exist anywhere in quite those terms?). His recondite issues of Christology were less salient in claim that Eastern Christians became knights is the minds even of Latin bishops than more earth‐ more problematic. It seems a long stretch to assert ly issues of power and authority. University- that an Armenian who donated land to the Hospi‐ trained theologians were rare animals in the tallers in 1129 was necessarily showing his adop‐ twelfth-century Latin East and, whatever the de‐ tion of Western knightly values (p. 153), and many fects of Jacobite and Armenian theology, they of the men he identifes as local knights appear to were markedly more respectful of papal primacy be deracinated Armenian warriors who had than their Melkite counterparts. These issues are moved south from Edessa in the train of Baldwin I not teased out with the sophistication and subtle‐ or II--warriors, certainly, but possibly closer to the ty that MacEvitt employs when dealing with East‐ Flemish mercenaries of contemporary Western ern Christian attitudes. warfare. His eforts to identify local "knights" yield a rather meager harvest, and one is left with
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The book ends somewhat abruptly. MacEvitt argues that the botched ecumenism (or theologi‐ cal aggression) of Manuel Comnenus was respon‐ sible for the breakdown of the world of "rough tolerance" by undermining Armenian and Jaco‐ bite church leaderships, sowing disunity in these groups, and forcing those who were not prepared for reunion on Byzantine terms to defne what they stood for. As a result, he argues, religious identities became far more fxed and rigid--some‐ what like the "confessionalization" process in post-Reformation Germany. While this may be true, his account leaves the Latin church almost entirely out of the picture (one might suspect in that case that the defning moment would be the Fourth Crusade) and does not treat the process as it worked out on the ground in the last quarter of the twelfth century. It is a rather disappointing end to a fascinating if not always convincing book. Perhaps we can hope for a sequel to carry the story forward. Note [1]. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/ 7316281.stm .
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Citation: Brian G.H. Ditcham. Review of MacEvitt, Christopher Hatch. The Crusades and the Christian World of the East: Rough Tolerance. H-German, H-Net Reviews. March, 2009.
URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=23835
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