Chapter Eight

Supporting the Crusading Orders: 1225–35

While Innocent III’s reorganisation of the crusading movement after the loss of Jerusalem in 1187 did not result in the recovery of that city, it led to lasting changes in the whole phenomenon. The creation of permanent recruitment and economic mechanisms made the crusades into an effec- tive instrument of papal policies of universal application, a weapon which could be directed not only towards the Saracens in the Holy Land or the Iberian peninsula, the Slavs of the Elbe region, the Balts or other pagans, but also if need be against the Orthodox Greeks or Ruthenians, Christian heretics and the political opponents of the Papacy. For this reason, the thirteenth century was characterised by a much greater number of declared crusades than any other, as well as by a greater number of indi- viduals directly and indirectly involved in the crusading movement. From this perspective, the century appears as the culmination of the period of the crusading expeditions—a time of “permanent crusade”, characterised in the written sources by the wealth of dispositions, instructions and rec- ommendations concerning the announcement, organisation and financ- ing of successive crusading initiatives directed against various enemies of the Church. At the same time, however, as a result of these same changes there was greater scope for the political and instrumental use of the cru- sade motif. The practice of ransoming and commuting crusaders’ indul- gences, which in principle had been introduced to encourage participation in the crusading movement, and which was intended to provide a solid financial basis, had undermined the prestige of the crusaders’ privileges and encouraged abuse. The increasing use of crusade as a tool in politi- cal conflicts brought the whole ideology of crusade into question. There is evidence that this was not lost on contemporaries, for in the written sources we find criticism of the Papacy, the preachers of crusade, the col- lectors of funds, the military orders and crusaders themselves, while there is still a scarcity of fundamental criticisms of the concept of crusade itself.1 In this sense, while the thirteenth century is the crusades’ ­culminating

1 See Siberry, Criticism. 214 chapter eight period, it is also a one of increasing crisis, and above all marked by the inability of the Papacy to reverse the fate of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. As we have seen in the two previous chapters, Poland—at least from 1213 onwards—found itself within the area covered by the organisers of the reformed crusading movement. The encyclical Quia maior sent at this time to all ecclesiastical provinces also came to Poland, while Archbishop Henryk Kietlicz was required to organise a campaign to promote the cru- sade in the dioceses under his authority. In 1216–18 instructions concern- ing the means of distributing the financial resources obtained from the crusade tithe were sent to the lands along the Vistula, as were rebukes to the Bishop of Płock, who had delayed releasing these sums. We may also assume that within the framework of the Polish church, in accordance with papal directions on the matter, there were then called into being structures responsible for the preaching of crusade and their organisation. The first concrete trace of their existence may be seen in the papal bull dated to 20 April 1221 (mentioned in the previous chap- ter), in which Honorius III allows the renewal of the campaign promot- ing the Prussian campaign and restores the crusaders’ indulgences in the area of Gniezno province for those participating in these expeditions.2 As Kujot has already observed, we may perceive the Polish leaders of the crusading movement in the addressees of this document, the archdiocese of Gniezno and Bishops of Poznań and Łęczyca.3 The correctness of this interpretation seems to be suggested not only by the fact that the Pope addressed his dispositions concerning the crusade directly to these three church officials, but also by the wording of the document itself, which unambiguously indicates that the recipients were already active in the preaching of crusade. The continuation of the crusade campaign in Poland in these years is also evidenced by the papal dispositions for the legate Gregory of Crescentio, dated to January 1221, in part concerned with recruiting partic- ipants for the crusade. Perhaps they were written in connection with the Levantine crusade planned in 1221 by the Emperor Frederick II.4 Among

2 Theiner, 27, p. 13; PrUB, 1, 1, 40, pp. 226–7. 3 Kujot, Dzieje Prus Królewskich, 1, p. 472. 4 T. C. van Cleve, “The Crusade of Frederick II”, in HC, 2, p. 434; idem, The Emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen: Immutator Mundi (Oxford, 1972), p. 135. E. Kantorowicz, Kaiser Friedrich der Zweite (Berlin, 1927), p. 101; J. Hauziński, Polityka orientalna Fryderyka II Hohenstaufa, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Seria Historia, 79 (Poznań, 1978), p. 28; these three books define the period of the planned crusade as August 1221, but in reality Frederick was by 1219 already giving different dates, to which he later failed to