Holy war and Church reform: the case of Gerhoch of Reichersberg (1092/3–1169)

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper analyses the connection between holy war, crusading and Church reform in Gerhoch of Reichersberg’s Tractatus in psalmos and other exegetical works. For Gerhoch, the First and Second Crusade constituted a facet of Church reform. By exploring the forms and manifestations of spiritual and material warfare, this essay argues that both the physical fighting on the crusades and the spiritual fight against enemies within Christendom such as heretics, schismatics and simoniacs, were part of an eschatological battle for salvation at the End Times. It furthermore demonstrates how current events can influence exegesis and how exegetical mechanisms as well as Christian concepts of the End Times could legitimate and contribute to religiously motivated violence. During the 1159 Schism, Gerhoch re-materialised the spiritualised warfare of Old Testament rhetoric against schismatics in the face of the imminent End Times and raids on Reichersberg Abbey.