cross there. Finally, the Vézelay church was the site where King
Richard the Lionhearted of England and King Philip Augustus of
France set out on the Third Crusade in 1190.
The Vézelay tympanum depicts the Pentecost and the Mission of
the Apostles. As related in Acts 1:4–9, Christ foretold that the 12 apos-
tles would receive the power of the Holy Spirit and become the wit-
nesses of the truth of the Gospels throughout the world. The light rays
emanating from Christ’s hands represent the instilling of the Holy
Spirit in the apostles (Acts 2:1–42) at the Pentecost (the seventh Sun-
day after Easter). The apostles, holding the Gospel books, receive their
spiritual assignment to preach the Gospel to all nations. The Christ fig-
ure is a splendid essay in calligraphic line. The drapery lines shoot out
in rays, break into quick zigzag rhythms, and spin into whorls, wonder-
fully conveying the spiritual light and energy that flow from Christ over
and into the equally animated apostles. The overall composition, as
well as the detailed treatment of the figures, contrasts with the much
more sedate representation of the Second Coming (FIG. 17-1) at
Moissac, where a grid of horizontal and vertical lines contains al-
most all the figures. The sharp differences between the two tympana
once again highlight the regional diversity of Romanesque art.
The world’s heathen peoples, the objects of the apostles’ mis-
sion, appear on the lintel below and in eight compartments around
the tympanum. The portrayals of the yet-to-be-converted constitute
a medieval anthropological encyclopedia. Present are the legendary
giant-eared Panotii of India, Pygmies (who require ladders to mount
horses), and a host of other races, some characterized by a dog’s
head, others by a pig’s snout, and still others by flaming hair. The as-
sembly of agitated figures also includes hunchbacks, mutes, blind
men, and lame men. Humanity, still suffering, awaits the salvation to
come. As at Moissac and Autun, as worshipers entered the building,
the tympanum established God’s omnipotence and presented the
Church as the road to salvation.NOTRE-DAME, FONTENAY Although the costly decoration
of Cluniac churches like those at Moissac, Autun, and Vézelay appalled
Bernard of Clairvaux, Cistercian monks were themselves great
builders. Some of their churches were among the largest erected in
Romanesque Europe. Nonetheless, the austerity of their buildings re-
flects the Cistercians’ rejection of worldly extravagance and their em-
phasis on poverty, labor, and prayer. The abbey at Cîteaux itself no
longer stands, but at nearby Fontenay, the church of Notre-Dame
(FIG. 17-14) does. It is representative of the Cistercian approach to
architectural design. The church has a square east end without an
ambulatory or chapels. The walls are devoid of ornament, and the
column capitals are plain. The nave has a single-story elevation with
neither clerestory nor gallery. Light, however, reaches the nave442 Chapter 17 ROMANESQUE EUROPEI
n 1095, Pope Urban II (r. 1088–1099) delivered a stirring sermon
at the Council of Clermont in which he called for an assault on
the Holy Land:
[Y]our brethren who live in the East are in urgent need of your help
...[because] the Turks and Arabs have attacked them... They have
killed and captured many, and have destroyed the churches ...I,
or rather the Lord, beseech you as Christ’s heralds ...to persuade
all people of whatever rank, foot-soldiers and knights, poor and
rich, to carry aid promptly to those Christians and to destroy that
vile race from the lands of our friends....All who die by the way...
shall have immediate remission of sins....Let those who go not put
off the journey, but rent their lands and collect money for their ex-
penses... [and] eagerly set out on the way with God as their guide.*
Between 1095 and 1190, Christians launched three great Cru-
sades from France. The Crusades (“taking of the Cross”) were mass
armed pilgrimages whose stated purpose was to wrest the Christian
shrines of the Holy Land from Muslim control. Similar vows bound
Crusaders and pilgrims. They hoped not only to atone for sins and
win salvation but also to glorify God and extend the power of the
Christian Church. The joint action of the papacy and the mostly
French feudal lords in this type of holy war strengthened papal au-
thority over the long run and created an image of Christian solidarity.
The symbolic embodiment of the joining of religious and secu-
lar forces in the Crusades was the Christian warrior, the fighting
priest, or the priestly fighter. From the early medieval warrior evolved
the Christian knight, who fought for the honor of God rather than in
defense of his chieftain. The first and most typical of the crusading
knights were the Knights Templar. After the Christian conquest of
Jerusalem in 1099, they stationed themselves next to the Dome of the
Rock (FIG. 13-2), that is, on the site of Solomon’s Temple, the source
of their name. Their mission was to protect pilgrims visiting the re-
covered Christian shrines. Formally founded in 1118, the Knights
Templar order received the blessing of Bernard of Clairvaux, who
gave them a rule of organization based on that of his own Cistercians.
Bernard justified their militancy by declaring that “the knight of
Christ” is “glorified in slaying the infidel... because thereby Christ is
glorified,” and the Christian knight then wins salvation. The Cister-
cian abbot saw the Crusades as part of the general reform of the
Church and as the defense of the supremacy of Christendom. He
himself called for the Second Crusade in 1147. For the Muslims,
however, the Crusaders were nothing more than violent invaders who
slaughtered the population of Jerusalem (Jewish as well as Muslim)
when they took the city in July 1099.
In the end, the Muslims expelled the Christian armies. The Cru-
saders failed miserably in their attempt to regain the Holy Land. But
in western Europe, the Crusades had much greater impact by in-
creasing the power and prestige of the towns. Italian maritime cities
such as Pisa (FIG. 17-25) thrived on the commercial opportunities
presented by the transportation of Crusaders overseas. Many com-
munities purchased their charters from the barons who owned their
land when the latter needed to finance their campaigns in the Holy
Land, and a middle class of merchants and artisans arose to rival the
power of the feudal lords and the great monasteries.The Crusades
RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY- As recorded by Fulcher of Chartres (1059–ca. 1127). Translated by O. J. Thatcher
and E. H. McNeal, quoted in Roberta Anderson and Dominic Aidan Bellenger,
eds.,Medieval Worlds: A Sourcebook (New York: Routledge, 2003), 88–90.
17-13ASaint-
Trophîme, Arles,
mid-12th
century.17-13BNotre-
Dame-la-
Grande,
Poitiers, ca.
1130–1150.