Crusading against Christians in the Fifteenth Century: Doubts and Debates

Abstract

This chapter examines the response to papal wars against heretics and other Christian opponents of the Papacy in the fifteenth century. Thanks to the Prague debate over the crusade proclaimed by Pope John XXIII against the rival obedience in 1412, and due to a series of crusades against the Hussites in the 1420s and 1460s, Bohemia became the main theatre of anti-heretical crusading. This chapter traces the doubts that the crusades against Christians in general, and the indulgences related to them in particular, provoked in authors of theoretical treatises. It suggests that the nature of these doubts developed over time, from the question of killing Christians, through Catholic reformist discussion on the administration of indulgences, to considerations of some technical aspects of forgiveness.