We are deeply distressed and greatly worried when we hear that the savage Estonians and other pagans in those parts rise and fight God's faithful and those who labour for the Christian faith and fight the virtue of the Christian name... to gird yourselves, armed with celestial weapons and the strength of Apostolic exhortations, to defend the truth of the Christian faith bravely and to expand the Christian faith forcefully.[3]
Alexander further promised an indulgence and one year's remission of sin to those who fought the pagans. Those who died in this crusade would receive full indulgence:
Trusting God's mercy and merits of the apostles Peter and Paul, we thus concede to those forcefully and magnanimously fighting these often mentioned pagans one year's remission of sins for which they have made confession and received a penance as we are accustomed to grant those who go to the Lord's Sepulchre. To those who die in this fight we grant remission of all their sins, if they have received a penance.[3]
The sole copy of the bull to survive is in Peter Cellensis' letter-book.[4]
The Northern Crusades or Baltic Crusades were Christianization campaigns undertaken by Catholic Christian military orders and kingdoms, primarily against the pagan Baltic, Finnic and West Slavic peoples around the southern and eastern shores of the Baltic Sea.
Pope Alexander III, born Roland, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 7 September 1159 until his death in 1181.
Pope Gregory IX was head of the Catholic Church and the ruler of the Papal States from 19 March 1227 until his death in 1241. He is known for issuing the Decretales and instituting the Papal Inquisition, in response to the failures of the episcopal inquisitions established during the time of Pope Lucius III, by means of the papal bull Ad abolendam, issued in 1184.
Pope Urban II, otherwise known as Odo of Châtillon or Otho de Lagery, was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 12 March 1088 to his death. He is best known for convening the Council of Clermont which ignited the series of Christian military expeditions known as the Crusades.
A jubilee is a special year of remission of sins, debts and universal pardon. In Leviticus, a jubilee year is mentioned to occur every 25th year; during which slaves and prisoners would be freed, debts would be forgiven and the mercies of God would be particularly manifest.
In the teaching of the Catholic Church, an indulgence is "a way to reduce the amount of punishment one has to undergo for (forgiven) sins". The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes an indulgence as "a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, which the faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain prescribed conditions…"
The Livonian Chronicle of Henry is a Latin narrative of events in Livonia and surrounding areas from 1180 to 1227. It was written c. 1229 by a priest named Henry. Apart from some references in Gesta Danorum – a patriotic work by the 12th-century Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus – and few mentions in the Primary Chronicle compiled in Kievan Rus', the Chronicle of Henry is the oldest known written document about the history of Estonia and Latvia.
The Wendish Crusade was a military campaign in 1147, one of the Northern Crusades, led primarily by the Kingdom of Germany within the Holy Roman Empire and directed against the Polabian Slavs. The Wends were made up of the Slavic tribes of Abrotrites, Rani, Liutizians, Wagarians, and Pomeranians who lived east of the River Elbe in present-day northeast Germany and Poland.
The Battle on the Ice, also known as the Battle of Lake Peipus or Battle of Lake Chud, took place on 5 April 1242. It was fought on or near the frozen Lake Peipus when the united forces of the Republic of Novgorod and Vladimir-Suzdal, led by Prince Alexander Nevsky, emerged victorious against the forces of the Livonian Order and Bishopric of Dorpat, led by Bishop Hermann of Dorpat.
A crusade bull or crusading bull was a papal bull that granted privileges, including indulgences, to those who took part in the Crusades against infidels. A bull is an official document issued by a pope and sealed with a leaden bulla. All crusade bulls were written in Latin. Those launching a new general crusade were encyclicals addressed to all the archbishops of the Latin Church.
The Livonian crusade consists of the various military Christianisation campaigns in medieval Livonia – modern Latvia and Estonia – during the Papal-sanctioned Northern Crusades in the 12th–13th century.
The treasury of merit or treasury of the Church consists, according to Catholic belief, of the merits of Jesus Christ and his faithful, a treasury that because of the communion of saints benefits others, too. According to the Westminster Dictionary of Theological Terms, this Catholic belief is a way of expressing the view that the good works done by Jesus and others can benefit other people, and "contemporary Roman Catholic theologians see it as a metaphor for ways in which the faith of Christ and the saints helps others".
Indulgentarium Doctrina is an apostolic constitution about indulgences issued by Pope Paul VI on 1 January 1967. It responds to suggestions made at the Second Vatican Council, it substantially revised the practical application of the traditional doctrine relating to indulgences. The title is taken from the opening words of the original Latin text.
Saint Meinhard was a German Augustinian canon regular and the first bishop of Livonia. His life was described in the Livonian Chronicle of Henry. His body rests in the now-Lutheran Riga Cathedral, as his remains were moved to Riga in 1226. He is venerated as the apostle of the Church in Latvia.
Divina dispensatione is the name for two papal bulls issued by Pope Eugene III. The first was issued on 5 October 1146 to the clergy of Italy, urging Italians to join the Second Crusade. The second was issued on 11 April 1147 at Troyes and called for the Wendish Crusade against the pagan Slavs. In the second bull Eugene declared:
Certain of you, however, (are) desirous of participating in so holy a work and reward and plan to go against the Slavs and other pagans living towards the North and to subject them, with the Lord's assistance, to the Christian religion. We give heed to the devotion of these men, and to all those who have not accepted the cross for going to Jerusalem and who have decided to go against the Slavs and to remain in the spirit of devotion on that expedition, as it is prescribed, we grant that same remission of sin...and the same temporal privileges as to the crusaders to Jerusalem.
Vineae Domini custodes is a papal bull issued by Pope Honorius III in which he granted the mendicant orders of the Dominicans and Franciscans the permission to establish a mission in the Almohad Caliphate.
The Treaty of Stensby was an agreement between king Valdemar II of Denmark and the Teutonic Order, signed on 7 June 1238 in Stensby on the island of Zealand in Denmark, and confirmed by Innocent IV in September 1243. The arrangement transferred northern maritime Estonia to the Kingdom of Denmark in exchange for military support.
In the history of the Catholic Church, a crusade indulgence was any indulgence—remission from the penalties imposed by penance—granted to a person who participated in an ecclesiastically sanctioned crusade. It had its origins in the Council of Clermont that closed on 27 November 1095. According to Lambert of Arras, who was present, the council decreed that, "Whoever for devotion alone, not to gain honour or money, goes to Jerusalem to liberate the Church of God can substitute this journey for all penance." This marked the start of the First Crusade. Later popes and councils often invoked "the same remission as instituted by Pope Urban at the council at Clermont." The connection to the liberation of Jerusalem was later weakened and the same or similar indulgence offered to participants in the Northern Crusades and the Albigensian Crusade.
The 1240–1241 Votia campaign was a military conflict occurring in the winter of 1240 to 1241 in Votia. An alliance of the Bishopric of Ösel–Wiek, the Livonian Order, as well as Estonians, marched into Votia, defeating what little resistance it met, likely supported by several local Votian leaders, and establishing a fortress at Koporye.
This chronology presents the timeline of the Northern Crusades beginning with the 10th century establishment of Christian churches in northern Europe. These were primarily Christianization campaigns undertaken by the Christian kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden together with the Teutonic Knights, primarily against the pagan Baltic, Finnic and West Slavic peoples around the southern and eastern shores of the Baltic Sea.
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