The Defence of the Faith

Crusading on the Frontiers of Latin Christendom in the Late Middle Ages

Edited by Paul Srodecki Edited by Norbert Kersken

Book cover: The Defence of the Faith

Extent: 407, 407 pages

Publisher: Brepols Publishers

Subjects: Medieval Studies, Religious Studies

Series: Outremer. Studies in the Crusades and the Latin East

Series volume number: 15

Language: English

Hardback (Published)

(March 2024)

ISBN: 9782503588827

Price: $119.00

In stock

Research on the medieval crusades, their historical concepts, their course, and their social and regional range.


This volume focuses on the complex and often overlooked topic of crusading activities and the crusade movement on the fringes of Latin Christendom in the time frame from approximately 1300 to the beginning of the sixteenth century. It covers a period widely considered as a time of significant political, cultural and religious changes in Europe. A period in which Western Christianity was on the one hand still on expansion (vide Lithuania and the western Rus and later the Spanish, Portuguese, French and English expansion in the Americas, Africa and South-East Asia) and on the other hand had to face two mighty opponents: the Ottoman Empire and Muscovy. On its eastern and southeastern frontiers, Latin Christian expansion came to a gradual halt-here, the West was now largely under siege! Alone the political, logistical and ultimately also military feasibility of a large-scale crusade to liberate Jerusalem has now receded into a purely theoretical and practically almost unenforceable far distance. Ranging in scope from the Baltic Sea region to the Balkans and Iberia, this book’s nineteen papers explore how these developments influenced the continuation and adaptation of crusading ideas and activities during this later period of crusades.

  • Edited by Paul Srodecki
  • Edited by Norbert Kersken