Routledge Jerusalem Afflicted: Quaresmius, Spain, and the Idea of a 17th-century Crusade

On Good Friday, 1626, Franciscus Quaresmius delivered a sermon in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem calling on King Philip IV of Spain to undertake a crusade to ‘liberate’ the Holy Land. Jerusalem Afflicted: Quaresmius, Spain, and the Idea of a 17th-century Crusade introduces readers to this unique call to arms with the first-ever edition of the work since its publication in 1631. Aside from an annotated English translation of the sermon, this book also includes a series of introductory chapters providing historical context and textual commentary, followed by an anthology of Spanish crusading texts that testify to the persistence of the idea of crusade throughout the 17th century. Quaresmius’ impassioned and thoroughly reasoned plea is expressed through the voice of Jerusalem herself, personified as a woman in bondage. The friar draws on many of the same rhetorical traditions and theological assumptions that first launched the crusading movement at Clermont in 1095, while also bending those traditions to meet the unique concerns of 17th-century geopolitics in Europe and the Mediterranean. Quaresmius depicts the rescue of the Holy City from Turkish abuse as a just and necessary cause. Perhaps more unexpectedly, he also presents Jerusalem as sovereign Spanish territory, boldly calling on Philip as King of Jerusalem and Patron of the Holy Places to embrace his royal duty and reclaim what is rightly his on behalf of the universal faithful. Quaresmius’ early modern call to crusade ultimately helps us rethink the popular assumption that, like the chivalry imagined by Don Quixote, the crusades somehow died along with the middle ages. Review ‘Chad Leahy and Ken Tully have provided a new source to further Crusade, Spanish, and Franciscan historiographies ... Until recently, Crusade studies about Spain and the Franciscans rarely examined their roles in the Holy Land, and concentrated instead on the Reconquista and Mendicant preaching within Europe. Jerusalem Afflicted is a small volume but offers big opportunities to advance scholarship in several directions and better understand the Crusades’ longue durée’ – RENAISSANCE QUARTERLY, Volume LXXIV, No. 2. ‘Leahy and Tully present us with a work that is profoundly interconnected with today’s global and Mediterranean realities, with current nationalistic events in the past decade, and the Catholic nationalism that inhabits the construction of Spanish identity and ethnocentrism’ - LABERINTO 13 (2020). About the Author Chad Leahy (PhD) is Assistant Professor of Spanish at the University of Denver. Ken Tully (MA, MDiv) is currently a graduate student at Oxford University at the Faculty of Theology and Religion and Adjunct Faculty at the Classical Studies Program, Villanova University.