Christian Pacifism in the Middle Age Period

In the Middle Ages, through the system of feudalism, every emperor or king is honored as the liege of all his vassals, who in this time will be all the nobles and knights who fight for him. However, because most of them were devout to Christianity, those who believed in Christianity would also fight for the pope. In addition, in order to justify for their chaotic, immoral combat which was deemed immoral, they adopted just war doctrines that would justify their fights.

In the Middle Ages, knights are individual elites, excels at fighting a close-quarter combat. However, most knights have no experience in large scale and militarized wars like crusades, and they usually avoid those kind of wars because it was too chaotic and unpredictable. The reason that they were good at small combat is simple. For all the young knights who just got knighted, they have to travel around for two to three years.

In those years, they constantly stirred up troubles for reasons such as showing their masculinity, wining prizes or engaging in robbery. Obviously, this kind of behavior is the opposite of both chivalric ideals that expects “honourable and courteous conduct” and Christian doctrines, which is why many of them joined the first crusade for indulgence. Immoral combat aside, knights generally fight for their liege or the church. According to The Song of Roland, fighting against heretics, especially the Muslims, was one of the major obligations of knights.

The combat and wars were initially viewed as sinful by Middle Ages Christian pacifists, who inferred that God was a complete pacifist based on the story of god turns his left cheek after somebody strikes his left cheek. However, since all countries need military to consolidate its power, theologians like Augustine of Hippo came up with different ways to justify when a Christian can conduct war. By emphasizing that is an inward disposition instead of bodily action, and by using war of Moses as an example, he states that God is not supporting complete pacifism. In addition, he claimed that since the kings are God’s reflection on Earth, they therefore have the power to conduct war when they think it’s necessary. Even if the war is sinful and unrighteous, the soldiers and knights aren’t guilty, because they are only following their liege’s commands, which is what they supposed to do.

In conclusion, knights, lords and vassals were individual elites who were considered as warrior nobility that fought for their liege or for god. However, they also participated in immoral combats that didn’t fit into chivalry ideals. In addition, theologians like Augustine of Hippo came up with just war doctrines that supposed to refute the traditional Christian pacifist ideology.