Bishop of Le Puy and legate of Pope Urban II during the First Crusade (1096-1099).
Adhemar was born in France around 1045, the son of a nobleman from the Valentinois. He may have been a member of the cathedral chapter of Valence; he became known as an advocate of the Gregorian reform movement. About 1079/1080 he was elected bishop of Le Puy. Shortly after 1086, together with Raymond of Saint-Gilles, count of Toulouse, Adhemar called for reinforcements to fight in Spain against the Almoravid caliph Yusuf.
Before Pope Urban II made his appeal for an expedition to the East at the Council of Clermont (27 November 1095), he had previously contacted Adhemar in the south of France and asked him to act as his representative with the status of legate (Lat. legatus a latere) to administer spiritual support to the crusaders on their expedition to Jerusalem. Adhemar took the cross at the conclusion of Urban’s crusade sermon at Clermont, and left for the East with Raymond of Saint-Gilles in October 1096.
By the time the crusade armies crossed into Asia Minor, Adhemar was recognized as their spiritual head. In addition, as the leading role of the Byzantine emperor in the crusade diminished, Adhemar increasingly came to figure as the military leader of the crusade. An encyclical letter to the West from Adhemar and the patriarch of Jerusalem, Symeon II, dating from the first weeks of the siege of Antioch (autumn 1097-June 1098), reported on the progress of the crusade and urged that all of those who had taken the cross but had failed to set out should be excommunicated unless they had fullfilled their vows by the following Easter. In all probability, Adhemar and Symeon discussed plans for the liberation of the Eastern churches. After the conquest of Antioch, Adhemar reinstated the Greek Orthodox patriarch, John IV Oxeites, and recognized his canonical authority over all clergy in his patriarchate, Latin as well as Greek. Adhemar’s early death on 1 August 1098 during an epidemic made him a near-legendary figure in the perception of his contemporaries. He was buried in the cathedral of Antioch. In 1125 his remains were translated back to a more splendid tomb at Le Puy on the initiative of his successor.
-Klaus-Peter Kirstein
See also: Clermont, Council of (1095); First Crusade (1096-1099)
Bibliography
Becker, Alfons, Papst Urban II (1088-1099), 2 vols. (Stuttgart: Hiersemann, 1988).
Brundage, James A., “Adhemar of Puy: The Bishop and his Critics,” Speculum 34 (1959), 201-212.
Hiestand, Rudolf, “Die papstlichen Legaten auf den Kreuzzugen und in den Kreuzfahrerstaaten vom Konzil von Clermont (1095) bis zum vierten Kreuzzug” (unpublished Habilitationsschrift, University of Kiel,
1972).
-. “Les canons de Clermont et d’Antioche sur
L’organisation ecclesiastique des Etats croises:
Authentiques ou faux?,” in Autour de la premiere croisade, ed. Michel Balard (Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, 1996), pp. 29-37.
Hill, John H., und Laurita L. Hill, “Contemporary Accounts and the Later Reputation of Adhemar, Bishop of Puy,” Medievalia etHumanistica 9 (1955), 30-38.
Kirstein, Klaus-Peter, Die lateinischen Patriarchen von Jerusalem (Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 2002).
Mayer, Hans Eberhard, “Zur Beurteilung Adhemars von Le Puy,” Deutsches Archiv fur Erforschung des Mittelalters 16 (1960), 547-552.
Pahlitzsch, Johannes, “Symeon II. und die Errichtung der Lateinischen Kirche von Jerusalem durch die Kreuzfahrer,” Militia Sancti Sepulcri: Idea e istituzioni, ed. Kaspar Elm and Cosimo Damiano Fonseca (Citta del Vaticano: Pontificia Universita del Laterano 1998), pp. 341-360.
Richard, Jean, “Quelques textes sur les premiers temps de l’eglise latine de Jerusalem,” Recueil de Travaux offert a M. Clovis Brunel, 2 vols. (Paris: Societe de l’Ecole des Chartes 1955), 2:420-430.
-. “La papaute et la direction de la lere croisade,”
Journal des Savants (1960), 49-58.
Riley-Smith, Jonathan, The First Crusaders, 1095-1131 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1997).
Gates and was very short of supplies. Kalojan arrived with a large army including 14,000 Cumans to help the besieged (13 April). The fighting on the first day (14 April) was inconclusive, but the crusaders suffered many losses when the Cumans feigned flight to draw their enemy into pursuit. That evening a war council issued strict orders that the army should await the enemy attack without moving. On 15 April the Cumans rode right up to the Franks’ lines, and, despite the agreed battle plan, Louis of Blois led his men in pursuit of them and called on Baldwin to follow. The Franks were picked off individually, and the battle ended in a disastrous defeat, with Louis dead and the emperor captive. The survivors joined the rearguard under Geoffrey of Villehardouin, who led a disciplined retreat to Rodosto.
The news of the battle provoked a mass flight of Latins from Constantinople (7,000 according to Villehardouin) and encouraged further revolts by the Greeks. The Latin Empire was seriously weakened by the loss of manpower and the interregnum, which lasted until news of the death of Emperor Baldwin in captivity reached Constantinople.
-Peter S. Noble
Bibliography
Dufournet, Jean, “La bataille d’Andrinople dans la Chronique de Villehardouin,” L’Information litteraire 25 (1973),
81-92.
Primov, Borislav, “The Third and Fourth Crusades and Bulgaria,” Etudes historiques 7 (1975), 43-68.
World History
