Deus vult

Deus vult (Latin: 'God wills it')[1] is a Latin Catholic motto associated with the Crusades. It was first chanted during the First Crusade in 1096, most likely under the form Deus lo vult or Deus le volt, as reported by the Gesta Francorum (c. 1100–01) and the Historia Belli Sacri (c. 1130).[lower-alpha 1]

"Deus lo vult" is the motto of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre (1824).

In modern times, the motto has different meanings depending on the context. It has been used as a metaphor referring to "God's will",[2][3] as a motto by religious institutions such as the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem,[4] or more recently as an Islamophobic slogan by parts of the Alt-right and white nationalists.[5][6][7][8]

Meaning and variants

The phrase appears in another form in the Vulgate translation of 2 Samuel 14:14 from the Bible: nec vult Deus perire animam ("God does not want any soul to perish").[9][10]

Variants of the Crusades motto include Deus lo vult, Deus le volt (both in Vulgar Latin), Deus id vult (Classical Latin), Dieux el volt (Old French), and Deus hoc vult (Class. Lat., "God wills this").[11][12] The two first variants, incorrect in Classical Latin, are forms influenced by Romance languages. According to Heinrich Hagenmeyer, the articles 'lo' or 'le' were very likely part of the original motto as shouted in Amalfi, since both the authors of the Gesta Francorum and the Historia Belli Sacri report it.[13] Historian Louis Bréhier notes that the Gesta Francorum is written in a language situated between Latin, Old French and Old Italian.[14]

History

First Crusade

The battle cry of the First Crusade is first reported in the Gesta Francorum, a chronicle written in 1100 or 1101 by an anonymous author associated with Bohemond I of Antioch shortly after the successful campaign. According to this description, as the Princes Crusade gathered in Amalfi in the late summer of 1096, a large number of crusaders armed and bearing the sign of the cross on their right shoulders or on their backs, cried in unison "Deus le volt, Deus le volt, Deus le volt".[15] Medieval historian Guibert de Nogent mentions that "Deus le volt" (deus id vult) has been retained by the pilgrims to the detriment of other cries.[16]

The Historia belli sacri, written somewhat later c. 1131, also cites the battle cry.[13] It is again mentioned in the context of the capture of Antioch on 3 June 1098. The anonymous author of the Gesta was himself among the soldiers capturing the wall towers, and recounts that "seeing that they were already in the towers, they began to shout Deus le volt with glad voices; so indeed did we shout".[17]

Robert the Monk

Robert the Monk in c. 1120 re-wrote the Gesta Francorum because it was considered too "rustic". He added an account of the speech of Urban II at the Council of Clermont, of which he was an eyewitness. The speech climaxes in Urban's call for orthodoxy, reform, and submission to the Church. Robert records that the pope asked western Christians, poor and rich, to come to the aid of the Greeks in the east:

When Pope Urban had said these and very many similar things in his urbane discourse, he so influenced to one purpose the desires of all who were present, that they cried out, 'It is the will of God! It is the will of God!' When the venerable Roman pontiff heard that, with eyes uplifted to heaven he gave thanks to God and, with his hand commanding silence, said: Most beloved brethren, today is manifest in you what the Lord says in the Gospel, "Where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them." Unless the Lord God had been present in your spirits, all of you would not have uttered the same cry. For, although the cry issued from numerous mouths, yet the origin of the cry was one. Therefore I say to you that God, who implanted this in your breasts, has drawn it forth from you. Let this then be your war-cry in combats, because this word is given to you by God. When an armed attack is made upon the enemy, let this one cry be raised by all the soldiers of God: It is the will of God! It is the will of God![18]

Robert also reports that the cry of Deus lo vult was at first shouted in jest by the soldiers of Bohemond during their combat exercises, and later turned into an actual battle cry, which Bohemond interpreted as a divine sign.[19]

Other uses

Deus lo vult is the motto of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, a Roman Catholic order of chivalry (restored 1824).[4]

Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan, a Protestant Episcopalian, used the expression for his argument of "the dominion of Christ" as "essentially imperial" and that "Christianity and warfare" had a great deal in common: "'Deus vult!' say I. It was the cry of the Crusaders and of the Puritans and I doubt if man ever uttered a nobler [one]."[20]

George Flahiff CSB in 1947 used Deus Non Vult as the title of an examination of the gradual loss of enthusiasm for the crusades at the end of the 12th century, specifically of the early criticism of the crusades by Ralph Niger, writing in 1189.[21]

Disseminated in the form of hashtags and internet memes, Deus vult has enjoyed popularity with members of the alt-right because of its perceived representation of the clash of civilizations between the Christian West and the Islamic world.[5][22][6] Crusader memes, such as an image of a Knight Templar accompanied by the caption "I’ll see your jihad and raise you one crusade", are popular on hard-right internet pages.[7] The motto is also used by nationalist groups in Europe and was portrayed on large banners during marches celebrating the Polish National Independence Day in 2017.[8][23]

See also

Notes
  1. Manuscripts of Gesta Francorum variously have Deus le volt, Deus lo vult, as well as the "corrected" forms Deus hoc vult and Deus vult. Hagenmeyer (1890) cites Barth: "Barbaro-latina vulgi exclamatio vel et tessera est. Videri autem hinc potest, tum idiotismum Francicum propiorem adhuc fuisse latine matrici".

References
  1. "Definition of Deus Vult". Merriam-Webster.
  2. Agnew, John (2010). "Deus Vult: The Geopolitics of the Catholic Church". Geopolitics. 15 (1): 39–61. doi:10.1080/14650040903420388. ISSN 1465-0045.
  3. Gomez, Adam (2012). "Deus Vult: John L. O'Sullivan, Manifest Destiny, and American Democratic Messianism". American Political Thought. 1 (2): 236–262. doi:10.1086/667616. ISSN 2161-1580.
  4. Luigi G. De Anna; Pauliina De Anna; Eero Kuparinen, eds. (November 29, 1997). Tuitio Europae: Chivalric Orders on the Spiritual Paths of Europe : Proceedings of the Conference "The Spiritual Paths of Europe--Crusades, Pilgrimages, and Chivalric Orders". Turku: University of Turku. p. 65. ISBN 9789512913008.
  5. Kim, Dorothy. "The Alt-Right and Medieval Religions". Berkeley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs. Georgetown University. Retrieved 25 July 2019.
  6. Staff (18 August 2017). "Deconstructing the symbols and slogans spotted in Charlottesville". The Washington Post.
  7. Jones, Dan (10 October 2019). "What the Far Right Gets Wrong About the Crusades". Time. Retrieved 2019-11-25.
  8. Guardian agencies in Warsaw (13 November 2017). "Polish president condemns far-right scenes at Independence Day march". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2019-11-16.
  9. Jacobs, Henry Eyster; Schmauk, Theodore Emanuel (1888). The Lutheran Church Review, Volumes 7–8. Alumni Association of the Lutheran Theological Seminary. p. 266.
  10. Vulgate, Regum II, 14:14
  11. Le Monde, histoire de tous les peuples ... (in French). Imprimerie de Béthune et Plon. 1844. p. 327 (see bottom right note).
  12. Mrs. William Busk, Mediaeval Popes, Emperors, Kings, and Crusaders, Or, Germany, Italy, and Palestine, from A.D. 1125 to A.D. 1268, Volume 1 (1854), 15, 396.
  13. Hagenmeyer, Heinrich (1890). Anonymi gesta Francorum et aliorum hierosolymitanorum (in Latin). C. Winter.
  14. Bréhier, Louis (1925). Histoire anonyme de la première croisade (in French). Les Belles Lettres.
  15. Deferunt arma ad bellum congrua; in dextra vel inter utrasque scapulas crucem Christi baiulant; sonum vero 'Deus le volt', 'Deus le volt', 'Deus le volt'! una voce conclamant. Gesta Francorum IV.1 (Hagenmeyer (1890), p. 151.)
  16. Hablot, Laurent (2018). Les paysages sonores: Du Moyen Âge à la Renaissance (in French). Presses universitaires de Rennes. p. 161. ISBN 978-2-7535-5586-0.
  17. Gesta Francorum 20.7, Hagenmeyer (1890), p. 304; some manuscripts also mention cries of kyrie eleison.
  18. Robert the Monk: Historia Hierosolymitana. in [RHC, Occ III.] Dana C. Munro, "Urban and the Crusaders", Translations and Reprints from the Original Sources of European History, Vol 1:2, (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1895), 5-8 (Medieval Sourcebook).
  19. Hagenmeyer (1890), p. 151, note 10, citing Historia Regum Francorum mOnast. S. Dionysii (ed. Waitz in Mon. Germ. SS. IX p. 405), and for battle cries of the crusaders in general: Ekk. Hieros. p. 90, 234; Röhricht, Beiträge II, 47.
  20. Mahan, Alfred Thayer (1972). "Some Neglected Aspects of War". In Karsten, Peter; Hunt, Richard N. (eds.). Unilateral Force in International Relations. New York: Garland Publishing. p. 12. ISBN 9780824003487. OCLC 409536.
  21. George B. Flahiff, "Deus Non Vult: A Critic of the Third Crusade", Mediaeval Studies 9 (1947), 162–188, doi: 10.1484/J.MS.2.306566.
  22. Ulaby, Neda. "Scholars Say White Supremacists Chanting 'Deus Vult' Got History Wrong". NPR. National Public Radio. Retrieved 25 July 2019.
  23. Gera, Vanessa (2017-11-14). "Polish president sharply condemns weekend nationalist march". Times of Israel. Retrieved 2019-11-25.

Bibliography
  • B. Lacroix, "Deus le volt!: la théologie d'un cri", Études de civilisation médiévale (IXe-XIIe siècles). Mélanges offerts à Edmond-René Labande, Poitiers (1974), 461–470.
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