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This chapter presents a new interpretation of the polemical career of Peter the Venerable. Some scholars have attributed coherence to Peter’s writings against heretics, Jews, and Muslims, and have portrayed him as a sympathetic figure whose “tolerant” views toward Islam signalled modern sensibilities. In contrast, the chapter contends that Peter’s work regarding the Muslims differed significantly from his other treatises for two reasons. First, unlike his writings against heretics and Jews, Peter’s pastoral approach toward Islam had no precedent in the Latin language. Second, his application of reason to his arguments was not of a tolerant man. Peter only turned to words in his confrontation against Muslims when the weapons of the crusaders had proven to be ineffective against them.

This chapter analyzes the impact of the stories about Maiolus’ kidnapping on the formation of Peter the Venerable’s enterprise to convert Muslims to Christianity by means of rational argument. The earliest account of Maiolus’ life sparked a late tenth-century debate on religious truth between the abbot of Cluny and his Muslim captors, which had a powerful influence on Peter’s thinking about how to refute Islamic beliefs in the aftermath of the Second Crusade. The chapter studies the use of reason in polemical writings against Jews and heretics to evaluate the influence of contemporary intellectual currents in the shaping of Peter’s thoughts. It concludes by making a case for the circulation of stories about Maiolus among twelfth-century Cluniacs, particularly of the Life of Maiolus during Peter’s abbacy.

This introductory chapter states the book’s aim, which is to study the role of hagiographical literature in the formulation of Peter the Venerable’s approach to Islam. In the twelfth century, the lives of the saints and the homilies of the church fathers imbued the imagination of the monks of Cluny, including their venerable abbot. Works of hagiography and other devotional genres played a vital role in the formation of monastic thought in the abbeys of Western Europe. The chapter explains that evidence for the circulation of stories about Abbot Maiolus in the twelfth century is equally evocative. Such was his renown that Peter boldly stated that, with the exception of the Virgin Mary, more legends were told about the virtues of Maiolus throughout Europe than about any other saint in Christendom.

This chapter examines the emergence of theoretical treatises devoted to understanding the nature of prophecy. Emerging out of polemical works against Islam and its prophet, such treatises eventually addressed disagreements within Christianity itself about the nature of inspiration and the boundaries of sacred authority. A significant element of theoretical reflection, particularly among the Dominican Order, came from discussions of the nature of preaching, which was often viewed as a contemporary manifestation of prophecy. Preaching as prophecy raised questions about the relationship between natural virtue or talent and supernatural gifts. The chapter concludes by focusing on the contributions of Hugh of St Cher and Albert the Great to a Dominican tradition of prophetic theory, and it shows that they did not agree on how to assess those claiming to be current-day prophets within the Church.

This concluding chapter reiterates that hagiographies had a much wider influence on the formation of medieval approaches to Islam than was previously recognized. The tales told by the monks of Cluny about the sufferings of Abbot Maiolus and his captivity in the summer of 972 are a case in point. The Muslims of La Garde-Freinet were never recognized as a polity by any Islamic government, but this small community of entrepreneurs played an important role in the political system of Provence. Stories about the abduction of Maiolus by these Muslims provided Abbot Peter the Venerable with an example of interfaith dialogue between Christians and Muslims. Consequently, Peter’s translation of the Qur’an became his most important contribution to the missionary activities regarding Islamic principalities, where mendicants preached to Christians and Muslims alike.

This chapter considers the aftermath of the failure of the Second Crusade. It examines the Anglo-Norman crusaders who set off for the Holy Land inspired by the preaching of Bernard of Clairvaux, especially the Norfolk vassals of William de Warenne, Earl of Surrey. They are contrasted with the successful soldiers from East Anglia who participated in the Conquest of Lisbon. These English crusaders were inflamed by the preaching of Arnulf of Lisieux and Ralph “the barker”, and the writings of Peter the Venerable. Crusading was very expensive and soldiers often borrowed money to equip themselves: many were motivated by prospects of booty and monetary rewards as well as spiritual ones. One of the Warenne vassals who may have gone on crusade, Simon de Novers, arrived in (or returned to) Norwich deeply in debt and arranged to have his Jewish banker killed.