Charisma in Relation: Peter the Hermit and the Ecclesiastic Hierarchy

Abstract

The Crusades were—and still are—considered as papal wars. However, the phenomenon was also a setting of other authorities, like Peter the Hermit. Drawing on Weber’s sociology of charisma, this article seeks to examine the relationship between the Hermit and Pope Urban ii. While Weber postulates a necessary tension between the charisma of office and genuine charisma, e.g., between priests and prophets, the historical evidence is remarkably different: the chroniclers have portrayed the relationship between the Pope and the Hermit as both complementary and supplementary. By taking this analytical perspective, the article seeks to historicize the almost axiomatic status of Weber’s theorem.