A crusader-era Christian observer ranked his own faith as the most wicked nation

Evidence

Burchard reinforces this impression through another passage of his Description, in which he presents the various nations of the Holy Land. Here the Saracens are one group among many: Latins, Greeks, Syrians, Armenians, and so on, no better or worse than the others; indeed, the Latins are the ones who are the most wicked, according to Burchard. He shares with William of Tripoli and the author of De statu Sarracenorum the contempt of armed struggle as an evangelical tool. But whereas De statu sees an exhausted Islam about to fall into the arms of Christianity, Burchard sees one sect among many, neither better or worse than most of its neighbors, but one unlikely to be drawn to the cult of the violent and rapacious Latins. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1073

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the theme of medieval observers defying crusade propaganda — parallels the retrospective view on the crusades in works like Saracens’ own earlier chapters and broader historiography of crusade-era dissenting voices.
• SEED: Angle: ‘Christians as the most wicked nation in the Holy Land’ — a medieval Latin author’s self-critical hierarchy of nations could anchor an essay on crusade-era dissent and self-awareness.