Crusade chroniclers equated preaching and passive martyrdom with waging war

Evidence

To a modern reader these appear drastically different: preaching the Gospel and passively accepting execution on the one hand, waging war on the other. Tudebodus will try to present these as essentially similar acts: the crusaders are the new apostles and martyrs, ushering in a new age for Christ and his church. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 615

Categorization

• XREF: The rhetorical move of merging martyrdom with military aggression resonates with the sacrifice theme in the ‘On Sacrifice’ article — martyrdom reimagined as winning rather than dying.