Medieval crusade theorists read Jesus’s two swords as license for holy war

Evidence

When the apostles said to Jesus “behold, here are two swords,” he responded, “It is enough” (Luke 22:38). This means “that you should fight with preaching and with weapons against infidels.” Llull devotes the second book of De fine to a grand strategy for reconquering the Holy Land. He compares the pomp and luxury he found around the altar of Saint Peter in Rome with the poverty surrounding the altar of the holy sepulcher in Jerusalem, where there are only two lamps, and one is broken; the holy city itself is nearly abandoned; it has become the abode of snakes. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1336

Categorization

• DEFINE: Shows how Luke 22:38’s ‘two swords’ was exegeted into a warrant for preaching plus armed crusade — a founding trope in the clerical justification of holy war.