In the chronicle of Henry of Livonia completed c. 1227 we are presented with a gripping story about the early history of the Livonian Church. From around 1185 processes of Christianization and colonization had begun fundamentally to change the living conditions of the local people and societies with regards to religious beliefs, social structures and power relations. In concert with these processes came also the biblical inspired idea of fighting a Christian holy war aimed specifically at subduing and converting the local non-Christian people. Several times in the chronicle, this type of holy war is referred to as the prelia Domini, or “the battle of the Lord” as found in the Old Testament. These wars took the form of crusades with promises of spiritual rewards in the form of an indulgence to those who took up this fight against the enemies of God for their own salvation. The article examines how this theological concept of a holy war in the form of crusades came to the shores of the Baltic Lands, especially Livonia and Estonia, and how these local wars should be viewed in relation the general ideas of holy war and crusading prior to the completion of the chronicle.
The notion of a biblical inspired holy war against the enemies of God and his holy church had come to influence much of the theological reasoning of the crusades and the overall military campaigns that followed. Some scholars have even argued that the legal tradition of the just war dating back to Roman times with an important supplement through the writings of St. Augustin had slowly been put on the defensive by a more theological based notion of a biblical holy war during the high medieval period. Thus for chroniclers like Henry of Livonia and his contemporaries it made much sense to talk about “the Lord’s Wars” as essentially the ultimate holy war taking the form of a (formal) regional crusade promising penance in the form of indulgence to those partaking in these wars along the lines of reformist popes as Eugenius III, Gregory VIII and Innocent III.