How to craft a crusade call: Pope Innocent III and Quia maior (1213)

The fame of Quia maior – commonly considered one of the most important medieval papal crusade encyclicals – belies the fact that we actually know little about its composition at the curia of Pope Innocent III in 1213. This article compares a lesser‐known draft of the letter, Quoniam maior, preserved in the chronicle of Burchard of Ursberg, with Quia maior in order to reconstruct the debates and concerns of its authors during the composition process. It seeks to advance our understanding of Innocent’s conception of the crusade and offers new insights into how the papacy crafted crusade calls in the Middle Ages.