*gasp* I think I have FINALLY found a first source reference to Abelard opposing the Crusades....sort of. Kind of. In lyrical form. After hearing some imaginary voice in my head harshly whisper, "To the psalter, you dummy!" I located, in his most famous hymn Quanta Qualia of all places: Vere Ierusalem est illa civitas, Cuius pax iugis est, summa iucunditas. "The real city of Jerusalem is the city, Whose peace is its greatest joy ." (Italics mine) These lyrics combined with Abelard's very sympathetic take on both Jews, and Muslims (then known as Saracens) conveyed in his "Dialogues Between Christian, a Philosopher and Jew"* --combined with his questioning whether or not it was moral of Christians to kill people for any reason , period-- would have made him seem "anti-Crusades"; even if in his poem, he was in all likelihood just referring to the "new Israel" in Revelation (or at least, ever concerned with multi
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