Warfare ideologies in medieval Hungary: ideology of judgement of God, just war theory

Abstract

Warfare ideologies serve for justification of war today, and did in the Christian Middle Ages as well. This paper deals with two examples of medieval ideologies: the ideology of the judgement of God, connected to Isidore of Seville, which justifies wars posteriorly referring to the just judgement of God; and the just war theory of Saint Thomas Aquinas, which connects prior justification to the decision of the prince having legitimate authority and based on the just cause (the enemy’s unjust deeds) and right intention (defending the peace of the Christian community). The two ideologies have the concept of justice as a common point, however the ideology of the judgement of God relies on procedural justice, and just war theory builts on substantive justice. The first aim of this paper is to emphasizing just war theory in the middle ages did not contain the just war theory of Saint Thomas Aquinas only (however it was called only on that name), but it has another form as well, the ideology of judgement of God. The second aim is to attain this with the help of Hungarian examples, presenting two forms of the medieval Hungarian warfare ideologies.