Francis of Assisi’s Way of Peace?: His Conversion and Mission to Egypt

Scholars often suggest that St. Francis of Assisi opposed the Fifth Crusade, because he renounced the military life at his conversion and preached to the Muslims in Egypt. Yet his renunciation of arms was only one component of his conversion, which he did not require for all Christians. Additionally, Francis neither explicitly nor implicitly opposed the crusade in Egypt but confronted the Muslims with the necessity of conversion. The sultan decided not to execute Francis, not because Francis offered him peace, but because political conditions did not allow such an action. In fact, Francis’s missionary ideal corresponded with that of contemporary ecclesiastical and secular authorities who also supported and participated in crusading.