I've been wondering, but as a way to deal with the historical issue of making NIcky a priest before he joined the crusade. How likely do you think it would be, historically, for him to have joined the priesthood after the crusade? As a form of repentance or initial rejection of the violence, due to his guilt over what he was a part of? Especially as the younger son out of a noble family?
It would actually be rather likely! Depending, of course, on whether he got together with Joe directly after the First Crusade was over. In DVLA (my backstory for them) I separate them for quite a long time after the First Crusade, thus for maximum pining and introspection purposes, and Nicky seriously considers becoming a monk at this time in repentance for the violence and extremes of slaughter that he witnessed during the sack of Jerusalem. In that version, he doesn’t of course ultimately do so, but he does go through a long period of religious reflection and contemplation. Obviously the event of the First Crusade itself, whether or not he gets together with Joe, is prime religious-crisis moment for Nicky, and would probably result in him doing something to tackle it some way, whether or not he explicitly took holy orders.
Secular noblemen were often violent and not particularly inclined to the church, although many of them also were because religion was an integral part of the civic tapestry of medieval Europe, and religiosity, secularism, violence, and power all uneasily coexisted and were not mutually exclusive. They had a complicated relationship with it; they often were known for plundering church lands or funds to enrich themselves, but they also needed the church to forgive and sanction their violence, to assure them that they weren’t doomed, were actually exercising it in a holy way, and so forth. Retiring to a monastery was always a valid option for a secular nobleman who had gotten tired of the war-heavy lifestyle and was in search of a more contemplative existence. They tended to do this rather than the priesthood for the obvious fact that monasteries, especially Cluniac monasteries, provided a more comfortable life than that of a village priest. You can read some more about the differences between the various monastic orders in this ask about the medieval Christianity of Nicky’s world. For a while certainly during their heyday in the 11th and early 12th centuries, a Cluniac monastery would have been the choice for noblemen who just wanted to get away from it all. If they wanted a more spiritually rigorous life demanding that they make tangible physical amends for their dissolute ways, they might have chosen the Cistercians instead. The Cistercians were considerably influential in Italy (Pope Eugenius III in the mid 12th-century was born in Italy, but became the first Cistercian pope in 1145, less than 50 years after their founding in 1098), and if Nicky was really wanting to repent for Jerusalem and his part in it, he could also decide to become a Cistercian.
As the second or younger son of a nobleman, Nicky might have also been made a priest or forced into holy orders somewhat against his will (which could explain the armed priest part if you wanted to go that route -- he would have trained in arms as a nobleman at least until young manhood, and might not be pleased about ending up in the cloisters). The inheritance system of medieval Europe was commonly known as “primogeniture,” i.e. the eldest son inherits everything -- titles, lands, money, etc. -- and younger sons and any daughters, while they might have marriage portions made for them, are pretty much SOL. When you could have large numbers of sons in one family, this meant you had to take action to secure against the inevitable competing claims and fratricidal infighting that might result when younger (and sometimes more talented and capable) sons wanted a bite of the pie and saw themselves as unfairly disadvantaged by their eldest brother getting everything. Henry II of England, who was well known for having multiple troublesome sons, tried to solve this problem by having them each inherit a different portion of his vast domains -- Henry the Young King was supposed to inherit England, Richard the Lionheart was supposed to inherit Aquitaine and Poitou, Geoffrey was supposed to inherit Brittany, and John, well, John was known as “John Lackland” because as the youngest Plantagenet son, there just wasn’t enough left even for him. He, however, obviously had the last laugh by eventually inheriting ALL of his brothers’ territories (though he also lost them, and is the reason England hasn’t had a King John since). When he became king in 1189 after his father’s death, Richard also neutralized the threat from his illegitimate half-brother, another Geoffrey, by forcing him to become the archbishop of York against his will.
This was because legally, a churchman could not inherit private family property or have any claim to his rival sibling’s estates, so putting younger sons in the church for a career became fairly standard practice. In this case, it didn’t matter whether they had an actual calling or were personally religious; the church was relied upon to fund their living expenses, provide them with a ready-made place to live, a chance to advance in the world, etc. Noble families also generously patronized their local religious houses in part for this reason, so their children could be assured of having a comfortable lifestyle if they joined (or rather, were strongly urged into) one of the nearby monasteries, cathedrals, abbeys, etc. This was also important in building goodwill for the church to pray for the souls of you and your family, and in performing penance if you had gone too far and allowed some bandits to plunder church lands (and/or taken a cut for yourself, as secular lords were often accused of doing). So that is another avenue.
The main question about Nicky joining the priesthood post-crusade would not be one of violence (which he would be expected to renounce, along with weapons) but celibacy. Clerical celibacy was not by any means the rule up until as late as the 11th century. The Cluniac Reforms (coupled with the Gregorian Reforms) in that time then began constructing this as an essential part of clerical identity; they insisted even on village priests, who had heretofore often been married, being both single and celibate. This was part of a larger effort to exalt celibacy as the holiest form of lifestyle (“sacred virginity” for women and deliberate chastity for men was highly regarded), and by the end of the 11th century, it was pretty unthinkable for a priest to be married or even sexually active. Did they do so? Yes, obviously, since they were humans, and even the Cathars in the 12th and 13th centuries, who insisted on strict sexual renunciation, did not always live up to their own standards (as noted in the case of Beatrice de Planissoles and her Cathar-priest lover, and which I talked about in this long ask on the history of marriage). But if Nicky was joining the priesthood explicitly to renounce his old secular lifestyle and to make penitence for previous sins, it would be quite odd and unlikely that he then carried on having sex with a lover -- and not just any lover, but a Muslim man! (Gasps, clutches pearls.) If he has been separated from Joe post First-Crusade, and is basically floundering and shocked and doesn’t know what to do and wants to reject the violence that he just took part in, then yes, there is absolutely an opportunity for him to take holy orders, whether informally or formally, even for some period of time. If he is with Joe, that becomes less likely.
If we did want Nicky to become a Knight Templar for a while, the earliest date he could do that is 1119, when the Templars were founded. The Templars were essentially armed priests, whose devotion to both military and religious warfare was absolute, and which earned them the later bad reputation of the “zealots.” That is less true when they were first founded (they were an impoverished order meant to guide Christian pilgrims through the dangerous Holy Land to the city of Jerusalem, though they were quickly given a lot of money and renown), so that’s another short-term option if Nicky has been separated from Joe and is looking for some kind of religious absolution or repentance.
Thanks so much for the question!
