Editing Pope Urban II (section)

=== First Crusade ===
{{Main|First Crusade}}
[[File:Urban2 a.jpg|thumb|Urban at Clermont (14th century miniature)]]
[[File:B Urban II2.jpg|thumb|200px|Pope Urban II preaching the [[First Crusade]] at the [[Council of Clermont]]]]

Urban II's movement took its first public shape at the [[Council of Piacenza]], where, in March 1095,<ref>The synod took place on 1–7 March 1095; the Pope stayed in Piacenza until the second week in April: P. Jaffé, ''Regesta pontificum Romanorum'', editio secunda, I (Leipzig 1885), p. 677.</ref> Urban II received an ambassador from the [[Byzantine Emperor]] [[Alexios I Komnenos]] asking for help against the Turkish tribes who had taken over most of formerly Byzantine [[Anatolia]].{{sfn|Peters|1971|p=xiv}} The [[Council of Clermont]] met, attended by numerous Italian, [[Kingdom of Burgundy|Burgundian]], and French [[Bishop (Catholic Church)|bishops]]. All of the sessions except the final one took place either in the [[Clermont-Ferrand Cathedral]] or in the suburban church of Notre-Dame-du-Port.

Though the council was primarily focused on reforms within the church hierarchy, Urban II gave a speech on 27 November 1095 at the conclusion of the council to a broader audience.{{sfn|Peters|1971|p=1}} The speech was made outside in the open air to accommodate the vast crowd that had come to hear him.<ref>Blumenthal, Utah-Renata, ''The Crusades – An Encyclopedia'', pp. 263-265.</ref>

Urban II's sermon proved highly effective, as he summoned the attending nobility and the people to wrest the [[Holy Land]], and the eastern churches generally, from the domination of the Seljuks.{{sfn|Peters|1971|pp=xvi, 1-15}} This was the speech that triggered the [[Crusades]].

No exact transcription exists of the speech that Urban delivered at the Council of Clermont. The five extant versions of the speech were written down sometime later and differ widely.{{sfn|Peters|1971|pp=1-15}} All versions of the speech except that by [[Fulcher of Chartres]] were probably influenced by the chronicle account of the First Crusade called the ''[[Gesta Francorum]]'' (written c. 1101), which includes a version of it.{{sfn|Peters|1971|pp=2-10}} Fulcher of Chartres was present at the council, though he did not start writing his history of the crusade, including a version of the speech until c. 1101.{{sfn|Peters|1971|p=23}} [[Robert the Monk]] may have been present,{{sfn|Peters|1971|p=2}} but his version dates from about 1106.

As a better means of evaluating Urban's true motives in calling for a crusade to the Holy Lands, there are four extant letters written by Pope Urban himself: one to the [[Flanders|Flemish]] (dated December 1095);{{sfn|Peters|1971|pp=15-16}} one to the [[Bologna|Bolognese]] (dated September 1096); one to [[Vallombrosa]] (dated October 1096); and one to the counts of [[Catalonia]] (dated either 1089 or 1096–1099).<ref name="Strack">{{Cite journal |last=Strack |first=Georg |date=2016 |title=Pope Urban II and Jerusalem: a re-examination of his letters on the First Crusade |url=https://www.mag.geschichte.uni-muenchen.de/downloads/strack_letters.pdf |journal=[[The Journal of Welsh Religious History|Journal of Religious History, Literature and Culture]] |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=51–70 |access-date=7 March 2022}}.</ref> However, whereas the three former letters were concerned with rallying popular support for the Crusades and establishing the objectives, his letters to the Catalonian lords instead beseech them to continue the fight against the [[Moors]], assuring them that doing so would offer the same divine rewards as a conflict against the Seljuks.<ref>H.E.J. Cowdrey, "Pope Urban II's Preaching of the First Crusade", ''History'', 55 (1970), pp. 185–187.</ref> Urban II's letters, rather than the paraphrased versions of his speech at Clermont, reveal his thinking about crusading.<ref name="Strack"/> Nevertheless, the versions of the speech have had a significant influence on popular conceptions and misconceptions about the Crusades, so it is worth comparing the five composed speeches to Urban's actual words.<ref name="Strack"/> Fulcher of Chartres has Urban saying that the Lord and Christ beseech and command the Christians to fight and reclaim their land.<ref name="autogenerated1">Fulcher of Chartres' account of Urban's speech, [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/urban2-5vers.html Urban II: Speech at Council of Clermont, 1095, Five versions of the Speech] (available as part of the [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook.html Internet Medieval Sourcebook]).</ref>

The chronicler Robert the Monk put this into the mouth of Urban II:
<blockquote> This land which you inhabit, shut in on all sides by the seas and surrounded by the mountain peaks, is too narrow for your large population; nor does it abound in wealth, and it furnishes scarcely food enough for its cultivators. Hence, it is that you murder one another, that you wage war, and that frequently you perish by mutual wounds. Let, therefore, hatred depart from among you, let your quarrels end, let wars cease, and let all dissensions and controversies slumber. Enter upon the road to the [[Church of the Holy Sepulchre|Holy Sepulchre]]; wrest that land from the wicked race, and subject it to yourselves [...] God has conferred upon you above all nations great glory in arms. Accordingly, undertake this journey for the remission of your sins, with the assurance of the imperishable glory of the [[Kingdom of God|Kingdom of Heaven]].</blockquote>

Robert continued:
<blockquote>When Pope Urban had said these ... things in his urbane discourse, he so influenced to one purpose the desires of all who were present that they cried out, "It is the will of God! It is the will of God!". When the venerable Roman pontiff heard that, [he] said: "Most beloved brethren, today is manifest in you what the Lord says in the Gospel, 'Where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them.' Unless the Lord God had been present in your spirits, all of you would not have uttered the same cry. For although the cry issued from numerous mouths, yet the origin of the cry was one. Therefore, I say to you that God, who implanted this in your breasts, has drawn it forth from you. Let this then be your war cry in combats because this word is given to you by God. When an armed attack is made upon the enemy, let this one cry be raised by all the soldiers of God: It is the will of God! It is the will of God!"<ref>Robert the Monk's account of Urban's speech, [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/urban2-5vers.html Urban II: Speech at Council of Clermont, 1095, Five versions of the Speech] (available as part of the [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook.html Internet Medieval Sourcebook]).</ref>

</blockquote>Within Fulcher of Chartres's account of Pope Urban's speech, there was a promise of remission of sins for whoever took part in the crusade.<blockquote>All who die by the way, whether by land or by sea, or in battle against the pagans, shall have immediate remission of sins. This I grant them through the power of God with which I am invested.<ref name="autogenerated1"/></blockquote>

It is disputed whether the famous slogan [[deus vult|"God wills it"]] or "It is the will of God" (''deus vult'' in Latin, ''Dieu le veut'' in French) in fact was established as a rallying cry during the council. While Robert the Monk says so,{{sfn|Peters|1971|p=xix}} it is also possible that the slogan was created as a catchy [[propaganda]] motto afterward.

Urban II's own letter to the Flemish confirms that he granted "remission of all their sins" to those undertaking the enterprise to liberate the Eastern churches.{{sfn|Peters|1971|p=16}} One notable contrast with the speeches recorded by Robert the Monk, [[Guibert of Nogent]], and [[Baldric of Dol]] is the lesser emphasis on Jerusalem itself, which Urban only once mentions as his own focus of concern. In the letter to the Flemish, he writes, "They [the Turks] have seized the Holy City of Christ, embellished by his passion and resurrection, and blasphemy to say—have sold her and her churches into abominable slavery." In the letters to Bologna and Vallombrosa, he refers to the Crusaders' desire to set out for Jerusalem rather than his desire for Jerusalem to be freed from Seljuk rule. It was believed that originally that Urban wanted to send a relatively small force to aid the Byzantines, however after meeting with two prominent members of the Crusades Adhemar of Puy and Raymond of Saint-Guilles, Urban decided to rally a much larger force to retake Jerusalem.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Baldwin |first=Marshall W. |date=1940 |title=Some Recent Interpretations of Pope Urban II's Eastern Policy |journal=The Catholic Historical Review |volume=25 |issue=4 |pages=459–466 |jstor=25013850}}.</ref> Urban II refers to liberating the Church as a whole, or the broadly "Eastern churches" specifically, rather than reconquering Jerusalem itself. The phrases used are "churches of God in the eastern region" and "the eastern churches" (to the Flemish), "liberation of the Church" (to Bologna), "liberating Christianity [Lat. Christianitatis]" (to Vallombrosa), and "the Asian church" (to the Catalan counts). Coincidentally or not, Fulcher of Chartres's version of Urban's speech does not explicitly reference Jerusalem. Instead, it more generally refers to aiding the crusaders' Christian "brothers of the eastern shore" and to their loss of Asia Minor to the Turks.<ref>Quotes from Urban II's letters taken from "Crusades, Idea and Reality, 1095–1274"; Documents of Medieval History 4; eds. Louise and Johnathan Riley-Smith, London 1981, 37–40.</ref>

It is still disputed what Pope Urban's motives were, as evidenced by the different recorded speeches, all of which differ. Some historians believe that Urban wished for the reunification of the Eastern and Western churches, a rift caused by the [[Great Schism of 1054]]. Others believe that Urban saw this as an opportunity to gain legitimacy as the pope as, at the time, he was contending with the antipope Clement III. A third theory is that Urban felt threatened by the Seljuk conquests in Europe and saw the crusades as a way to unite the Christian world into a unified defense against them.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Baldwin |first=Marshall W. |date=1940 |title=Some Recent Interpretations of Pope Urban II's Eastern Policy |journal=The Catholic Historical Review |volume=25 |issue=4 |pages=462–466 |jstor=25013850}}.</ref>

The most important effect of the First Crusade for Urban himself was the removal of [[Antipope Clement III]] from Rome in 1097 by one of the French armies.{{sfn|Peters|1971|pp=33–34}} His restoration there was supported by [[Matilda of Tuscany]].{{sfn|Peters|1971|p=34}}

Urban II died on 29 July 1099, fourteen days after the [[Siege of Jerusalem (1099)|fall of Jerusalem]], but before news of the event had reached Italy; his successor was [[Pope Paschal II]].