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I
“Deus Vult!”
During March 1095,
when an embassy from the Byzantine emperor Alexius I came to Pope Urban II for
assistance against the Seljuk Turks, the Eastern Holy Roman Empire was a shadow
of its former self. Egypt, Syria, and
the majority of Asia Minor, all formerly Orthodox eastern provinces, had been
overrun by invading Islamic armies. Now
the “infidels” were within striking distance of the Byzantine capital,
Constantinople. However, even before
receiving Alexius’ delegation, Urban II had already decided that during his
next journey through France, he would make an appeal to the western European
nobility. In November, at the Council
of Clermont, the Pope would address both the problems in the East as well as the multitude of abuses toward
the church at home, which had brought a declination of the adherence to the
“Peace of God.” He called onto the
large body of the assembly:
“Let those who have been
accustomed unjustly to wage private war-fare against the faithful now go
against the infidels and end with victory this war which should have been begun
long ago. Let those who for a long time, have been robbers, now become knights.
Let those who have been fighting against their brothers and relatives now fight
in a proper way against the barbarians. Let those who have been serving as
mercenaries for small pay now obtain the eternal reward. Let those who have
been wearing themselves out in both body and soul now work for a double honor.”
Taking up arms to aid fellow
Christians was not necessarily a new idea.
Former Popes had requested the nobility’s aid in retaking the Iberian
Peninsula from the Muslims over twenty years earlier. However, Urban hit on a significant idea of
summoning that, once established, fused the ideas of religion and of war
together. And as he proclaimed the
importance of bellum sacrum, or religious war,
throughout France, Urban II set in motion a movement that would only officially
peter out in the late eighteenth century, but whose ideas and legacy continue
on into the present day.
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