Pope Urban II had called the Christians to join him in a Holy War to reclaim the Holy
Lands as an act of Christianity, but there were many activities that took place that
weren’t characteristics of Christianity. The Crusades were a smokescreen for Pope’s
The Crusades were the idea of Pope Urban II, a wise Frenchman. On November
18, 1095 AD, Pope Urban II opened the Council of Clermont. Nine days later, the Pope
made a very important speech just outside the French city of Clermont-Ferrand. In his
speech, he asked the people to help the Christians’ effort to restore peace to the East.
The Crusades had originally been to help the Churches in the East, but the now it was to
reclaim the Holy Land, especially Jerusalem from the Muslims.
Pope Urban II stayed in France until September 1096 in hopes of providing
leadership for the First Crusaders. Urban had originally hoped for the crusading army to
be composed of mostly knights and other warriors, but his speech had already began
spreading throughout the west, and many people of different social classes started joining
the crusading army. (Foss, Michael. pg. 23)
Because of this Urban lost all control of the army, which led to the slaughter of
Jews in northern France. These poor people also caused strain on the armies supplies and
discipline. They were never trained and they were poor, so they couldn’t bring anything
and were poorly disciplined(Foss, Michael. pg. 24). The entire crusading army had
planned on reaching the city of Constantinople, but because of their lack of supplies and
training the vast majority of them were slaughtered before they got there. The few troops
that did reach Constantinople split up into two groups. One group tried to capture
Nicaea, a key city that blocked the road of their supply routes. This group was
unsuccessful. The other group was attacked near the city of Civetot in October. The
few survivors retreated to Constantinople and joined the second wave of Crusaders.
(Phillips, Jonathan. pg. 59)
Religious beliefs were a major motive of the crusaders. In Urban’s speech to the
people of Clermont-Ferrand, Urban guaranteed the complete forgiveness of all sins to any
crusader that lost his life in the name of the Crusades. Urban also proclaimed
“It is necessary that you bring to your brothers in the East the help so often
promised and so urgently needed. They have been attacked, as many of you
know, by Turks and Arabs… Churches have been destroyed and the countryside
laid waste. If you do not make a stand against the enemy now, the
