Why did Pope Urban call the First Crusade

Byzantium
1. Emperor Alexius requested military aid from the West against the Turks.
2. Urban's long term ideal could be to reunite the Greek and Roman churches and spread Christianity
  1. Would bring the eastern Orthodox Church together with the west, therefore bringing total Papal Supremacy throughout Christendom
Jerusalem
1. His speeches stressed the need to aid the Eastern Christians
  1. May have wished for easier access for pilgrims to Holy Places
  2. Spoke of the suffering of the Christians in the East.
    1. Made Muslim's sound inhuman and "alien"
2. Liberation of Jerusalem may have been a higher priority
3. The Crusade was to be a liberation
  1. Fellow Christians
  2. Jerualem
    1. Sanctified by Christ
    2. Focal point of Christian faith
    3. Site of the Holy Sepulchre
    4. Christ's burial place
Western Europe
1. Urban may have wished to enhance papal authority in the west.
2. Harnessing Europe's military energy for Church purposes would show himself as supreme in the West.
  1. Especially in comparison to Clement III (the anti pope).
3. Spoke of feudal anarchy caused by Knightly Violence.
  1. May have wanted to promote the Peace of God movement and stop such violence elsewhere.
Conclusion
1. ABOVE ALL.
  1. Pope Urban sought a war of Liberation
    1. Of place - Jerusalem
    2. Of men's souls
      1. A holy war to provide salvation from sins.

Resource summary

	Created by jemma08 almost 11 years ago