The City Of God Analysis

He was a charismatic man who gave powerful speeches which moved people to sell their homes, leave their lands, and follow him across a continent. Pope Urban II marketed and advertised this crusade by promising salvation to those who came along. 4) What key event in 1095 sparked Urban II and the Western church to assemble an "elite force of knights" to reclaim the holy city of Jerusalem? In 1095, the Byzantine Emperor, Alexius I, who was also the leader of the Greek Orthodox Church at that time, sent a call for help to Pope Urban II.

As Tyerman succinctly comments, “ceremonies acted as media for information [and] exhortation” and resembled immense significance in a highly illiterate society. This viewpoint justifies Urban’s confidence in the council’s impact which strengthened his authority in Christendom, and explains the motive of his fourteen-month speech tour that covered southern, central, western and south-eastern France. This moreover demonstrated his personal ambition to restore papal authority in all levels of Christendom. Urban understood that his contribution could boost his reputation and popularity among supportive Christians. As Henry’s powers declined, Urban’s personal ambitions and pursuit of the Gregorian reform constructed a suitable setting for a crusade in

He also states that the Church calendar led to “the debasement of nations,” and, “the persecution and disgust experienced by virtue, talent, and philosophy under cruel despots.” This again hints that the leaders are incapable of equal

Allen Cutler’s journal article delves in to the concept of military conflict and conversion to Christianity during the First Crusade. The author states that it was the intent of Pope Urban II who inherited his interest in crusading against Muslims from Pope Gregory VII, to Christianize Muslims, by words and example. There have been those who have argued Urban II had no interest in conversion, but Allen, counters their assumptions by presenting three document sources that imply that during Urban’s speech at Clermont he broached the subject of conversion, by referring to the Turks as “a race utterly alienated from God.” Allen surmises that Urban the implication is they were not “converted to Christianity” and therefore conversion was foremost on Pope Urban’s mind. The Pope also wanted to reinstall papal

By doing this the pope would also be able to refute the governmental of feudalism that when against his aim of unifying Europe to eventually become stable enough to expand the government. This would have brought them closer to being an established empire with a solid culture. Collectively these political drive for stability and power were the predominant motivations that Pope Urban the II had to support the Christian crusades, The desire for power was a motivation for the crusades to each their goals of full power in and out side of the Empire. Pope Urban the second was encountering an ordeal of the struggle of power with the Political officials of the Holy

In 1095 on November 27 in Clermont,France, Pope Urban the II called for a Crusade to help the Byzantines and free the city of Jerusalem. The official start date was set as August 15, 1096. This order little did he know would be the cause of a battle that turned into 9 war’s that last for nearly 200 years. This event in history clearly has a outcome that is way more negative than positive. Have you ever imagined being in the middle of a 200 year war people dropping like flies just because of an argument over one city?

Pope Urban II called upon all Christians into this war, calling those who don’t believe in God Heathens and providing reason to take control of Jerusalem again. Also assuring that the soldiers of this war will get an admission into Heaven. (Document 1) Christians, no matter the empire or region were being united by the Crusades through their love of Christ. (Document 2) French and German crusaders invaded a Jewish City, killing people for sanctification of the Lord. (Document 5)

The Turks kept all Jewish and Christian pilgrims from entering the city. The Emperor of the Byzantine Empire did not take this lightly and ordered the Crusade. It wasn't easy, but the Crusaders were successful in capturing the Holy Land. They then slaughtered tens of thousands of its inhabitants. These crusades continued for about two hundred years, leaving many innocent lives lost to the sword of those wearing the cross.

During Europe in the Middle Ages, people’s lives were generally filled with poverty, the imminent possibility of death, and overall feelings of hopelessness. This translated into widespread violence and chaos, which Pope Urban II was understandably very concerned about. Thankfully, he had a solution in mind: he believed that “such energy could be focused on fighting against the Muslims in the Holy Land” and sure enough, “Soon knights and soldiers left their petty quarrels and traveled to the east to fight against the infidel,” going to prove that not only was the Pope politically driven – he was also politically adept (Runciman). Pope Urban II saw that the Europeans were a greatly divided and combative people, and he thought that the Crusades would be an effective remedy for this. Just as he had predicted, the European people, when given an alternate outlet for their everyday feelings of anger and fear besides each other, were able to truly unite.

However, there is more support for the fact that these wars were driven by desire for political and economic gain in the long run. The religious parts were just to trick those who believed so strongly in their faith to fight so the large surviving army could bring back wealth and to impact the Silk Road trade in their favor. A document from a Christian Monk who had participated in the Crusade talks about people’s motivations to join the Crusades, stating, “for they bore the sign of the cross on their garments as a reminder that they should mortify the flesh and in the hope that they would in this way triumph over the enemies of the cross of Christ…” This line from the text shows how dedicated they were to fight against “Christ’s enemies”, which were the Jews and the Muslims, and how much they desired to claim the town of Jerusalem. Now, that was the original reason for those people to head out and serve.

Barbara Diefendorf's book, The Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre is a window into the struggle of religion and secular power during the Protestant Reformation. Beyond the social elitism, mob mentality is an ever-present force that is ignited during the Religious Wars. Differences in religion are a contributor to factional tensions. Manipulation by religious leaders and misunderstanding between the two religious sects’ practices create this religious tension. Although Protestants and Catholics share the core teachings of Christianity, a struggle for secular power, feelings of tribalism, and conflicting religious ideals not only solidify the schism between these two sects of Christianity, but escalated these tensions to bloodshed.

The speech of Urban II at Clermont in 1095 was the special moment, when he promised and guaranteed that any person who will join to the campaign would get Holy land and place in heaven. At that time believe in God and Holy land was very popular, so Urban II mostly affected on moral of the people. The effect was stunning; people from all parts of Western Europe started to think that moving to Jerusalem is their duty. Actually the main purpose of Urban II was to unite all Christians in Europe and to achieve his aim completely he reminded people that their lands are poor, while Muslims live in Holy lands under good conditions. Citizens were now strongly motivated and ready to invade irreligious opponents.

Pope Urban II’s speech at Clermont in 1095 was a call to crusade given outdoors to the nobles, commoners and church leaders of the Western European Christians (the Franks). The people were moved by this speech and it changed history, launching the first crusade to capture Jerusalem from the Muslim Turks. After hearing Pope Urban II’s speech, thousands of Western European Christians were moved to embark on the dangerous journey and fight in the crusade. I believe the main reasons they were moved and persuaded to fight was; 1) they felt it was their Christian duty, 2) Pope Urban promised them absolution for their sins and 3) they felt compelled to defend Christianity, their holy land and the Eastern Christians.

Looking at a wider perspective, when the Christians had taken over Jerusalem from the Muslims, the Islamic leader was urging his people to retake what they believed was rightfully theirs. The quote “God has received nothing from us in the way of adoration” illustrates how the Muslims wanted to demonstrate religious devotion to their God. As time went on, losing the Holy Land would be too shameful for Christendom, so with the Pope’s blessing, dozen of thousands of men marched toward Jerusalem. It is visible that the Crusades were primarily caused by religious devotion. Popes had used the Crusades as a tool in order to achieve and fulfil religious, political and economic aspects.

The Crusades involved not only knights and warriors, but also commoners of both genders. Helping the Byzantine emperor Alexios meant protecting the citizens of Constantinople from falling under Muslim rule. Jihad, often thought of as a synonym for terrorism - recurrently thought of as acting in the name of Allah, means an internal moral struggle. Like a Jihad, the Crusades were postulant expeditions in the name of God, to protect the Holy Land from the Arab Muslims. Later on, the Crusades became a substantial excuse for Christians to fight anyone who was supposedly a threat for their religion.