Pope Urban II started the First Crusade to help Byzantine Christians, to manifest papal authority, and to provide redemption for Christian souls.
Thomas Asbridge¹ in his book, The First Crusade, explains that in the advent of the First Crusade in 1095, the papacy was slowly recovering. In the events leading up to the First Crusade, Europe had undergone significant political and social upheaval. The Church was divided with Eastern Christians following Orthodoxy and Western Christians following Catholicism. There was a looming threat of Islamic aggression that decreased the sphere of influence Christians had in the Middle East. The holy city of Jerusalem was seized by Muslims 457 years prior to the Crusade. The Seljuk Turks, Muslim nomads, conquered …show more content…
Scholarship has often argued over the reasons behind the Crusade. This problem derives from the lack of definitive sources and the reliance on anonymous first-hand accounts of the battles that occurred and second-hand transcriptions of the speeches that spurred the Crusade. The Deeds of the Franks and other Jerusalem-Bound Pilgrims⁶ is the earliest known Latin account of the First Crusade. It is a collection of anonymously written narratives of the day-to-day events of the journey including the military campaigns, logistics, and morale of the troops. The book is used as a primary source in most scholarly writings of the First Crusade. Additionally, no actual transcripts of the papal speeches survived and thus we get our knowledge of them through primarily the second hand writings of Robert the Monk. Despite this, the First Crusade inspired many other crusades. The First Crusade serves as reminder of the innate human tendency for violence. The First Crusade, conceived by Pope Urban II, had a lasting effect on Medieval Europe culture and beliefs. For certain, the Crusade is not monocausal. There were a multitude of reasons for Pope Urban II to begin the Crusade as there were as many reason to join the Crusade. What is certain was that the First Crusade was not comprehensively evil. To truly analyze the First Crusade, all context must be looked at - internal and external
Thomas Asbridge¹ in his book, The First Crusade, explains that in the advent of the First Crusade in 1095, the papacy was slowly recovering. In the events leading up to the First Crusade, Europe had undergone significant political and social upheaval. The Church was divided with Eastern Christians following Orthodoxy and Western Christians following Catholicism. There was a looming threat of Islamic aggression that decreased the sphere of influence Christians had in the Middle East. The holy city of Jerusalem was seized by Muslims 457 years prior to the Crusade. The Seljuk Turks, Muslim nomads, conquered …show more content…
Scholarship has often argued over the reasons behind the Crusade. This problem derives from the lack of definitive sources and the reliance on anonymous first-hand accounts of the battles that occurred and second-hand transcriptions of the speeches that spurred the Crusade. The Deeds of the Franks and other Jerusalem-Bound Pilgrims⁶ is the earliest known Latin account of the First Crusade. It is a collection of anonymously written narratives of the day-to-day events of the journey including the military campaigns, logistics, and morale of the troops. The book is used as a primary source in most scholarly writings of the First Crusade. Additionally, no actual transcripts of the papal speeches survived and thus we get our knowledge of them through primarily the second hand writings of Robert the Monk. Despite this, the First Crusade inspired many other crusades. The First Crusade serves as reminder of the innate human tendency for violence. The First Crusade, conceived by Pope Urban II, had a lasting effect on Medieval Europe culture and beliefs. For certain, the Crusade is not monocausal. There were a multitude of reasons for Pope Urban II to begin the Crusade as there were as many reason to join the Crusade. What is certain was that the First Crusade was not comprehensively evil. To truly analyze the First Crusade, all context must be looked at - internal and external