Part 20

The most important feature of this strategy was expansion of the influence of the Roman Church, unification of the churches, and fighting Islam wherever it was found, on the basis that it was a bitter enemy which must be confronted and defeated at any cost.89 It may be noted that through the repeated Byzantine cries for help, despite the preoccupation of those who came before Urban II with many other matters, the opportunity came to this Pope, at the Council of Piacenza in Italy in March 1095 CE (488 AH), when he decided to respond to the call of Emperor Alexios Komnenos (474-512 AH/1081-1118 CE). However, at the Council of Piacenza the Pope failed in his call to launch a Crusade against the Muslims in the East.90 Urban II holds a church council in southern France Despite the failure of the Council of Piacenza, the Pope did not abandon his stubborn resolve to achieve his goal by all possible means. He went to his original homeland of France to find the support he needed to make the plan he had in mind succeed. This choice is indicative of his particular intelligence, because the conservative and traditional region of southern France was a geographical point of contact with the war that the Spanish had launched against the Muslims in Spain, in addition to the fact that merely suggesting the idea on French soil made immediate success a possibility, because France was the original homeland of the Pope, and he knew the lie of the land, especially since it also had its own history with Islam, namely the battle of Poitiers, which is known to the Muslims as Baldt ash-Shuhadd' (114 AH/732 CE), in which the Muslims were defeated and the expansion of Islam was halted and prevented from going beyond the Pyrenees. By analyzing the speech that the Pope delivered at the Council of Clermont we will understand that all these aspects were present in the mind of this sharp-witted, strong-willed man who had been raised in the strict Carthusian monastic order. Whatever the case, the Pope headed towards Clermont in southern France and held a church council there. On the tenth day of the council, which dealt with numerous issues of concern to the church, the Pope delivered a speech of utmost importance to his audience. That occurred on 27 November 1095 CE. Pope Urban II's speech The speech that was given by Pope Urban II at the religious council in Clermont in 488 AH/1095 CE had a profound impact on the Christians who had gathered for this council. It inflamed their zeal and affected them in a way which the historian Gustave le Bon described in his book La Civilisation des Arabes as an acute fit of insanity.91 The Pope said: 'O race of Franks, O race chosen and beloved of God, from the confines of Jerusalem and the city of Constantinople a horrible tale has gone forth, namely that an accursed race, a race utterly alienated from God, has transgressed and spread evil in that land, the land of the Christians in the East. They have overturned the holy altars, plundered the churches and destroyed them and burned them. They have led away a part of the captives into their own country, and a part they have destroyed by cruel tortures. They have defiled the holy places with their uncleanness. The kingdom of the Greeks (Byzantines) is now dismembered by them and deprived of territory so vast in extent that it can not be traversed in a march of two months. On whom therefore is the labour of avenging these wrongs and of recovering this territory incumbent, if not upon you?