Part 21

You, upon whom above other nations God has conferred remarkable glory in arms, great courage, bodily activity, and strength to humble the hairy scalp of those who resist you. Let the deeds of your ancestors move you and incite your minds to manly achievements; the glory and greatness of Charlemagne, and of your other kings. Let the holy sepulchre of the holy Christ, our Lord and Saviour, which is possessed by unclean nations, especially incite you, and the holy places which are now treated with ignominy and irreverently polluted with their filthiness. Let none of your possessions detain you, no solicitude for your family affairs, since this land which you inhabit, shut in on all sides by the seas and surrounded by the mountain peaks, is too narrow for your large population; nor does it abound in wealth; and it furnishes scarcely food enough for its cultivators. Hence it is that you murder one another, that you wage war, and that frequently you perish by mutual wounds. Let therefore hatred depart from among you, let your quarrels end, let wars cease, and let all dissensions and controversies slumber. Enter upon the road to the Holy Sepulchre; wrest that land from the wicked race, and subject it to yourselves. Jerusalem is a land fruitful above others, like another paradise of delights. The great city which is situated at the centre of the world is calling for your help; get up and save it! Undertake this journey willingly for the remission of your sins, with the assurance of the imperishable glory of the kingdom of heaven.9 These inspiring words spoken by Pope Urban II had a profound effect on the hearts of the Christians who were gathered there. After the Pope had finished his speech, the people present were reported to have shouted as one man: "God wills it!"93 Hardly had Urban II finished his speech but Bishop Adhemar de Monteil stood up and bowed before the Pope, and sought his permission to join this holy campaign. This moving scene stirred the hearts of the people present, who rushed in their hundreds to bow before the Pope like Adhemar, with unprecedented zeal. They took up the cross and all swore to save the holy city. A contemporary historian, Robert the Monk, commented on this: What a large number of people, of all ages, from all classes, took up the cross during the Council of Clermont, and swore to save the Holy City. Their number reached three hundred thousand.94 As a result of Adhemar's zealous attitude, Urban II appointed him as his personal representative and deputy to make it clear to all that the campaign was under the auspices of the church, and under his direct supervision.95 Conclusions to be drawn from Pope Urban II's speech Dr. Muhammad M. 'Awad has undertaken in-depth research on the Crusades, making use of European source documents. He analyzed the Pope's speech based on the texts of four contemporary historians, namely Fulcher of Chartres, Robert the Monk, Guibert de Nogent and Balderic of Dol. It is thought that Fulcher of Chartres was one of those actually present at the Council of Clermont. Generally speaking, it is possible to compare the texts that are narrated in the books of these four historians in order to discern the essence of what the Pope declared in his famous speech. By comparing these texts, Dr. 'Awad reached the following conclusions: a) The Pope addressed his words to the Frankish race in order to focus on the ethnic or racial dimension. He explained that God had favoured them with the location of their land and their Catholic faith, and he tried to highlight the historical dimension by referring to the glories of Charles Martel and Charlemagne, and the great services they had rendered to Christianity, in a manner that reflected the importance of this historical imperative in the formation of this great historical phenomenon.96 b) The Pope pointed out that there was regrettable and disturbing news coming from the east, which said that an accursed race, a race that was utterly alienated from God and had never turned its hearts and souls towards God97 (meaning the Seljuk Turks) had slaughtered the eastern Christians and turned the churches into stables for their horses, and that the blood of those Christians was crying out to the Christians of the west to save them from the oppression of their 'infidel' enemies. The Pope strove to stir up his listeners' greed for the wealth of the east. He explained that land in Western Europe, especially in France, had become too small for its population, and asked the people to go to the East, to the land of Canaan which was flowing with milk and honey. This makes it indubitably clear that there was an economic dimension to the Crusades, and that it was clearly proclaimed from the outset. c) The Pope promised that whoever took up arms and headed towards the east would be forgiven his sins; in other words he was offering them the forgiveness of the church. If a man was martyred in pursuit of this goal, then he would be regarded as one of the righteous Christian martyrs. All of this points to an important incentive during an era in which religious fervor and emotion were prevalent in the Christian European world.