(The beginning of the crusades.)
In the year of our Lord's Incarnation one thousand and ninety-five, a great council was convened within the bounds of Gaul in the city which is called Clermont. Over this Pope Urban II presided, with the Roman bishops and cardinals.... [T]he lord Pope went forth into a certain spacious plain, for no building was large enough to hold all the people. The Pope then, with sweet and persuasive eloquence addressed those present in words something like the following, saying: "Oh race of Franks,... race beloved and chosen by God,... set apart from all other nations... by your Catholic faith and the honor you render to the holy Church; to you our discourse is addressed.... We wish you to know what a serious matter has led us to your country, for it is the imminent peril threatening you and all the faithful that has brought us hither.
"From the confines of Jerusalem and from the city of Constantinople a grievous report has gone forth and has been brought repeatedly to our ears; namely, that a race from the kingdom of the Persians [the Turks, who conquered ancient Persia],... a race wholly alienated from God, has violently invaded the lands of those Christians and has depopulated them by pillage and fire.... They have either destroyed the churches of God or have appropriated them for the rites of their own religion. They destroy the altars, after having defiled them with their uncleanliness.... The kingdom of the Greeks [the Byzantine, or Eastern Empire] is now dismembered by them and has been deprived of territory so vast in extent that it could not be traversed in two months' time.
"On whom, therefore, rests the labor of avenging these wrongs and of recovering this territory, if not upon you -- you upon whom, above all other nations, God has conferred remarkable glory in arms, great courage, bodily activity, and strength to humble the heads of those who resist you? Let the deeds of your ancestors encourage you and incite your minds to manly achievements: the glory and greatness of King Charlemagne, and of his son Louis [the Pious], and of your other monarchs... who have extended the sway of the holy Church over lands previously pagan. Let the holy sepulcher of our Lord and Savior, which is possessed by the unclean nations, especially arouse you, and the holy places which are now treated with ignominy and irreverently polluted with the filth of the unclean....
"But if you are hindered by love of children, parents, or wife, remember what the Lord says in the Gospel, `He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me' [Matt., 10:37]. `Everyone that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive a hundred-fold and shall inherit everlasting life' [Matt., 19:29]. Let none of your possessions restrain you nor anxiety for your family affairs. For the 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 and devour one another, that you wage war, and that very many among you perish in civil strife.
"Let hatred, therefore, depart from among you; let your quarrels end; let wars cease; and let all dissensions and controversies slumber. Enter upon the road of the Holy Sepulcher, wrest that land from the wicked race, and subject it to yourselves. That land which, as the Scripture says, `floweth with milk and honey ' [Num., 13:27] was given by God into the power of the children of Israel. Jerusalem is the center of the earth; and the land is fruitful above all others, like another paradise of delights. This spot the Redeemed of mankind has made illustrious by His advent, has beautified by His sojourn, has consecrated by His passion, has redeemed by His death, has glorified by His burial....
"Accordingly, undertake this journey eagerly for the remission of your sins, with the assurance of the reward of imperishable glory in the kingdom of heaven."
When Pope Urban had skillfully said these and very many similar things, he so centered in one purpose the desires of all who were present that all cried out, "It is the will of God! It is the will of God!"
When the venerable Roman pontiff heard that, with eyes uplifted to heaven ... and commanding silence with his hand, said: "Most beloved brethren, today is manifest in you what the Lord says in the Gospel, there am I in the midst of them' [Matt. 18:20]. For unless God has been present in your spirits, all of you would not have uttered the same cry; since, although the cry issued from numerous mouths, yet the origin of the cry was one. Therefore I say to you that God, who implanted this in your breasts, has drawn it forth from you. Let that, then, be your war cry in battle, because it is given to you by God. When an armed attack is made upon your enemy, let this one cry be raised by all the soldiers of God: `It is the will of God! It is the will of God!'....
"Whoever, therefore, shall decide upon this holy pilgrimage, and shall make his vow to God to that effect, and shall offer himself to Him for sacrifice, as a living victim, holy and acceptable to God, shall wear the sign of the cross of the Lord on his forehead or on his breast. When he shall return from his journey, having fulfilled his vow, let him place the cross on his back between his shoulders. Thus shall ye, indeed, by this twofold action, fulfill the precept of the Lord, as He commands in the Gospel, `He that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me' [Luke, 14:27]."
