We are taught history in the hopes that we will be able to avoid the mistakes of past, however, it seems that history continues to repeat itself. However, it seems that history often finds a way to repeat itself, even during the present day. We have come a long way from the time of Pope Urban II but the problems we face are still similar in essence. Although the Crusades were fought over eight hundred years ago some of the same problems still exist today.…
In 1305, Philip IV convinced the body of Cardinals to appoint a French archbishop as the new pope. Clement V, the recently appointed pope, moved from Rome to the city of Avignon in France. The transfer to Avignon exceedingly enfeebled the Church. When reformers eventually attempted to relocate the papacy back to Rome, yet, the outcome was surprisingly severe. In 1378, Pope Gregory XI passed away while paying a visit to Rome.…
The Roman Catholic Church longing for power over the Byzantium Empire maybe perceived as a major factor that formed the First Crusade, nevertheless the significance of the battle of Manzikert, Pope Urban II’s speech and the supposed threat of the Muslims in Europe are undeniably crucial in the launch of this historical event. By Christians losing a important battle that resulted in more tension with the Islam, and the Pope Urban II creating a damaging, biased image of Muslims people in order to allow and encourage Christians to commit the sin of murder for the sake of God’s wishes, and above all demonizing Islam so Christianity can remain the most powerful religion, thus intensified the already strained relationship between these antithetic religions. Although this isn’t the first conflict between Christianity and Islam, this episode single handily set these two religions on a path towards deep-seated animosity and enduring enmity that would last for centuries. The causes and effects of the First Crusade have greatly impacted the view of Christianity and Islam because one is seen as associated with what is right and moral, whereas the other even today is still pictured as being deviants and corrupt.…
In 1095 at the Council of Clermont in France, Pope Urban II gave a speech that would affect the church for many years to come. He declared that church was going to try and get the Holy Land back from the Seljuk Turks in battles that would be known as the Crusades. Since the mid-seventh century, the Muslims had controlled the Holy Land and had prevented Catholics from entering Jerusalem to make pilgrimages. The Catholics saw gaining the Holy Land back as a sacred duty because the Muslims were seen to be “enemies of Christ”. “Deus lo Volt”, which means God wills it, was chanted after hearing the Pope’s speech and soon became the motto for these wars.…
Shifting Strengths of the Eighth Century In 755, Aistulf, King of Lombard, invaded the lands donated to the papacy by the Franks. This assault prompted Pope Stephen II to write multiple letters to the king of the Franks, King Pippin III, requesting help against Aistulf and his troops. In these letters, Pope Stephen II claims powers that were previously held by the Roman Emperor. In this paper, I elucidate that these letters show the shifting of the strength from the Byzantine Empire to that of the Pope and to that of the Frankish Kingdom.…
In conclusion, Pope Alexander VI was a Pope that really wanted to change the phase of Europe. He wanted to prevent other European countries was fighting with each other in other to keep a peace treaty. He was really into the converting of the people and the church rather than fighting enemies or foes for land. That is the reason why he wanted the League of the Venice to be mobilized. Furthermore, since he was recognized by two prominent rulers in Europe and due to his papal rule work, when he died, his son, Cesare Borgia was the next in line to follow the footsteps of his…
Before the First Crusades had started, the Byzantine Empire was having troubles protecting themselves from the Muslim Seljuk Turks. The Muslims were able to conquer some of the Byzantines land, as they were able to acquire Turkey and Armenia. As a result the Emperor Alexias went to ask Pope Urban the second for protection against the Muslims. Pope Urban looked at this as a way to gain land for the Christian faith and accepted, he gave a speech calling all Christians to join forces to claim Jerusalem and the Holy Land. To further motivate people the Pope promised any past sins would be cleansed if they were to join the crusades.…
The First Crusade, also the most successful, began with the speech of Pope Urban II at Clermont on 27 November 1095, and was initially a response to the request for armed aid against the Turks made by the Byzantine Emperor Alexius I. However, its purpose quickly shifted and it in turn became the largest mass pilgrimage of the eleventh century, though it differed from all the others in once crucial respect, in that it was, at the same time, a war, one set against what was by some referred to as the ‘savagery of the Saracens’. Though there is a certain level of difficulty in defining what a crusade was in regards to the use of the word by the medieval people , a related question that gives a substantial amount of insight into what constituted a crusade involves the motivations that the knightly elite who answered Urban II’s call to arms had for taking the cross.…
The most important part is the second half, which is the call for crusade. Pope Urban refers to the Turks as a “vile race” in “the lands of our friends” saying that “Christ commands” the crusade. Shortly after he adds that “All who die by the way...shall have immediate remission of sins”. Near the end he makes another statement of great weight “on this side will be the sorrowful and poor, on that, the rich; on this side, the enemies of the Lord, on that, his friends” referring to the people that stay behind as “on this side”. This source has great value as it shows us that the religion was a very powerful motive for the people who left in the months after.…
The author indicates how dissimilar the commonly written books about the Crusade war by most Western writers are in regards to that war. The book summarizes almost 200 years of the Crusade war into 293 pages by noting and quoting different sources from the Arab authors and eyewitnesses. It is not only detailed but also mentions different perspectives, hence a significant revelation for the general audience. The aim of this paper is to discuss and remark on these diverse viewpoints as explained by Amin Maalouf, including reviewing the book and showing how it influences the readers. At the beginning of the Crusade, Arabs were caught unawares by the religious zealotry by the Christians.…
For me, it is challenging to identify one grounds as the main cause as to why Urban II called upon Christians of the West to go on the…
The speech at the Council of Clermont by pope Urban II was the defining moment in Crusades ideology, creating the foundation for the first large scale Crusades to take place. With the newly found five accounts of the Council I’ll try to paint an accurate picture as possible of what exactly occurred. There is no official transcript from pope Urban II; instead these documents provide first hand accounts of what occurred. Whether they are reliable or not is another matter. Since each document differs in content it’s best to look at the similarities that they each share as a way to piece together what possibly could have occurred.…
Peter the Hermit and his People’s Crusade was an especially significant moment in European Christianity and a defining moment of the High Middle Ages, not only in the sense that it demonstrates how essential religion was in the lives of people at the time, but also in how it set the stage for the divisions; between people and their beliefs, between the West and the East and between Christianity and all other faiths. In the year 1095 Pope Urban II addressed the Council of Clermont in response to a letter he had received from Alexios I Komnenos, the Byzantine Emperor, requesting aid to fight the Seljuq Turks who had conquered most of Asia Minor . In his speech, Urban II, in front of a great crowd, urged all to assist the Greeks and to help recover Palestine from the rule of the Muslims “Your brethren who live in the East are in urgent need of your help, and you must…
Roman Governance and the Church of Rome: An Analysis of the Positive and Negative Effects of the Centralization of Power in the Papacy in the Sixth to the Ninth Centuries This historical study will define the positive and negative effects on the rise of the papacy throughout the sixth to the ninth centuries. The fall of the Roman Empire left a massive administrative void that was filled with the administrators that served under the Church to replace this imperial form of governance from Rome. In appositive trend, the combined influence of the Church and Roman methods of governing throughout the tribal kingdoms helped to build stronger monarchies (The Franks, Visigoths, Germans, etc.) that were administrated by the Roman Catholic clergy throughout…
Islam, a religion heavily based of the Gnostic Gospels, is being looked to as the holder of all that is sacred and holy. The Church is being fractured, internally. Not since Luther nailed his 95 Point Theses to the church door in Wittenberg (sic) have we seen such division. But, unlike Luther who was pointing out the gross fallacies of the practices of the Catholic Church by selling Indulgences in replacement of Penances’, The Church is now fractured in order to win converts by turning a blind eye to sins in an attempt to appeal to a more “modern world”. Christ forewarned us that such times were coming and that we were to be ready like virgins with fresh oil in our lamps to give an account.…