U.S. Politics:
The War Room
The Crusades
Commentary
Source:
In November 1095 a church counsel was meeting in
Clermont [France] under the chairmanship of Pope Urban
II. On the 27th, with the council coming to an end,
the churchmen, together with some lay people mostly
from the countryside around, assembled in a field
outside the town and the pope preached them a sermon
in which he called the Frankish knights to vow to
march to the East with twin aims of
freeing Christians from the yoke of Islamic rule, and
liberating the tomb of Christ, the Holy Sepulchre in
Jerusalem, from Muslim control. As soon as he had
finished Adhemar of Monteil, the bishop of Le Pury who
was to be appopitned Urban's representative on the
expedition, came forweard and was the first to take
the cross, while the crowd called out 'God wills it!'"
"The Oxford History of the
Crusades," edited by Jonathan Riley-Smith, The Oxford Press, 1999. Chapter 1, page 1.
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