Western Europe

 

Since the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Western 

Europe had disintegrated into smaller nations ruled by

various kings. Europe was by this time, however, generally

united by a Catholic faith (although at times there was

more than one person claiming to be the Pope). 

 

In the East, the Christian Byzantine Empire had suffered a

series of defeats at the hands of the Seljuk Turks. This led

the Byzantine Emperor to request assistance of the

Western Christians. After receiving a Byzantine request in

1095, Pope Urban launched the 1st Crusade through a

speech at the Council of Clermont in 1096. One further

motivation for the Crusade was the destruction of the 

Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which is said to be the place where Jesus was crucified, even though the Church was rebuilt. 

 

There are different copies of the speech that Pope Urban gave at Clermont. The 5 surviving copies can be found here. Choose one of the copies to read and think about the reasons that Pope urban gave to the council in favour of launching a Crusade. Do you think that the reasons were good ones?