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Why was the Speech of Pope Urban II so Significant in Changing History?
Council of Clermont was a church assembly, which was called by Pope Urban II in the
French city of Clermont in 1095 to address church administrative and political issues. At the
end of this meeting Urban II made a spirited speech, the results of which had a great influence
on the whole European history. Although there is no accurate record of the words of the Pope,
some versions of the contemporaries remained that can provide approximate interpretations of
what was said during this assembly. The goal of this paper is to analyze these historical
accounts and show the significance of this speech in changing history.
To begin with, these versions differ in length and details. The witnesses pay attention
to those facts that struck them personally most of all. Thus, we cannot fully rely on their
words, but we can catch a general idea of this speech. If we compare the interpretations of
Fulcher of Chartres and Robert the Monk we can see that the style of the speech is solemn and
eloquent. In Fulcher of Chartres’ account Urban II calls himself the ambassador and addresses
his listeners as “servants of God” and “shepherds” (Munro, p. 2). Quoting the Bible he states
their responsibilities to follow God’s words and to prevent other people from choosing the
wrong path and committing sins. His whole speech is an allusion to the Holy Book and is full
of metaphors and symbols. The Pope states that it is the task of the knights to punish those
people who refuse to follow the rules of the church. He underlines that many crimes are
committed those days and it is their duty to stop them and “reenact the truce”. Having
delivered this rousing speech Urban II indicates the crimes of the Turks and Arabs. He
mentions enormous robberies, murders and destructions of the churches. Finally, the Pope
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calls all those people present at the assembly to perform their duties and to punish the
Muslims. In return for their loyalty he promises that all their sins will be forgiven. This
statement of the Pope is quite powerful and could have had a considerable effect on those
religious people.
Although Robert the Monk provides a little bit different interpretation of this event,
the main points of his story remain the same. It is worth mentioning that as the Pope is at the
head of the Church, he has a significant influence on the faithful. His speech was quite
powerful and as it was a huge gathering of people we can imagine what effect his words have
made on the crowd.
What concerns the importance of this speech it is known that it resulted in the First
Crusade and gave rise to other Crusades that were in fact military campaigns in Europe and
Asia sanctioned by the Pope. As we can see from Robert the Monk’s account of the given
speech, the Pope finished it with the words: “It is the will of God!” (Munro, p. 8) This phrase
became a battle-cry of the crusaders. As it is seen from the speech, the main emphasis was
laid on an honorable mission of the knights to obey the will of God. They were shown not as
warriors and their deeds as a cruel war, but they were convinced that they were “faithful and
zealous in the service of God” (Munro, p. 2).
The symbol of the crusaders was a red cross. The inception of this tradition and its
origin are mentioned in the Gesta version: “caused crosses to be sewed on their right
shoulders” (Krey, p. 28). For nearly two centuries, from 1096 to 1291, European Christians
carried out trips to the Hole Land, and against adherents of different Christian denominations
and Catholicism pagans. The crusaders were blessed by the Pope.
To sum up, the Speech of the Pope Urban II at Council of Clermont in 1095 played a
significant role in history. The Pope appealed to the faithful for fight against the Arabs and
Turks that committed many crimes and refused to obey the Christian laws. It resulted in the
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First Crusade that aimed at recovering Palestine from the rule of the Muslims. It also
provoked other Crusades that were military-religious trips to the Middle East by their nature.
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Works Cited
Krey, August. The First Crusade: The Accounts of Eyewitnesses and Participants. Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1921. Print.
Munro, Dana. Urban and the Crusaders: Translations and Reprints from the Original
Sources of European History. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1895. Print.