November 27, 1095

God Wills It: Or the Start of Something Big.

The holiday week closes out here at Lies Agreed Upon with a topic we have left untouched during the short life of this blog. Toward the end of the 11th Century AD, Islam had spread throughout the Mid-East and over most of North Africa. Christians had begun the Reconquista of the Iberian Peninsula, but Islamic rulers were threatening Europe in modern day Turkey. In 1095, Envoys from Constantinople were sent by Byzantine Emperor Alexius I Comnenus, who plead to Pope Urban II to help defend Christendom in the east.

The Pope had a meeting with bishops and abbots scheduled for November, and Urban told many of them to bring the powerful lords from their respective regions. During the week-long Council of Clermont, Urban covered a wide range of topics, never mentioning the trouble brewing far to the east. Then, on November 27, 1095, the last full day of the meeting, Urban urged the clerics and the lords to send Christian fighters to reclaim the land of Christ from the advancing Muslim menace. This was their divine duty, for history remembers Urban famously proclaiming "Deus lo vult!" Medieval Latin for "God wills it."

In reality, no one is exactly sure what Urban said to the convened members at Clermont. There are several accounts of his speech, but each differs widely in both letter and spirit. Some claim that Urban asked Western Christians to defend their Eastern counterparts, but said nothing about recapturing the Holy Land. Others say Urban did claim it was God, not he, that was calling for this "Crusade" into the Holy Land. Either way, most agree that Urban put no limits on who could join, young or old, rich or poor, knight or peasant.




Pope Urban II addresses assembled clerics at the Council of Clermont, 1095 AD.













Regardless, nearly 35,000 men set off from Europe for Constantinople the next summer. What would become known as the First Crusade would successfully beat back Islamic forces from Turkey. In 1099, they laid siege to Jerusalem, eventually capturing the city. The holiest place in Christendom would remain under western rule for nearly a century, before eventually being recaptured by Islamic lords. In all there would be at least nine Crusades, launched over the course of three centuries.

Surely many would love to know what Pope Urban II said to the gathered clerics on that November day in 1095. Nearly three hundred years of savage warfare was launched at his behest, and there is no shortage of resentment between Muslims and the west to this day. No matter what he said during the Council of Clermont, Urban nevertheless added more to the endless tally of men killed by wars in the name of God.