A History of the Crusades-Vol 1 (14 page)

The bishops were impressed, and likewise the
Pope. As he journeyed to Cremona to receive the homage of young Conrad, and on
over the Alpine passes to France, he began to turn over in his mind a vaster
and more glorious scheme, envisaging a holy war.

CHAPTER III

THE SUMMONING

‘Hearken unto
me, ye stouthearted, that are far from righteousness.’
ISAIAH
XLVI, 12

Pope Urban arrived in France in the late summer
of 1095. On 5 August he was at Valence and on 11 August he reached Le Puy. From
there he sent letters to the bishops of France and the neighbouring lands,
requesting them to meet him at Clermont in November. Meanwhile he turned south,
to spend September in Provence, at Avignon and Saint-Gilles. Early in October
he was at Lyons and thence moved on into Burgundy. At Cluny, on 25 October, he
consecrated the high altar of the great basilica that Abbot Hugh had begun to
build. From Cluny he went to Souvigny, near Moulins, to pay his respects at the
tomb of the holiest of Cluniac abbots, Saint Maiolus. There the Bishop of
Clermont joined him, to escort him to his episcopal city, in readiness for the
Council.

The Council of
Clermont

As he travelled Urban busied himself with the
affairs of the Church in France, organizing and correcting, giving praise and
blame where they were due. But his journeyings enabled him also to pursue his
further scheme. We do not know whether, while he was in the south, he met in
person Raymond of Saint-Gilles, Count of Toulouse and Marquis of Provence,
already celebrated for his leadership of the holy wars in Spain. But he was in
touch with him and must have heard of his experiences. At Cluny he could talk
with men that were concerned with the pilgrim traffic, both to Compostella and
to Jerusalem. They could tell him of the overwhelming difficulties that
pilgrims to Palestine had now to endure with the disintegration of Turkish
authority there. He learnt that not only were the roads across Asia Minor
blocked, but the Holy Land itself was virtually closed to pilgrims.

The Council of Clermont sat from 18 November to
28 November 1095. Some three hundred clerics were present and their work
covered a wide range. In general, decrees against lay investiture, simony and
clerical marriage were repeated and the Truce of God was advocated. In
particular, King Philip was excommunicated for adultery and the Bishop of
Cambrai for simony, and the primacy of the see of Lyons over those of Sens and
Reims was established. But the Pope wished to use the occasion for a more
momentous purpose. It was announced that on Tuesday, 27 November, he would hold
a public session, to make a great announcement. The crowds, clerical and lay,
that assembled were too huge to be contained within the cathedral, where
hitherto the Council had met. The Papal throne was set up on a platform in an
open field outside the eastern gate of the city; and there, when the multitudes
were gathered, Urban rose to his feet to address them.

Four contemporary chroniclers have reported the
Pope’s words for us. One of them, Robert the Monk, claims to have been present
at the meeting. Baudri of Dol and Fulcher of Chartres write as though they had
been present. The fourth, Guibert of Nogent, probably obtained his version at
second hand. But none of them professes to give an accurate verbal account; and
each wrote his chronicle a few years later and coloured his account in the
light of subsequent events. We can only know approximately what Urban in fact
said. It seems that he began his speech by telling his hearers of the necessity
for aiding their brethren in the East. Eastern Christendom had appealed for
help; for the Turks were advancing into the heart of Christian lands,
maltreating the inhabitants and desecrating their shrines. But it was not only
of Romania (which is Byzantium) that he spoke. He stressed the special holiness
of Jerusalem and described the sufferings of the pilgrims that journeyed there.
Having painted the sombre picture, he made his great appeal. Let western
Christendom march to the rescue of the East. Rich and poor alike should go.
They should leave off slaying each other and fight instead a righteous war,
doing the work of God; and God would lead them. For those that died in battle
there would be absolution and the remission of sins. Life was miserable and
evil here, with men wearing themselves out to the ruin of their bodies and
their souls. Here they were poor and unhappy; there they would be joyful and
prosperous and true friends of God. There must be no delay. Let them be ready
to set out when the summer had come, with God to be their guide.

Urban spoke with fervour and with all the art
of a great orator. The response was immediate and tremendous. Cries of ‘Deus le
volt!’ — ‘God wills it!’ — interrupted the speech. Scarcely had the Pope ended
his words before the Bishop of Le Puy rose from his seat and, kneeling before
the throne, begged permission to join in the holy expedition. Hundreds crowded
up to follow his example. Then the Cardinal Gregory fell on his knees and
loudly repeated the
Confiteor
; and all the vast audience echoed it after
him. When the prayer was over Urban rose once more and pronounced the
absolution and bade his hearers go home.

Regulations for
the Crusade

The enthusiasm was greater than Urban had
expected. His plans for its direction were not yet fully made. No great lay
lord had been present at Clermont. The recruits were all humbler men. It would
be necessary to secure more solid secular support. In the meantime Urban
reassembled his bishops for further consultation. The Council had probably
already at his request passed a general decree giving remission from temporal
penalties for the sins of all that took part with pious intentions in the holy
war. It was now added that the worldly belongings of the participants should be
placed under the protection of the Church during their absence at the war. The
local bishop should be responsible for their safekeeping and should return them
intact when the warrior came home. Each member of the expedition was to wear
the sign of the Cross, as a symbol of his dedication; a cross of red material
should be sewn on to the shoulder of his surcoat. Anyone that took the Cross
should vow to go to Jerusalem. If he turned back too soon or failed to set out,
he would suffer excommunication. Clerics and monks were not to take the Cross
without the permission of their bishop or abbot. The elderly and infirm must be
discouraged from attempting the expedition; and no one at all should go without
consulting his spiritual adviser. It was not to be a war of mere conquest. In
all towns conquered from the infidel the churches of the East were to have all
their rights and possessions restored to them. Everyone should be ready to
leave his home by the Feast of the Assumption (15 August) next year, when the
harvests should have been gathered; and the armies should assemble at Constantinople.

Next, a leader must be appointed. Urban wished
to make it clear that the expedition was under the control of the Church. Its
head must be an ecclesiastic, his legate. With the unanimous consent of the
Council he nominated the Bishop of Le Puy.

Adhemar de Monteil, Bishop of Le Puy, belonged
to the family of the Counts of Valentinois. He was a middle-aged man, who had
already made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem nine years before. He had earned his
leadership by coming forward as the first to answer Urban’s appeal; but as he
had already entertained Urban at Le Puy in August and must have talked to him
there of eastern affairs, it is possible that his stirring gesture was not
entirely spontaneous. It was a wise appointment. Subsequent experience proved
him to be a fine preacher and a tactful diplomat, broad-minded, calm and
kindly, a man whom all would respect but who sought to persuade rather than to
command. His influence was unfailingly used to curb passions and to spread
goodwill, but it was not always firm enough to control the magnates that were
nominally to be under his orders.

The first off the magnates to ask to join the
expedition was Count Raymond of Toulouse. On 1 December, while Urban was still
at Clermont, messengers arrived there to say that the Count and many of his
nobility were eager to take the Cross. Raymond, who was at Toulouse, could not
have heard reports of the great speech at Clermont. He must have had
forewarning. As the first to be told of the project and the first to take the
vow, he considered that he should be given the secular leadership over the
other great lords. He wished to be Moses to Adhemar’s Aaron. Urban would not
admit this pretension; but Raymond never entirely abandoned it. In the meantime
he planned to co-operate loyally with Adhemar.

Urban Returns to
Italy

Urban left Clermont on 2 December. After
visiting various Cluniac houses he spent Christmas at Limoges, where he
preached the Crusade in the cathedral, then passed northward through Poitiers
to the valley of the Loire. In March he was at Tours, where he held a council;
and one Sunday he summoned a congregation to meet him in a meadow by the banks
of the river. Standing on an improvised platform he preached a long and solemn
sermon, exhorting his hearers to repent and to go on the Crusade. From Tours he
turned southward again through Aquitaine, past Saintes and Bordeaux to
Toulouse. Toulouse was his headquarters in May and June; and he had many
opportunities for discussing the Crusade with his host, Count Raymond. Late in
June he moved on to Provence. Raymond accompanied him to Nimes.

In August the Pope recrossed the Alps into
Lombardy. His journey had been no holiday. All the time he was interviewing
churchmen and writing letters, seeking to complete his reorganization of the
Church in France and, above all, continuing his plans for the Crusade. Synodal
letters embodying the decisions taken at Clermont were sent round to the
bishops of the West. In some cases provincial councils were held to receive
them and to consider local action. It is probable that the chief lay powers
were also officially informed of the Pope’s desires. From Limoges at the end of
1095 Urban wrote to all the faithful in Flanders referring them to the acts of
the Council at Clermont and asking for their support. He had every reason to be
satisfied with the response that came from Flanders and the neighbouring lands.
In July 1096, while he was at Nimes, he received a message from King Philip
announcing his absolute submission on the matter of his adultery and probably
telling at the same time of the adhesion of his brother, Hugh of Vermandois, to
the Crusade. During the same month Raymond of Toulouse gave proof of his
intentions by handing over many of his possessions to the monastery of
Saint-Gilles. It was perhaps on Raymond’s advice that Urban decided that the
help of a maritime power would be necessary in order to maintain the expedition’s
supplies. Two legates set out with letters to the republic of Genoa to ask for
its co-operation. The republic agreed to provide twelve galleys and a
transport, but cautiously delayed their dispatch till it could tell whether the
Crusade was a serious movement. It was only in July 1097 that this fleet set
sail from Genoa. Meanwhile many Genoese took the Cross.

By the time that Urban was back in Italy he was
assured of the success of his scheme. His summons was eagerly obeyed. From as
far afield as Scotland, Denmark and Spain, men hastened to make their vows.
Some raised money for the journey by pawning their possessions and their lands.
Others, expecting never to return, gave everything over to the Church. A
sufficient number of great nobles had adhered to the Crusade to give it a
formidable military backing. Beside Raymond of Toulouse and Hugh of Vermandois,
Robert II of Flanders, Robert, Duke of Normandy, and the latter’s
brother-in-law Stephen, Count of Blois, were making preparations to set out.
More remarkable was the adherence of men devoted to the emperor Henry IV. Chief
amongst these was Godfrey of Bouillon, Duke of Lower Lorraine, who took the
Cross with his brothers, Eustace, Count of Boulogne, and Baldwin. Grouped round
these leaders were many of the lesser nobility and a few eminent ecclesiastics,
such as the Bishop of Bayeux.

Peter the Hermit

In Italy Urban found similar enthusiasm. In
September 1096 he wrote to the city of Bologna to thank its citizens for their
zeal and to caution them not to leave for the East without their priests’
permission. Nor should newly married husbands leave without their wives’
consent. Meanwhile news of the project had reached southern Italy and was
warmly welcomed by many of the Normans there, who were always ready to start on
a new adventure. The princes at first held back, but Guiscard’s son Bohemond,
now prince of Taranto but thwarted in his ambitions in Italy by his brother
Roger Borsa and his uncle Roger of Sicily, soon realized the possibilities that
the Crusade would open out for him. Together with many of his family and his
friends, he took the Cross. Their participation brought to the movement many of
the most experienced and enterprising soldiers in Europe. When Urban returned
to Rome in time for Christmas 1096, he could feel assured that the Crusade was
truly launched.

He had in fact launched a movement greater than
he knew. It might have been better if fewer great lords had answered his
appeal. For, though with all of them except Bohemond, genuine religious fervour
was the strongest motive, soon their terrestrial schemes and rivalries would
create troubles far beyond the papal legate’s control. Still more
uncontrollable was the response shown by humbler folk throughout France and
Flanders and the Rhineland.