Pope Urban II had called the Christians to join him in a Holy War to reclaim the
Holy Lands as an act of Christianity, but there were many activities that took
place that weren’t characteristics of Christianity. The Crusades were a
smokescreen for Pope’s craving for power and control. The Crusades were the
idea of Pope Urban II, a wise Frenchman. On November 18, 1095 AD, Pope Urban II
opened the Council of Clermont. Nine days later, the Pope made a very important
speech just outside the French city of Clermont-Ferrand. In his speech, he asked
the people to help the Christians’ effort to restore peace to the East. The
Crusades had originally been to help the Churches in the East, but the now it
was to reclaim the Holy Land, especially Jerusalem from the Muslims. Pope Urban
II stayed in France until September 1096 in hopes of providing leadership for
the First Crusaders. Urban had originally hoped for the crusading army to be
composed of mostly knights and other warriors, but his speech had already began
spreading throughout the west, and many people of different social classes
started joining the crusading army. (Foss, Michael. pg. 23) Because of this
Urban lost all control of the army, which led to the slaughter of Jews in
northern France. These poor people also caused strain on the armies supplies and
discipline. They were never trained and they were poor, so they couldn’t bring
anything and were poorly disciplined(Foss, Michael. pg. 24). The entire
crusading army had planned on reaching the city of Constantinople, but because
of their lack of supplies and training the vast majority of them were
slaughtered before they got there. The few troops that did reach Constantinople
split up into two groups. One group tried to capture Nicaea, a key city that
blocked the road of their supply routes. This group was unsuccessful. The other
group was attacked near the city of Civetot in October. The few survivors
retreated to Constantinople and joined the second wave of Crusaders. (Phillips,
Jonathan. pg. 59) Religious beliefs were a major motive of the crusaders. In
Urban’s speech to the people of Clermont-Ferrand, Urban guaranteed the
complete forgiveness of all sins to any crusader that lost his life in the name
of the Crusades. Urban also proclaimed “It is necessary that you bring to your
brothers in the East the help so often promised and so urgently needed. They
have been attacked, as many of you know, by Turks and Arabs... Churches have
been destroyed and the countryside laid waste.