Thursday 4 September 2008

Was Urban entirely motivated by piety when he called for a crusade?

In his speech of the Council of Clermont, Urban seems passionately motivated about crusading in order to save fellow Christians from the infidels and Islam. He explains what a disaster it would be if a devout race, faithful to God were to be overcome by a race enslaved by demons. He also states that participating in the crusade would be an act of penance and would help more people to salvation. However, were religious considerations the only thing behind his speech? Is there evidence to suggest that Urban had political considerations on his mind, such as mere territorial conquest for power, or to gain more control over the Byzantine empire by using a facade of ’saving them’? There was a lot of material wealth in the east; is it possible that Urban was motivated by this?

1 comment:

Jamie said...

Why was it specifically Spain where Muslims, Jews and Christians could live in peace originally and why did this officially come to an end?