Pope Urban II

Biography

Urban II was the French-born pope whose sermon at the Council of Clermont in November 1095 launched the entire crusading movement. Responding to an appeal from the Byzantine emperor for help against the Seljuk Turks, Urban called on the knights of Western Europe to cease their endless private wars and turn their swords to a holy purpose: the liberation of Jerusalem and the Eastern Christians, promising spiritual reward to those who took the cross. The response stunned even him. Across France, Germany, and Italy, tens of thousands — nobles, knights, and common folk — sewed crosses to their garments and set out east. Urban had tapped a deep wellspring of piety, penitential anxiety, martial energy, and ambition. He died in July 1099, just two weeks after the crusaders took Jerusalem — but before the news could reach Rome, so that he never learned his great enterprise had succeeded.