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Pope Urban II’s Call
The argument for the religious character of the Crusades could not be better
evoked than in the address of Pope Urban II to the public at the Council of
Clermont in 1095; this is a remarkable early Western document invoking
Christianity in a struggle against the infidel Muslim East. There are no exact
accounts of precisely what Urban said, only summaries from various leaders in
attendance who offered their own differing versions. But it’s the rhetoric that
matters: we see roots of a later “civilizational struggle” that eventually affects
both Christians and Muslims. Some of the flavor of the pope’s remarks can be
gleaned from a few selected paragraphs from just one of several observers,
Fulcher of Chartres, reportedly quoting Pope Urban on fear of Muslim invasions
into the West:
For, as the most of you have heard, the Turks and Arabs have attacked
[the Holy Places] and have conquered the territory… as far west as the
shore of the Mediterranean and the Hellespont…. They have killed and
captured many, and have destroyed the churches and devastated the
empire. If you permit them to continue thus for awhile with impunity, the
faithful of God will be much more widely attacked by them. On this
account I, or rather the Lord, beseech you as Christ’s heralds to publish
this everywhere and to persuade all people of whatever rank, foot-soldiers
and knights, poor and rich, to carry aid promptly to those Christians and
to destroy that vile race from the lands of our friends. I say this to those
who are present, it is meant also for those who are absent. Moreover,
Christ commands it.
O what a disgrace if such a despised and base race, which worships
demons, should conquer a people which has the faith of omnipotent God
and is made glorious with the name of Christ!
Let those who for a long time have been robbers, now become knights.
Let those who have been fighting against their brothers and relatives now
fight in a proper way against the barbarians.
One striking feature of the various accounts of Urban’s speech is the apparent
absence of the word “Muslim” or “Islam” anywhere. References are to
“heathen,” “nonbelievers,” “Turks,” and “Arabs” who are oppressing “our
Christian brothers” and the Holy Land. Christian authorities did not

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acknowledge these people even to be Muslims—albeit despised. The enemy is
viewed strictly in ethnic terms or as infidels or as oppressors of Christians. Any
other religion must of course be heathen.

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