The crusades

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Pope Urban II’s Sermon.

Pope Urban II was called upon by Alexios I Komnenos to help him in a war against the Muslim people who were trying to convert the world to Islam by force. Urban gave a speech to a huge crowd at the Council of Clermont, using the Muslims heinous acts as fuel, Urban tries to light a fire under the Christians. He begins his speech by telling the people of a looming threat - The Muslims. He tells the people all about the violent acts that they’ve done across the lands. Acts such as; beheading, rape, destruction of altars, the forceful circumcision of Christians (Which they must hate a lot since the Catholic religion doesn’t endorse circumcision to this day) and much more.

Urban must’ve realized that some Christians were going to choose to stay with their loved ones instead leaving for war. So he used their religion as a means to convince them to go to war. As a Christian, I think this is a very sneaky and underhanded move. Using faith as a leverage, he basically says ‘Hey, you can stay here with your family, but if you do then you forsake God and then you’re going to hell!’ But I can understand why he did this. You see, The Muslims were conquering Christian cities left and right, they were gunning for a complete religious takeover of the world, he had to convince people to – at the very least - take back the Promised Land.

Urban informs the people about the Holy land and how it belongs to them, and that if they complete this quest then they’ll earn remission for all of their sins and eternal life. I presume that the Franks actually believed that forgiveness without confession/prayer was possible. In unison, the Franks shout: “It is the will of God!”, and the Pope believes that God’s hand is in this because...

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... second article, I presume that the Muslims were at war with themselves, and the Franks saw an entry point and decided to exploit it. But the first article has me to believe that the Muslims are on a war winning streak and are headed for the Franks territory. Honestly, I don’t know what to believe. Maybe both sides are at fault here, or maybe no one is to blame. In any case I need to stop think in a ‘black and white’ mentality, maybe there’s a shade of gray in between. Let’s say that what the Muslims said is correct and the Franks attacked out of greed. Then the Muslims going to war is just self-defense which I can totally understand. I can understand it if it was vice versa as well, after all if someone was breaking into your home and you had the ability to stop them, wouldn’t you? Regardless of who did what, as I stated before; it was a bloody yet necessary war.

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