The Rationale and Motivation behind Pope Urban II's Council of Clermont and the First Crusade

An analysis of the 11th-century primary sources surrounding Pope Urban II and his decision to launch the First Crusade at the Council of Clermont in 1095 AAD primarily motivated as a response to modern interpretations of the Crusades that rely on anachronistic or single-minded arguments. This paper discusses how the Cluniac-Gregorian Reforms, the socio-political environment of Western Europe, and Urban's personal religious convictions motivated him to unite the European nobility under the Papal banner in a nigh-unprecedented fight against the Turkish invaders of Byzantium and the Levant for the reward of eternal salvation.