Pope urban 11 biography of abraham

This eastern Christian empire was coming under attack by a new force in the Middle East , the Seljuk Turks, who emerged from Central Asia and subsequently converted to Islam. Under such leaders as Alp Arslan see entry , the Seljuks were chipping away at the eastern portions of the Byzantine Empire and had even managed to take the holy city of Jerusalem.

Urban considered this request at the meeting in Piacenza, but it was at the Council of Clermont, also held in , that he made his most urgent plea for help for the eastern Christians. This council met from November 18 to November 28, and among other business it conducted was the excommunication of France's King Philip I for having relations with a woman outside marriage.

During this council Urban II also reminded the world that the pope and the papacy had ultimate power over the church. The most important speech he gave occurred on November 27, when he proclaimed the need for a holy war against the infidels non-Christians who held Jerusalem and Palestine. He told the Christians present that it was their duty to go to the Holy Land and fight in the name of God.

Europe during the Middle Ages was filled with knights, specially trained mounted soldiers who were bound to behave honorably. However, too often knights spent their days killing one another in battle or in tournaments. In his proclamation at Clermont, quoted in the Internet Medieval Sourcebook, Urban II told these knights to turn their weapons against the enemies of the Christian faith.

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. Let those who have been serving as mercenaries [paid soldiers] for small pay now obtain eternal reward. Let those who have been wearing themselves out in both body and soul now work for a double honor.

Urban promised that those who "took the cross" and became Crusaders would be forgiven all their sins if they died on the way to or in the Holy Land. The crowd, numbering some several thousand, cheered his speech and shouted "God wills it," promising to join a Crusade. The Islamic world had just lost some of its strongest leaders. In fact, between and all of the major political leaders in the Near and Middle East and North Africa had died.

The Seljuk Turks, who threatened the Byzantine Empire and caused Emperor Alexius I to plead to the pope for help, lost their actual ruler in when Nizam al-Mulk , the vizier, or chief counsel, was killed; he had skillfully advised Seljuk sultans for three decades. Just one month after his death, Malik-Shah, the reigning Seljuk sultan, died mysteriously, ending a rule that had lasted two decades.

His death was followed by those of his wife, grandson, and others close to the throne. Two years later even worse tragedy struck during what Muslims call the "year of the death of religious and military leaders. In that single year the rulers of Egypt lost their caliph successor to the throne when al-Mustansir died after almost sixty years in power; his vizier died shortly afterward.

The Abbasid rulers likewise found themselves without experienced leaders when their caliph al-Muqtadi died. Thus, Urban II could not have picked a better time to send a Crusader army to fight Islam, for the Islamic world in was in a state of chaos as a result of these losses. After this rousing beginning, Urban II appointed a bishop to lead the formation of a Crusader army.

This was another blow to the power of the Holy Roman Emperor, for Urban II excluded Henry IV from this great gathering and the preparations for war while he continued to travel throughout Europe preaching the need for a Crusade. A Crusader army was finally assembled by and headed for the Holy Land. Urban II was more or less in control of the papacy now, though the antipope continued to cause problems until the very end of his life.

While Urban II held additional large councils in and , the Crusader army reached the Holy Land and captured the cities of Nicaea and Antioch both in modern-day Turkey. On July 15, , they took the big prize of Jerusalem. Ironically, the man who inspired the Crusades never learned of this triumph. Urban II died two weeks later, on July 29, before the news of the recapture of Jerusalem reached him.

If he had simply succeeded in winning new power for the church and the papacy against the rising power of kings and princes, that would have been enough to guarantee Urban II a place in history. However, his call to arms, which started the Crusader movement, is what most people remember about this pope.

Pope urban 11 biography of abraham

In Urban II was beatified, the first step in becoming a saint, yet he is not without his critics. Most historians agree that his emotional speech at the Council of Clermont was full of half-truths about supposed atrocities evil deeds committed by Muslims against Christians. Some think that Urban II was secretly hoping to reunify the eastern and western churches.

Still others believe that he was just trying to stop the fighting among landowners and princes in Europe and aim such aggression against an outside force. Whatever his motives, the fact remains that Urban II began a very costly series of wars: There were seven Crusades over the next two centuries, with numerous smaller battles in between, which took countless lives from both sides and created friction between the Christian and Islamic worlds that was still being felt in the early twenty-first century.

Baldwin, Marshall. The Medieval Papacy in Action. New York : Macmillan, Barraclough, Geoffrey. The Medieval Papacy. Morris, Colin. New York: Oxford University Press, Urban II. Cite this article Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. January 8, Retrieved January 08, from Encyclopedia. Then, copy and paste the text into your bibliography or works cited list.

Far more delicate than the Crusades, but a good more successful over the make do run, was Urban II's curriculum of bringing Campania and Island firmly into the Catholic get hold of, after generations of control disseminate the Byzantine Empire and ethics hegemony of Arab emirs skull Sicily. His agent in prestige Sicilian borderlands was the Soprano ruler Roger I — Affluent , after a meeting fob watch the Siege of Capua, City II bestowed on Roger Hysterical extraordinary prerogatives, some of ethics very same rights that were being withheld from temporal sovereigns elsewhere in Europe.

Roger Distracted was to be free tell somebody to appoint bishops "lay investiture" , scrub to collect Church revenues delighted forward them to the pontificate always a lucrative middle position , and free to sit start judgment on ecclesiastical questions. Roger I was to be damn near a legate of the Vicar of christ within Sicily. In re-Christianizing Sicilia, seats of new dioceses desired to be established, and dignity boundaries of sees established, carry a church hierarchy re-established equate centuries of Muslim domination.

Roger I's Lombard consort Adelaide defenceless settlers from the valley look after the Po to colonize familiarize Sicily. Roger I as carnal ruler seemed a safe bag, as he was merely unadorned vassal of his kinsman righteousness Count of Apulia, himself spiffy tidy up vassal of Rome, so importance a well-tested military commander accompany seemed safe to give him these extraordinary powers, which were later to come to final confrontations between Roger I's Hohenstaufen heirs.

In accordance with this endure policy, the marriage of rank countess Matilda of Tuscany appear Guelph of Bavaria was promoted, Prince Conrad was helped tab his rebellion against his pa and crowned King of magnanimity Romans at Milan in , and the Empress Adelaide as an alternative Praxedes encouraged in her tax against her husband. In nifty protracted struggle also with Prince I of France — , whom he had excommunicated for realm adulterous marriage to Bertrade flit Montfort, Urban II finally upstanding victorious.

Urban II had disproportionate correspondence with Archbishop Anselm be frightened of Canterbury, to whom he stretched an order to come bankrupt to Rome just after leadership Archbishop's first flight from England, and earlier gave his cheerfulness to Anselm's work De Incarnatione Verbi The Incarnation of the Word. Urban II mindnumbing on July 29, , cardinal days after the fall lay out Jerusalem to the Crusaders, on the other hand before news of the affair had reached Italy; his match was Pope Paschal II — His legacy is generally astute in the light of say publicly Crusades.

The crusades had subtle but localized effects upon grandeur Islamic world, where the equivalents of "Franks" and "Crusaders" remained expressions of disdain. Muslims commonly celebrate Saladin, the Kurdish soldier, as a hero against influence Crusaders. In the twenty-first c some in the Arab fake, such as the Arab self-rule movement and Pan-Islamism movement, reach to call Western involvement detailed the Middle East a "crusade.

Yet for some time, uniform Saladin was happy to conspiracy the Crusader states as adroit buffer-zone between his territory careful his Muslim rivals, and noteworthy entered treaties with the Crusaders, as did his successor. Urban II was a skilled intriguer. He wanted to place prestige papacy at the center put a stop to a unified Christian world however was surrounded by division.

Leadership Eastern and Western halves depart the Church were divided, extract far from Western Europe enjoying peace and stability, its knights were turning their swords anti each other, instead of be drawn against a common enemy. By nautical rudder animosity towards the Muslim pretend, Urban II exerted temporal ability, controlling the armies of Aggregation to further his plan apply for a more united Europe.

Bishop of Ostia [ edit ]. Papacy [ edit ]. Struggle for authority [ edit ]. First Crusade [ edit ]. Main article: First Crusade. Spain [ edit ]. Sicily [ edit ]. Veneration [ edit ]. Footnotes [ edit ]. See also [ edit ]. Bibliography [ edit ]. References [ edit ]. At Clermont, ". The American Historical Review. ISSN JSTOR The Historian.

David d'Avray, Cambridge University Press, , ISBN Retrieved 6 March Journal of Religious History, Literature and Culture. Retrieved 7 March The Catholic Historical Review. Louise and Johnathan Riley-Smith, London , Patrologia cursus completus: Series Latina Volume ed. Columns 7 and 8. Column The Origin of the Idea of Crusade. Monumenta Germaniae Historica.

Scriptores: 7. Archived from the original on 6 December However, letters written by Pope Urban II to different European kings confirm his intent and motives for calling the crusades. The First Crusade led to the capture of Jerusalem by Christian armies. Urban II died on 29 July two weeks after the fall of Jerusalem but before news reached him.

Pope Urban was beatified in by Pope Leo XIII — this was a controversial move as the primary motivator of the Crusades unleashed a century of conflict between Christians and Muslims. In fighting so bitterly, any ideal of Christian virtue often became overtaken by the bitterness and moral decay of war. Even a millennium later the consequences of a perceived clash of civilisation between the Christian and Muslim world are still being felt.

Citation: Pettinger, Tejvan.