§ 49. THE CALL TO THE CRUSADES. 227
Peter, as he journeyed through Italy and across the Alps,1 proclaimed the same message. The time for action had come.
At the Council of Piacenza, in the spring of 1095, en voys were present from the emperor Alexius Comnenus and made addresses, invoking aid against the advancing Turks.2 In the following November the famous Council of Clermont, Southern France, was held, which decreed the First Crusade.3
The council comprised a vast number of ecclesiastics and laymen, especially from France. Urban II. was present in person. On the day of the opening there were counted four teen archbishops, two hundred and fifty bishops, and four hundred abbots. Thousands of tents were pitched outside the walls. On the ninth day, the pope addressed the mul titude from a platform erected in the open air. It was a fortunate moment for Urban, and has been compared to Christmas Day, 800, when Charlemagne was crowned.4 The address was the most effective sermon ever preached by a pope or any other mortal. It stirred the deepest feelings of the hearers and was repeated throughout all Europe.5
At Clermont, Urban was on his native soil and probably spoke in the Provencal tongue, though we have only Latin reports. When we recall the general character of the age and the listening throng, with its mingled feelings of love of
1 So William of Tyre, Bk. I. 13. Later writers extend the journey of Peter inordinately.
2 William of Tyre does not mention this embassy. It may be because of the low opinion he had of Alexius, whom (II. 5) he pronounces scheming and perfidious.
3 There is no statement that the council formally decreed the Crusade. For the acts we are dependent upon scattered statements of chroniclers and several other unofficial documents.
4 Ranke, Weltgeschichte. According to William of Tyre, Peter the Her mit was present at Clermont. The contemporary writers do not mention his presence.
5 Gregorovius, IV. 287, is right when he says, " the importance of Urban's speech in universal history outweighs the orations of Demosthenes and Cicero."
228 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1049-1294.
adventure and credulous faith, we cannot wonder at the re sponse made to the impassioned appeals of the head of Chris tendom. Urban reminded his hearers that they, as the elect of God, must carry to their brethren in the East the succor for which they had so often cried out. The Turks, a " Persian people, an accursed race,"1 had devastated the kingdom of God by fire, pillage, and sword and advanced as far as the Arm of St. George (the Hellespont). Jerusalem was laid waste. Antioch, once the city of Peter, was under their yoke. As the knights loved their souls, so they should fight against the barbarians who had fought against their brothers and kindred.2 Christ himself would lead the advancing warriors across sea and mountains. Jerusalem, "the navel of the world," and the land fruitful above all others, a para dise of delights, awaited them.3 " The way is short, the toil will be followed by an incorruptible crown."4
A Frenchman himself, Urban appealed to his hearers as
1 Robert the Monk, I. 1, jftec., III. 727. The contemporary writers, giv ing an account of Urban's speech, are Baldric, Guibert, Fulcher, and llobert the Monk. All of them were present at Clermont. William of Tyre greatly elaborates the address, and Rohricht calls William's account an invention which is a masterpiece of its kind, — eine Erdichtung die ein Meisterstilck seiner Art, etc., Gesch. des ersten Kreuzzuycs, p. 20. Rohricht, pp. 235-239, and Munro, " Am. Hist. Rev.," 1906, pp. 231-243, make interesting attempts to reconstruct Urban's address. The different accounts are not to be regarded as contradictory, but as supplementary one of the other. Rohricht, p. 20, expresses the opinion that none of the accounts of the address is " accurate." No doubt the spirit and essential contents are preserved. Urban made promi nent the appeals for aid from the East, the desolations of Jerusalem, and the sufferings of Christians in the East. See Munro.
2 Fulcher, J?ec., III. 324. I follow chiefly the accounts of Fulcher and Robert. Robert represents the appeals for aid as coming from Jerusalem and Constantinople.
8 Robert the Monk, I. 2, Rec., III. 729. The expression "navel of the earth," umbilicus terrarum, used here by Robert, was a common one for Jerusalem.
4 Baldric, Bee., IV. 15, v{a brevis est, labor permodicus est qui tamen immarcescibilem vobis rependet coronam. Gregory VII., Reg., II. 37, Migne, 148, 390, had made the same promise, quoting 2 Cor. iv. 17, that for the toils of a moment the Crusaders would secure an eternal reward.