Pope Urban II Propaganda

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A Response Regarding Pope Urban II From reading, comparing, and contrasting many different sources in regards to Pope Urban II’s speech at Clermont, a plethora of contradictions riddle the subject. However, one thing is quite unarguable; Pope Urban II was an extremely persuasive public speaker. This speech, which led to the first Crusade, seems to me to be a historian’s nightmare. Since no direct transcription occurred at the actual time of the speech, we rely on varied different recollections from people who were there and people who were not. Several things that catch my attention are the widely varied accounts of the speech and the overwhelming propaganda involved in jumpstarting the Crusades. Only few accounts of Pope Urban II’s have…show more content…
As previously mentioned, mostly all sources refer to him, in some form or another, saying that this was “Gods Work”, or “The Will of God” (Robinson 312-316). He called it “God’s Work” to justify the war and relate it to them taking their churches back, however how could anybody truthfully call it God’s Work? If anything, it was the Byzantine Emperor Alexios Komnenos’ work. The Italians had no personal involvement in this mess until Komnenos’ approached Urban for help. In order to inspire these people to move into action, Pope Urban II made astounding proclamations; proclamations that played on the people’s faith and devotion to God. It’s almost as if he used fear to herd the people into action as one account recalls, “But if you are hindered by love of children, parents, or of wife, remember what the Lord says in the Gospel, `He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me', 'Every one that hath forsaken houses, …, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.' Let none of your possessions retain you, nor solicitude for you, family affairs…” (Robinson 312-316). In more condensed words, “If you don’t go to war for God, and leave behind everyone who loves you, you are not good enough for God”. I don’t feel that this has ever been God’s message. This is when Catholicism starts to…show more content…
We will never know what our world would be like today without the Crusades or Pope Urban II’s inspirational speech. We cannot tell if he spoke the purest truth or twisted his words for personal gain. What we do know is that Pope Urban II started this movement and despite whatever was said; it put a fire in an entire group of people and moved them to fight and die for what they believed
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