The_First_Crusade_And_The_Idea_Of_Crusading

The First Crusade And The Idea Of Crusading The First Crusade, a Holy Expedition Peace and tranquility in the eastern Mediterranean seemed secure for years to come in or around the eleventh century, but little did anyone know what loomed on the horizon. Jonathan Riley-Smith, a professor and specialist in ecclesiastical history at the University of Cambridge depicts in detail the holy war fought on Christ’s behalf in an attempt to liberate the people and the baptized members of the churches under Muslim rule, as well as the liberation of a place, that place being Jerusalem. The word crusade, which is derived from the Latin word crux, or cross, is in reference to the crusaders who were motivated by God, and in turn accepted the vow proposed by Urban II by bearing the cross on their skin or sewn onto their clothing in show of faith to the man they all believed in, Christ. At a gathering in Clermont, France in November of 1095, Pope Urban II preached the Crusade, known throughout France as the via Dei or way of God, to a mostly clerical assembly. It is made apparent to the reader that this concept of divine war for Christ introduced by Urban II, was not crusade, first, urban, ii, riley-smith, jerusalem, crusaders, pope, led, crusades, main, known, christ, book, war, said, left, information, holy, history, according, western, ultimately, research, reader, proposed, place, otherwise, made, food, europe, believed, before, although, after