Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont (1095 AD): "Deus Vult"
Jonah Goldberg reminds the world of a few facts concerning the Crusades: they were defensive, since they were launched in response to Islam's conquest of 2/3 of Christendom, and they largely failed, since the Holy Land was recaptured only briefly. The word "Crusade" itself, considered so offensive today that many schools and universities have dropped "Crusader" as a mascot name, did not gain currency until the 19th century, 600 years after the last Crusader had been expelled from the Holy Land. More here.
Courtesy of Wikipedia, here is an excerpt from Pope Urban's address to the Council:
"...[Y]our
brethren who live in the east are in urgent need of your help, and you must
hasten to give them the aid which has often been promised them. For, as the
most of you have heard, the Turks and Arabs have attacked them and have
conquered the territory of Romania [the Greek empire] as far west as the shore
of the Mediterranean and the Hellespont, which is called the Arm of St. George.
They have occupied more and more of the lands of those Christians, and have
overcome them in seven battles. They have killed and captured many, and have
destroyed the churches and devastated the empire. If you permit them to
continue thus for awhile with impunity, the faithful of God will be much more
widely attacked by them. On this account I, or rather the Lord, beseech you as
Christ's heralds to publish this everywhere and to persuade all people of
whatever rank, foot-soldiers and knights, poor and rich, to carry aid promptly
to those Christians and to destroy that vile race from the lands of our
friends."
No comments:
Post a Comment