Pope Urban IIs Call For the Christian Crusade to Counter the Muslim Crusade
From the confines of Jerusalem and the city of
Constantinople a horrible tale has gone forth and very frequently has been brought to our
ears, namely, that a race from the kingdom of the Persians, an accursed race, a race
utterly alienated from God, a generation forsooth which has not directed its heart and has
not entrusted its spirit to God, has invaded the lands of those Christians and has
depopulated them by the sword, pillage and fire; it has led away a part of the captives
into its own country, and a part it has destroyed by cruel tortures; it has either
entirely destroyed the churches of God or appropriated them for the rites of its own
religion. They destroy the altars, after having defiled them with their uncleanness. They
circumcise the Christians, and the blood of the circumcision they either spread upon the
altars or pour into the vases of the baptismal font. When they wish to torture people by a
base death, they perforate their navels, and dragging forth the extremity of the
intestines, bind it to a stake; then with flogging they lead the victim around until the
viscera having gushed forth the victim falls prostrate upon the ground. Others they bind
to a post and pierce with arrows. Others they compel to extend their necks and then,
attacking them with naked swords, attempt to cut through the neck with a single blow. What
shall I say of the abominable rape of the women? To speak of it is worse than to be
silent. The kingdom of the Greeks is now dismembered by them and deprived of territory so
vast in extent that it can not be traversed in a march of two months. On whom therefore is
the labor of avenging these wrongs and of recovering this territory incumbent, if not upon
you? You, upon whom above other nations God has conferred remarkable glory in arms, great
courage, bodily activity, and strength to humble the hairy scalp of those who resist you.