Urban (II, Pope 1088-99)
Safely in power in the West, Urban turned his attention to the Christians in the East and Byzantine. The Byzantine Emperor, Alexius sent a delegation to see Urban in March 1095. At the meeting, the delegation told Urban and the assembled Bishops how the Christians in the East were being persecuted by the Turks. In November 1095, Urban addressed a large crowd at Clermont. Urban spoke to the crowd about fellow Christians being attacked and asked for Christians in the West to help. Urban promised those who died in battle full absolution and remission of their sins. He called for a Holy War. One man who came to hear about this war was Peter the Hermit.
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Urban (II, Pope 1088-99) (b.1035? - d.1099)
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Timeline
Urban II was elected Pope in 1088. His real name was Odo of Lagery and chose the name Urban when he became Pope. He had at first been a monk at the abbey at Cluny from 1070 and had become a prior there.
At the Council of Piacenza a delegation visited Pope Urban II led by the Byzantine Emperor Alexius Comnenus to raise the problems he was having fighting the Muslims in the East. Pope Urban removed the excommunication that had been placed on the Emperor by Pope Gregory and promised to help.
On the last day of the Council or Clemont Pope Urban II preached about the oppression being inflicted on the Christians in the Middle East by the Muslim Seljuks. Christian churches were being destroyed and Christians attacked. The Pope called for the Christians in the West to help.
The driving force behind the capture of Jerusalem, Pope Urban II, died just weeks after the city had fallen.
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