Urban II (1035-29 July 1099), Pope of Rome (28 March 1088-29 July 1099), secular monarch of the Papal States (1088-99), was the founder of the First Crusade.

Do not refuse to go because you love your family, because you should love God more than your family; do not refuse to go because you love your hometown, because the whole world is the homeland of Christians; do not refuse to go because you have property, because greater wealth is waiting for you-Urbon II instigates the Crusades

The rise of the Arab empires in the seventh century ushered in a millennial confrontation between Islam and Christianity. Since then, the rich and civilized Middle East has been on the march against barbaric and backward Europe until the arrival of a hurricane-like counteroffensive, the Crusades.

In 1171, the Seljuk Turks captured the Holy City of Jerusalem. The country they established was divided and chaotic, and at the same time was full of hostility towards Christians, causing more harassment of Western Europeans who went on pilgrimage, and the road to the Holy Land seemed to be a dead end. Christians who returned to Western Europe from Jerusalem spread their hard experiences throughout Western Europe, promoting Muslim persecution of holy places and Christians, and for a time ignited a fanatical flame of religious revenge in Western Europe.

At the same time, with the expansion of the Seljuk Turks, the Byzantine Empire was in retreat, losing almost all of Asia Minor, and Constantinople was at stake. The Byzantine Emperor Alexei I had to bow his head proudly and appeal to his former enemies, the Pope of Rome and the kings of Western Europe.

At this point, Western Europe seemed ripe for a religious counterattack, but there was still a lack of a figure to fan the flames, and the need to bring together the rabble on all sides into a force. Pope Urban played this crucial role with his three-inch tongue.

Urban's original name was Ode de Lani. He was born in 1042 into a French aristocratic family. He was well educated when he was young, and outstanding speech skills were his specialty. Relying on his own advantages, he climbed up the order from monk to vice dean to cardinal, and was elected Pope in 1088.

After becoming Pope, he organized a Frankish Crusade to attack Muslim-ruled Spain in 1089, but the effect was not significant. At this time, the religious enthusiasm of Western Europeans continued to rise, and he decided to add fuel to the flames. In 1095, he left Rome for France, advocating the Crusades along the way.

In September 1095, as God's agent, he convened a religious council on the outskirts of Clement in southern France, attended by six to seven hundred bishops and abbors. The speech he delivered at the conference was probably one of the most influential speeches in history:

"Do not refuse to go because you love your family, for you should love God more than your family; do not refuse to go because you love your hometown, for the whole world is the homeland of Christians; do not refuse to go because you have property, for greater wealth is waiting for you.¡»

"The dead will surely rise to heaven, and the living will receive God's grace. Let's share in his glory and reward! Luck beckons to you!¡»

"Dear people, the eastern country is full of milk, goat's milk and honey, and gold and gems are easily picked up. Who will not become rich when they go there? Go ahead, dye the cross red, and use it as your emblem. You are the Crusaders, and the Lord will bless you to be invincible!¡»

This was a really technical speech. He started with the birth, growth, baptism, march in the Holy Land, teaching and doing good deeds of Jesus, and severely condemned the pagans 'blasphemy of the Holy Land and the abuse of pilgrims. He used the fanatical beliefs of Western Europeans at that time to ensure that as long as they died for the Holy War, they could go to heaven and atone for their sins. And he boasted about the prosperity and prosperity of the East, which made full use of people's desires in this world. The passion for faith, the expectation of going to heaven, and the strong stimulation of milk, goat's milk and honey satisfied various motives, allowing him to gather people to respond, and the vigorous era of the Crusades soon began.

In the autumn of 1096, knights from France, Italy, and western Germany set out from various places and gathered in Constantinople. They marched on Asia Minor, capturing Antioch in 1098 and Jerusalem in 1099. They massacred the local Muslims and established the Kingdom of Jerusalem. In the same year that the Christian world was proud, the advocate also left the world and reported to his God.

After that, for various reasons, the Crusades were carried out many more times, usually eight times, but the Crusades were actually continuous, and it is difficult to sum up the number of times until 1291.

The Crusades undoubtedly had a profound impact on the history of Europe and the Middle East. First of all, the wars and bloody massacres it brought caused new hostility, exacerbating the contradiction between the two civilizations, making this contradiction still so acute after thousands of years; and with the war increased the economic and cultural exchanges between the two worlds, which injected new cultures into both sides, for example, Western European languages can still find some words from the Middle East; secondly, many Western European lords went bankrupt and died in the war, or serfs did not return, which played a role in the decline of feudal serfdom in Western Europe, and many lands were returned to the king, strengthening the royal power; and with the flow of novel textiles, food, and spices into Western Europe, accelerating trade activities, the rise of the Italian commercial city-states of Genoa and Venice also stimulated the ambitions of Western Europeans, laying the groundwork for later geographical discoveries; the crusaders brought back more gold and silver In order to pay for the war, it increased the money supply in Western Europe and improved the economy. From a historical perspective, Western Europe was a turning point in the 11th century, preceded by a long dark age, but from this century onward, it showed a trend of significant progress in economic and cultural aspects every century (except the 14th century), and gradually became the leader of world civilization. This transformation is the result of a combination of many aspects, and the Crusades were also a contributing factor.

Among the agitators of the Crusades, Urbon II played an irreplaceable role as a supranational authority and agent of God. The shocking speech on the outskirts of Clement alone was enough to rank among the figures who changed the trend of historical development.

Comments: Taking advantage of the opportunity when the Holy City was captured by Muslims, Urbon II exerted his talented speech ability to the extreme. It was a perfect combination of heart-attacking, enticing and sensational. The result was three goals: improving the Pope's status in the Western world, increasing the religious enthusiasm of Europeans, and expanding the sphere of influence of Christianity.