Crusades

(Phillips, Jonathan. pg. 59) Religious beliefs were a major motive of the crusaders. In Urban's speech to the people of Clermont-Ferrand, Urban guaranteed the complete forgiveness of all sins to any crusader that lost his life in the name of the Crusades. Urban also proclaimed "It is necessary that you bring to your brothers in the East the help so often promised and so urgently needed. They have been attacked, as many of you know, by Turks and Arabs. Churches have been destroyed and the countryside laid waste. If you do not make a stand against the enemy now, the tide of their advance will overwhelm many more faithful servants of God." (Phillips, Jonathan. pg. 43) In this way, Urban had convinced the knights and peasants who joined the Crusades that they were leading the way to crush the Muslims and reclaim the Holy Lands that had been stolen . The Crusaders justified their slaughtering to themselves and the world and often the battle cry that was heard was "Deus lo Volt!", or "God Wills It".(Maaoulf, Amin. pg. 134) This reason is probably the most holy of reasons. It is understandable how the people were easily persuaded that this was a needed war, not just wanted, because their fellow Christians in the East were being slaughtered by the Turks and Muslims. For the most part, any Christian who desired residence in Jerusalem was met with great difficulty, and this in itself was a major factor for the knights and peasants to join the Crusade. On the same note, the popular ideas and cultural interest that linked the religious aspect to a Crusade motivated many poorer people to join the crusading army. Also among the crusaders there was a large group of knights and warriors desiring a way to become closer to God(Foss, Michael. pg. 26). In short, almost everyone can be motivated to do almost anything if they"re persuaded that it is an idealistic, even holy reason. But not all of the Pope's reasons for the Crusades were as holy as that one.