Pope Urban II and the crusades

[Ignatius]

So I was watching the TV series Mankind the story of all of us, and I got to this episode about the crusades. In it it portrays crusaders and the pope as evil narrow minded barbarians.it quotes Pope Urban II as saying

“the Lord beseeches you to destroy all of that vile race from the lands of our friends. All who die by the way will have immediate remission of sins”

and claims this is him saying that no matter what they did or how much they sinned they were assured to go to heaven by the Pope. I need to know a couple things because my older brother who’s Baptist and pretty anti-catholic is also watching this and is sure to use this against us.

Was what they quoted the pope as saying really accurate? Can anyone direct me to any document of what he said or where they might have gotten this from? Particularly concerned with him calling them a “vile race” and calling for their “destruction”. Please if anyone can help with this.

The second thing is how would I explain the indulgence that was given? Is this more like confession and penance? Did the pope even actually grant this to crusaders?

Please please if anyone can help it would be so much appreciated!

History Channel?
More like Fabricated Stories Channel.

 

[steve_b]

Hey thanks everyone for helping exlain this. If anyone has more info please share!

There are lot’s of myths told about the crusades. Usually told by and consequently believed by anti Catholics of all stripes, and even believed and told by, therefore spreading far and wide the same myths by lefty Catholics as well. Here’s 4 myths to consider. faithandreason.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Handout-Presents-October-2014-Crawford-Handout-Four-Myths-about-the-Crusades.pdf

Re: those on the left.

I don’t know if this is **THE **origin of the left vs right distinctions in matters of correct and wrong thinking (or leanings) , but it’s obviously a distinction that’s been around a LOOOOOONG time.

Ecclesiastes 10:2 A wise man’s heart inclines him toward the right,
but a fool’s heart toward the left.

 

[DavidFilmer]

I’m ignoring the second part because I do not see how a localised version of genocide, slaughtering every member of a particular race within a defined space, is morally distinct from doing so in a general area.

It so happens that the invading army were all of a particular race (which surely made it easier to know who to kill). So destroying the army and destroying that race in the Holy Land was the same thing.

Nobody had any ambitions of going into the lands of the Moors and killing everybody.

 

[Mystophilus]

It so happens that the invading army were all of a particular race (which surely made it easier to know who to kill). So destroying the army and destroying that race in the Holy Land was the same thing.

Nobody had any ambitions of going into the lands of the Moors and killing everybody.

They were not Moors, but Turks, and not merely an invading army, but a whole migrating people group, only a fraction of whom were soldiers.

 

[PoorKnight]

But they turned out in practice to be conducted by a group of thugs hell bent on carving out their own kingdoms and glory at the expense of others.

From the Western European perspective, it gave some violence prone men an opportunity to go abroad and allowed the emerging kingdoms to have the possible competition otherwise occupied.

No, I’m not sympathetic toward the Crusades or the Crusade fan boys.

Please define “thug”. I don’t recall that term in any of the books on the Crusades I’ve read.

Can you please tell us what the Crusaders, themselves, said about why they went? I mean, who should we believe more: the anti-Catholic version you present or the people who actually went?

Can you also explain, if your broad brush statement about the reason is true, why the vast majority of the surviving Crusaders WENT HOME? I mean that seems REALLY strange. If I was “hell bent on carving out [my] own kingdom and glory at the expense of others” it would be a strange way to show it by going home…

 

[Mystophilus]

Please define “thug”. I don’t recall that term in any of the books on the Crusades I’ve read.

Can you please tell us what the Crusaders, themselves, said about why they went? I mean, who should we believe more: the anti-Catholic version you present or the people who actually went?

How about what an eye-witness said? Anna Comnena does not quite use the word “thug”, but she comes pretty close. Interestingly enough, the Arabs painted a pretty similar picture of the Turks.