Page:Outlines of European History.djvu/542

 462 Outlmes of European History Urban 1 1 of their fellow Christians in the East. He warned them that the call to the insolent Turks would, if unchecked, extend their sway still more at Ae Councfl ^^'^^^^7 ^^^^ ^^ faithful Servants of the Lord. Urban urged, be- of Clermont, sides, that France was too poor to support all its people, while the Holy Land flowed with milk and honey. " Enter upon the road to the Holy Sepulcher; wrest the land from the wicked race and subject it to yourselves." When the Pope had finished, all who were present exclaimed, with one accord, " It is the will of God." This, the Pope declared, should be the rallying cry of the crusaders, who were to wear a cross upon their bosoms as they went forth, and upon their backs as they returned, as a holy sign of their sacred mission.^ The motives ^, The Crusades are ordinarily represented as the most striking crusaders examples of the simple faith and religious enthusiasm of the Middle Ages. They appealed, however, to many different kinds of men. The devout, the romantic, and the adventurous were by no means the only classes that were attracted. Syria held out inducements to the discontented noble who might hope to gain a principality in the East, to the merchant who was look- ing for new enterprises, to the merely restless who wished to avoid his responsibilities at home, and even to the criminal who enlisted with a view of escaping the results of his past offenses. It is noteworthy that Urban appeals especially to those who had been " contending against their brethren and relatives," and urges those " who have hitherto been robbers now to become soldiers of Christ." And the conduct of many of the crusaders indicates that the Pope found a ready hearing among this class. Yet higher motives than a love of adventure and the hope of conquest impelled many who took their way eastward. Great numbers, doubtless, went to Jerusalem " through devotion alone, and not for the sake of honor or gain," with the sole object of freeing the Holy Sepulcher from the hands of the infidel. To such as these the Pope promised that the journey itself should take the place of all penance for sin. The. faithful 1 For the speech of Urban, see Readings f(^z^, xv,