Letters of Urban II
Urban II’s letter to the faithful in Flanders, written within weeks of the council of Clermont. It is the pope’s own statement of what he had called for, as distinct from the later reports of his sermon.
Read the text at sourcebooks.fordham.edu ↗The same letter in A. C. Krey, The First Crusade, 1921, pp. 42–43 (Internet Archive) ↗
The letter is addressed to the princes and people of Flanders. Krey dates it to the end of December 1095. In a few lines the pope says that a “barbaric fury” has laid waste the churches of the East and seized the Holy City, that at the council in Auvergne he enjoined an expedition to free them, for the remission of sins, that the bishop of Le Puy is to lead it in his place, and that it will set out on the feast of the Assumption, 15 August.
It is short, and it is Urban’s own statement, made within weeks of the council. It is cited here to set beside the four versions of the sermon written down afterwards by others.
Cited in
- 1095 to 1099, firm date