The Reform Papacy and the Origin of the Crusades

This paper is concerned with four ways in which the reform papacy since Pope Leo IX prepared the way for Pope Urban II's preaching in 1095. First, the papacy cultivated a mother-and-daughter relationship between Rome and Constantinople which was activated by the battle of Manzikert. Secondly, the papacy had an entirely favourable estimate of Constantine, embodied in such documents as the Donation, who furnished it with the Lateran palace and relics of the Holy Land ; it also remembered the laba-rum as a pledge of military victory. Thirdly, since the time of Pope Gregory VII, the papacy expressed a duty of promoting internal peace and order which, in the Crusade, was extended to comprehend eastern as well as western Christendom. Fourthly, Gregory's attempts to revise thought and practice about the performance of penance facilitated the response of the knightly class to Urban's preaching of the Crusade.Cowdrey Herbert edward john. The Reform Papacy and the Origin of the Crusades. In: Le concile de Clermont de 1095 et l’appel à la croisade. Actes du Colloque Universitaire International de Clermont-Ferrand (23-25 juin 1995) Rome : École Française de Rome, 1997. pp. 65-83. (Publications de l'École française de Rome, 236