Pope Urban II

Examples of Pope Urban II in the following topics:

• The First Crusade

  • The First Crusade (1095–1099), called for by Pope Urban II, was the first of a number of crusades intended to recapture the Holy Lands.
  • It was launched on November 27, 1095, by Pope Urban II with the primary goal of responding to an appeal from Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos, who requested that western volunteers come to his aid and help to repel the invading Seljuq Turks from Anatolia (modern-day Turkey).
  • Pope Urban II planned the departure of the crusade for August 15, 1096; before this, a number of unexpected bands of peasants and low-ranking knights organized and set off for Jerusalem on their own, on an expedition known as the People's Crusade, led by a monk named Peter the Hermit.
  • The response was beyond expectations; while Urban might have expected a few thousand knights, he ended up with a migration numbering up to 40,000 Crusaders of mostly unskilled fighters, including women and children.

• Crisis and Fragmentation

  • At the Council of Piacenza in 1095, envoys from Alexios spoke to Pope Urban II about the suffering of the Christians of the East, and underscored that without help from the West they would continue to suffer under Muslim rule.
  • Urban saw Alexios' request as a dual opportunity to cement Western Europe and reunite the Eastern Orthodox Churches with the Roman Catholic Church under his rule.
  • On 27 November 1095, Pope Urban II called together the Council of Clermont, and urged all those present to take up arms under the sign of the Cross and launch an armed pilgrimage to recover Jerusalem and the East from the Muslims.
  • In 1198 CE the pope called a new crusade to permanently secure Western Europe's hold on Jerusalem.

• The Crusades

  • Popes such as Gregory VII justified the subsequent warfare against the emperor's partisans in theological terms.
  • Historians have argued that the desire to impose Roman church authority in the east may have been one of the goals of the Crusades, although Urban II, who launched the First Crusade, never refers to such a goal in his letters on crusading.
  • In March 1095, Alexios sent envoys to the Council of Piacenza to ask Pope Urban II for aid against the Turks.
  • In July 1095, Urban turned to his homeland of France to recruit men for the expedition.
  • Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont, where he gave speeches in favor of a Crusade.

• The Fourth Crusade

  • The First Crusade arose after a call to arms in 1095 sermons by Pope Urban II.
  • One of Urban's main aims was to guarantee pilgrims access to the holy sites in the Holy Land that were under Muslim control.
  • Under the papacies of Calixtus II, Honorius II, Eugenius III, and Innocent II, smaller-scale crusading continued around the Crusader states in the early 12th century.
  • According to Benedict of Peterborough, Pope Urban III died of deep sadness on October 19, 1187, upon hearing news of the defeat.
  • His successor, Pope Gregory VIII, issued a papal bull that proposed a third crusade to recapture Jerusalem.

• The Development of Papal Supremacy

  • Pope Gregory I (c. 540–604) administered the church with strict reform.
  • With the exception of Pope Martin I, no pope during this period questioned the authority of the Byzantine monarch to confirm the election of the bishop of Rome before consecration could occur.
  • The conflict ended in 1122, when Emperor Henry V and Pope Calixtus II agreed on the Concordat of Worms, which differentiated between the royal and spiritual powers and gave the emperors a limited role in selecting bishops.
  • Papal supremacy was also increased by Urban II's launching in 1095 of the Crusades, which, in an attempt to liberate the Holy Land from Muslim domination, marshaled under papal leadership the aggressive energies of the European nobility.
  • Throughout the rest of the Middle Ages, popes struggled with monarchs over power.

• Rome and the Papal States

  • The Renaissance began in Rome under Pope Nicholas V, who became Pontiff on March 19, 1447.
  • Sixtus IV is considered the first Pope-King of Rome.
  • Rome reached the highest point of splendor under Pope Julius II (1503–1513) and his successors Leo X and Clement VII, both members of the Medici family.
  • Pope Julius II was a patron of Michelangelo, Raphael, and Mramante and during this twenty-year period, Rome became the greatest center of art in the world.
  • Assess the influence of the Popes as patrons of the arts

• The Western Schism

  • During that time, three men simultaneously claimed to be the true pope.
  • After Pope Gregory XI died in 1378, the Romans rioted to ensure the election of a Roman for pope.
  • Urban VI, born Bartolomeo Prignano, the Archbishop of Bari, was elected.
  • Urban had been a respected administrator in the papal chancery at Avignon, but as pope he proved suspicious, reformist, and prone to violent outbursts of temper.
  • Many of the cardinals who had elected him soon regretted their decision; the majority removed themselves from Rome to Anagni, where, even though Urban was still reigning, they elected Robert of Geneva as a rival pope on September 20, 1378.

• The Potential of Urban Revitalization

  • Urban revitalization is hailed by many as a solution to the problems of urban decline by, as the term suggests, revitalizing decaying urban areas.
  • Urban revitalization is closely related to processes of urban renewal, or programs of land redevelopment in areas of moderate- to high-density urban land use.
  • However, the modern instantiation of urban revitalization is very much a product of the post-World War II economic and social environment.
  • With the influx of money following World War II, the federal government spotlighted American urban areas as the object of renovation.
  • Urban renewal can have many positive effects.

• Urban Decline

  • But what causes urban decay?
  • In some ways, urban decline is an inevitable result of urbanity itself.
  • Economic decline tends to lead to urban decline.
  • Following World War II, political decisions in the U.S. further solidified the already growing trend of suburbanization.
  • The current response to urban decay has been positive public policy and urban design using the principles of New Urbanism.

• The Investiture Controversy

  • The conflict ended in 1122, when Emperor Henry V and Pope Calixtus II agreed on the Concordat of Worms.
  • A brief but significant struggle over investiture also occurred between Henry I of England and Pope Paschal II in the years 1103–1107, and the issue also played a minor role in the struggles between church and state in France.
  • In 1075, Pope Gregory VII composed the Dictatus Papae.
  • One clause asserted that the deposal of an emperor was under the sole power of the pope.
  • The church would crusade against the Holy Roman Empire under Frederick II.