The Council of Clermont and the People's Crusade (1095-1096)

Pope Urban II convened the Council of Clermont in France in November 1095, and on 27 November delivered a speech before a large assembly of clergy and laity calling for an armed expedition to aid the Christians of the East and liberate Jerusalem. The speech itself does not survive verbatim, only in versions later reconstructed by chroniclers such as Robert the Monk, Fulcher of Chartres, and Guibert of Nogent. Urban II offered the remission of penance — an indulgence — to those who took part for religious rather than material motives, combining the liberation of the Holy Places with the chance to redirect noble violence toward a legitimate goal. The response was extraordinary and unexpected even to the Papacy itself, met with the acclamation "Deus vult!" ("God wills it!").