Council of Clermont
Also called: Deus vult
At the Council of Clermont Pope Urban II called on Christians to recover Jerusalem from Muslim rule, setting the crusading movement in motion.
Jean Colombe · Public domain · Source
As the Seljuk Turks pressed into Anatolia, the Byzantine emperor Alexios I asked the West for help. In November 1095 Urban II held a council at Clermont in central France and on its last day urged the clergy and knights gathered in a field to aid the Eastern Christians and win back the holy city of Jerusalem, promising remission of penance to those who went.
The crowd is said to have cried “God wills it.” Those who took the vow sewed a cross on their clothes, which gave the crusade its name. The appeal also served to raise papal authority after the schism between the Eastern and Western churches in 1054.