Council of Clermont

For the earlier Council of Clermont, see Council of Clermont (535).

Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont, given a late Gothic setting in this illumination from the Livre des Passages d'Outre-mer, of c. 1474 (Bibliothèque nationale)

The Council of Clermont was a mixed synod of ecclesiastics and laymen of the Catholic Church, called by Pope Urban II and held from 17 to 27 November 1095 at Clermont, Auvergne, at the time part of the Duchy of Aquitaine.[1][2]

While the council is known today primarily for the speech Pope Urban gave on the final day, it was primarily a synod focused on implementing the Cluniac reforms, enacting decrees and settling local and regional issues.[3] This also included the extension of the excommunication of Philip I of France for his adulterous remarriage to Bertrade of Montfort and a declaration of renewal of the Truce of God, an attempt on the part of the church to reduce feuding among Frankish nobles.[4]

Pope Urban's speech on 27 November included the call to arms that would result in the First Crusade,[5] and eventually the capture of Jerusalem and the establishment of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. In this, Urban reacted to the request by Byzantine emperor Alexius I Comnenus who had sent envoys to the Council of Piacenza requesting military assistance against the Seljuk Turks.[6] Several accounts of the speech survive; of these, the one by Fulcher of Chartres, who was present at the council, is generally accepted as the most reliable.

  1. ^ E. Glenn Hinson, The Church Triumphant: A History of Christianity Up to 1300, (Mercer University Press, 1995), 387.
  2. ^ Blumenthal, Utah-Renata. The Crusades – An Encyclopedia. pp. 263–265.
  3. ^ Somerville, Robert (27 October 2011). Pope Urban II's Council of Piacenza. OUP Oxford. p. 117. ISBN 9780199258598.
  4. ^ Peters 1971, p. 18.
  5. ^ Munro, Dana Carleton (1906). "The Speech of Pope Urban II. At Clermont, 1095". The American Historical Review. 11 (2): 231–242. doi:10.2307/1834642. ISSN 0002-8762.
  6. ^ Helen J. Nicholson, The Crusades, (Greenwood Publishing, 2004), 6.