Urban II (1042-1099 July 29), Pope of Rome (reigned 1088-1099), was one of the four great Latin priests of the Middle Ages. Under the pressure of the Holy Roman Emperor, he opened up new battlefields and launched a Crusade, revitalizing the authority of the Pope. He continued to implement the policy of church reform and supremacy of religious authority under former Pope Gregory VII, achieving greater success than his predecessor. Although Gregory VII began a power struggle between the Roman Catholic Church and the German Emperor that lasted for two centuries, it ended in a tragic death in a foreign land, and Urban II finally defeated the hostile forces supported by the German Emperor, finally standing firm in Rome and surviving the rest of his life.

brief introduction
Pope Urban II, secular name Otto Lapley, was born in 1042 in a Champagne aristocratic family on the banks of the Marne River in France. He studied successively in Suazon and Reims, and served as the Archbishop of Reims from around 1055 to 1067. In 1070, he entered the Cluny Monastery to study Christian theory and later became the dean of the monastery. He was highly appreciated by his predecessor, Pope Gregory VII (1073-1085), and was summoned to the Vatican in 1079. In 1084, Gregory VII appointed him as a papal envoy to Germany to deal with the resistance of the hostile Pope Clement.

Elected Pope
As soon as he arrived in Germany, he was elected as the Pope, taking advantage of the complex and sharp internal and external contradictions between Christianity and secular monarchy. Based on the theory of religious supremacy, he skillfully used the special position of the Pope to intensify the conflict between religious and royal power, and dismissed all the bishops who had been excommunicated by Gregory VII. He defeated the hostile Pope Clement III and his followers supported by German Emperor Henry IV, and also played with the various feudal monarchies of the world in applause. Due to his contributions in defeating Clement and his followers, Gregory VII elevated him to the position of Cardinal of Ostia, Italy. On March 12, 1088, Otto was elected as the Pope in Trachina, southern Rome.

When Urban II came to power, the opposing Pope Clement III, supported by Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV, still occupied Rome. Urban reiterated his opposition to secular monarchy appointing clergy and proposed that bishops should be elected by clergy and believers. In 1089, under the protection of the Norman army in the Kingdom of Sicily, he entered Rome for the first time, convened a religious council, and once again punished the opposing Pope and his henchman, Emperor Henry IV. But as the main areas of Rome were still under Clement's control, he had to withdraw from the city and wander for many years. In order to regain the papal throne, he first made concessions to the German Emperor in exchange for revoking his support for Clement, but was unsuccessful. Later, on one hand, he relied on the support of the Normans and mobilized military force to conquer Clement; On the other hand, he contacted feudal lords within the empire who opposed Henry and used the issue of succession to provoke Henry IV's father son relationship, causing Henry's son Conrad to betray his father in 1093 and establish himself as king in Milan, forming an alliance with the Pope. It was not until 1096 that Urban finally defeated Clement III, returned to Rome, and held a religious council at the Lateran Palace to depose all hostile factions.

While fighting to eliminate hostile papal forces, Urban II faithfully implemented his predecessor Gregory VII's "supremacy of religious authority" Cluny reform policy. In France, King Philip I resisted the Pope's promotion of the Cluny Reform movement and organized a group of church clergy to oppose the Pope. The Pope used the proposal of divorce from his original wife by the King of France to blackmail her from becoming a member of the Church and prevent her from confronting the Holy See. When King William II of England opposed the implementation of church reforms, the Pope appointed theologian Anselm as the Archbishop of Canterbury to confront him. Urban actively sponsored Spanish Christians to reclaim their country from the Arabs. He also took advantage of the fear of invasion by powerful powers such as France and Germany in the Southern European countries at that time, and signed agreements with them to make them subjects of the Pope, ensuring that they were not constrained by those powers, while also ensuring that he could advance the Cluny movement in these regions. In March 1095, Urban II passed his "Reformation Act" at the religious conference in Piacenza, Italy. It was confirmed again at the Roman religious conference in 1099, and most of these Reformation Acts were adopted by the most famous medieval book, the "Compilation of Differences in the Laws of the Grecian Church" (pre 1140), which became part of the 12th century Church Code and has been used in the Roman Church for hundreds of years.

Reason and purpose
The biggest event during the reign of Pope Urban II was the launch of the First Crusade. The Crusade was necessary for the development of feudal economy in Europe. From the 10th to the 11th century AD, cities in Western Europe generally emerged, which further promoted people's pursuit of material life. By the end of the 11th century, Europe had completed the process of feudalization, and most of the land had become the territory of feudal lords at all levels. In order to meet their growing demand for urban goods and Eastern luxury goods, feudal lords had to expand outward and seize foreign lands. In addition, at that time, the eldest son inheritance system was prevalent in Europe, and the remaining sons became landless knights. They could not make ends meet and could only make a living by serving in the military and robbing commercial travelers, and were enthusiastic about going on expeditions to foreign lands. At that time, merchants in Western European cities sought to consolidate their commercial positions in the eastern Mediterranean and support feudal lords in expanding eastward. As for farmers, in order to break free from feudal oppression, they also longed for happiness in distant places. So a thought of expanding eastward gradually formed within feudal society. But at this time, the secular feudal lords in Western Europe were in constant turmoil, like scattered sand, unable to organize a unified military force. As the center of international theocracy, the Roman Catholic Church not only had the ambition of general feudal lords to expand outward, but also attempted to annex Eastern Orthodoxy and force Eastern Muslims to convert. At that time, the Seljuk Turks were launching an attack on the Byzantine Empire, and Byzantium was repeatedly defeated. The Pope became the organizer of the Crusade under the pretext of assisting Eastern missionaries. As early as 1074, Gregory VII had proposed to German Emperor Henry IV and the French nobility to organize an expeditionary force, and was prepared to personally lead troops to the east. However, due to the struggle with German Emperor Henry IV soon after, this plan could not be realized.

merge
After Ulban II came to power, the Seljuk Turks advanced towards Constantinople, and Byzantium repeatedly sought help from Western European monarchs and the Vatican. Byzantine Emperor Alexios I, feeling helpless, had to express his deep guilt towards the past dispute between the Greek Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church to the Pope. He hoped that the Pope, as the leader of the All Christian Church, would send troops to save the empire and Eastern Christians, and proposed the merger of the Eastern and Western churches under the unified leadership of the Pope. Urban accepted the demands of Byzantium in order to achieve the ambition of the Pope's rule over the Christian world and the establishment of new church territories in the East, so that Eastern and Western subjects could submit to the rule of the Pope.
Promote the Eastern Expedition
In March 1095, Urban II held a religious conference in Piacenza, Italy. At the meeting, he gave a speech inciting the Crusades to the East. Although the attendees agreed to the Eastern Expedition, it did not reach the level of fanaticism. So he sought help from his homeland - France, because France had better conditions for a Crusade than other Western European countries. Around 1089-1095, France experienced continuous famine, severe famine, and plague for seven years. Coupled with the rampant looting activities of knights, the country was destitute and people were anxious. To get rid of this situation, feudal lords were eager to expand outward in search of wealth; Frequently dying farmers are also eager to seek a way of survival in the East. Urban decided to take advantage of this emotion and return to France in the summer of 1095. He spent several months lobbying various churches along the way, especially to the churches and feudal lords in eastern and southern France, and even had Raymond of Toulouse, the Count who paid homage to him, lead the Crusade. After a series of public opinion preparations, he held a religious conference on November 28th in Clement, southern France. Thousands of knights and priests, including fourteen archbishops, two hundred bishops, over four hundred abbots of monasteries, and countless civilians, rushed here, to the point where the city could not settle down and had to set up many camps around Clement. At the meeting, the Pope delivered a famous and provocative speech in history, "In the Name of the Father," calling on the monarchs and princes of Western Europe who were competing for power to stop their "private wars" and to go to the East to fight against pagans and reclaim the holy land occupied by the Turks. He also said that the Turks had ravaged the "Kingdom of the Emperor" in the East, and that "people of all levels" must "rise quickly.", Eliminating this evil race from our brother's land, or being conquered by a lowly, degenerate race that enslaves the devil, would be a great shame! The Pope called on the participants to "embark on the journey to the Holy Sepulchre" and made a vow, saying: "Anyone who sets out on a journey - on land and at sea - or loses their lives in a war against pagans, their sins will soon be pardoned in that instant.".

In order to drive farmers and urban poor to join the Crusade, the Pope deceived them by saying that the land of the East was "filled with milk and honey", and Jerusalem was another "paradise full of joy and joy". "All that is here is sorrow and poverty, but there is joy and abundance.". He also announced that those who participated in the Crusades would ascend directly to heaven after death and would not have to endure trials in purgatory; Farmers and urban poor who are unable to pay their debts are exempt from paying interest on their debts, and those who have been taxed for more than a year are exempt from paying taxes.
The Pope's speech received enthusiastic applause, and the attendees exclaimed, "This is the will of God! This is the will of God!" Then, the envoy of the French Count of Toulouse, Raymond, immediately appeared and loudly announced that the Count, who was nearly sixty years old, would not care about his age and would swear to follow the Pope's orders to the death. This pre arranged dramatic scene played a great motivating role, and the fervor of the Crusade reached its peak.
This meeting designated the date of the Crusade's expedition - August 15, 1096, and those who participated in the Crusade and their property must be entrusted to the special care of the Holy See. In order to ensure the Crusader's expedition, the meeting stipulated a three-year ceasefire for feudal lords and nobles.
After the meeting, Urban II continued to travel throughout Western Europe, persuading people to participate in the Crusade movement. He instructed bishops in various regions to incite and even ordered the abbots of various monasteries to mobilize monks to march with the army, and sent "saints" to lobby everywhere, depicting the East as a jewel pit full of gold and silver, with spices, pepper, pottery, peaches, apricots, date melons and other fruits and silk luxury goods everywhere. What does the Almighty God call for murderers, robbers, adulterers, perjury witnesses, and other criminals to go on expeditions, in order to have a good opportunity for forgiveness.
In 1096, a group of poor farmers, mixed with some landless knights and outlaws, first set out on the expedition, and then the armed forces of the feudal lords of France, Germany, and England, consisting of 100000 people, marched in several directions towards the east. These soldiers wearing cross military uniforms must swear lifelong loyalty to the Pope in front of God before leaving, and must not violate it, otherwise they will be punished with absolute punishment. Urban originally wanted to personally go on an expedition, but unfortunately, he had just established his foothold in Rome. The remaining forces of the hostile Pope were still stubbornly resisting, so he dared not go rashly and had to send representatives of the Pope to supervise the war on behalf of various Crusaders. In July 1099, the Crusaders captured Jerusalem. On the 19th of the same month, Urban passed away in Rome. Three months before his death, he held a religious conference in Rome and once again advocated for the Crusade to the East.
During the ten years of Pope Urban II's tenure, although he only established himself in Rome in the last three years, his activities played an important role in the victory of medieval church reform. He launched a Crusade to the East, which greatly increased the power of the Vatican on one hand, but also caused serious disasters to the people on the other hand, so his name was cursed by future generations.

importance
The importance of the Crusade to the East seems inexplicable, and like all wars, it has a direct impact on the participants and the people in the areas where the troops pass through. In addition, it played a role in the close exchanges between Western Europe and Byzantine and Islamic countries, which were far more advanced than Western Europe at that time. This exchange paved the way for the Renaissance, which in turn made the flower of modern European civilization shine brightly.
Pope Urban II was included in the "Ranking of 100 People Who Influenced the Progress of Human History" not only because of the great significance of the Crusades, but also because without his encouragement, there might not have been a Crusade. Indeed, the conditions were already ripe at that time, otherwise people would have turned a blind eye to his speech. However, to start a movement across Europe, it must be led by a key figure. The king of a certain country is powerless to do so (for example, a German emperor declared a holy war against the Turks and led his army in a crusade. It is hard to believe that many British warriors would join him). In Western Europe, there is only one person who can transcend the limitations of national borders. Only the Pope can propose a plan to be implemented by all Western Christian countries, and there is hope that many people will obey his instructions. Without the leadership of the Pope and the inspiring speech he delivered, the Crusade as a large-scale European movement may never have emerged.
evaluate
The actual situation at that time was not that anyone holding the position of Pope would propose a plan for the Crusade to liberate the Holy Land. Most cautious leaders find it difficult to make a very strong proposal because the outcome is highly unpredictable. But Urban II had such courage. Therefore, although many people have much greater fame than him, his influence on history is vast and far-reaching.