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PREPPING HIS SHEEP FOR THE FIRST
CRUSADE - URBAN II AT CLERMONT
Against the Infidels
It follows the transcript of
Pope Urban II's speech against the infidels,
according to the version of Fulcher of Chartres. The Pope delivered
this sermon at the Council of Clermont, France - November
27, 1095.
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Most Beloved
Brethren, |
Urged by
necessity, I, Urban, by the permission of God
chief bishop and prelate over the whole world,
have come into these parts as an ambassador with
a divine admonition to you, the servants of God.
I hoped to find you as faithful and as zealous
in the service of God as I had supposed you to
be. But if there is in you any deformity or
crookedness contrary to God's law, with divine
help I will do my best to remove it. For God has
put you as stewards over his family to minister
to it.
Happy indeed will you be if he finds you
faithful in your stewardship. You are called
shepherds; see that you do not act as hirelings.
But be true shepherds, with your crooks always
in your hands. Do not go to sleep, but guard on
all sides the flock committed to you. For if
through your carelessness or negligence a wolf
carries away one of your sheep, you will surely
lose the reward laid up for you with God.
And
after you have been bitterly scourged with
remorse for your faults, you will be fiercely
overwhelmed in hell, the abode of death. For
according to the gospel you are the salt of the
earth [Matt. 5:13]. But if you fall short in
your duty, how, it may be asked, can it be
salted? O how great the need of salting! It is
indeed necessary for you to correct with the
salt of wisdom this foolish people which is so
devoted to the pleasures of this world, lest
the Lord, when He may wish to speak to them,
find them putrefied by their sins unsalted and
stinking.
For if He, shall find worms, that is,
sins, in them, because you have been negligent
in your duty, He will command them as worthless
to be thrown into the abyss of unclean things.
And because you cannot restore to Him His great
loss, He will surely condemn you and drive you
from His loving presence. But the man who
applies this salt should be prudent, provident,
modest, learned, peaceable, watchful, pious,
just, equitable, and pure.
For how can the
ignorant teach others? How can the licentious
make others modest? And how can the impure make
others pure? If anyone hates peace, how can he
make others peaceable? Or if anyone has soiled
his hands with baseness, how can he cleanse the
impurities of another? We read also that if the
blind lead the blind, both will fall into the
ditch [Matt. 15:14].
But first correct
yourselves, in order that, free from blame, you
may be able to correct those who are subject to
you. If you wish to be the friends of God,
gladly do the things which you know will please
Him. You must especially let all matters that
pertain to the church be controlled by the law
of the church.
And be careful that simony does
not take root among you, lest both those who buy
and those who sell church offices be beaten
with the scourges of the Lord through narrow
streets and driven into the place of destruction
and confusion.
Keep the church and the clergy in
all its grades entirely free from the secular
power. See that the tithes that belong to God
are faithfully paid from all the produce of the
land; let them not be sold or withheld. If
anyone seizes a bishop let him be treated as an
outlaw. If anyone seizes or robs monks, or
clergymen, or nuns, or their servants, or
pilgrims, or merchants, let him be cursed. Let robbers and incendiaries
and all their accomplices be expelled from the
church and cursed.
If a man who does not
give a part of his goods as alms is punished
with the damnation of hell, how should he be
punished who robs another of his goods? For thus
it happened to the rich man in the gospel [Luke
16:19]; he was not punished because he had
stolen the goods of another, but because he had
not used well the things which were his.
You have seen for a long time the great
disorder in the world caused by these crimes. It
is so bad in some of your provinces, I am told,
and you are so weak in the administration of
justice, that one can hardly go along the road
by day or night without being attacked by
robbers; and whether at home or abroad one is in
danger of being despoiled either by force or
fraud.
Therefore it is
necessary to reenact the truce, as it is
commonly called, which was proclaimed a long
time ago by our holy fathers. I exhort and
demand that you, each, try hard to have the
truce kept in your diocese. And if anyone shall
be led by his cupidity or arrogance to break
this truce, by the authority of God and with the
sanction of this council he shall be cursed.
[After these and various other matters had been
attended to, all who were present, clergy and
people, gave thanks to God and agreed to the
pope's proposition. They all faithfully promised
to keep the decrees. Then the pope said that in
another part of the world Christianity was
suffering from a state of affairs that was worse
than the one just mentioned. He continued:]
Although, O sons of God, you have promised more
firmly than ever to keep the peace among
yourselves and to preserve the rights of the
church, there remains still an important work
for you to do.
Freshly quickened by the divine
correction, you must apply the strength of your
righteousness to another matter which concerns
you as well as God. For your brethren who live
in the east are in urgent need of your help, and
you must hasten to give them the aid which has
often been promised them.
For, as the most of
you have heard, the Turks and Arabs have
attacked them and have conquered the territory
of Romania as far west as the
shore of the Mediterranean and the Hellespont,
which is called the Arm of St. George.
They have
occupied more and more of the lands of those
Christians, and have overcome them in seven
battles. They have killed and captured many, and
have destroyed the churches and devastated the
empire. If you permit them to continue thus for
awhile with impurity, the faithful of God will
be much more widely attacked by them.
On this
account I, or rather the Lord, beseech you as
Christ's heralds to publish this everywhere and
to persuade all people of whatever rank,
foot-soldiers and knights, poor and rich, to
carry aid promptly to those Christians and to
destroy that vile race from the lands of our
friends. I say this to those who are present, it
meant also for those who are absent. Moreover,
Christ commands it.
All who die by the way, whether by land or by
sea, or in battle against the pagans, shall have
immediate remission of sins. This I grant them
through the power of God with which I am
invested.
O what a disgrace if such a despised
and base race, which worships demons, should
conquer a people which has the faith of
omnipotent God and is made glorious with the
name of Christ! With what reproaches will the
Lord overwhelm us if you do not aid those who,
with us, profess the Christian religion!
Let
those who have been accustomed unjustly to wage
private warfare against the faithful now go
against the infidels and end with victory this
war which should have been begun long ago.
Let
those who for a long time, have been robbers,
now become knights. Let those who have been
fighting against their brothers and relatives
now fight in a proper way against the
barbarians. Let those who have been serving as
mercenaries for small pay now obtain the eternal
reward. Let those who have been wearing
themselves out in both body and soul now work
for a double honor.
Behold! On this side will be
the sorrowful and poor, on that, the rich. On
this side, the enemies of the Lord, on that, his
friends.
Let those who go not put off the
journey, but rent their lands and collect money
for their expenses. And as soon as winter is
over and spring comes, let hem eagerly set out
on the way with God as their guide.
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