Why did Pope Urban II launch the crusades?

Answer 1

Pope Urban 2 launched the Crusades for several different reasons:

1. Alexius I, who was the Emperor of Byzantium at the time, pleaded with Pope Urban II to help him regain Byzantine territory in the Middle East, and protect the rest of Byzantium from being captured by the Arabs.
2. At the time the kings in Europe quarrelled among themselves. Pope Urban II thought that going on the Crusades would keep the kings from quarreling among themselves.
3. Pope Urban II also thought that the Crusades would be a good way for the Church to make a large amount of wealth. The Church could do this because when the Nobles went on the Crusades they became broke and the Church bought the Nobles land cheap, and then sold it for a profit.
4. Pope Urban II also thought that some Holy Artifacts would be found on the Crusades and would make the Church look even more powerful and people would become more religious because of it.
5. Pope Urban II also hoped that the Crusaders would end up converting some inhabitants of the cities they captured, but most of the people were slaughtered by the Crusaders, who acted like savages.
6. Pope Urban II hoped that the Crusaders would capture land so that the Christian Empire would expand in the Middle East.
7. Last, Pope Urban II hoped that by coming to the aid of Alexius, that he would be able to reunite the Eastern and Western Churches, therefore becoming a hero.

Catholic AnswerPlease see the book below, Seven Lies About Catholic History by Diane Moczar. To quote from her book, page 57 "All of the above, of course, is hogwash. Unprovoked Muslim aggression in the seventh century brought large parts of the southern Byzantine Empire ... under Arab rule. Christians who survived the conquests found themselves subject to a special poll tax and discriminated against... For centuries their complaints had been reaching Rome, but Europe was having its own Dark Age of massive invasion, and nothing could be done to relieve the plight of the eastern Christians. ... there are reports of pilgrims being executed, some by crucifixion. By the eleventh century, under the rule of a new Muslim dynasty, conditions worsened..."

In other words, Pope Urban was trying to liberate oppressed Christians who had been invaded and conquered by a cruel tyrant. His goal was to rescue the Christians and make the Holy Land safe for pilgrimage - nothing more.

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