The Holy Roman Empire by the end of the 11th century had control over a substantial amount of land and was a respected empire. Seeing that the church was one of the highest powers of the Empire at the time, Pope Urban II played a large role in initiating the First Crusade. Pope Urban II was pope from 1088 to 1099 and the first crusade was one of the biggest achievements. Gaining power in the Holy Land as well as being able to gather such a big army was a big feat for his time and his time as pope was a successful one. …show more content…
This, however, wasn’t the only reason why the Pope called all of his people to action. He also wanted to help his fellow Christians in the east in the hopes of fixing the rift that was formed between Roman and Orthodox Christianity. The Schism of 1054 left relations between the two groups rocky and this was seemingly the perfect way to mend things. Pope Urban also wanted to end the constant tension between feudal lords and knights that had resulted in seemingly endless conflict. He wanted to police the tension so that there wouldn’t be any reason for any sparked physical fighting. Shortly after he received his request for help, the Pope delivered a speech at Clermont to draft troops for the