First Crusade and the Gregorian Reforms - Essay Example

Yet for those interested in the late eleventh century but with limited facility in Latin, access to Urban is difficult, for almost nothing from his councils and correspondence is translated. What have been available are recreations of the famous sermon from the Council of Clermont which sparked the First Crusade, none of which is likely to offer a reliable account of what the pope said (Somerville & Kuttner, 1996, p. 38). Under such vague descriptions, Gregorian Reforms cannot be predicted in the light of Pope Gregory alone.

Gregorian Revolution initiated in the eleventh century as 'peace movement' but these reforms had never been encouraged by Gregory VII and the Gregorian revolution. Today through various literatures analysis it has been discovered that Gregorian historiography never supported the first crusaders. It is also evident from the revolution that shows the clash of Gregory VII and Henry IV amalgamated the transformations of this period. It has long been held that the eleventh century was a pivotal era, on account of its social upheaval, its move from a gift to a profit economy, and, most especially perhaps, on account of the enormity of the urban advance.

Historians write that it is due to the result of the first crusade that Gregory never favoured, European civilizations along with other small crusader states were created. It was a time which was characterized by a process of definition and distinction in all sectors and aspects of human existence. Kingdom of Jerusalem was created as an outcome to the first crusade which Gregory opposed. Gregory VII being a close ally of Matilda of Tuscany while acknowledging a deeper deficiency in the reformers' attempted at defining a new constitution for the Church and Christian society, explicitly articulated an appropriate mechanism by which a new code of behaviour was established.

Gregory served to demonstrate and concern the despicable status of Rome and its bishop before reform began in earnest. Rome was already considered blessed in that era where the ultimate source of spiritual power were the tombs of Peter and Paul, the relics of the blessed martyrs: figures who actively worked on behalf of petitioners. Under the guidance of Gregory, the Amalfitan merchants in the eleventh century (1070) built hospitals or perhaps even further back to the establishment by Abbot Probus of a pilgrims' hospice for Latins in AD 603 which monks of St.

Mary's ran. Just before the first Crusader rule the Armenian community in Jerusalem had earlier been located in different parts of the city. By the Crusader period it seems that the areas outside the city walls were no longer occupied by them, but they retained their quarter in the south-west of the city. That was the epoch which was papacy dependant as adequate fighting men were supposed to take authorisation by the church. History tells us that Urban II was not the first pope to help the eastern Christians against the Turks (Boas, 2001, p. 39). When Pope Gregory in 1074 showed keen interest in leading the first crusade, he did this by communicating in person with the Michael of Rome and Constantinople.

He wrote three letters which did not reveal any response to the Byzantine VII in