The situation in Western Europe

• CHRISTIAN FAITH: The Latin church taught that Christ’s death and resurrection opened them to heaven, but only if people confessed their sins.
• CHRISTIAN FAITH: But even after confession a believer’s soul still needed to be cleansed of sins committed on earth. This meant that, after death, the soul would spend time in purgatory being purged – a period of prolonged pain and suffering.
• CHRISTIAN FAITH: Time in purgatory could be reduced by carrying out acts of penitence on earth, e.g. saying prayers. During the 11th century more and more Christians went on pilgrimage too, and were obsessed by the the holiest and most sacred site of all – the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem – the site of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection. 
• CHRISTIAN FAITH: What every Latin Christian wanted (which Pope Urban II was fully aware of) most of all was a full indulgence – a promise of complete forgiveness requiring no acts of penitence oR purgatory. 
• CHRISTIAN VIOLENCE: Western society was a strange mixture of all-pervading religion and regular bloodthirsty violence – it had been that way since the collapse of the Roman Empire in 476AD – e.g. Fulk of Anjou (972-1040) walked naked to Jerusalem, but also had his young wife burned alive in her wedding dress when he learned she had been unfaithful to him.
• CHRISTIAN VIOLENCE: Kings claimed to rule large areas, but in effect each locality was in the hands of Lords like Fulk who waged almost continual war with rivals for control of land. This violence disturbed the entire society – peasants became foot-soldiers and farming and trade were disrupted. 
• CHRISTIAN VIOLENCE: Just below the Lords were the Knights. The custom was that a father’s lands would be shared amongst all his sons on his death. Over time this created increased competition between knights and even more violent disputes.
• CHRISTIAN VIOLENCE: The church sometimes spoke out against such violence, but clerics were often part of the problem – e.g. William the Conqueror’s brother, Odo, fought in the Norman conquest of 1066 – and he was a Bishop.
• CHRISTIAN VIOLENCE: St Augustine argued that Christian could fight a just war provided the conflict was backed by a legitimate authority, such as a bishop of King, it was defensive, and should be restrained. But the problem of violence continued.
• CHURCH REFORM: It was around 1040 that leading clergyman first set about challenging violence in society and weakness in the church in a systematic and sustained way.
• CHURCH REFORM; They wanted to reform and renew the church, and this movement was led by the Pope – so we call it the Papal Reform Movement. Reformers wanted to end the church’s association with violence in society and get rid of church abuses such as simony – the buying of a church position, and the practice of some clergy having wives or mistresses. 
• CHURCH REFORM: Pope Gregory VII (1074-85) led the reform movement – building new churches and tightening discipline within the clergy based on the rule of St. Benedict. The monastery at Cluny in France became the centre of the reform movement. 
• CHURCH REFORM: Gregory VII also wanted to increase the power of the Papacy over Latin Christendom’s secular rulers. Between 1075-80 Gregory was locked into a battle of wills with German Emperor Henry IV over who had the power to appoint the Bishop of Milan – the investiture crisis. The Emperor eventually backed down at Canossa in Italy, standing the rain for four days and begging Gregory for forgiveness.
• CHURCH REFORM: Gregory was aware of the Seljuk threat to Byzantium and planned some sort of Crusade in the 1070’s – but his quarrels with the Emperor took precedence. Gregory also got military support in his struggles against the Emperor from Matilda of Tuscany – offering her soldiers spiritual rewards for their help. Building on the concept of the Just War, Matilda’s scholars found passages in the Bible to say that it was not only acceptable for people to fight the enemies of the church – it was their Christian duty to do so! This was the origins of the concept of Holy War. 
• CHURCH REFORM: The reform movement also wanted to end the lawlessness and violence of western society. The Peace and Truce of God movement (989+) had tried to limit fighting to certain days of the week, but with little success. Gregory tried to exploit the warlike culture of western lords by encouraging them to fight for the church – e.g. in 1073 he encouraged a violent French lord to re-conquer Spain from the Muslims. 
• STRENGTHEN PAPACY: Urban II (Pope from 1088-1099) came from a French noble family so he knew about the nature of violence in western society. He had also been a monk at Cluny, so was part of the Papal Reform movement. 
• STRENGTHEN PAPACY: He was also eager to bring unity to Christendom and heal the divisions of the great schism of 1054 which divided the Latin from the Greek church.
• STRENGTHEN PAPACY: Urban II also quarreled with Emperor Henry IV whose armies forced Urban out of Rome for several years. Urban built up a network of support amongst the European nobility and offered spiritual rewards to the Normans of southern Italy if they helped him drive the German armies out of Rome. The plan worked – by 1094 he was back in Rome and in control.
• STRENGTHEN PAPACY: In 1089 Urban had offered spiritual rewards to Christian knights if they would rebuild the city of Tarragona in Spain – he assured them that this military work would count as much as a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. 
• STRENGTHEN PAPACY: The Church and nobles of Europe were becoming regular partners in Just War – but none of these campaigns involved the mass involvement of Christian people – yet.