Chartre Vs. Fulcher Of Chartres: Pope Urban II

Although all five statements share commonalities, distinct differences exist amongst the recreations of Pope Urban II’s speech in 1095. Variations occur in the deliverance of his message, and the approach taken to persuade the audience for the need of the First Crusade. Fulcher of Chartres emphasizes a push for spirituality by Urban II. In this version Urban states, “If you permit them to continue thus for awhile with impurity, the faithful of God will be much more widely attacked by them,” in reference to Christian fate if the Turks and Arabs are not thwarted( ). By this statement, Urban worries the good Christian peoples of the world will remain vulnerable without intervention, ultimately resulting in the “vile race” taking over humanity( ). In Fulcher's telling, the speech is a plea for the righteous spirituality of Christians to prevail.

He offers sensational details, which grip the audience in terror. In one verse the enemy acts by, “dragging forth the extremity of the intestines”( ). Robert the Monk frames Pope Urban II's appeal as a shock value speech, motivating the populace to become avenging crusaders of violent atrocities. It is made clear the battle is one race against the other. His approach depicts the speech as a fight against an ugly race, not a battle of necessity for the purity of religion.

Last, in the Version of Balderic of Dol, the danger of what will become of the Christians is again a central point, but instead of disembowelment and the vanishing of the good Christian people, Balderic of Dol states that Christians are, “flogged and exiled as slaves for sale in their own land”( ). He accentuates outrage in the speech over the “pagan tyranny” claiming the Holy Lands which rightfully belong to Christians( ). He laments over Jerusalem and the site of Christ's sacrifice, tainted by the occupation of the heathen adversaries. His portrayal is a call to reclaim sacred