Page "First Crusade" Paragraph 19

All five versions of the speech differ widely from one another in regard to particulars.

All versions, except that in the Gesta Francorum, generally agree that Urban talked about the violence of European society and the necessity of maintaining the Peace of God ; about helping the Greeks, who had asked for assistance ; about the crimes being committed against Christians in the east ; and about a new kind of war, an armed pilgrimage, and of rewards in heaven, where remission of sins was offered to any who might die in the undertaking.

They do not all specifically mention Jerusalem as the ultimate goal ; however, it has been argued that Urban's subsequent preaching reveals that he expected the expedition to reach Jerusalem all along.

According to one version of the speech, the enthusiastic crowd responded with cries of Deus vult!

(" God wills it !").

However, other versions of the speech do not include this detail.