The idea of Jerusalem itself must have been a major driving point into why so many people took up the call. Jerusalem as the place of the last days of Christs life was viewed as the centre of the Catholic faith and demanded huge respect among Christians. At Clermont it was Jerusalem which is said to have inspired the audience, and which explains why he later repeats it in his letters. At this particularly religious time the idea of pilgrimage was particularly powerful, and this must have been another religious reason which contributed to the number of people who took up the call. The popularity of pilgrimages had increased dramatically especially to Jerusalem and Constantinople, where the Holy Relics of the passion were to be found, there had been several expeditions in the early part of the century (the largest in 1033) and this idea was spreading in increasing popularity throughout Christendom, In some of the accounts of his sermon and in his letter to Bologna this is particularly evident: ‘We have heard that many of you have felt the longing to go to Jerusalem, which you should understand pleases us exceedingly.’ (Ibid) The idea that people were actually going on a pilgrimage is clearly shown in the First Wave, which was largely made up of peasants who brought their families along , this gives us the idea that they not only viewed themselves as going to war against the Saracens but more importantly were going to Jerusalem on a pilgrimage to visit the holy city: ‘At every town or Castle the Children would ask if that was Jerusalem where we were heading’. This is further emphasised by Peter the Hermit, who claimed to have been on a pilgrimage and therefore to control of his particular branch of the crusade. He was obviously a powerful preacher, who had managed to capture the peasants, and entrance them into the idea of the Crusade which was definitely not what Urban II intended, he had intended an army of knights mainly Francs rather than a rabble of peasants that emerged as the first wave.
On the one hand the Knights crusade is easier to explain, these were the people who Urban specifically targeted, and thus we can see the motives which he tempted them with. It was to an extent less focused on religious reasons and more on material reasons, however the cost of the crusade itself puts this point in doubt, as the provisions and armour required cost huge amounts approximately two years income for a knight, it is also evident that many knights did not go to the holy land for land, there is evidence that the knights left charters with the local monasteries or churches that they would look after the land whilst they were away fighting. However as always there were exceptions, there were a large percentage of younger landless sons, who obviously went in the hope that they could capture some land in the east, and make their fortunes, although this idea of land is also not an obvious conclusion now as we know that most of the Knights made their way home again after they had completed their pilgrimage. It is also important to emphasise that whilst some of the leaders of the crusade for example Godfrey took their family with them obviously intending to settle in the Holy land most of the leaders did not, and in that sense we can see that there motives must actually have been much more spiritual than was first thought.
Another important reason which must not be overlooked is Urban’s call to help defend the peoples ‘Christian brothers in the east.’ Urban’s justification for the crusade must have been to fight of the eastern church from the pagans in the east: ‘They have seized more and more of the lands of the Christians, have already defeated them seven times in battle, killed and captured many people, have destroyed churches and devastated the Kingdom of God.’(Ryan, pp. 65-7). As this was one of Urban’s main selling points for the crusades, it must be the case that many of the people who went on the crusade were simply defending the Christians in the east from the Turks. One of Urban II targets at Clermont had been stop Christians fighting Christians: ‘Let those accustomed to wage private war against the faithful march upon the infidels in a war which should be begun now and finished in victory’(Ryan, pp. 65-7), and to move the target to the east, this had successfully been done in Spain in the 10th and Early 11th Century, and the crusade provided an opportunity to a group of Francs whose ‘life purpose was fighting’, The crusade must have proved to be highly appealing to this group of people, who were able to continue to do what they were good at whilst the blessing of the Church.
In Conclusion there were three principle reasons why the huge numbers of people decided to go on the crusade. The first was religious and was mainly because of the religious atmosphere in Christendom at the time, particularly in relation to the popularity of pilgrimages and the promise of absolution from sin. The second was for material gains; however the huge cost of going on the crusade meant that this was only for the very wealthy or the military leaders of the crusade. The third aspect was war itself, for many of the Francs war was their way of life, the crusade provided a war which they could justify as they were fighting in the name of the church and most importantly for Christians not against them.
