Pope Urban II: Otho De Lagery
Pope Urban II
Rough draft
Pope Urban II was born Otho de Lagery, sometime in 1042, as the second son to his family of Noble parents. He was from the Champagne region of France. This automatically meant that he was to be a part of the church. He was the head of the Catholic Church from 1088-1099. He had developed ecclesiastical reforms as a continuation of the reforms begun by Pope Gregory VII. Before he was Pope, he was a monk. Urban II eventually traveled to Rome where he would become the cardinal and bishop of Ostia. Urban II was elected pope in Terracina, south of Rome, on March 12, 1088. As pope, Urban II had active support for his policies and reforms. These groups included the nobility, the monks, and the bishops. Urban felt he had to
secure his position as pope against the antipope, Clement III, throughout Christendom, or the whole Christian community. He used moderation and tolerance as pope. In 1095, he introduced the First Crusade and to prevent a further and complete feudalization of church-state relationships by prohibiting the clergy from taking oaths of fealty to laymen. Despite these attempts, reconciliation did not prove possible for Pope Urban II. Urban had the idea for a crusade and his attempt to reconcile the Latin and Greek churches sprang from his idea of the unity of all Christendom and from his experiences with the struggles against the Muslims in Spain and Sicily. This would help to secure his position from the antipope. The first crusade led to military success in 1099 with the conquest of Jerusalem. Urban’s pontificate not only led to a further centralization of the Roman Catholic Church but also to the expansion of papal administration. As well, it contributed to the development of the Roman Curia, the administrative body of the papacy, and to the gradual formation of the College of Cardinals.
Rough draft
Pope Urban II was born Otho de Lagery, sometime in 1042, as the second son to his family of Noble parents. He was from the Champagne region of France. This automatically meant that he was to be a part of the church. He was the head of the Catholic Church from 1088-1099. He had developed ecclesiastical reforms as a continuation of the reforms begun by Pope Gregory VII. Before he was Pope, he was a monk. Urban II eventually traveled to Rome where he would become the cardinal and bishop of Ostia. Urban II was elected pope in Terracina, south of Rome, on March 12, 1088. As pope, Urban II had active support for his policies and reforms. These groups included the nobility, the monks, and the bishops. Urban felt he had to
secure his position as pope against the antipope, Clement III, throughout Christendom, or the whole Christian community. He used moderation and tolerance as pope. In 1095, he introduced the First Crusade and to prevent a further and complete feudalization of church-state relationships by prohibiting the clergy from taking oaths of fealty to laymen. Despite these attempts, reconciliation did not prove possible for Pope Urban II. Urban had the idea for a crusade and his attempt to reconcile the Latin and Greek churches sprang from his idea of the unity of all Christendom and from his experiences with the struggles against the Muslims in Spain and Sicily. This would help to secure his position from the antipope. The first crusade led to military success in 1099 with the conquest of Jerusalem. Urban’s pontificate not only led to a further centralization of the Roman Catholic Church but also to the expansion of papal administration. As well, it contributed to the development of the Roman Curia, the administrative body of the papacy, and to the gradual formation of the College of Cardinals.