Category: Primary sources and documents

Conditions in Palestine prior to the First Crusade

William of Tyre:

Inter has tam periculosi temporis insidias accedebat tam Graecorum quam Latinorum gratia devotionis ad loca venerabilia multitudo nonnula, quibus per mille mortis genera, perque hostium regions, ad urbem accedentibus negabatur introitus, nisi in porta aureus, qui pro tributo constitutus erat, janitoribus daretur. Sed qui in itinere cuncta perdiderant, et vix cum incolumitate membrorum ad loca pervenerant optata, unde tributum solverent, non habebant. Sic enim fiebat, ut ante urbem ex talibus mille vel plures collecti, et expectantes introeundi licentiam, fame et nuditate consumti deficerent. Guil. Tyr. hist. bell.sacr. l.1. c.10.

Through such treacheries of a dangerous time, considerable throngs of as many Greeks as Latins came to holy sites for the sake of devotion. As they arrived to the city past thousands of modes of death through enemy lands, entry was forbidden to them unless they paid the doorkeepers at the Golden gate which was assigned for tolls. But those who had lost everything during their journey and came to the desired place barely alive did not have anything they could offer as payment. And so it was that in view of the city a thousand or more of such people were dying of hunger and cold while awaiting permission to enter (Guil. Tyr. Hist. Bell. Sacr. 1 I.C.10)
The First Crusade

Nicholas Guertler:

Anno autem nonagesimo quinto Urbanus II. metu Henrici IV. Imperatoris, cujus ingratiis Romanam sedem tenebat, ex Italia in Gallia transgressus, ad Clarum montem, Alverniae civitatem, regnante in Francia Philippo I. Concilium egit, multorum Principum, Episcoporum et Abbatum praesentia decoratum, quibus prolixa oratione suscipiendam in Palaestinam expeditionem persuasit, cumulatam noxarum omnium expiationem pro longinquae militiae aerumnis, cunctis, qui illi nomen darent pollicitus. Quare universus Occidens, Italia excepta, quam Pontifex periculoso hoc itinere non imprudenter exemerat, numerosissimos brevia ad bellum exercitus fudit, anno sequenti diversa via, sub auspiciis praesertim Gothofredi Bullionae Lotharingiae Ducis, (qui Paulo Aemilio teste, ad expianda peccata, signatis cruce militibus hisce se aggregavit) atque Petri Eremitae, per varios casus et multa rerum discrimina in Palaestinam ductos.

The Bull Omne Datum Optimum, issued by Pope Innocent II in 1139 indicated the official approval of the Order by the Holy See. It granted many unique privileges and set some guidlines for the Order’s operations. This bull was soon followed by the bulls Milites Templi (Pope Innocent II, 1144) and Militia Dei (Pope Eugene III, 1145).
Omne Datum Optimum (Papal Bull)

[29 March 1139, Lateran]

Innocentius episcopus, servus servorum Dei. Dilectis filiis Roberto magistro religiose militie Templi quod Iherosolimis situm est, ejusque successoribus et fratibus tam presentibus quam futuris in perpetuum. Omne datum optimum et omne donum perfectum desursum est, descendens a patro luminum, apud quem non est transmutatio nec vicissitudinis obumbratio. Provide, dilecti in Domino filii, de vobis et pro vobis, omnipotentem Dominum collaudamus, quoniam in universo mundo vestra religio et veneranda institutio nuntiatur. Cum enim natura essetis filii ire et seculi voluptatibus dediti, nunc, per aspirantem gratiam, evangelii non surdi auditors effecti, relictis pompis secularibus et rebus propriis, dimissa etiam spatiosa via que ducit ad mortem, arduum iter quod ducit ad vitam, humiliter elegistis, atque ad comprobandum quod in Dei militia computemini signum vivifice cruces in vestro pectore assidue circumfertis. Accedit