The best example is the First Crusade. Eager to unite warring
Christians, Pope Urban II spoke in 1095 to a massive crowd in
France. Describing the cruelties inflicted by Muslims on
Christian pilgrims trying to visit Jerusalem, he called on all
of western Christendom to rescue their eastern breth-ren. "They
should leave off slaying each other and fight instead a
righteous war, doing the work of God, and God would lead
them...." Runciman writes. "Here they were poor and unhappy;
there they would be joyful and prosperous and true friends of
God." The response was tremendous. Urban's speech was
interrupted by cries of "Deus lo volt"—"God wills it." Hundreds
begged to go on the holy expedition. Soon tens of thousands of
commoners and knights were heading off to the Holy Land. Across
Europe, preachers called on the faithful to sew crosses on their
clothes, to mark them until they succeeded in their quest. The
key to Urban's call was a revolutionary (and doomed) theology:
salvation through the sword. "There is a ver