Urban II

Urban II (1040?-1099), pope (1088-1099), whose proclamation of the First Crusade (see Crusades) marked the papacy's assumption of the leadership of Western Christendom. Born Odo of Lagery in France, he studied at Reims and entered the Benedictine monastery of Cluny, of which he became prior in 1073. In 1079-1080 he was created cardinal bishop of Ostia by Pope Gregory VII and served as papal legate in Germany in 1084-1085. He was elected to succeed Gregory, becoming the first Cluniac pope.

During the first six years of his pontificate Urban II was kept out of Rome by Antipope Clement III, who had been selected by Henry IV, Holy Roman emperor. Meanwhile, Urban continued Gregory VII's opposition to Henry IV on the Investiture Controversy. The pope also excommunicated King Philip I of France for repudiating his wife and generally supported St. Anselm of Canterbury against King William II of England. In his pontificate the reform policy of Gregory VII was renewed and advanced, albeit with greater flexibility and diplomacy, and the reform of the papal chancery was begun. In his relations with the Byzantine Empire, Urban II sought to bring about the end of the schism between the Eastern and Western Christians, and he urged on the West the defense of Eastern Christendom against the Seljuk Turks. In 1095 he preached a sermon calling for the First Crusade at the Council of Clermont (now Clermont-Ferrand, France). Urban was beatified in 1881.