We have heard . . . with great hurt and dire sufferings how our Christian brothers . . . are scourged, oppressed, and injured in Jerusalem, in Antioch, and the other cities of the East. Your own blood brothers . . . are either subjected in their inherited homes to other masters, or are driven from them, or they come as beggars among us; or, which is far worse, they are flogged and exiled as slaves for sale in their own land. Christian blood . . . and Christian flesh, akin to the flesh of Christ, has been subjected to unspeakable degradation and servitude . . . The churches in which divine mysteries were celebrated in olden times are now . . . used as stables for the animals of these people! Holy men do not possess those cities; nay, base and bastard Turks hold sway over our brothers . . . [T]he Gentiles [Muslims] have established their superstitions, and the Christian religion, which they ought rather to cherish, they have basely shut out from the hall [church] dedicated to God! . . . The priesthood of God has been ground down into the dust. The sanctuary of God (unspeakable shame) is everywhere profaned. Whatever Christians still remain in hiding there are sought out with unheard of tortures.

[H]oly Jerusalem . . . this very city, in which Christ Himself suffered for us, because our sins demanded it, has been reduced to the pollution of paganism and . . . withdrawn from the service of God. Such is the heap of reproach upon us who have so much deserved it! . . . The Turks violently took from [the tomb of Christ] the offerings which you brought there for alms in such vast amounts, and, in addition, they scoffed much and often at your religion. . . . Woe unto us, brethren! We who have already become a reproach to our neighbors . . . let us at least with tears condone and have compassion upon our brothers! . . . This land we have deservedly called holy in which there is not even a footstep that the body or spirit of the Saviour did not render glorious and blessed, which embraced the holy presence of the mother of God, and the meetings of the apostles, and drank up the blood of the martyrs shed there. . . .

What are we saying? Listen and learn! You, girt about with the badge of knighthood, are arrogant with great pride; you rage against your brothers and cut each other in pieces. You, the oppressors of children, plunderers of widows; you, guilty of homicide, of sacrilege, robbers of another’s rights; . . . you sense battles from afar and rush to them eagerly. Verily, this is the worst way, for it is utterly removed from God! if, forsooth, you wish to be mindful of your souls, either lay down the girdle of such knighthood, or advance boldly, as knights of Christ, and rush as quickly as you can to the defense of the Eastern Church. . . .

We say this, brethren, that you may restrain your murderous hands from the destruction of your brothers, and in behalf of your relatives in the faith oppose yourselves to the Gentiles. . . . [M]ay you deem it a beautiful thing to die for Christ in that city in which He died for us. You should shudder, brethren, at raising a violent hand against Christians; it is less wicked to brandish your sword against Saracens [Muslims]. It is the only warfare that is righteous, for it is charity to risk your life for your brothers. . . . The possessions of the enemy, too, will be yours, since you will make spoil of their treasures and return victorious to your own; or empurpled with your own blood, you will have gained everlasting glory.

Gird yourselves, everyone of you, I say, and be valiant sons; for it is better for you to die in battle than to behold the sorrows of your race and of your holy places. Let neither property nor the alluring charms of your wives entice you from going; nor let the trials that are to be borne so deter you that you remain here.

[According to Baldric, the pope turned to the bishops and said:] You, brothers and fellow bishops; you, fellow priests and sharers with us in Christ, make this same announcement through the churches committed to you, and with your whole soul vigorously preach the journey to Jerusalem. When they have confessed the disgrace of their sins, do you, secure in Christ, grant them speedy pardon. Moreover, you who are to go shall have us praying for you.

Source: August C. Krey, The First Crusade: The Accounts of Eye-Witnesses and Participants (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1921), 33–36.