Crusades-Encyclopedia Return to Crusades-Encyclopedia Gesta Francorum
The [give full title] is commonly known as the Gesta Francorum. The anonymous author of the Gesta Francorum [c.1100] participated in the First Crusade initially under the leadership of Bohemund of Antioch, but later continued on to Jerusalem with other crusaders.The Gesta version is perhaps the earliest surviving account of the First Crusade and it is almost certain that the Gesta was used as a source by later chroniclers of the First Crusade. Continued... According to the Gesta the Pope and other clerics preached the crusade as a way of demonstrating one’s love for God by the Christ-like sufferings required of those willing to take up the cross and follow in “the footsteps of Christ.” Continued... Source selections from the Gesta Francorum. Selection from the Gesta Francorum on Pope Urban II's Speech at Clermont             When now that time was at hand which the Lord Jesus daily points out to His faithful, especially in the             Gospel, saying, "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow             me," a mighty agitation was carried on throughout all the region of Gaul. (Its tenor was) that if anyone             desired to follow the Lord zealously, with a pure heart and mind, and wished faithfully to bear the cross             after Him, he would no longer hesitate to take up the way to the Holy Sepulchre.             And so Urban, Pope of the Roman see, with his archbishops, bishops, abbots, and priests, set out as             quickly as possible beyond the mountains and began to deliver sermons and to preach eloquently, saying:             "Whoever wishes to save his soul should not hesitate humbly to take up the way of the Lord, and if he              lacks sufficient money, divine mercy will give him enough." Then the apostolic lord continued,             "Brethren, we ought to endure much suffering for the name of Christ - misery, poverty, nakedness,              persecution, want, illness, hunger, thirst, and other (ills) of this kind, just as the Lord saith to His              disciples: 'Ye must suffer much in My name,' and 'Be not ashamed to confess Me before the faces of              men; verily I will give you mouth and wisdom,' and finally, 'Great is your reward in Heaven."' And when              this speech had already begun to be noised abroad, little by little, through all the regions and countries of              Gaul, the Franks, upon hearing such reports, forthwith caused crosses to be sewed on their right              shoulders, saying that they followed with one accord the footsteps of Christ, by which they had been              redeemed from the hand of hell. (1) First Crusade- Crusades-Encyclopedia Primary Source of the First Crusade- Crusades-Encyclopedia 1.Taken from, August. C. Krey, The First Crusade: The Accounts of Eyewitnesses and Participants, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1921), 28-30. c) Andrew Holt, August 2005- Permission is granted for electronic copying and distribution in print for educational and personal use. No permission is granted for commercial use.