«Ipse transfert regna et mutat tempora». Urbano II e la crociata: una revisione

Abstract

The thought of Urban II has been the focus of numerous studies, primarily aimed at understanding the genesis of the Jerusalem expedition of 1096-1099. The article re-examines Urbanian sources, with particular regard to papal letters, underlining the peculiar papal positions in the context of the “ecclesiastical reform” of the 11th century. That specific form of warfare that we define as a “crusade” - a term unknown to contemporaries - was, above all, a means of bringing the ancient episcopal sees back within “Catholicity”, both in Europe, in the Mediterranean and Asia, without distinction. The purpose of this construction, primarily ideological, is to be found in the progressive structure of the Petrine primacy in the context of the opposition between the reforming, imperial and Greek clergy.