* i.e. Muslims or, specifically, the Seljuk Turks established in Iraq and Baghdad since the mid-eleventh century.

* Charlemagne (r. 768–814) and Louis the Pious (814–40) were increasingly figures of legend and portrayed as holy warriors against the infidel in vernacular epics, e.g. The Song of Roland.

* Henry IV (1056–1106).

* Seljuk invasion of Anatolia after their victory at Manzikert, 1071.

† 27 November 1095.

* Matthew 5:13.

* Matthew 15:14, Luke 6:39.

† This refers to the decree establishing the Peace of God, under which infringement of Church property or rights was outlawed and local knights recruited to impose prevention and retribution.

‡ Luke 16:19–31.

* The Truce of God specifying periods during which the Peace of God should be maintained and binding those who swore to the Truce to observe it.

† The Seljuks entered the Muslim world through Iran. The Arm of St George was the western name for the Bosporus and the Sea of Marmara.

* A measure of attempts to see Christendom as one despite the breach between Rome and Constantinople in 1054; Urban actively promoted good relations with the eastern Church, and his crusade formed part of this strategy.

* Adhemar of Monteil, from the Valentinois.

† For the decree see above, p. 10.

‡ i.e. the Cross.

* Of Lagery from Champagne.

† Abbot of Cluny, 1049–1109.

‡ Odo, nephew of Urban II.

* Popes Stephen II (752–7) and Zacharias (741–52) were helped by the Carolingian king of the Franks, Pepin the Short (751–68).

† Referring to the Investiture Contest between Henry IV and Gregory VII.

‡ i.e. savages, like animals; Paschal II (1099–1118) visited France in 1107 while Philip I was still on the throne.

§ St Remy, late fifth-century apostle to the Franks.

* An error for 1095.

* The same Count Fulk who met Pope Urban in 1096.

* Matthew 27:52–3.

† Isaiah 11:10.

‡ The central figures in two books of the Old Testament Apocrypha concerning second-century BC Jewish freedom fighters against the Hellenistic rulers of Palestine.

* Ecclesiastes 1:7.

† 2 Thessalonians 2:4.

* 2 Thessalonians 2:3.

† Luke 21:24.

‡ John 7:6.

§ 2 Thessalonians 2:3.

¶ Isaiah 43:5.

* Probably Sts Peter and Paul are indicated.

* A peculiar lapse; the bishop of Le Puy was Adhemar of Monteil (d. 1098).

† 18–28 November 1095.

* Psalms 48:7.

† Psalms 68:6.

* These lines, originally in verse, are apparently by Guibert himself.

† Romans 10:2.

* Quoted in E. Peters (ed.), The First Crusade (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998), p. 37.

* 15 August.

† i.e. the supporters of the emperor Henry IV and his anti-pope Guibert of Ravenna.

* It is clear from other evidence that the problem of monks deserting their monasteries for the crusade was not uncommon.

† On the coast of Catalonia, south-west of Barcelona; Urban had been involved in the attempted establishment of a Christian diocese and outpost there for a decade. This letter is evidence of the easy application of the indulgences of the Jerusalem War to other theatres, although it seems from Urban’s letter that many wished to go east none the less.

* i.e. the abbey of St Peter at Chartres.