Ekkehard’s+Hierosolymita

“[After Urban had aroused the spirits of all by the promise of forgiveness to those who undertook the expedition with single-hearted devotion,] toward one hundred thousand men were appointed to the immediate service of God from Aquitaine and Normandy, England, Scotland, Ireland, Brittany, Galicia, Gascony, France, Flanders, Lorraine, and from other Christian peoples, whose names I no longer retain. It was truly an army of “crusaders,” for they bore the sign of the cross on their garments as a reminder that they should mortify {severely discipline} the flesh, and in the hope that they would in this way triumph over the enemies of the cross of Christ, as it had once come to pass in the case of the great Constantine. Thus, through the marvelous and unexampled working of divine dispensation {release}, all these members of Christ, so different in speech, origin, and nationality, were suddenly brought together as one body through their love of Christ.”


 * Answer these questions in 3-5 sentences. Use details from the text to support your answer.**


 * 1) According to Ekkehard, what was the response all over Europe to the speech by Pope Urban II?
 * 2) Why was the response described in Ekkehard's account significant?

SOURCE: Ekkehard’s Hierosolymita, a history, 1099.