Introduction: What is a crusade? How did a crusade originate? What drove him to seek the “holy war”? Is a crusade a holy war or a pilgrimage? Did a crusader leave only to find his own economic advantages? What caused the success of the first crusaders? These are some of the many questions that posed before me when I began my research. Crusading movements are so widely debated among modern historians that they leave many readers confused as to what actually caused the Crusades and what a crusade actually entails. In the next few pages I hope to give my reader something to think about, understand and recognize his origins, and ultimately lead him into the first crusading movement. Therefore, the argument I wish to make examines the events of previous centuries and the culmination of political and moral, as well as economic, changes that occurred before Urban's call to crusade. We will explore feudalism, its war-centered society, and how this led Urban (as well as some Popes and religious figures before him) to seek a peaceful solution that would provide safety for the clergy, peasants, and non-violent people. Furthermore, Pope Urban sought to continue Pope Gregory's (and Cluniac) reforms to consolidate papal authority over Christendom and respond to years of Muslim incursions along the Mediterranean and high Italian coasts that threatened Italian unity. Indeed, the First Crusader movement represented and embodied the European culture, society, and ideologies of the time. The rise of feudalism in Europe has also been debated by historians. A feudal society may have formed during the late Merovingian dynasty, where a variety of capitularies slowly made the peasant more dependent and subservient to his lord. That......middle of paper......the reason to free himself from temporal goods, and his secular desires. The Cluniacs would develop Williams' theory by addressing the most needy issues and the involvement of the laity in ecclesiastical appointments. In 1073, a Cluniac monk named Hildebrand took the name Gregory VII and was ordained pope. He quickly set out to reform corruption in Europe. He was a strong believer in the supremacy of the clergy over secular authority, so it became quite evident during his reign that he aimed to end Caesaropapism and herald the true power and authority of the church. A conflict arose between him and the Holy Roman Emperor over secular investiture. Pope Gregory VII saw that simony and secular loyalty were two aspects of Emperor Henry IV's appointments. In an initial speech to Henry, Gregory adamantly professed ecclesiastical authority over Henry's appointments, and consequently they should end.