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0399
Anastasius I was elected pope.
1095
Pope Urban II calls for a Crusade (in Arabic: al-Hurub al-Salibiyya, "Wars of the Cross") in a famous speech at the Council of Clermont. Although his actual words have been lost, tradition has it that he was so persuasive that the crowd shouted out in response "Deus vult! Deus vult!" ("God wills it"). Urban had earlier arranged that Raymond, Count of Toulouse (also of St. Giles), would volunteer to take up the cross then and there and offered other participants two important concession: protection for their estates at home while they were gone and plenary indulgence for their sins. The inducements for other Europeans were just as great: serfs were allowed the leave the land they were bound to, citizens were free from taxation, debtors were given a moratorium on interest, prisoners were released, death sentences were commuted, and much more.
2004
Pope John Paul II gives Eastern Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I reliquaries which were stolen from Constantinople during the Crusades. These reliquaries contain the bones of 4th-century Patriarchs Gregory Nazianzus and John Chrysostom and their return is regarded as an important step towards greater ecumenism between the divided churches.
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