Vézelay Abbey unique importance in the development of the Crusades. Thirty years before the Vézelay tympanum was carved, Pope Urban II planned on announcing his call for a crusade at La Madeleine. In 1095, Urban altered his plans and preached for the First Crusade at the Council of Clermont, but Vézelay remained a central figure in the history of the crusades. The tympanum was completed in 1130. Fifteen years after its completion, Bernard of Clairvaux chose Vézelay as the place from which he would call for a Second Crusade. Vézelay was even the staging point for the Third Crusade. It is there
Bertrand de Montredon Bertrand de Montredon Bertrand de Montredon was an 11th-century Catholic bishop. He was consecrated by Pope Urban II, and was bishop of Nîmes from 1095 to 1097 and then of Narbonne from 1097–1106. As Bishop of Nimes he attended the Council of Clermont in 1095, and the synod convened for the blessing of Maguelonne island and the founding of a church there, He was also at the wedding of count Raymond of Saint-Giles. After serving as Archbishop of Narbonne, he was replaced in the dispute between Psalmodi and St. Victor of Marseille by the mediator Raymond William of Montpellier, possibly