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
Primate of the Gauls that the Church of Lyons had enjoyed this privilege "per annorum longa curriccula". His intent was to reduce the power of the Archbishop of Sens, but the pope also limits the powers of the tital itself, the holder is not a court of appeal, and he no longer holds the apostolic vicariate. The primacy of Lyon is challenged regularly, and at the Council of Clermont of 1 December 1095, Pope Urban II again confirms the privileges of Lyon and declares that the Archbishop of Sens had to be in submission and obedience to the primate. It was only in 1516