Knightly Piety same time protect non-combatants. The movement promised severe punishments to those who broke this law. However, it was met with mixed success. In 1095, Pope Urban II preached the First Crusade at Clermont. Here, the Church officially sanctioned lay knights fighting for the Faith when Urban said that any who fought would be absolved of their sins rather than tarnish their soul for killing. By this time knights were already concerned with their immortal soul enough to fight for the Church. By the time the Church began to accept warfare and create the idea of a holy war, piety had
Religious war expansion into Asia Minor and Europe proper. Later, Crusades were launched against other targets, either for religious reasons, such as the Albigensian Crusade, the Northern Crusades, or because of political conflict, such as the Aragonese Crusade. In 1095, at the Council of Clermont, Pope Urban II raised the level of war from "bellum iustum" ("just war"), to "bellum sacrum" ("holy war"). In 16th-century France there was a succession of wars between Roman Catholics and Protestants (Hugenots primarily), known as the French Wars of Religion. In the first half of the 17th century, the German states, Scandinavia (Sweden, primarily) and Poland