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
Counts of Clermont-Tonnerre Counts of Clermont-Tonnerre Clermont-Tonnerre is the name of a French noble family, members of which played some part in the history of France, especially in Dauphiné, from about 1100 to the French Revolution (1789–99). Sibaud, lord of Clermont in Viennois, who first appears in 1080, was the founder of the family. His descendant, another Sibaud, commanded some troops which aided Pope Calixtus II in his struggle with the Antipope Gregory VIII. In return for this service, it is said that the pope allowed him to add certain emblems, two keys and a tiara to the arms of his family. A