Crusades In 1095, Pope Urban II called for the First Crusade in a sermon at the Council of Clermont. He encouraged military support for the Byzantine Empire and its Emperor, AlexiosI, who needed reinforcements for his conflict with westward migrating Turks colonizing Anatolia. One of Urban's aims was to guarantee pilgrims access to the Eastern Mediterranean holy sites that were under Muslim control but scholars disagree as to whether this was the primary motive for Urban or those who heeded his call. Urban's strategy may have been to unite the Eastern and Western branches of Christendom, which had been divided since
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