Alexios I Komnenos but these victories were unable to stop the Turks altogether. As early as 1090, Alexios had taken reconciliatory measures towards the Papacy, with the intention of seeking western support against the Seljuqs. In 1095 his ambassadors appeared before Pope Urban II at the Council of Piacenza. The help he sought from the West was simply some mercenary forces, not the immense hosts that arrived, to his consternation and embarrassment, after the pope preached the First Crusade at the Council of Clermont later that same year. Not quite ready to supply this number of people as they traversed his territories, the
Pope Urban X Pope Urban X Pope Urban X is a fictional pope created by French writer Voltaire in his book "Candide". Voltaire did this in order to avoid any consequences that would be incurred upon him, for in "Candide" Pope Urban X has an illegitimate child. In Chapter 11 an old woman declares herself to be the daughter of Pope Urban X and the Princess of Palestrina. (Voltaire was being particularly cautious, since at the time and now the highest numbered Pope Urban was the eighth). An 1829 edition of "Candide" was the first to add a posthumous footnote by Voltaire to