Video Transcription
A new sacred struggle, in which fighting will not simply be permitted, but actively encouraged and even rewarded.
The day after Pope Aurelian's sermon at Plano, Count Raymond de Toulouse, the most powerful second lawyer in Southern France, became the first nobleman to commit to the crusade.
Determined to prepare his soul for the gruelling expedition ahead, Raymond then came to me, to this cathedral in Le Coup.
The Count made a large donation to secure the favourable intercession of the Virgin Mary, and according to one point he requested that, "So long as I live, a candle should burn for me incessantly, day and night, upon the altar with the revered image of the Mother of God."
Some Christian knights may have embarked upon the Holy War, believing they would reap rich rewards from conquest and plunder in the East, but the vast majority were primarily driven by faith and the promise of redemption.