All who went on his campaign of extermination and died along the way would be rewarded with “remission of sins.” Their earthly misdeeds would be forgiven, their passage to heaven smoothed. In an age where offsetting sin had become a serious moral and financial concern for the people of the west, this was a highly alluring offer. Urban had produced a new and enduring spiritual calculus. Those who committed to leaving home and slaughtering other human beings thousands of miles away would earn the wages of heaven. It went down a storm. So did the pope’s plan to send his armies from Byzantium to
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