Sergius IV

Pietro Buccaporci · 1009 – 1012

Reportedly called for a crusade to the Holy Land after the destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, nearly a century before the First Crusade.

Pietro was the bishop of Albano before becoming pope in 1009. He is credited with issuing a call to arms after the Fatimid caliph al-Hakim destroyed the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem in 1009, though the authenticity of this document is debated by historians. If genuine, it would make his appeal the earliest papal call for a military expedition to the Holy Land, predating the First Crusade by almost ninety years. He died in 1012.

Before the Crusades

If the documents attributed to Sergius IV are genuine, he called Christians to recover the Holy Sepulchre almost a century before Urban II preached the First Crusade. Nobody answered. The idea was too early, the political will too scattered. But the impulse to protect Christian holy sites was already present.