![]() Tyerman, writing in 2006, suggests that the cheering at Urban's speech was "probably led by a papal claque". Robert also reports that the cry of Deus lo vult was at first shouted in jest by the soldiers of Bohemond during their combat exercises, and later turned into an actual battle cry, which Bohemond interpreted as a divine sign. When an armed attack is made upon the enemy, let this one cry be raised by all the soldiers of God: It is the will of God! It is the will of God! Let this then be your war-cry in combats, because this word is given to you by God. Therefore I say to you that God, who implanted this in your breasts, has drawn it forth from you. For, although the cry issued from numerous mouths, yet the origin of the cry was one. When Pope Urban had said these and very many similar things in his urbane discourse, he so influenced to one purpose the desires of all who were present, that they cried out, 'It is the will of God! It is the will of God!' When the venerable Roman pontiff heard that, with eyes uplifted to heaven he gave thanks to God and, with his hand commanding silence, said: Most beloved brethren, today is manifest in you what the Lord says in the Gospel, "Where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them." Unless the Lord God had been present in your spirits, all of you would not have uttered the same cry. ![]() Robert records that the pope asked western Christians, poor and rich, to come to the aid of the Greeks in the east: The speech climaxes in Urban's call for orthodoxy, reform, and submission to the Church. 1120, added an account of the speech of Urban II at the Council of Clermont, of which he was an eyewitness. Robert the Monk, who re-wrote the Gesta Francorum ca. The anonymous author of the Gesta was himself among the soldiers capturing the wall towers, and recounts that "seeing that they were already in the towers, they began to shout Deus le volt with glad voices so indeed did we shout". It is again mentioned in the context of the capture of Antioch on 3 June 1098. The Historia belli sacri, written later around 1131, also cites the battle cry. Medieval historian Guibert de Nogent mentions that "Deus le volt" has been retained by the pilgrims to the detriment of other cries. According to this account, while the Princes' Crusade were gathered in Amalfi in the late summer of 1096, a large number of armed crusaders bearing the sign of the cross on their right shoulders or on their backs cried in unison "Deus le volt, Deus le volt, Deus le volt". 1100 by an anonymous author associated with Bohemond I of Antioch shortly after the successful campaign. ![]() The battle cry of the First Crusade is first reported in the Gesta Francorum, a chronicle written ca. Later variants include the Old French Dieux el volt and the Classical Latin Deus id vult ("God wills it") or Deus hoc vult ("God wills this"). According to Heinrich Hagenmeyer, the personal pronoun 'le' (or 'lo') was very likely part of the original motto as shouted during the First Crusade at Amalfi, since both the authors of the Gesta Francorum and the Historia Belli Sacri report it. The variants Deus le volt and Deus lo vult, incorrect in Classical Latin, are forms influenced by Romance languages. The phrase appears in another form in the Vulgate translation of 2 Samuel 14:14 from the Bible: nec vult Deus perire animam ("God does not want any soul to perish"). The Christian right, alt-right, and Christian nationalist movement have also repurposed the phrase to represent their view of a clash of civilizations. It has been used as a metaphor referring to " God's will", by Christians throughout history, such as the Puritans, or as a motto by chivalric orders such as the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem. In modern times, the Latin motto has different meanings depending on the context. It was first chanted by Catholics during the First Crusade in 1096 as a rallying cry, most likely under the form Deus le veult or Deus lo vult, as reported by the Gesta Francorum (ca. "Deus lo vult" is the motto of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre (1824).ĭeus vult ( Ecclesiastical Latin: 'God wills it') is a Christian motto relating to Divine providence.
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