Third Crusade
Papal Reaction
When the news arrived in October 1187, it was received, in a nice irony of names, by Pope Urban III. Already an old man, the chroniclers say that he died of grief. Within ten days, the new pope, Gregory VIII, had issued a crusading bull. The papacy, at least, was ready to spring into action immediately.
The new pope did not, however, try to have the Church lead the crusade. His appeal was to the lay rulers of Europe, and he had Archbishop Joscius of Tyre go directly to France to appeal to the kings. The magnitude of the disasters was such that it would take the combined might of Christendom to redress the balance.
But eloquent words and promises of indulgences were scarcely needed this time. The shock of the loss of Jerusalem was more than enough motivation to start armies in motion, or at least enough to make monarchs claim that they would go.