Quantum praedecessores and the Second Crusade

December 1, 1145

Pope Eugenius III, a Cistercian protege of Bernard, issued the bull calling for a new crusade to recover Edessa, promising indulgences identical to those of the First Crusade. Bernard of Clairvaux took up the commission and began preaching it across France and Germany the next year. At Vezelay, Bernard spoke so compellingly that the crowd tore his cloak to pieces for relics before he had finished speaking.