Historia Hierosolymitana (Robert the Monk)

Robert asserts in his prologue that he had been present at the Council of Clermont of 1095, which makes his account of Pope Urban II's speech that of an eye-witness, even though written from memory, twelve or more years later.

[1] Outside this part, however, the author proposes not to write about his own observations but as a chronicler, having agreed to rewrite, at the request of his abbot, the Gesta Francorum, an account written by a soldier of Bohemond I of Antioch, in a less "rustic" style.

[4] Robert's chronicle contains an account of Pope Urban II's speech at the Council of Clermont of November 1095, the call to arms for the First Crusade.

Both Robert's and Fulcher's account of the speech include a description of the terrible plight of the Christians in the East under the recent conquests of the Turks and the promise of remission of sins for those who go to their aid.

In a further element not found in Fulcher's account, and perhaps inspired after the fact by the failure of the People's Crusade, Urban warns that the expedition is not commanded or advised for the old or feeble, those unfit for bearing arms, or for women, but for experienced soldiers, that clergy should only take part with the consent of their bishop and laymen only with the blessing of their priest.