Apparently, the Pope reasoned it was better for all the warfare and bloodshed to take place somewhere else.

             However, there is also evidence to support that the majority of Crusaders were wealthy landowners who joined for religious reasons. Waging war is expensive, particularly over such a long distance, and one was as likely to go bankrupt in the process as to get rich through plunder. Therefore, the Crusaders were not motivated by the potential material rewards, they instead wanted to undertake an arduous task in the name of their religion in order to secure a place in heaven. [7] .

             The participants of the crusades varied throughout its history, although it can generally be said that the all were Christians. In the first crusade, the invading force constituted mostly the forces of the nobility from England, France and Italy. [2] Later, the religious zeal that was originally prevailed upon by Pope Urban was adopted by the commoners in Christendom. Preachers throughout Europe stirred peasant rabble into a furor, and encouraged them to march upon Jerusalem to support the Crusades. One of the most famous (and earliest) examples of this is the "unofficial" (i.e. Not sanctioned by the Pope) Crusade launched by Peter the Hermit. [3] Peter collected a small army of poor peasants who marched upon the Holy Lands in advance of the First Crusade. Peter's army, later called the People's Crusade, was no more than a ravaging pack of bandits- before leaving Europe, they pillaged the local Jewish communities in Germany on the way for supplies. Once Peter's army crossed over into the Holy Lands, they began ravaging the countryside, killing and raping indiscriminately. Several accounts survive describing the savageness ands brutality the People's Crusade inflicted on the Jews [5] and Muslims they came across- in their zeal, they often also killed the Christians whose lands they were supposedly there to liberate! [6].