ABSTRACT
Benedict VIII had shown how it was possible for a pope to pursue policies and strategies which had an impact beyond Rome. His relationship with Emperor Henry II had been constructive and mutually beneficial. As a result, by the time Benedict died, wider respect for the papacy was reviving, and the pope had started to become once again a figure of international stature. Popes claimed to be the successors of St Peter, who was believed to have been the first bishop of Rome. Peter had also been the leader of Jesus’s apostles, ‘the rock’ on which the church of all believers was built; by extension, the papacy argued that the pope was the leader of all Christians. Despite, or rather because of, its success, Cluny’s dominant place in the monastic landscape would be challenged in the twelfth century. The First Crusade was a momentous episode in the history of medieval Europe.
