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This opening episode chronicles the improbable origins of the Crusades, from Pope Urban II's hunger for military power to the success of one of history's greatest mass communication and recruitment campaigns. Terry Jones traces the Crusaders' routes across Europe, and details the massacres and looting that marked their progress. That these first holy warriors were promptly slaughtered upon reaching Asia only fueled the religious conflict . Within months, a massive professional military force dispatched under the Pope's banner had crossed the Bosphorus, ready to battle their way to Jerusalem.