URBAN II. (Odo or Otho or Eudes de Lagary), pope from March 12, 1088, to July 29, 1099, was born near Reims, became archdeacon of Auxerre, and later joined the congregation of Cluny, when he became sub-prior. He was created cardinal bishop of Ostia in 1078 by Gregory VII., to whom he displayed such loyalty, especially as papal legate in Germany (1084), that he was imprisoned for a time by Henry IV. He was designated by Gregory as one of four men most worthy to succeed him, and, after a vacancy of more than five months following the decease of Victor III., he was elected pope on March 12, 1088, by an assembly of cardinals and others at Terracina. Throughout the major part of his pontificate he had to reckon with the pres ence of the powerful antipope Clement III. (Guibert of Ravenna) in Rome. He maintained an alliance with the Norman Duke Roger, Robert Guiscard's son and successor, and united the Ger man with the Italian opposition to the emperor by promoting the marriage of the Countess Matilda with young Welf of Bavaria. He aided Prince Conrad in his rebellion against his father and crowned him king of the Romans at Milan in 1093. By excom municating Philip I. of France for matrimonial infidelity in 1095, Urban opened a struggle which was not terminated until after his death. Invited to Tuscany by the Countess Matilda, he convoked a council at Piacenza in March 1095, attended by so vast a number of prelates and laymen that its sessions were held in the open air, and addressed by ambassadors of Alexis, the Byzantine emperor, who sought aid against the Mussulmans. Urban crossed
the Alps in the summer, and remained over a year in France and Burgundy. He held a largely attended council at Clermont in November 1095, where he preached the First Crusade. His ser mon is printed in J. R. Watterich, Pontif. Roman. Vitae. Cru saders on their way through Italy drove the antipope Clement III. finally from Rome in 1097, and established Urban firmly in the papal see. With a view to facilitating the crusade, a council was held at Bari in October 1098, at which religious differences were debated and the exiled Anselm of Canterbury combated the Eastern view of the Procession of the Holy Ghost. Urban died suddenly at Rome on July 29, 1099, fourteen days after the capture of Jerusalem, but before the tidings of that event had reached Italy. His successor was Paschal II.
See authorities quoted under PAPACY ; also M. F. Stern, Zur Biogra phie des Papstes Urbans II. (Berlin, 1883) ; A. de Brimont, Un Pape au moyen age—Urbain II. (Paris, 1862).