Over time, religion has influenced civilizations in a number of aspects. For example, Catholicism influenced the kings and nations of ancient Europe in the same way that polytheism influenced the Roman Empire. Religion has the power to cause wars, such as the Catholic Crusades. It also has the power to mask people's intentions. The polytheistic ideals held by the Roman Empire gave the patricians a shroud to hide behind in questionable situations; such as when requesting resources or declaring war on foreign countries. Later in history the Catholic Church waged a series of “Holy Wars” known as the Crusades. Fulcrum of Chartres transcribed the events of the First Crusade in the “Chronicle of the First Crusade”; in these chronicles he gives proof of the greed of the people who participated in this expedition. The greed and envy of the Catholic Church is seen once again in the Second Crusade to regain the land lost to the Muslims, as reported in "Eugene III: Summons to A Crusade". Saint Bernard of Clairvaux was the leader of the Knights Templar, a religious military organization that worked for the Catholic Church and participated in subsequent crusades. His speech to the Knights Templar, "In Praise of the New Knighthood," shows how he raises the morals of the members together under the name of God to do his work. During the reign of the Roman Empire, they practiced polytheism. This includes the idea of ​​different Gods for different aspects of what they knew, for example Mars the god of war or Jupiter the king of all gods. The Romans worshiped these gods and many others for guidance, health, wealth, and everything else under the sun. People came to think that as a nation they had some divine right to anything... middle of the paper... by Pope Urban II. The Turks were expanding their lands within the reach of the Catholic Church; this new fear of further land losses by the Turks and the ideal of reclaiming Jerusalem for the Catholic Church led to the start of the First Crusade, a "Holy War". This land never belonged to any European country, yet the Church saw fit for European countries to conquer it along with the lands in between. Pope Urban II called all the bishops and abbots of the churches to the Vatican. Once these religious leaders returned to the Vatican, the Pope issued a decree to them: “Concerning this matter, I with supplicant prayer – not I, but the Lord – exhort you, heralds of Christ, to persuade everyone, of whatever class, both knights and foot soldiers, both rich and poor, in numerous edicts, to endeavor to help expel that evil face from our Christian lands before it is too late.’”