The central concerns of this book were to establish the origins, form, and development of the papal protection put in place over crusaders, and their families and possessions. It has also sought to assess the impact and effectiveness of such legislation in a series of regional case studies. The privileged status extended over crusaders’ families and possessions was considerably greater in its scope than that accorded to pilgrims. The crusade protection privilege went beyond the security of pilgrims and their goods and inaugurated a process whereby for the first time the protection of the families, goods, and lands left behind was entrenched in canon-ical legal tradition. To explain this clear division between pilgrim and crusader we should look to papal motives behind the escalation of such protection. The popes must have been well aware of the potential political impact of the crusaders’ long-term absence. As part of the recruitment for the First Crusade, Urban needed to address material and temporal concerns as well as appealing to the crusaders on spiritual grounds. The threat of material loss and political impediments to departure formed key concerns when a pope called on the ruling classes to leave behind home and family. A need to foresee and to counter these issues can be identified in the pope's decision to increase the reach of papal protection.

From the outset of the crusading movement the protection offered to participants was presented and perceived as separate from any similar privileges associated with pilgrims. Contemporaries such as Ivo of Chartres were aware that Urban II had established a new institution which required its own legislation. Urban had adapted the privilege of the crusade's closest relative – pilgrimage – most notably in the extension of the parameters of the Peace of God and the Truce of God to crusaders. Yet Urban had also innovated where necessary; this was especially evident in his creation of a crusade-specific Truce and Peace that encompassed not only crusaders but also their families, lands, and possessions. Thus the pope attempted to strike the right balance with potential crusaders by coupling promises about the security of their homes and families together with the spiritual attractions on offer to those who took the cross.