God Wills It

A vibrant chronicle that draw our attention upon historical recurrence

Max Gallo, after Jesus, the Man who was God (more than 120,000 sold copies), drags us into the most novelized tale of one distinctive moment in Occidental Christianity: the First Crusade

« God wills it! ». God wills the Christians to go on a crusade, to stand up for Him in front of His enemies, the pagans and the unfaithful; who plunder and desecrate Holy places. Guillaume de Thorenc, recently dubbed, hears the call of Pope Urban II, seizing the opportunity to accomplish what his father never could: reach the Holy Sepulcher, and liberate it from sacrilegious barbarism.

The crusaders assemble, but the oaths pledged to God are fast forgotten. The Faith-named war finds itself supported by pride, greed and the many rivalries that corrupt the lords and knights. All through the chronicles, written as a confession, Guillaume de Thorenc tells us all about these “cruel animals bearing the face of a man” that they were.

And more than anything, he wonders: « Is it God’s will?” Did he really wished for some men, under the pretense of defending their religion, to slaughter beings that were created in His own image? These thoughts that assail him echo somewhere within ourselves in spite of the centuries that separate us.