The phrase appears in another form in the Vulgate translation of the Christian Bible: nec vult Deus perire animam. Variants of the Crusades motto include Deus lo vult, Deus le volt, Deus id vult, Dieux el volt, and Deus hoc vult. The two first variants, incorrect in Classical Latin, are forms influenced by Romance languages. According to, the articles 'lo' or 'le' were very likely part of the original motto as shouted in Amalfi, since both the authors of the Gesta Francorum and the Historia Belli Sacri report it. Historian Louis Bréhier notes that the Gesta Francorum is written in a language situated between Latin, Old French and Old Italian.
History
First Crusade
The battle cry of the First Crusade is first reported in the Gesta Francorum, a chronicle written in 1100 or 1101 by an anonymous author associated with Bohemond I of Antioch shortly after the successful campaign. According to this description, as the Princes Crusade gathered in Amalfi in the late summer of 1096, a large number of crusaders armed and bearing the sign of the cross on their right shoulders or on their backs, cried in unison "Deus le volt, Deus le volt, Deus le volt". Medieval historian Guibert de Nogent mentions that "Deus le volt" has been retained by the pilgrims to the detriment of other cries. The Historia belli sacri, written somewhat later c. 1131, also cites the battle cry. It is again mentioned in the context of the capture of Antioch on 3 June 1098. The anonymous author of the Gesta was himself among the soldiers capturing the wall towers, and recounts that "seeing that they were already in the towers, they began to shout Deus le volt with glad voices; so indeed did we shout".
Robert the Monk
in c. 1120 re-wrote the Gesta Francorum because it was considered too "rustic". He added an account of the speech of Urban II at the Council of Clermont, of which he was an eyewitness. The speech climaxes in Urban's call for orthodoxy, reform, and submission to the Church. Robert records that the pope asked western Christians, poor and rich, to come to the aid of the Greeks in the east:
When Pope Urban had said these and very many similar things in his urbane discourse, he so influenced to one purpose the desires of all who were present, that they cried out, 'It is the will of God! It is the will of God!' When the venerable Roman pontiff heard that, with eyes uplifted to heaven he gave thanks to God and, with his hand commanding silence, said: Most beloved brethren, today is manifest in you what the Lord says in the Gospel, "Where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them." Unless the Lord God had been present in your spirits, all of you would not have uttered the same cry. For, although the cry issued from numerous mouths, yet the origin of the cry was one. Therefore I say to you that God, who implanted this in your breasts, has drawn it forth from you. Let this then be your war-cry in combats, because this word is given to you by God. When an armed attack is made upon the enemy, let this one cry be raised by all the soldiers of God: It is the will of God! It is the will of God!
Robert also reports that the cry of Deus lo vult was at first shouted in jest by the soldiers of Bohemond during their combat exercises, and later turned into an actual battle cry, which Bohemond interpreted as a divine sign.
Other uses
Deus lo vult is the motto of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, a Roman Catholicorder of chivalry. Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan, a Protestant Episcopalian, used the expression for his argument of "the dominion of Christ" as "essentially imperial" and that "Christianity and warfare" had a great deal in common: Deus vult!' say I. It was the cry of the Crusaders and of the Puritans and I doubt if man ever uttered a nobler ." George Flahiff CSB in 1947 used Deus Non Vult as the title of an examination of the gradual loss of enthusiasm for the crusades at the end of the 12th century, specifically of the early criticism of the crusades by Ralph Niger, writing in 1189. Disseminated in the form of hashtags and internet memes, Deus vult has enjoyed popularity with members of the alt-right because of its perceived representation of the clash of civilizations between the Christian West and the Islamic world. Crusader memes, such as an image of a Knight Templar accompanied by the caption "I’ll see your jihad and raise you one crusade", are popular on hard-right internet pages. The motto is also used by nationalist groups in Europe and was portrayed on large banners during marches celebrating the Polish National Independence Day in 2017.
