SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, or St. John of Capistran, the theologian and
preacher, with the Turks threatening southern Europe in 1455:
"In September the preaching of the crusade began, with Pope Calixtus III
sending cardinals for that purpose to France, Germany and Poland. The
Pope's countryman Alfonso V of Aragon and Naples took the cross
November 1 and agreed to supply 15 galleys for the crusading fleet.
Afonso V of Portugal, now ruling in his own right, pledged 12,000 men
for a year. St. John Capistrano, the fiery Observant Franciscan preacher,
raised men for the crusade throughout Hungary and Transylvania,
reaching past the aristocracy to the common people.
"They moved quickly for the age, but except for St. John Capistrano, they
were still not in time. Muhammad II the Conqueror was a man before
whom any delay could be deadly. On April 7, 1456 the news reached
Hungary that he was on the march for Belgrade with a force of almost the
same size that had taken Constantinople -- about 80,000 men and 300
cannon. Sixteen-year-old King Ladislas Postumus of Hungary fled in
panic to Vienna, and many of the once boastful Hungarian nobles
abandoned Belgrade for their home estates. Hunyadi's field army and the
garrison of Belgrade held firm, perhaps 16,000 in all; and St. John
Capistran brought at least 8,000 crusaders with him, though many of
them were poorly armed and little trained. The odds in favor of the Turks
were therefore between three and four to one. On June 29, the feast of St.
Peter and Paul, Pope Calixtus III called on all archbishops, bishops, and
abbots in Christendom for prayer, fasting and penance for deliverance
from the Turks, who three days later had fully invested the city of
Belgrade.
"July 4 was a Sunday. St. John Capistran said Mass in Belgrade castle,
and instructed the many priests present not to participate in any way in
the battle, except by their prayers and assistance to the wounded. The
odds shook even the redoubtable Hunyadi, who proposed retreat if it
were possible; Capistran replied that he and his crusaders would never
leave Belgrade, but would go down fighting to the last man like
Constantine XI if Hunyadi abandoned them. There was no doubt of the
total loyalty to the great preacher of the crusaders he has raised; if he
would stay they would stay, and John Hunyadi would not be outdone by
them in courage. Instead of retreating he advanced, with 200 boats on July
14 to win a naval battle on the Danube while St. John Capistran stood on
the shore praying and holding up a crucifix which Pope Calixtus III had
sent him. This victory enabled the resupply of the garrison and the city.
"Belgrade could not now be starved out; it must be taken, if at all, by
assault. Its walls had been shattered by the overpowering Turkish
cannon; Hunyadi did not see how they could be defended, and he was
right. Again he proposed retreat; again St. John Capistran interposed his
absolute veto. The grand assault began in the evening of July 21 and by
midnight the Turks had broken into the city at several points. But that
was not, as Constantinople, the end of the battle -- only its beginning. All
through the night and into the following day Hunyadi and Capistran
commanded from a high tower, Hunyadi directing his troops, Capistran
holding up the papal crucifix. The Christians would not yield; they
contested every street, almost every building. The Turkish artillery could
not help the attackers now; the gunners could not see inside the city,
where they were as likely to hit their own men as the Christians. As the
sun rose it became apparent that the Christians were prevailing. Some of
the Turks were retreating back through the breaches; great numbers lay
dead or wounded in the bloody streets. Turkish attempts to send
reinforcements into the city were met by masses of flaming brushwood
flung into the breaches.
"By noon the city was virtually clear and the Turks were fought out, but
Hunyadi and Capistran were not done. In early afternoon they
counterattacked, streaming across the wrecked walls and into the fields
beyond at a measured pace, with the 71-year old Franciscan in their
midst, still holding up his crucifix. Hunyadi seized some of the Turkish
guns and turned them on their makers. An arrow found its mark in the
Sultan's body; though the wound was not serious, it underscored his
defeat, and in the evening he was in full retreat, abandoning his camp
and the city. For the moment at least, the infidel advance had been halted.
Pope Calixtus III called it "the happiest event of my life".
"In the full heat of summer the thousands of unburied corpses in and
around Belgrade rotted and bred disease, and the consequent plague
carried off both the victors, Hunyadi after only a few days, the lean and
whipcord-tough Capistran only after three months of struggle. In the long
sweep of history the victory of Belgrade was of only marginal significance
for Christendom, but it did hold up the final Turkish triumph in the
Balkans for a generation -- along with the remarkable fight waged by the
ex-Muslim and reconverted Christian "Skanderbeg" (George Castriota) in
Albania, whom Pope Calixtus III in December 1456 named "Captain-
General for the Turkish war," and who maintained a successful resistance
until his death in 1468. But the triumph at Belgrade shows what might
have been done by a united Christendom and a great martial Pope at the
siege of Constantinople.
A History of Christendom, Vol. III Warren H. Carroll
