John of Capistrano 1386-1456

John of Capistrano (or Giovanni da Capestrano) was a monk who combated heretics, and who in later life led crusaders in the Balkans, contributing to a significant military victory over the Turks at Belgrade.

John was born in Capistrano, in the diocese of Sulmona, in the Abruzzi, central Italy. He was the son of a (probably Frankish) knight in the service of Louis I of Anjou, King of Naples, who died when John was an infant. John seemed set for a career as a magistrate and politician, and embarked upon this path after studying law in Perugia. In 1412 Ladislas of Naples (a vassal of the Pope who had an uneasy relationship with his overlord) appointed John as governor of Perugia. In 1416, war broke out between Perugia and Sigismondo Malatesta (a member of a powerful family of the Romagna and a notorious tyrant according to his enemies). John was sent on an embassy to organize a truce; instead he found himself a prisoner of Malatesta.

John apparently underwent a religious conversion while in prison, deciding to put aside his recently wedded wife (he claimed that the marriage was unconsummated and obtained a dispensation to enter religion). In October of the same year he became a Franciscan friar of the Observant branch, having returned to Perugia. He became a disciple of the preacher and theologian Bernardino of Siena (1380-1444), with whom he worked to reform the Observant Franciscan Order. In time John earned a reputation as a formidable preacher in his own right, and was ordained in 1425. He was also known for strict asceticism and adherence to Catholic doctrine. He embarked on preaching tours of Italy and later of central and eastern Europe, drawing considerable crowds. He also wrote tracts against heresy.

Though he often acted as an Inquisitor and arbiter of Orthodoxy, John of Capistrano came under suspicion of heresy himself (along with his mentor Bernardino) for apparently over-venerating the Holy Name of Jesus. In 1429 he defended himself against such charges in Rome, and was eventually acquitted by a conclave of Cardinals. Thereafter he was commissioned as a representative of Popes Eugene IV and Nicolas V, preaching in Milan and Burgundy against the rival Pope (antipope) Felix V. Later, in 1451, he toured the Holy Roman Empire preaching against the heresies of the proto-Protestant Hussites. The Hussites were the followers of John Huss, who had been burned at the stake for heresy in 1415. His followers were on the receiving end of one of the last of the Papal crusades directed within Christendom. (Huss himself had been critical of Papal crusades and had condemned the crusade called against Ladislas of Naples and the use of sale of indulgences to fund it. The crusade against the Hussites degenerated into a civil war in Czechoslovakia and Bohemia in the 1430s and 40s). Travelling widely John of Capistrano took a hard line towards dissent. As well as condemning the Hussites he persecuted the Fraticelli (Spiritual Franciscans- who had broken from the mainstream Order over an argument about ecclesiastical poverty, arguing that clerics should not own property). Some of his preaching may also have provoked attacks against Jews, especially in Germany and Poland.

During this period the advance of the Ottoman Turks was causing increasing anxiety throughout Christian Europe. The extent of the threat became more apparent after the Ottoman victories at Nicopolis in 1319 and Varna in 1444, and especially after the fall of Constantinople in May 1453. The Turkish Sultan, Mehmet II was not content with seizing the last remnant of Byzantium, but had his sights on the conquest of Eastern Europe, planning to advance through the Balkans. The Turkish threat provoked a resurgence in Crusading rhetoric in Europe, and even a degree of activity. In 1454 John was present at a Diet (court) in Frankfurt, which discussed the Turkish problem. In 1456 Pope Calixtus III equipped galleys to support the war in the west, as Mehmet II and his hordes swept into Serbia, defeating Skanderbeg, the local Christian commander, at Berat. The Turks soon invested the strategic city of Belgrade. The Pope tried to unite the antagonistic Christian factions of the region in order to meet the threat. In February at the Diet of Buda (Budapest) John of Capistrano, by now very aged, was commissioned by Cardinal Cravajal to preach the crusade to raise forces to rescue Belgrade, which the Turks besieged in July. The Cardinal bestowed on the Franciscan a crucifix blessed by the Pope, which John was to carry throughout his preaching tour, and into battle. John's charismatic sermons recruited volunteers primarily from Hungary, but also from Austria, Germany, Poland and Balkan countries, although most were poor and ill-equipped. John of Capistrano's forces (upon whom he imposed pious conduct and discipline) managed to unite with the Serbs/Hungarians under John (Janos) Hunyadi, the illegitimate son of the King of Hungary. The Franciscan persuaded Hunyadi not to surrender the city despite the overwhelming odds. (Hunyadi's already had a heroic record of campaigning against the Turkish invaders).

On 15 July Hunyadi's flotilla broke the Turkish naval blockade- despite the failure of the Papal fleet to materialize. On the night of 21/22 July the crusaders and the citizens of Belgrade beat off the Turkish full assault on the walls. Subsequently the Christians captured the Turkish gun batteries as the Sultan was preparing to retreat. The historian Norman Housley attributes the salvation of Belgrade and all of Hungary to John of Capistrano's faith and courage. According to Promontorio de Campis, a Genoese noble at the Sultan's Court, the Turks lost 28 field canons, 100 galleys and 13,000 men, all to a rag-tag army led by a seventy-year-old monk. Perhaps as much credit belongs to Hunyadi's military leadership, however. It seems between them, they believed that with Western support it would be possible to drive the Turks from Europe and to recover Constantinople. It was not to be, of course. Both John of Capistrano and John Hunyadi died of the plague in late 1456. The victory at Belgrade was not consolidated, but it had shown that the Turks could be beaten.

As Capistrano was a great preacher and his army was not comprised of nobles or knights, he may be compared in some ways to Peter the Hermit, the charismatic leader of the First Crusade. However it is debatable whether the relief of Belgrade classes as a crusade in the true sense. It was defensive, and most of the 'crusaders' were from countries directly threatened by Turkish expansion. The element of religious pilgrimage, central to the earlier crusades was lacking. In any event, the victory only secured a temporary reprieve. Turks returned in strength to the region in the following decades. Belgrade fell under Ottoman rule in 1521, and much of Hungary also succumbed. Ottoman expansionism remained a serious threat to European security and freedom, a threat that only began to diminish after their maritime defeat at Lepanto in 1571.

John of Capistrano became a celebrated figure in the Catholic Church, meanwhile, his life regarded as a story of heroic virtue. He was beatified in 1694 and canonised thirty years later.

Sources:

Harry H Hazard (ed) Kenneth M. Selton (series ed.) A History of the Crusades, Vol III. University of Winsconsin Press, 1975
Norman Housley, The Later Crusades, Oxford University Press, 1992
Jonathan Riley-Smith (ed), Atlas of the Crusades, Times Books, 1991

Online:

Catholic Encyclopedia: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08452a.htm
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_of_Capistrano