24. LITURGICAL COMMEMORATIONS OF BELGRADE

24.1. POPE CALLIXTUS III, INTER DIVINAE DISPENSATIONIS

August 6, 1457 (Rome)

Three of the Christian gospels recount similar versions of the story known as the “Transfiguration.” Jesus ascends a mountain along with three of his disciples, and while there he begins to shine with a supernatural light. The disciples then see him speaking with Moses and Elijah, and then God speaks to him and claims him as his son. For centuries Christian communities had commemorated the event locally and in various ways, but it was on August 6, 1457, that Callixtus III formally established a universal feast day for it. The opening passages of Callixtus’s decree upheld the miracle as deserving of special praise, insofar as it spoke to the reality of an incarnate, triune God. The decree offered a range of indulgences for all who celebrated it as well, and toward the end then tied its celebration to the commemoration of the victory at Belgrade, news of which had reached Rome almost exactly a year before. This key passage from the decree, which was published as the pope continued to struggle to mount a campaign that could capitalize on the victory at Belgrade, suggests the strong connection between the memory of those events and a broader theology of liberation from the Ottoman threat.

Source: Trans. J. Mixson, from Cesare Baronio, ed., Annales ecclesiastici (Bar-le-Duc, 1864), 29: 128–32 (here 131–2).

We conducted the solemnities of the Mass in the Basilica [of Saint Peter] and read and published our decree concerning the general prayer to be offered by all Christians, which by the Lord’s favor was observed everywhere, so that by the pious prayers and works of his afflicted people the ferocity of that impious and savage Turk [Mehmed II], follower of the detestable Muhammad, might in some small way be mitigated. It was this past summer that he came rushing forward with his almost innumerable army of Turks and infidels (in which he placed great trust) and went against the fortress of Belgrade in the kingdom of Hungary on the shores of the Danube. He besieged it from every side and closed in on it tightly and tried mightily to take it, but the siege was lifted by crusaders and Hungarians, all of them commoners, though few in number and almost completely unarmed. They were led by our orders and instruction, directed to our beloved son and apostolic legate for the region, and with ambassadors and letters sent repeatedly, from sincere faith which we have in our Savior, to whom it falls to draw together what has been dispersed, and to give protection in desperate times, and especially to tear down the power of the proud, and especially of the infidel and of the enemies of the Christian faith, even to wage war against them.

And so they fought, under the fierce voivode John of celebrated memory, who was a most fierce defender of our Catholic faith, and a fighter for it and its faithful, and a most worthy leader of the Christian forces, and who never lost either faith or hope in obtaining victory. Also there was John of Capistrano, professed to the Order of Friars Minor, an excellent man indeed and one of extraordinary merit before both God and men. Faithfully and earnestly he and all the people around him called with one voice on the name of Jesus Christ, in which we find our salvation. And with great cries and tears he lifted up the banner of the most holy cross to heaven, whence came the infallible help that indeed everyone hoped would come. What a wondrous thing! On the memorable day of the blessed Mary Magdalene, a people strengthened by heavenly aid, by an attack of the faithful made manfully against the enemy, put to shame and ruinous flight that wild Turk and his sacrilegious supporters […].

Therefore let the faithful, wherever they might be found over all the earth, prepare body and soul in support of the Christian faith, and offer appropriate thanks to our Savior for the blessings we have received from him. Let them work piously, solemnly, and devoutly to celebrate each year the day of a victory granted to us from heaven, a day of joy and liberation from the son of pride, that poisonous serpent and foulest Turk Muhammad. Like sons of Israel freed from Egyptian domination, let them offer praise to God and recall a day to be celebrated forever. And so let all who participate in this especially solemn feast of the Transfiguration of our Lord Jesus Christ recall the mysteries, the miracles, and the witnesses to the law of nature and grace, and the holy and undivided Trinity, that are even now to be seen in this victory.

24.2. JOHN BURCHARD, LIBER NOTARUM

August 1500 (Rome)

John Burchard (d. 1506) was an Alsatian cleric from near Strasbourg who by the 1480s had made his way to Rome and entered the service of a series of influential cardinals. In 1484 he became the “master of ceremonies” for the papal chapel, a position that charged him with proper arrangement of all the liturgies and other diplomatic and ceremonial protocols of the papal court. From that vantage point he became a keen observer of the affairs of the Roman curia and of affairs in the city of Rome generally. Burchard’s massive multivolume diary, the Liber notarum, intertwined official records of public and ceremonial matters with his personal (and often satirical or scurrilous) remembrances and commentary. The brief passage below appears in that context. It offers a glimpse of processions associated with the Jubilee of 1500 and how these intersected with Callixtus III’s Cum his superioribus and the feast of the Transfiguration, nearly five decades after the battle for Belgrade. It is this tradition, inflected and adopted in various ways for centuries to come, that survives today as the ringing of the “noon bell” in commemoration of Belgrade.

Source: Trans. J. Mixson, from Johannis Burchardi Liber notarum XXXII/1, p. 239, repr. Zsolt Visy, ed., La campana di mezzogiorno: Saggi per il quinto centenario della bolla papale (Budapest: Mundus, 2000), 202.

On Sunday, the ninth day of the same month of August,1 a great procession was begun with the image of the glorious Virgin Mary that is kept in the Church of San Lorenzo in Damaso, which made its way to the four churches designated for the indulgence of the Jubilee. If I recall correctly, first in line for the procession were around a thousand men or so, each of them holding in their hand a small flame or a torch. The clergy of the parish of the aforesaid church then followed, and after them the aforesaid image, which was carried on four rods held up by four laity of the parish. A crowd of around a thousand women then followed the image, each carrying a burning candle in their hand. It was said that our most holy lord2 granted an indulgence to all who participated in the procession.

On the same day, at midday, for the first time, the bells rang in all of the parish churches of the city, inviting all to say the Our Father and the Ave Maria against the Turks, just as had been established in the time of Pope Callixtus III of happy memory, and (as I understood it) our most holy lord commanded that the bells were in the future always to be rung in this way, at midday, on every day of the year.


1 Perhaps in error for August 6, the feast of the Transfiguration. See document 24.1.

2 This and other instances of “our most holy lord” refer to the pope in Burchard’s day, Alexander VI.

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