March 26, 1457 (Rome)
This decree, issued in multiple versions between 1455 and 1460, served as a complement to the formal calls to crusade issued in 1453 and 1455. It opens with a rich statement of incarnational theology, here shaped by late-medieval traditions of Christ’s suffering. It then turns to another sharply polemical denunciation of Mehmed II as a bloodthirsty tyrant, and a lament of the failure to respond to earlier calls to crusade, before concluding with the terms of a portfolio of indulgences (here specifically for territories in southeastern France, the Rhineland, and the Low Countries), as well as the procedures for their publication and for the collection of funds. At the end of the document, in the bottom margin, a scribe has also copied an additional paragraph with further variants on the same terms – a rare glimpse of the flexibility and negotiation that shaped these kinds of arrangements, as well as the reality that they might also circulate in multiple versions.
Source: Trans. J. Mixson, from Vatican, Archivio Segreto Vaticano, Reg. Vat. 446, fols. 269r–270r. The bull remains unedited and unprinted, but a preliminary census of surviving copies can be found in Benjamin Weber, Lutter contre les Turcs: les formes nouvelles de la croisade pontificale au XVe siècle (Rome: École française de Rome, 2013), 536. This document in particular is noted on p. 300.
The immeasurable mercy of almighty God toward the sons of mankind (who are held captive under the law of death and damnation by the sin of the first parent) ordained, by way of a profound and inscrutable plan, that the only-begotten Son of the Father, coequal and coeternal in the same substance, should take on the form of a servant and made to be obedient unto death on our behalf, bearing in his own body all of our frailty and pain. So great was his desire for us, and so great the magnitude of his love, that he, though righteous, did not shy from enduring torture for the unrighteous: flogged, spit upon, insulted and taunted, struck with blows, crowned with thorns, pierced by nails, stabbed by a lance, hung on the wood of the cross, so that he could justly say to the pilgrims of this world, “Oh all ye that pass by the way, look and see if there be any sorrow like to my sorrow!”1 For our Redeemer has been wounded because of our sins, led to death because of our crimes: “he hath done no iniquity, neither was there deceit in his mouth.”2 Here is the one through whom we have been liberated from the gates of hell, and through whom the gates of paradise have been opened for us, the one who “laid down his life for his sheep.”3
And since none of us can participate in his merits except by adhering to the faith of the Catholic truth, and also by risking life and goods in defense of the Christian religion, we, upon whose shoulders divine mercy has seen fit to place the burden of caring for all of the Christian people, have taken careful notice of how the enemy of our religion, Muhammad, prince of the Turks, has by his power not only subjugated Constantinople and many other Christian cities, lands, and locales, but also – thirsting for Christian blood – is now drawing near to us everywhere and waging horrible wars. He glories in depopulating Christian lands, and daily he rises up more and more pridefully, presuming to ascribe to his own strength what is in fact known to have happened because of the sins of the Christian people. And indeed, he labors daily with such cruelty, with unquenchable madness, to drink the very blood of Christians, sparing no one from his sword whatever their age, sex, or creed. He glories in settling his people and in depopulating the land of Christians, so much that unless we rise up quickly against him, we fear he will overcome us like a tempest’s thunder.
Our predecessor, Pope Nicholas V of blessed memory, in whose time the city of Constantinople, alas, was lost, at that time exhorted, required, and commanded all Christian princes, whether emperors, kings, or whatever else their worldly titles might be, by the force of the profession made at their baptism and the oaths offered when they accepted their crowns, to come to the defense of the faith with their goods and their persons as much as possible, in reality and without delay. The same pope also granted the fullest of indulgences to all who come to the aid of the faith in this moment of such great necessity. But as we have heard, painfully, from the reports of trustworthy witnesses, the devotion of our faithful has grown colder by the day, and there are few who have prepared themselves to resist the power of this Muhammad, most bitter enemy of the Christian people.
Therefore, so that we do not fall under the fearful judgment of our Savior (because we, in our silence, did not see to it that the Christian religion should be protected from this foul Muhammad); but instead, so that by our effort the Christian faithful might be all the more fervently inspired to such a saving work, and thus find salvation for their souls; by the mercy of almighty God, and trusting in the authority of his apostles Peter and Paul, we grant to each and every faithful Christian of either sex who is truly penitent and confessed, in the whole dominion of the Dauphiné of Viennois, the duchy of Savoy, and all of the dominions of the same duke on both sides of the mountains, as well as on both sides of the Rhine all the way to the ocean, in the duchies of Cleves and Blois4 and the cities and dioceses of Liège, Metz, Cambrai, and Utrecht, as well as other jurisdictions found in those parts, [the following]:
All who wish to do so may choose a suitable confessor, whether a secular cleric or a member of a religious order, if they make an offering from their resources that is proportionate to their estate and dignity; that is, for those who have greater resources, man and woman counted as one person, five or four florins of the camera; those who are of middling sort, three or two; those who are truly poor, one florin or even a half, or its equivalent true value, so that, even if any of them are joined in marriage, they can make payments of this kind separately. Upon listening diligently to their confessions, the chosen confessors shall [absolve them] from all of their sins, errors, and excesses, even if these are reserved for the Apostolic See, whether generally or in particular. The absolution should be granted only once. Moreover, confessors may in fact absolve penitents (if such is asked for in a spirit of humility) from whatever sentences and censures and lawful penalties might bind them, imposing a suitable penance and other things enjoined by law. They may then grant to each one who is truly penitent and confessed a plenary indulgence and remission of all sins, for one time at the point of death, insofar as they remain in sincerity of faith, in the unity of the holy Roman Church and obedience and devotion to our laws and those of our successors as Holy Roman pontiffs. Moreover, we grant that they may, by apostolic authority, freely and licitly commute vows, whether for Outremer, or to the blessed apostles Peter and Paul and James, as well as vows of chastity, excepting only vows of religious life, to serve other works of piety, as may be appropriate for the salvation of souls.5
To all primates, archbishops, bishops, abbots, and other ecclesiastical prelates and metropolitans, or the canons of other cathedral churches established throughout all of the world, by virtue of holy obedience and under penalty of excommunication (which those who disobey will incur immediately), we strictly order and command that each of them (whether they themselves or through others) should by apostolic authority solemnly publish and explain (or have published and explained) the present document (or a copy of it) on Sundays and festival days in all metropolitan, cathedral, collegiate, parish, or other churches or places, wherever they might be. And from these there should be [sent out] collectors [or their deputies or substitutes] who should by apostolic authority solemnly publish and explain (or have published and explained) the present document in the vernacular tongue as well, so that it might be more clearly understood by all. Let them also promise to publish and promote [also through deputies or substitutes] as often as may be required, the exhortatory letters called De placet, which ought to be granted and held without any contradiction, fee, or payment.6
But because it will perhaps be difficult to carry these documents to all of the individual places where it might be necessary to have them, we wish and by the same authority decree that copies of these documents, authorized by a public hand and the seal of the aforesaid collector (or archbishop, bishop, or other ecclesiastical authority) ought to be granted the same full faith as the originals, and ought to have the same force as if the aforesaid originals were being presented or shown. Therefore let no one diminish or with reckless daring presume to contradict this record of our warning, encouragement, command, release, grant, and concession. But if someone should presume to do this, let them know that they incur the wrath of almighty God and of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul.
Given in Rome at Saint Peter, March 26, 1457, in the second year of our pontificate. (+
(+ Here is a variant: If of the rank of count, baron, or magnate, or other illustrious figure, [they should pay] one hundred papal ducats. Those who are of the rank of noble knights, burghers, or wealthy merchants of sufficient means should pay fifty ducats. Middling sorts of the same professions, however, should pay thirty ducats, wealthy burghers and artisans twenty-five, middling sorts of these professions fifteen or at least ten. Others of lesser rank, however, should pay five or three gold florins, or their true value. In another [version] the quantities have been changed: If of the rank of count, etc., fifty; knights, etc., thirty; middling sorts, etc., twenty; burghers, etc., fifteen; middling sorts, etc., ten or eight; lesser sorts, five or three. In other versions [of this decree] the quantities have been modified: If of the rank of count, etc., twenty-five; of the rank of knights, etc., thirty-five; middling sorts, etc., ten; burghers, etc., seven; others, etc., five or three, etc.
1 Lamentations 1:12.
2 Isaiah 53:9.
3 Cf. John 10:11.
4 Here perhaps a scribal error, in that Blois was a county, not a duchy.
5 The reference here is the release from vows of crusading or of pilgrimage to Rome and Santiago, with an exception for vows of entry into a religious order.
6 The reference here is to letters of approval granted by secular authorities prior to the publication of ecclesiastical enactments. These are also called “Regium placet” or “Exequatur.” See the article “Exequatur” in F.L. Cross and E.A. Livingstone, eds., The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd rev. ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005).