As you probably know by now, I have very little patience for the modern version of Christianity that Raymond Ibrahim calls “doormat Christianity,” the idea that being Christian means surrendering before your enemies, feeling embarrassed by your own civilization, or confusing passivity with virtue.
Christians have enemies in two senses: spiritual and physical, and Scripture speaks to both. Against the spiritual enemy, the Christian fights with prayer, faith, repentance, truth, and the Word of God; against a physical enemy who comes to kill, conquer, or destroy, Christian charity does not require helplessness. Christ Himself told His disciples, “he who has no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one” (Luke 22:36), and when they answered that they possessed two swords, He replied, “It is enough” (Luke 22:38).
Our forefathers understood that distinction. They could pray for their enemies while defending their people from them, forgive personal injuries while resisting invasion, and fight the spiritual battle for souls while taking up the physical sword when their families, churches, and homelands required protection.
And when Muslim armies came against Christendom, they did exactly that.
Fortunately, many of them left us their own words.
Here is what they said…
John of Capistrano to the Christian defenders during the night assault on Belgrade, July 21–22, 1456:
“Behold, my sons, now is the acceptable time, now is the time of the crown, now is the time of redemption from sin. Defend the name of Jesus Christ manfully and boldly; charge against the enemy of Christianity; fight to defend the Catholic faith. Behold, the dogs are ready to erase the name of Christ from the earth, and to invade, occupy and strike down Christendom. Trust now that God will help his cause… Do not fear those who kill the body, but who cannot kill the soul… Blessed is the one who is struck for the love of Christ; more blessed is the one who sheds his blood for Christ’s defense; and most blessed is the one who lays down his life and dies for Christ’s honor. Whether you conquer on earth or are conquered, you will be victorious in heaven. Oh Hungarians! … strengthen Christians in their weakness; come to the aid of Christendom; take a stand against your enemies.”
Vlad III, letter to King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary, 11 February 1462, explaining why he broke peace with the Sultan:
“Know that we have done all that we could… to harm those who kept urging us to leave the Christians and to take their side… that we have broken our peace with them, not for our own benefit, but for the honor of the Holy Crown of Your Majesty, and for the preservation of Christianity… Because by no means do we want to leave unfinished what we began, but to follow this through to the end. Because we will not flee before their savagery, but stand by all of the Christians… if [God] grants us victory over the Infidels, the Enemies of the Cross of Christ, it will be the greatest honor, benefit, and spiritual help for Your Majesty… and for all true Christians. Because we will not flee before their savagery, but by all means we will fight them. And if, God forbid, it ends badly for us, and our little country is lost, Your Majesty will not benefit from this either, because it will be a loss for all Christianity.”
Skanderbeg (Gjergj Kastrioti) in his final address to his princes and nobles, near the end of his life (1468 tradition):
“The sovereign and chiefest virtue, and the true and most perfect religion… is this. First to reverence, to serve, and to adore God most high and omnipotent… and next, not only to love dearly, and to have a continual care and regard of the good and benefit of our country: but if need be, to spend even our lives, and to shed our best blood for the preservation and safety of the same… Ever since that time have I held and endured the wars against a most periured and faithless nation, and against the rage and fury of the Ottomans for the particular safety and defence of our crown and kingdom, and for the dignity of the public estate and weal of Christendom… you have endured all travails and labours even to the last gasp, for the safety and dignity of the Christian religion and the Catholic faith… even so hereafter when I am dead and gone, let that be the only and the whole desire of your hearts…”
Skanderbeg rallying the Albanian princes at the assembly of Lezhë:
“Let us make shewe unto the posteritie, and let us make it knowen unto all ages to come hereafter, that we are men worthie of a Christian Empire… Vp then (noble and most Catholique Princes) let us set aside all delaies… let us leauie and muster our souldiers, and let us lead on our forces, that when the infidels come in sight… we be not then unprouided…”
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Pope Callixtus III, vow shortly after his election (1455):
“I, Pope Calixtus, vow to Almighty God and the Holy Trinity that by war, maledictions, interdicts, excommunications, and all other means in my power, I will pursue the Turks, the most cruel foes of the Christian name… I will do everything in my power, even, if need be, with the sacrifice of my life… to reconquer Constantinople… to deliver the Christians languishing in slavery, to exalt the true Faith and to extirpate the diabolical sect of the reprobate and faithless Mahomet in the East.”
Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont, 1095 (as recorded by chroniclers such as Robert the Monk):
“As most of you have heard, the Turks and Arabs have occupied more and more of the lands of the Christians. They have killed and captured, destroyed the churches… If you permit them to continue thus for awhile with impurity, the faithful of God will be much more widely attacked by them. On this account I, or rather the Lord, beseech you as Christ’s heralds… to carry aid promptly to those Christians and to destroy that vile race from the lands of our friends… Christ commands it.”
From the Cantar de Mio Cid (Poem of the Cid), describing battle against the Moors:
“The Moors cried, ‘Mohammad!’ The Christians, ‘Saint James!’ In a moment, thirteen hundred Moors lay dead on the field.”
13th-century Castilian prayer for war against the Saracens, associated with the Reconquista under Ferdinand III’s era:
“Lord Jesus Christ son of the living God… look kindly on your servant our king and on his army… And grant that, by virtue of your name and of your most victorious Cross, they should powerfully conquer the Muslim people, who always disparage you. And concede that, the barbaric ferocity having been trampled underfoot, they may return to their homes with honour and joy.”
King Ferdinand III of Castile to his mother and court, declaring war on the Moors (early 13th century):
“It is time, unless I should seem weak and ineffectual, to serve God against the enemies of the Christian faith. The gate is indeed open and the way is clear. There is peace in our kingdom while discord and capital hatreds, divisions, and quarrels are newly arisen among the Moors. Christ, God and Man, is on our side, but on the side of the Moors is the unfaithful and damned apostate, Muḥammad. What is there to do? I beseech you… that it may please you that I should go to war against the Moors.”
Pope Innocent III writing to Ferdinand III about the war in Spain:
“Although the affair begun against the Saracens of Spain is the business of all the faithful because it pertains to Christ and to the Christian faith, there is no doubt that it pertains especially to you and to the other kings of Spain because they [the Saracens] remain in occupation of your land, to the very grave injury to all Christendom.”
Chronicler description of Ferdinand III’s entry into Córdoba after its conquest (1236):
“King Fernando III enters the city and in the main minaret, where the name of the perfidious one [Muhammad] used to be invoked, he began to exalt the wood of the vivifying Cross, and all began to acclaim with him, with joy and tears, ‘God help us!’ Then the royal insignia was placed next to the Lord’s cross, and a voice of joy and delight was heard… as the priests and monks intoned the Te Deum.”
Pope Pius II (Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini) in his oration Constantinopolitana clades at the Diet of Frankfurt, 1454:
“Oh, what great and intolerable shame on the Christian people! I believe that the heart of every Christian who hears about this will be moved and enflamed with anger. Is there any Christian who will not cry from sorrow when hearing it… Let us reach a decision that will allow us not only to defend what remains of Christianity but even to recover what has been lost.”
Pope Pius II later exhorting the Christian powers:
“The Turks do not refuse to die for their damnable sect, while we cannot bear even the smallest expenses or labours for the sake of the Holy Gospel. If we continue like that, it is our end. Unless we are brave, we shall perish.”
From a First Crusade chronicler (Raymond of Aguilers tradition) on the capture of Jerusalem:
“This day, I say, will be famous in all future ages, for it turned our labors and sorrows into joy and exultation; this day, I say, marks the justification of all Christianity, the humiliation of paganism, and the renewal of our faith. ‘This is the day which the Lord hath made, let us rejoice and be glad in it,’ for on this day the Lord revealed Himself to His people and blessed them.”
Aristakes of Lastivert (Armenian chronicler, d. c. 1080) on the sack of Arzden:
“Like famished dogs, they hurled themselves on our city, surrounded it and pushed inside, massacring the men and mowing everything down like reapers in the fields, making the city a desert. Without mercy, they incinerated those who had hidden themselves in houses and churches.”
Anna Comnena (Byzantine princess and historian, The Alexiad) on the Turkish devastation of Anatolia:
“The cities were obliterated, lands were plundered, and the whole of Anatolia was stained with Christian blood.”
Anonymous Georgian chronicler on the Turkish invasions:
“Holy churches served as stables for their horses. The priests were immolated during the holy communion itself. The virgins were defiled, the youths circumcised, and the infants taken away.”
Fulcher of Chartres (eyewitness of the First Crusade) on the treatment of Christians inside Antioch:
“Alas! How many Christians—Greeks, Syrians, and Armenians—who lived in the city, were killed by the maddened Turks. With the Franks looking on, they threw outside the walls the heads of those [Christians] killed, with their petrariae and slings. This especially grieved our people.”
William of Tyre on the condition of Christians in Jerusalem under Turkish rule before the First Crusade:
“Jerusalem’s Christians endured far greater troubles under the Turks, so that they came to look back upon as light the woes which they had suffered under the yoke of the Egyptians and Persians… Even while the Christians were in the very act of celebrating the holy rites, the Turkish enemy would violently force an entrance into the churches… Utterly without reverence for the consecrated places, they sat upon the very altars and struck terror into the heart of the worshippers with their mad cries and whistlings. They overturned the chalices, trod underfoot the utensils devoted to the divine offices… The Lord Patriarch… was dragged from his seat by hair and beard and thrown to the ground.”
Michael the Syrian (Jacobite Patriarch, 12th century) on Turkish treatment of Christian pilgrims:
“As the Turks were ruling the lands of Syria and Palestine, they inflicted injuries on Christians who went to pray in Jerusalem. They beat them, pillaged them, and levied the poll tax. Moreover, every time they saw a caravan of Christians, particularly of those from Rome and the lands of Italy, they made every effort to cause their death in diverse ways.”
Fight for Christendom. You owe it not only to your ancestors, your family, and your homeland—but above all things, you owe it to Christ.
Informative, thank you.
Let us build on the legacy of our ancestors. We owe it to our descendants.