Etsi ecclesia Christi

Etsi ecclesia Christi is a papal bull issued by Pope Nicholas V on 30 September 1453 in response to the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire.[1]

Pope Nicholas V

Nicholas declared that the capture of Constantinople by the Ottomans was the latest in a long line of attacks on Christendom from Islam, whose followers had already conquered the East, Egypt and North Africa.[1] He further claimed that these were the fulfilment of John's prophecies in the Book of Revelation and he called the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II the "second Mohammed",[1] and a forerunner of the Anti-Christ.[2] Nicholas called on Christian rulers to defend Christendom with their lives and their money and he granted indulgences to those who, for six months, took part in this crusade.[3]

Notes
  1. Norman Housley, Crusading and the Ottoman Threat, 1453–1505 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), p. 18.
  2. Ludwig Pastor, The History of the Popes from the Close of the Middle Ages, Volume II (London: John Hodges, 1891), p. 275.
  3. Pastor, p. 276.
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