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]

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

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

[Housley-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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