Today in History: The Church Bells of Noon First Ring — Against Islamic Terrorism

Now in history, on July 22, 1456, the West scored one of its greatest triumphs over the warfare — and, in so doing, inaugurated the ringing of church bell at lunch.

Three decades after conquering Constantinople, the Ottoman Sultan, Muhammad II, at the head of over 100, 000 Turks, marched towards the proper fortress city of Belgrade, important to Western Europe, in the flower of 1456.

A great despair permeated the Danube region, conscient of all the death, damage, and mind-blowing atrocities that this large Arab march had predicted despite the freshness of the sack of Constantinople. Ladislaus V, the Hungarian king, allegedly fled his investment to Vienna on the false pretense of being “hunting.”

Only one of the Turks ‘ strongest members stood his ground: John Hunyadi, the Transylvanian voivode who had long been a thorn in the side of the Turks. Even as the prince fled north, Hunyadi raced to the eastern frontier — towards, not away from, the Turkish army. At his own expense, he soon deployed 6, 000 experienced fighters to the fortress of Belgrade. Although he implored the higher aristocracy for support, some were flexible.

However, the 70-year-old Franciscan priest, John Capistrano, went to southern Hungary visiting on the people to take the bridge and defend their country against Islam. His “burning devotion, soul-piercing beauty, and noble austerities” set tens of thousands of the lower classes engulfed. Before much, a huge warrior power of some 40, 000 farmers was following Capistrano.

The world had turned upside down:” Where is the European king”, a modern report inquires,” who wants to call himself the Christian prince? Where are the kings of England, Denmark, Norway, Sweden…? Armed peasants, blacksmiths, stylists, tradesmen are walking in front of the forces”!

By later June, Muhammad’s large troops had reached and surrounded Belgrade. If it fell, the entire province of Hungary and the west’s may be exposed to and finally get flooded by Asia’s legions.

Muhammad mandated that the intense assault start on July 4. The shot fire’s crashing and careening was so loud that it could be heard a hundred miles away. Twelve days after, on July 16, large breaches punctuated this once formidable stronghold.

It was then that Hunyadi’s military appeared, floating down the Danube on wooden vessels of conflict. Capistrano and his troops were marching along with them on property. The Turks scoffed as they watched the small, Christian fleet approach their specialized galleons, many of which were chained together and formed a massive damn across the water, as they prepared for the unavoidable crash. On the sign — loud shouts of” Jesus! Jesus”! — the Christian fleet slammed into the Muslim ships that were chained. &nbsp,

As a five-hour long wild river war raged on, the Danube dripped with warm blood. The Christian ship made it to and reinforced Belgrade, which was at its last point, after the huge linked bars of the Ottoman ships finally fell apart.

It was a stunning start for the relief force, and the great Muslim army was solely a scratch. &nbsp, On that same day, Ottoman guns — then living tools of the emperor’s anger — exploded in a storm of flames that rocked Belgrade to its very foundation.

For another week, the artillery continued to storm, until most of Belgrade’s walls were on a level with the floor. Finally, at the crack of dawn, on July 21, for miles round, “one could hear the constant defeat of the drum that announced the attack”. Muslims swarms to the crumbling fortress in search of” Allah! Allah”!

The message was made when thousands of Turks had gathered between the crumbling rooms and the palace when horn-blazing horns sounded and Hunyadi and his men began to flee the castle, yet as hordes of hidden farmer crusaders arose above the walls and behind the Turks. Between a stone and a difficult position, the Muslims were trapped. According to one consideration:

A horrible struggle ensued. The Turks, though taken at an advantage, were as ten to one and armed to the teeth, whilst most of their adversaries were seldom armed at all. Every city saw a hand-to-hand fight, but the most intense fight took place on the narrow bridge that connected the town to the citadel, where Hunyady was in person.

Despite being so madly disadvantaged in terms of numbers and weapons, the Christians, including Hunyadi, who fought in their presence like a typical foot-soldier, held their ground and were able to remove many of the Turks.

The battle had raged for a day and night until just before dawn on July 22, and it was obvious that the Christians were on the cusp of a collapse due to the sheer volume of their enemy pouring in. The 70-year-old Capistrano was seen waving the symbol of the Bridge and pleading for Heaven for assistance while higher up on a watch building.

The Christians, then pushed up to the castle and great locations, began to rain down flames on the devotees of Islam. The defenders” cast them over, mingled with burning angle and sulfur, both upon the Turks who were in the ditches and upon those who were scaling the walls,” writes a battle participant,” with all the combustibles they could obtain — wood, dried branches, anything that would fire.”

The rising moon gradually revealed the bloody aftermath after all the shrieks had died out and the smoke had cleared. All around Belgrade, inside and out, were the dead and dying carcasses of many Muslims — charred beyond all reputation.

The entire area between the citadel’s outside walls and the exterior walls was filled with their burned and bleeding dead. There were many of them who had perished it. The onagers in specific had suffered so badly that the victims of them were completely cowed, while the emperor’s body-guard, which had led the attack, was well-nigh destroyed. But, after a twenty-hours’ fight, the Christian sponsor was able to breathe easily once more.

And still, in terms of actual deaths, this was but a damage to the colossal Ottoman troops that still surrounded Belgrade. Another rape was expected, and Hunyadi ordered people to be at his post, on pain of death, “lest the splendor of the day been turned into misunderstandings”.

But, by late lunch on July 22, an unapproved conflict between the knights and jihadists had prompted the latter to flee Belgrade and surrender the conflict to the Turks. Hunyadi and his skilled men-at-arms rushed to their support after the death had been cast. By 6 p. m., the whole Christian army was fighting outside the shattered walls of Belgrade.

In this madness, also Sultan Muhammad was espied battling. By then, however, the people of Turks making up his troops, who had set off expecting a fairly simple win, had had enough. The Turks, tens of thousands of them, fled “foaming at the mouth with helpless rage” when the flaming Christians managed to capture and change the blasts of some Ottoman cannons on their previous besiegers, as 50, 000 another Turks were found dead before the shattered walls of Belgrade.

Muhammad the Conqueror’s worst defeat, in his prolific career of terrorizing Christians, was undoubtedly his. Church bells ring at noon to commemorate this victory in Belgrade, a custom initiated by Pope Calixtus III to mark a small but devoted army of Christians who fought a much larger force of Muslims who wanted to destroy them. This custom continues to this day, including in older Protestant churches, even though Christians of all denominations have forgotten or been dissuaded from its significance.

This article was abstracted from Raymond Ibrahim’s book, “0Defenders of the West: The Christian Heroes Who Stood Against Islam”, which includes a full chapter on John Hunyadi.

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