Medieval Cataracts and Couching

A cataract is a medical condition where the lens of the eye becomes increasingly cloudy, leading to blindness. You would think that the Middle Ages had no way to treat this condition, but you'd be wrong. There was a method used that was actually developed thousands of years ago and described in medical texts. It was called "couching."

Couching is described in Greek and Sanskrit documents. It involves pushing the cloudy lens away from the pupil and into the interior of the eyeball, allowing more light to enter. This was done by inserting a thin sharp needle into the eye through the pupil and, well, simply pushing the lens until it is no longer blocking the light. This was done, of course, without access to anesthetics.

The result was more light, but the light was no longer being focused. The client's world was blurry—assuming the client was not rendered completely blind by damage to the eyes or killed by infection.

Roman artifacts found in the British Isles suggest that the technique was introduced there during the Roman occupation, and perhaps survived throughout the early Middle Ages, although we know of no cases prior to the 1560s.

Physicians and surgeons elsewhere knew of it. John II of Aragon went blind from cataracts by the time he was 70. A physician in his employ, a Jew named Abiathar Crescas, performed couching in September 1468 and restored his sight—or what there was available considering the lack of a functioning lens. John lived until the age of 80.

John's son, Ferdinand, would later, along with his wife, Isabella of Castile, expel all Jews from Spain. This was a major change in policy, since Jews had been prominent in the Court of Aragon. Tomorrow we'll look at the relationship between Aragon and Jews.

The End of John II of Aragon

John II of Aragon lived to the age of 80. He had been married twice, had a few children (one whom he treated poorly, a few who had better careers), including a few illegitimate ones who did all right for themselves (one became a Duke of Villahermosa, one became the Archbishop of Zaragoza).

He caused the Navarrese Civil War (1451-1455) because he refused to allow his son Charles, Prince of Viana, to inherit Navarre. That war could be said to have stretched out with periods of civil unrest until 1461, when Charles died, possibly poisoned by John's second wife.

Because of John's mistreatment of Charles and the Navarre succession, he also had to deal with a Catalan Civil War, also called quite specifically the "War Against John II." Some in the Principality of Catalonia wished to support Charles' rightful claim to Navarre, some were willing to back John's actions. 

After a lot of back-and-forth (the French weighed in on John's side as well), including Catalans bringing in pretenders to the throne to try to push John out, and lawyers enumerating the violations of the constitution of which John was guilty, it all ended when Charles died in 1461. Navarre went to John's daughter Eleanor  for about two weeks in 1479 and then passed to Francis Phoebus, another Prince of Viana.

At the end of John's life he suffered from cataracts and was blind by the age of 70. Fortunately for him, he had a surgeon who restored his eyesight through surgery. That surgeon was a Jew named Abiathar Crescas, who was also a leader among Jews of Aragon. When John died, Abiathar preached a memorial sermon at the funeral service.

Tomorrow we'll look into the medieval surgical technique for cataract removal.

John II of Aragon

The father of Ferdinand II of Aragon was John II of Aragon (1398 - 1479, pictured here). He had other titles as well, including King of Sicily and King of Navarre, which he gained from marrying Blanche I of Navarre, daughter of King Carlos III of Navarre and Eleanor of Castile and Navarre.

Their eldest son was Charles, who was made Prince of Viana by his maternal grandfather. He was also named the successor to Navarre after his grandfather and mother, a decision by them which angered John.

When Blanche died in 1441, John refused to allow Charles to rule, retaining control of Navarre, even though Charles was referred to as king by the people of Navarre.

John decided that, instead of naming Charles as the successor to his own possessions of Sicily and Aragon (as well as Navarre), John would seek another heir. He therefore married Juana Enriquez in 1447. She bore him two children, Ferdinand and Joanna. Charles saw this (correctly) as an attempt to disinherit him from Aragon. John named Ferdinand his successor when Ferdinand was nine years old.

In 1451, Charles rebelled against his father's possession of Navarre and the Navarrese Civil War began, a period of unrest and fighting until Charles was captured in 1452, the same year Ferdinand was born. Charles was released if he promised not to seek the throne of Navarre until after John's death.

All this actually took place while John was still a prince; the current king in Aragon while John was growing up was Alfonso V. Alfonso died in 1458, and Prince John became King John II of Aragon, offering Charles Naples and Sicily. Charles declined, and returned to Navarre in 1459, with a plan to marry Isabella of Castile. That fell through (she later married Ferdinand, of course). Charles died in Barcelona in 1461; the suspicion was poison, administered by his stepmother Juana.

John had several more years in him, however, and we'll wrap him up in a few paragraphs next time.

Aragon and Castile

Although Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile were married, their two kingdoms did not become one. Sure, they worked in concert and agreed on many policies, but when Isabella died on 26 November 1504, her will did not leave Castile to her husband. Instead, it went (in proper succession, one would say), to their daughter Joanna, later called "the Mad."

Ferdinand and Isabella had son born before Joanna, John, but he had died a few years earlier. Joanna was next in line, although Isabella was concerned that despite her extensive education she might not be suited to the task, nor would her husband, Philip the Handsome, Duke of Burgundy and Archduke of the Netherlands. (The illustration is their marriage contract.) Philip was happy to become King of Castile, but his father-in-law took issue with that.

Ferdinand had been named in Isabella's will as potential regent for Castile if ever Joanna were absent from the country or unable to rule, or if she decided she did not want to be queen. Ferdinand, however, wanted more. He minted coins in Castile imprinted with "Ferdinand and Joanna, King and Queen of Castile, León and Aragon." In 1505 he convinced the Castilian Court that Joanna was unable to govern due to infirmities, and they named Ferdinand her guardian and the governor of the kingdom. Joanna's husband took umbrage at this, and so he minted coins imprinted with "Philip and Joanna, King and Queen of Castile, Léon and Archdukes of Austria."

Philip agreed that Ferdinand would be regent of Castile during the times when Philip and his queen traveled to Philip's Netherlands.

Ferdinand, concerned that without another heir he might see Aragon go to Joanna and Philip,  decided he needed a second wife who might produce an heir who could inherit both kingdoms. He married the 17-year-old Ursula Germaine of Foix by proxy on 19 October 1505. Ferdinand was 53. They did not meet until 18 March 1506, where (we are told) the marriage was consummated.

This made France and Aragon closer politically, but Castile saw Ferdinand's re-marriage as a betrayal of the beloved Isabella.

Philip died on 25 September 1506, and Ferdinand was named regent, since Joanna was deemed unfit to rule.

Germaine bore a son on 3 May 1509, but he died shortly after.

Ferdinand died on 23 January 1516, leaving Syracuse, Sicily, several towns in Catalonia, and a town in Naples to his widow, and leaving her in the care of his grandson by Joanna and Philip, Archduke Charles of the Netherlands. Charles moved to Castile in 1517, and Germaine moved to Castile from Aragon to be near him. Germaine went with Charles in 1519 to Aragon where he was crowned as Ferdinand's successor.

In the original post on Ferdinand I mentioned that there was some controversy over his father naming him the heir when Ferdinand was only nine years old. Let's get back to that story (and an earlier time; stretching into 16th-century affairs seems strange to me, given the name of this blog), and see what that was about.

Ferdinand II of Aragon

Ferdinand II of Aragon had many more titles. Throughout his 63 years (10 March 1452 - 23 January 1516) he was not only king of Aragon, Majorca, Sardinia, Valencia, and Count of Barcelona, he also gained the titles King of Castile and León (as Ferdinand V), King of Sicily, King of Naples (as Ferdinand III), and King of Navarre (as Ferdinand I)!

He was the son of John II of Aragon and his second wife, Juana Enríquez, who was Castilian. When Ferdinand was nine years old, his father named him his heir apparent and governor of all John's lands and kingdoms. (This was despite an older son Charles, but that's another story.)

In October 1469 he married his second cousin, Isabella I of Castile, with a prenuptial agreement, (allegedly) the motto tanto monta, monta tanto, translated as "They amount to the same, the same they amount to." The point was that they treated each other as equals. The truth is that this was a purely political arrangement. Aragon longed to reconnect to Castile, and Isabella needed strong support to gain the throne of Castile when its ruler, her half-brother Henry IV of Castile (called "the Impotent") eventually died (which he did in 1474).

They did have several children, however, including Catalina, born in 1485 and later known as Catherine of Aragon, first wife of King Henry VIII of England. Other of their children became Queens of Portugal, Prince of Asturia, Archbishop of Zaragoza, and Queen of Castile and Aragon.

Ferdinand's father died in 1479, and Castile and Aragon were now united in some measure (the legal merging of the two into "Spain" took place in the early 18th century). The couple set about starting to Christianize the parts of the Iberian Peninsula over which they had any influence. The goal was to eliminate Muslims and Jews, leading to what was called the Reconquista. The conversion of Jews and Muslims in this part of the world has been recently discussed.

The final step in making their territory solely Christian was The Alhambra Decree in 1492, ordering all Jews to depart, convert, or be executed.

When Isabella died, Ferdinand lost all influence on Castile, because it passed into other hands. I'll explain that tomorrow.

The Moriscos of Spain

Twelfth-century Castilian texts see the word morisco as an adjective for Moorish people, and used it to refer to Muslims in general. Medieval Castilians used it to mean a Muslim or an Arabic speaker when talking about a Muslim convert to Christianity, as opposed to a Jewish convert. This was more convenient than the other way we see them described: nuevos christianos convertidos de moros, "new Christians, converted from Moors."

(In early—and perhaps still—Spanish-speakers such as the slavery-era southeastern United States, Morisco was a pejorative term used for the offspring of a Spaniard and a mulatto, the offspring of a Spaniard and a person with at least some African ancestry.)

1492 was a turning point for the Iberian Peninsula. It was the year Ferdinand and Isabella expelled all Jews from their kingdoms. It was also the year that the last Muslim kingdom on the peninsula, the Emirate of Granada, surrendered and was annexed to Castile. Although the Treaty of Granada allowed them to remain Muslim, efforts to convert the Muslim population to Christianity led to rebellions. The rebellions, in turn, led to suppression and the usual choice: accept conversion, leave the country, or be killed. Departure from the country was not economically feasible for many, and the former population of Granada essentially became Christian en masse in 1502. (The illustration is from the 1520s, showing conversion of Muslims in Granada.)

As we saw in yesterday's post, conversion to Christianity did not mean cultural parity with those born Christian. The Moriscos maintained the same clothing, cuisine, and culture, and of course secretly practiced their original Faith. This lasted for a couple generations, until in 1567 the Pragmatica of King Philip II of Spain ordered them to abandon their clothing and customs and language. This led to revolts, which led to expelling all Moriscos from Granada, forcing 80,000-90,000 people to spread out to other towns across Castile.

Granada had been the largest Muslim population on the peninsula. With their mass conversion, the new largest Muslim population was that of the Kingdom of Valencia, part of Aragon (Ferdinand II's domain). Valencia allowed Muslims to practice their religion and follow their own legal system. Unfortunately, a 1520s Revolt of the Brotherhoods that originally had nothing to do with religion affected them and took on an anti-Islam facet, with killings and forced conversions to follow.

One of the rulers heavily involved in forcing the Iberian Peninsula to become wholly Christian was Ferdinand II of Aragon. It is usually his queen, Isabella, who gets all the attention, but we should give him his due and take a look at his career. We'll start that tomorrow.

Conversos and Marranos

The Spanish Inquisition had more concerns about converts than the regular Roman Inquisition, because the Iberian Peninsula had a larger percentage of Jews and Muslims. When members of those groups converted, there was concern that they simply converted publicly to avoid oppression but secretly practiced their faiths. There were special terms for these converts. Conversos were Jews who converted to Christianity. Moriscos ("Moorish") were converted Muslims.

Suspicion of conversos remaining true to Judaism could simply be because the conversions were motivated by fear, not a willingness to change. The Archdeacon of Écija, Ferrand Martinez, started preaching loudly against Jews in 1378, advocating violence against them. In June 1391, his efforts led to the destruction of several synagogues in Seville and mass murders of Jews, causing many Jews to flee the country or convert to save their lives.

Even if there were no evidence of secretly practicing your previous faith, converts were not automatically accepted into Christian society, especially since they were forced to convert by fear. Conversos were distrusted by their new Christian community and reviled by their former Jewish community. Long before Martinez, a new term for conversos entered common parlance: tornadizo, "renegade."

Rulers such as James I of Aragon, Alfonso X of Castile, and John I of Castile tried to protect the converted, and forbade the use of the pejorative tornadizo. Although the rulers wanted all citizens protected, there were restrictions placed on conversos: they could not associate with Jews (lest they backslide), there were some offices they were not allowed to hold, and it was illegal to try to convert them back to Judaism.

Another term used in Spain and Portugal for converted Jews who continued to follow Judaism is Marranos. It is an insult, meaning "pig," and became a common word after the Alhambra Decree. Our modern term for these conversos is "Crypto-Jews." (The illustration is an 1893 painting by Moshe Maimon called "Marranos: A secret Passover Seder in Spain during the times of Inquisition.")

Tomorrow we will look at the plight of the morisco in Spain and Portugal.

The Spanish Inquisition

While the Roman Catholic Church established the Inquisition in the 12th century to root out heresy, etc., some countries felt the need to create their own versions. In 1478, Isabella I of Castile and her husband, Ferdinand II of Aragon, created their own that would not be controlled by the popes: the Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition. We know it as the Spanish Inquisition.

Spain had a slightly different situation than much of Western Europe, because historically it had a large Muslim and Jewish population. Ferdinand and Isabella would eventually release the Alhambra Decree in 1492 (yes, the same year Isabella financed Columbus' travels), requiring all non-Christians to convert or leave the country on pain of death. There were two terms for these converts. Conversos were Jews who converted to Christianity. Moriscos, from the word for "Moorish," were converted Muslims.

Prior to 1492, however, there was still a desire to ensure that converts from Judaism and Islam to Christianity were sincere, but after 1492 the job of the Spanish Inquisition became more widespread and intense, since so many who could not afford to leave the country converted under duress.

Besides heresy and apostasy ("backsliding" to your previous beliefs), the Spanish Inquisition went after witchcraft, blasphemy, bigamy, sodomy, Protestantism (when it came along later), and even Christian mystics (called alumbrados, "illuminati").

It was a Dominican, Fray Alonso de Ojeda, who convinced Isabella that there were "Crypto-Jews" in Andalusia: Jews who had converted but practiced Judaism in secret. This was confirmed by Isabella and Ferdinand's confessor, Tomás de Torquemada (a name that became synonymous with torture). The Spanish Inquisition held its first investigations in late 1480, and had a result by 6 February 1481, when six people were burned alive in public, a practice known as auto da fé, a Portuguese phrase meaning "act of faith." (The illustration shows an auto da fé in the public marketplace.)

Not all subjects were executed. Public flogging, imprisonment, and exile were also used, as well as being force to serve as a galley-slave, forced to row on the royal ships. There were also monetary fines. "Surviving" the investigation did not mean resuming life as you knew it: you and your descendants were prohibited from certain high-level professions like doctor and tax-collector.

If you were a good and faithful converso or a morisco, however, you were probably safe, right? Hmm, tomorrow let's see how converts were actually treated by society.

(By the way, everybody expected the Spanish Inquisition! The Inquisition protocol was to send you a message saying to be available for interrogation.)

What Started the Inquisition?

As Christianity expanded to different regions and with different authorities, philosophical discussions and policies and practices developed in isolation from each other. Councils and Synods were held to bring the various regional groups together to form consistent understanding of their message.

Once you have an approved message, however, you have to guard it, and therefore you have to find ways to stamp out dissent, disagreement, and maybe even simple debate. This need to drag dissenters back into the community of the faithful—or else—led to inquisitions, when the subject was questioned at length to determine whether they were truly UN"faith"ful or were simply misunderstood, and perhaps needed re-education.

This process, too, needed to be made consistent across the Christian world, and therefore the (upper-case) Inquisition was formed, with rules and regulations. The Catholic Encyclopedia website describes the Inquisition thusly:

Its characteristic mark seems to be the bestowal on special judges of judicial powers in matters of faith, and this by supreme ecclesiastical authority, not temporal or for individual cases, but as a universal and permanent office. Moderns experience difficulty in understanding this institution, because they have, to no small extent, lost sight of two facts.

On the one hand they have ceased to grasp religious belief as something objective, as the gift of God, and therefore outside the realm of free private judgment; on the other they no longer see in the Church a society perfect and sovereign, based substantially on a pure and authentic Revelation, whose first most important duty must naturally be to retain unsullied this original deposit of faith.

The period known as the Medieval Inquisition ranged from the 12th to 15th centuries, and started in France to deal with Cathars and Waldensians. It quickly expanded to other countries, looking into the Hussites, the Spiritual Franciscans ("Spirituals"), and the Beguines.

In 1250, Pope Alexander IV appointed Dominicans as the official Inquisitors. (The illustration is by 15th-century artist Pedro Berrugete of St. Dominic presiding over the burning of a heretic, called an auto-da-fé.)

When "moderns" think of the Inquisition, what often comes to mind is the Spanish Inquisition. Let's see what made them special next time.

Heinrich and the Hammer of Witches

I've touched on the Malleus Maleficarum ("Hammer of Witches") briefly before. It was written by a Dominican who was frustrated because he wasn't allowed to do everything he wanted as part of the Inquisition.

It was first printed in 1486 in Germany and also known as Hexenhammer. It offers proof that witches exist, explains their powers, and explains how to properly conduct a trial of a witch. It recommends torture to gain confessions.

The Inquisition of the Catholic Church also used torture to extract confessions out of suspected heretics, but officially condemned the Malleus Maleficarum as unethical in 1489. That did not prevent its massive popularity, however. Here is how the book came about.

In 1485, after urging Pope Innocent VIII to make a statement against witches, which led to a papal bull, Heinrich Kramer (c.1430 - 1505) went to Innsbruck to root out witchcraft. Its bishop, Georg Golser, gave him permission to operate in the diocese. He and his personal crusade were well-known, and a woman by the name of Helena Scheuberin, the wife of a prominent burgher, seeing him in the street, spat and said "Fie on you, you bad monk, may the falling evil take you."

Kramer found out that she never attended any of his sermons, and moreover that she was telling others to avoid him, so he accused her of laying a curse and had her arrested. Bishop Golser urged Kraner to drop the investigation, since his accusations of witchcraft had no evidence to support them, but Kramer persisted until Golser demanded that Kramer leave the diocese.

That is when he decided to turn his focus on educating others of the dangers of witches among us, and so wrote his book. He included a forward with Innocent's bull, lending an air of legitimacy to his stance. It was reprinted 13 times up until 1520, and then had a revival between the 1570s and 1660s when it was reprinted 16 times. Its popularity finally started to fade during the Age of Enlightenment, although it is still published as a curiosity today, and paperback copies can be found from several booksellers.

Next time, let's go back to the beginning of the Inquisition, and see how it all started.

Innocent, Kramer, and Witchcraft

On 5 December 1484, Pope Innocent VIII issued a papal bull concerning witchcraft. Bulls are known by their opening lines, and so this one is referred to as Summis desiderantes affectibus, "Desiring with supreme ardor," although that opening hardly tells you what the bull addresses.

The rest of the first sentence (or at least most of the very long introduction) makes more sense:

Desiring with supreme ardor, as pastoral solicitude requires, that the catholic faith in our days everywhere grow and flourish as much as possible, and that all heretical depravity be put far from the territories of the faithful,...[source]

The bull was a response to the urging of Heinrich Kramer (c.1430 - 1505), a German Dominican and inquisitor for the county of Tyrol, and for Salzburg, Bohemia, and Moravia. Kramer saw witchcraft as a severe problem, and wanted permission to root it out and punish it everywhere. The local authorities did not support his campaign, so he appealed to Innocent and convinced the pope that this was a crisis that needed addressing. 

The bull continues with a list of the results of witchcraft:

...by their incantations, charms, and conjurings, and by other abominable superstitions and sortileges, offences, crimes, and misdeeds, ruin and cause to perish the offspring of women, the foal of animals, the products of the earth, the grapes of vines, and the fruits of trees, as well as men and women, cattle and flocks and herds and animals of every kind, vineyards also and orchards, meadows, pastures, harvests, grains and other fruits of the earth; that they afflict and torture with dire pains and anguish, both internal and external, these men, women, cattle, flocks, herds, and animals, and hinder men from begetting and women from conceiving, and prevent all consummation of marriage;

Despite the bull, the German authorities limited Kramer's inquisitorial activities. During one trial he brought against the wife of a prominent burgher in Innsbruck, his bishop accused him of not being able to prove any of his accusations, finally demanding that Kramer leave his diocese.

Kramer retired from the Inquisition and turned his attention to warning everyone about witchcraft and related topics. The result was a book that is still in print, the Malleus Maleficarum, or "Hammer of Witches." Let's talk about that next time.

Pope Innocent VIII and Prince Cem

When Cem, brother of Sultan Bayezid II, came to be incarcerated in Rome as the "guest" of Pope Innocent VIII, he had a very comfortable life. Bayezid wanted to keep his rival claimant far away from Constantinople and Ottoman lands, and was willing to pay to do so.

Innocent wanted a Crusade against the Ottomans, but he needed military support from Christian rulers. The death of King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary—who had seized Ottoman-held territories in Bosnia—in 1490 created a delay in the plans.

To hold off Innocent, Beyazid promised not to attack Rome or Venice or Rhodes and to pay 40,000 ducats to the pope annually to keep Cem under guard. 10,000 of the ducats were to go to the Knights of St. John in Rhodes, who initially took Cem into custody when he asked for their help against Bayezid. Bayezid also gave Innocent 120,000 crowns—a sum greater than all papal revenues combined—and the Holy Lance. 

Innocent's attempt to convert Cem to Christianity was unsuccessful, and despite the comfort of his lifestyle in Rome, Cem wished fervently to die in Muslim lands. When Charles VIII of France invaded Italy in 1494 to conquer Naples (at Innocent's urging, although Innocent had died two years before), he stopped in Rome and made Pope Alexander VI surrender Cem. Perhaps Charles wanted to start receiving payments from the Sultan. He took Cem with him on campaign, but Cem died on 24 February 1495.

Sultan Bayezid (no doubt relieved that there was no longer a rival claimant and that he no longer had to pay a fee to keep Cem imprisoned) declared a three-day period of national mourning. He requested Cem's body for a proper Islamic funeral, but Charles kept it, hoping to ransom it for more gold. It took four years for Cem's body to reach Ottoman lands and be buried in Bursa. (The illustration shows his tomb alongside siblings.)

We are not done with Pope Innocent, however, and tomorrow we'll see the statement he made about a different campaign...against witchcraft.

Cem's Offer

When Bayezid II became sultan of the Ottoman Empire in 1481, he had a rival: his half-brother Cem (22 December 1459 - 25 February 1495). Cem was the third son of Sultan Mehmed II, who conquered Constantinople and then died without choosing a successor. Cem and Bayezid each ruled provinces, and each believed himself ready and able to become the next sultan.

The Grand Vizier tried to arrange things so that Cem could arrive at his father's funeral before Bayezid and claim the throne at Constantinople. Bayezid, however, already had several important pashas and the Janissaries in his corner. The Janissaries entered the palace, lynched the Grand Vizier, and Bayezid was urged to reach Constantinople as soon as possible.

Cem fled west with an army loyal to him, declaring himself Sultan of Anatolia and proposing that the empire be split; Bayezid could have the western half. Bayezid disagreed, and sent his army after Cem. A battle ensued in which Cem's side lost, and Cem fled to Cairo.

While in Cairo, he received a letter from Bayezid, offering him 1,000,000 akçes (a silver coin that was the standard unit of Ottoman currency) to give up his claim. Instead, Cem tried to conquer the city of Konya in Turkey, but failed. He then fled to Rhodes and asked for the protection of the Knights of St. John, also known as the Hospitallers.

Cem's offer to them was to create a perpetual peace between the Ottoman Empire and Christianity if they would help him overthrow Bayezid. The grand master of the Knights, Pierre d'Aubusson, knew a war with Bayezid could be disastrous, so when he had a message from Bayezid making a counter-offer, he accepted it. 

The counter-offer was simple: Bayezid would make an annual payment in gold to the Knights if they would take and keep Cem captive. He was sent to France under the saintly King Louis IX (who did not like having a Muslim in his lands), and kept for a year in the Duchy of Savoy, and then five years at Pierre d'Aubusson's birthplace, Limousin. (The illustration shows the tower built specially to hold him in comfort.) After Charles VIII came to the throne, Bayezid asks that Cem be transferred back to Rhodes. His value as a hostage meant several leaders wanted to "host" him, but ultimately Pope Innocent VIII won out.

In March 1489, Cem was transported to Rome and the custody of Pope Innocent VIII. Whenever word came that Bayezid was about to launch an offensive against Christians, Innocent would send a message to Bayezid, threatening to release Cem from captivity and giving the Ottomans an alternative sultan around whom they could form an insurrection.

Bayezid ultimately sent Innocent 120,000 crowns, a relic of the Holy Lance (stored in Constantinople), and an annual fee of 45,000 ducats for Cem's "room and board." Bayezid sent spies to ensure that Cem was kept under lock and key, and even tried to assassinate him.

...and then Innocent wanted a Crusade against the Ottomans. I'll continue that story—and Cem's end—tomorrow.

Pope Innocent VIII

Giovanni Battista Cibo was born in Genoa on 5 November 1432. His father was a prominent politician in Naples and then Rome, and Giovanni grew up exposed to Naples politics. He became a Canon of the Cathedral in Capua, and was given the Priory of Santa Maria d'Arba in Genoa. He resigned these positions at the urging of the Archbishop of Genoa after antagonizing King Alfonso. He went to Padua and then Rome to study.

There he came under the influence of several popes. Pope Paul II made him Bishop of Savona, but in 1473 he became a cardinal by Pope Sixtus IV, after being supported by the man who became Pope Julius II. When Sixtus IV died (1484), the conclave to elect his successor was chaotic because of two opposing factions. One faction disliked the other so much that they gave their votes to Giovanni Cibo to prevent Cardinal Marco Barbo (a cousin of Paul II) from the papacy. Giovanni Cibo won the next vote and became Pope Innocent VIII.

One of the new pope's first acts was to call a Crusade against the Turks—the Ottoman Empire was expanding rapidly, and had conquered Constantinople a generation earlier. This did not get off the ground due to King Ferdinand I of Naples, mostly due to his own orneriness that led to the 1485 Conspiracy of the Barons, a revolt against Ferdinand's attempt to strengthen his own power at the expense of the feudal hierarchy. Innocent excommunicated Ferdinand in 1489 and asked King of France Charles VIII to come to Italy and take over Naples.

Charles was intrigued, because his paternal grandmother was Marie of Anjou, the eldest daughter of Louis II of Anjou who had been a claimant to the throne of Naples (and ruled part of it from 1390 to 1399). In September 1494 (Innocent had died two years earlier!) Charles invaded with 25,000 men, using gunpowder artillery to march practically unopposed through Pavia, Pisa, Florence, and then Naples. (That, however, is an entirely different story that we might never get to; back to Innocent now.)

Innocent could not get his Crusade against the Turks off the ground, but another opportunity to do something about them came because of Bayezid II, who had become sultan of the Ottomans in 1481. Bayezid was opposed by his brother, Cem, who first tried to get help from the Mamluks of Egypt, and then from the Knights of St. John in Rhodes. Cem made an offer to the Christian world that was very tempting; I'll explain tomorrow.

Guillaume Caoursin

Yesterday's post on Mesih Pasha mentions the Siege of Rhodes in 1480, when a small garrison of Knights Hospitallers at Rhodes withstood an attack by the Ottomans. The garrison was led by Grand Master Pierre d'Aubusson. The vice-chancellor of the order was Guillaume Caoursin, who wrote (among other things) an account of the event.

Caoursin was born in 1430 in Douai in northern France, and joined the Order of Saint John (also know as the Hospitallers) as a young man. By 1462 he was vice-chancellor of the Order in Rhodes, and in 1462 he accompanied the Grand Master Piero Raimondo Zacosta to Rome for the holding of a general chapter under the guidance of Pope Paul II.

While in Rome, Zacosta died (he was in his 60s), and Giovanni Battista Orsini succeeded him. Caoursin went back to Rhodes with the new Grand Master, but was sent back to Rome in 1470 to request help from the pope for dealing with the Turks. Orsini died in 1476, and Caoursin now worked under Grand Master Pierre d'Aubusson.

In 1480, Mesih Pasha led an Ottoman force of 160 ships and 70,000 men against Rhodes. While the Turks bombarded the walls, the citizens dug a new moat and new fortification within the city walls near the Jewish quarter in case the bombardment breached the walls.

On 27 July the Janissaries managed to enter the city. d'Aubusson led the fighting, though wounded in five places. A three-hour battle forced the Turks back, and the Knights pursued all the way back to the Ottoman tents, taking booty and the holy standard of Islam. Caoursin reported that between three and four thousand Turks were slain that day. The Ottomans gave up on 17 August.

Caoursin married shortly after 1480. He was rewarded by d'Aubusson with 1000 gold florins for his services to the Order. His "next act" came in 1484, when he became ambassador to Pope Innocent VIII. Innocent was so impressed by Caoursin that he made him his apostolic secretary. Caoursin remained there, writing about his Order and about Rhodes.

Innocent VIII might also have kept Caoursin close because of his knowledge of the Ottomans and the Siege of Rhodes, of which I will have more to say tomorrow.