Why Church Bells Ring at Noon By Raymond Ibrahim

Raymond Ibrahim : Today in history, on July 22, 1456, the West scored one of its greatest victories over the jihad—and, in so doing, inaugurated the ringing of church bells at noon.

Three years after conquering Constantinople, the Ottoman Sultan, Muhammad II, at the head of over 100,000 Turks, marched towards the strategic fortress town of Belgrade, key to Western Europe, in the spring of 1456.

Cognizant of all the death, destruction, and mindboggling atrocities this massive Muslim march presaged—memory of the sack of Constantinople was still fresh—a great panic swept through the Danube region. Even Hungarian king Ladislaus V fled his capital to Vienna (on the pretext that he was going “hunting”).

Only one stood his ground—only John Hunyadi, the Transylvanian voivode who had long been a thorn in the Turks’ side. Even as the king fled west, Hunyadi raced to the eastern frontier—towards, not away from, the Turkish army. He immediately manned the fortress of Belgrade with 6,000 veteran fighters at his own expense. Although he implored the higher nobles for aid, few were responsive.

Meanwhile, the 70-year-old Franciscan friar, John Capistrano, went to southern Hungary calling on the people to take the cross and defend their nation against Islam. His “burning zeal, soul-piercing eloquence, and heroic austerities” set tens of thousands of the lower classes aflame. Before long, a massive crusader force of some 40,000 peasants was following Capistrano.

The world had turned upside down: “Where is the French king,” a contemporary document inquires, “who wants to call himself the Christian king? Where are the kings of England, Denmark, Norway, Sweden…? Unarmed peasants, blacksmiths, tailors, tradesmen are walking in front of the armies!”

By late June, Muhammad’s vast forces had reached and surrounded Belgrade. If it fell, all of Hungary and further west would be exposed to and eventually inundated by the hordes of Asia.

Muhammad ordered the heavy bombardment to begin on July 4. The crashing and careening cannon fire was so thunderously loud that it could be heard for a hundred miles around. Twelve days later, on July 16, massive breaches punctuated this once formidable fortress.

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