CALLISTO III, PAPA

CALLISTUS III, POPE. — Alfonso de Borja (Borgia), born at Canals near Xàtiva (Valencia) on 31 December 1378, studied at the University of Lleida in Catalonia, where he earned doctorates in both civil and canon law. He then received a canonry from Benedict XIII (Pedro de Luna) and many favours from King Alfonso of Aragon, of whom he was a wise counsellor. Having separated from the obstinate antipope following the Council of Constance, he steadfastly defended the cause of Pope Martin V. Twenty years later, as a reward for a successful legation between the shrewd King Alfonso and Pope Eugenius IV—finally recognised by the former against the antipope Felix V—he obtained the cardinal’s hat, which he wore with great dignity. In the conclave of April 1455, he succeeded Nicholas V under the name of CALLISTUS III.
Three main issues occupied his pontificate: the Crusade against the Turks, the defence of the Papal States—especially against King Alfonso of Naples—and the upholding of Catholic doctrine. Above all, it was the first of these that most distinguished his reign. He was not, like his predecessor, a great patron of the arts and sciences, nor can he be called an enemy of humanism. Pope Borgia, living in an environment of seven centuries of struggle against the Crescent, considered anything that did not serve to repel the Turkish threat—now made more perilous by Mehmed II—as of little account. Moreover, there were ample grounds for grave concern. On 29 May 1453, Constantinople had fallen to the Turks, and the fear of all Christian nations was profound, for the gates of the West now lay open and the conquest of Catholic lands seemed easy. Mehmed indeed proposed to attack Hungary without delay. Faced with such a dire threat, Callistus took a public and solemn vow to employ all his strength, even his life if necessary, in the struggle against the Turks until they were defeated and the road to the Holy Land lay open. He set about preaching a Crusade, sending cardinals and other legates to the principal princes of Europe to form a Christian league, and appointed as preachers of the great enterprise the Franciscans John of Capistrano and James of the Marches, the celebrated orator Robert of Lecce, and others. Yet the great powers did not heed him; Venice and Genoa sought peace with the Porte, and little could be expected from other nations. The aged Pontiff, however, did not falter. He equipped a fleet at his own expense and entrusted it to Cardinal Trevisan, while encouraging individual crusaders. To him, in part, is owed the double victory—both naval and land—of Belgrade, achieved in July 1456 by the three Giovannis: the warrior Hunyadi, the legate Carvajal, and the saintly Capistrano. Callistus sought to exploit that great triumph, but alas, internal divisions in Hungary and the deaths of the two heroes, John Hunyadi and John Capistrano, thwarted any further success in Central Europe. The Pope could only assist Skanderbeg, the undaunted leader of the Catholic Albanians, and the Genoese defenders of Crimea, while continuing to urge the King of Castile to subdue the Moors of Granada.

Though Callistus granted too much influence to the Catalans in the government of the Papal States, it must be acknowledged that he maintained his authority firmly before all, fostering sincere understanding with the other lords of the peninsula, if only to avoid internal wars that might weaken the Crusade against the Turk. For this reason, he readily responded to the appeal of the Republic of Siena, invaded by the discontented condottiere Piccinino, sending the crusader army against the bold captain. Yet since the excommunicated warrior was protected by King Alfonso of Naples, a clash arose between the two. Indeed, the old friendship between them had cooled since Callistus’s election, as the new Pope defended the rights of the Church over the Neapolitan kingdom and insisted that Alfonso should not dominate it for his own ends nor extend his hegemony over the other Italian states. Nevertheless, since the Pope needed that king for the success of the Crusade, he tolerated many abuses; but when Alfonso’s ill will became plain and, moreover, Callistus refused to renew the investiture of Naples, Terracina, and Benevento or to recognise the possible succession of the bastard Ferrante, matters nearly came to rupture.

Great was Callistus’s zeal for the preservation and propagation of Catholic doctrine, and it was largely thanks to his prudence that certain currents stirred in France and especially in Germany by the Pragmatic Sanction and the antipapal decrees of the Council of Basel did not gain ground. The situation of Catholics in Bohemia was most delicate, owing to the Hussites, especially when in 1457 George of Poděbrady, a Utraquist, ascended the throne. The Pope sought to win him over through his legate, Cardinal Carvajal, and in truth the king kept his word during Callistus’s pontificate not to favour heretics and schismatics; unfortunately, matters changed under Pius II.
He died on 6 August 1458, the feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord, a feast he had instituted. His body rests in a modest tomb in the church of Santa Maria di Monserrato in Rome. His memory might be more revered had he not summoned so many Borgia relatives to Rome, among them his nephew Rodrigo, whom he created cardinal in 1456 and who later became Alexander VI.