Defenders of the Faith: Christianity and Islam Battle for the Soul of Europe, 1520-1536

Billed as a showdown over eastern Europe between Emperor Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire and Suleyman the Magnificent of the Ottoman empire, the leaders of the two great superpowers of the late Renaissance age, "Defenders of the Faith" is about so much more, with personalities, intrigues, and events passing by quickly enough to pull together themes and ideas that may not have been so apparent to me in my previous reading on the Reformation. The gist of the story is this: the Protestant Reformation was able to get off the ground because Charles needed the support of the German princes to face the threat of the Ottoman Turks, who were threatening to establish a hegemony over eastern Europe. "Had Suleyman prevailed at Vienna, as odds suggest he should have, Europe would have been Islamic to the Rhine River in the early sixteenth century."

Three main themes permeate the book: the growth and spread of Martin Luther's heresy in the northern German states, the ongoing conflict between Charles V and Francis I (of France) over control of Milan and other Italian city-states (with the Papal states caught in-between), and the evolving threat of the Muslim empire in the east. But as with any Reston history, it is the personalities of the various players that drive the story. Charles is caught between trying to honor both his pledge to defend the faith as well as guarantee the rights of the German princes who elected him; Frances I diverts his attention from chasing skirts long enough to assert his rights over Milan and find himself captured in battle; Henry VIII of England first defends the church against Martin Luther but later breaks from that church so he can bed Ann Boleyn; three different popes--Leo X, Adrian I, and Clement VI--vacillate between Frances and Charles in seeking to keep the Papal states intact while simultaneously opposing Luther and trying to rally the different nationalities to recognize the Islamic threat; Ibrahim Pasha, Suleyman's right hand man, develops a monstrous ego claiming personal responsibility for the Turks steamrolling through Hungary and the Balkan states; and his boss, Suleyman, must contend with the battles between his primary wives--he had over 40--while leading major campaigns in Egypt, Hungary, Rhodes, Persia, and Austria. And behind all of them is the beer-swilling, hot-headed monk, Martin Luther, telling the popes and Charles and anyone who questions him to kiss his ass.

Luther went head to head with a number of papal legates and theologians leading to the Diet of Worms in 1521, which condemned both Luther and his teachings. By all rights he should have been incarcerated and incinerated. But Charles honored the right of safe-conduct to and from the Diet that he had given to Luther, even though he was advised to follow the example from a hundred years earlier when Jan Hus was grabbed and burned under similar circumstances. The German princes, divided as they were over Luther's message, either refused to enforce the edict, or felt powerless to do so, fearing to set the whole region in warfare.

When Charles tried to force his will in 1529, the northern princes united in opposition to the imperial decree. This led to the declaration of Protestation, and the Reformation was born. Charles issued an ultimatum to these princes two years later, but he had to back down when it became apparent that he would need their help in facing Suleyman.

After the Diet of Worms, Charles was also preoccupied by the machinations of the poes and Francis over control of Lombardy and Milan. A series of battles eventually led to Francis' defeat and capture at Pavia in1525, "the last battle for heroic chivalry and the first battle of modern warfare."  Francis then lied through his teeth to gain release, and Charles challenged him to hand to hand combat in a bit of street theater that amused European courts. Charles then discovered Clement VII conspiring with Francis to free northern Italy, and he unwittingly unloosed the dogs of war on Rome in the infamous "Sack of Rome" in 1527. "The glorious Renaissance of Italy was coming to an end. The great age of Italian history was dying in a bathos of collective guilt, an acceptance of divine punishment, and self flagellation, a desperate need for healing, and a longing for order."

By that time, Henry had grown tired of his queen, Catherine (who was also the aunt of Charles V), and had become hot for Ann Boleyn. While Henry's toadie, Wolsey, sought to ease the way for Henry's lust, Charles put the screws on Clement to refuse Henry's demand for a divorce. Henry retaliated by defending his right to screw whom he pleased, and confiscated all church land in England to begin his own religion.

But this only begins to tell half the story. Suleyman captures Rhodes with the loss of tens of thousands men versus 120 Knights of Rhodes, devastates the "flower of Hungarian nobility" at Mohacs, and misses capturing Vienna in 1529 only because his artillery is bogged in the mud of the Balkan plains. A return visit to Vienna in 1532 set the stage for "a contest for the mastery of the world." The Turkish invasion stalled out on a diversionary assault on the castle at Guns, however, and the final apocalyptic battle never materialized. Suleyman turned his attention to the Shiite heresy in Baghdad, and Charles sought to reunite his empire under one religion. It was too late to eradicate Protestantism, however, and even a decisive victory over the Protestant forces in 1547 led to the legalization of Lutheranism two years later. Suleyman likewise failed to erase Shiism, and we see the results today in Iran and Iraq.

This was the third book of Reston to look at the European--Islamic conflict through the lens of seemingly distant events: the Crusades, the expulsion of the Moors in Spain, and the battle over Vienna. Of course that conflict is far from being over as the rhetoric of 9/11 and the Madrid bombings remind us. Reston does a nice job of focusing on personalities and motivations, which means that he brings a lot of imagination to sparse evidence. It might not make for totally factual history, but it does make for a good read.

Author: Reston, James
Date Published: 2009
Length: 448 pp
electronic print