POPE CALLIXTUS III, A MISUNDERSTOOD MAN

8 April 1455-6 August 1458

Alfonso de Borja (Borgia in Italian) was born of a noble family in Valencia, Spain,  31 December 1378. He was well educated in Valencia and acquired doctorates in both canon law and civil law at the University of Lleida. By the end of the century, he was a professor of law at Lleida.

Around 1411, Borja attended a lecture by Vincent Ferrer who spoke to him: “My son, you one day will be called to be and ornament of your house and of your country. You will be invested with the highest dignity that can fall to the lot of man. After my death I shall be the object of your special honor. Endeavor to persevere in a life of virtue.” One of Borja’s first acts as pope was to canonize Ferrer on June 3, 1455.

This was a time of great disunity in the Church. There were two and three popes at a time. Borja supported Anti-pope Benedict XIII. In 1416, Borja became a delegate of the Diocese of Lerida to the Council of Constance where this disunity was the primary discussion. However, he could not attend because King Alfonso V of Aragon was opposed to the Council. Borja eventually had an influence on Alfonso. By 1424, he resigned from the university and went into full time service to the king of Aragon. He became the apostolic administrator to the See of Mallorca. Borja attended the Council of Basel (1431-1439). When Alfonso V decided to bring all of his subjects under Pope Martin V, it was Borja who mediated and convinced Anti-pope Clement VIII to submit.

Eventually, Pope Eugene IV made him Cardinal  after Borja reconciled Eugene with Alfonso. He then became a member of the Roman Curia.

In 1455, Borja was 76. Pope Nicholas V had just died. He became the compromise candidate for pope. No one thought he would live long enough to make any trouble. Borja took the name Callixtus III.

That year was only two years after the fall of Constantinople. Callixtus was concerned about a European invasion of the Ottomans. He organized a crusade, sending missionaries to all of Europe to preach, stopped all building projects to have the money. In asking for prayers for the success of the Crusade, he ordered bells all over Europe to ring at noon to remind the faithful to pray. It has become the Angelus bell.

Now, all the city-states and countries were arguing and fighting with each other. Some of the governments donated ships to fight the Ottomans. Genoa sent a fleet, Aragon threatened to attack. Portugal withdrew ships. But Crusader troops gathered in Hungary and, under the leadership of John Hunyadi and St. John Capistran, the troops beat the Turks at Belgrade on August 6, 1456. To commemorate this win, Callixtus proclaimed the Feast of the Transfiguration in 1457. This is one of the few losses the Sultan endured over the course of the next hundred years.

Only one great Captain arose from this struggle, Skanderberg of Albania. Callixtus named him the Captain of the Roman Church for clearing his country of the Turks.  But, after his death the Turks did take over Albania.

To this day, the Albanians refer to themselves as the ‘sons of Skanderberg’, even though they are mostly all Moslems. However, many do not practice. In those parts of Europe, the melding of the Muslim, Eastern Orthodox and Roman religions have given rise to some unique religious views.

Pope Callixtus was known for his charitable life and penitential lifestyle. One of his most dramatic actions was the re-trial of St. Joan of Arc, where she was found innocent of the charges.

But this pope saw himself as a failure for not having a massive Crusade to end the invasion. But blame sits on the many governments who refused to assist. Many accused him of nepotism for rewarding his nephew, Rodrigo, with a cardinalate in a time when that was common.

Pope Callixtus died of a stroke on 6 August 1478, a few months shy of his 80th birthday.