The Battle of Lepanto
October 7, 1571
The opening stanza of G. K. Chesterton’s poem “Lepanto” depicts a triumphant sultan of Constantinople smiling as he looks upon a splintered Europe in retreat from advancing Muslim forces.
But then came the naval battle at Lepanto. While not one of the official, numbered Crusades, this was the last time a pope personally led, defined, and spiritually framed a pan-Catholic military campaign in the traditional crusading model. Pope Pius V brought together disparate Catholic states and thousands of volunteer soldiers from across Europe to form a naval alliance known as the Holy League; its purpose was to defend Europe from the Ottoman navy that dominated the Mediterranean and threatened to reestablish Muslim rule over Spain.
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J. Douglas Johnson is the executive editor of Touchstone and the executive director of the Fellowship of St. James.
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