Church History · 1453

Constantinople Falls to the Ottomans

On May 29, 1453, the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II captured Constantinople after a siege of nearly two months, ending the thousand year Byzantine Empire. Hagia Sophia became a mosque, and Greek scholars carrying ancient manuscripts fled west, feeding the Renaissance and the Greek studies that led to Erasmus's New Testament.

Read it in the Bible: Hebrews 13:14 Matthew 24:35

Constantinople, the great Christian capital of the East, fell to the Ottoman Turks on May 29, 1453. Sultan Mehmed II, only about 21 years old, broke through its famous walls after a siege of nearly two months. The last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI, died fighting. The fall ended the Byzantine Empire, the eastern half of the old Roman Empire, which had lasted over a thousand years. Hagia Sophia, the greatest church in Christendom, became a mosque. And Greek scholars who fled west with their books helped spark a revival of Greek learning that would lead to the printed Greek New Testament and the Reformation.

What Was Constantinople?

Constantinople was founded by the emperor Constantine in AD 330 on the site of the old Greek city of Byzantium. You can read about him in the Constantine article on this site. For over a thousand years it was one of the largest and richest cities in the world, the home of the Eastern emperors and of the patriarch of Constantinople, the leading bishop of the Orthodox Church.

By 1453, though, the empire was a shadow of itself. Crusaders had looted the city in 1204, and the Ottoman Turks had taken nearly all the land around it. The empire was not much more than the city and a few scraps of territory.

How Did Constantinople Fall?

The siege began on April 6, 1453. Mehmed brought a huge army, many times larger than the city's defenders, who numbered only several thousand. He also brought giant cannons, built with the help of a Hungarian engineer named Orban, which pounded the ancient walls day after day.

The defenders had blocked the city's harbor, the Golden Horn, with a great chain. So Mehmed did something amazing. He had his men drag ships overland on greased logs, over a hill and down into the harbor behind the chain. That put the city under attack from another side.

In the early hours of May 29, the Ottomans launched a final assault. After hours of fighting, they broke through. Constantine XI threw off his royal insignia and charged into the battle, and he was never seen again. The city was given over to looting, as was common in war at the time.

What Happened to Hagia Sophia?

Hagia Sophia, which means Holy Wisdom, was built by the emperor Justinian in 537. For nearly a thousand years it was the largest church in the world. Terrified people crowded inside on the last morning, praying for a miracle.

Mehmed rode to the church and ordered it turned into a mosque. Minarets were added, and Christian mosaics were later covered. In 1934 the new Turkish republic made it a museum, and in 2020 it became a mosque again. Visitors of all faiths can still enter it today.

What Happened to the Orthodox Church After 1453?

The Orthodox Church did not disappear. Mehmed appointed a new patriarch, the scholar Gennadios Scholarios, and allowed the church to run the religious and family affairs of Orthodox Christians under Ottoman rule. They lived as a protected but second class community for centuries. The Ecumenical Patriarch still lives in Istanbul today.

Many Orthodox Christians in Russia came to see Moscow as the new center of Orthodoxy, sometimes called the Third Rome.

How Did the Fall of Constantinople Help the Renaissance?

For centuries the West had lost much of its knowledge of Greek. The East had kept it. Even before 1453, Greek scholars had begun teaching in Italy, especially after the Council of Florence in 1439 brought Eastern church leaders west. When the Ottomans closed in, the trickle became a flood. Scholars fled to Italy carrying manuscripts of Plato, Aristotle, the Greek church fathers and the Greek New Testament.

Britannica notes that these refugees gave a major boost to the humanist movement, the scholars of the Renaissance who wanted to go back to the original sources. Their motto was ad fontes, back to the sources. For Bible students, that meant going back to the Hebrew and Greek behind the Latin Vulgate.

How Did 1453 Lead to Erasmus and the Reformation?

A generation later, the Dutch scholar Erasmus learned Greek from this growing tradition. In 1516 he published the first printed Greek New Testament, along with his own new Latin translation. Luther used it for his German New Testament, and Tyndale used it for his English one. See the article on Erasmus's Greek New Testament and the article on Gutenberg's printing press.

So in a surprising way, the loss of a great Christian city in the East helped put the Greek New Testament into the hands of Western readers. God has a way of bringing good out of terrible events.

Why It Matters for You Today

Constantinople seemed like it would stand forever. It had survived for over a thousand years. Then, in one morning, it was gone. Kingdoms, empires and even great church buildings rise and fall. The Word of God and the people of God go on.

For here we do not have a permanent city, but we are looking for the city that is to come. Hebrews 13:14

Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away. Matthew 24:35

It is also a good reason to pray for the Christians who still live in Turkey and across the Middle East, keeping the faith in the lands where the church was born.

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Questions People Ask

When did Constantinople fall?

Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks on May 29, 1453, after a siege that began on April 6. Sultan Mehmed II led the attack, and the last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI, died in the fighting.

What happened to Hagia Sophia after 1453?

Sultan Mehmed II turned Hagia Sophia into a mosque soon after the city fell. It became a museum in 1934 and was turned back into a mosque in 2020. Visitors may still enter it.

How did the fall of Constantinople affect the Renaissance?

Many Greek scholars fled to Italy, bringing ancient Greek manuscripts and knowledge of Greek. This boosted the humanist movement, which wanted to study original sources, including the Greek New Testament.

What happened to the Orthodox Church after the fall of Constantinople?

The church survived under Ottoman rule. Mehmed II appointed a new patriarch and allowed the church to manage its own religious life. The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople still lives in Istanbul today.

Sources

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