It's a safe bet to say that none of my students know the significance of the date October 7, 1571. In fact, it's probably a safe bet to say that no contemporary American does. There are a few exceptions, of course. Obviously, I know the significance of that date, perhaps a few academics sequestered here and there do, oh, and you're about to. You see, it was on that date that an alliance known as the "Holy League" saved the world from a truly evil empire. And thereby hangs a tale.

It hadn't been the best of centuries for Christianity. In 1453 came the end of the Byzantine Empire with the fall of Constantinople. The murderous tide of Islam had gained its second foothold on the continent of Europe, after holding Spain for 600 years. On May 30th, the Ottoman Turks overran ancient Byzantium, the last great, ancient flowering of Greek culture. Turkish Janissaries ran wild through the city, butchering, looting and raping. In obedience to the dictates of Mohammed, the iconography of the Hagia Sophia was defaced as idolatrous. Islam had tried to exterminate the Byzantines for seven hundred years and now the Turks had succeeded where Arabs had failed. The ensuing seventy years saw the Turk advance up the Balkans and down through Greece. The Turkish Sultan attained the title of "Caliph," or successor to the prophet Mohammed. In obedience to the orders of Islam, each Caliph was expected to add one new country to the domain of Islam. World domination and the eradication of rival religions by military conquest was then, is now, and always had been the dream of Islam as commanded by its prophet and enforced by his blood thirsty example.

Under Suleiman the Magnificent, the Turks began their final assault on the heart of Europe and Christianity. In 1521, the hitherto impregnable fortress city of Belgrade fell to the blood lust of Suleiman. Now the heart of the kingdom of Hungary, previously able to stand up to Ottoman aggression, was open and vulnerable. Hungary's desperate cry for help went unheeded by the western powers embroiled in their own struggles for the hegemony of Europe. So king Lajos II took probably no more than 35,000 men and found the Turkish invader, 100,000 strong, on the plain of Mohacs during the summer of 1526. By the end of the day, Lajos and ninety percent plus of his army were rotting under the mud. By 1529, Suleiman was marching on Vienna. It would be 394 years before Hungary would exist again as an independent nation, and 300 for the Greeks.

Vienna was a surprise for the Turks. No Turkish force had suffered defeat in living memory. Almost alone against the forces of Ottoman barbarity, Vienna was Europe's last stand. Except for times of war, Turkish Janissaries lived in enforced celibacy. Turned loose on enemy countryside, they were allowed their fill of butchery and rapine among the civilian population. And so they ravaged Bohemia and eastern Austria throughout the Spring of 1529 as their rightful reward for service to Islam. But Vienna held, and held, and held some more. Mercenaries from all over the Teutonic world filled the city to answer its call for help. And then the rains came, heavy, deep, unending throughout the Autumn of 1529. Suleiman couldn't move his cannon, his supplies, his troops. Disease took a heavy toll on the besiegers unused to the European climate. Suleiman abandoned the siege. But the Ottoman's did not abandon their long term goal of European domination.

1566 saw two men achieve positions which were to form the focus event of October 7th, 1571. In that year Selim II succeeded to the Caliphate upon the death of Suleiman and Pius V was elected Pope. Pius was a change for a Pope. He actually was pious and he recognized the threat Islam posed to the survival of Christianity. And he knew that the existence of the Gospel and the Christian West were the stakes being played. To defend both, he put together the sixteenth century version of the coalition of the willing. That coalition was called, "The Holy League." The League was formed barely seven months before the seminal events of October, 1571. Its constituents were Spain, the Republic of Venice, Genoa, and the Papal States of Italy. Crossing over even Reformational enmities, Pius entreated both England and France to join. Both declined.

The Gulf of Patras extends eastward from the mouth of the Adriatic, joining the Gulf of Corinth and almost cutting Greece in two. To its south is the Peloponesus and to its north, ancient Boeotia and Epirus. At the extreme eastern end of this arm of the sea lies ancient Corinth, known in ancient times for its voluptuaries. Near the western mouth of this great joining of two gulfs is the island of Lepanto, today known as Navpaktos. In the harbor of Lepanto, Selim had assembled his war fleet for the ultimate destruction of Christendom, 100,000 men distributed upon 300 war galleys and 80 or so assorted gun ships. His goal was an invasion of Italy, to sack and burn Rome, capture, kill, and torture Pius and the entire Roman Curia. The soft under belly of Europe is a much easier invasion route than through Vienna and over the Alps. Selim would not make Suleiman's mistake.

Picked to lead the outnumbered fleet of the Holy League was Don Juan of Austria, half brother of Phillip II, king of Spain, and only an uninspiring 24 years old. Only Spain, of all the major states of Europe, had signed on for the enterprise. England and France had adopted a wait-and-see attitude, probably hoping that their arch-rivals would be destroyed or compromised in the ensuing melee. Having a united front of all important or traditional allies was of the least concern to Pius who knew that having France on his side did not make for the righteousness of his cause. If he had only the Papal States, he would still have undertaken to stop the Turk even knowing it was hopeless.

Still, the fleet of the Holy League was perhaps the largest Christendom had ever assembled with some 200 war galleys and 76 assorted smaller craft. Soldiers to the number of 30,000-the majority of whom were veteran Spaniards--were spread across the galley decks and probably some 50,000 men manned oars below decks. Pius V was not about to wait for someone to find the Turkish weapons of mass destruction, nor to wait in Rome for the Turkish terrorist to strike first. He wasn't a Soccer-Mom breathing tolerance and the right to exist for all creeds, even those out to kill him. He knew good from evil and that the evil had to be destroyed where it sat before it could be strong enough to make its move. He believed his reports when he was told that Turkish Janissaries referred to Rome as the "Red Apple," ripe for the picking, which meant plunder, butchery, and an orgy of rape. He knew that Islam was a religion of its word and that was justification enough to strike first.

Pius ordered the fleet to move into the Gulf of Patras, seek the Turk and engage him. He had no illusions about what the outcome could be and he was not confidant of victory. Almost everything was on the side of the Turk. He had superior numbers, he was in home territory, he was within easy reach of his base of supply, he had a mythical reputation for invincibility, and he had the wind at his back. But the fleet of the Holy League had one thing the Turk did not, an Italian admiral, Andrea Doria. The date was October 7th, 1571.