Crusade and Conversion: Islam as Schism in Pius II and Nicholas of Cusa

In the aftermath of the fall of Constantinople in 1453, Western European authors primarily described the Turkish enemy as a barbaric force. Within this established, albeit by no means unanimous, storyline it is possible to make out a wide array of nuances that distinguish the positions adopted by prominent humanists such as Pius II and Nicholas of Cusa. As this essay will examine the theological elements of their critiques of Islam in the Epistle to Mahomet II and the Cribatio Alkorani, I will argue that the arguments put forth in these critiques were primarily anchored to the same principles and myths formulated during the Middle Ages. Pius II and Cusa weave together different threads of doctrinal disagreement to engage in a polemical dialogue between Christianity and Islam that casts Mohammed as a schismatic and his Turkish followers as the arch enemies of the Christian faith.