Pope Pius II
Pope Pius II, born Enea Silvio Bartolomeo Piccolomini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 19 August 1458 to his death in 1464.
Aeneas Silvius was an author, diplomat, and orator, and private secretary of Antipope Felix V and then the Emperor Frederick III, and then Pope Eugenius IV. He participated in the Council of Basel, but left it in 1443 to follow Frederick, whom he reconciled to the Roman obedience. He became Bishop of Trieste in 1447, Bishop of Siena in 1450, and a cardinal in 1456.
He was a Renaissance humanist with an international reputation. Aeneas Silvius' longest and most enduring work is the story of his life, the Commentaries, which was the first autobiography of a pope to have been published. It appeared posthumously, in 1584, 120 years after his death.
Early life
Aeneas was born in Corsignano in Sienese territory of a noble but impoverished family. His father Silvio was a soldier and member of the House of Piccolomini, and his mother was Vittoria Forteguerri, who had eighteen children including several twins, though no more than ten were alive at one time. The plague finally left him with only two sisters, Laudamia and Catherina. He worked with his father in the fields for some years.In 1423, at the age of 18, he left to study at the university of Siena, where he first followed the humanities curriculum, and then that of civil law. At Siena he studied under the Augustinian Andreas of Milan, the noted historian. His preceptor and professor of civil law was Antonio de Rosellis. He also studied law under Mariano Sozzini. He then attended the university of Florence where he studied under Francesco Filelfo, and where he became friends with Poggio Bracciolini, Leonardo Bruni, and Guarino da Verona. He settled in Siena as a teacher.
Basel
In 1431 he accepted the post of secretary to Domenico Capranica, bishop of Fermo, then on his way to the Council of Basel. Capranica was protesting against the new Pope Eugene IV's refusal of a cardinalate for him, which had been designated by Pope Martin V. Arriving at Basel after enduring a stormy voyage to Genoa and then a trip across the Alps, he successively served Capranica, who ran out of money, and then other masters.In 1435, he was sent by Cardinal Niccolò Albergati, Eugenius IV's legate at the council, on a secret mission to Scotland, the object of which is variously related even by himself. He visited England as well as Scotland, underwent many perils and vicissitudes in both countries and left an account of each. The journey to Scotland proved so tempestuous that Piccolomini swore that he would walk barefoot to the nearest shrine of Our Lady from their landing port. This proved to be Dunbar; the nearest shrine was distant at Whitekirk. The journey through the ice and snow left Aeneas afflicted with pain in his legs for the rest of his life. Only when he arrived at Newcastle did he feel that he had returned to "a civilised part of the world and the inhabitable face of the Earth", Scotland and the far north of England being "wild, bare and never visited by the sun in winter". In Scotland, he fathered a child but it died.
Upon his return to Basel, Aeneas again served from 1436 to 1438 as secretary of Cardinal Domenico Capranica. He actively supported the council in its conflict with the Pope, and, although still a layman, eventually obtained a share in the direction of its affairs. He gave a speech advocating the choice of Pavia as the site of a meeting between council members and the Greek delegation, to discuss church union, which caught the attention of the duke of Milan, as he had hoped. The archbishop of Milan named him Provost of the church of S. Lorenzo in Milan, even though he had not been elected to the post by the chapter of the church and was still a layman. The Council granted him a dispensation, despite their policy against such dispensations, which they considered a feature of papal corruption. But when Aeneas was sent on a diplomatic mission to Vienna in 1438, it was reported that he had died; and the duke of Milan, who had abandoned the council and returned to Pope Eugenius' side, gave Aeneas' provostship to another candidate. In recompense, the Council appointed him a canon in the cathedral Chapter of Trent.
He refused the offer of the diaconate, shunning the ecclesiastical state because of the obligation of sexual continence which it imposed. Even the offer to become one of the electors of a successor to Pope Eugene IV was not enough for him to overcome his reluctance. He supported the creation of the Antipope Felix V in November 1439, and participated in his coronation.
In 1440, he composed a work in defense of the authority of the general council of Basel, the Libellus dialogorum de generalis concilii auctoritate et gestis Basileensium.
Aeneas then was sent to Strasbourg, where he fathered a child, a son, with a Breton woman called Elizabeth. The baby died 14 months later.
Piccolomini served briefly as secretary to Pope Felix, and in 1442 was sent as envoy to the Diet of Frankfurt. On 27 July 1442, in Frankfurt, Frederick III, King of the Romans celebrated him as Poet Laureate, and offered him a position at court as his secretary. In January 1443, Aeneas resigned as secretary of Felix V, and was appointed secretary and protonotary in the imperial chancellery. There he obtained the patronage of the emperor's chancellor, Kaspar Schlick. Some identify the love adventure that Aeneas related in his romance The Tale of Two Lovers with an escapade of the chancellor. Of his activities at this period in his life, Ferdinand Gregorovius, the historian of medieval Rome, wrote, "Versed in the affairs of the Empire and the Roman Curia, in which occupations he incessantly strove to acquire benefices that should raise him out of poverty, Piccolomini was not inspired by any ardent longing for virtue, nor was he stirred by the sublime genius of an exalted nature. There was nothing great in him. Endowed with fascinating gifts, this man of brilliant parts possessed no enthusiasms. We cannot even say that he pursued any aim beyond that of his own advantage."
Aeneas' character had hitherto been that of a man of the world with no strictness in morals or consistency in politics. Being sent on a mission to Rome in 1445, with the ostensible object of inducing Pope Eugene to convoke a new council, he was absolved from ecclesiastical censures and returned to Germany under an engagement to assist the Pope. This he did most effectually by the diplomatic dexterity with which he smoothed away differences between the papal court of Rome and the German imperial electors. He played a leading role in concluding a compromise in 1447 by which the dying Pope Eugenius accepted the reconciliation tendered by the German princes. The documents were signed on 5 February and 7 February 1447. As a result, the council and the antipope were left without support.
Bishop
He was ordained a priest in Vienna on 4 March 1446.Pope Eugenius died on 23 February 1447, and the conclave to choose his successor lasted from 4 to 6 March 1447. Aeneas Sylvius was one of the four ambassadors chosen to be the guardians of the conclave. The new pope, Tommaso Parentucelli, chose the name Nicholas V, and immediately confirmed Aeneas in his posts of papal subdeacon and secretary, and appointed him to carry the papal cross at his coronation. One of the first acts of Pope Nicholas was to appoint Aeneas Bishop of Trieste on 17 April 1447.
On 13 August 1447, at Cologne, Bishop Aeneas wrote the first Epistola retractationis, ad Magistr. Jordanum.
Pope Nicholas transferred him to the diocese of Siena on 23 September 1450.
In 1450, Aeneas was sent as ambassador by Emperor Frederick III to negotiate his marriage with Princess Eleonore of Portugal. In 1451, he undertook a mission to Bohemia and concluded a satisfactory arrangement with the Hussite leader George of Poděbrady. In 1452 he accompanied Frederick to Rome, where Frederick wedded Eleanor and was crowned emperor by the pope. At the coronation, speaking in the name of the emperor, Aeneas repudiated the conciliar theory, holding that the pope and his cardinals were the best council.
Bishop Aeneas Sylvius was a delegate of Frederick III at the Diet of Ratisbon in February 1454.
In August 1455, Aeneas again travelled to Rome on an embassy which included Johann Hinderbach to proffer the obedience of Germany to the new pope, Calixtus III. The ceremony took place on 12 August in a public consistory. As instructed, the envoys pressed the pope for a war against the Turks, which pleased Calixtus, who was of the same mind. He brought strong recommendations from Frederick and Ladislaus V of Hungary for the nomination of Aeneas to the cardinalate, but delays arose from the Pope's resolution to promote his own nephews first, which he did on 17 September 1456.
Finally, on 17 December 1456, he was named a cardinal, and next day he was assigned the titular church of Santa Sabina on the Aventine. He was allowed to keep the diocese of Siena. He also acquired the bishopric of Warmia on 12 August 1457.
Election to papacy
Calixtus III died on 6 August 1458. The leading candidate was Cardinal Domenico Capranica, but he died on 14 August, during the Novendiales. The ambassador of the Duke of Milan wrote on 31 July that Cardinal Juan de Torquemada and Cardinal Filippo Calandrini, the half-brother of Pope Nicholas V, were also candidates, and he thought that Calandrini might win. Aeneas and his friend Cardinal Calandrini of Bologna immediately headed from Viterbo to Rome, and when they reached the gate of the city, they were met by a friendly assembly of courtiers and common people, who shouted that one or the other of them would be made pope. On the evening of the death of Cardinal Capranica, the Milanese ambassador indicated it would be possible to carry the election of Piccolomini, who was being supported by the king of Naples.On 16 August, the cardinals entered into a papal conclave. Eighteen cardinals took part. The Italian cardinals were outnumbered by the foreigners. According to Aeneas' account, the wealthy cardinal Guillaume d'Estouteville, Archbishop of Rouen, though a Frenchman and a blood cousin of the king of France, seemed certain to be elected. On 18 August, the first scrutiny took place; Aeneas and Calandrini each received 5 votes, while no one else received more than three. Whether out of trickery or out of hatred, no cardinal gave a vote for d'Estouteville. The results contradicted the expectations. D'Estouteville then set out to frustrate the ambitions of Aeneas. The second ballot took place on 19 August; the results gave Piccolomini 9 votes, and D'Estouteville 6. After intense intrigue among the cardinals, including a private meeting of the Italian cardinals, who were urged by Cardinal Barbo of Venice to choose the Italian Piccolomini over the French d'Estouteville, Aeneas was able to secure enough votes for his candidacy after the second ballot at the accessio, to be elected with 12 votes. All 18 cardinals then ratified the election. He was crowned Pope on the front steps of St. Peter's Basilica on 3 September 1458 by the Protodeacon, Cardinal Prospero Colonna.