Paul II, pope of Rome, was a Venetian by birth. His original name was Pietro Barho, and he was the nephew of pope Eugenius III, throuL'h the sister of the latter. Barlio had been successively archdeacon at Bologna and l)ishop of Cervia. He entered upon tlie pontificate in 1464. Paul 1 1 began l)y correcting abuses, and chocking the exactions of the ofl[icers and secreta- ries of the papal court, who levied contributions at pleasure from those who had occasion to applj' to Rome for licenses, rescripts, and other official papers. He en- deavored also to form a league of the Christian princes against the Turks. But while he resumed the design of his predecessor for a general crusade against the Mohammedans, Paul adopted a course of policy which perpetuated disunion in Christendom. He aided Fer- dinand in expelling the partisans of Anjou from Na- ples (q. v.), and conseciuently quarrelled with that mon- arch respecting certain fiefs and airoars of tribute
claimed by the Holy See ; he attacked Podiebrad, king of Bohemia, on the ground that he favored the Hussite movement, and sent a legate to Louis XI to claim the definite revocation of the Pragmatic Sanction. And so, while Paul opposed the king of France, excited a civil war in Bohemia (q. v. ; see also Hussites; Po- land), and fomented the discords of Italy, the com- mon interests of Christendom were forgotten, and the Turks continued to acquire new territorj-. When, by their taking of Negropont, the establishment of the na- val power of the Turks in Europe seemed a certaintj', and they threatened Italy, he jjroclaimed (in 1468) a general peace among the Italian governments, threat- ening with excommunication those who did not ob- serve it. But the decision had been reached too late, and ere the final preparations for a united attack of the Turks had been perfected, pope Paul II died suddenly, July 25, 1471. He was the first pontiff who openly de- clared himself a foe to the progress of knowledge. An academy had been formed at Rome for the cultivation of Greek and Roman antiquities and philology, of which Pomponius, Lsetus, Platina, and other learned men were members. Paul, who, unlike his predecessor Pius II, liad no taste for profane learning, became suspicious of the academicians and their meetings. Some one probabh' excited his suspicions bj' accusing them of infidelity and of treasonable designs. The academy was pro- scribed, some of its members ran away, others were seized and tortured, and among them Platina, w ho after a j'ear's imprisonment was released through the inter- cession of several cardinals. It may easilj' be sup- posed that Platina, in his Lives of the Popes, which he wrote afterwards under Sixtus IV, did not spare the memory of Paul II. But besides Platina, other con- temporary writers, such as Corio Ammirato, an anonj'- mous clironicler of Bologna, and the monk Jacopo Fi- lippo of Bergamo, all speak unfavorabh' of this pope. Cardinal tiuerini has undertaken the defence of Paul II in his Vindiciw adrersus Platinam aliosque Ohtrec- tutores, and Romanists claim that Paul II is maligned b}^ Protestants because he proved the persecutor of the Hussites. There is however no justice in this accusa- tion, for many Romanists themselves confess that Paul II was envious, malicious, and hj'pocritical. His vacil- lating policy speaks for itself. He was ambitious for the extension of papal power, and resolved to main- tain the privileges of ecclesiastics, and their exemp- tion from the jurisdiction of temporal courts, as is most clearly proven in his conduct towards Louis XI, and the treacherous cardinal Balluc, who deserved to be executed for the betrayal of his sovereign to Ciiarles of Burgundy at Perronne. See Muratori, Sciijit. Per. Jtal. vol. iii, pt. ii, p. 993 ; Bower, Gesch. der PiJmischeii Papste, ix, 312 ; Artaud, Hist, des Sou- rerains Pi.ntifs Rom. (Paris, 1847), iii, 341 sq. ; Hist, of Popery (Lond. 1838, 8vo), ch. xvi; Reichel, Hist, of the Roman See in the Middle Ages, p. 235 sq. ; Wetzer u. Welte (R. C), Kirche?/- Lexikon, s. v.; Aschbach, Kirchen-Lexikon, s. v. (J. H. W.)
Paul III, a noted pope of Rome, flourished in a most critical period of the history of the Cliristian Church. His original name was Allessandro I'\irnese. He was born at Carino, in Tuscany, in 1468. He was educated at the university of the ]\Iedici at Florence, and there acquired great familiarity with tlie Latin and the Greek. After this he lived at Rome, largely given up to pleasure and frivolity. He kept low com- panj', supported mistresses, became a father, and in many waj'S gained an unenviable notoriety. He finally, however, became more serious, and determined to enter tlie service of the Church, He was first em- ployed in the apostolical chancellory, and soon gained friends b}' his learning and promptness in the dis- charge of all duties. In 1493 he was made bishop of Montefiasconc, and in 1499 was created a cardinal. As such he served in important trusts, and eventual!}' be- came bishop of Ostia and dean of the Sacred College.
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