§ 50. u^neas Sylvius de Piccolomini, Pius II.
The next_pontiff, Pius II., has a place among the successful men of history. Lacking high enthusiasms and lofty aims, he was constantly seeking his own interests and, through diplo-
1 Pastor, I. 747, says ein solches Verfahren war unerhort, it was an unheard-of procedure.
§ 50. ^NEAS SYLVIUS DE' PICCOLOMINI, PIUS II. 415
matic shrewdness, came to be the most conspicuous figure of his time. He was ruled by expediency rather than principle. He never swam against the stream. ^ When he found himself on the losing side, he was prompt in changing to the other.
jEneas SylvLus^de^ Piccolomini was bornin 1405 at CorsignanOj^a village located on a bold spur of the hills near Siena. He was one of 18 children, and his family, which had been banished from Siena, was poor but of noble rank. At 18, the son began studying in the neighboring city, where he heard Bernardino preach. Later he learned Greek in Florence. It was a great opportunity when Cardinal Caj)ranica took this young man with him as his secretary to Basel, 1431. Gregorovius has remarked that it was the golden age of secretaries, most of the Humanists serving in that capacity. Later, ^neas went into the service of the bishop of Novaro, whom he accompanied to Rome. The bishop was imprisoned for the part he had taken in a conspiracy against Eugenius IV. The secretary escaped a like treatment by flight. He then served Cardinal Albergati, with whom he travelled to France. He also visited England and Scotland. ^
Returning to Basel, -^neas became one of the conspicuous g^ersonages in the council, was a member, and often acted as chairman of one of the four committees, the committee on faith, and was sent again and again on embassies to Strassburg, Frankfurt, Trent and other cities. The council also appointed him its chief abbreviator. In 1440 he decided in favor of the rump-synod, which continued to meet in Basel, and espoused the cause of Felix V., who made him his secretary. The same year he wrote the tract on general councils.^ Finding the cause of the anti-pope waning, he secured a place under Frederick III., and succeeded to the full in ingratiating himself in that monarch's favQX. His Latin epigrams and verses won for him the appointment of poet-laureate, and his diplomatic cleverness
1 Enea ist seiner Tage nie gegen den Strom geschwommen. Haller in Quellen, etc., IV, 83.
2 London he found the most populous and wealthy city he had seen. Scotland he described as a cold, barren, and treeless country.
3 Libellus dialogorum de generalis concilii auctoritate.
416 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1294-1517.
and versatility the highest place in the royal council. At first he joined with Schlick, the chancellor, in holding Frederick to a neutral attitude between Eugenius and the anti-pope, but then, turning apostate to the cause of neutrality, gracefully and unreservedlj^gave in his submission to the Roman pontiff. While on an embassy to Rome, 1445, he excused himself before Eugenius for his errors at Basel on the plea of lack of experience. He at once became useful to the pope, and a year later received the appointment of papal secretary. By his j^ersuasion, Frederick transferred his obedience t-o Eugenius, which ^neas was able to announce in person to the pope a few days before his death. From Nicolas V. lie received the sees of Trieste, 1447, and Siena, 1450, and in 1456 promotion_to the college of_ cardinal^.
At the time of his election as pope, JSneas was 53 years old. {le had risen by tact and an accurate knowledge of men and European affairs. He was a thorough man of the world, and capable of grasping a situation in a glance. He had been profligate, and his love affairs were many. A son was born to him in Scotland, and another, by an Englishwoman, in Strassburg. In a letter to his father, asking him to adopt the second child, he described, without concealment and apparently without shame, the measures he took to seduce the mother. He spoke of wantonness as an old vice. He himself was no eunuch nor without passion. He could not claim to be wiser than Solomon nor holier than David, ^neas also used his pen in writing tales of love adventures. His History of Frederick III. contains prurient details that would not be tolerated in a respectable author to-day. He was even ready to instruct youth in methods of self-indulgence, and wrote to Sigismund, the young duke of the Tyrol, neither to neglect literature nor to deny himself the blandishments of Venus. ^ This advice
1 iEneas aided Chancellor Schlick in some of his love adventures, and described one of them in the much-read novel, Eurialus et Lucretia. His letters from 1444 on, show a desire to give up the vrorld. He declared he had had enough of Venus, but he also wrote that Venus evaded him more than he shrank from her. He seems to have passed into a condition of physical infirmity, and to have been forced to abandon his immoral courses. He, however, also indicates he had begun to be actuated by feelings of penitence,