§ 50. ^NEAS SYLVIUS DE' PICCOLOMINI, PIUS II. 417
was recalled to his face by the canonist George von Heimburg at the Congress of Mantua. The famous remark belongs to ^Eneas that the celibacy of the clergy was at one time with good reason made subject of positive legislation, but the time had come when there was better reason for allowing priests to marry. He himself did not join the clerical order till 1446, when he was consecrated subdeacon. Before Pius' ejection,! the conclave bound the coming pope to prosecute the war against the Turk, to observe the rules of the Council of Constance about the sacred college and to consult its members before making new appointments to bishoprics and the greater abbeys. Nominations of cardinals were to be made to the camera, and their ratification to depend upon a majority of its votes. Each cardinal whose income did not amount to 4,000 florins was to receive 100 florins a month till the sum of 4,000 was reached. This solemn compact formed a precedent which the cardinals for more than half a century followed.
■Eneas' constitution was already shattered. He was a great sufferer from the stone, the gout and a cough, and spent many months of his pontificate at Viterbo and other baths. His j-ule was not distinguished by any enduring measur_es. He conducted himself well, had the respect of the Romans, received the praise of contemporary biographers, and did all he could to further the measures for the expulsion of the Turks from Eurojje. He appointed the son of his sister, Laodamia, cardinal at the age of 23, and in 1461 he bestowed the same dignity on Francis Gonzaga, a youth of only 17. These appointments seem to have awakened no resentment.
To advance the interest of the crusade against the Turks, Pius called a congress of princes to meet in Mantua, 1460. On his way thither, accompanied by Bessarion, Borgia and other cardinals, he visited his birthplace, Corsignana, and raised it
■whether from motives of policy or religion cannot be made out. Gregorovius, VII. 165, combines the inconsistent passages from Pius' letters when he says that, after long striving to renounce the pleasures of the world, exhaustion and incipient disease facilitated the task.
1 The election was by the accessus, that is, after the written ballot was found to be indecisive, the cardinals changed their votes by word of mouth. See Hergenrother, Kath. Kirchenrecht, p. 273. 2e
418 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1294-1517.
to a bishopric, changing its name to Pienza. He also began the construction of a palace and cathedral which still endure. Siena he honored by conferring the Golden Rose on its signiory, and promoting the city to the dignity of a metropolitan see. He also enriched it with one of John the Baptist's arms. Florence arranged for the pope's welcome brilliant amusements, — theatrical plays, contests of wild beasts, races between lions and horses, and dances, — worldly rather than religious spectacles, as Pastor remarks.
The princes were slow in arriving in Maiatua, and the attendance was not such as to justify the opening of the congress till Sept. 26. Envoys from Thomas Palseologus of the Morea, brother of the last Byzantine emperor, from Lesbos, Cyprus, Rhodes and other parts of the East were on hand to pour out their laments. In his opening address, lasting three hours, Pius called upon the princes to emulate Stephen, Peter, Andrew, Sebastian, St. Lawrence and other martyrs in readiness to lay down their lives in the holy war. The aggression of the Turks had robbed Christendom of some of its fairest seats, — Antioch, where the followers of Christ for the first time received the name Christians, Solomon's temple, where Christ so often preached, Bethlehem, where he was born, the Jordan, in which he was baptized. Tabor, on which he was transfigured, Calvary, where he was crucified. If they wanted to retain their own possessions, their wives, their children, their liberty, the very faith in which they were baptized, they must believe in war and carry on war. Joshua continued to have victory over his enemies till the sun went down ; Gideon, with 300, scattered the Midianites ; Jephtliah, with a small army, put to flight the swarms of the Ammonites ; Samson had brought the proud Philistines to shame ; Godfrey, with a handful of men, had destroyed an innumerable number of the enemy and slaughtered the Turks like cattle. Passionately the papal orator exclaimed, O ! that Godfrey were once more present, and Baldwin and Eustache and Bohemund and Tancred, and the other mighty men who broke througfh the ranks of the Turks and regained Jerusalem by their arms.^
1 Mansi, XXXII. 207-222.