§ 51. PAUL II. 1464-1471. 425
§ 51. Paul 11. 1461-1471.
Thejiext. occiipaLQt..olt.^^6 papal throne possessed none of the intellectual attractiveness of his predecessor, and displayed no interest in promoting the war against the Turks. He was as difficult to reach as Pius had been accessible, and was slow in attending to official business. The night he turned into day, holding his audiences after dark, and legates were often obliged to wait far into the night or even as late as three in the morning before getting a hearing.
Pjetro Rarbo, the SOU of a sister oLEngeniiis .TY...v.Has_bQrn m Venice^ 1418^ He was about to set sail for the East on a mercantile project, when the news reached Venice of his uncle's election to the papacy. Following his elder brother's advice, he gave up the quest of worldly gain and devoted himself to the Church. Eugenius' favor assured him rapid promotion, and he was successively appointed archdeacon of Bologna, bishop of Cervia, bishop of Vicenza, papal pronotary and cardinal. On being elected to the papal chair, the Venetian chose the name of_Foriiiosus and then Mark, but, at the advice of the conclave, both were given up, as the former seemed to carry with it a reference to the pontiff's fine presence, and the latter was the battle-cry of Venice, and might give political offence. So he took the name, Paul.
Before entering upon the election, the conclave again adopted a pact which required the prosecution of the crusade and the assembling of a general council within three years. The number of cardinals was not to exceed 24, the age of appointment being not less than 30 years, and the introduction of more than one of tlie pope's relatives to that body was forbidden. ^
This solemn agreement, Paul proceeded at once summarily
fame. Gregorovius' characterization is one of the least satisfactory of that impartial historian's pen. He says, " There was nothing great in him. Endowed with fascinating gifts, this man of brilliant parts possessed no enthusiasms," etc., VII. 164. Pastor passes by the failings of Eneas' earlier life with a single sentence, but gives, upon the whole, the most discriminating estimate. He sees only moral force in his advocacy of the crusade, and pronounces him, with Nicolas V. , the most notable of the popes of the 15th century. 1 The document is given by Raynaldus and Gieseler.
426 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1294-1517.
to set aside. The cardinals were obliged to attach their names to another document, whose contents the pope kept concealed by holding his hand over the paper as they wrote. The veteran Carvajal was the only member of the curia who refused to sign. From tlie standpoint of papal absolutism, Paul was fully justified. What right has any conclave to dictate to the supreme pontiff of Christendom, the successor of St. Peter! The pact was treason to the high papal theory, and meant nothing less than the substitution of an oligarchy for the papal monarchy. Paul called no council, not even a congress, to discuss the crusade against the Turks, and appointed three of his nephews cardinals, Marco Barbo, his brother's son, and Battista Zeno and Giovanni Michiel, sons of two sisters.^ His ordinances for the city included sumptuary regulations, limiting the prices to be paid for wearing apparel, ban(juets and entertainments at weddings and funerals, and restricting the dowries of daughters to 800 gold florins.
A noteworthy occurrence of Paul's pontificate was the storm raised in Rome, 14G6, by his dismissal of the 70 abbreviators, the number to which Pius II. liad limited the members of that body. This was one of those incidents which give variety to the history of the papal court and help to make it, upon the whole, the most interesting of all liistories. The scribes of the papal household were roughly divided into two classes, the secretaries and the abbreviators. The business of the former was to take charge of the papal correspondence of a more private nature, while the latter prepared briefs of bulls and other more solemn public documents. 2 The dismissal of the abbreviators got permanent notoriety by the complaints of one of their number, Platina, and the sufferings he was called upon to endure. This invaluable biographer of the popes states that the dispossessed officials, on the plea that their appointment had been for life, besieged the Vatican 20 nights before getting a hearing. Then Platina, as their spokesman, threatened to appeal to the princes of Europe to have a general council called and see that justice
^ Pastor, II. 307, fully justifies Paul for sett ins; aside the pact on the ground that every pope gets plenary authority directly from God. 2 Hergenrother : Kath. Kirchenrecht, p. 299