§ 51. PAUL II. 14G4-1471. 427
was done. The pope's curt answer was that he would rescind or ratify the acts of his predecessors as he pleased.
The unfortunate abbreviator, who was more of a scholar than a politician, was thrown into prison and held there during the four months of Winter without fire and bound in chains. Unhappily for him, he was imprisoned a second time, accused of conspiracy and heretical doctrine. In these charges the Roman Academy was also involved, an institution which cultivated Greek thought and was charged with having engaged in a propaganda of Paganism. There was some ground for the charge, for its leader, Pomponius Laeto, who combined the care of his vineyard with ramblings through the old Roman ruins and the perusal of the ancient classics, had deblaterated against the clergy. This antiquary was also thrown into prison. Platina relates how he and a number of others were put to the torture, while Vienesius, his Holiness' vice-chancellor, looked on for several days as the ordeal was proceeding, " sitting like another Minos upon a tapestried seat as if he had been at a wedding, a man in holy orders whom the canons of the Church forbade to put torture upon laymen, lest death should follow, as it sometimes does. " On his release he received a promise from Paul of reappointment to office, but waited in vain till the accession of Sixtus IV., who put him in charge of the Vatican library. 1
Paul pursued an energetic policy against Podiebrad and the Utraquists of BoTieTfiTaT and, after ordering all the compacts with the king ignored, deposed him and called upon Matthias of Hungary to take his throne. Paul had rejected Podiebrad's offer to dispossess the Turk on condition of being recognized as Byzantine emperor.^
In 1468, Frederick III. repeated his visit to Rome, accompanied by 600 knights, but the occasion aroused none of the high expectation of the former visit, when the emperor brought with
1 Jacob Volaterra in Muratori, new ed., XXIII. 3, p. 98.
2 Pastor, II. 358 sqq., makes a heroic effort to exempt Paul from the guilt of neglecting the crusade against the Turks. In a letter written by Cardinal Gonzaga, which he prints for the first time (II. 773), the statement is made that Paul was quietly laying aside one-fourth of his income to be used against the Turks. There is no mention of any sum of this kind among the pope's assets.
428 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1294-1517.
him the Portuguese infunta. There was no glittering pageant, no august papal reception. On receiving the communion in the basilica of St. Peter's, he received from the pontiff's hand the bread, but not the '' holy blood," which, as the contemporary relates, Paul reserved to himself as an object-lesson against the Bohemians, though it was customary on such occasions to give both the elements. The successor of Charlemagne and Barbarossa was then given a seat at the pope's side, which was no higher than the pope's feet.^ Patritius, who describes the scene, remarks that, while the respect paid to the papal dignity had increased, the imperium of the Roman empire had fallen into such decadence that nothing remained of it but its name. Without manifesting any reluctance, the Hapsburg held the pope's stirrup.
Paul was not without artistic tastes, although he condemned the study of the classics in the Roman schools,^ and was pronounced by Platina a great enemy and despiser of learning. He was an ardent collector of precious stones, coins, vases and other curios, and took delight in showing his jewels to Frederick III. Sixtus IV. is said to have found 5-4 silver chests filled with pearls collected by this pontiff, estimated to be worth 300,000 ducats. The two tiaras, made at his order, contained gems said to have been worth a like amount. At a later time, Cardinal Barbo found in a secret drawer of one of Paul's chests sapphires valued at 12,000 ducats.^ Platina was probably repeating only a common rumor, wlien he reports that in the daytime Paul slept and at night kept awake, looking over his jewels.
To this diversion the jpontiff added sensual pleasures and^ public amusements.* He humored the popular taste by restoring"heathen elements to tlie carnival, figures of Bacchus and the fauns, Diana and her nymphs. In the long list of the
1 Patritius in Muratori, XXIII. 205-215.
2 Pastor, II. .']47, tries to show that Paul had some iniiul for humanistic studies. During his pontificato, 14(!7, the German printers, Schweinheim and Pannarts, set up the first printing-presses in Kome, but not under Paul's patronage. * Infessura, p. 167.
* A quotation given by Gregorovius, VII. 220, probably exaggerates when it states he filled his house with concubines — ex concubina domum replevit.