PIUS II. (ÆNEAS SYLVIVS PICCOLOMINI), was born on the 18th of October 1405, at Corsignai in the Siennese, the name of which he afterwards changed into that of Pienza. His mother Victoria Forteguerra, when she was with child of him, dreamed that she should be delivered of a mitred infant; and as the way of degrading clergymen at that time was by crowning them with a paper mitre, she believed that Æneas would be a disgrace to his family. But what to her had the appearance of being a disgrace, was a presage of the greatest honours. Æneas was carefully educated, and made considerable proficiency in the belles lettres. After having
ving finished his studies at Siena, he went in 1431 to the council of Bale with Cardinal Capranica, surnamed De Fermo, because he was entrusted with the government of that church. Aeneas was his secretary, and was then only 26 years of age. He afterwards acted in the same capacity to some other prelates, and to Cardinal Alberghi. The council of Bale honoured him with different commissions, in order to recompense him for the zeal with which he defended that assembly against Pope Eugene IV. He was afterwards secretary to Frederic III. who decreed to him the poetic crown, and sent him ambassador to Rome, Milan, Naples, Bohemia, and other places. Nicholas V. advanced him to the bishopric of Trieste, which he quitted some time after for that of Siena. At last, after having distinguished himself in various nunciatures, he was invested with the Roman purple by Calixtus III. whom he succeeded two years after, on the 27th of August 1458. Pius II. now advanced to the holy see, made good the proverb, Honores mutant mores. From the commencement of his pontificate, he appeared jealous of the papal prerogatives. In 1460 he issued a bull, "declaring appeals from the pope to a council to be null, erroneous, detestable, and contrary to the sacred canons." That bull, however, did not prevent the procurator-general of the parliament of Paris from appealing to a council in defence of the Pragmatic Sanction, which the pope had strenuously opposed. Pius was then at Mantua, whither he had gone in order to engage the Catholic princes to unite in a war against the Turks. The greater part of them had agreed to furnish troops or money; others refused both, particularly France, who from that moment incurred his holiness's aversion. That aversion abated under Louis XI. whom he persuaded in 1461 to abolish the Pragmatic Sanction, which the parliament of Paris had supported with so much vigour.
The following year, 1462, was rendered famous by a controversy which took place between the Cordeliers and Dominicans, whether or not the blood of Jesus Christ was separated from his body while he lay in the grave. It was also made a question whether it was separated from his divinity. The Cordeliers affirmed that it was, but the Dominicans were of an opposite opinion. They called each other heretics; which obliged the pope to issue a bull, forbidding them under pain of censure to brand one another with such odious epithets. The bull which his holiness published on the 26th of April, retracting what he had written to the council of Bale when he was its secretary, did not redound much to his honour. "I am a man (says he), and as a man I have erred. I am far from denying that a great many things which I have said and written may deserve condemnation. Like Paul, I have preached through deception, and I have persecuted the church of God through ignorance. I imitate the blessed Augustin, who having suffered some erroneous sentiments to creep into his works, retracted them. I do the same thing; I frankly acknowledge my ignorance, from a fear lest what I have written in my younger years should be the occasion of any error that might afterwards be prejudicial to the interests of the holy see. For if it be proper for any one to defend and support the eminence and glory of the first throne of the church, it is in a peculiar manner my duty, whom God, out of his mercy and goodness alone, without any merit on my part, has raised
to the dignity of vicar of Jesus Christ. For all these reasons, we exhort and admonish you in the Lord, not to give credit to those writings of ours which tend in any degree to hurt the authority of the apostolic see, and which establish opinions that are not received by the Roman church. If you find, then, any thing contrary to her doctrine, either in our dialogues, in our letters, or in other of our works, despise these opinions, reject them, and adopt our present sentiments. Believe me rather now that I am an old man, than when I addressed you in my earlier days. Esteem a sovereign pontiff more than a private person; except against Aeneas Sylvius, but receive Pius II." It might be objected to his holiness, that it was his dignity alone which had made him alter his opinion. He anticipates that objection, by giving a short account of his life and actions, with the whole history of the council of Bale, to which he went with Cardinal Capranica in 1431; "but (says he) I was then a young man, and without any experience, like a bird just come from its nest." In the mean time, the Turks were threatening Christendom. Pius, ever zealous in the defence of religion against the infidels, forms the resolution of fitting out a fleet at the expence of the church, and of passing over into Asia himself, in order to animate the Christian princes by his example. He repaired to Ancona with a design to embark; but he there fell sick with the fatigue of the journey, and died on the 16th of August 1464, aged 59 years. Pius was one of the most learned men of his time, and one of the most zealous pontiffs; but being of an ambitious and pliant disposition, he sometimes sacrificed to that ambition. His principal works are, 1. Memoirs of the council of Bale, from the suspension of Eugenius to the election of Felix. 2. The history of the Bohemians, from their origin to the year 1458. 3. Two books on cosmography. 4. The history of Frederic III. whose vice-chancellor he had been. This performance was published in 1785 in folio, and is believed to be pretty accurate and very particular. 5. A treatise on the education of children. 6. A poem upon the passion of Jesus Christ. 7. A collection of 432 letters, printed at Milan, 1473, in folio, in which are found some curious anecdotes. 8. The memoirs of his own life, published by John Gobel Personne his secretary, and printed at Rome in 4to in 1584. There is no doubt of this being the genuine production of that pontiff. 9. Historiarum ubicumque gestarum, of which only the first part was published at Venice in 1477 in folio. His works were printed at Helmstadt in 1700, in folio, at the beginning of which we find his life. That verse of Virgil's Aeneid (lib. i. 382.) which begins thus,
Sum Pius Aeneas, — — — —
and the end of the following verse,
— — — — fama super aethera notus,
have been applied to him.
Pius IV. (John Angel, Cardinal de Medicis), of a different family from that of Florence, was born at Milan in 1499. He was son to Bernardin de Medechini, and brother of the famous Marquis de Marignan, Charles V.'s general. He raised himself by his own merit, and filled several important offices under Popes Clement VII. and Paul III. Julius III. who had entrusted him with several legations, honoured him with a cardinal's hat.
hat in 1549. After the death of Paul IV. he was advanced to at Peter's chair on the 25th of December, 1559. His predecessor had rendered himself detestable to the Romans, who treated his memory with every mark of indignity, and Pius IV. commenced his pontificate by pardoning them. He did not, however extend the same clemency to the nephews of Pope Paul IV.; for he caused Cardinal Caraffe to be strangled in the castle of St Angelo, and his brother, the prince de Palliano, to be beheaded. His zeal was afterwards directed against the Turks and heretics. In order to stop, if possible, the progress of these last, he renewed the Council of Trent, which had been suspended. He knew well (says abbé de Choisy), that that council might make some regulations which would have the effect to lessen his authority; but, on the other hand, he perceived that great inconveniences might result from its not being assembled; and "in the main (said he to his confidants) it is better to feel evil for once than to be always in dread of it." In 1561 he dispatched nuncios to all the Catholic and Protestant princes, to present them with the bull for calling that important assembly. An end was, however, put to it by the industry of his nephew, S. Charles Borromeus in 1563; and on the 26th of January the year following, he issued a bull for confirming its decrees. In 1565 a conspiracy was formed against his life by Benedict Acolti, and some other visionaries. Those madmen had taken it into their head that Pius IV. was not a lawful pope, and that after his death they would place another in St Peter's chair, with the title of Pope Angelicus, under whom errors might be reformed, and peace restored to the church. The conspiracy was discovered, and the fanatic Benedict put to death. This pontiff died a little time after, on the 9th of December 1565, aged 66 years, carrying to the grave with him the hatred of the Romans, whom his severities had exasperated. He was a man of great address, and very fruitful in his resources. He adorned Rome with several public edifices; but these ornaments tended greatly to impoverish it. If he was the instrument of raising his relations in the world, it must be allowed, at least, that the greater part of them did him honour.