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CHAPTER I.
ELECTION OF CALIXTUS III.— HIS ATTITUDE TOWARDS THE
RENAISSANCE— HIS CORONATION AND THE EMBASSIES SENT TO DO HIM HOMAGE.
FROM the beginning of March, 1455, by which time the
death of Nicholas V was looked upon as imminent, the question of the Papal
election engaged the attention of all parties in the Eternal City. On the 13th
March we find that the Cardinals assembled in the greatest haste to take
counsel regarding the situation. “God grant”, wrote the Bishop of Chiusi to
Siena, "that the election of the Supreme Pastor of the Church may take
place in peace and without obstacle, a matter on which grave doubts here
prevail".
These apprehensions were not groundless. Considerable
agitation again prevailed in Rome; the republican antipapal party was astir,
and it was fortunate that its gifted and eloquent leader, Porcaro, was no
longer among the living. The masses became daily more and more turbulent, and
the Cardinals prudently brought troops into the City. On the 24th March
Nicodemus of Pontremoli, the Duke of Milan's ambassador, wrote as follows:
— "The whole city is in an uproar, and the population are ripe for
revolt". Another element of danger was added by the disturbances in
Bologna and Romagna, stirred up by the Venetian Condottiere Jacopo Piccinino
and other leaders, like himself thrown out of employment by the peace of Lodi.
After the death of Nicholas V, which took place in the
Vatican in the night between the 24th and 25th of March, the ceremonies usual
on such occasions were carried out, and meanwhile the Sacred College laboured
unremittingly. Letters were despatched to the rulers of all the cities in the
States of the Church, exhorting them as "quiet, peaceable, good and
devoted sons of the Church" to persevere in their wonted obedience, and at
the same time the necessary preparations were made for the election of a new
Pope. Everything was duly accomplished, so that on Thursday, April 3rd, the
solemn Mass of the Holy Ghost was sung. The preliminaries had been hastened,
because the next day was Good Friday. According to custom, a Prelate then
delivered a Latin discourse to the Cardinals, exhorting them to give
Christendom a worthy Supreme Pastor.
On the morning of the 4th April all the Cardinals
present in Rome, preceded by the Papal Cross, went, while the Vent Creator
Spiritus was sung, “peacefully and with great reverence and piety” from St.
Peter's to the Chapel of the Vatican, in which the conclave was to be held. The
adoration of the Cross customary on Good Friday and the exposition of the Holy
Handkerchief had already taken place, and the conclave began that day. The
custody of the place of election was entrusted to six Bishops, of which four were
foreigners, and six laymen; pre-eminent among the latter were Pandulfo Savello, Marshal of
the Church, and Nicodemus of Pontremoli, Francis Sforza's ambassador, a
portion of whose admirable account of the proceedings of the conclave is still
preserved in the State Archives at Milan.
At the death of Nicholas V, the Sacred College was
composed of twenty members, of whom six were absent, namely, two Germans, Peter
von Schaumburg, Bishop of Augsburg, and Nicholas of Cusa, the Hungarian,
Dionysius Széchy, the Greek, Bessarion, Jean Rolin, Bishop of Autun, and Guillaume d'Estouteville,
both of whom were French; the last mentioned had been for nearly a year acting
as Legate in France, and did not return to Rome till the 12th of September,
1455. Of these six Cardinals, Bessarion alone was able to arrive in Rome in
time for the election. The Sacred College accordingly assembled in Conclave to
the number of fifteen members. Two of these, the noble Capranica, and the
aged Prospero Colonna, had been created by Martin V; while five, namely, the
learned and open-hearted Antonio de la Cerda, Latino Orsini, Alain, the former
Bishop of Sitten, Guillaume d'Estaing, and
Filippo Calandrini owed their elevation to
Nicholas V. The remaining eight had been nominated by Eugenius IV on different
occasions. Scarampo and Pietro Barbo, two men of diametrically
opposite characters and purposes, occupied the most prominent position among
the Cardinals.
Italy furnished but seven of the fifteen electors;
these were Fieschi, Scarampo, Barbo,
Orsini, Colonna, Capranica, and Calandrini;
of the eight foreigners, two, Bessarion and Isidore, were Greeks; two, Alain
and d'Estaing, French, and the remaining four, Torquemada, Antonio de la Cerda,
Carvajal and Alfonso Borgia, Spaniards. But in the election of 1455, as in the
previous one, nationality was of comparatively little account. The opposing
factions of r the Colonna and Orsini formed the centres of the different
parties.
"The majority of the Cardinals were",
Nicodemus of Pontremoli informs us, "at first inclined to favour
the election of the Colonna Cardinal, who would no doubt have become Pope had
Nicholas V died at the commencement of his illness. But its long continuance
gave Cardinal Orsini time to counteract this feeling, and to enter into
negotiations with the ambassadors of King Alfonso and of the Republic of
Venice. Consequently — unless God should order otherwise —
either Barbo or Scarampo will obtain the Papacy. The Orsini
party, with the assistance of King Alfonso, is able to dispose of five votes,
one of which would be absolutely required by the Colonna candidate to give him
the necessary majority of two-thirds". According to another despatch from
the same ambassador, the wealthy, business-like Cardinal Orsini originally
himself aspired to the tiara, and won over the Venetian ambassadors who lodged
in his palace to his side; but in case his own hopes should be disappointed, he
brought forward Cardinal Pietro Barbo, who subsequently became Paul II.
The two opposing parties adopted different modes of
action. The Colonna sought to gain adherents by prudence and affability, while
the Orsini strengthened their material power. The prospects of Cardinal Orsini
seem to have been rapidly clouded, for on the 20th March, Nicodemus writes that
Pietro Barbo is as likely as any other candidate to fill the Papal
Throne.
An old Roman proverb declares that "he who enters
the Conclave a Pope leaves it a Cardinal”, and the truth of the saying was
exemplified in the case of Pietro Barbo.
Regarding the proceedings in the Conclave, our
information is derived from the report of Aeneas Sylvius, some scanty
particulars in isolated despatches of ambassadors, and a notice in Vespasiano da Bisticci's work. From these authorities it appears
that the Cardinals were greatly divided, and that three scrutinies failed to give any decided result. For a
time it seemed as if Domenico Capranica, after Carvajal the most worthy
among the members of the Sacred College, would be Pope. Christendom might,
indeed, have been congratulated had the majority of votes been given to a
Prince of the Church so distinguished for piety, learning, decision of
character, and political ability. But Capranica was a Roman, and
favourably disposed to the Colonna, and therefore unacceptable to many. The
Colonna desired the election of an Italian, the Orsini that of a French
Pontiff, and as neither party was able to carry the day, a neutral candidate
was sought. In this capacity the learned Cardinal Bessarion had much to
recommend him; as a born Greek, he had held aloof from Italian complications,
he had no enemies, and was justly and generally esteemed for his learning and
for his beneficent labours as Legate to Bologna. No one, moreover, seemed more
likely to give a fresh impulse to the crusade than this distinguished
representative of Greece. Eight Cardinals declared themselves in his favour,
and on the Easter Sunday and Monday there was reason to think that he would be
unanimously elected, and at once acclaimed Pope. Favours were asked of him as
if the matter were already settled. Roberto Sanseverino, in a letter to
the Duke of Milan, expressed his conviction that "if the Greek Cardinal
had exerted himself more the tiara would have been his". According to the
account given by Aeneas Sylvius it was Alain, the Cardinal of Avignon, who
prevented the election of the great humanist, who would undoubtedly have
carried on the work of Nicholas V. The French Cardinal represented to his
colleagues that it was not becoming to place at the head of the Roman Church a
neophyte, a Greek, who still wore his beard in Oriental fashion, and had but
lately ceased to be a schismatict These
words seem scarcely credible, and the truth probably is, that the pride of some
Italian Cardinals was wounded by the prospect of an Eastern, a member of the
hated Greek nation, occupying the chair of St. Peter, while the worldly-minded
amongst them, like Scarampo, dreaded Bessarion’s austerity.
When this name had ceased to figure in the list of
candidates, the former perplexity again returned. The crowds assembled in front
of the Vatican grew impatient, and the ambassadors who kept watch over the
Conclave were urgent for a decision, representing to the Cardinals the
unsettled condition of Rome, and the danger threatened by Piccinino.
In this difficulty, each party being strong enough to
hinder the election of the opposing candidate, and yet too weak to secure that
of its own, the electors cast their eyes upon a man who was not a member of the
sacred college, the Minorite Antonio de Montefalcone, but he also failed
to obtain the requisite majority of votes. Finally — as it were to postpone the
contest — all agreed in electing an old man, whose life was almost at an end.
Accordingly, mainly through the exertions of Scarampo and Alain, on the
morning of the 8th April a Spanish Cardinal, the aged Alonso (Alfonso) de Borja
(Borgia) was elected by accession, and took the name of Calixtus III. Those who
had even before the beginning of the Conclave foretold that the discord of the
Italians would result in the election of an "Ultramontane",
now saw their predictions verified. Instead of Bessarion, the Greek humanist
and philosopher, a Spanish canonist mounted the Papal throne.
No one had hitherto contemplated the elevation of
Alfonso Borgia as a possibility, but when once it became known, a prophecy of
St. Vincent Ferrer was called to mind. It was said that this Spanish Dominican,
while preaching at Valencia, remarked a priest among the crowds who commended
themselves to his prayers, and addressed him in the following words: "My
son, I congratulate you; remember that you are called to be one day the
ornament of your country and of your family. You will be invested with the
highest dignity that can fall to the lot of man. I myself, after my death,
shall be the object of your special honour. Endeavour to persevere in your
virtuous course of life". The priest to whom the saint spoke was
no other than Alfonso Borgia. From that moment, with the tenacity which
belonged to his character, he had firmly believed in the prediction and
frequently repeated it to his friends. Now that it had been accomplished, one
of the first acts of his pontificate was to raise St. Vincent Ferrer to the
altars, and his solemn canonization took place at Rome on the 29th June, 1455.
The old Catalan race of the Borja, or Borgia, as the
Italians pronounced the name, had brought forth many remarkable men. Nature had
been lavish in her gifts, and endowed them with beauty and strength, with
intellect, skill, and that energy of will which compels fortune. Alfonso, who
was no less gifted than the other members of his family, was born, at Xativa, in Valencia, on the last day of 1378, the year
which witnessed the outbreak of the great schism. At a very early age he
studied jurisprudence at the University of Lerida, and became a doctor of civil
and canon law. Subsequently he successfully taught these subjects at Lerida,
and was nominated to a canonry in the Cathedral of that city by Pedro de Luna,
afterwards known as Benedict XIII. His relations with King Alfonso were the
means of diverting Borgia from the career of learning on which he had entered.
The monarch recognized his diplomatic capabilities and drew him into his
service, where, as private secretary and confidential counsellor, he amply justified
the trust reposed in him, displaying the greatest skill and activity in the
conduct of ecclesiastical and political negotiations. Borgia also rendered
important service to the Papacy in the time of Martin V, and the abdication of
the anti-Pope Clement VIII was in great measure due to his exertions. The
lawful Pope, Martin V, rewarded him in that very year by conferring on him the
Bishopric of Valencia (1429).
As Bishop, Alfonso took part in the most important
affairs of Church and State. In the reorganization of the kingdom of Naples,
which had long been distracted by war and tumult, he rendered special services
to King Alfonso, and the institution of the celebrated tribunal of Sta. Chiara
was his work. His prudence and his spirit of perfect loyalty to Rome were
manifested in the fact that he refused to act as Alfonso's ambassador to the
Council of Basle, which was antagonistic to Pope Eugenius. He afterwards laboured
most zealously to bring about a reconciliation between the King and the Pope,
and, after it had been accomplished, was raised to the purple, and took his
title from the picturesque old Basilica of the Quattro Incoronati which stands on a spur of the northern
Caelian hill. Alfonso could not but accede to the Pope's desire that he should
remain at his Court, and he there gained the reputation of being incapable of
flattery or party feeling. There was but one opinion in Rome regarding the
moral purity, the integrity, the capacity for business, and the knowledge of
canon law which distinguished the Cardinal of Valencia, as Alfonso was now
commonly styled.
His health, unfortunately, was weak; severe study and
unceasing activity had told upon his strength, and this circumstance, together
with the familiar relations existing between him and King Alfonso, awakened
considerable anxiety in Italy. The Republics of Venice, Florence, and Genoa
were, as we learn from many contemporary letters, dissatisfied with the
election, although their official documents expressed sentiments of a very
different character.
The choice of a foreigner for the Papal dignity was a
severe blow to the national feeling in Italy. It was by some even deemed
probable that a great schism would break out, and that a number of Cardinals
would leave the Papal Court, where, in the days immediately succeeding the
election, Scarampo and Alain exercised an excessive influence. Fears
were entertained, especially by the Republics, that the already too great
influence of King Alfonso would be still further increased, and that the hated
Catalans would be unduly promoted. The latter of these apprehensions was, as we
shall see, but too well justified. But the idea that King Alfonso would now,
through his former Secretary, rule the Holy See, happily proved unfounded.
Calixtus III was certainly regarded in Rome as a
right-minded and just man. "The new Pope", wrote the Procurator of
the Teutonic Order on the 3rd May, 1455, to the Grand Master, "is an old
man of honourable and virtuous life and of excellent reputation". His
previous life had been blameless. Austere towards himself, he was amiable and
indulgent to others. As Bishop and as Cardinal he had declined all other
preferment. The poor and needy never sought comfort and help from him in vain.
The Sienese, Bartolommeo Michele, who had been previously acquainted with him,
praised him in the highest terms. On the day after the election he wrote to his
native city: "He is a man of great sanctity and learning, a friend and
adherent of King Alfonso, in whose service he has been. He has always shown
himself well disposed towards our city. His nature is peaceable and
kindly". Michele, in this letter, exhorts the Sienese to send the most
splendid embassy possible to Rome, and to select for it eminent and worthy men,
inasmuch as the Pope was very clear-sighted and learned.
A letter addressed by St. Antoninus, the great
Archbishop of Florence, to Giovanni, the son of Messer Domenico of Orvieto, in
Pisa, gives a good idea of the fears awakened by the election of Calixtus, and
of the favourable change in public opinion which soon took place in his regard.
"The election of Calixtus III", says St. Antoninus, "at
first gave little satisfaction to the Italians, and this for two reasons.
First, inasmuch as he was a Valencian or Catalan, they felt some apprehension
lest he might seek to transfer the Papal Court to another country. Secondly,
they feared that he might confide the strongholds of the Church to Catalans,
and that it might eventually be difficult to recover possession of them. But
now the minds of men have been reassured by more mature reflection, and the
reputation which he bears for goodness, penetration, and impartiality.
Moreover, he has bound himself by a solemn promise — a copy of which I have
seen — to devote all his powers, with the advice of the Cardinals, to the war
against the Turks, and the conquest of Constantinople. It is not believed or
said that he is more attached to one nation than to another, but rather that as
a prudent and just man he will give to everyone his due. The Lord alone, whose
providence rules the world, and especially the Church, and who in His infinite
mercy brings good for her out of evil, knows what will happen. Meanwhile we
must always think well of the Holy Father, and judge his actions favourably,
even more so than those of any other living being, and not be frightened by
every little shock. Christ guides the bark of Peter, which, therefore, can
never sink. Sometimes He seems to slumber in the storm: then must we wake Him
with prayers and good works, of which there is much need".
The whole demeanour of Calixtus III was marked by
great simplicity ; splendour and pomp were most distasteful to him. Aeneas
Sylvius Piccolomini bears witness that he greatly surpassed his predecessor in
the patience with which he gave audiences. He himself dictated the letters sent
to Kings and to friends, and countersigned petitions with pleasure. He loved to
converse upon legal matters, and was as familiar with laws and canons as if he
had but just left the University. Nicholas V had delighted in conversation, but
Calixtus was chary of his words. Nowhere, however, was the contrast between the
Spanish Pontiff and the great patron of the Renaissance so striking as in the
domain of literature and art.
But in order to correctly estimate Calixtus III in
this matter we must begin by discarding the passionate and exaggerated
denunciations of the humanists of his day, one of whom went so far as to
declare that "Calixtus III was a useless Pope". Their golden age
certainly closed with the life of Nicholas V. Indeed, if we consider the
prominent position occupied in his days by men either indifferent or actually
antagonistic to the Church, we must admit that a reaction was inevitable. The
violence of this reaction — which, from the ecclesiastical point of view, was a
salutary one — was greatly exaggerated by the humanists. Calixtus III, the
quiet, dry, legal student, was not directly inimical, but simply indifferent,
to the Renaissance movement. In his reign its victorious course was checked for
a time, but it was not violently arrested.
The extraordinary favour shown by the Pope to the
humanist Valla has never been sufficiently explained. He was appointed Papal
Secretary, and canonries were freely bestowed upon him, but he died on the 1st
August, 1457. His monument in the Lateran, rescued from destruction by a great
German historian, was removed to another place in the most recent restoration
of the Church.
It is interesting to note the manner in which the
humanists conformed themselves to altered circumstances. In the Vatican Library
there is still preserved a petition for a pension, addressed to Calixtus III by
a learned man, who endeavours to recommend himself to the Pontiff by an
allusion to the Eastern question, in which the latter took so deep an interest.
When they saw that it was in vain to hope for anything from this Pope they
avenged themselves by calumnies.
One of the chief of these was that propagated by Filelfo and Vespasiano da Bisticci, which accused Calixtus of dispersing the Vatican
Library. The account of Vespasiano runs as follows: "When
Pope Calixtus began his reign, and beheld so many excellent books, five hundred
of them resplendent in bindings of crimson velvet with clasps of silver, he
wondered greatly, for the old canonist was used only to books written on linen
and stitched together. Instead of commending the wisdom of his predecessor, he
cried out as he entered the Library: 'See, now, where the treasure of God's
Church has gone! Then he began to disperse the Greek books. He gave several
hundred to the Ruthenian Cardinal, Isidore. As this latter had become half
childish from age the volumes fell into the hands of the servants. That which
had cost golden florins was sold for a few pence. Many Latin books came to
Barcelona, some by means of the Bishop of Vich, the powerful Datary of the
Pope, and some as presents to Catalan nobles . There are serious grounds
for disbelieving this narrative. If the dispersion of the books had been so
complete, how could Platina, the Vatican Librarian under Sixtus IV,
have admired their splendour? Isolated volumes may, as often happens after the
death of a Pope, have found their way into other hands, but this cannot have
been at all a general case, for a large portion of the collection of Nicholas
V, is at the present moment in the Vatican.
The next testimony which we shall adduce is of itself
almost sufficient to decide the question. On the 16th April, 1455, even before
his coronation, the Pope caused his confessor, Cosimo da Monserrato, to undertake the compilation of a catalogue of
the valuable library left by his predecessor. This very fact indicates an
interest in the preservation of the books, and it is not likely that a Pope who
thus acted would give them away to the first comer. In this most ancient
inventory of the Vatican Library we find a number of marginal notes, by means
of which the humanistic statements regarding the dispersion of manuscripts may
be reduced to their proper dimensions. Here it appears that Calixtus certainly
gave away some manuscripts, five volumes in all, and these of no great value.
Two went to the King of Naples. The fact that the catalogue was undertaken on
the 16th April, 1455, does not exclude the possibility of subsequent presents
having been made by the Pope, but even if this were the case the number of manuscripts
so disposed of must have been very small. If he bestowed only two on King
Alfonso, his intimate friend, we may rest assured that he cannot have given
hundreds to Cardinal Isidore or to the Catalan nobles. The only thing that may
be granted as probable is that Calixtus, who was ready to pledge even his mitre
to provide funds for the Turkish war, may have sacrificed some of the gold and
silver bindings for this purpose. Thus this oft-repeated tale proves for the
most part legendary.
The attitude of the new Pope towards the Renaissance
and its promoters doubtless formed a striking contrast to that of its
enthusiastic patron, Nicholas V. It is to be accounted for, not only by his own
want of taste for polite literature, but by the peril which threatened
Christendom from the East. He justly deemed it to be his first duty to defend
Europe from the Turk, and this care occupied his mind so completely that little
room was left for more peaceful labours in the realm of literature and art.
The pontificate of Calixtus III opened ominously on
the very day of his accession with a violent outbreak of the old Roman family
broils. He was crowned on the 20th April. In the morning he repaired to St.
Peter's, where, according to the old custom, one of the Canons of the Church
reminded him of the transitory nature of all earthly greatness by burning a
bundle of tow before his eyes, and saying, "Holy Father, so perishes the
glory of the world!". The Pope himself celebrated Mass, Cardinal Barbo singing
the Epistle and Cardinal Colonna the Gospel. The coronation afterwards took
place in front of the Basilica; Prospero Colonna, as the senior Cardinal
Deacon, placed the triple crown upon the pontiff's head with the words:
"Receive the triple crown and know that thou art the father of all Princes
and Kings, the guide of the world, the Vicar on earth of our Saviour Jesus
Christ, to whom is honour and glory for ever and ever. — Amen."
Immediately after this solemnity Calixtus took
possession of the Lateran, the Cathedral Church of the Popes. He was
accompanied by all the Cardinals and about eighty Bishops clad in white,
together with many Roman barons and the magistrates of the city. He rode
"a white horse" through the streets, adorned with tapestry, to the
"golden Basilica, the mother and head of all the churches in the city and
in the world". In pursuance of an ancient custom the representatives of
the Jews met the Pope on his triumphal procession in the Piazza, known as Monte
Giordano; they presented him with the roll of the law. He read some words from
it, and said: "We ratify the law, but we condemn your interpretation, for
He of whom ye say that He will come — our Lord Jesus Christ — has come, as the
Church teaches us and preaches". This ceremony was the occasion of a riot,
by which the Pope's life was endangered. The populace endeavoured to seize the
richly ornamented book of the Jewish law, and even laid hands on the Papal baldacchino.
Disturbances of a yet more serious character occurred
on the Campo de' Fiori. Napoleone Orsini, who had a dispute with
Count Everso of Anguillara regarding
the lordship of Tagliacozzo, determined to
avenge the death of one of his men slain by an adherent of Everso. Leaving the procession he hastened to the Campo de
Fiori, where the Count lodged, and pillaged his quarters. So great was the
power of the Orsini that three thousand armed men assembled on Monte Giordano
in answer to the cry, "Orsini! to the rescue!. The Colonna sided with the
Count, and a fierce encounter between the two factions under the very eyes of
the Pope was barely prevented, and peace for the moment restored by the
strenuous exertions of his messengers and of Cardinal Orsini and the Prefect,
Francesco Orsini.
The Pope was greatly angered by these disturbances. He
afterwards charged Cardinal Pietro Barbo, who had recently established
peace in the patrimony, to bring about a cessation of hostilities for a few
months. This truce was subsequently prolonged by the Pope, who endeavoured also
to restore peace among the other baronial families of Rome. Happily the rest of
the reign of Calixtus III was not of a piece with this ill-omened beginning,
for although the feuds among the barons were not completely extinguished, the
city was less affected by them.
The Pope's coronation was followed by the homage of
the Christian powers, and from the latter part of April Rome witnessed the
arrival of a succession of splendid embassies. That of Lucca was the first to
appear, and was followed at longer or shorter intervals by those of the other
cities. That of King Alfonso was exceptionally magnificent, but his attempt to
begin by making terms with the Pope regarding the obedience to be promised was
little calculated to maintain the good understanding which had previously
existed between him and Calixtus, who met his pretensions and a similar attempt
on the part of the envoys of Frederick III with a decided refusal.
The Republic of Florence which had sent humanists to
do homage to Nicholas V now selected as the chief of its embassy their
Archbishop, St. Antoninus, a man remarkable alike for the purity of his
life and his theological learning. With him were associated Giannozzo Pandolfini,
Antonio di Lorenzo Ridolfi, Giovanni di Cosimo de Medici, and the lawyer Oddone Nicolini. The
ambassadors were desired without the archbishop's knowledge to request Pope
Calixtus to promote him to the purple. On the 24th of May, the day of their
audience, Calixtus spoke of his determination to combat the foes of the
Christian faith and to reconquer New Rome, not sparing even his own life in the
cause, although he deemed himself unworthy to win the martyr's crown. In
conclusion, he expressed his hope that Florence, as a true daughter of the
Church, would render every possible assistance in this holy undertaking. On the
28th May the Archbishop delivered in open consistory his celebrated discourse
on the war against the Turks, and the Pope replied by an eulogy of Florence.
Two days later in a private audience Calixtus dwelt on his earnest desire for
the complete restoration of peace in Italy, and the distress caused him by the
disturbances which Piccinino was again stirring up in his unfortunate country.
In the end of July, 1455, the Venetian embassy reached
Rome. The message which it bore regarding the burning question of the day was
not of a very satisfactory nature. The ambassadors were the same who had
already presented to Nicholas V the congratulations of the Signoria. They were
instructed to reassure the Pope as to the intentions of the Republic concerning
the Turkish war. They were to inform him that if the other Christian powers
would proceed seriously against the Turks they would manifest the same good
will as their forefathers had shown. The import of this answer was clear, and
the Signoria subsequently inculcated on the envoys the necessity of adhering to
it. A similar evasive reply was given to Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini, when, on
his passage through Venice to offer the Emperor Frederick's homage to the Pope,
he, in his master's name, inquired into the intentions of the Republic
regarding the Turkish question.
Their stay in Venice delayed the arrival in Rome of
Aeneas Sylvius and his companion, the lawyer, Johann Hinderbach,
until the 10th August. Their reception was honourable, but their attempt to
treat with Calixtus regarding the Emperor's claims in the matter of
reservations, tithes, nominations, and first requests, before making the
profession of obedience, was frustrated, as the Pope absolutely refused to make
any promise for the sake of gaining that which was his due. "We were
placed in no small perplexity", Aeneas Sylvius wrote to the Emperor,
"but as we saw that nothing else could be done, and that it would cause
scandal if we were to depart without making profession of obedience, we decided
on doing this, and then proceeding with your petition". Two days later the
profession of obedience of the German nation took place in open consistory.
Aeneas Sylvius made a long speech on the occasion, and congratulated the aged
Pope on the fact that he was the first Pontiff since Gregory XI, that is to
say, for a period of about eighty years, who had no antiPope to
fear. He then proceeded to advocate the Turkish war, a matter very near the
heart of the Pope, and one in regard to which the speaker's former exertions
and present zeal gave weight to his words. Calixtus praised the Emperor and
commended his good intention of devoting himself to the war; and, for his own
part, declared that he would not shrink from any sacrifice to achieve the
extermination of the infidels. During the following days the ambassadors
presented the Emperor's petition in writing, and had repeated conferences
concerning it with the Pope, but, as might have been foreseen, gained
nothing. Hinderbach then returned to
Germany, while Aeneas Sylvius remained in Rome, endeavouring to make himself of
use, and eagerly seeking promotion to the purple, for which, however, he had
long to wait.
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