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 NICHOLAS

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NICHOLAS

Though a patron of art in all its branches, it was literature that obtained his highest favours. His Ufe- long love of books and his delight in the company of scholars could now be gratified to the full. His im- mediate predecessors had held the Humanists in sus- picion; Nicholas welcomed them to the Vatican as friends. Carried away by his enthusiasm for the New Learning, he overlooked any irregularities in their morals or opinions. He accepted the dedication of a work by Poggio, in which Eugene was assailed as a hypocrite; Valla, the Voltaire of the Renaissance, was made an Apostolic notary. In spite of the demands on his resources for building purposes, he was always generous to deserving scholars. If any of them mod- estly declined his bounty, he would say: "Do not refuse; you will not always have a Nicholas among you." He set up a vast establishment in the Vatican for translating the Greek classics, so that all might be- come familiar with at least the matter of these master- pieces. "No department of literature owes so much to him as history. By him were introduced to the knowledge of western Europe two great and unrivalled models of historical composition, the work of Hero- dotus and the work of Thucydides. By him, too, our ancestors were first made acquainted with the graceful and lucid simplicity of Xenophon and with the manly good sense of Polybius" (Macaulay, Speech at Glasgow University). The crowning glory of his pontificate was the foundation of the Vatican Library. No lay sovereigns had such opportunities of collecting books as the popes. Nicholas's agents ran- sacked the monasteries and palaces of every country in Europe. Precious manuscripts, which would have been eaten by the moths or would have found their way to the furnace, were rescued from their ignorant owners and sumptuously housed in the Vatican. In this way he accumulated five thousand volumes at a cost of more than forty thousand scudi. " It was his greatest joy to walk about his library arranging the books and glancing through their pages, admiring the handsome bindings, and taking pleasure in contem- plating his own arms stamped on those that had been dedicated to him, and dwelling in thought on the gratitude that future generations of scholars would entertain towards their benefactor. Thus he is to be seen depicted in one of the halls of the Vatican library, employed in settling his books" (Voigt, quoted by Pastor, II, 213).

His devotion to art and literature did not prevent him from the performance of his duties as Head of the Church. By the Concordat of Vienna (1448) he se- cured the recognition of the papal rights concerning bishoprics and benefices. He also brought about the submission of the last of the antipopes, Felix V, and the dissolution of the Synod of Basle (1449). In ac- cordance with his general principle of impressing the popular mind by outward and visible signs, he pro- claimed a Jubilee which was the fitting symbol of the cessation of the schism and the restoration of the au- thority of the popes (14.50). Vast multitudes flocked to Rome in the first part of the year ; but when the hot weather began, the plague which had been ravaging the countries north of the Alps wrought fearful havoc among the pilgrims. Nicholas was seized with a panic; he hurried away from the doomed city and fled from castle to castle in the hope of escaping infection. As soon as the pestilence abated he returned to Rome, and received the visits of many German princes and prelates who had long been upholders of the decrees of Constance and Basle. But another terrible calamity marred the general rejoicings. More than two hun- dred pilgrims lost their lives in a crush which occurred on the bridge of Sant' Angelo a few days before Christmas. Nicholas erected two chapels at the en- trance of the bridge where Mass was to be said daily for the repose of the souls of the victims.

On this occasion, as in previous Jubilees, vast sums

of money found their way into the treasury of the Church, thus enabling the pontiff to carry out his de- signs for the promotion of art and learning, and the support of the poor. As the Jubilee was the proof that Rome was the centre towards which all Christen- dom was drawn, so at its conclusion Nicholas sent forth his legates into the different countries to assert his authority and to bring about the reform of abuses. Cardinal D'Estouteville was sent to France; Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa, one of the most devout antl learned men of his day, was sent to North Germany and Eng- land; and the heroic Franciscan, St. John Capistran, to South Germany. They held provincial and other synods and assemblies of the regular clergy, in which wholesome decrees were made. Nicholas of Cusa and St. John preached the word in season and out of season, thereby producing wonderful conversions among both clergy and laity. If they did not succeed in destroying the germs of the Protestant revolt, they certainly postponed for a while the evil and nar- rowed the sphere of its influence. It should be noted that Cusa never reached England, and that D'Es- touteville initiated the process for the rehabilitation of Bl. Joan of Arc. The restored authority of the Holy See was further manifested by the coronation of Frederick III as Sovereign of the Holy Roman Empire — the first of the House of Habsburg raised to that dignity, and the last of the emperors crowned in Rome (1452).

Meantime the pontiff's own subjects caused him great an.xiety. Stefano Porcaro, an able scholar and politician, who h.ad enjoyed the favour of Martin V and Eugene IV, made several attempts to set up a re- public in Rome. Twice he was pardoned and pen- sioned by the generous Nicholas, who would not sacri- fice such an ornament of the New Learning. At last he was seized on the eve of a third plot, and con- demned to death (Jan., 1453). A deep gloom now settled down on the pontiff. His magnificent designs for the glory of Rome and his mild government of his subjects had not been able to quell the spirit of re- bellion. He began to collect troops and never stirred abroad without a strong guard. His health, too, began to suffer seriously, though he was by no means an old man. And before the conspiracy was thor- oughly stamped out a fresh blow struck him from which he never recovered. We have seen what a prominent part Parentucelli had taken in the Council of Florence. The submission of the Greek bishops had not been sincere. On their return to Constan- tinople most of them openly rejected the decrees of the council and declared for the continuance of the schism. Eugene IV vainly endeavoured to stir up the Western nations against the ever-advancing ■Turks. Some help was given by the Republics of Venice and Genoa; but Hungary and Poland, more nearly menaced, sujjplied the bulk of the forces. A victory at Nish (1443) had been followed by two ter- rible defeats (Varna, 1444, and Kosovo, 1449). The whole of the Balkan peninsula, except Constantinople, was now at the mercy of the infidels. The emperor, Constantine XII, sent messages to Rome imploring the pope to summon the Christian peoples to his aid. Nicholas sternly reminded him of the promises made at Florence, and insisted that the terms of the union should be observed. Nevertheless the fear that the Turks would attack Italy, if they succeeded in captur- ing the bulwark of the east, induced the pontiff to take some action — especially as the emperor professed his readiness to accept the d(-crees of the council. In May, 1452, Cardin:d Isidore, an cut husia-stic Greek patriot, was sent .as legate to ('onstaiiliiiople. A .sol- emn function in honour of the union was celebrated on 12 Dec, 14.52, with prayers for the pope and for the patriarch, Gregorius. But the rlergy and the populace cursed the Uniates and boasted that they would rather submit to the turban of the Turk than