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Rh Rome became the scene of a chronique scandaleuse among these scholars, there was something unnatural in the predominance of the humanists in the Curia.

The fostering care of the science-loving pope extended also to the field of ecclesiastical literature; and the greatest importance attaches to the energy he developed as a collector of manuscripts and books. His agents travelled as far as Prussia, and even into the East. All this activity served to enrich the Vatican library, the foundation of which is for Nicholas V. an abiding title to fame. In political and ecclesiastical affairs he similarly manifested great vigour; and his extraordinarily pacific disposition did more than anything else towards diminishing the difficulties with which he had to contend on his entry upon office. An agreement was very quickly concluded with King Alphonso of Naples. In the Empire the affairs of the Church were ameliorated—though not so quickly—by the Concordat of Vienna (1448). The Council of Basel was compelled to dissolve, and the anti-pope Felix V. to abdicate: and, though even after the termination of the synod men like (q.v.) were found to champion ecclesiastical parliamentarian ism and the more advanced ideas of Basel, they were confronted, on the other hand, by an array of redoubtable controversialists, who entered the Hsts to defend, both in speech and writing, the privileges of the Apostolic See. Among these, Torquemada, Rodericus Sancius de Arevalo, Capistrano and Piero del Monte were especially active for the restoration of the papacy. Fortunate as Nicholas was in the haute politique of the Church, he was equally so in his efforts to re-establish and maintain peace in Rome and the papal state. In Poland, Bohemia, Hungary, Bosnia and Croatia—even in Cyprus itself—he was zealous for the peace of the Church.

The long-hoped cessation of civil war within the Church had now come, and Nicholas considered that the event could not better be celebrated than by the proclamation of universal jubilee—an announcement which evoked a thrill of joy in the whole of Christendom. A special point of attraction in this jubilee of 1450 was the canonization of Bernardino of Siena; and, in spite of the plague which broke out in Rome, the celebrations ran a brilliant course.

It was the wish of the pope that the jubilee should be followed by a revival of religious life in all Christian countries. To put this project into execution, the Church opened her “treasuries of grace,” connected with the jubilee dispensation, for the peculiar benefit of those nations that had suffered most from the turmoils of the last few decades, or were prevented from visiting the Eternal City. Nicholas of Cusa was nominated legate for Germany, and began the work of reformation by travelling through every province in Germany dispensing blessings. It was under Nicholas V. that the last imperial coronation was solemnized at Rome. There is a touch of tragedy in the fact that, in the following year, the pope saw his temporal sovereignty—even his life—threatened by a conspiracy hatched among the adherents of the pseudo-humanism. The prime mover in the plot, Stefano Porcaro, was executed. Nicholas had scarcely recovered from the shock, when news came of the capture of Constantinople by the Turks; and his efforts to unite the Christian powers against the Moslem failed. This darkened the evening of his life, and he died in the night of the 24–25th of March 1455. From the universal standpoint of history the significance of Nicholas’s pontificate lies in the fact that he put himself at the head of the artistic and literary Renaissance. By this means he introduced a new epoch in the history of the papacy and of civilization: Rome, the centre of ecclesiastical life, was now to become the centre of literature and art.

The short reign of the Spaniard, Alphonso de Borgia, as Pope Calixtus III., is almost completely filled by his heroic efforts to arm Christendom for the common defence against Islam. Unfortunately all the warnings and admonitions of the pope fell on deaf ears,

though he himself parted with his mitre and plate in order to equip a fleet against the Turks. The Mahommedans, indeed, were severely punished at Belgrade (1456), and in the sea-fight of Metelino (1457): but the indolence of the European princes, who failed to push home the victory, rendered the success abortive. Bitterly disillusioned, Calixtus died on the 14th of August 1458. His memory would be stainless but for the deep shadow cast on it by the advancement which he conferred upon his relatives.

When Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini was elected pope as Pius II. the papal throne was ascended by a man whose name was famous as poet, historian, humanist and statesman, and whose far-seeing eye and exact knowledge of affairs seemed peculiarly to fit him for his position. On the other hand, the troubled and not impeccable past of the new pontiff was bound to excite some misgiving; while, at the same time, severe bodily suffering had brought old age on a man of but 53 years. In spite of his infirmity and the brief duration of his reign, Pius II. accomplished much for the restoration of the prestige and authority of the Holy See. His indefatigable activity on behalf of Western civilization, now threatened with extinction by the Ottomans, excites admiration and adds an undying lustre to his memory. If we except the Eastern question, Pius II. was principally exercised by the opposition to papal authority which was gaining ground in Germany and France. In the former country the movement was headed by the worldly archbishop-elector Diether of Mainz; in the latter by Louis XI., who played the autocrat in ecclesiastical matters. In full consciousness of his high-priestly dignity he set his face against these and all similar attempts; and his zeal and firmness in defending the authority and rights of the Holy See against the attacks of the conciliar and national parties within the Church deserve double recognition, in view of the eminently difficult circumstances of that period. Nor did he shrink from excursions in the direction of reform, now become an imperative necessity. His attempt to reunite Bohemia with the Church was destined to failure; but the one great aim of the pope during his whole reign was the organization of a gigantic crusade—a project which showed a correct appreciation of the danger with which the Church and the West in general were menaced by the Crescent. It is profoundly affecting to contemplate this man, a mere wreck from gout, shrinking from no fatigue, no labour, and no personal sacrifices; disregarding the obstacles and difficulties thrown in his way by cardinals and temporal princes, whose fatal infatuation refused to see the peril which hung above them all; recurring time after time, with all his intellect and energy, to the realization of his scheme; and finally adopting the high-hearted resolve of placing himself at the head of the crusade. Tortured by bodily, and still more by mental suffering, the old pope reached Ancona. There he was struck down by fever; and on the 15th of August 1464 death had released him from all his afflictions—a tragic close which has thrown a halo round his memory. In the sphere of art he left an enduring monument in the Renaissance town of Pienza which he built.

The humanist Pius II. was succeeded by a splendour-loving Venetian, Pietro Barbo, the nephew of Eugenius IV., who is known as Pope Paul II. With his accession the situation altered; for he no longer made the Turkish War the centre of his whole activity, as both his immediate predecessors had done. Nevertheless, he was far from indifferent to the Ottoman danger. Paul took energetic measures against the principle of the absolute supremacy of the state as maintained by the Venetians and by Louis XI. of France; while in Bohemia he ordered the deposition of George Podebrad (Dec. 1466). The widely diffused view that this pope was an enemy of science and culture is unfounded. It may be traced back to Platina, who, resenting his arrest, avenged himself by a biographical caricature. What the pope actually sought to combat by his dissolution of the Roman Academy