Pius II

(1405–64)

   Pope.

   Pius was born Enea Silvio de Piccolomini in Corsignano, Italy. He had a considerable influence at the Council of Basle (1431–49) and supported Antipope Felix V against Pope eugenius iv. At this stage he believed that the supreme authority in the Church lies with a General Council and his book Libellus Dialogorum de Concilii Auctoritate is an important exposition of conciliar theory. He became the secretary of Emperor Frederick III in 1442, and in 1445 he threw his support behind Pope Eugenius. The following year, he renounced his dissolute life and was ordained. His rise in the ecclesiastical hierarchy was spectacular. He was consecrated Bishop of Trieste in 1447 and Bishop of Siena in 1450; he became a Cardinal in 1456 and he was elected Pope in 1458. In 1453 Constantinople had fallen to the Muslims. Pius proclaimed a Crusade. He received little support from the kings of Europe, particularly after 1460 when, in the bull ‘Execrabilis’, he rejected the practice of appealing to a General Council. When taxed with inconsistency, he famously declared, in the bull ‘In Minoribus Agentes’, ‘Aeneam rejicite, Pium suscipite’ (Reject Enea, Accept Pius). In 1464 he decided to lead a Crusade personally, but he died of a fever before the expedition left Italy. Pius was a highly intelligent and talented writer. In his younger days he was the author of the love story Euryalus and Lucretia; he also produced several histories and an important commentary on the events of his own time.

   Pius II, Memoirs of a Renaissance Pope, edited by L.C. Gabel (1960);

   R.J. Mitchell, The Laurels and the Tiara: Pope Pius II (1962).