Pope Pius II

Pius II ( Enea Silvio Piccolomini civil, Latin Aeneas, also: Eneas - Sylvius, born October 18, 1405 in Corsignano named after him Pienza, Siena, † August 14, 1464 in Ancona) was Pope from 1458 to 1464. He was a great humanist, writer, historian, poet and scholar, admirer of Boccaccio and excited about the Latin classics.

Ecclesiastical career

Prior to his ecclesiastical career Enea Silvio Piccolomini led a life as a poet and bon vivant, and was as contradictory as later as pope in his work.

The lawyer and poet took humanistic formed in 1432 as a companion of Cardinal Domenico Capranica at the Council of Basel in part. There he had the function of a defense and belonged to the party of conciliarists. In September 1432 he traveled as a secretary to the Prince-Bishop Nicodemus della Scala of Freising Frankfurt Princes and remained until January 1433 in its services. 1440 was Piccolomini Secretary of the Antipope Felix V. and was from 1442 Envoy of the council at Frankfurt Reichstag. Beginning of 1443 he entered the service of King Frederick III. , Who continued to support Pope Eugene IV. Piccolomini now adopted a neutral position. The time until 1445 he spent mainly at the court of Emperor later to become in Wiener Neustadt and Graz, among other things, as a royal secretary. Friedrich III. appreciated his services and his loose verses and told him with the poet's crown to the " poet laureate ". At the University of Vienna Piccolomini held during this period lectures on the poets of antiquity and thus exerted a significant influence on the German humanism from.

From 1444 to 1447 he was a minister in the Office of the Dean Unteraspach which he was awarded by the Bishop of Passau, Leonhard von Laiming.

1447 was Piccolomini, Bishop of Trieste and 1448 he was involved in the negotiations that led to the Vienna Concordat. In 1449 he became bishop of Siena, papal legate in Germany. After 10 years in the service of Emperor Frederick III. left Piccolomini in 1455 finally the court of Vienna to serve the Curia. On December 17, 1456 he was appointed by Pope Calixtus III. elevated to cardinal priest of S. Sabina and 1457 Prince-Bishop of Warmia; as such, he stressed the primacy of the pope now. He was also in the same year archdeacon of Xanten.

Writings

In his major works, Asia and Europe, which he endowed with a broad-based cosmography, he put his extensive knowledge to the test. His handwriting Asia he completed as Pope, his second major work Europe lacked only the last review. In both works he treated the geography, the customs of the peoples, the secular and ecclesiastical history, and the economic and social characteristics. He was also associated with the Byzantine Empire in Europe with his. This Enea had first described the continent of Europe with detailed substantive representations. The classic kosmographisch -based works made ​​use of Columbus in planning his trips. His works were soon printed and circulated in many editions.

In addition, he also produced humanistic writings how his book Pentalogus de rebus ecclesiae et imperii (about: A Conversation to fifth on the things of church and state ), in which he asks the king in 1443 to decisive intervention to the unity of the church again manufacture and requires a new council.

Confrontation with the Turkish threat

Even before he became Pope, Piccolomini saw the rise of the Turks, the danger of Islamic expansion and called for the defense of the Turks, who conquered Constantinople in 1453 Opel on May 23, and Greece had occupied. At the Frankfurt parliament, which he headed as imperial commissioner, he implored in a three -hour speech on 15 October 1454 to establish a kind of European army and led for the first time since the Carolingian period again the term " Europe ", where he additionally designations Christianity and "Fatherland " used.

"If we want to admit the truth that Christianity has for many centuries no greater shame experienced as now; because in earlier times we have been so struck only in Asia and Africa, in foreign countries, but now we were in Europe, in our country, in our own house, made ​​at our own residence harshly. "

Pontificate

On August 19, 1458 Enea Silvio Piccolomini was elected to a three-day conclave in Rome to the Pope and enthroned on 3 September. In his memoirs, Pius II remembered with revulsion to the frame-up game in the conclave. His choice of Pope name is deemed as an allusion to the pio Enea, the pious Aeneas " by Virgil.

When Pope Piccolomini was now a staunch advocate of papalism and fought for the decision power of the pope in all ecclesiastical and secular matters. So he issued on 18 January 1460 Bulle Exsecrabilis who took an appeal to a general council against the pope with excommunication. Thus, an important tool in the conciliar movement was taken out of the hand.

Had they been only the power of Christianity in Europe in sight, so now paved to the secularization, which Piccolomini was aware long before his papacy. This has worried him because he wanted to restore the old papal plenitude of power again. To power it was also in conflict with Georg von Podiebrad, the king of Bohemia. The proposed confederation plan and the denial of Obedienzeides gave him a big fight.

Pius II built his birthplace Corsignano to the ideal Renaissance city, which is called after him Pienza. He was also the founder of the University of Basel was founded in 1460. Through his involvement in the " Brixner dispute" of the philosopher and Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa, he alienated himself from the public in Germany.

Death

Pius II died on August 15, 1464 in Ancona in an attempt to raise an army against the Turks. His remains were first buried in St. Peter's Basilica and 1614 then transferred to the Roman church of Sant'Andrea della Valle. The frescoes by Pinturicchio Bernardino di Betto di Biagio actually (* um 1454 in Perugia, † December 11, 1513 in Siena) in the Piccolomini Library in Siena Cathedral show significant stages of his life cycle.

Reception

In the German - Canadian historical drama The Conclave are the circumstances that led to the election of Pius II, from the perspective of the then young Rodrigo Borgia, later Pope Alexander VI. told.

• About the election to the papacy in 1458: The Conclave. 2006 Director: Christoph Schrewe, imdb link:

Works

• Commentarii rerum memorabilium que Temporibus suis contigerunt ( German: memoirs from his life ) ( biography, memoir )
• Historia Friderici III. sive Historia Austrialis
• Commentarii de gestis Concilii Basiliensis
• Historia Bohemical
• De ritu, situ, moribus et conditione Germaniae ( digitized )
• Historia de Duo bus amantibus ( De Euryalo et Lucretia ) ( love story of Euryalus and Lucretia; novella )
• Chrysis ( comedy in the style of Plautus )
• Epistula ad Mahumetem
• Asia
• Europe
• Cosmographia
• Numerous letters to important people

Newer edition:

• Enea Silvio Piccolomini Papa Pio II: I commentarii. A cura di Luigi Totaro. Nuova edizione ampliata. 2 full. Milano: Adelphi Edizioni, 2008 ( collana " Gli Adelphi " 338 ) ISBN 978-88-459-2337-1 [lat Text in Italian and Italian translator's comment]
• Eneas Silvius Piccolomini: Historia Austrialis. Part 1, Introduction by Martin car villages, 1 editorial published by Julia Knödler. Part 2, 2nd and 3rd editorial published by Martin car villages ( = Monumenta Historica Germaniae. Scriptores Rerum Germanicarum. Nova Series. XXIV). Hahn; Papa, Hannover 2009, ISBN 978-3-7752-0224-4 ( review sehepunkte )