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126-606: In the 15th century Pope Pius II , admiring the Ottoman–Albanian Wars waged mainly by Skanderbeg , defined Albania as Italy's bastion of Christianity ( Latin : Antemurale Christianitatis Italiaeque ). The pope himself declared war on the Ottoman Empire in 1463, but such war was never fought, as the following year he died at Ancona , while still organizing the naval attack on the Ottomans. Armenia, especially

252-574: A crusade and from Italy Emperor Frederick II issued an encyclical to that end. A crusading army under the command of King Conrad IV of Germany mustered on 1 July 1241, but was disbanded a few weeks after setting out because the danger had passed. Although there was no major military action in the Empire, rumours that the Mongols had been checked there spread far beyond the Empire's borders. There are records in several languages from Spain to Armenia of

378-532: A "great crime". in a letter of 7 October 1462, addressed to the Bishop of Rubico in the Canary Islands , Pius instructed bishops to impose ecclesiastical penalties on transgressors. Pius did not condemn the concept of trading in slaves, only the enslavement of Christians, who represented a very small minority of those captured and taken to Portugal. Pope Pius II inaugurated an unusual urban project, perhaps

504-632: A Benedictine abbot in Vienna, quoted by Matthew of Paris. A letter from the master of the French Templars to the French king at about this time noted that if the armies of Bohemia and Hungary "should be defeated, these Tartars will find no one to stand against them as far as" France. Baldwin of Ninove records that the Mongols caused panic in Flanders . The historian Peter Jackson agrees with

630-595: A Christian. The pope even suggested that if Mehmed were to convert, he would be recognized as "Emperor of the Greeks and of the East." However, there are historians who believe that the mentioned letter was sent to the Sublime Porte. Not surprisingly, if it was delivered, the invitation was not successful. In April 1462, a public pageant was staged for the pope to receive the relics of the head of Saint Andrew when it

756-457: A Frenchman and a blood cousin of the king of France, seemed certain to be elected. On 18 August, the first scrutiny took place; Aeneas and Calandrini each received 5 votes, while no one else received more than three. Whether out of trickery or out of hatred, no cardinal gave a vote for d'Estouteville. The results contradicted the expectations. D'Estouteville then set out to frustrate the ambitions of Aeneas. The second ballot took place on 19 August;

882-707: A Mongol army on the banks of the river Delpheos (possibly the Dnieper ). In later Moravian historiography, the Mongol invasion of 1241 was conflated with the Hungarian invasion of 1253, which was part of the War of the Babenberg Succession . On the latter occasion, the Hungarian army included pagan Cumans, who were confused with Mongols. The Hungarians besieged Olomouc . They defeated a relief army before lifting

1008-538: A cardinal in 1456. He was a Renaissance humanist with an international reputation. Aeneas Silvius' longest and most enduring work is the story of his life, the Commentaries , which is the only autobiography of a pope ever to have been published. It appeared posthumously, in 1584, 120 years after his death. Aeneas was born at Corsignano in Sienese territory of a noble but impoverished family. His father Silvio

1134-554: A child but it died. Upon his return to Basel, Aeneas again served from 1436 to 1438 as secretary of Cardinal Domenico Capranica. He actively supported the council in its conflict with the Pope, and, although still a layman, eventually obtained a share in the direction of its affairs. He gave a speech advocating the choice of Pavia as the site of a meeting between council members and the Greek delegation, to discuss church union, which caught

1260-597: A common front against the Mongols. The talks came to nothing. In Italy, Filippo da Pistoia , the bishop of Ferrara , circulated a letter he claimed to have received showing that the Emperor Frederick II had sent envoys to the Mongols and was in league with them. The pope's agents spread similar rumours in Germany. The emperor remained in Italy throughout the crisis. From there, in either May or June, he sent

1386-402: A crusader's vow and joined the imperial army are Duke Otto of Brunswick , Archbishop Conrad of Cologne , Count Albert IV of Tyrol , Count Ulrich of Ulten and Count Louis of Helfenstein . The geographical spread of these names suggests that the call for a crusade was widely heeded across Germany. In his letter of 13 June, Duke Frederick explained that he would not join the crusade because he

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1512-500: A diplomatic mission to Vienna in 1438, it was reported that he had died; and the duke of Milan, who had abandoned the council and returned to Pope Eugenius' side, gave Aeneas' provostship to another candidate. In recompense, the Council appointed him a canon in the cathedral Chapter of Trent. He refused the offer of the diaconate , shunning the ecclesiastical state because of the obligation of sexual continence which it imposed. Even

1638-417: A future council in a statement handed the pope by his proctor on 4 August 1460. On 8 August, Sigismund was excommunicated and his domains were placed under the interdict. On 26 September 1459, he called for a new crusade against the Ottomans, and on 14 January 1460, he proclaimed the official crusade that was to last for three years. The pope influenced Vlad III Dracula , whom he held in high regard, to start

1764-412: A man of the world with no strictness in morals or consistency in politics. Being sent on a mission to Rome in 1445, with the ostensible object of inducing Pope Eugene to convoke a new council, he was absolved from ecclesiastical censures and returned to Germany under an engagement to assist the Pope. This he did most effectually by the diplomatic dexterity with which he smoothed away differences between

1890-490: A mass of rapists as they cried out and wailed." They cut the breasts off of virgins, reserving them for their leaders before eating the rest of their bodies. Ivo credits the prince of Dalmatia—possibly Duke Otto II of Merania —with capturing eight of the enemy, including an Englishman who had served the Mongols for years and under interrogation revealed much that was not previously known in the West. The Tewkesbury Annals and

2016-460: A mission to Bohemia and concluded a satisfactory arrangement with the Hussite leader George of Poděbrady . In 1452 he accompanied Frederick to Rome, where Frederick wedded Eleanor and was crowned emperor by the pope. At the coronation, speaking in the name of the emperor, Aeneas repudiated the conciliar theory, holding that the pope and his cardinals were the best council. Bishop Aeneas Sylvius

2142-573: A short list of seven instructions for countering the Mongol threat to Germany. He specifically ordered the use of crossbows, which were regarded as sparking terror in the Mongols, who did not possess the technology. The same advice was repeated a few years later in the Tartar Relation . On 20 June in Faenza , the emperor issued the Encyclica contra Tartaros , an encyclical letter announcing

2268-579: A teacher. In 1431 he accepted the post of secretary to Domenico Capranica , bishop of Fermo , then on his way to the Council of Basel . Capranica was protesting against the new Pope Eugene IV 's refusal of a cardinalate for him, which had been designated by Pope Martin V . Arriving at Basel after enduring a stormy voyage to Genoa and then a trip across the Alps , he successively served Capranica, who ran out of money, and then other masters. In 1435, he

2394-587: A war against Sultan Mehmed II of Turkey . This conflict at its peak involved the Wallachians trying to assassinate the Sultan (see The Night Attack ). After his departure from Mantua on 19 January 1460, Pius II reached his former bishopric of Siena on 30 January, where, exhausted by his exertions at Mantua, he was advised by his doctors to rest, either in the city or at the Petriolo hot springs. There he

2520-619: Is also mentioned in the Annales Garstenses , Annales Zwetlenses and Annales Sancrucenses . The first two annals record that the Mongols left Austria unscathed, while the Sancrucenses assign them many dead. Matthew of Paris quotes a letter from a certain Ivo of Narbonne , an eyewitness, who credits King Wenceslaus, Duke Frederick, Patriarch Berthold of Aquileia , Duke Bernard of Carinthia , Margrave Herman V of Baden and

2646-626: Is extant. All of his works are in Latin . He also wrote numerous erotic poems. All of the erotic material was written well before he was elected to the papacy. Mongol incursions in the Holy Roman Empire Mongol incursions in the Holy Roman Empire took place in the spring of 1241 and again in the winter of 1241–42. They were part of the first Mongol invasion of Europe . The Mongols did not advance far into

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2772-498: Is such that you would appear to have been chosen, not to govern the state, but called to enjoy pleasures. You avoid neither hunting, nor games, nor the company of women. You put together parties that are more opulent than is fitting. You wear clothes that are far too expensive. You overflow with gold and silver.... We can't keep people from making requests, but we can easily refuse to entertain them. Think about who are appropriate, and I will choose from among their number...." He then gave

2898-561: Is unclear if Conrad was marching toward Bohemia or Austria. By this time the Mongols were no longer threatening Germany and consequently the crusade broke up. It did not make contact with the Mongols. The latest indication that the crusade was ongoing is a charter issued by the count of Tyrol on 20 July. According to the Chronicon Wormatiense and the Gesta Treverorum , most of the bishops and princes divided

3024-599: The Aragonese claimant to the throne of Naples, in opposition to the French House of Anjou, his next important act was to convene a congress of the representatives of Christian princes at Mantua for joint action against the Turks . In anticipation of his departure for Mantua, Pius issued the bull "Cum Concedente Deo" on 5 January 1459, in which he considered the possibility of the pope dying outside Rome; he ordered that

3150-792: The Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia , has been described as the last Christian bulwark in Asia to fall to Muslim rule. Pope Leo X called Croatia the Antemurale Christianitatis ( Croatian : Predziđe kršćanstva ) in 1519 in a letter to the Croatian ban Petar Berislavić , given that Croatian soldiers made significant contributions in war against the Ottoman Empire . The advancement of the Ottoman Empire in Europe

3276-709: The Battle of Chmielnik on 18 March 1241, the Polish duke Bolesław V fled to Moravia. Following their victory over Duke Henry of Silesia and the Teutonic Knights in the Battle of Legnica on 9 April 1241, Mongol detachments entered the marches of Meissen and Lusatia in eastern Germany, advancing as far as the Elbe . Their attacks are recorded in the Annales sancti Pantaleonis , which states that they "reached

3402-511: The Chronique rimée of Philippe Mouskès report a victory over the Mongols by Duke Otto II of Bavaria , which nonetheless probably involved no more than a Mongol raiding party. In May 1241, with the Mongol still threat on his doorstep, Duke Otto of Bavaria expelled the Papal legate Albert von Behaim from Bavaria in an act of solidarity with Conrad IV and Frederick II amidst their conflict with

3528-558: The Cumans . The Mongols raided eastern Austria and southern Moravia again in December 1241 and January 1242. A century later in 1340 they raided the March of Brandenburg . Anti-Mongol crusades were preached within the Empire's borders several times between these two raids, and even as late as 1351. The general view in western Europe, since at least 1236, was that the Mongols' ultimate goal

3654-599: The Holy Roman Empire and there was no major clash of arms on its territory. Rather, the army that had invaded Poland , after harassing eastern Germany , crossed the March of Moravia in April–May 1241 to rejoin the army that had invaded Hungary . During their transit, they laid waste the Moravian countryside but avoided strongholds. King Wenceslaus I of Bohemia was joined by some German princes, but he monitored

3780-613: The fall of Kiev , the invasion of Hungary and the threat to Germany, and requesting each Christian nation to devote its proper quota of men and arms to the defence of Christendom. According to Matthew of Paris's copy of the encyclical, it was addressed to the Catholic nations— France , Spain , Wales , Ireland , England , Swabia , Denmark , Italy , Burgundy , Apulia , Crete , Cyprus , Sicily , Scotland and Norway —each addressed according to its own national stereotype. Richard of San Germano states that copies were sent to all

3906-489: The "prince of Dalmatia" with the relief of Neustat from a besieging Mongol army that came from Hungary. Neustat is usually identified with Wiener-Neustadt . Such an attack is implausible but not impossible. The Mongols are not otherwise known to have crossed the Danube before the winter of 1241/42. It has been suggested that the enemy at Wiener-Neustadt was in fact a band of unruly Cumans who had left Hungary following

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4032-644: The Aventine. He was allowed to keep the diocese of Siena. He also acquired the bishopric of Warmia (Ermel and, Prussia; now in Poland) on 12 August 1457. Calixtus III died on 6 August 1458. The leading candidate was Cardinal Domenico Capranica, but he died on 14 August, during the Novendiales . The ambassador of the Duke of Milan wrote on 31 July that Cardinal Juan de Torquemada and Cardinal Filippo Calandrini ,

4158-539: The Bohemian army; to Wenceslaus' proximity from Legnica—he was only a day's march away—deterring the Mongols from pressing their luck; or to the mountains of the Bohemian Massif , which formed the natural northern boundary of Bohemia. According to Wenceslaus, who wrote letters to the princes of Germany informing them of the Mongols' progress, they were moving at a pace of 40 miles (64 km) per day away from

4284-545: The Bohemian border. At the Moravian Gate , they turned south and passed between the ranges of the Sudetes and Carpathians , entering Moravia near Opava . The Mongol army at Legnica had been under the command of Orda , Baidar and Qadan . It has been estimated at 8,000 strong. The army as it entered Moravia must have been somewhat smaller. Uriyangkhadai , the son of Subutai , was also at Legnica. According to

4410-415: The Bohemian or German king defeating the Mongols and forcing their retreat. In Moravia, a supposed victory over the Mongols took on legendary proportions. In Germany, some contemporary writers attributed the Mongols' general retreat from Europe to the intimidating crusading army. In reality, the Mongols likely spared most of Germany because their primary objective was to punish the Hungarian king for supporting

4536-720: The Chapel of St. Andrew. When his nephew, Pius III , died in 1503, he was buried next to Pius II. In 1506, because of the demolition of Old St. Peter's, the tombs were moved to the crypt. In 1612, when the church of St. Andrea della Valle was completed, the bodies of both popes, as well as parts of their funeral monuments, were moved there and re-entombed on 1 February 1613. Pius II was a prominent author of poetry in his lifetime, being named imperial poet laureate in 1442. But his reputation in belles lettres rests principally upon his The Tale of Two Lovers , an erotic novel. He also composed some comedies , of which only one ( Chrysis )

4662-879: The Chinese History of Yuan , the official history of the Mongol Yuan dynasty , Uriyangkhadai took part in the invasion of Poland and the land of the Nie-mi-sz' , which word is derived from a name for Germans . The Franciscan vice-minister in Bohemia, Jordan of Giano , who wrote letters from Prague while the Mongols were in Moravia, indicates that they had passed through the Moravian Gate before 9 May. Other sources place Orda in Hungary by late April, so

4788-640: The Cumans. Despite the lack of contemporary evidence for a major German victory over the Mongols, the rumour that they had received such a check spread as far as Egypt, Armenia and Muslim Spain. It is recorded in the History of the Patriarchs of Alexandria and the Chronological History of Mekhitar of Ayrivank . The Flor des estoires de la terre d'Orient of Hayton of Corycus states that

4914-520: The Hungarian Gate. The path they took through Moravia is unknown. They rejoined the main force under Batu Khan outside Trenčín in Hungary. During their transit, the Mongols devastated all of Moravia "except for the castles and fortified places", according to the Annales sancti Pantaleonis . The only evidence relating to a specific place is a charter of 1247 in which Margrave Ottokar gave

5040-650: The March of Brandenburg during the Mongol invasion of Poland in 1340 . It was also rumoured at that time that the Mongols intended to attack Bohemia, according to the Historia Parmensis of John of Cornazzano . According to Francis of Prague , the Emperor Louis IV refused to aid Poland, but Galvano Fiamma says that "numerous Germans" joined the defence of Poland, as did the king of Bohemia, John

5166-457: The Milanese ambassador indicated it would be possible to carry the election of Piccolomini, who was being supported by the king of Naples. On 16 August, the cardinals entered into a papal conclave . Eighteen cardinals took part. The Italian cardinals were outnumbered by the foreigners. According to Aeneas' account, the wealthy cardinal Guillaume d'Estouteville , Archbishop of Rouen , though

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5292-519: The Mongol vanguard near Kladsko . He had earlier ordered the fortification of his major cities, including Prague , possibly in response to the report of the fall of Kiev in 1240. The fortification work is recorded in the Chronicle of Dalimil . The Mongols did not continue their westward advance into Germany, but turned back east. They did not invade Bohemia. This has been attributed to their losses at Legnica being too heavy for them to confront

5418-522: The Mongols in Moravia without seeking battle. There were more significant skirmishes in the north of the Duchy of Austria a month later that left several hundred dead, but there was no cooperation between the Austrians and Hungarians. In response to the Mongol threat, the imperial church and the imperial princes held assemblies to organize a military response. Pope Gregory IX ordered the preaching of

5544-503: The Mongols in battle, the Annales sancti Trudperti , followed by the Annales Zwifaltenses , attributes the Mongols' subsequent retreat from Europe to the intimidating German army. Nationalist modern historians in Germany or Austria have also fallen on such explanations. In reality, the Mongols probably did not invade Germany in force because their objective was merely to punish the Hungarian king for giving protection to

5670-418: The Mongols were the Lost Tribes of Israel and were assisted by Jews smuggling arms out of Germany in wine barrels. The Jewish merchants were said to claim that the barrels were filled with poisoned wine for the invaders. Owing to these rumours, Jews were killed at several customs posts. News of the Mongol invasion of Georgia reached the papal court in late 1239 or early 1240. Queen Rusudan and her son,

5796-491: The Mongols' progress. Béla IV's letter was delivered by Bishop Stephen of Vác , who carried another letter to Pope Gregory IX. On the advice of the secular princes, Archbishop Siegfried promulgated instructions for the Dominicans and Franciscans to preach a crusade against the Mongols on 25 April, after the assembly in Herford. This was an unprecedent usurpation of what was by then a papal prerogative. Little seems to have come of it immediately. Preaching did take place in

5922-436: The Mongols. Bishops solicited donations for the cause throughout Germany. Conrad IV set 1 July as the date for the army to assemble at Nuremberg . In June, Pope Gregory IX wrote to several bishops in Germany promoting the preaching of the crusade, retroactively authorizing what local authorities and the king had already begun. The abbot of Heiligenkreuz and the prior of the Dominicans in Vienna were also ordered to preach

6048-413: The Ottoman attacks. In that letter Croatia was for the first time called bastion and a bulwark of Christianity: We have been blocking this force (Turks) for almost seventeen years wasting our bodies, lives and all of our goods, and like the bastion and a bulwark of Christianity we daily defend Christian countries, as much as it is humanly possible. That is why we are telling you this: If we get defeated by

6174-423: The Ottomans and attacked their forces near Ohrid. Pius II's planned crusade envisioned assembling 20,000 soldiers in Taranto, and another 20,000 would be gathered by Skanderbeg. They would have been marshaled in Durazzo under Skanderbeg's leadership and would have formed the central front against the Ottomans. The Pope did his best: he addressed an eloquent letter to the Ottoman ruler, Mehmet II , urging him to become

6300-412: The Papacy. In late May, Bishop Conrad of Freising wrote to Henry of Constance about the Mongol threat in the Danube valley. He reported that Wenceslaus was avoiding battle with the Mongols because he had been advised to do so by the king of Hungary. A Mongol army entered western Hungary, eastern Austria and southern Moravia again in late December 1241, as recorded in a letter dated 4 January 1242 from

6426-421: The Templar master that had the Mongols launched a serious invasion of the Empire in the spring of 1241, "it is unlikely that they would have encountered coordinated opposition." In response to the Mongol threat, German church leaders held several councils in April 1241, issuing calls for a crusade against the Mongols and enjoining fasting and processions for the defence of Germany and Bohemia. A princely assembly

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6552-413: The Turks, then they might be able to remove Christianity from Croats. When Turks conquered Constantinople in 1453, Pope Callistus III urged all Christians to the Crusades . Many Croats, led by Saint John of Capistrano , were part of the army that defeated 150,000 Turks at the Siege of Belgrade in 1456. When Belgrade was conquered by the Turks in 1521 many Croatian writers and diplomats pointed out

6678-462: The action. The crusade for which the Congress of Mantua had been convoked made no progress. In November 1463, Pope Pius II tried to organize the crusade against the Ottomans, similar to what Nicholas V and Calixtus III had tried to do before him. Pius II invited all the Christian nobility to join, and the Venetians immediately answered the appeal. So did George Kastriot Skanderbeg the leader of Albanian resistance, who on 27 November 1463 declared war on

6804-517: The affairs of the Empire and the Roman Curia, in which occupations he incessantly strove to acquire benefices that should raise him out of poverty, Piccolomini was not inspired by any ardent longing for virtue, nor was he stirred by the sublime genius of an exalted nature. There was nothing great in him. Endowed with fascinating gifts, this man of brilliant parts possessed no enthusiasms. We cannot even say that he pursued any aim beyond that of his own advantage." Aeneas' character had hitherto been that of

6930-496: The aforesaid barbarians with the sign of the cross." On 19 May, with the assistance of Siegfried, the 13-year-old Conrad IV held an assembly at Esslingen , where he took the vow of a crusader. His vow committed him only until 11 November 1241, although Béla IV warned him that the Mongols planned to invade Germany at the beginning of winter in 1241–42. At Esslingen, Conrad proclaimed a Landfrieden (territorial peace) for all of Germany so that forces could be concentrated against

7056-427: The archdioceses of Mainz , Cologne and Trier ; the diocese of Constance and that of Augsburg , where Bishop Siboto commissioned the friars to preach; and the city of Strasbourg . According to the Annales sancti Pantaleonis , the crusade was preached throughout all of Germany by the Dominicans and Franciscans: "many friars Preachers and Minors ... have armed clergy and laity throughout almost all Germany against

7182-403: The attempt to seize Genoa ; Florence cynically advised the Pope to let the Turks and the Venetians wear each other out. Pius II was aware that he was nearing his end, and his malady probably prompted the feverish impatience with which, on 18 June 1464, he assumed the cross and departed for Ancona to conduct the crusade in person. Pius condemned the enslavement of newly baptized Christians as

7308-403: The attention of the duke of Milan, as he had hoped. The archbishop of Milan named him Provost of the church of S. Lorenzo in Milan, even though he had not been elected to the post by the chapter of the church and was still a layman. The Council granted him a dispensation, despite their policy against such dispensations, which they considered a feature of papal corruption. But when Aeneas was sent on

7434-399: The boundary of the diocese of Meissen". According to a letter from Bartholomew of Trent to Bishop Egino of Brixen , the Mongols "attacked the borders of Bohemia and Saxony". King Wenceslaus of Bohemia, who had raised an army of 40,000, retreated into Germany to join his forces with Thuringian and Saxon reinforcements. He avoided giving battle, although his cavalry may have beaten off

7560-425: The bull "In Minoribus Agentes," addressed to the rector and members of the University of Cologne. In it, he withdrew his treatise against Pope Eugene IV and in favor of the Council of Basel. It contained the famous remark, "reject Aeneas, retain Pius" ( Aeneam rejicite, Pium recipite ). In spite of suffering from a fever, Pope Pius II left Rome for Ancona on 18 June 1464, arriving on 18 July. He hoped to increase

7686-576: The cardinals and merchants. He was executed on 31 October. The European powers, however, had not ceased their pressure for the appointment of more cardinals. The cardinals, however, were insistent that there should be no creation of non-Italians. An agreement was finally reached that there would be six new cardinals, three Italians and three "ultramontani", thereby preserving the balance of power. On 18 December 1461, six cardinals were announced: Bartolomeo Roverella , archbishop of Ravenna; Jacopo Piccolomini-Ammannati , bishop of Pavia; Francesco Gonzaga , who

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7812-404: The cardinals to vote for the duke's almoner, Jean Jouffroy, bishop of Arras. He wrote that it was because the cardinals would have no ultramontanes as cardinals. Pius was recalled to Rome, reaching the city on 6 October 1460. His presence was urged by the disturbances occasioned by Tiburzio di Maso , who, when captured, confessed that he had planned to overthrow the papal government and plunder

7938-476: The city of Opava some privileges because of the damage the Mongols had caused in the region. All the other charters relating to the destruction of towns and monasteries were forged in the 19th century. No archaeological evidence of the brief Mongol presence in Moravia has yet come to light, nor is Moravia mentioned explicitly in any eastern sources. According to Siegfried of Ballhausen , many Moravian refugees appeared in Meissen and Thuringia. Many others fled into

8064-408: The conclave to choose his successor lasted from 4 to 6 March 1447. Aeneas Sylvius was one of the four ambassadors chosen to be the guardians of the conclave. The new pope, Tommaso Parentucelli, chose the name Nicholas V , and immediately confirmed Aeneas in his posts of papal subdeacon and secretary, and appointed him to carry the papal cross at his coronation. One of the first acts of Pope Nicholas

8190-413: The conclave to elect his successor should take place only in Rome, contrary to previous practice. On 11 January 1459 Pope Pius appointed Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa Vicar-General of the city of Rome and of the Patrimony of S. Peter; and on 15 January he named Bishop Galeazzo Cavrini of Mantua his Governor of Rome. He finally set out for the north on 22 January. While at Mantua, he undertook to mediate in

8316-458: The crusade in their provinces. The Dominicans and Franciscans preached throughout Germany. According to the Annals of Stade , Gregory had received appeals for the full crusade indulgence from the dukes of Austria and Carinthia. On 19 June, referring to the letter he had received from Duke Frederick, he issued a formal indulgence for the defence of Germany and Bohemia, as he had three days earlier for Hungary. Among those known to have taken

8442-400: The current cardinals, whose consent was necessary. On 4 March 1460, the Wednesday of Ember Days , a formal consistory was held to make the final decisions on the candidates. Pope Pius' opening address was frank and detailed in cataloguing the shortcomings and faults of the luxurious lifestyle of the cardinals, and their activities on behalf of monarchs rather than the church: "Your lifestyle

8568-652: The death of Köten. Neustat , however, may be the aforementioned Korneuburg. Ivo describes the siege of Neustat and the ravaging of the countryside by the Mongols. He records that the garrison amounted to "no more than fifty knights along with twenty crossbowmen". The letter attributes cannibalism to the Mongols, although this appears to be an addition by Matthew of Paris, who is known to have added material of his own fabrication to his letters. They are said to have tortured and eaten civilians regardless of their age, sex, fortune or class. They ate deformed and old women right away, but beautiful women "they suffocated ... under

8694-402: The deep waves from slavery if the Ottoman sea hasn't been streaking into the Croatian seashore. An early use of the "wall" metaphor to describe Poland occurs in a letter dated 10 March 1241 from Landgrave Henry Raspe to Duke Henry II of Brabant during the first Mongol invasion of Poland , when the invaders were threatening the Holy Roman Empire . Henry wrote, "our nearest wall is alit, and

8820-411: The defeated king of Hungary fled to Austria, crossing the border at Pressburg . Initially welcomed by his erstwhile ally, Duke Frederick lured the king into the castle of Hainburg and extorted the repayment of an indemnity he had been forced to pay the king six years earlier. Béla handed over all the wealth he had with him, including the crown jewels, and was still forced to pawn three counties to

8946-421: The dispute between Sigismund of Austria and Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa over the bishopric of Brixen, which had been given Nicholas by Pope Nicholas V in 1450, without the consent of the emperor, the count of Tyrol (Sigismund), or the cathedral chapter of Brixen. A public reconciliation was arranged, but no resolution of the basic problem was achieved, but rather postponed to a Diet to be held at Trent two years in

9072-565: The dramatic situation by stating that Belgrade was the bastion of Christianity, the key to Europe and the fortress of the entire Kingdom of Hungary . In the following year, German Parliament in Nuremberg called Croatia Zwingermaurer (Fortress) and the Austrian Archduke Ferdinand of Habsburg said that "chivalrous Christian nation of Croats is standing as a shield in front of Styria , Carinthia and Carniola , and

9198-494: The duke of Austria and the king of Bohemia defeated the Mongols on the Danube and Batu drowned. The Liber secretorum fidelium crucis of Marino Sanudo the Elder also alludes to an Austrian victory on the Danube. The Kitāb al-jughrāfiyya of Ibn Saʿīd al-Maghribī records that a joint German–Hungarian army defeated the Mongols near Šibenik . Matthew of Paris claims that Conrad IV and his brother, King Enzo of Sardinia , defeated

9324-522: The duke. These were probably the three westernmost counties of Moson , Sopron and Vas , which had large German populations. After he was freed, Béla headed for Croatia . At the same time, Béla sent a letter to King Louis IX of France requesting help and another to the Emperor Frederick offering to submit Hungary to the Empire in exchange for military support. The emperor responded in a letter that he could not assist until his quarrel with

9450-635: The election. He was crowned Pope on the front steps of St. Peter's Basilica on 3 September 1458 by the Protodeacon, Cardinal Prospero Colonna. From the first day of his papacy, Pius' greatest priority was freeing Europe from the threat of the Turks, through a great crusade. He had also been preparing a bull, which in the event he never published, outlining his plans for a reform of the Roman Curia. After allying himself with Ferdinand (Ferrante),

9576-527: The first city-planning exercise in modern Europe. He refurbished his hometown of Corsignano ( province of Siena ) and renamed it Pienza , after himself. A cathedral and palaces were built in the best style of the day to decorate the city. They survive to this day. He also issued a papal bull , Cum almam nostram urbem , on 28 April 1462, prohibiting damage to ancient ruins in Rome or Campagna . On 26 April 1463, Pius II published his most famous retracation in

9702-635: The future King David VI , requested the preaching of a crusade, but Pope Gregory IX rejected the request on the grounds that the church was already overcommitted with crusades in Spain and the Levant as well as against heresy and apostasy in Occitania and Bosnia. The Mongols entered Hungary on 12 March 1241. Béla IV immediately sent a letter requesting assistance to Duke Frederick. The duke arrived in Pest in

9828-593: The future. Sigismund, who had not been friendly toward the papacy for some years, left Mantua on 29 November 1459, even more irritated than before. Pius' efforts had failed. Both returned to the north, and in April 1460 trouble broke out again. Cusa, who was at Bruneck and engaged in negotiations with Sigismund, was surrounded, captured by the archduke, and forced to agree to Sigismund's demands. Cusa appealed to Pius II. A restrained Pius only summoned Sigismund to appear before him and explain his conduct, but Sigismund appealed to

9954-424: The half-brother of Pope Nicholas V , were also candidates, and he thought that Calandrini might win. Aeneas and his friend Cardinal Calandrini of Bologna immediately headed from Viterbo to Rome, and when they reached the gate of the city, they were met by a friendly assembly of courtiers and common people, who shouted that one or the other of them would be made pope. On the evening of the death of Cardinal Capranica,

10080-513: The hills, woods and marshes and hid in caves. The Mongol raiding parties entered Austria in late May or early June, either from Hungary or from Moravia on their way to rejoin the main Mongol army in Hungary. They did not cross the Danube in Austria, but they sacked Korneuburg to its north. The Mongols were probably in Austria as late as July, although already in that month Duke Frederick II

10206-583: The humanities curriculum, and then that of civil law. At Siena he studied under the Augustinian Andreas of Milan, the noted historian. His preceptor and professor of civil law was Antonio de Rosellis. He also studied law under Mariano Sozzini. He then attended the university of Florence where he studied under Francesco Filelfo , and where he became friends with Poggio Bracciolini , Leonardo Bruni , and Guarino da Verona . He settled in Siena as

10332-455: The inability of Mehmed’s army to cross Wallachia into Central Europe saved a great many cities and countries from being conquered themselves. The Pope awarded him with the titles Athleta Christi and Antemurale Christianitatis. Stephen the Great of Moldova, Vlad's cousin, defeated the Ottomans at the Battle of Vaslui which was the biggest defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the middle ages. Stephen

10458-402: The khan's falconer. The Annales Sancrucenses record that the Mongols also sent ambassadors to Duke Frederick II of Austria demanding his submission. In his Chronica majora , Matthew of Paris records that rumours about the Mongols had spread into the empire by 1238, for which reason the fishmongers of Frisia were unwilling to go to England. He is also the source for the rumour that

10584-467: The last weeks of March or the first week of April with a small contingent of poorly armed men. Frederick quickly won a small victory, killing two spies attached to the contingent under Shiban . Soon after the Cuman leader Köten was killed. Although the role of Frederick in this is uncertain, he left Pest not long after on bad terms with the Hungarian king. Following the Battle of Mohi on 11 April 1241,

10710-456: The money collected for the crusade between themselves. The exception was Bishop Landolf of Worms , who, according to the Chronicon , returned the donations after the crusade was called off. The rebellion of Conrad's regent in Germany, Siegfried of Mainz, who defected to the papal party, was probably the immediate cause of Conrad's decision to end the crusade. Although the crusade had not met

10836-457: The morale of the crusading army. However, the armed forces melted away at Ancona for want of transport and the outbreak of pestilence, and when at last the Venetian fleet arrived, led by Doge Cristoforo Moro , the dying Pope could only view it from a window. He died two days later, on 14 August 1464. The cardinals at Ancona decided to put the papal galleys in the hands of the doge of Venice, on

10962-450: The names of those who nominated themselves, or who had been nominated by others." When he finished, Cardinal Scarampi rose to speak. He remarked that Pius' predecessors had named nobles, eminent for learning and holy life. But he was proposing people whom Scarampi would not employ in his kitchen or in his stables. In fact, according to the cardinal, there was no need for new cardinals: "With too many of us, our value declines." Finally, Pius

11088-493: The nearest shrine was 10 miles (16 km) distant at Whitekirk . The journey through the ice and snow left Aeneas afflicted with pain in his legs for the rest of his life. Only when he arrived at Newcastle did he feel that he had returned to "a civilised part of the world and the inhabitable face of the Earth", Scotland and the far north of England being "wild, bare and never visited by the sun in winter". In Scotland, he fathered

11214-707: The neighbouring land will be devastated" ( paries nobis proximus succenditur, et terra vicina petet vastationi ). For its centuries-long stance against the Muslim advances, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth also gained the name of Antemurale Christianitatis . In 1683 the Battle of Vienna marked a turning point in a 250-year-old struggle between the forces of Christian Europe and the Islamic Ottoman Empire. Wespazjan Kochowski in his Psalmodia polska ( The Polish Psalmody , 1695) tells of

11340-621: The offer to become one of the electors of a successor to Pope Eugene IV was not enough for him to overcome his reluctance. He supported the creation of the Antipope Felix V (Amadeus, Duke of Savoy) in November 1439, and participated in his coronation. In 1440, he composed a work in defense of the authority of the general council of Basel, the Libellus dialogorum de generalis concilii auctoritate et gestis Basileensium . Aeneas then

11466-690: The papal authority in France had been weakened. But Louis XI had expected that Pius II would in return espouse the French cause in Naples , and when he found himself disappointed he virtually re-established the Pragmatic Sanction by royal ordinances. Pius II built a fortress in Tivoli called Rocca Pia in 1461. The Diocese of Ljubljana was established on 6 December 1461 by Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor . On 9 September 1462, Pope Pius confirmed

11592-496: The papal court of Rome and the German imperial electors. He played a leading role in concluding a compromise in 1447 by which the dying Pope Eugenius accepted the reconciliation tendered by the German princes. The documents were signed on 5 February and 7 February 1447. As a result, the council and the antipope were left without support. He was ordained a priest in Vienna on 4 March 1446. Pope Eugenius died on 23 February 1447, and

11718-448: The pope was arranging a political crusade against him in Italy. In 1237, King Béla IV of Hungary received a Mongol ultimatum demanding his submission. According to Aubry of Trois-Fontaines , a similar ultimatum was received at the court of Emperor Frederick II in 1238, although this is not recorded by anyone else and no such document has survived. Frederick supposedly responded that he would gladly resign his crown if he could become

11844-522: The pope was resolved and directed the Hungarian king to request aid from Conrad IV, who had formally been ruling Germany since 1237. As early as 10 March 1241, Henry Raspe , Landgrave of Thuringia , wrote to Duke Henry II of Brabant detailing the Mongols' movements across the border in Poland. An early form of the antemurale christianitatis ('bulwark of Christianity') metaphor is found in this letter, where Henry refers to Poland as his "wall". After

11970-412: The presidency of Archbishop Siegfried of Mainz , then acting regent in Germany, but it did not lead to the formation of an army. The ongoing quarrel between the excommunicated emperor and the pope hampered the imperial response to the arrival of the Mongols on the empire's eastern border. In May 1241, representatives of the emperor and the pope met to negotiate an end to their dispute in order to sustain

12096-441: The princes of the West and quotes the start of the letter to the French king. In the encyclical, Frederick indicated he had accepted Hungarian submission. On 3 July, Frederick II addressed a letter to his brother-in-law, King Henry III of England , informing him of the Mongol threat. The emperor had seemingly just received letters from Conrad IV, the kings of Hungary and Bohemia and the dukes of Austria and Bavaria informing him of

12222-555: The results gave Piccolomini 9 votes, and D'Estouteville 6. After intense intrigue among the cardinals, including a private meeting of the Italian cardinals, who were urged by Cardinal Barbo of Venice to choose the Italian Piccolomini over the French d'Estouteville, Aeneas was able to secure enough votes for his candidacy after the second ballot at the accessio , to be elected with 12 votes. All 18 cardinals then ratified

12348-544: The siege of Olomouc is moved to 1241 and attributed to the Mongols. Jaroslav of Sternberg was transformed into a national hero who defeated the Mongols before Olomouc and killed Baidar in the Dvůr Králové manuscript literary hoax in the 19th century. In fact, Baidar was still alive in 1246. Pope Innocent IV called for a crusade against the Mongols to be preached in Germany in August 1243 and throughout Bohemia and Moravia in

12474-657: The siege. In the Czech Chronicle of Václav Hájek (1541), the Hungarian victory before Olomouc is transformed into a defeat and the leader of the Moravians is Jaroslav of Sternberg  [ cz ] . The actual lord of Sternberg Castle at the time was Zdeslav , whose son Jaroslav was probably too young to participate in military action. In the History of the Kingdom of Bohemia of Johannes Dubravius (1552),

12600-675: The special role of Poland in the world ( antemurale christianitatis – the bulwark of Christianity) and the superiority of the Polish political system ( złota wolność – the golden liberty ). Vlad the Impaler defended his country from the Ottoman Empire and Christian diplomats were in awe of his achievements, and moreover grateful that someone was taking the initiative against the invading Muslim army. Pope Pius II himself spoke of Tepes in glowing terms after reading dispatches from his representatives, and sent subsidies from Rome to help his campaign. Te deums rang out in praise of Tepes’s victories, and

12726-518: The spring of 1253. In June 1258, Pope Alexander IV called for another crusade to be preached in Germany, Bohemia and Moravia. In June 1265, Clement IV , in response to a report he received from Béla IV, ordered the preaching of a new crusade against the Mongols in Austria, Bohemia, Brandenburg, Carinthia and Styria within the Holy Roman Empire. The crusade against the Mongols was rarely promoted thereafter. In 1288, Nicholas IV ordered it preached in Bohemia. John of Winterthur reports attacks on

12852-475: The transit of Moravia seems to have lasted less than a month. The speed of the transit is mentioned by two other sources: Roger of Torre Maggiore remarks on it and the Annales sancti Pantaleonis note with hyperbole that, whereas it should have taken four days, the Mongols crossed Moravia in one day and night. The Mongols probably exited Moravia through the Hrozenkov pass, what Roger of Torre Maggiore calls

12978-531: The understanding that they would be handed over to the next pope. They also sent the 48,000 gold ducats which Pius had on hand for the crusade to Matthias of Hungary . The crusade of Pius II was at an end. Despite the canonical requirement that the conclave to elect a successor should take place in the place where he died, Pius II's body was taken to Rome and interred at the Vatican, in Old St. Peter's Basilica, in

13104-620: The whole of Central Europe and Western Christendom ." At the session, Prince Bernardin Frankopan asked for help, recalling that "Croatia is a shield and door of Christianity". Krsto Frankopan stated on July 1, 1523 in the memorial to the Pope Adrian VI that Croatia is a "bulwark or door of Christianity, and especially bordering countries of Carinthia , Carniola , Istria , Friuli , and Italy ". Croatian baroque poet Vladislav Mencetić wrote in 1665: Italy would have sunk into

13230-507: Was a delegate of Frederick III at the Diet of Ratisbon in February 1454. In August 1455, Aeneas again travelled to Rome on an embassy which included Johann Hinderbach to proffer the obedience of Germany to the new pope, Calixtus III . The ceremony took place on 12 August in a public consistory. As instructed, the envoys pressed the pope for a war against the Turks, which pleased Calixtus, who

13356-488: Was a soldier and member of the House of Piccolomini , and his mother was Vittoria Forteguerri, who had 18 children including several twins, though no more than ten were alive at one time. The plague ( iniqua lues ) finally left him with only two sisters, Laudamia and Catherina. He worked with his father in the fields for some years. In 1423, at the age of 18, he left to study at the university of Siena , where he first followed

13482-557: Was able to secure a positive vote on five names, and he was able to pressure the cardinals into accepting his own nomination of a sixth. These were: Angelo Capranica , bishop of Rieti and brother of Cardinal Domenico Capranica ; Bernardo Eroli , bishop of Spoleto; Niccolò Fortiguerra , bishop of Teano; Alessandro Oliva de Saxoferrato, the Prior General of the Order of Hermits of Saint Augustine (the pope's choice, whose candidacy

13608-463: Was already engaged with the Mongols, whom he described as a "hurricane". He asked Conrad IV to have crossbows brought to Germany. He also advised him to bring knights from Swabia, Franconia, Bavaria and the Rhineland to Austria and direct the knights of Saxony, Meissen and Thuringia to Bohemia. The crusader army assembled as planned at Nuremberg and had advanced as far as Weiden by 16 July. It

13734-650: Was also concluded by the success of the Pope's ally the Aragonese Ferdinand. In particular, the Pope engaged for most of his reign in what looked like a personal war against Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta , Lord of Rimini , with the result of the almost complete submission of that condottiero. Pius II also tried mediation in the Thirteen Years' War of 1454–66 between Poland and the Teutonic Knights , but, when he failed to achieve success, cast an anathema over Polish and Prussians both. Pius II

13860-506: Was also engaged in a series of disputes with King George of Bohemia and Archduke Sigismund of Austria (who was excommunicated for having arrested Nicholas of Cusa , Bishop of Brixen ). In June 1461, Pius II canonized Saint Catherine of Siena . In October 1461, he gained what at first appeared to be a brilliant success by inducing the new king of France, Louis XI , to abolish the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges , by which

13986-406: Was appointed secretary and protonotary in the imperial chancellery. There he obtained the patronage of the emperor's chancellor, Kaspar Schlick. Some identify the love adventure that Aeneas related in his romance The Tale of Two Lovers (1444) with an escapade of the chancellor. Of his activities at this period in his life, Ferdinand Gregorovius , the historian of medieval Rome, wrote, "Versed in

14112-619: Was brought from Patras in the Peloponnese to Rome by Thomas Palaeologus. Pius II succeeded in reconciling the Emperor and the King of Hungary, and derived great encouragement as well as pecuniary advantage from the discovery of mines of alum in the papal territory at Tolfa , c. 1459. However, France was estranged; the Duke of Burgundy broke his positive promises; Milan was engrossed with

14238-704: Was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 19 August 1458 to his death. Aeneas Silvius was an author, diplomat, and orator, and private secretary of Antipope Felix V and then the Emperor Frederick III , and then Pope Eugenius IV. He participated in the Council of Basel , but left it in 1443 to follow Frederick, whom he reconciled to the Roman obedience. He became Bishop of Trieste in 1447, Bishop of Siena in 1450, and

14364-482: Was held at Merseburg on 22 April to raise troops and coordinate efforts, according to the Sächsische Weltchronik and the Annales breves Wormatienses . There is no record of who attended, but Duke Albert of Saxony and Bishop Conrad of Meissen had mustered an army and joined Wenceslaus at Königstein by 7 May. In late April, another assembly was held at Herford (or perhaps Erfurt ) under

14490-620: Was hostile to the idea of a crusade. Two cardinals had died six months previously, Antonio de la Cerda y Lloscos and the Infante Jaime of Portugal . Some of the Italian cardinals, led by the Patriarch of Aquileia, Lodovico Scampi , were hostile to him personally and skeptical of his project. Pius decided to hold a consistory for the creation of new cardinals. Suggestions poured in from all sides, petitioning for at least ten new cardinals. During Lent of 1460, he began consultations with

14616-534: Was joined by his recent host in Mantua, Ludovico Gonzaga . Pius described his delight with country life in very pleasing language. At the same time, since he had long been concerned with the content of the College of Cardinals and with the behavior of some of its members, The French faction among the cardinals, especially d'Estouteville and Alain de Coëtivy , obstructed every move that might harm King Louis XI , who

14742-466: Was later awarded the title "Athleta Christi" ( Champion of Christ ) by Pope Sixtus IV , who referred to him as "verus christianae fidei athleta" ("the true defender of the Christian faith"). Pope Pius II Pope Pius II ( Latin : Pius PP. II , Italian : Pio II ), born Enea Silvio Bartolomeo Piccolomini (Latin: Aeneas Silvius Bartholomeus ; 18 October 1405 – 14 August 1464),

14868-507: Was much resisted); Pius' nephew Francesco Todeschini-Piccolomini , a protonotary apostolic ; and Burkhard von Weisbriach , archbishop of Salzburg. The appointment of Weisbriach was not made public until 31 May 1462, to avoid offending the foreign powers. The five cardinals whose names were published were all Italians. On 7 March 1460, Pope Pius had to write to the Duke of Burgundy, Philip the Good , apologizing for having been unable to convince

14994-590: Was occupying the Hungarian counties that Béla IV had pawned him. Duke Frederick detailed the situation in Austria in letters to the pope and the emperor. In a letter to Conrad IV dated 13 June 1241, he reports on the damage the Mongols inflicted on Austria and estimates that he killed 300 of them on the banks of the Morava . A week later, in a letter to Bishop Henry of Constance dated 22 or 23 June 1241, Frederick revises his estimate of casualties upwards to 700 and puts his own dead at 100. This incursion into Austria

15120-414: Was of the same mind. He brought strong recommendations from Frederick and Ladislaus V of Hungary (also King of Bohemia) for the nomination of Aeneas to the cardinalate, but delays arose from the Pope's resolution to promote his own nephews first, which he did on 17 September 1456. Finally, on 17 December 1456, he was named a cardinal, and next day he was assigned the titular church of Santa Sabina on

15246-627: Was only 17; Jean Jouffroy , the nomination of Louis XI and Philip the Good; Louis d'Albret , son of the Count of Dreux; and Jaume Cardona , bishop of Urgel. The name of Burkhard von Weisbriach of Salzburg was also finally published. In the struggle for the Kingdom of Naples between the supporters of the House of Aragon and the House of Anjou , the Papal States were at this time troubled by rebellious barons and marauding condottieri , whom he gradually, though momentarily, quelled. The Neapolitan War

15372-482: Was sent by Cardinal Niccolò Albergati , Eugenius IV's legate at the council, on a secret mission to Scotland , the object of which is variously related even by himself. He visited England as well as Scotland, underwent many perils and vicissitudes in both countries and left an account of each. The journey to Scotland proved so tempestuous that Piccolomini swore that he would walk barefoot to the nearest shrine of Our Lady from their landing port. This proved to be Dunbar ;

15498-565: Was sent to Strasbourg , where he fathered a child, a son, with a Breton woman called Elizabeth. The baby died 14 months later. Piccolomini served briefly as secretary to Pope Felix, and in 1442 was sent as envoy to the Diet of Frankfurt . On 27 July 1442, at Frankfurt, Frederick III , King of the Romans celebrated him as Poet Laureate, and offered him a position at court as his secretary. In January 1443, Aeneas resigned as secretary of Felix V, and

15624-550: Was stopped in 1593 on Croatian soil ( Battle of Sisak ), which could be in this sense regarded as a historical gate of European civilization. Nevertheless, the Muslim Ottoman Empire occupied part of Croatia from the 15th to the 19th centuries. However, Pope Leo X wasn't the first that gave Croatia such a title. The nobility of the southern Croatian regions sent a letter to Pope Alexander VI and Roman-German emperor Maximilian I on April 10, 1494 seeking help against

15750-465: Was the Holy Roman Empire. This was based partially on intelligence, but mainly on prevailing interpretations of apocalyptic literature. The arrival of the Mongols on the eastern border of the Empire presented the first serious external threat it had faced since the Hungarian invasions in the 10th century. The Empire was not well positioned to meet it. The emperor had been excommunicated since 1239 and

15876-407: Was to appoint Aeneas Bishop of Trieste on 17 April 1447. On 13 August 1447, at Cologne, Bishop Aeneas wrote the first Epistola retractationis, ad Magistr. Jordanum . Pope Nicholas transferred him to the diocese of Siena on 23 September 1450. In 1450, Aeneas was sent as ambassador by Emperor Frederick III to negotiate his marriage with Princess Eleonore of Portugal . In 1451, he undertook

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