PIUS II. (Enea Silvio de Piccolomini, known in literature as Aeneas Silvius), pope from 1458 to 1464, was born on Oct. 18, 1405, at Corsignano (later called Pienza after him) near Siena. His family claimed to trace descent from Romulus. The eldest of 18 children, he worked on the farm with his father until a priest enabled him, at the age of 18, to go as a poor student to Siena, where he divided his time between severe humanistic studies and sensual pleasure. He was attracted to Florence by the teaching of Filelfo. He became secretary to Domenico Cap ranica, bishop of Fermo, and went with him to the Council of Basle, where he stayed several years (1431-35), changing masters whenever he could improve his position. He was engaged on various errands, some of them dangerous ; they included a long journey to England and Scotland on secret diplomatic business. In 1436 he was back at Basle, and, although a layman, obtained a seat in the council and exercised considerable influence. Aeneas took an active part in the council after it was transferred to Florence, and though he still declined to take orders, he was given a position on the conciliar conclave which elected Amadeus of Savoy as pope under the title of Felix V. In return for his services Felix made Aeneas papal secretary.
A new period of his career opened in 1442, when he was sent by the council to take part in the diet of Frankfurt-on-Main. Here he met Frederick III. of Germany, who made him poet laureate and his private secretary. He ingratiated himself with the chancellor, Kasper Schlick, at Vienna, one of whose adven tures he celebrated in Lucretia and Eurialus, a novel in the style of Boccaccio. At this period he also wrote his witty but immoral play, Chrisis. In 1446 he took orders as subdeacon, and wrote that he meant to reform, "forsaking Venus for Bacchus." Aeneas was useful to Frederick as a diplomatist, and managed to give all parties the impression that he was the devoted advocate of each. He took an important part in the diet of Nuremburg (1444), and in 1445 made his peace with Eugenius. At the diet of Frankfurt (Sept. 1446) Aeneas modified the hostility of the electors to pope and emperor. The new pope, Nicholas V., made him bishop of Siena, and for his services in negotiating the con cordat of Aschaffenburg in 1448 he was made prince of the em pire and cardinal.
The death of Calixtus III. (who succeeded Nicholas V.) oc curred on Aug. 5, 1458. After a hot fight in the conclave, Aeneas was elected and took the title Pius II., with a reminiscence of Virgil's "plus Aeneas." The humanists hailed his election with joy, and flocked around to secure a share of the good things, but they were bitterly disappointed, as Pius did not prove himself the liberal and undiscriminating patron they hoped. The fall of Constantinople in 1453 made a deep impression upon Pius, and he never ceased to preach the crusade against the Turk. In Sept. 1459 he opened a congress at Mantua to promote the crusade, but both the French and the Germans were annoyed with him for different reasons, and he received little support. He believed that the decline in the papal influence was due to the usurpation of power by the councils, and he now issued (Jan. 1460) the bull Execrabilis et in pristinis temporibus inauditus, in which he condemned as heretical the doctrine that the councils were superior to the popes, and proclaimed the anathema against any one who should dare to appeal to one.
While Pius was at Mantua war broke out between the French and Spanish in southern Italy, and a rising of the barons devas tated the Campagna. Hurrying back to Rome, Pius succeeded in quelling the disorders. This measure still further alienated the pope from the French, with whom he was at that time negotiating for the abrogation of the Pragmatic Sanction. When Louis XI.
came to the throne (Nov. 1461), he sent to Pius saying that he had abolished the Pragmatic Sanction, hoping in return to get the kingdom of Naples, for his countryman, Rene of Anjou. As Pius continued to support Ferdinand, Louis retaliated by reassert ing the ancient liberties of the Gallican Church. At the same time a serious quarrel with the Germans prevented anything being done towards a crusade. George Podiebrad, king of Bohemia, was plotting to depose the emperor Frederick III., who was supported by Pius. Diether, archbishop of Mainz, took the side of Podiebrad, and replied to Pius's measures by appeal ing to a general council. He was declared deposed by the pope, but kept his seat, and in 1464 compelled the pope to recognize him again. The quarrel with Podiebrad, who was accused of supporting the Utraquist heresy, continued with increasing bitter ness, but without any decisive result, until the death of Pius. In the meantime the pope did what he could to further the cause of the crusade. The discovery of alum mines at Tolfa gave him an unexpected pecuniary resource, and to stimulate the zeal of Christendom, Pius took the cross on June 18, 1464. He set out for Venice, where he intended to sail for the East, but he was attacked with a fever, and on Aug. 14, 1464, he died.
Pius II. was a voluminous author. Besides poems, a novel and a play, he wrote a number of orations, which were considered models of eloquence in their day. The tale of Euryalus and Lucretia was translated into many languages (Eng., 156o), and his Latin poems, Miseriae curialium (Rome, 1473), were read throughout Europe. Alexander Barclay translated some of them in Certayne Eglogues . . . (1548?) repr. by Spenser Society (1885). His most valuable work, however, is his Pii II. Coin mentarii rerum memorabilium quae temporibus suis contigerunt, a history of his times, told in an interesting and ra cional manner. Also, there is the Cosmographia in Asiae et Europae . . . de scriptione, of which a complete edition was published at Venice in 1503, and Historia Bohemica (Cologne, 1532).
letters of Pius II. are in process of publication by R. Wolkan, Der Briefwechsel des Eneas Silvius Piccolomini (Vienna, 1909– ), in Fontes rerum Austriacarum. The Commentaries were published in 1584, as begun by Pius himself, and completed by J. Gobellinus. His other works are found in Aenae Silvii opera omnia, edit. M. Hopperus (Basle, 1551). See also Herzog-Hauck, Real encyklopadie (1904), vol. xv., where a full bibliography will be found; Voigt, Pius II. (1856-63) ; L. Pastor, History of the Popes from the Close of the Middle Ages (Eng. trans., 1896, vol. ii.) ; M. Creighton, History of the Papacy during the Reformation, vol. ii. (1882) ; W. Boulting, Aeneas Silvius (1908) ; C. M. Ady, Pius II.: the Humanist Pope (1913) ; C. Lucius, Pius II. and Ludwig XI. von Frankreich, 1461-62 (1913) •