Volume III of this History of the Papacy opens with the Council of Basel in revolt against Pope Eugenius IV, who doggedly defends papal autonomy against the movement for church reform. Dominating this volume is Aeneus Sylvius Piccolomini, Pope Pius II.
A world famous author, diplomat, and Renaissance humanist, he dies in Ancona, at the head of a failed crusade.
Creighton writes of him, "Weakness and strength are strangely blended; vanity and littleness mix with high purpose and far-reaching plans; but before the eyes of Pius II there floated fitfully a loftier ideal of Christendom than was visible to any of his contemporaries, and juster views than he was enabled to express in action."
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