The History of the Popes (Volume 2); From the Close of the Middle Ages Drawn from the Secret Archives of the Vatican and Other Original Sources (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1891. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER II. THE FIRST YEARS OF THE REIGN OF POPE NICHOLAS V. SETTLEMENT OF ECCLESIASTICAL AND POLITICAL AFFAIRS* POLITICAL and ecclesiastical affairs were alike in a state of extreme confusion at the time when Nicholas V. ascended the Pontifical throne. France and England were at war; in Germany the authority of King Frederick III., on whose fidelity he could rely, was thoroughly shaken, and a great part of Bohemia was severed from the Church. The condition in the East was yet more deplorable. The national antipathies of the Greeks and the craftiness of their Theologians had stifled the Union proclaimed at Florence, and ever since the disastrous day of Varna (1444) the advance of Islam had been unceasing.t In Italy there was disquiet, and perils threatened the Papacy. The temper of the most powerful of Italian Princes, King Alfonso of Naples, may be gathered from his favourite saying, which had special reference to the Head of the Church. "Blows," * The *Regesta of Nicholas V. in the Secret Archives of the Vatican occupy fifty-one volumes (N. 385-435). Raynaldus, D. Georgius, and more recently Dr. Kayser, have thoroughly examined these volumes. There are also a few letters in the Arm., xxxix., T. 7. See Kaltenbrunner in the Mittheilungen, 1884, p. 82. The great gaps in the Secret Archives of the Vatican are partly filled up by letters found in other Archives, especially in the State Archives of Bologna. f Christophe, i., 371-372. Zinkeisen, i., 'jo DEGREESetseq. he said, "have abetter effect on priests than prayers."* Milan was governed by Filippo Maria Visconti, whose "cruel egotism "t stopped at nothing. The States of the Church were in unspeakable misery, the country was devastated by war, the cities were desolate, the streets, beset by bands of robbers, more than f...