in their resistance, and it is due largely to his efforts that the
victorious advance of Mahomet II. was checked by the overthrow of his
forces at Belgrade (1456). Pius II.[1] (1458-64), though in his youth
not the most exemplary of the Humanist school, devoted himself with
earnestness and zeal to the duties of his sacred office. He published
a Bull retracting all the attacks which he had made against the Papacy
in his capacity as secretary to the /Concilabulum/ at Basle. He set
himself to study the Scriptures and the early Fathers in place of the
Pagan classics, and he showed his approbation of the Christian
Humanists. But he was unable to undertake the work of reform. In view
of the danger that still threatened Europe he convoked an assembly of
the princes at Mantua to organise a crusade against the Turks, but
they turned a deaf ear to his appeals, and, at last weary of their
refusals and indifference, he determined to place himself at the head
of the Christian forces for the defence of Europe and Christianity. He
reached Ancona broken down in spirits and bodily health, and died
before anything effective could be done. Paul II. (1464-71), who
succeeded, made some efforts to purify the Roman Court. He suppressed
promptly the College of Abbreviators who were noted for their greed
for gold and their zeal for Paganism, and closed the Roman Academy. On
account of his severity in dealing with the half Christian Humanists
of the Curia he has been attacked with savage bitterness by Platina,
one of the dismissed officials, in his /Lives of the Popes/,[2] but
nobody is likely to be deceived by scurrilous libels, the motives of
which are only too apparent. The worst that can be said against Paul
II. is that he was too fond of appointing his relatives to high
positions in the Church; but in mitigation of that it is well to
remember that his reforms had raised up so many enemies against him in
Rome, and disaffection was so rife amongst even the highest officials
of his court, that he may have deemed it prudent to have relatives