Pope Paul II (1464-1471)

A Venetian pope on the threshold of a new world

Paul II reigned at a turning point. In 1453, Constantinople had fallen to the Turks; Gutenberg's printing press had just appeared; Italian princes competed in patronage, and the Roman Curia filled with scholars fascinated by pagan antiquity. Elected eleven years after the fall of Constantinople, Paul II had to defend threatened Christendom and govern a Rome undergoing deep cultural change.^[12][13] His pontificate condenses the tensions of the age: crusade and diplomacy, princely splendor and administrative reform, encouragement of printing and mistrust of neo-pagan humanism.^[14][15]

A pontificate first judged by its enemies

No Renaissance pope was so lastingly blackened by a single author. The portrait drawn by Bartolomeo Platina in his Lives of the Popes -- an uncultivated, vain pontiff, hostile to letters and attached to pleasures -- was copied by generations of historians until the nineteenth century.^[16][17] Yet Platina was an interested party: he had been imprisoned by Paul II and had sworn revenge. To read Paul II is therefore first to learn how to distinguish calumny from archival evidence.^[18][19]

What history actually retains

Once the legend is set aside, what remains is a firm and pious pope, deeply attached to the authority of the Apostolic See, charitable toward the poor, scrupulous in justice, and a defender of the faith against both Hussite heresy and the Ottoman advance. His decision to fix the Jubilee every 25 years continues to structure the life of the Church in the twenty-first century, and his support for printing helped make Rome a center of the book.^[20][21][22] This double image -- the calumniated pope and the effective pope -- is what this article seeks to disentangle.

The merchant who became a prelate

Pietro Barbo was born in Venice on February 23, 1417, into a family of the mercantile nobility. Son of Niccolo Barbo and Polissena Condulmer, he was first destined, according to Venetian tradition, for commerce.^[23][24] His life changed when his maternal uncle, Cardinal Gabriele Condulmer, was elected pope as Eugene IV in 1431. The young Pietro then left trade for the ecclesiastical state -- a choice his adversaries later denounced as mere ambition, but which was ordinary in the Rome of the period.^[25][26]

Eugene IV's nephew

Pietro Barbo's rise was rapid and owed everything to his uncle. He became archdeacon of Bologna, then apostolic administrator of Cervia (1440-1451) and bishop of Vicenza (1451-1464), before being created cardinal on 1 July 1440, at only twenty-three (deacon of Santa Maria Nuova, then priest of Saint Mark from 1451).^{[27][28][29][30]} This nepotism -- in the original sense of the promotion of a nepos, a nephew -- was normal in the papacy of the Quattrocento. From 1445 onward, Pietro was archpriest of the Vatican basilica.^[31][32] Under successive pontificates -- Eugene IV, Nicholas V and Callixtus III -- he emerged as one of the most influential cardinals of the Curia, known as the "Cardinal of Venice", and remained less in favour under Pius II, whose rival for the tiara he had been.^[33][34]

The cardinal of Saint Mark

As titular of Saint Mark -- the church of the Venetians in Rome -- Pietro Barbo began, already as cardinal, rebuilding the adjoining palace, which would become the Palace of Saint Mark, later called the Palazzo Venezia.^[35][36] Known for his generosity and imposing presence, he was also a passionate collector of engraved stones, cameos and antiquities -- a taste he kept on the throne of Peter and which later fed the sarcasms of his enemies.^[37][38]

The conclave of August 1464

At the death of Pius II -- the humanist pope Enea Silvio Piccolomini, who died in August 1464 while trying to depart for the crusade -- the conclave gathered nineteen cardinals. On August 30, 1464, Pietro Barbo led the first ballot with eleven votes, then was elected by accessus with three rallies, that is fourteen votes.^[39][40][41] His election partly expressed a reaction against the policy of his predecessor: the new pope was expected to govern more firmly and involve the Sacred College more directly in affairs.^[42][43]

The revoked electoral capitulation

Before the election, as was customary, the cardinals had signed a capitulation -- a set of undertakings limiting the power of the future pope: convocation of a council, sharing of revenues, mandatory consultation with the Sacred College. Barbo had sworn to it. Once elected, however, he declared that such commitments could function only as counsels, not as binding obligations, because they were contrary to the monarchical constitution of the Church.^[44][45]

"Papal capitulations could function only as counsels rather than binding obligations." - Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th ed. (1911), "Paul (popes)"^[46]

This revocation, legally defensible in light of the doctrine of papal primacy, permanently alienated part of the College of Cardinals and nourished his reputation as a pope excessively jealous of his authority.^[47][48]

The quarrel over the name: Formosus, Mark or Paul?

A famous episode sheds light both on the new pope's character and on the malice of his chroniclers. According to Cardinal Jacopo Ammannati, Barbo first wanted to reign as "Formosus II" -- formosus meaning "handsome," supposedly alluding to his fine appearance -- before being dissuaded. Another tradition reports that he considered "Mark II", in honor of Saint Mark, patron of Venice, but was turned away from it because "Viva San Marco!" was the battle cry of the Venetian Republic and would have seemed partisan.^[49][50] He finally chose Paul II. The preferred diffusion of the "Formosus" anecdote -- useful for portraying the pope as vain -- already shows how his adversaries shaped his image.^[51]

The following table summarizes, by field, the major decisions of the pontificate before detailing them.

The suppression of the College of Abbreviators (October 1464)

The Abbreviators were officials of the papal chancery charged with drafting and expediting bulls. Pius II had greatly increased their number and had appointed many humanists, who found in the office both income and literary leisure. In October 1464, Paul II dissolved the college, restored the powers of the vice-chancellor and annulled his predecessor's appointments, to the great dismay of the humanists deprived of their office.^[52][53]

The measure, defensible administratively, provoked a storm of indignation among men of letters suddenly deprived of office. Among them was Bartolomeo Platina, who addressed a threatening pamphlet to the pope -- a gesture that earned him a first imprisonment at Castel Sant'Angelo, with interrogation under torture, and sealed his hatred.^[54][55][56]

The Jubilee every 25 years (1470)

Paul II's most lasting act is probably liturgical. Since Boniface VIII (1300), the periodicity of the Holy Year had varied: every hundred years, then fifty, then thirty-three. By the bull Ineffabilis providentia, dated 19 April 1470 (XIII Kal. Mai.), Paul II fixed that the Jubilee would henceforth be celebrated every 25 years, beginning in 1475, so that each generation of the faithful could benefit from it at least once.^[57][58]

This provision still governs, more than five centuries later, the rhythm of the Church's ordinary Holy Years.

Paul II died four years before the date; it was his successor Sixtus IV who opened and presided over the Jubilee of 1475, confirming his predecessor's decision by his bull Salvator noster.^[59][60] The ordinary 25-year rhythm has not changed -- extraordinary jubilees remaining possible --: the ordinary Jubilee of 2025 is its direct heir.^[61]

Patron of early printing

Here is the paradox for a pope accused of being an enemy of letters: Paul II favored the installation in Rome, in 1467, of one of Italy's first presses. The German clerics Conrad Sweynheym and Arnold Pannartz had set up at the Benedictine monastery of Subiaco, around 1465, the first press on Italian soil, before transferring it to Rome in 1467. The pope encouraged the enterprise and had texts useful to the administration of the Papal States printed.^[62][63] Under his reign, Rome became one of Europe's first centers of printed books -- a fact that directly contradicts the caricature of an obscurantist pontiff.^[64]

The Palace of Saint Mark and the taste for precious stones

After becoming pope, Paul II continued the construction of the Palace of Saint Mark -- today's Palazzo Venezia, which still dominates the square of the same name in Rome -- and made it his papal residence, partly leaving the Vatican.^[65][66] He housed his collections there: antique cameos, medals, bronzes, and especially an extraordinary reserve of precious stones. According to the inventory drawn up after his death, as reported by historians, his chests contained pearls and gems in considerable quantity, including a tiara encrusted with diamonds, sapphires, emeralds and large pearls.^[67]

This real taste for splendor was systematically turned against him by his enemies, who used it to depict him as a frivolous prince. Modern historians rather see it as the expression of princely patronage typical of the early Renaissance, placed at the service of the prestige of the Holy See.^[68][69]

The Roman carnival and the races on the Corso

Fond of public festivities, Paul II reorganized the Roman carnival and instituted, from 1466 onward, races along the Via Lata, which from then took the name Via del Corso -- "street of the race" -- that it still bears. Races were run by categories, with separate prizes.^[70][71][72] Here again, what was a policy of popular entertainment and urban prestige was transformed by hostile pens into proof of worldliness.^[73]

Pomponio Leto and the dream of a pagan Rome

At the heart of humanist Rome, the Roman Academy had formed, a circle of scholars gathered around Pomponio Leto (Julius Pomponius Laetus). Passionate about antiquity, its members took Latin names, celebrated the birthday of the foundation of Rome, restored ancient rites and customs, and professed an admiration for classical paganism that at times bordered on irreligion.^[74][75] From Paul II's perspective, as guardian of the faith, this neo-pagan fervor was not merely a game of scholars: it was a dangerous doctrinal drift, mixed with materialism and contempt for the Christian religion.^[76][77]

The affair of 1468: conspiracy or paranoia?

In February 1468, Paul II had several members of the Academy arrested, accusing them not only of irreligion and immorality, but also of a conspiracy against his person. The academicians, imprisoned at Castel Sant'Angelo, were interrogated under torture.^[78][79][80] The investigation proved no real plot: none of the accused was sentenced to death, and most were released after several months. Historians still debate the reality of the threat: some see an excessive fear on the pope's part, others a defense of the faith against a milieu genuinely hostile to Christianity.^[81][82]

The following table contrasts the two readings of the file -- the legendary one inherited from Platina, and the one suggested by modern historical criticism.

Bartolomeo Platina, vengeful biographer

Among the arrested academicians was Bartolomeo Sacchi, called Platina, a former abbreviator struck twice by the pope's reforms. Imprisoned, tortured, and finally released on July 7, 1469, he never forgave.^[83][84][85] Later appointed Vatican librarian under Sixtus IV, he composed his Vitae Pontificum ("Lives of the Popes," 1479), where the life of Paul II stands out for a portrait of rare hostility: an uncultivated, vain, sensual pontiff, enemy of poets.^[86][87]

Platina, hostile, attributes to Pius II a mockery of Barbo's demonstrative piety (paraphrase: according to this adversarial account, the cardinal supposedly deserved an ironic nickname of "most pious," and supposedly added tears to his prayers to better obtain what he sought). Since the exact Latin wording and the remark attributed to Pius II could not be verified against the work, no literal quotation is retained here: the anecdote must be read as an adversary's charge, not as neutral testimony.^[88]

Presented as mockery of the pope's hypocrisy, the anecdote in fact attests -- despite itself -- a demonstrative piety confirmed by favorable sources.^[89][90]

The Catholic Encyclopedia bluntly calls this biography "calumnious", and historiography has long established that it must be read as a personal indictment, not as neutral testimony.^[91][92]

The crusade against the Turks and the fall of Negroponte (1470)

Like all popes of his century, Paul II lived under the shadow of the Ottoman advance. He continued the crusading effort launched by Pius II, supported the Albanian hero Skanderbeg in his resistance, tried to unite Christian princes, and used the trade in alum from Tolfa -- an ore indispensable for dyeing -- as a financial and diplomatic lever.^[93][94] But divided Christian Europe did not respond. In July 1470, the great Venetian fortress of Negroponte (Euboea, Greece) fell to Mehmed II -- a resounding disaster that stunned Christendom and that Paul II could not prevent.^[95][96][97]

George of Podebrady and Hussite Bohemia

The other great front lay inside Christendom. In Bohemia reigned George of Podebrady, an elected king who protected the Utraquists, moderate heirs of Hussitism -- the movement of the disciples of the Czech preacher Jan Hus, condemned as a heretic at the Council of Constance --, attached to the concessions of the Council of Basel (communion under both species). For Paul II, tolerating a dissident national Church at the heart of Europe was unacceptable.^[98][99] After summoning him to appear before a Roman tribunal in 1465, the pope excommunicated and deposed George of Podebrady on December 23, 1466.^[100][101] The king's apologist, the jurist Gregory of Heimburg, replied with violent attacks on the pope's person and was himself excommunicated.^[102][103]

Matthias Corvinus, the pope's armed support

To overthrow the heretical king, Paul II relied on the powerful king of Hungary, Matthias Corvinus, whom he pushed into war against Bohemia. Matthias was crowned king of Bohemia in 1469, but the conflict dragged on and was not resolved during Paul II's lifetime.^[104][105] This crusade against Hussite heresy, conducted alongside the anti-Turkish struggle, dispersed Christendom's forces and was, by the admission of contemporaries themselves, one of the obstacles to an effective response against the Ottomans.^[106][107]

Platina's black legend

Platina's hostile portrait long stood for truth. Besides the accusation of obscurantism, it contains insinuations about the pope's morals, down to scandalous rumors about the circumstances of his death -- rumors spread by his humanist enemies and repeated from chronicle to chronicle.^[108][109] This black legend prospered all the more easily because it served two causes: the resentment of men of letters and, later, anti-Catholic polemic.^[110]

Rehabilitation through the archives

The great turning point came with historian Ludwig von Pastor (1854-1928). Given privileged access to the Vatican Secret Archives, he devoted almost two hundred pages of volume IV of his monumental History of the Popes from the Close of the Middle Ages to Paul II.^[111] Confronting Platina with official documents -- registers, diplomatic dispatches, accounts -- he established that the biographer had systematically blackened his subject, and restored the image of a pope pious, charitable and zealous for the faith, even if authoritarian and splendid.^[112][113]

Piety, charity and government

Favorable sources converge on several constant traits. Paul II was marked by demonstrative piety, attested even by Platina's mockery of his tears. He was charitable toward the poor and concerned for justice: he hunted down forgeries and abuses, protected the humble, and fought the Fraticelli and other sects.^[114][115] Deeply attached to the dignity of the Apostolic See, he raised its prestige through splendor without renouncing effective government. His firmness in revoking the conclave capitulation and suppressing superfluous offices belongs less to tyranny than to a certain monarchical understanding of the papacy, coherent with Catholic doctrine on primacy.^[116][117]

"The suppression of the Roman Academy was justified by the moral degeneration and pagan attitude it fostered." - Catholic Encyclopedia, "Pope Paul II"^[118]

The sudden death of July 26, 1471

Paul II died suddenly in Rome on July 26, 1471, at 54, of a cause that remains debated (presumed apoplexy or heart attack): the Treccani notice mentions a death "perhaps by apoplexy, after a copious dinner," and contemporary accounts speak of an excess of melons.^{[119][120][121][122]} His enemies, faithful to their method, made degrading accounts of it -- going so far as to insinuate a death in debauchery -- which historical criticism treats as calumnies without foundation, in direct continuity with the Platina legend.^[123][124]

The treasure and the succession of Sixtus IV

Late accounts of the inventory drawn up after his death describe chests of pearls, precious stones in quantity, gold and jewels, including a richly adorned tiara. Since the ducat amounts and the number of engraved gems advanced by these accounts alone are not corroborated by the checked primary sources (Pastor, Treccani), no figure is retained here as established.^[125] He was buried in Saint Peter's Basilica, near the tomb of his uncle Eugene IV, in a funerary monument erected in 1475-1477 by his nephew Marco Barbo -- recumbent effigy by Giovanni Dalmata, figures and bas-reliefs by Mino da Fiesole --, moved in 1544 then demolished in the 17th century, of which only fragments remain; his sarcophagus is preserved in the Vatican Grottoes.^{[126][127][128]} The conclave gave him as successor the Franciscan Francesco della Rovere, who took the name Sixtus IV and presided over the Jubilee of 1475 desired by Paul II.^[129][130]

Paul II's place in the series of popes

Placed between two brilliant figures -- the humanist Pius II and the builder Sixtus IV, founder of the Sistine Chapel -- Paul II long suffered from comparison and calumny. Contemporary historiography gives him a fairer place: that of a transitional pope, medieval in piety and doctrinal firmness, modern in splendor and openness to printing, whose most universal work -- the rhythm of the Jubilee -- continues to mark the life of the Church five and a half centuries later.^{[131][132][133]}

• Pius II (Enea Silvio Piccolomini) -- Paul II's humanist predecessor, who died while trying to depart for the crusade.
• Sixtus IV -- his successor, who celebrated the Jubilee of 1475 and gave his name to the Sistine Chapel.
• Eugene IV -- the uncle who opened Pietro Barbo's ecclesiastical career.
• The Council of Constance (1414-1418) -- which condemned Jan Hus, at the origin of the Hussitism fought by Paul II in Bohemia.
• The fall of Constantinople (1453) -- the Ottoman shadow weighing on the entire pontificate.