The history of the popes, from the close of the middle ages

VOLUME II. BOOK III.

CALIXTUS III, THE CHAMPION OF CHRISTENDOM AGAINST ISLAM,

1455-1458.

  CHAPTER I.

ELECTION OF CALIXTUS III.—HIS ATTITUDE TOWARDS THE RENAISSANCE—HIS CORONATION AND THE EMBASSIES SENT TO DO HIM HOMAGE.

 

From the beginning of March, 1455, by which time the death of Nicholas V was looked upon as imminent, the question of the Papal election engaged the attention of all parties in the Eternal City. On the 13th March we find that the Cardinals assembled in the greatest haste to take counsel regarding the situation. "God grant," wrote the Bishop of Chiusi to Siena, "that the election of the Supreme Pastor of the Church may take place in peace and without obstacle, a matter on which grave doubts here prevail."

These apprehensions were not groundless. Considerable agitation again prevailed in Rome; the republican anti-papal party was astir, and it was fortunate that its gifted and eloquent leader, Porcaro, was no longer among the living. The masses became daily more and more turbulent, and the Cardinals prudently brought troops into the City. On the 24th March Nicodemus of Pontremoli, the Duke of Milan's ambassador, wrote as follows :—" The whole city is in an uproar, and the population are ripe for revolt." Another element of danger was added by the disturbances in Bologna and Romagna, stirred up by the Venetian Condottiere Jacopo Piccinino and other leaders, like himself thrown out of employment by the peace of Lodi.

After the death of Nicholas V, which took place in the Vatican in the night between the 24th and 25th of March, the ceremonies usual on such occasions were carried out, and meanwhile the Sacred College laboured unremittingly. Letters were despatched to the rulers of all the cities in the States of the Church, exhorting them as "quiet, peaceable, good and devoted sons of the Church" to persevere in their wonted obedience, and at the same time the necessary preparations were made for the election of a new Pope. Everything was duly accomplished, so that on Thursday, April 3rd, the solemn Mass of the Holy Ghost was sung. The preliminaries had been hastened, because the next day was Good Friday. According to custom, a Prelate then delivered a Latin discourse to the Cardinals, exhorting them to give Christendom a worthy Supreme Pastor.

On the morning of the 4th April all the Cardinals present in Rome, preceded by the Papal Cross, went, while the Veni Creator Spiritus was sung, "peacefully and with great reverence and piety", from St. Peter's to the Chapel of the Vatican, in which the conclave was to be held. The adoration of the Cross customary on Good Friday and the exposition of the Holy Handkerchief had already taken place, and the conclave began that day. The custody of the place of election was entrusted to six Bishops, of which four were foreigners, and six laymen; pre-eminent among the latter were Pandulfo Savello, Marshal of the Church, and Nicodemus of Pontremoli, Francis Sforza's ambassador, a portion of whose admirable account of the proceedings of the conclave is still preserved in the State Archives at Milan.

At the death of Nicholas V, the Sacred College was composed of twenty members, of whom six were absent, namely, two Germans, Peter von Schaumburg, Bishop of Augsburg, and Nicholas of Cusa, the Hungarian, Dionysius Szechy, the Greek, Bessarion, Jean Rolin, Bishop of Autun, and Guillaume d'Estouteville, both of whom were French ; the last mentioned had been for nearly a year acting as Legate in France, and did not return to Rome till the 12th of September, 1455. Of these six Cardinals, Bessarion alone was able to arrive in Rome in time for the election. The Sacred College accordingly assembled in Conclave to the number of fifteen members. Two of these, the noble Capranica, and the aged Prospero Colonna, had been created by Martin V; while five, namely, the learned and open-hearted Antonio de la Cerda, Latino Orsini, Alain, the former Bishop of Sitten, Guillaume d'Estaing, and Filippo Calandrini owed their elevation to Nicholas V. The remaining eight had been nominated by Eugenius IV on different occasions. Scarampo and Pietro Barbo, two men of diametrically opposite characters and purposes, occupied the most prominent position among the Cardinals.

Italy furnished but seven of the fifteen electors; these were Fieschi, Scarampo, Barbo, Orsini, Colonna, Capranica, and Calandrini; of the eight foreigners, two, Bessarion and Isidore, were Greeks; two, Alain and d'Estaing, French, and the remaining four, Torquemada, Antonio de la Cerda, Carvajal and Alfonso Borgia, Spaniards. But in the election of 1455, as in the previous one, nationality was of comparatively little account. The opposing factions of the Colonna and Orsini formed the centres of the different parties.

"The majority of the Cardinals were," Nicodemus of Pontremoli informs us, "at first inclined to favour the election of the Colonna Cardinal, who would no doubt have become Pope had Nicholas V died at the commencement of his illness. But its long continuance gave Cardinal Orsini time to counteract this feeling, and to enter into negotiations with the ambassadors of King Alfonso and of the Republic of Venice. Consequently—unless God should order otherwise—either Barbo or Scarampo will obtain the Papacy. The Orsini party, with the assistance of King Alfonso, is able to dispose of five votes, one of which would be absolutely required by the Colonna candidate to give him the necessary majority of two-thirds." According to another despatch from the same ambassador, the wealthy, business-like Cardinal Orsini originally himself aspired to the tiara, and won over the Venetian ambassadors who lodged in his palace to his side; but in case his own hopes should be disappointed, he brought forward Cardinal Pietro Barbo, who subsequently became Paul II.

The two opposing parties adopted different modes of action. The Colonna sought to gain adherents by prudence and affability, while the Orsini strengthened their material power. The prospects of Cardinal Orsini seem to have been rapidly clouded, for on the 20th March, Nicodemus writes that Pietro Barbo is as likely as any other candidate to fill the Papal Throne.

An old Roman proverb declares that "he who enters the Conclave a Pope leaves it a Cardinal" and the truth of the saying was exemplified in the case of Pietro Barbo.

Regarding the proceedings in the Conclave, our information is derived from the report of Aeneas Sylvius, some scanty particulars in isolated despatches of ambassadors, and a notice in Vespasiano da Bisticci's work. From these authorities it appears that the Cardinals were greatly divided, and that three scrutinies failed to give any decided result. For a time it seemed as if Domenico Capranica, after Carvajal the most worthy among the members of the Sacred College, would be Pope. Christendom might, indeed, have been congratulated had the majority of votes been given to a Prince of the Church so distinguished for piety, learning, decision of character, and political ability. But Capranica was a Roman, and favourably disposed to the Colonna, and therefore unacceptable to many. The Colonna desired the election of an Italian, the Orsini that of a French Pontiff, and as neither party was able to carry the day, a neutral candidate was sought. In this capacity the learned Cardinal Bessarion had much to recommend him; as a born Greek, he had held aloof from Italian complications, he had no enemies, and was justly and generally esteemed for his learning and for his beneficent labours as Legate to Bologna. No one, moreover, seemed more, likely to give a fresh impulse to the crusade than this distinguished representative of Greece. Eight Cardinals declared themselves in his favour, and on the Easter Sunday and Monday there was reason to think that he would be unanimously elected, and at once acclaimed Pope. Favours were asked of him as if the matter were already settled. Roberto Sanseverino, in a letter to the Duke of Milan, expressed his conviction that " if the Greek Cardinal had exerted himself more the tiara would have been his". According to the account given by Aeneas Sylvius it was Alain, the Cardinal of Avignon, who prevented the election of the great humanist, who would undoubtedly have carried on the work of Nicholas V. The French Cardinal represented to his colleagues that it was not becoming to place at the head of the Roman Church a neophyte, a Greek, who still wore his beard in Oriental fashion, and had but lately ceased to be a schismatic. These words seem scarcely credible,   and the truth probably is, that the pride of some Italian Cardinals was wounded by the prospect of an Eastern, a member of the hated Greek nation, occupying the chair of St. Peter, while the worldly-minded amongst them, like Scarampo, dreaded Bessarion's austerity.

When this name had ceased to figure in the list of candidates, the former perplexity again returned. The crowds assembled in front of the Vatican grew impatient, and the ambassadors who kept watch over the Conclave were urgent for a decision, representing to the Cardinals the unsettled condition of Rome, and the danger threatened by Piccinino.

In this difficulty, each party being strong enough to hinder the election of the opposing candidate, and yet too weak to secure that of its own, the electors cast their eyes, upon a man who was not a member of the sacred college, the Minorite Antonio de Montefalcone, but he also failed to obtain the requisite majority of votes. Finally—as it were to postpone the contest—all agreed in electing an old man, whose life was almost at an end. Accordingly, mainly through the exertions of Scarampo and Alain, on the morning of the 8th April a Spanish Cardinal, the aged Alonso (Alfonso) de Borja (Borgia) was elected by accession, and took the name of Calixtus III. Those who had even before the beginning of the Conclave foretold that the discord of the Italians would result in the election of an "Ultramontane", now saw their predictions verified. Instead of Bessarion, the Greek humanist and philosopher, a Spanish canonist mounted the Papal throne.

No one had hitherto contemplated the elevation of Alfonso Borgia as a possibility, but when once it became known, a prophecy of St. Vincent Ferrer was called to mind. It was said that this Spanish Dominican, while preaching at Valencia, remarked a priest among the crowds who commended themselves to his prayers, and addressed him in the following words : "My son, I congratulate you; remember that you are called to be one day the ornament of your country and of your family. You will be invested with the highest dignity that can fall to the lot of man. I myself, after my death, shall be the object of your special honour. Endeavour to persevere in your virtuous course of life." The priest to whom the saint spoke was no other than Alfonso Borgia. From that moment, with the tenacity which belonged to his character, he had firmly believed in the prediction and frequently repeated it to his friends. Now that it had been accomplished, one of the first acts of his pontificate was to raise St. Vincent Ferrer to the altars, and his solemn canonization took place at Rome on the 29th June, 1455.

The old Catalan race of the Borja, or Borgia, as the Italians pronounced the name, had brought forth many remarkable men. Nature had been lavish in her gifts, and endowed them with beauty and strength, with intellect, skill, and that energy of will which compels fortune. Alfonso, who was no less gifted than the other members of his family, was born, at Xativa, in Valencia, on the last day of 1378, the year which witnessed the outbreak of the great schism. At a very early age he studied jurisprudence at the University of Lerida, and became a doctor of civil and canon law. Subsequently he successfully taught these subjects at Lerida, and was nominated to a canonry in the Cathedral of that city by Pedro de Luna, afterwards known as Benedict XIII. His relations with King Alfonso were the means of diverting Borgia from the career of learning on which he had entered. The monarch recognized his diplomatic capabilities and drew him into his service, where, as private secretary and confidential counsellor, he amply justified the trust reposed in him, displaying the greatest skill and activity in the conduct of ecclesiastical and political negotiations. Borgia also rendered important service to the Papacy in the time of Martin V, and the abdication of the anti-Pope Clement VIII was in great measure due to his exertions. The lawful Pope, Martin V, rewarded him in that very year by conferring on him the Bishopric of Valencia (1429).

As Bishop, Alfonso took part in the most important affairs of Church and State. In the reorganization of the kingdom of Naples, which had long been distracted by war and tumult, he rendered special services to King Alfonso, and the institution of the celebrated tribunal of Sta. Chiara was his work. His prudence and his spirit of perfect loyalty to Rome were manifested in the fact that he refused to act as Alfonso's ambassador to the Council of Basle, which was antagonistic to Pope Eugenius. He afterwards laboured most zealously to bring about a reconciliation between the King and the Pope, and, after it had been accomplished, was raised to the purple, and took his title from the picturesque old Basilica of the Quattro Incoronati, which stands on a spur of the northern Caelian hill. Alfonso could not but accede to the Pope's desire that he should remain at his Court, and he there gained the reputation of being incapable of flattery or party feeling. There was but one opinion in Rome regarding the moral purity, the integrity, the capacity for business, and the knowledge of canon law which distinguished the Cardinal of Valencia, as Alfonso was now commonly styled.

His health, unfortunately, was weak; severe study and unceasing activity had told upon his strength, and this circumstance, together with the familiar relations existing between him and King Alfonso, awakened considerable anxiety in Italy. The Republics of Venice, Florence, and Genoa were, as we learn from many contemporary letters, dissatisfied with the election, although their official documents expressed sentiments of a very different character.

The choice of a foreigner for the Papal dignity was a severe blow to the national feeling in Italy. It was by some even deemed probable that a great schism would break out, and that a number of Cardinals would leave the Papal Court, where, in the days immediately succeeding the election, Scarampo and Alain exercised an excessive influence. Fears were entertained, especially by the Republics, that the already too great influence of King Alfonso would be still further increased, and that the hated Catalans would be unduly promoted. The latter of these apprehensions was, as we shall see, but too well justified. But the idea that King Alfonso would now, through his former Secretary, rule the Holy See, happily proved unfounded.

Calixtus III was certainly regarded in Rome as a right-minded and just man. "The new Pope," wrote the Procurator of the Teutonic Order on the 3rd May, 1455, to the Grand Master, "is an old man of honorable and virtuous life and of excellent reputation". His previous life had been blameless. Austere towards himself, he was amiable and indulgent to others. As Bishop and as Cardinal he had declined all other preferment. The poor and needy never sought comfort and help from him in vain. The Sienese, Bartolommeo Michele, who had been previously acquainted with him, praised him in the highest terms. On the day after the election he wrote to his native city: "He is a man of great sanctity and learning, a friend and adherent of King Alfonso, in whose service he has been. He has always shown himself well disposed towards our city. Ilis nature is peaceable and kindly". Michele, in this letter, exhorts the Sienese to send the most splendid embassy possible to Rome, and to select for it eminent and worthy men, inasmuch as the Pope was very clear-sighted and learned.

A letter addressed by St. Antoninus, the great Arch­bishop of Florence, to Giovanni, the son of Messer Domenico of Orvieto, in Pisa, gives a good idea of the fears awakened by the election of Calixtus, and of the favourable change in public opinion which soon took place in his regard. "The election of Calixtus III," says St. Antoninus, "at first gave little satisfaction to the Italians, and this for two reasons. First, inasmuch as he was a Valencian or Catalan, they felt some apprehension lest he might seek to transfer the Papal Court to another country. Secondly, they feared that he might confide the strongholds of the Church to Catalans, and that it might eventually be difficult to recover possession of them. But now the minds of men have been reassured by more mature reflection, and the reputation which he bears for goodness, penetration, and impartiality. Moreover, he has bound himself by a solemn promise—a copy of which I have seen—to devote all his powers, with the advice of the Cardinals, to the war against the Turks, and the conquest of Constantinople. It is not believed or said that he is more attached to one nation than to another, but rather that as a prudent and just man he will give to everyone his due. The Lord alone, whose providence rules the world, and especially the Church, and who in His infinite mercy brings good for her out of evil, knows what will happen. Meanwhile we must always think well of the Holy Father, and judge his actions favorably, even more so than those of any other living being, and not be frightened by every little shock. Christ guides the bark of Peter, which, therefore, can never sink. Sometimes He seems to slumber in the storm : then must we wake Him with prayers and good works, of which there is much need."

The whole demeanour of Calixtus III was marked by great simplicity; splendour and pomp were most distasteful to him. Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini bears witness that he greatly surpassed his predecessor in the patience with which he gave audiences. He himself dictated the letters sent to Kings and to friends, and countersigned petitions with pleasure. He loved to converse upon legal matters, and was as familiar with laws and canons as if he had but just left the University. Nicholas V had delighted in conversation, but Calixtus was chary of his words. Nowhere, however, was the contrast between the Spanish Pontiff and the great patron of the Renaissance so striking as in the domain of literature and art.

But in order to correctly estimate Calixtus III in this matter we must begin by discarding the passionate and exaggerated denunciations of the humanists of his day, one of whom went so far as to declare that "Calixtus III was a useless Pope." Their golden age certainly closed with the life of Nicholas V. Indeed, if we consider the prominent position occupied in his days by men either indifferent or actually antagonistic to the Church, we must admit that a reaction was inevitable. The violence of this reaction—which, from the ecclesiastical point of view, was a salutary one—was greatly exaggerated by the humanists. Calixtus III, the quiet, dry, legal student, was not directly inimical, but simply indifferent, to the Renaissance movement. In his reign its victorious course was checked for a time, but it was not violently arrested.

The extraordinary favour shown by the Pope to the humanist Valla has never been sufficiently explained. He was appointed Papal Secretary, and canonries were freely bestowed upon him, but he died on the ist August, 1457. His monument in the Lateran, rescued from destruction by a great German historian, was removed to another place in the most recent restoration of the Church.

It is interesting to note the manner in which the humanists conformed themselves to altered circumstances. In the Vatican Library there is still preserved a petition for a pension, addressed to Calixtus III by a learned man, who endeavours to recommend himself to the Pontiff by an allusion to the Eastern question, in which the latter took so deep an interest. When they saw that it was in vain to hope for anything from this Pope they avenged themselves by calumnies.

One of the chief of these was that propagated by Filelfo and Vespasiano da Bisticci, which accused Calixtus of dispersing the Vatican Library. The account of Vespasiano runs as follows :—"When Pope Calixtus began his reign, and beheld so many excellent books, five hundred of them resplendent in bindings of crimson velvet with clasps of silver, he wondered greatly, for the old canonist was used only to books written on linen and stitched together. Instead of commending the wisdom of his predecessor, he cried out as he entered the Library : 'See, now, where the treasure of God's Church has gone!' Then he began to disperse the Greek books. He gave several hundred to the Ruthenian Cardinal, Isidore. As this latter had become half childish from age the volumes fell into the hands of the servants. That which had cost golden florins was sold for a few pence. Many Latin books came to Barcelona, some by means of the Bishop of Vich, the powerful Datary of the Pope, and some as presents to Catalan nobles." There are serious grounds for disbelieving this narrative. If the dispersion of the books had been so complete, how could Platina, the Vatican Librarian under Sixtus IV, have admired their splendour? Isolated volumes may, as often happens after the death of a Pope, have found their way into other hands, but this cannot have been at all a general case, for a large portion of the collection of Nicholas V is at the present moment in the Vatican.

The next testimony which we shall adduce is of itself almost sufficient to decide the question. On the 16th April, 1455, even before his coronation, the Pope caused his confessor, Casimo de Monserrato, to undertake the compilation of a catalogue of the valuable library left by his predecessor. This very fact indicates an interest in the preservation of the books, and it is not likely that a Pope who thus acted would give them away to the first comer. In this most ancient inventory of the Vatican Library we find a number of marginal notes, by means of which the humanistic statements regarding the dispersion of manuscripts may be reduced to their proper dimensions. Here it appears that Calixtus certainly gave away some manuscripts, five volumes in all, and these of no great value. Two went to the King of Naples. The fact that the catalogue was undertaken on the 16th April, 1455, does not exclude the possibility of subsequent presents having been made by the Pope, but even if this were the case the number of manuscripts so disposed of must have been very small. If he bestowed only two on King Alfonso, his intimate friend, we may rest assured that he cannot have given hundreds to Cardinal Isidore or to the Catalan nobles. The only thing that may be granted as probable is that Calixtus, who was ready to pledge even his mitre to provide funds for the Turkish war, may have sacrificed some of the gold and silver bindings for this purpose. Thus this oft-repeated tale proves for the most part legendary.

The attitude of the new Pope towards the Renaissance and its promoters doubtless formed a striking contrast to that of its enthusiastic patron, Nicholas V. It is to be accounted for, not only by his own want of taste for polite literature, but by the peril which threatened Christendom from the East. He justly deemed it to be his first duty to defend Europe from the Turk, and this care occupied his mind so completely that little room was left for more peaceful labours in the realm of literature and art.

The pontificate of Calixtus III opened ominously on the very day of his accession with a violent outbreak of the old Roman family broils. He was crowned on the 20th April. In the morning he repaired to St. Peter's, where, according to the old custom, one of the Canons of the Church reminded him of the transitory nature of all earthly greatness by burning a bundle of tow before his eyes, and saying, "Holy Father, so perishes the glory of the world!" The Pope himself celebrated Mass, Cardinal Barbo singing the Epistle and Cardinal Colonna the Gospel. The coronation afterwards took place in front of the Basilica; Prospero Colonna, as the senior Cardinal Deacon, placed the triple crown upon the pontiff's head with the words : "Receive the triple crown and know that thou art the father of all Princes and Kings, the guide of the world, the Vicar on earth of our Saviour Jesus Christ, to whom is honour and glory for ever and ever.—Amen."

Immediately after this solemnity Calixtus took possession of the Lateran, the Cathedral Church of the Popes. He was accompanied by all the Cardinals and about eighty Bishops clad in white, together with many Roman barons and the magistrates of the city. He rode "a white horse" through the streets, adorned with tapestry, to the "golden Basilica, the mother and head of all the churches in the city and in the world." In pursuance of an ancient custom the representatives of the Jews met the Pope on his triumphal procession in the Piazza, known as Monte Giordano; they presented him with the roll of the law. He read some words from it, and said: "We ratify the law, but we condemn your interpretation, for He of whom ye say that He will come—our Lord Jesus Christ—has come, as the Church teaches us and preaches." This ceremony was the occasion of a riot, by which the Pope's life was endangered. The populace endeavoured to seize the richly ornamented book of the Jewish law, and even laid hands on the Papal baldacchino.

Disturbances of a yet more serious character occurred on the Campo de' Fiori. Napoleone Orsini, who had a dispute with Count Everso of Anguillara regarding the lordship of Tagliacozzo, determined to avenge the death of one of his men slain by an adherent of Everso. Leaving the procession he hastened to the Campo de' Fiori, where the Count lodged, and pillaged his quarters. So great was the power of the Orsini that three thousand armed men assembled on Monte Giordano in answer to the cry, "Orsini! to the rescue!" The Colonna sided with the Count, and a fierce encounter between the two factions under the very eyes of the Pope was barely prevented, and peace for the moment restored by the strenuous exertions of his messengers and of Cardinal Orsini and the Prefect, Francesco Orsini.

The Pope was greatly angered by these disturbances. He afterwards charged Cardinal Pietro Barbo, who had recently established peace in the patrimony, to bring about a cessation of hostilities for a few months. This truce was subsequently prolonged by the Pope, uho endeavoured also to restore peace among the other baronial families of Rome. Happily the rest of the reign of Calixtus III was not of a piece with this ill-omened beginning, for although the feuds among the barons were not completely extinguished, the city was less affected by them.

The Pope's coronation was followed by the homage of the Christian powers, and from the latter part of April Rome witnessed the arrival of a succession of splendid embassies. That of Lucca was the first to appear, and was followed at longer or shorter intervals by those of the other cities. That of King Alfonso was exceptional! magnificent, but his attempt to begin by making terms with the Pope regarding the obedience to be promised was little calculated to maintain the good understanding which had previously existed between him and Calixtus, who met his pretensions and a similar attempt on the part of the envoys of Frederick III with a decided refusal.

The Republic of Florence which had sent humanists to do homage to Nicholas V now selected as the chief of its embassy their Archbishop, St. Antoninus, a man remarkable alike for the purity of his life and his theological learning. With him were associated Giannozzo Pandolfini, Antonio di Lorenzo Ridolfi, Giovanni di Cosimo de' Medici, and the lawyer Oddone Nicolini. The ambassadors were desired without the archbishop's knowledge to request Pope Calixtus to promote him to the purple. On the 24th of May, the day of their audience, Calixtus spoke of his determination to combat the foes of the Christian faith and to reconquer New Rome, not sparing even his own life in the cause, although he deemed himself unworthy to win the martyr's crown. In conclusion, he expressed his hope that Florence, as a true daughter of the Church, would render every possible assistance in this holy undertaking. On the 28th May the Archbishop delivered in open consistory his celebrated discourse on the war against the Turks, and the Pope replied by an eulogy of Florence. Two days later in a private audience Calixtus dwelt on his earnest desire for the complete restoration of peace in Italy, and the distress caused him by the disturbances which Piccinino was again stirring up in his unfortunate country.

In the end of July, 1455, the Venetian embassy reached Rome. The message which it bore regarding the burning question of the day was not of a very satisfactory nature. The ambassadors were the same who had already presented to Nicholas V the congratulations of the Signoria. They were instructed to reassure the Pope as to the intentions of the Republic concerning the Turkish war. They were to inform him that if the other Christian powers would proceed seriously against the Turks they would manifest the same good will as their forefathers had shown. The import of this answer was clear, and the Signoria subsequently inculcated on the envoys the necessity of adhering to it. A similar evasive reply was given to Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini, when, on his passage through Venice to offer the Emperor Frederick's homage to the Pope, he, in his master's name, inquired into the intentions of the Republic regarding the Turkish question.

Their stay in Venice delayed the arrival in Rome of Aeneas Sylvius and his companion, the lawyer, Johann Hinderbach, until the 10th August. Their reception was honourable, but their attempt to treat with Calixtus regarding the Emperor's claims in the matter of reservations, tithes, nominations, and first requests, before making the profession of obedience, was frustrated, as the Pope absolutely refused to make any promise for the sake of gaining that which was his due. "We were placed in no small perplexity", Aeneas Sylvius wrote to the Emperor, "but as we saw that nothing else could be done, and that it would cause scandal if we were to depart without making profession of obedience, we decided on doing this, and then proceeding with your petition." Two days later the profession of obedience of the German nation took place in open consistory. Aeneas Sylvius made a long speech on the occasion, and congratulated the aged Pope on the fact that he was the first Pontiff since Gregory XI, that is to say, for a period of about eighty years, who had no anti-Pope to fear. He then proceeded to advocate the Turkish war, a matter very near the heart of the Pope, and one in regard to which the speaker's former exertions and present zeal gave weight to his words. Calixtus praised the Emperor and commended his good intention of devoting himself to the war; and, for his own part, declared that he would not shrink from any sacrifice to achieve the extermination of the infidels. During the following days the ambassadors presented the Emperor's petition in writing, and had repeated conferences concerning it with the Pope, but, as might have been foreseen, gained nothing. Hinderbach then returned to Germany, while Aeneas Sylvius remained in Rome, endeavoring to make himself of use, and eagerly seeking promotion to the purple, for which, however, he had long to wait.