Pope Pius II and the Crusade

Abstract

On 13 August 1464, Pope Pius II (Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini) received communion and addressed his cardinals for the last time, exhorting them to carry on with the work he had begun. ‘Woe unto you, woe unto you, if you desert God’s work,’ he warned, before dying in his sleep a few hours later.¹ On the surface Pius’s death was like that of many popes before and after him. But the circumstances were neither peaceful nor ordinary: he died not in one of the papal residences, but far from home at the port of Ancona whence he had intended to embark upon the crusade he had summoned and organized. It seemed a strange, unexpected end for a man who had spent most of his life as a humanist, poet and bureaucrat. Known for his clear-headed political insights and wry humour, Aeneas was never a soldier, nor was he a theologian or saintly figure. He enjoyed a long career as a valued secretary and diplomat who travelled across Europe with or on behalf of his superiors. Refusing to take holy orders for many years, he entered the Church only after he had reached middle age, sired two illegitimate children and written some provocative love poetry and prose. Added to all of this, he was old and very ill when he took up his final journey. Why, when so many other popes were content to summon a crusade, did Pius feel compelled to participate in one?