²⁸³ "Never did individual,” says Mezerai, “labour more to reduce the power of the popes within the limits of the canons than Eneas Sylvius; and never did pope endeavour more to extend it beyond the bounds of right and of reason, than the same man when he became Pius II.”—Abr. Chron. vol. i. pt. 2, p. 436.
²⁸⁴ Proofs of the Liberty of the Gallican Church, vol. i. p. 2, pa. 40.
But Louis XI. succeeded Charles in 1461, and repealed the ‘pragmatic’ yielding to the solicitations of Pius, who wept for joy at it, ordained public festivals, and caused the act of the assembly at Bourges to be dragged through the puddle of Rome. Louis had affixed two stipulations to his compliance; one, that the pope should favour John of Anjou and proclaim him king of Naples; the other, that a legate, a Frenchman by birth, should be appointed to invest the incumbents in France. Pius, who had made both these promises, fulfilled neither; but he composed verses in honour of the king, and sent him a sword, ornamented with diamonds, to fight Mahomet II.—Louis highly irritated, directed the parliament secretly to oppose the edict which rescinded the pragmatic. This opposition it was not difficult to secure, it was sufficient not to thwart it: the parliament embraced so rare an opportunity of testifying their obedience, by refusing to obey. Louis XI. armed not against the Turks; but while Pius II. thus stimulated the kings of Europe to combat the new masters of Constantinople, let us see what the holy father writes to Mahomet II. himself.²⁸⁵
“Do you “wish to become the most powerful of mortals? “What prevents your becoming so to−morrow? a “mere trifle certainly, what may be found without “the seeking, some drops of baptismal water. “Prince, but a little water, and we will declare you “emperor of the Greeks and of the East, of the “West also, if need be. In former times, freed “from Astolphus and Didier, by the good offices of “Pepin and of Charlemagne, our predecessors “Stephen, Adrian, and Leo, crowned their liber− “ators. Do you act like Charlemagne and Pepin, “and we shall do as Leo, Adrian and Stephen.”
²⁸⁵ Pii secundi pontificis maximi, ad illustrem Mahumetem Turcarum imperatorem, epistola. Tarvisii, Garard de Flandria. 1475, in 4to. We read in fol. 4 and 3: “Parva res omnium qui hodie Vaint, maximum et potentissimum et cla-rissimum te reddere potest Quæris quid sit? Non est inventa difficiles neque procul quærenda; ubique gentium reperitur: id est, aquæ parexillium quo baptizeris. Id si feceris, non erit in orbe princeps qui te gloriâ superet aut tequare potentiâ valeat. Nos te Graecoram et Orientis imperatorem appellabimus Et sicut nostri antecessories, Stephanas, Adrianas, Leo, ad versas Haistulphum et Desi-deritun, gentes Longobardæ reges, Pipinum et Karolum Magnum accersiverunt, et liberati de manu tyrannicâ, imperium à Grœcis ad ipsos liberatores transtulerunt, ita et nos in ecclesiæ necessitatibus patrocinio tuo uteramur, et vicem redderemus beneficii accepti.”