The life of Poggio Bracciolini

by William Shepherd

Whilst the pontiff was guarding his interests in Italy, the council of Basil was studiously employed in driving him to extremity. The decrees of that assembly, whereby the payment of annates into the pontifical treasury was prohibited, and the positive restrictions which it had imposed upon the head of the church in the distribution of the temporal powers and honours attached to the holy see, compelled Eugenius to adopt decisive measures. Setting the council at defiance, he continued to levy the taxes upon ecclesiastical promotions, which had been so expressly condemned as simoniacal, and deprived of their benefices all those who, in compliance with its requisitions, refused to pay the sums which he demanded as his due. In the continuance of his nearest relatives in places of power and trust, he evinced a similar contempt of the ordinances of the synod. Irritated by these acts of contumacy, the assembled fathers, on the thirty-first day of July, 1437, formally impeached the pontiff as obstinately impeding the desired reformation of the church—as violating the ecclesiastical constitutions—as guilty of the scandalous offence of selling benefices to the highest bidder, and bestowing them on unworthy candidates, in compliance with the desire of powerful men. After reciting these and various other heads of accusation against him, they summoned Eugenius to appear and answer for himself within the space of sixty days, under pain of incurring such penalties as the council, in case of his refusing to comply with its requisitions, should think fit to impose upon him.[291]

Far from being intimidated by these menaces, Eugenius, in full consistory held at Bologna, issued a bull, whereby he transferred the council from Basil to Florence. On the twenty-sixth day of September, the fathers of Basil, by a formal act, declared this proceeding of the pontiff null and void;[292] and on the first of October they again summoned Eugenius to appear and plead to the charges which had been exhibited against him; and on his failing to appear, either in person or by proxy, they pronounced him contumacious, and unanimously decreed that he should be proceeded against accordingly.[293] The pontiff having issued a second bull, summoning the representatives of the Christian community to Ferrara, for the purpose of effecting an union between the Latin and the Greek churches, the council, on the twelfth of October, prohibited all ecclesiastics, under pain of excommunication, from yielding obedience to the mandate of their spiritual sovereign.[294]

In the prosecution of these violent measures, the council was encouraged by Alfonso of Arragon. This prince was highly incensed against Eugenius, who had not only refused to bestow upon him the investiture of the kingdom of Naples, but had supported the claim of his competitor, the duke of Anjou, by sending Vitelleschi to his assistance at the head of a considerable army. Though the warlike patriarch did not conduct this expedition with his wonted success, the pontiff had, by thus imprudently interfering in the affairs of the kingdom of Naples, given great offence to the Arragonese monarch, who was naturally impelled to countenance the proceedings of an assembly which was labouring to repress the power of his adversary.[295]

The intrigues of Alfonso did not, however, deter Eugenius from maintaining his spiritual authority. On the eighth day of January, 1438, the council of Ferrara was, according to the tenor of his bull, opened with the customary solemnities.[296] When a sufficient number of the ecclesiastics were assembled to give dignity and authority to the proceedings of this new synod, he left Bologna, and repaired in person to Ferrara, at which city he arrived on the twenty-seventh day of January.[297]

The reconciliation of the Latin and Greek churches had, for many centuries, been a subject of earnest desire to the zealous advocates for an uniformity of faith amongst Christians. Whilst the Greeks possessed the shadow of independence, their acuteness in disputation was by no means inferior to the polemic ability of their antagonists; and they strenuously persisted in maintaining the dogmas in which they differed from the creed of their Latin brethren. But terror frequently produces docility. The emperor John Palæologus II. alarmed by the growing power of the Turks, which threatened his dominions with devastation and ruin, was induced to hope, that if he could by a personal conference accommodate his religious differences with the representatives of the Latin church, the European powers might be persuaded to lend him effectual assistance against the hostile attacks of the common enemy of the Christian name. When the members of the council of Basil were apprised of the conciliatory disposition of the Grecian monarch, they immediately issued a decree, whereby they engaged to pay the expenses which he should incur on his voyage to Italy, and during his residence in that country; and moreover undertook to maintain seven hundred persons of his retinue, including the ecclesiastics whom he might select to participate in their deliberations.[298] When Eugenius had determined to hold a counter synod at Ferrara, he was well aware that the Greeks would add considerable weight to the assembly which they should resolve to countenance by their presence. He accordingly sent a sufficient number of galleys to transport Palæologus and his attendants, and, at the same time, transmitted to the Grecian monarch a considerable sum of money to enable him to make his appearance in Italy with a degree of splendour suitable to his exalted station. Palæologus, from the prejudices of royalty more disposed to accept the invitation of the sovereign pontiff than that of an ecclesiastical senate, embarked in the papal galleys, and arrived on the eighth day of February, 1438, at Venice, where he was received with the most flattering testimonies of respect. On the fourth of March ensuing, he made his public entry into Ferrara.[299] The ceremonials used upon this occasion were wisely adapted to flatter the pride of the emperor, and to dissipate the jealousy which he might be presumed to entertain of the pretensions of the bishop of Rome. When he arrived at the pontifical residence, Eugenius advanced to meet him at the door of his apartment, declined receiving from him any mark of distinctive homage, and conducted him to a seat on his left hand. The same discretion was manifested in settling the arrangements of the council, where the Greek ecclesiastics were received with all due honour and respect. The proceedings of that assembly were by no means rapid. After the first session, it entered upon no public acts for the space of six months. At the end of that time, the plague having made its appearance at Ferrara, and the near approach of the pontiff’s inveterate enemy Piccinino, who had taken the cities of Bologna, Imola, and Ravenna,[300] exciting the fears of its leading members, Eugenius transferred the orthodox synod to Florence, at which city he arrived on the 24th day of January, 1439. His departure from Ferrara was so precipitate, that it might justly be denominated a flight; and in order to avoid the soldiers of Piccinino, he was compelled to take a circuitous route by Modena, and through the passes of the Pistoian mountains. He was soon followed by Palæologus and the deputies of the Greek church, together with the other members of the council.[301] Nothing of importance occurred in the deliberations of that assembly till the sixth day of July.[302] On this memorable day, the great work of the union of the Latin and Greek churches was in appearance completed, by the assent of the Grecian deputies to a decree, whereby the disputed points, the discussion of which had for so long a space of time excited discord between the two grand divisions of the Christian community, were decided by the concurrence of the highest authorities. The points in question were, 1st. Whether leavened or unleavened bread should be used in the communion of the body of Christ. 2nd. Whether the souls who dwelt in purgatory were purified by elemental fire. 3rd. Whether the bishop of Rome was the supreme head of the church: and 4th. Whether the Holy Spirit proceeded from the Father and the Son, or from the Father only. On the three first of these questions the Greeks assented without any pertinacity of opposition to the dogmas of their Latin brethren. The fourth afforded matter of acute and lengthened disputation, and the subjugation of the prejudices of the learned ecclesiastics of Constantinople called forth not only the polemic skill of the most irrefragable doctors of the Latin church, but also the political talents of the ablest negotiators of the Roman court. Vanquished by intrigue rather than by argument, persuaded rather than convinced, the attendants of Palæologus, with the exception of two obstinate theologians, at length concurred in the decree which announced to the Christian world, that the word filioque was legally inserted in the Nicene creed, that there is a purgatory of fire, and that the body of Christ is to be made of unleavened bread.[303] This decree having been solemnly promulgated, the Greeks quitted Florence on the 26th day of August, and returned to Constantinople.

Whilst the council was sitting at Ferrara, the cause of decency and morality was vindicated by the passing of a solemn censure upon a collection of epigrams entitled Hermaphroditus, which was ignominiously consigned to the flames in the most public part of the city. The author of this publication, which exceeds the grossest effusions of heathenism in the rankness of obscenity, was Antonio Beccatelli, a native of Palermo, from which circumstance he is commonly distinguished by the appellation of Panormita. Beccatelli was born in the year 1394, of an ancient and honourable family.[304] When he had finished his studies in the university of Pavia, he entered into the service of Filippo Maria, duke of Milan, who studied history under his instructions, for which he liberally requited him, by the payment of an annual stipend of eight hundred crowns of gold.[305] Being wearied by the distractions occasioned by the frequent wars which disturbed the peace of Lombardy, Beccatelli quitted Milan some time between the years 1432 and 1436, with the intention of residing in his native city. He did not, however, long continue in retirement; for the fame of his wit and learning having reached Alfonso, king of Naples, that liberal prince invited him to his court, bestowed upon him the honourable office of private secretary, and treated him with the most distinguished regard. He continued to occupy stations of the highest eminence under Alfonso and his successors till the time of his death, which event took place on the 6th of January, 1471.[306]

The Hermaphroditus of Beccatelli is dedicated to Cosmo de’ Medici. A copy of this work was communicated to Poggio, who was so much scandalized by its obscenity, that he wrote to Beccatelli a friendly letter, in which he highly commended the elegance of his style, but exhorted him to be in future more delicate in the choice of his subjects. “I am bound,” said he, “by the obligation of mutual affection, which is imposed upon us all, to admonish you to turn your attention to graver topics.

“The licence which is allowed to youth may be pleaded in excuse of the indelicacy of your late publication, and you can indeed allege in your defence the example of Virgil, and of other writers. But it is now incumbent upon you to have done with lasciviousness, and to apply yourself to severer studies, lest your moral character should be estimated by the impurity of your writings. You know, that we who profess ourselves Christians cannot claim the same indulgences as those who were ignorant of their duty. But I am in all probability teaching one who is wiser then myself. I am persuaded, that on this subject you agree with me in opinion.”[307]

To this salutary admonition Beccatelli replied in a long epistle, in which he endeavoured to extenuate his fault, by quoting as precedents the occasional pruriences of composition of a long list of ancient poets and philosophers. He also attempted to vindicate himself by a few sophistical arguments.[308] His reasoning was easily confuted by Poggio, who in a second letter examined with laudable acuteness his precedents and arguments, and fully demonstrated their insufficiency to vindicate the licentiousness of imagery which disgusted every modest reader, whose eyes happened to glance upon the impure pages of the Hermaphroditus.[309]