Synopses & Reviews
Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER I. ELECTION AND CHARACTER OF NICHOLAS V. 'EUGENIUS IV. had devoted the energies of his life to the .restoration of the Papal power, but the great work was but in its beginning, and far from completion. The remnant of the Council of Basle was still in existence, and the anti- Pope was living in Switzerland. The efforts of the partisans of the Council to alter the manner of Papal elections were still fresh in the minds of many, and the political condition of Italy, especially that of the States of .the Church, was one of uncertainty and confusion. In view of this threatening position of affairs, Eugenius IV. Iliad, shortly before his death, renewed the Decrees of the General Councils of Lyons and Vienna regarding Papal elections, and appointed Cardinal Scarampo commander of all fortresses in the Roman dominions. The attitude adopted by King Alfonso of Naples was the principal cause .of the latter measure. The Kinghaving, in concert with Eugenius IV.,determined on an expedition against Florence, had been, ever since the beginning of the year, encamped at Tivoli, in the immediate neighbourhood of Rome, with a force- of four .thousand men, a circumstance which seemed seriously to endanger the liberty of the approaching Conclave.t Alfonso had indeed given an assurance to several of the Cardinals that, in the event of the Pope's death, he would observe absolute neutrality, and had also promised to Raynakius, ad an. 1447, N. 12. t Lettera di Roma, d. d. 1446 st. 11.], Marzo, 3. Carte .Sirozziane, 242, p. 247, State Archives of Florence. afford protection against any attempted pressure. But his lengthened sojourn at Tivoli, the arrival of constant reinforcements for his army, and the impenetrable obscurity in which his plans were shrouded, were little calculated to...
Synopsis
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