kwebtransPreview
Open in TheBrain

Nicholas V

Name: Pope Nicholas V

Nickname/Alias: born: Tommaso Parentucelli

Achievements: Rebuilt the Vatican, restored St. Peter's and founded the Vatican Library.

Born: November 15, 1397; Sarzana, Republic of Genoa

Died: March 24, 1455; Rome, Italy (Aged 58)

Field & Discipline: Religion; Ecclesiastic

Language: Latin; Italian

Father: Unknown

Mother: Unknown

Siblings: Unknown

Spouse: None

Children: None

Education: University of Bologna

Life & Times:

In 1422 Parentucelli entered the household of Bishop Niccolo Albergati, the cardinal-archbishop of Bologna. Parentucelli served Albergati devotedly for the next twenty years, moving with him in 1426 to Rome where they joined the papal Curia.

From 1434, the Curia was based in Florence, where Parentucelli moved with Albergati. Here he became involved with the humanist group surrounding Leonardo Bruni and [a pal of] Poggio Bracciolini*. Through them also met [employed by] Cosimo de Medici the Elder*, who employed him to  produce a list of Christian and pagan authors for his library at San Marco.

In Florence, in 1439-40, during the early meetings of the Council of Florence, Parentucelli impressed Pope Eugenius IV by his knowledge of patristic and scholastic theology, and in 1444, on the death of Albergati, Eugenius appointed him Bishop of Bologna.  In the autumn of 1446, Parentucelli went as papal legate to the Diet of Frankfurt, and successfully generated support for the pope there.

For this service Eugenius IV created him cardinal in December 1446, and on Eugenius' death three months later, Parentucelli was elected (6 March 1447), taking the name Nicholas V.

During the first year in office, through his conciliatory attitude and diplomatic skill, he successfully restored peace to the papal state by disbanding the mercenary troops, winning or buying back cities, and constructing a series of castles which were then entrusted to the local princes, who were appointed his vicars.

He also won the allegiance of Poland by concessions, and at the Concordat of Vienna (1448) ratified the agreement made by Eugenius with the German church and obtained the support of the new German king, Frederick III, for papal rights to taxes.

This caused the rebellious cardinals from the Council of Basel (who were advocating control of the church through councils rather than through the pope) to give up and agree to 'elect' Nicholas pope and then to dissolve themselves. Their antipope Felix V abdicated in April 1449 in return for an honourable status and income.

Nicholas proclaimed 1450 a Jubilee Year, and tens of thousands of pilgrims flocked to Rome.  He also sent Cardinal [gave mission to] Nicholas of Cusa* and  Cardinal Giovanni Capistrano to Germany, Cardinal [gave mission to] Bessarion* to Bologna, and Cardinal Guillaume d'Estouteville to France in order to placate and inspire other parts of Christendom.

Meanwhile, Nicholas V was bringing his own individual vision to the papal City,  first by being conciliatory with the nobility and granting concessions to the citizens, and then establishing the city as the literary and artistic capital of Christendom.

As a scholar and man of letters, from 1448 he made it his particular concern to commission good Latin translations of the Greek pagan and Christian classics, from scholars like the great scholars [commissioned] Valla*. He also sent emissaries (like Valla) across Europe in search of rare manuscripts and then had them copied. At his death he left some 1,200 Greek and Latin manuscripts, which became the core of the future Vatican Library.

In his literary and artistic enterprises, Nicholas brought the intellectual and artistic aspirations of the Renaissance into partnership with the Church, which he aimed to make the leader of culture,  and powerfully supported Renaissance architecture and the

decorative arts in Rome.

He undertook the restoration of the Castel Sant'Angelo and the medieval Palace of the Senators on the Capitoline Hill, and then began the building of countless churches, and several palaces, aqueducts and bridges. His major works were at the Vatican Palace, which he now made the chief papal residence, having abandoned the crumbling Lateran, adding a new wing, and rebuilt and extended the city walls. At his initiative Rome became a centre for painters, goldsmiths, silversmiths and tapestry makers.

Most remarkably, he planned the radical reconstruction of St. Peter's Church, now a thousand years old, which the great architect [employed] Alberti*, who worked in the Curia under Nicholas, advised would soon collapse.

Nicholas planned to add transepts and a new apse round the shrine of the Apostle in order to accommodate the crowds of pilgrims, alterations which would have extended the length of the church by a third. He also planned a new piazza for grand papal blessings in front of St. Peter's, in which would be placed the obelisk from the Circus of Nero near which Peter had been crucified, but he did not live to see his projects realized.

Meanwhile, in 1451, King Frederick III of Germany came to Italy, and in the following year he was crowned at St. Peter's by Nicholas as Holy Roman Emperor, the last imperial coronation to take place in Rome. This was followed, in June 1453, by the news of the fall to the Turks of Constantinople, the center of Eastern Christianity. Although Nicholas had sent a fleet of 29 galleys to aid the city, it arrived too late, and his efforts to rally Christendom to a crusade were similarly unsuccessful.

The same year, however, Nicholas had summoned a congress of the warring Italian states to Rome and negotiations eventually led to the Peace of Lodi (April 1454) between

Venice, Milan, Florence, and Naples. Nicholas died a month later from gout and fever.  His diplomatic efforts on behalf of peace in Italy and elsewhere, and his patronage of the arts, especially of literature, restored to the Church much of the ancient prestige it had recently lost.

Assessment: His failure to promote real religious reform helped to bring about the Reformation of the 16th century.

Oneliner: Nicholas V, Renaissance Pope

Bibliography:

Attachments