Table Of ContentFi«i AHÜCÜCO- Sixtus 11 gives the treasures of the church to the deacon St. Lawrence
^detail)
Frsi An^elico prohahly took Eugenius IV as his model for this fresco of Sixtus II, -
.is lie took Nicholas V (at his command Iv executed these paintings) for the other
papal iigure in the decoration of the chapel of Pope Nicholas in the Vatican.
THE POPES THROUGH HISTORY
edited hy RAYMOND H. SCHMANDT
Loyola University, Chicago
Volume 1
; E u g e n i us IV
. P o pe of C h r i s t i an U n i on
by JOSEPH GILL, S. J.
Professor of the Pontifical Oriented Institute, Rome
LONDON
. U R NS & O A T ES
împnmi potest: ALPHONSUS RABS, S.J.
February 8, 196Î
Nihil Obstat: EDWARD A. CBRNY, S.S.
Censor Librorum
Imprimatur: FRANCIS P. KEOUGH, D.D.
Archbishop of Baltimore
October 10, 1961
The nihil obstat and imprimatur are official declarations
that a book or pamphlet is free of doctrinal and moral
error. No implication is contained therein that those who
have granted the nihil obstat and imprimatur agree with
the opinions expressed.
Copyright © 1961 by THE NEWMAN PRESS
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 61-16572
Printed in the United States of America
Introduction to the Series
IHIS VOLUME initiates a new series, "The Popes
Through History/* a series consisting of biographies of the
most important popes who reigned in times of particular
crisis for the Church,
Too many of the really significant popes are unknown
outside of scholarly circles. Others are scarcely or inaccurately
understood even by professional historians. Still others have
fared so badly at the hands of apologists or of critics of the
Papacy as a Catholic institution that the common view dis-
torts them beyond recognition. This situation "The Popes
Through His tory " seeks to remedy.
Whatever one may think of the Papacy, surely the popes
have played a prominent role in the dramatic formation and
dissemination of Western Civilization. Weak men or strong,
wise or foolish, simple or magnificent, they have moved across
the stage of history decade after decade in unending succes-
sion. Each has left his individual mark, to the joy, pride,
despair, or even contempt of subsequent generations. Each
has influenced us modern men, living in the middle of the
twentieth century, far more than we probably realize. In
short, the popes deserve to be better known, not merely by
vi INTRODUCTION
the student of ecclesiastical history but by all who are genu-
inely concerned about the problems confronting contemporary
Christian society.
As with all eminent historical figures, the popes must
be seen amid their own times, trials, and tribulations. Their
reaction to their own age and its problems reveals their char-
acter and illustrates the perennial problem of the Christian
man striving to come to grips with a world he did not fashion,
but which he desires to redirect according to the precepts
of the Gospels. Hence these volumes set the man against
his background rather than isolate him from it—at least
insofar as this can be done within a brief compass.
The audience to which the Series appeals is the wide
world of intelligent men and women who appreciate a
significant tale well told. Biography seems a most apt medium
for such purpose. Scholars who seek all the answers, and
indeed all the questions too, will, it is anticipated, find at
least some morsel here to merit their attention also. The
authors are all experts in the period of their subject's life.
While they write for those who wish an introduction to a
group of complex and fascinating subjects, it is their hope
that they will arouse their readers to penetrate beyond the
limits of these small volumes.
RAYMOND H. SCHMANDT
Department of History
Loyola University, Chicago
Preß ace
IN THE bibliography of the first volume of L Pastor's
Lives of the Popes there is mention of a life of Eugenius
IV—Albert, F. Ph., Papst Eugen IV. Ein Lebensbild aus der
Kirchengeschichte des fünfzehnten Jahrhunderts, i Lief.,
Mainz, 1884. When I was writing my book, The Council of
Florence* I was anxious to consult that work, but though I
looked for it in some of the richest libraries of Europe, in none
of them could I find it. This much I discovered: that it was a
doctoral dissertation that had not been printed. A few copies,
presumably, had been made by some simple process of multi-
plication. It cannot, therefore, have had any great diffusion or
have exercised any noteworthy influence on historical scholar-
ship.
That is the only reference that I have anywhere found to
any special study on Eugenius, which means that his biogra-
phy has not yet been published. From one point of view that
is not surprising, because the whole of the fifteenth century
has so far been inadequately studied. Some aspects, certainly,
of its history, such as the development of Florentine art, have
received much attention from scholars, and valuable collec-
* Published by tîie Cambridge University Press, 1959.
vii
viii PREFACE
tions of documents have been edited that can serve as the
foundation of more general studies. But, compared with other
centuries before it and after, the fifteenth remains relatively
unexplored and its personalities unknown.
On the other hand, one could justly have expected a bi-
ography of Eugenius before this, if not for what he did him-
self, at least for what he stopped others doing. He was Pope
when the shadow of the Great Schism still hung over the
Church and when good men were set on having general
councils so often that they would have been virtually in
permanent session, in order to replace the papacy as the
highest authority and head of the Church on earth. Had the
Conciliar Movement succeeded, not only Church history but
the political history of all the nations would have been very
different from what it has been. It did not succeed because
Eugenius believed that it was wrong and at the cost of much
suffering to himself opposed it with all his might. In other
words, he turned the course of history by his action and on
that account deserves to be better known. That is one reason
why this biography has been written.
Another reason is because Eugenius' Council of Florence
brought the Emperor and the Patriarch of Constantinople,
procurators of the other three oriental patriarchates, and a
group of about twenty metropolitans and bishops representing
the Eastern Church into contact with the Latin Church.
There resulted, after months of earnest discussion, union of
the Eastern and Western Churches, a union that admittedly
did not survive the fanatical opposition it encountered after-
wards and the capture of Constantinople in 1453, but a union
that was genuine while it lasted and permanent in some of its
effects, because it was the fruit not of compromise but of
harmony of principles. Schism again divided the Christian
East from the Christian West within a few years after the
council, as it had done before it That schism still continues.
PREFACE ix
Since the time of Eugenius no other great attempt has been
made to heal it, though all good men deplore it. In our day
there is among Christians a hunger for unity, as never before.
This is signalized by the World Council of Churches whose
origins go back to the years immediately following the first
World War, and by the General Council summoned by Pope
John XXIII. The Council of Florence offers guidance to the
ecumenist of today. The Pope who convoked it, who nursed it,
who brought it to its happy conclusion was Eugenius IV. That
is another reason why his life should now be known.
A third reason to justify this biography is the subject of it:
the man Eugenius. If he was not a saint in the technical sense
of the word, he was certainly a holy man, who managed to
retain the contemplative spirit of the monastery in the bustle
of public life, who was harassed by enemies and deserted by
friends but in the end achieved his chief aims, who overawed
people by his presence yet was easy of access, especially to the
poor. There were more vicissitudes in his life than in the lives
of most public men, and he bore them with fortitude. He was
not perfect. He was somewhat undiscerning in his friendships,
too easily assessing help received as worthiness of character.
Some of his enemies he found it hard to forgive. His was a life
of strong light and shade—more shade than light in his
temporal fortunes, more light than shade in the qualities that
made the man. Here are all the elements needed for an
interesting biography. So, since in the course of my researches
on the Council of Florence I had acquired much information
about Eugenius and had come to regard him with respect and
admiration, I set my hand to the task, with the.purpose not
only of throwing a little more light on the history of the
fifteenth century but also of making known the personal great-
ness and achievements of a worthy man.
JOSEPH GILL, S.J,
Contents
Preface vii
chapter I The Background 3
chapter 2 Gabriel Condulmaro, Monk, Bishop, and
Cardinal 15
chapter 3 Eugenius Fights a Losing Battle against
J Basel 39
chapter ,φ The Tide Begins to Turn 69
chapter ζ The Council with the Greeks 99
chapter 6 Schism Again 133
chapter J Eugenius IV: The Man and His Work 169
chapter Ο Eugenius IV : His Lasting Achievements 203
Bibliography 213
Index 219
