Pius II summary

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Pius II, orig. Enea Silvio Piccolomini, (born Oct. 18, 1405, Corsignano, Republic of Siena—died Aug. 14/15. 1464, Ancona, Papal States), Pope (1458–64). An Italian diplomat who became bishop of Trieste (1447) and Siena (1449), he mediated between the German princes and the papacy, arranged the coronation of Frederick III as Holy Roman emperor (1452), and made peace with Aragon and Naples. As pope he tried to unite Europe in a Crusade against the Turks, but he was unable to win the support of the Christian princes. Pius was also a noted humanist and a prolific writer on the events of his day.

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Roman Catholicism, Christian church that has been the decisive spiritual force in the history of Western civilization. Along with Eastern Orthodoxy and Protestantism, it is one of the three major branches of Christianity. It is led by the pope, as the bishop of Rome, and the Holy See forms the

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Christianity, major religion stemming from the life, teachings, and death of Jesus of Nazareth (the Christ, or the Anointed One of God) in the 1st century ce. It has become the largest of the world’s religions and, geographically, the most widely diffused of all faiths. It has a constituency of

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