853 



TITTS, WILLIAM. 



PIUS II. 



854, 



armed with a casting-net, a trident, and a dagger, and first entangled 

 and then despatched hia adversary (B.C. 606). In this war Alcseus left 

 his shield a trophy to the enemy. It must have been soon after this 

 war that Mitylene was distracted by the two political parties vvhic'i 

 about this time began to appear in various parts of Greece. The 

 aristocratic party, to which Alcacus and his brother Antimenidas 

 belonged, were driven from the town, and the popular party unani- 

 mously elected Pittacua to the office of aesymuetes to defend the 

 constitution. During his administration, which lasted from B.C. 590 

 to 580, he overcame his adversaries, and gained them by his cle- 

 mency and moderation. Even Aleaeus, who had assailed him in his 

 poems with the greatest bitterness, became reconciled. Pittacus 

 regulated the affairs of his country by salutary laws and institutions, 

 and in B.C. 580 he voluntarily resigned his office and withdrew from 

 public life. Valerius Maxirnus (vi. 5, ext. i) erroneously states that 

 Pittacus was made sesymnetes at the time of the war with the 

 Athenians for the purpose of conducting it : but this is sufficiently 

 refuted by the authority of Strabo, the fragments of Alcteus, and 

 Diogenes Laertius. Pittacus passed the last ten years of his life hi 

 quiet retirement, enjoying the esteem and love of the best and wisest 

 of his countrymen ; and when the Mitylenaeans wished to reward him 

 for his services with an extensive tract of territory, he refused to 

 accept it for himself, but had it made consecrated ground, which to 

 the time of Diogenes Laertius retained the name of the grounds of 

 Pittacus. He died in u.c. 570, at the age of eighty-two. 



Pittacus was the author of a considerable number of elegies, of 

 which a few fragments are still extant Diogenes Laertius has pre- 

 served a short letter ascribed to Pittacus, and addressed to Crccsus, 

 king of Lydia, which contains an answer to an invitation of the king 

 to come to see his magnificent treasures. Many of the numerous 

 maxims of practical wisdom current among the ancients were ascribed 

 to I'ittacus, and are preserved in the works of Diogenes Laertius, 

 Plutarch, ./Elian, and others. 



PITTS, WILLIAM, was born in London in the year 1790, and 

 brought up by his father to his own business, which was that of a 

 gold-chaser, or what would have been termed in Italy an 'orefice :' 

 whether Pitts subsequently studied under any sculptor wo do not 

 know. His marriage, at about the age of nineteen, would teem to 

 indicate that he was even then following his profession on his own 

 account. It is likely that for what instruction in sculpture he ever 

 had he was chiefly indebted to Flaxman, by whom he was employed 

 in chasing the shield of Achilles. Indeed there seems to have been 

 great similarity of feeling and taste between Pitts and Flaxman. As 

 a counterpart to the shield of Achilles by the one, may be placed the 

 shield of --Eneas by the other; also the shield of Hercules, from 

 Heeiod, and the Brunswick shield, which is a large circular relief, 

 representing George IV. in a car in the centre, and in the other com- 

 partments the principal events of the house of Hanover. Pitts was 

 also employed on the Wellington shield, which was executed under 

 the immediate inspection of Stothard. By way of parallel to Flax- 

 inan'a two series of designs from Homer and Dante, may be mentioned 

 similar graphic compositions by Pitts from Virgil and Ossian, only the 

 first of which has been engraved, being etched by himself in 1831. 



Both for the exquisite fancy which they display and for their 

 masterly graces of execution, some of his smaller subjects in relief 

 have obtained for Pitts with many the title of the ' British Cellini,' 

 but their only resemblance consists in their congenial fancy and 

 artistic power. William Pitts was an unassuming enthusiast, entirely 

 devoted to his own art, and utterly unskilled in the art of winning 

 his way to popularity and fortune : hence it is a matter of regret 

 rather than surprise that he should not have obtained patronage at all 

 in proportion to his ability and his genius, or that he encountered 

 many disappointments, and was latterly involved in embarrassments. 

 How far these last had any share in impelling him to the fatal act by 

 which he terminated his life it is difficult to judge. He destroyed 

 himself by poison, on the 16th of April 1840. 



The following is a list of his chief productions, arranged according 

 to their dates : 'The Deluge,' 1823 ; 'Samson slaying the Lion,' the 

 'Creation of Eve,' and 'Herod's Cruelty,' 1824; a 'Chariot-race,' 1826; 

 the 'Pleiades,' and 'Shield of JSneas,' 1828; the 'Rape of Proser- 

 pine,' and the ' Nuptials of Peirithous,' two bas-reliefs, about eight 

 feet long, executed for Mr. Simmons, of the Regent's Park, 1829 ; the 

 Brunswick Shield,' 1830; the 'Apotheoses of Spenser, Shakspere, 

 and Milton,' and another series of reliefs in two of the drawing-rooms 

 at Buckingham Palace, 1831 ; the 'Shield of Hercules,' 1834 ; a long 

 ban-relief or frieze of all the English sovereigns from the Conquest, 

 1837 ; a design for a masonic trophy, 1839 ; the 'Triumph of Ceres," 

 a small subject modelled in wax, exhibited at the Royal Academy, 

 1840; the 'Kemble Tribute,' presented to C. Kemblc, Esq.; and a 

 vase, executed for her Majesty, as a spousal present by her, of exquisite 

 design as to its general form, and poetically embellished with groups 

 in relief, signifying Birth, Infancy, Instruction, Education, and Love. 



PIUS I., a native of Aquileia, succeeded Hyginus as bishop of Rome 

 in 142. Little is known of him. Several decretals have been attri- 

 buted to him by Oratian, but they are generally considered apocryphal. 

 Pius died in the year 167, and was succeeded by Anicetus. 



PIUS II., AENEAS SYLVIUS PICCOLOMINI, bora in 1405, at Corsig- 

 naoo, in the state of Siena, succeeded Calixtus III. in 145S. He was 



a man of extensive learning, and had distinguished himself in the 

 Council of Basel (1431-39), that celebrated assembly which attempted 

 earnestly, though with little success, the reformation of the Church, 

 and in which Piccolomini acted as secretary, and of which he wrote a 

 history, ' Commentarius de Gestis Basil. Coucilii,' in two books a 

 very important work for the history of the Church. At that time 

 Piccolomini was a strong advocate for the supremacy of the council, 

 and its right to judge and depose even the pope, "who," he argued, 

 " ought to be considered as the vicar of the Church rather than as 

 the vicar of Christ." These tenets however were condemned by 

 Eugenius IV. ; but the council asserted its authority by suspending 

 the pope from his dignity ; and then began a long struggle, which 

 terminated in an open schism, the council deposing Eugeuius and 

 electing Felix V. [AMADEUS VIII.] Piccolomini was appointed secre- 

 tary of the new pope or anti-pope, and was sent by him as his 

 ambassador to the Emperor Frederick III., who was so pleased with 

 him that he prevailed upon him to give up his precarious situation 

 and accept the place of imperial secretary. Frederick afterwards sent 

 him on several missions and loaded him with favours. Piccolomini 

 was not ungrateful ; he wrote several works in praise of his patrou 

 and in support of his imperial prerogative ' De Origine et Aucto- 

 ritate Romani Imperil ad Fridericum III. Imperatorem, Liber Unus;' 

 ' Historia Rerum Friderici III. ; ' 'De Itiuere, Nuptiis, et Coronatione 

 Friderici III. Commentariolus ; ' 'De his, qui Friderico III. Impo- 

 rante, in Germaniam, et per totam Europam memorabiliter gesta 

 simt, usque ad annum 1458, Commentarius.' At last Frederick sent 

 Piccolomini as his ambassador to Pope Eugenius. This was a delicate 

 errand for him who had been one of the avowed antagonists of that 

 pontiff; but he managed so well by his dexterity, his captivating 

 address, and, above all, his eloquence, that the pope not only forgave 

 him, but became his friend; and Piccolomini had hardly returned to 

 Germany from his mission when he received a papal brief appointing 

 him apostolic secretary. He accepted an office congenial to his clerical 

 profession, and also as the means of fixing his residence in Italy ; but 

 he still retained a lively sense of gratitude towards his imperial bene- 

 factor. From that time a marked change took place in the opinions, 

 or at least in the professions of Piccolomini, and he became a stout 

 advocate for the claims of the see of Rome. Eugenius died in 1447, 

 and his successor Nicholas V., was recognised by the Fathers of the 

 Council of Basel, who, being forsaken by both the emperor and the 

 French king, made their peace with Rome. Felix V. also having 

 abdicated in favour of Nicholas, the schism of the Church was 

 healed. Nicholas made Piccolomini bishop of Trieste, and afterwards 

 of Siena, and sent him as nuncio to Germany and Bohemia, where he 

 had several conferences with the Hussites, which he relates in his 

 Epistles. (' Epistola,' 130.) He had however the merilT(rare in that 

 age) of recommending mild and conciliatory measures as the moat 

 likely to reclaim dissenters to the bosom of the Church. He wrote a 

 work on the history of Bohemia and the Hussites, in which he states 

 fairly and without any exaggeration the tenets of that sect, as well as 

 those of the Valdenses, which he calls ' impious,' but which are 

 mainly the same that have since been acknowledged by the Protestant 

 and Reformed churches throughout Europe. He relates the burning 

 of John Huss and Jerome of Prague, and speaks of their fortitude, 

 " which," he says, " exceeded that of any of the philosophers of 

 antiquity," and he recapitulates literally their charges against the 

 corruption of the clergy. (JKuese Sylvii, ' Historia Boemica.') 



In the year 1452 Piccolomini, being then in Italy, was present at 

 the solemn coronation of Frederick III. at Rome, and delivered an 

 oration to the pope in the name of that sovereign, whom he afterwards 

 accompanied to Naples. On their return to Home he delivered another 

 oration before the pope, the emperor, and other German and Italian 

 princes, and the ambassadors of other European courts, for the purpose 

 of exhorting them to form an effectual league against the Turks, who 

 were then on the point of taking Constantinople. Piccolomini felt 

 the great danger to Christian Europe from the rapid advance of the 

 Ottoman conquerors, and his paramount object through the remainder 

 of his life was to form a strong bulwark to protect Italy and Germany; 

 but at the same time he was too well acquainted with the politics of 

 the various Christian courts, and their selfish and petty jealousies, to 

 expect much union in their councils, and he expresses his views and 

 his doubts in a masterly master in several of his ' Epistles.' 



Calixtus III., the successor of Nicholas V., made Piccolomini a 

 cardinal ; and in 1 458, after the death of Calixtus, he was unanimously 

 elected pope by the name of Pius II. His pontificate lasted only six 

 years, but during this period he distinguished himself by promoting 

 learning, by inculcating peace and concord among the Christian princes, 

 and exhorting them to unite their efforts against their common enemy, 

 the barbarous Turks. The year after his election he convoked a con- 

 gress of the ambassadors of all the Christian sovereigns to arrange 

 the plan of a general war against the Ottomans. The pope himself 

 repaired to Mantua, accompanied by the learned Philelphus, who 

 spoke eloquently in favour of the proposed league. Most of the Italian 

 states were willing to join in it, but Germany and France stood aloof, 

 and nothing was decided. Pius assisted Ferdinand, king of Naples, in 

 his war against the Duke of Anjou, the pretender to that crown. At 

 the same time he was obliged to make war in his own states against 

 Sigismondo Malatesta, lord of Rimini, aud against the Savelli and 



