Nicholas V was confident of the future of the
Church, since thousands of learned men supported her. Pius II was far
from making such splendid sacrifices for humanism as were made by
Nicholas, and the poets who frequented his court were few in number;
but he himself was much more the personal head of the republic of
letters than his predecessor, and enjoyed his position without the
least misgiving. Paul II was the first to dread and mistrust the
culture of his secretaries, and his three successors, Sixtus, Innocent,
and Alexander, accepted dedications and allowed themselves to be sung
to the hearts' content of the poets-- there even existed a 'Borgiad,'
probably in hexameter-- but were too busy elsewhere, and too occupied
in seeking other foundations for their power, to trouble themselves
much about the poet-scholars. Julius II found poets to eulogize him,
because he himself was no mean subject for poetry, but he does not seem
to have troubled himself much about them. He was followed by Leo X, 'as
Romulus by Numa'--in other words, after the warlike turmoil of the
previous pontificate, a new one was hoped for wholly given to the
muses. Enjoyment of elegant Latin prose and melodious verse was part of
the pro- gramme of Leo's life, and his patronage certainly had the
result that his Latin poets have left us a living picture of that
joyous and brilliant spirit of the Leonine days, with which the
biography of Jovius is filled, in countless epigrams, elegies, odes,
and orations.
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