Whatever else might
be done in the way of secret negotiation, the envoy never failed to
make a public appearance and deliver a public speech, under
circumstances of the greatest possible pomp and ceremony. As a rule,
however numerous the embassy might be, one individual spoke for all;
but it happened to Pius II, a critic before whom all were glad to be
heard, to be forced to sit and listen to a whole deputation, one after
another. Learned princes who had the gift of speech were themselves
fond of discoursing in Latin or Italian. The children of the House of
Sforza were trained to this exercise. The boy Galeazzo Maria delivered
in 1455 a fluent speech before the Great Council at Venice, and his
sister Ippolita saluted Pope Pius II with a graceful address at the
Congress of Mantua (1459). Pius himself through all his life did much
by his oratory to prepare the way for his final elevation to the Papal
chair. Great as he was both as scholar and diplomatist, he would
probably never have become Pope without the fame and the charm of his
eloquence. 'For nothing was more lofty than the dignity of his
oratory.' Without doubt this was a reason why multitudes held him to be
the fittest man for the office even before his election.
Princes were also commonly received on public occasions with speeches,
which sometimes lasted for hours.
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