Editing Pope Nicholas V (section)

==Papacy==
Parentucelli's successful diplomacy gained him the reward, on his return to Rome, of the title [[Cardinal-Priest]] of [[Santa Susanna]] in December 1446. At the [[Papal conclave, 1447|papal conclave]] of 1447 he was elected [[pope]] in succession to Eugene IV on 6 March. He took the name Nicholas in honour of his early benefactor, [[Niccolò Albergati]].<ref name=Scannell>{{Catholic |wstitle=Pope Nicholas V |first=Thomas Bartholomew |last=Scannell |volume=11 |inline=1 |prescript=}}</ref>

[[File:Medieval Bull (FindID 132051).jpg|thumb|left|[[Papal bulla]] of Nicholas V]]
In only eight years, his pontificate delivered important achievements in the political, scientific, and literary history of the world. Politically, he needed to repair relationships which had broken down in the pontificate of Eugene IV. He called the congress which produced the [[Treaty of Lodi]], secured peace with [[Charles VII of France]], and concluded the Concordat of Vienna or ''Aschaffenburg'' (17 February 1448) with the German King, [[Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor|Frederick III]],<ref name=Scannell/> by which the decrees of the Council of Basel against papal [[annates]] and reservations were abrogated so far as Germany was concerned. In the following year he secured a still greater tactical triumph with the resignation of the [[Antipope Felix V]] on 7 April and his own recognition by the rump of the [[Council of Florence|Council of Basel]] that assembled at [[Lausanne]].<ref name="EB1911"/>

In 1450, Nicholas held a [[Jubilee (Christian)|Jubilee]] at Rome,<ref name=Scannell/> and the offerings of the numerous pilgrims who thronged to Rome gave him the means of furthering the cause of culture in Italy, which he had so much at heart. In March 1452 he crowned [[Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor|Frederick III]] as [[Holy Roman Emperor]] in [[St. Peter's Basilica|St. Peter's]], in what was the last imperial coronation held in Rome.<ref name="EB1911"/>

Within the city of Rome, Nicholas introduced the fresh spirit of the [[Renaissance]] both intellectually and architecturally. His plans were of embellishing the city with new monuments worthy of the capital of the Christian world.<ref name=Scannell/> It was in recognition of this commitment to building that [[Leon Battista Alberti]] dedicated to Nicholas V his treatise ''[[De re aedificatoria]]''.<ref>{{Britannica|12870|Leon Battista Alberti}}</ref>

He is the last pope to date to take the pontifical name "Nicholas".

===Rebuilding Rome===
His first care was practical, to reinforce the city's fortifications,{{sfnp|Cheetham|1983|p=180}} cleaning and even paving some main streets and restoring the water supply. The end of ancient Rome is sometimes dated from the destruction of its magnificent array of [[Roman aqueduct|aqueducts]] by 6th-century invaders. In the [[Middle Ages]] Romans depended on wells and cisterns for water, and the poor dipped their water from the yellow [[Tiber]]. The [[Aqua Virgo]] [[aqueduct (watercourse)|aqueduct]], originally constructed by [[Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa|Agrippa]], was restored by Nicholas and emptied into a simple basin that Alberti designed, the predecessor of the [[Trevi Fountain]].<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://www3.iath.virginia.edu/waters/Journal3KarmonNew.pdf|pages=4–6 |first=David |last=Karmon |journal=The Waters of Rome |issue=3 |date=August 2005 |publisher=[[University of Virginia]] |title=Restoring the Ancient Water Supply System in Renaissance Rome}}</ref>

He continued restoration of the major Roman basilicas, but also of many other Roman churches including [[Santi Apostoli, Rome|Sant' Apostoli]], [[Sant'Eusebio|Sant' Eusebio]], [[San Lorenzo fuori le Mura]], [[Santa Maria in Trastevere]], [[Santa Prassede]], [[San Salvatore in Onda|San Salvatore]], [[Santo Stefano al Monte Celio|Santo Stefano Rotondo]], [[San Teodoro, Rome|San Teodoro]], and especially [[Santi Celso e Giuliano|San Celso]].{{sfnp|Hollingsworth|1995|p=240}} He rebuilt the [[Ponte Sant' Angelo]] which had collapsed in 1450, and supported the redevelopment of the surrounding area as a prestigious business and residential district.{{sfnp|Hollingsworth|1995|p=241}}

===Arts patron===
[[File:II. SixtusÁtadjaSzentLőrincnekAz EgyházKincseitKJ.jpg|thumb|left|Fresco in the Niccoline Chapel depicting [[Pope Sixtus II]] with the physical features of Pope Nicholas V]]
Nicholas V's major focus was on establishing the Vatican as the official residence of the Papacy, replacing the Lateran Palace. He added a substantial new wing including [[Niccoline Chapel|a private chapel]] to the [[Vatican Palace|Vatican]], and{{snd}}according to [[Giannozzo Manetti]], biographer of Nicholas{{snd}}planned substantial changes to the [[Borgo (rione of Rome)|Borgo]] district. He also laid up 2,522 cartloads of marble from the dilapidated [[Colosseum]] for use in the later constructions.{{sfnp|Manetti|1734}}

The Pope's contemporaries criticised his lavish expenditure on building: [[Giannozzo Manetti|Manetti]] drew parallels with the wealth and expenditure of Solomon, suggesting that Papal wealth was acceptable so long as it was expended to the glory of God and the good of the Church.{{sfnp|Hollingsworth|1995|p=243}} The decoration of the [[Niccoline Chapel]] by [[Fra Angelico]] demonstrated this message through its depictions of [[St Lawrence]] (martyred for refusing to hand to the Roman state the wealth of the Church) and [[Saint Stephen|St Stephen]].<ref>[https://archive.org/details/borgiastheirenem00hibb <!-- quote=Pope Alexander VI. --> Hibbert, Christopher. ''The Borgias and Their Enemies: 1431–1519'', Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2008, p. 9] {{ISBN|9780151010332}}</ref>

Under the generous patronage of Nicholas, [[humanism]] made rapid strides as well. The new humanist learning had been hitherto looked on with suspicion in Rome, a possible source of [[Schism (religion)|schism]] and [[heresy]] from an unhealthy interest in [[paganism]]. For Nicholas, humanism became a tool for the cultural aggrandizement of the Christian capital, and he sent emissaries to the East to attract Greek scholars after the [[fall of Constantinople]].{{sfnp|Duffy|1997|p=181}} The pope also employed [[Lorenzo Valla]] to translate Greek histories,{{sfnp|Sider|2005|p=147}} pagan as well as Christian, into [[Latin]]. This industry, coming just before the dawn of [[printing]], contributed enormously to the sudden expansion of the intellectual horizon.

Nicholas, with assistance from [[Enoch of Ascoli]] and [[Giovanni Tortelli]], founded a library of five thousand volumes, including manuscripts rescued from the [[Ottoman Empire|Turks]] after the fall of Constantinople.<ref>Bobrick, Benson. (2001). ''Wide as the waters: the story of the English Bible and the revolution it inspired''. New York: Simon & Schuster. p. 84. {{ISBN|0-684-84747-7}}</ref> The Pope himself was a man of vast erudition, and his friend Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini, later [[Pope Pius II]], said of him that "what he does not know is outside the range of human knowledge". A lifelong bibliophile, he treasured books: while the Vatican library was still being designed and planned, he kept the rarest books near to him in his bedroom, with the others in a room nearby. Often thinking fondly of his former work as a librarian, he once remarked, "I had more happiness in a day than now in a whole year."<ref>{{Cite book|title = The Library: An Illustrated History|last = Murray|first = Stuart|publisher = Skyhorse Publishing|year = 2012|location = New York|pages = 85}}</ref>

He was compelled, however, to add that the lustre of his pontificate would be forever dulled by the [[fall of Constantinople]], which the [[Ottoman Empire|Turks]] took in 1453. Unsuccessful in a campaign to unite Christian powers to come to the aid of Constantinople, just before that great citadel was conquered, Nicholas had ordered 10 papal ships to sail with ships from Genoa, Venice and Naples to defend the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire. However, the ancient capital fell before the ships could offer any aid. The Pope bitterly felt this catastrophe as a double blow to [[Christendom]] and to [[Greek literature|Greek letters]]. "It is a second death", wrote Aeneas Silvius, "to Homer and [[Plato]]."<ref name="EB1911">{{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Nicholas (popes) |first=Carlton Joseph Huntley |last=Hayes |author-link=Carlton Joseph Huntley Hayes |volume=19}}</ref>

Nicholas preached a [[crusade]] and endeavoured to reconcile the mutual animosities of the Italian states, but without much success.<ref name="EB1911"/>

In undertaking these works, Nicholas was moved "to strengthen the weak faith of the populace by the greatness of that which it sees". The Roman populace, however, appreciated neither his motives nor their results, and in 1452 a formidable conspiracy for the overthrow of the papal government under the leadership of [[Stefano Porcari]] was discovered and crushed. This revelation of disaffection, together with the fall of Constantinople in 1453, darkened the last years of Pope Nicholas. "As Thomas of Sarzana", he said, "I had more happiness in a day than now in a whole year".<ref name="EB1911"/>

===Slavery===
{{also|Slavery in Portugal}}
In late spring of 1452 Byzantine Emperor [[Constantine XI]] wrote to Pope Nicholas for help against the impending siege by Ottoman Sultan [[Mehmed II]]. Nicholas issued the bull ''[[Dum Diversas]]'' (18 June 1452) authorizing [[Afonso V of Portugal|King Afonso V]] of Portugal to "attack, conquer, and subjugate [[Saracens]], pagans and other enemies of Christ wherever they may be found". Issued less than a year before the fall of Constantinople, the bull may have been intended to begin another [[Crusades|crusade]] against the [[Ottoman Empire]].<ref name="sardar">Sardar, Ziauddin, and Davies, Merryl Wyn. 2004. ''The No-Nonsense Guide to Islam''. Verso. {{ISBN|1-85984-454-5}}. p. 94.</ref>

[[File:Portuguese_Morocco.PNG|thumb|Portuguese possessions in Morocco (1415–1769)]] 
Ownership of the [[Canary Islands]] continued to be a source of dispute between Spain and Portugal and Nicholas was asked to settle the matter, ultimately in favor of the Portuguese.{{sfnp|Stogre|1992|p=65}} The geographical area of the concession given in the bull is not explicit, but historian [[Richard Raiswell]] finds that it clearly refers to the recently discovered lands along the coast of West Africa.<ref name=Raiswell>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ATq5_6h2AT0C&pg=PA469|title=The Historical Encyclopedia of World Slavery|first=Junius P.|last=Rodriguez|date= 1997|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=9780874368857|via=Google Books}}</ref> Portuguese ventures were intended to compete with the Muslim trans-Sahara caravans, which played a key role in the highly profitable Muslim slave trade and also held a monopoly on West African gold and ivory.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=okDypjibS0wC&pg=PA25|title=Amazing Grace in John Newton: Slave Ship Captain, Hymn Writer, and Abolitionist|first=William E.|last=Phipps|date=2004|publisher=Mercer University Press|isbn=9780865548688|via=Google Books}}</ref>

The Portuguese claimed territorial rights along the African coast by virtue of having invested time and treasure in discovering it; the Castilian claim was based on their being the heirs of the [[Visigoths]]. In 1454 a fleet of caravels from Seville and Cádiz traded along the African coast and upon their return, were intercepted by a Portuguese squadron. [[Enrique IV of Castile]] threatened war. Afonso V appealed to the Pope for moral support of Portugal's right to a monopoly of trade in lands she discovered.<ref name=Bown>{{cite book|last=Bown|first=Stephen R.|title=1494: How a Family Feud in Medieval Spain Divided the World in Half|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pDkfOAISLJIC&pg=PT84|year=2012|publisher=St. Martin's Press|isbn=978-0-312-61612-0|page=84}}</ref>

The papal bull ''[[Romanus Pontifex]]'', issued on 8 January 1455, endorsed Portuguese possession of Cuerta (which they already held), and the exclusive right to trade, navigation, and fishing in the discovered lands, and reaffirmed the previous ''Dum Diversas''.<ref name="nyt-elliott-hughes-2019">{{cite web |last1=Elliott |first1=Mary |last2=Hughes |first2=Jazmine |title=A Brief History of Slavery That You Didn't Learn in School |url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/19/magazine/history-slavery-smithsonian.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=20 August 2019 |date=19 August 2019}}</ref> It granted permission to Afonso and his heirs to "... make purchases and sales of any things and goods, and victuals whatsoever, as it may seem fit, with any Saracens and infidels in said regions; ... provided they be not iron instruments, wood used for construction, cordage, ships, and any kinds of armor."<ref name=Davenport>See full text pp. 20–26 (English) in [https://books.google.com/books?id=uLILAAAAIAAJ&q=nicholas+v+%22Romanus+Pontifex%22 ''European Treaties Bearing on the History of the United States and Its Dependencies to 1648''], Washington, D.C., [[Frances Gardiner Davenport]], [[Carnegie Institution of Washington]], 1917–37 – [[Google Books]]. Reprint edition, 4 vols., (2004), Lawbook Exchange, {{ISBN|1-58477-422-3}}; also at http://www.nativeweb.org/pages/legal/indig-romanus-pontifex.html</ref>

The bull conferred exclusive trading rights to the Portuguese between Morocco and the Indies with the rights to conquer and convert the inhabitants.<ref>The Historical Encyclopedia of world slavery", Richard Raiswell, p. 469</ref> A significant concession given by Nicholas in a brief issued to King Alfonso in 1454 extended the rights granted to existing territories to all those that might be taken in the future.<ref>"''Slavery and the Catholic Church"'', John Francis Maxwell, p. 55, Barry Rose Publishers, 1975</ref> Consistent with these broad aims, it allowed the Portuguese "to invade, search out, capture, vanquish, and subdue all Saracens and pagans whatsoever, and other enemies of Christ wheresoever placed, and the kingdoms, dukedoms, principalities, dominions, possessions, and all movable and immovable goods whatsoever held and possessed by them and to reduce their persons to perpetual slavery". However, together with a second reference to some who have already been enslaved, this has been used to suggest that Nicholas sanctioned the [[Atlantic slave trade|purchase of black slaves]] from "the infidel":<ref>{{cite book |first1=T. F. |last1=Earle |first2=K. J. P. |last2=Lowe |title=Black Africans in Renaissance Europe |page=281 |location=New York |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2005 |isbn=978-0521815826 }}</ref> "... many Guineamen and other negroes, taken by force, and some by barter of unprohibited articles, or by other lawful contract of purchase, have been ... converted to the Catholic faith, and it is hoped, by the help of divine mercy, that if such progress be continued with them, either those peoples will be converted to the faith or at least the souls of many of them will be gained for Christ."<ref name=Davenport/>

It is on this basis that it has been argued that collectively the two bulls issued by Nicholas gave the Portuguese the rights to [[history of slavery|acquire slaves]] along the African coast by force or trade.<ref name="nyt-elliott-hughes-2019"/> By dealing with local African chieftains and Muslim slave traders, the Portuguese sought to become key European players in the lucrative slave trade. The concessions given in them were confirmed by bulls issued by [[Pope Callixtus III]] (''Inter Caetera quae'' in 1456), [[Pope Sixtus IV|Sixtus IV]] (''Aeterni regis'' in 1481), and they became the models for subsequent bulls issued by [[Pope Alexander VI]]: ''[[Eximiae devotionis]]'' (3 May 1493),  ''[[Inter Caetera]]'' (4 May 1493) and ''Dudum Siquidem'' (23 September 1493), in which he conferred similar rights to Spain relating to the newly discovered lands in the Americas.<ref>"The Historical Encyclopedia of world slavery", Richard Raiswell, p. 469, "Black Africans in Renaissance Europe", p. 281, Luis N. Rivera, 1992, p. 25</ref>