Pope Pius III

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(Francesco Todeschini Piccolomini).

Born atSiena, 29 May, 1439; elected 22 Sept., 1503; d. inRome, 18 Oct., 1503, after a pontificate of four weeks. Piccolomini was the son of a sister ofPius II. He had passed his boyhood in destitute circumstances when his uncle took him into his household, bestowed upon him his family name and arms, and superintended his training andeducation. He studiedlaw inPerugia and immediately after receiving the doctorate as canonist was appointed by his uncleArchbishop ofSiena, and on 5 March, 1460,cardinal-deacon with the title of S. Eustachio. The following month he was sent aslegate to theMarch of Ancona, with the experiencedBishop ofMarsico as his counsellor. "The only thing objectionable about him", says Voigt (Enea Silvio, III, 531), "was his youth; for in the administration of his legation and in his later conduct at the curia he proved to be a man of spotless character and many-sided capacity." He was sent byPaul II aslegate toGermany, where he acquitted himself with eminent success, theknowledge of German that he had acquired in his uncle's house being of great advantage to him. During the worldly reigns ofSixtus IV andAlexander VI he kept away fromRome as much as possible. Sigismondo de Conti, whoknew him well tells us that "he left no moment unoccupied; his time for study was before daybreak; he spent his mornings inprayer and his midday hours in giving audiences, to which the humblest had easy access. He was so temperate in food and drink that he only allowed himself an evening meal every other day." Yet this is the excellent man to whom Gregorovius in his "Lucrezia Borgia", without a shadow of authority, gives a dozen children—thecalumny being repeated by Brosch and Creighton. After the death ofAlexander VI, theconclave could not unite on the principal candidates, d'Amboise, Rovere, and Sforza; hence the great majority cast their votes for Piccolomini, who though only sixty-four was, like his uncle, tortured with gout and was prematurely old. He took the name of Pius III inhonour of his uncle, wascrowned on 8 Oct., after receivingpriestly and episcopal orders. The strain of the longceremony was so great that thepope sank under it. He wasburied in St. Peter's, but his remains were later transferred to S. Andrea della Valle where he rests by the side ofPius II.

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