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| 1448 |
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| Concordat of Vienna (See 1448) abandoned most of the restrictions on papal patronage. | 1 |
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| 1449 |
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| Dissolution of the Council of Basel: abdication of Felix V (who became a cardinal). Papal celebration of the triumph over the conciliar movement in the Jubilee of 1450. Postponement of moderate reform led to the radical Reformation of the 16th century. | 2 |
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| 1447–55 |
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| NICHOLAS V, former librarian of Cosimo de' Medici, scholar, humanist, collector of manuscripts, founder of the Vatican Library. Rome temporarily a center of humanism. Nicholas's circle included: Poggio Bracciolini, Alberti, and Lorenzo Valla (a scientific humanist and critic who had just demolished the Donation of Constantine as a forgery). Plans for a new St. Peter's. | 3 |
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| 1453, May 31 |
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| The Ottoman (Turkish) capture of Constantinople (See 1453, May 29) (See 1453) ended the Greek Empire in the East; generated grave fears of Turkish expansion throughout Europe; halted the flow of white slaves from the Caucasus, southern Russia and the Balkans into Europe and stimulated the centuries-old trans-Saharan traffic in black slaves; and, because of Ottoman control of the trade routes in the eastern Mediterranean, directed (by the late 15th century) Europeans' attention westward, to the Atlantic. | 4 |
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| 1458–64 |
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| PIUS II (Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini). A flamboyant youth, in later life austere; most brilliant and versatile of the literary popes; a humanist, lover of nature, eloquent essayist, orator, and Latin stylist. A short, bent man with smiling eyes and a fringe of white hair; seldom free of pain; a tireless worker, always accessible. Advocate of papal supremacy, obstinate foe of conciliar reform. When his appeals for a crusade against the Ottoman Turks were ignored by a preoccupied Europe, he gallantly took the Cross himself to shame the princes of Christendom, but died at Ancona. His family was large and poor, and he was a nepotist. | 5 |
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| 1464–71 |
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| PAUL II, a Venetian, rich, kindly, handsome, a collector of jewels and carvings, founder of the Corso horse races. A strong centralizer, supporter of the Hungarian crusade. The Turkish victory at Negroponte, the main Venetian naval base in the Aegean (1470), gave the Turks mastery of the eastern Mediterranean waters. | 6 |
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| 1471–84 |
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| SIXTUS IV (della Rovere) aimed to consolidate the Papal States and reduce the power of the cardinals; methodical nepotist (three nephews, the Riarios, one of them later Pope Julius II). | 7 |
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| 1475 |
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| Rapprochement with Ferrante of Naples; alienation of the Medici, who were replaced as papal bankers by the Pazzi. The Riarios organized with Sixtus's knowledge, if not approval, the Pazzi conspiracy (assassination of Giuliano de' Medici, 1478). This destroyed the alliance of Florence, Naples, and Milan to maintain the Italian balance of power and led to a war involving most of Italy; the war was terminated by the capture of Otranto (1480) and by the diplomacy of Lorenzo de' Medici. Sixtus's coalition with Venice led to the Ferrarese War (1482–84). Sixtus and Julius II were the great beautifiers of Rome: Sistine Chapel (c. 1473); paving and widening of streets and squares; patronage of Ghirlandaio, Botticelli, Perugino, Pinturicchio, et al. | 8 |
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| 1484–92 |
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| INNOCENT VIII, a kindly, handsome Genoese, the first pope to recognize his children and to dine publicly with ladies. Anxious to stop the Turkish threat, he secured the promise of the Sultan Beyazid II (1490) to leave Europe, provided Innocent kept the sultan's brother and rival Djem, who had pretensions to the sultanate, confined. A baronial revolt (1485–87) in Naples (supported by Innocent and, secretly, by Venice) led to a revival of the Angevin claims to Naples. Florence and Milan, fearing French intervention in Italy, opposed the war, and peace and amnesty were arranged. Ferrante's cynical violation of the amnesty led the exiles (on Ludovico Sforza's advice) to call in King Charles VIII of France. Sforza struck an alliance with Charles to protect Milan and opened the road into Italy to this alien invader (1494). | 9 |
| Girolamo Savonarola (1452–98), a Dominican, prior of San Marco in Florence (1491), eloquent reforming preacher, and precursor of the Reformation, was already denouncing the new paganism of the Renaissance, the corruption of the state and the papacy, and foretelling the ruin of Italy (See 1498). (See The Papacy) | 10 |
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