Who he was
Enea Silvio Piccolomini, eldest of eighteen children of a noble but poor family, studied at Siena and Florence and became a famous humanist writer and orator. He went to the Council of Basle as a secretary, sided at first with the council against Eugene IV and served the antipope Felix V, then entered the service of Emperor Frederick III, who crowned him poet laureate. In 1445 he was reconciled with Eugene IV, changed his way of life and was ordained, becoming Bishop of Trieste and then of Siena, and a cardinal in 1456. He was elected pope in August 1458.
What he is remembered for
The great aim of his reign was a crusade against the Turks: he called the Congress of Mantua in 1459 and, though ill, set out himself to lead the expedition, dying at Ancona as the fleet gathered. He forbade appeals from the pope to a future council in the bull Execrabilis, canonised St Catherine of Siena, and rebuilt his birthplace as the town of Pienza. His Commentaries, the memoirs of his times, are still read.
Sources
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