The Papacy in the Late Middle Ages

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Pope Calixtus III

Pope Calixtus III (1455-1458)

Alfonso de Borja was the first of the Borgia popes (Borgia is the Italian spelling). He was of noble Aragonese stock and had himself been a supporter of that most intransigent of schismatic popes, Benedict XIII. In his earlier career he gained a reputation for being reliable, for a meritorious personal life, and for being reasonable capable. He was very old when he was elected.

He became pope two years after the fall of Constantinople, and he tried as best he could to organize a crusade against the Turk. The timing was unpropitious. France and England were exhausted. Germany was hostile to any project that would include Ladislas of Hungary. Some half-hearted efforts were made, only to withdraw at the first setback. A battle was fought, led mainly by the Hungarians, and a significant victory was won in 1456, but it was only a single battle and had consequences that were important for the Balkans. The victory at Belgrade, however, must be credited to John Hunyadi and the Hungarians rather than to the papacy.

Calixtus takes his place among the Renaissance popes not so much for his patronage of the arts as for his notorious nepotism. He made two of his nephews cardinals and handed out other offices to the Aragonese. In truth, his nepotism was on a modest scale, but the Roman families were long used to receive such perquisites for themselves and they were furious to see them going to foreigners. In truth, though, Calixtus was not pope long enough to do either much harm or much good.