The Renaissance

(Marvins-Underground-K-12) #1

phrase “pius Aeneas” in the poetry of Vir-
gil. After the Fall of Constantinople in
1453, he was determined to face down the
threat of invasion of Europe by the Otto-
man Turks. In 1459, the first year of his
reign, he summoned the rulers of Europe
to a congress in Mantua to plan a cam-
paign against the Turks. The princes gath-
ered at the congress were reluctant to co-
ordinate their forces, however, and Pius’s
attempt to gather armies and money for a
campaign against the Turks came to noth-
ing. Pius believed the councils at Basel and
elsewhere had contributed to a decline in
the authority of the Papacy, and became a
powerful advocate against the conciliar
movement. He issued the bull Execrabilis
in 1460 that condemned the councils and
proclaimed that anyone appealing to a
council as an authority higher than the
pope would be excommunicated from the
church.


Pius still was determined to fight the
Turks, personally if necessary. He gathered
an army of crusaders and led them across
the mountains of central Italy to the port
of Ancona, on the Adriatic Sea. Already ill
and his body weakened through the many
years of sensual pleasures before he joined
the church, he died in Ancona before the
crusade could set out.


SEEALSO: Council of Basel; Fall of Con-
stantinople


Pizarro, Francisco ............................


(1476–1541)


Spanish conquistador who subdued the
Incan Empire of the South American
Andes and founded Peru as a colony of
Spain. Born in Trujillo, Estremadura, a
poverty-stricken region of western Spain,
he was the son of a poor farmer. Like
many young men with few prospects in
the kingdom, he saw the discoveries of


Christopher Columbus and those who fol-
lowed to the New World as an opportu-
nity for riches, glory, and status. In 1510,
he joined an expedition to Colombia led
by Alonso de Ojeda. In 1513, he accompa-
nied Vasco Nunez de Balboa on his expe-
dition across the Isthmus of Panama, when
Balboa became the first European to sight
the Pacific Ocean. After arresting Balboa
on the orders of Pedrarias de Avila, Pizarro
settled in Panama on an estate granted to
him.
Convinced that an opportunity for
great wealth lay in the undiscovered re-
gions to the south, Pizarro joined with Di-
ego de Almagro and a priest, Fernando de
Luque, and set off for the western coasts
of South America. The two undertook

Francisco Pizarro. ARCHIVEPHOTOS, 530
W. 25THSTREET,NEWYORK, NY 10001.

Pizarro, Francisco

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