Note 283 — Chapter VIII · FIFTEENTH CENTURY

"Never did individual,” says Mezerai, “labour more to reduce the power of the popes within tbe limits of the canons than Eneas Sylvius; and never did pope endeavour more to extend it beyond the bounds of right and of reason, than the same man when he became Pius II.”—Abr. Chron. vol. i. pt. 2, p. 436.