Pope Pius III, born Francesco Todeschini Piccolomini, was Pope from 22 September
1503 to his death on 18 October 1503. He had one of the shortest pontificates in
papal history. Biography
= Early life= Piccolomini was born in Sarteano on 29
May 1439 as the fourth child of Nanno Todeschini and Laudomia Piccolomini, the
sister of Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini who was Pope Pius II. His brothers were
Antonio, Giacomo and Andrea. He was received as a boy into the
household of Aeneas Silvius who permitted him to assume the name and
arms of the Piccolomini family. He studied law at the University of Perugia
and obtained a doctorate after the completion of his studies.
= Cardinalate= Piccolomini was the administrator of the
Archdiocese of Siena which his uncle had raised to the status of archbishopric.
He was the administrator from 1460 to his own pontifical election. He was
granted the title and the insignias of an archbishop in 1459 but didn't receive
episcopal consecration. He also served as the protector of England and Germany.
Pope Pius II made his nephew a cardinal on 5 March 1460 in Siena and he was made
the Cardinal-Deacon of San Eustachio. Pius II also appointed him in 1460 as
the Archbishop of Siena when he was 21. Within the next few months the pope sent
him as the legate to the March of Ancona with the experienced Bishop of Marsico
as his counsellor. He proved studious and effective in his job. Piccolomini
was also the legate to Rome and the rest of the Papal States in 1464 when his
uncle left for Ancona. Piccolomini was made the archdeacon of
Brabant in Cambrai in 1462 and he held that until 1503. He participated in the
conclave that elected Pope Paul II in 1464 and he was named the legate to
Germany in 1471. He served in this important legation for events like the
Imperial diet at Regensburg/Ratisbon and remained there for Paul II's entire
pontificate. He was still there after the pope died and was absent for the
election of Pope Sixtus IV. He became the Cardinal Protodeacon in 1471 and
served in a new legation to Umbria for the pope to restore ecclesiastical
authority. He participated in the conclave of 1484
which resulted in the election of Pope Innocent VIII and as the protodeacon
announced the election and performed the coronation of the new pope. He was made
the administrator of Fermo in 1485 and resigned the position in 1494 in favor
of Agostino Piccolomini. He was named once again when the latter stopped in
1496 and he kept that post until his pontifical election. He was also made
the legate to Perugia in 1488 and he left in 1489.
He also participated in the conclave of 1492 which elected Pope Alexander VI and
as such announced and crowned the new pontiff. He was also made the legate to
France in 1493 to meet King Charles VIII and he returned after the monarch did
not meet him in 1495. He was named the administrator of the see of Pienza and
Montalcino in 1495 and occupied it until 1498 in favor of Girolamo Piccolomini.
He was involved in Alexander VI's short-lived effort to reform the Roman
Curia following the murder of his son Giovanni Borgia in 1497 and was named a
member of a commission of six cardinals. In 1502 he commissioned a library with
access from an aisle of the Duomo di Siena that was intended to house the
library of humanist texts assembled by his uncle and commissioned the artist
Pinturicchio to fresco its vault and ten narrative panels along the walls
depicting scenes from the life of Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini. Its iconography
illustrating the donor's career gives an edited version of Pius II's life,
passing over his former support of the Antipope Felix V. Though Pinturrichio
labored for five years, the books never reached their splendid destination; yet
the Piccolomini Library is a monument of the High Renaissance in Siena. Some of
Pope Pius III's most famous portraits can be viewed in the Louvre Museum.
Pontificate = Election to papacy=
Pope Alexander VI died in 1503 and amid the disturbances consequent upon his
death, it took the combined pressures of all the ambassadors to induce Cesare
Borgia to withdraw from Rome so that an unpressured conclave might take place.
Cardinal Piccolomini was elected on 22 September 1503 and he named himself
"Pius III" after his uncle Pius II. This selection can be seen as a compromise
between factions, Borgia and della Rovere, picking a frail cardinal with
long experience in the Roman Curia over the kin of either Sixtus IV or Alexander
VI. Piccolomini had not been ordained nor
consecrated so on 30 September 1503 he received ordination. Cardinal Giuliano
della Rovere consecrated him on 1 October 1503 in the Vatican and his
coronation took place on 8 October 1503. Cardinal Protodeacon Raffaello Sansoni
Riario performed the coronation and several of the features of the
celebration had to be omitted due to his frail health.
= Programme= On 25 September the new pontiff
announced the aims of his pontificate: Immediate reform of the church with the
establishment of a council of cardinals. Strict reform of the expenses and
financial situation of the church. Peace in the Papal States and the
support of Cesare Borgia. He supported Cesare Borgia and
reconfirmed him as Gonfalonier. = Death and burial=
On 13 October he was on his deathbed with gout and after a brief pontificate
of 26 days he died on 18 October 1503. He died after celebrating a consistory
of an ulcer in the leg or, as some have alleged, of poison administered at the
instigation of Pandolfo Petrucci, the ruler of Siena.
He was buried in the chapel of San Andrea in Saint Peter's Basilica next to
his uncle as ordered by his brothers Giacomo and Andrea. When the basilica
was being rebuilt, the monument was transferred below to the grottoes and
the remains of Pius III and his uncle to the church of San Andrea della Valle in
Rome put in a mausoleum created by Cardinal Alessandro Damasceni Peretti in
1614. See also
Cardinal protector of England Notes
References Hendrix, John, History and Culture in
Italy, University Press of America, 2003.
Munman, Robert, Sienese Renaissance tomb monuments, DIANE Publishing Co., 1993.
The Encyclopædia Britannica, Vol.19, Ed. Thomas Spencer Baynes, Henry G. Allen
Company, 1890. Williams, George L., Papal Genealogy:
The Families And Descendants Of The Popes, McFarland & Company Inc., 1998.
Further reading Wilkie, William E. 1974. The cardinal
protectors of England. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-20332-5.
External links Catholic Encyclopedia: Pope Pius III
Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church: Frida De Salve, "The Piccolomini
Library"