Page "Pope Paul II" Paragraph 6

Tensions with the College of Cardinals came to the fore when in 1466, attempting to eliminate redundant offices, Paul II proceeded to annul the College of Abbreviators, whose function it was to formulate papal documents ; a storm of indignation arose, inasmuch as rhetoricians and poets with humanist training, of which Paul deeply disapproved, had long been accustomed to benefiting from employment in such positions.

Bartolomeo Platina, who was one of these, wrote a threatening letter to the Pope, and was imprisoned, but later discharged.

However, in February 1468, Platina was again imprisoned on the charge of having participated in a conspiracy against the Pope, and was tortured along with other abbreviators, such as Filip Callimachus, who fled to Poland in 1478, all of whom had been accused of pagan views.

Not unaccountably, Platina, in his Vitae pontificum, set forth an unfavorable delineation of the character of Paul II.