In the pontificate of Pius II, their number, which had been fixed at twenty-four, had overgrown to such an extent as to diminish considerably the individual remuneration, and, as a consequence, able and competent men no longer sought the office, and hence the old style of writing and expediting the Bulls was no longer used, to the great injury of justice, the interested parties, and the dignity of the Holy See.

In 1459 Pope Pius II endowed the University of Basel where such notables as Erasmus of Rotterdam and Paracelsus later taught.

After Pope Pius II, in his bull Execrabilis ( 1460 ) and his reply to the University of Cologne ( 1463 ), set aside the theory of the supremacy of general councils laid down by the Council of Constance

Notable past visitors to the mountain peak include Pope Pius XII, Pope John Paul II, Alberto Santos-Dumont, German Sueiro Vasquez, Albert Einstein, and Diana, Princess of Wales.

Pope Pius II canonized St Catherine in the year 1461.

* 1939 – World War II: Pope Pius XII makes a Christmas Eve appeal for peace.

# REDIRECT Pope Pius II

The Italian humanist Enea Silvio Piccolomini, later Pope Pius II, who at one time worked at Frederick's court, described the Emperor as a person who wanted to conquer the world while remaining seated.

Henry IV restored the charter granted to Gibraltar in 1310 and took two additional measures: the lands previously belonging to Algeciras ( destroyed in 1369 ) were granted to Gibraltar ; and the status of collegiate church was solicited from the pope Pius II and granted to the parish church of Saint Mary the Crowned (), now the Cathedral of St. Mary the Crowned, on the site of the old main Moorish Mosque.

In 2009 he expressed public concern at Pope Benedict XVI's lifting of excommunication of the bishops of the Society of Saint Pius X. Genscher wrote in the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung: " Poles can be proud of Pope John Paul II.

In 1462, Pope Pius II declared the " Compacta " null and void, prohibited communion in both kinds, and acknowledged King George of Podebrady as king on condition that he would promise an unconditional harmony with the Roman Church.

It was the birthplace of Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini, Pope Pius II, in whose employ Alberti served.

Pius II wanted to use the village as a retreat but needed for it to reflect the dignity of his position.

The original publication of the Liber Pontificalis stopped with Pope Adrian II ( 867 – 872 ) or Pope Stephen V ( 885 – 891 ), but it was later supplemented in a different style until Pope Eugene IV ( 1431 – 1447 ) and then Pope Pius II ( 1458 – 1464 ).

The second extends from Pope Urban VI ( 1378 – 1389 ) to Pope Pius II ( 1458 – 1464 ).

In 1853 Pope Pius IX received guarantees of religious freedom from the Dutch King Willem II and established a Catholic hierarchy, loyal to the pope, in the Netherlands.

Only three other popes – Pius IX, Leo XIII, and John Paul II – have reigned for longer periods since.

In 1944, during World War II, Pope Pius XII named him Apostolic Nuncio to France.

The concordat of 1933, with which the Vatican sought to protect the Church in Germany, and Hitler sought the destruction of ' political Catholicism ', and Pius ' leadership of the Catholic Church during World War II, including his " decision to stay silent in public about the fate of the Jews ", remain the subject of controversy.

After World War II, Pius XII appointed more non-Italians than any Pope before him.

Pius XII chose not to name new cardinals during World War II, and the number of cardinals shrank to 38, with Dennis Joseph Dougherty of Philadelphia being the only living U. S. cardinal.

Since the soul is a spiritual substance it is not brought into being through transformation of matter, but directly by God, whence the special uniqueness of each person .." Fifty years later, Pope John Paul II, stating that scientific evidence now seemed to favour the evolutionary theory, upheld the distinction of Pius XII regarding the human soul.

Pius XII's pontificate began on the eve of World War II.

Lichten labelled any criticism of the pope's actions during World War II as " a stupefying paradox " and said, " no one who reads the record of Pius XII's actions on behalf of Jews can subscribe to Hochhuth's accusation.

Antoninus Pius (; born 19 September 86AD – died 7 March 161AD ), also known as Antoninus, was Roman Emperor from 138AD to 161AD.

One of his first acts as Emperor was to persuade the Senate to grant divine honours to Hadrian, which they had at first refused ; his efforts to persuade the Senate to grant these honours is the most likely reason given for his title of Pius ( dutiful in affection ; compare pietas ).

Antoninus in many ways was the ideal of the landed gentleman praised not only by ancient Romans, but also by later scholars of classical history, such as Edward Gibbon or the author of the article on Antoninus Pius in the ninth edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica:

He was canonized and proclaimed a Doctor of the Church on December 16, 1931 by Pope Pius XI and patron saint of the sciences.

His full nomenclature shows that his grandfather or other ancestor was probably given Roman citizenship by the emperor Antoninus Pius, while proconsul of Asia.

The college was suppressed in 1908 by Pope Pius X and their duties were transferred to the protonotarii apostolici participantes.

The Roman Breviary has undergone several revisions: The most remarkable of these is that by Francis Quignonez, cardinal of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme ( 1536 ), which, though not accepted by Rome ( it was approved by Clement VII and Paul III, and permitted as a substitute for the unrevised Breviary, until Pius V in 1568 excluded it as too short and too modern, and issued a reformed edition ( Breviarium Pianum, Pian Breviary ) of the old Breviary ), formed the model for the still more thorough reform made in 1549 by the Church of England, whose daily morning and evening services are but a condensation and simplification of the Breviary offices.

Pius X was probably influenced by earlier attempts to eliminate repetition in the psalter, most notably the liturgy of the Benedictine congregation of St. Maur.

The council was reconvened by Pope Pius IV ( 1559 – 65 ) for the last time, meeting from 18 January 1562, and continued until its final adjournment on 4 December 1563.

This petition was complied with by Pope Pius IV, January 26, 1564, in the papal bull, Benedictus Deus, which enjoins strict obedience upon all Catholics and forbids, under pain of excommunication, all unauthorized interpretation, reserving this to the Pope alone and threatens the disobedient with " the indignation of Almighty God and of his blessed apostles, Peter and Paul.

A member of the Franciscan Order, she was beatified by Pope Pius IX in 1848.

The work having been begun by Pius X, it was sometimes called the " Pio-Benedictine Code " but more often the 1917 Code.

The Tridentine Creed was initially contained in the papal bull Iniunctum Nobis, issued by Pope Pius IV on November 13, 1565.

* 1854 – In his Apostolic constitution Ineffabilis Deus, Pope Pius IX proclaims the dogmatic definition of Immaculate Conception, which holds that the Virgin Mary was born free of original sin.

This decree was clarified somewhat by Pope Pius XI on June 2, 1927, who allowed that the Comma Johanneum was open to dispute, and it was further explicated by Pope Pius XII's Divino Afflante Spiritu.

One of the most famous Imperial coronation ceremonies was that of Napoleon, crowning himself Emperor in the presence of Pope Pius VII ( who had blessed the regalia ), at the Notre Dame de Paris | Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. The painting by Jacques-Louis David | David commemorating the event is equally famous: the gothic cathedral restyled Empire ( style ) | style Empire, supervised by the Letizia Ramolino | mother of the Emperor on the balcony ( a fictional addition, while she had not been present at the ceremony ), the pope positioned near the altar, Napoleon proceeds to crown his then wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais as Empress.

The First Vatican Council was convoked by Pope Pius IX on 29 June 1868, after a period of planning and preparation that began on 6 December 1864.

The doctrine of papal infallibility was not new and had been used by Pope Pius in defining as dogma, in 1854, the Immaculate Conception of Mary, the mother of Jesus.