JE N E A S. '7 ao - many fervile employments. In 1423, by the afiiftance of his friends, he was enabled to go to the univerfity of Sienna, where he applied himfelf to his ftudies with great fuccefs, and in a fhort time pubhlbed feveral pieces in the Latin and Tuf- . aucan languages. In 1431, he attended cardinal Dominic Ca- Cave J-Hir. pranica to t h e council of Bafil as his fccretary. He was like- edit l Coicn'. w '^ e ' n t ' lc ^" ame capacity with cardinal Albergoti, who fent him to Scotland to mediate a peace betwixt the Eng!i(h and Scots; and he was in trut country when king James I. was murdered. Upon his return from Scotland, he was made fe- cretary to the council of Bdfil, which he defended againft the authority of the popes, both by his fpeeches and writings, par- ticularly in a dialogue and epiftles which be wrote to the re&or ^nd univerfity of Cologn. He was likewife made by that Script. Ec-council clerk of the ceremonies, abbreviator, and one of the duodecemviri, or twelve men, an office of great importance. He was employed in feveral embaffies ; on< e to Trent, another time to Francfort, twice to Conftance, and as often to Savoy, and thrice to Strafburg, where he had an intrigue with a lady, by whom he had a fon ; he has given an account of this affair in a letter to his father, wherein he endeavours to vin- dicate himfelf with a good deal of humour and gaiety [A]. In Oudin, Com. de [A] The following is a copy of the letter: " ./Eneas Sylvius the poet to ' hi? father Sylvius. You write to me
- ' that you are douhtful whether you
" ought to rejoice or to be fotry, be- " caufe God has given me a fon : for my " own pait, I fee reafon for joy, but " none for forrow ; for what greater " pleafure is there in life than to beget
- ' anrthcr like one's felf, to extend
" one's cv.n blood, and to leave a per- " ion who may furvive you ? what is " more aereeable than to fee one's fon's " fons ? To me it is the higheft fatis. " fadjon that my feed is propagated, " and that I have produced fcmething " before I die, which may furvive me ; " and ] return thanks to God, who has ' formed the foetus into a male, that " the little boy may divert you and my " mother, and afford you that comfort " and affiftanc, which it was my duly " to do. If ruy birth was any pleasure " to you, why fliould not the birth of " my fon be fo likewife ? will not the " fght of the little infant give you fome ' farpfaflion, when you fta.ll fee my ' imajze in his countenance ? will it
- ' not bi agreeable to you, to have bin*
" hang about your neck, and iriew his " little fondne's for you ? But you fay " you are forrv for my crime. b>cau(e I " have got this child in an unlawful " way; J cannot imagine, fir, what " opinion you have formed of me; it is " certain that you, who partake of fle/h " "and blood, did not beget me of a rigid " infenfible conftitution ; you are con- " icious to yourfelf what a man of gal-
- ' lantry you was. For my part, I am
" neither an eunuch, nor impotent ; nor an hypocrite, in chufi"g to feem good, rather than really be fo : 1 frankly own my fault, becaufc 1 am neither more holy than king David, nor wifrr than Solomon. This is a " crime of very ancient (landing, and I cinnot tell who is exempt from it. " Th is plag,ue is very extenfive (if it be " a plague to ufe one's nitural powers); " fo that 1 canno" fee why this appetite " Aiould be fo much condemned, fines " nature, which does nothing amifs, has ' implanted it in all creatures, in order ' to preferve the fprcies. But you feem " to fay, that there are certain limits " within which tbli is lawful ; and that " this appetite fliould never be indulged ' bejond
