Oration “Non habet me dubium” of Enea Silvio Piccolomini (9 January 1447, Rome). Edited and translated by Michael von Cotta-Schönberg. 8th version. (Orations of Enea Silvio Piccolomini / Pope Pius II; 11)

Published as part of project Edition and translation of the Orations of Enea Silvio Piccolomini / Pope Pius IIIn January 1447, Enea Silvio Piccolomini arrived in Rome on a mission from Emperor Friedrich III to the ailing Pope Eugenius IV. The mission was to declare the obedience of the Holy Roman Empire to the pope, thus ending the state of German neutrality between the pope and the Council of Basel. This council had been dissolved by the pope in 1438, but it continued to function and even elected an antipope, Felix V. Piccolomini was accompanied by other ambassadors from German princes and prelates with the same purpose. The Germans posed a number of conditions to be met by the Apostolic See before obedience could be declared: holding a new general council, recognizing the authority of the general councils, removing the financial and legal burdens on the German Nation, and lifting the excommunication of the archbishops of Cologne and Trier. The mission was successful, but the pope did not himself enjoy the fruits of this victory for the Papacy since he died some weeks later. As a reward for his diplomatic success, Piccolomini was, soon after, appointed Bishop of Trieste