Building on recent revisionist histories of the quality and ability of the late medieval clergy, this is a comprehensive survey of the ordinations of priests at the Roman curia during the pontificates of Pius II (1458-1464) and Paul II (1464-1471). This period has often been presented as one of stasis within the Catholic Church, falling between the conciliar movement of the first half of the fifteenth century and the Protestant Reformation and counter-reformation of the sixteenth century. However the authors argue that this period was one of gradual reform, whereby the Church attempted to...

hagiography, papacy, church administration, crusades, Middle Ages

Building on recent revisionist histories of the quality and ability of the late medieval clergy, this is a comprehensive survey of the ordinations of priests at the Roman curia during the pontificates of Pius II (1458-1464) and Paul II (1464-1471). This period has often been presented as one of stasis within the Catholic Church, falling between the conciliar movement of the first half of the fifteenth century and the Protestant Reformation and counter-reformation of the sixteenth century. However the authors argue that this period was one of gradual reform, whereby the Church attempted to...