The greatest historian of this period, perhaps the most alert and agile writer of any period, Enea Silvio Bartolomeo de’ Piccolhuomini (who afterwards became Pope with the title of the Lord Pius P.P. II), says of the Lord Calixtus P.P. III, that His attention to the duties of His office was amazing; that His patience at audiences was astounding; that He Himself dictated the Apostolic Briefs and Bulls written to kings and princes, nor trusted them to the official scribes; that jurisprudence was His recreation; that He was as familiar with canon-law as though He were still professor at the University of Lerida. Two problems confronted Him at the beginning of His reign: the Renascence of Learning, and the Infidel in Christendom. His predecessor had been a man of words. The Lord Calixtus P.P. III was a man of strenuous deeds. His attitude to Letters and Art was in strong contrast to that of the Lord Nicholas P.P. V. This “withered canonist,” as a wit styled Him, was not in sympathy with Culture. Wholly occupied in matters ecclesiastical and political, He had nor time nor means nor inclination to patronise the fashionable scholarship of His day. His vogue was strictly practical. One of the secrets of the success of the Holy Catholic Apostolic and Roman Church is her catholicity. All sorts and conditions of men can, and do, live within her boundaries. The Lord Nicholas P.P. V had been a Maecenas of Letters and the Arts. In His reign scholars, scribes, and artificers had found their golden age. The Lord Calixtus P.P. III entirely employed Himself in the defence of Christendom, and the clients of His predecessor were conscious of the change. Literature and the fine arts have one very sorry effect upon their professors. Intellectual culture avidly pursued makes its devotees show pitifully by the side of the manly men who deal with realities and verities, with life and death, the sailors, soldiers, adventurers, and empire-builders. Letters and the Arts cultivate the baser parts of man—meanness, jealousy, conceit. The touchy nature of the writers and artists of 1455 led to violent denunciations of the Spanish Pope. Messer Francesco Filelfo’s letter (102) to the Cardinal of Trebizond shows how men of letters hated Him. Another writer charged Him with destroying the Vatican library. Bishop Vespasiano da Bisticci, of Vicenza, says: