the gift of a cardinal’s hat, which was bestowed upon him by Martin V., immediately on his return from England.[364] His second mission into Bohemia, his pertinacity in summoning and presiding over the council of Basil, and his conversion to the interests of Eugenius, have already passed in review in the course of the present work. The steady forbearance of Julian in refusing to enrich himself by the acceptance of presents, which Poggio records with enthusiastic applause, is a legitimate subject of commendation—but his zeal in the course of proselytism is an indication of a narrow mind; and the treachery which signalized the last official act of his life fixes on his memory an indelible stain. So base indeed was his conduct on this occasion, that his miserable end may be pointed out as an instance of the signal vengeance which awaits the perfidious violators of solemn treaties. CHAP. X. _Sforza deprived of the Marca d’Ancona—Death of Eugenius IV.—Tommaso da Sarzana is elected to the pontificate, and assumes the name of Nicolas V.—State of Italy on the accession of Nicolas V.—Exemplary conduct of that pontiff—Poggio’s inaugural address to Nicolas V.—His dialogues on the Vicissitudes of Fortune, and on Hypocrisy—His invective against the Antipope Felix—His translation of Xenophon’s Cyropædia, and of Diodorus Siculus—His quarrels with George of Trebisond, and Tommaso da Rieti—Celebration of the Jubilee—Publication of Poggio’s Facetiæ—Renewal of hostilities between Poggio and Filelfo—Their reconciliation—Poggio’s Historia disceptativa convivialis—His letter on the study of Law._ CHAP. X.