Pius II: The pope who wrote a porn tale

The Tale of Two Lovers, written in 1444 by Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini, was a medieval bestseller. With spicy illustrations about love between a married woman and a young Italian, the book was very successful with the adult public. But one distinction makes it even more interesting: the author of the book would later become Pope Pius II.

The pope in question was a different person. Compared to a free-spirited hippie, he left his family after turning 18, attending university and working as a professor in Florence. He then served as secretary to the Bishop of Fermo and was sent by Cardinal Albergati to a secret mission in Scotland in 1435. There, he had a son out of wedlock.

Once, Piccolomini had written to a friend: "He who has never truly felt the flames of love is only a stone". But the loving flame of his youth was extinguished when he reached adulthood: after joining the priesthood at the age of 40, he wrote: "When you see a woman, you think you see the devil".

The Tale of Two Lovers was made in a letter style, giving the impression of being written by the main characters. Set in Siena, Italy, and published around 1467, it tells the love affair between Lucretia and Euryalus, with the right to several erotic images. At a certain point, Eurylaus defends his adulterous love affair with married Lucretia quoting Virgil: "Love conquers all. Let's all surrender to love."

Although the future pope maintained that his story was nothing but fiction, researchers claim that the two characters were inspired by real people: Kaspar Schlick, Sigismund's chancellor, and Mariano Sozzini's daughter, who was Piccolomini's professor of law at Sienna University.

Seven years after writing the story, in 1450, Piccolomini was sent to Portugal by Emperor Frederick III to negotiate his marriage to Princess Eleonore. As a token of gratitude, Frederick recommended that he become a cardinal. However, Pope Calixto III ended up appointing his own nephews to the post.

In 1458, when Calixto III passed away, Piccolomini campaigned for his name to be included as a successor. In a unanimous vote, he was crowned Pope on September 3, 1458, assuming the name of Pope Pius II. It was then that the former traveler, who wrote an erotic book and had at least two children out of wedlock, rose to the highest religious position in the world.