This excellent Pope died in 1455, soon after having received the news of the downfall of Constantinople, which is said to have broken his heart.  He had many ailments, and was always a small and spare man of little strength of constitution; “but nothing transfixed his heart so much as to hear that the Turks had taken Constantinople and killed the Europeans, with many thousands of Christians, among them that same ’Imperadore de Gostantinopli’ whom he had seen seated in state at the Council of Ferrara, listening to his own and other arguments, only a few years before—­as well as the greater part, no doubt, of his own clerical opponents there.  When he was dying, ’being not the less of a strong spirit,’ he called the cardinals round his bed, and many prelates with them, and made them a last address.  His pontificate had lasted a little more than eight years, and to have carried out so little of his great plan must have been heavy on his heart; but his dying words are those of one to whom the holiness and unity of the Church came before all.  No doubt the fear that the victorious Turks might spread ruin over the whole of Christendom was first in his mind at that solemn hour.

“’Knowing, my dearest brethren, that I am approaching the hour of my death, I would, for the great dignity and authority of the apostolic see, make a serious and important testimony before you, not committed to the memory of letters, not written, neither on a tablet nor on parchment, but given by my living voice, that it may have more authority.  Listen, I pray you, while your little Pope Nicholas, in the very instant of dying, makes his last will before you.  In the first place I render thanks to the Highest God for the measureless benefits which, beginning from the day of my birth until the present day, I have received of his infinite mercy.  And now I recommend to you this beautiful Spouse of Christ, whom, so far as I was able, I have exalted and magnified, as each of you is well aware; knowing this to be the honor of God, for the great dignity that is in her, and the great privileges that she possesses, and so worthy, and formed by so worthy an Author, who is the Creator of the universe.  Being of sane mind and intellect, and having done that which every Christian is called to do, and specially the Pastor of the Church, I have received the most sacred body of Christ with penitence, taking it from his table with my two hands, and praying the Omnipotent God that he would pardon my sins.  Having had these sacraments I have also received the extreme unction, which is the last sacrament for the redeeming of my soul.  Again I recommend to you, as long as I am able, the Roman Church, notwithstanding that I have already done so; for this is the most important duty you have to fufil in the sight of God and men.  This is the true Spouse of Christ which he bought with his blood.  This is the robe without seam, which the impious Jews would have torn, but could not.  This is that ship of St. Peter, Prince of