Chapter LXV: Elevation Of Timour Or Tamerlane, And His

Death.—Part III.

On the throne of Samarcand, 63 he displayed, in a short repose,

his magnificence and power; listened to the complaints of the

people; distributed a just measure of rewards and punishments;

employed his riches in the architecture of palaces and temples;

and gave audience to the ambassadors of Egypt, Arabia, India,

Tartary, Russia, and Spain, the last of whom presented a suit of

tapestry which eclipsed the pencil of the Oriental artists. The

marriage of six of the emperor’s grandsons was esteemed an act of

religion as well as of paternal tenderness; and the pomp of the

ancient caliphs was revived in their nuptials. They were

celebrated in the gardens of Canighul, decorated with innumerable

tents and pavilions, which displayed the luxury of a great city

and the spoils of a victorious camp. Whole forests were cut down

to supply fuel for the kitchens; the plain was spread with

pyramids of meat, and vases of every liquor, to which thousands

of guests were courteously invited: the orders of the state, and

the nations of the earth, were marshalled at the royal banquet;

nor were the ambassadors of Europe (says the haughty Persian)

excluded from the feast; since even the _casses_, the smallest of

fish, find their place in the ocean. 64 The public joy was

testified by illuminations and masquerades; the trades of

Samarcand passed in review; and every trade was emulous to

execute some quaint device, some marvellous pageant, with the

materials of their peculiar art. After the marriage contracts had

been ratified by the cadhis, the bride-grooms and their brides

retired to the nuptial chambers: nine times, according to the

Asiatic fashion, they were dressed and undressed; and at each

change of apparel, pearls and rubies were showered on their

heads, and contemptuously abandoned to their attendants. A

general indulgence was proclaimed: every law was relaxed, every

pleasure was allowed; the people was free, the sovereign was

idle; and the historian of Timour may remark, that, after

devoting fifty years to the attainment of empire, the only happy

period of his life were the two months in which he ceased to

exercise his power. But he was soon awakened to the cares of

government and war. The standard was unfurled for the invasion of

China: the emirs made their report of two hundred thousand, the

select and veteran soldiers of Iran and Touran: their baggage and

provisions were transported by five hundred great wagons, and an

immense train of horses and camels; and the troops might prepare

for a long absence, since more than six months were employed in

the tranquil journey of a caravan from Samarcand to Pekin.

Neither age, nor the severity of the winter, could retard the

impatience of Timour; he mounted on horseback, passed the Sihoon

on the ice, marched seventy-six parasangs, three hundred miles,

from his capital, and pitched his last camp in the neighborhood

of Otrar, where he was expected by the angel of death. Fatigue,

and the indiscreet use of iced water, accelerated the progress of

his fever; and the conqueror of Asia expired in the seventieth

year of his age, thirty-five years after he had ascended the

throne of Zagatai. His designs were lost; his armies were

disbanded; China was saved; and fourteen years after his decease,

the most powerful of his children sent an embassy of friendship

and commerce to the court of Pekin. 65

63 (return) [ For the return, triumph, and death of Timour, see

Sherefeddin (l. vi. c. 1—30) and Arabshah, (tom. ii. c. 36—47.)]

64 (return) [ Sherefeddin (l. vi. c. 24) mentions the ambassadors

of one of the most potent sovereigns of Europe. We know that it

was Henry III. king of Castile; and the curious relation of his

two embassies is still extant, (Mariana, Hist. Hispan. l. xix. c.

11, tom. ii. p. 329, 330. Avertissement à l’Hist. de Timur Bec,

p. 28—33.) There appears likewise to have been some

correspondence between the Mogul emperor and the court of Charles

VII. king of France, (Histoire de France, par Velly et Villaret,

tom. xii. p. 336.)]

65 (return) [ See the translation of the Persian account of their

embassy, a curious and original piece, (in the ivth part of the

Relations de Thevenot.) They presented the emperor of China with

an old horse which Timour had formerly rode. It was in the year

1419 that they departed from the court of Herat, to which place

they returned in 1422 from Pekin.]

The fame of Timour has pervaded the East and West: his posterity

is still invested with the Imperial _title_; and the admiration

of his subjects, who revered him almost as a deity, may be

justified in some degree by the praise or confession of his

bitterest enemies. 66 Although he was lame of a hand and foot,

his form and stature were not unworthy of his rank; and his

vigorous health, so essential to himself and to the world, was

corroborated by temperance and exercise. In his familiar

discourse he was grave and modest, and if he was ignorant of the

Arabic language, he spoke with fluency and elegance the Persian

and Turkish idioms. It was his delight to converse with the

learned on topics of history and science; and the amusement of

his leisure hours was the game of chess, which he improved or

corrupted with new refinements. 67 In his religion he was a

zealous, though not perhaps an orthodox, Mussulman; 68 but his

sound understanding may tempt us to believe, that a superstitious

reverence for omens and prophecies, for saints and astrologers,

was only affected as an instrument of policy. In the government

of a vast empire, he stood alone and absolute, without a rebel to

oppose his power, a favorite to seduce his affections, or a

minister to mislead his judgment. It was his firmest maxim, that

whatever might be the consequence, the word of the prince should

never be disputed or recalled; but his foes have maliciously

observed, that the commands of anger and destruction were more

strictly executed than those of beneficence and favor. His sons

and grandsons, of whom Timour left six-and-thirty at his decease,

were his first and most submissive subjects; and whenever they

deviated from their duty, they were corrected, according to the

laws of Zingis, with the bastinade, and afterwards restored to

honor and command. Perhaps his heart was not devoid of the social

virtues; perhaps he was not incapable of loving his friends and

pardoning his enemies; but the rules of morality are founded on

the public interest; and it may be sufficient to applaud the

_wisdom_ of a monarch, for the liberality by which he is not

impoverished, and for the justice by which he is strengthened and

enriched. To maintain the harmony of authority and obedience, to

chastise the proud, to protect the weak, to reward the deserving,

to banish vice and idleness from his dominions, to secure the

traveller and merchant, to restrain the depredations of the

soldier, to cherish the labors of the husbandman, to encourage

industry and learning, and, by an equal and moderate assessment,

to increase the revenue, without increasing the taxes, are indeed

the duties of a prince; but, in the discharge of these duties, he

finds an ample and immediate recompense. Timour might boast,

that, at his accession to the throne, Asia was the prey of

anarchy and rapine, whilst under his prosperous monarchy a child,

fearless and unhurt, might carry a purse of gold from the East to

the West. Such was his confidence of merit, that from this

reformation he derived an excuse for his victories, and a title

to universal dominion. The four following observations will serve

to appreciate his claim to the public gratitude; and perhaps we

shall conclude, that the Mogul emperor was rather the scourge

than the benefactor of mankind. _1._ If some partial disorders,

some local oppressions, were healed by the sword of Timour, the

remedy was far more pernicious than the disease. By their rapine,

cruelty, and discord, the petty tyrants of Persia might afflict

their subjects; but whole nations were crushed under the

footsteps of the reformer. The ground which had been occupied by

flourishing cities was often marked by his abominable trophies,

by columns, or pyramids, of human heads. Astracan, Carizme,

Delhi, Ispahan, Bagdad, Aleppo, Damascus, Boursa, Smyrna, and a

thousand others, were sacked, or burnt, or utterly destroyed, in

his presence, and by his troops: and perhaps his conscience would

have been startled, if a priest or philosopher had dared to

number the millions of victims whom he had sacrificed to the

establishment of peace and order. 69 _2._ His most destructive

wars were rather inroads than conquests. He invaded Turkestan,

Kipzak, Russia, Hindostan, Syria, Anatolia, Armenia, and Georgia,

without a hope or a desire of preserving those distant provinces.

From thence he departed laden with spoil; but he left behind him

neither troops to awe the contumacious, nor magistrates to

protect the obedient, natives. When he had broken the fabric of

their ancient government, he abandoned them to the evils which

his invasion had aggravated or caused; nor were these evils

compensated by any present or possible benefits. _3._ The

kingdoms of Transoxiana and Persia were the proper field which he

labored to cultivate and adorn, as the perpetual inheritance of

his family. But his peaceful labors were often interrupted, and

sometimes blasted, by the absence of the conqueror. While he

triumphed on the Volga or the Ganges, his servants, and even his

sons, forgot their master and their duty. The public and private

injuries were poorly redressed by the tardy rigor of inquiry and

punishment; and we must be content to praise the _Institutions_

of Timour, as the specious idea of a perfect monarchy. _4._

Whatsoever might be the blessings of his administration, they

evaporated with his life. To reign, rather than to govern, was

the ambition of his children and grandchildren; 70 the enemies of

each other and of the people. A fragment of the empire was upheld

with some glory by Sharokh, his youngest son; but after _his_

decease, the scene was again involved in darkness and blood; and

before the end of a century, Transoxiana and Persia were trampled

by the Uzbeks from the north, and the Turkmans of the black and

white sheep. The race of Timour would have been extinct, if a

hero, his descendant in the fifth degree, had not fled before the

Uzbek arms to the conquest of Hindostan. His successors (the

great Moguls 71) extended their sway from the mountains of

Cashmir to Cape Comorin, and from Candahar to the Gulf of Bengal.

Since the reign of Aurungzebe, their empire had been dissolved;

their treasures of Delhi have been rifled by a Persian robber;

and the richest of their kingdoms is now possessed by a company

of Christian merchants, of a remote island in the Northern Ocean.

66 (return) [ From Arabshah, tom. ii. c. 96. The bright or softer

colors are borrowed from Sherefeddin, D’Herbelot, and the

Institutions.]

67 (return) [ His new system was multiplied from 32 pieces and 64

squares to 56 pieces and 110 or 130 squares; but, except in his

court, the old game has been thought sufficiently elaborate. The

Mogul emperor was rather pleased than hurt with the victory of a

subject: a chess player will feel the value of this encomium!]

68 (return) [ See Sherefeddin, (l. v. c. 15, 25. Arabshah tom.

ii. c. 96, p. 801, 803) approves the impiety of Timour and the

Moguls, who almost preferred to the Koran the _Yacsa_, or Law of

Zingis, (cui Deus maledicat;) nor will he believe that Sharokh

had abolished the use and authority of that Pagan code.]

69 (return) [ Besides the bloody passages of this narrative, I

must refer to an anticipation in the third volume of the Decline

and Fall, which in a single note (p. 234, note 25) accumulates

nearly 300,000 heads of the monuments of his cruelty. Except in

Rowe’s play on the fifth of November, I did not expect to hear of

Timour’s amiable moderation (White’s preface, p. 7.) Yet I can

excuse a generous enthusiasm in the reader, and still more in the

editor, of the _Institutions_.]

70 (return) [ Consult the last chapters of Sherefeddin and

Arabshah, and M. De Guignes, (Hist. des Huns, tom. iv. l. xx.)

Fraser’s History of Nadir Shah, (p. 1—62.) The story of Timour’s

descendants is imperfectly told; and the second and third parts

of Sherefeddin are unknown.]

71 (return) [ Shah Allum, the present Mogul, is in the fourteenth

degree from Timour, by Miran Shah, his third son. See the second

volume of Dow’s History of Hindostan.]

Far different was the fate of the Ottoman monarchy. The massy

trunk was bent to the ground, but no sooner did the hurricane

pass away, than it again rose with fresh vigor and more lively

vegetation. When Timour, in every sense, had evacuated Anatolia,

he left the cities without a palace, a treasure, or a king. The

open country was overspread with hordes of shepherds and robbers

of Tartar or Turkman origin; the recent conquests of Bajazet were

restored to the emirs, one of whom, in base revenge, demolished

his sepulchre; and his five sons were eager, by civil discord, to

consume the remnant of their patrimony. I shall enumerate their

names in the order of their age and actions. 72 _1._ It is

doubtful, whether I relate the story of the true _Mustapha_, or

of an impostor who personated that lost prince. He fought by his

father’s side in the battle of Angora: but when the captive

sultan was permitted to inquire for his children, Mousa alone

could be found; and the Turkish historians, the slaves of the

triumphant faction, are persuaded that his brother was confounded

among the slain. If Mustapha escaped from that disastrous field,

he was concealed twelve years from his friends and enemies; till

he emerged in Thessaly, and was hailed by a numerous party, as

the son and successor of Bajazet. His first defeat would have

been his last, had not the true, or false, Mustapha been saved by

the Greeks, and restored, after the decease of his brother

Mahomet, to liberty and empire. A degenerate mind seemed to argue

his spurious birth; and if, on the throne of Adrianople, he was

adored as the Ottoman sultan, his flight, his fetters, and an

ignominious gibbet, delivered the impostor to popular contempt. A

similar character and claim was asserted by several rival

pretenders: thirty persons are said to have suffered under the

name of Mustapha; and these frequent executions may perhaps

insinuate, that the Turkish court was not perfectly secure of the

death of the lawful prince. _2._ After his father’s captivity,

Isa 73 reigned for some time in the neighborhood of Angora,

Sinope, and the Black Sea; and his ambassadors were dismissed

from the presence of Timour with fair promises and honorable

gifts. But their master was soon deprived of his province and

life, by a jealous brother, the sovereign of Amasia; and the

final event suggested a pious allusion, that the law of Moses and

Jesus, of _Isa_ and _Mousa_, had been abrogated by the greater

Mahomet. _3._ _Soliman_ is not numbered in the list of the

Turkish emperors: yet he checked the victorious progress of the

Moguls; and after their departure, united for a while the thrones

of Adrianople and Boursa. In war he was brave, active, and

fortunate; his courage was softened by clemency; but it was

likewise inflamed by presumption, and corrupted by intemperance

and idleness. He relaxed the nerves of discipline, in a

government where either the subject or the sovereign must

continually tremble: his vices alienated the chiefs of the army

and the law; and his daily drunkenness, so contemptible in a

prince and a man, was doubly odious in a disciple of the prophet.

In the slumber of intoxication he was surprised by his brother

Mousa; and as he fled from Adrianople towards the Byzantine

capital, Soliman was overtaken and slain in a bath, 731 after a

reign of seven years and ten months. _4._ The investiture of

Mousa degraded him as the slave of the Moguls: his tributary

kingdom of Anatolia was confined within a narrow limit, nor could

his broken militia and empty treasury contend with the hardy and

veteran bands of the sovereign of Romania. Mousa fled in disguise

from the palace of Boursa; traversed the Propontis in an open

boat; wandered over the Walachian and Servian hills; and after

some vain attempts, ascended the throne of Adrianople, so

recently stained with the blood of Soliman. In a reign of three

years and a half, his troops were victorious against the

Christians of Hungary and the Morea; but Mousa was ruined by his

timorous disposition and unseasonable clemency. After resigning

the sovereignty of Anatolia, he fell a victim to the perfidy of

his ministers, and the superior ascendant of his brother Mahomet.

_5._The final victory of Mahomet was the just recompense of his

prudence and moderation. Before his father’s captivity, the royal

youth had been intrusted with the government of Amasia, thirty

days’ journey from Constantinople, and the Turkish frontier

against the Christians of Trebizond and Georgia. The castle, in

Asiatic warfare, was esteemed impregnable; and the city of

Amasia, 74 which is equally divided by the River Iris, rises on

either side in the form of an amphitheatre, and represents on a

smaller scale the image of Bagdad. In his rapid career, Timour

appears to have overlooked this obscure and contumacious angle of

Anatolia; and Mahomet, without provoking the conqueror,

maintained his silent independence, and chased from the province

the last stragglers of the Tartar host. 741 He relieved himself

from the dangerous neighborhood of Isa; but in the contests of

their more powerful brethren his firm neutrality was respected;

till, after the triumph of Mousa, he stood forth the heir and

avenger of the unfortunate Soliman. Mahomet obtained Anatolia by

treaty, and Romania by arms; and the soldier who presented him

with the head of Mousa was rewarded as the benefactor of his king

and country. The eight years of his sole and peaceful reign were

usefully employed in banishing the vices of civil discord, and

restoring on a firmer basis the fabric of the Ottoman monarchy.

His last care was the choice of two viziers, Bajazet and Ibrahim,

75 who might guide the youth of his son Amurath; and such was

their union and prudence, that they concealed above forty days

the emperor’s death, till the arrival of his successor in the

palace of Boursa. A new war was kindled in Europe by the prince,

or impostor, Mustapha; the first vizier lost his army and his

head; but the more fortunate Ibrahim, whose name and family are

still revered, extinguished the last pretender to the throne of

Bajazet, and closed the scene of domestic hostility.

72 (return) [ The civil wars, from the death of Bajazet to that

of Mustapha, are related, according to the Turks, by Demetrius

Cantemir, (p. 58—82.) Of the Greeks, Chalcondyles, (l. iv. and

v.,) Phranza, (l. i. c. 30—32,) and Ducas, (c. 18—27,) the last

is the most copious and best informed.]

73 (return) [ Arabshah, (tom. ii. c. 26,) whose testimony on this

occasion is weighty and valuable. The existence of Isa (unknown

to the Turks) is likewise confirmed by Sherefeddin, (l. v. c.

57.)]

731 (return) [ He escaped from the bath, and fled towards

Constantinople. Five mothers from a village, Dugundschi, whose

inhabitants had suffered severely from the exactions of his

officers, recognized and followed him. Soliman shot two of them,

the others discharged their arrows in their turn the sultan fell

and his head was cut off. V. Hammer, vol. i. p. 349.—M.]

74 (return) [ Arabshah, loc. citat. Abulfeda, Geograph. tab.

xvii. p. 302. Busbequius, epist. i. p. 96, 97, in Itinere C. P.

et Amasiano.]

741 (return) [ See his nine battles. V. Hammer, p. 339.—M.]

75 (return) [ The virtues of Ibrahim are praised by a

contemporary Greek, (Ducas, c. 25.) His descendants are the sole

nobles in Turkey: they content themselves with the administration

of his pious foundations, are excused from public offices, and

receive two annual visits from the sultan, (Cantemir, p. 76.)]

In these conflicts, the wisest Turks, and indeed the body of the

nation, were strongly attached to the unity of the empire; and

Romania and Anatolia, so often torn asunder by private ambition,

were animated by a strong and invincible tendency of cohesion.

Their efforts might have instructed the Christian powers; and had

they occupied, with a confederate fleet, the Straits of

Gallipoli, the Ottomans, at least in Europe, must have been

speedily annihilated. But the schism of the West, and the

factions and wars of France and England, diverted the Latins from

this generous enterprise: they enjoyed the present respite,

without a thought of futurity; and were often tempted by a

momentary interest to serve the common enemy of their religion. A

colony of Genoese, 76 which had been planted at Phocæa 77 on the

Ionian coast, was enriched by the lucrative monopoly of alum; 78

and their tranquillity, under the Turkish empire, was secured by

the annual payment of tribute. In the last civil war of the

Ottomans, the Genoese governor, Adorno, a bold and ambitious

youth, embraced the party of Amurath; and undertook, with seven

stout galleys, to transport him from Asia to Europe. The sultan

and five hundred guards embarked on board the admiral’s ship;

which was manned by eight hundred of the bravest Franks. His life

and liberty were in their hands; nor can we, without reluctance,

applaud the fidelity of Adorno, who, in the midst of the passage,

knelt before him, and gratefully accepted a discharge of his

arrears of tribute. They landed in sight of Mustapha and

Gallipoli; two thousand Italians, armed with lances and

battle-axes, attended Amurath to the conquest of Adrianople; and

this venal service was soon repaid by the ruin of the commerce

and colony of Phocæa.

76 (return) [ See Pachymer, (l. v. c. 29,) Nicephorus Gregoras,

(l. ii. c. 1,) Sherefeddin, (l. v. c. 57,) and Ducas, (c. 25.)

The last of these, a curious and careful observer, is entitled,

from his birth and station, to particular credit in all that

concerns Ionia and the islands. Among the nations that resorted

to New Phocæa, he mentions the English; ('Igglhnoi;) an early

evidence of Mediterranean trade.]

77 (return) [ For the spirit of navigation, and freedom of

ancient Phocæa, or rather the Phocæans, consult the first book of

Herodotus, and the Geographical Index of his last and learned

French translator, M. Larcher (tom. vii. p. 299.)]

78 (return) [ Phocæa is not enumerated by Pliny (Hist. Nat. xxxv.

52) among the places productive of alum: he reckons Egypt as the

first, and for the second the Isle of Melos, whose alum mines are

described by Tournefort, (tom. i. lettre iv.,) a traveller and a

naturalist. After the loss of Phocæa, the Genoese, in 1459, found

that useful mineral in the Isle of Ischia, (Ismael. Bouillaud, ad

Ducam, c. 25.)]

If Timour had generously marched at the request, and to the

relief, of the Greek emperor, he might be entitled to the praise

and gratitude of the Christians. 79 But a Mussulman, who carried

into Georgia the sword of persecution, and respected the holy

warfare of Bajazet, was not disposed to pity or succor the

_idolaters_ of Europe. The Tartar followed the impulse of

ambition; and the deliverance of Constantinople was the

accidental consequence. When Manuel abdicated the government, it

was his prayer, rather than his hope, that the ruin of the church

and state might be delayed beyond his unhappy days; and after his

return from a western pilgrimage, he expected every hour the news

of the sad catastrophe. On a sudden, he was astonished and

rejoiced by the intelligence of the retreat, the overthrow, and

the captivity of the Ottoman. Manuel 80 immediately sailed from

Modon in the Morea; ascended the throne of Constantinople, and

dismissed his blind competitor to an easy exile in the Isle of

Lesbos. The ambassadors of the son of Bajazet were soon

introduced to his presence; but their pride was fallen, their

tone was modest: they were awed by the just apprehension, lest

the Greeks should open to the Moguls the gates of Europe. Soliman

saluted the emperor by the name of father; solicited at his hands

the government or gift of Romania; and promised to deserve his

favor by inviolable friendship, and the restitution of

Thessalonica, with the most important places along the Strymon,

the Propontis, and the Black Sea. The alliance of Soliman exposed

the emperor to the enmity and revenge of Mousa: the Turks

appeared in arms before the gates of Constantinople; but they

were repulsed by sea and land; and unless the city was guarded by

some foreign mercenaries, the Greeks must have wondered at their

own triumph. But, instead of prolonging the division of the

Ottoman powers, the policy or passion of Manuel was tempted to

assist the most formidable of the sons of Bajazet. He concluded a

treaty with Mahomet, whose progress was checked by the

insuperable barrier of Gallipoli: the sultan and his troops were

transported over the Bosphorus; he was hospitably entertained in

the capital; and his successful sally was the first step to the

conquest of Romania. The ruin was suspended by the prudence and

moderation of the conqueror: he faithfully discharged his own

obligations and those of Soliman, respected the laws of gratitude

and peace; and left the emperor guardian of his two younger sons,

in the vain hope of saving them from the jealous cruelty of their

brother Amurath. But the execution of his last testament would

have offended the national honor and religion; and the divan

unanimously pronounced, that the royal youths should never be

abandoned to the custody and education of a Christian dog. On

this refusal, the Byzantine councils were divided; but the age

and caution of Manuel yielded to the presumption of his son John;

and they unsheathed a dangerous weapon of revenge, by dismissing

the true or false Mustapha, who had long been detained as a

captive and hostage, and for whose maintenance they received an

annual pension of three hundred thousand aspers. 81 At the door

of his prison, Mustapha subscribed to every proposal; and the

keys of Gallipoli, or rather of Europe, were stipulated as the

price of his deliverance. But no sooner was he seated on the

throne of Romania, than he dismissed the Greek ambassadors with a

smile of contempt, declaring, in a pious tone, that, at the day

of judgment, he would rather answer for the violation of an oath,

than for the surrender of a Mussulman city into the hands of the

infidels. The emperor was at once the enemy of the two rivals;

from whom he had sustained, and to whom he had offered, an

injury; and the victory of Amurath was followed, in the ensuing

spring, by the siege of Constantinople. 82

79 (return) [ The writer who has the most abused this fabulous

generosity, is our ingenious Sir William Temple, (his Works, vol.

iii. p. 349, 350, octavo edition,) that lover of exotic virtue.

After the conquest of Russia, &c., and the passage of the Danube,

his Tartar hero relieves, visits, admires, and refuses the city

of Constantine. His flattering pencil deviates in every line from

the truth of history; yet his pleasing fictions are more

excusable than the gross errors of Cantemir.]

80 (return) [ For the reigns of Manuel and John, of Mahomet I.

and Amurath II., see the Othman history of Cantemir, (p. 70—95,)

and the three Greeks, Chalcondyles, Phranza, and Ducas, who is

still superior to his rivals.]

81 (return) [ The Turkish asper (from the Greek asproV) is, or

was, a piece of _white_ or silver money, at present much debased,

but which was formerly equivalent to the 54th part, at least, of

a Venetian ducat or sequin; and the 300,000 aspers, a princely

allowance or royal tribute, may be computed at 2500_l_. sterling,

(Leunclav. Pandect. Turc. p. 406—408.) * Note: According to Von

Hammer, this calculation is much too low. The asper was a century

before the time of which writes, the tenth part of a ducat; for

the same tribute which the Byzantine writers state at 300,000

aspers the Ottomans state at 30,000 ducats, about 15000l Note,

vol. p. 636.—M.]

82 (return) [ For the siege of Constantinople in 1422, see the

particular and contemporary narrative of John Cananus, published

by Leo Allatius, at the end of his edition of Acropolita, (p.

188—199.)]

The religious merit of subduing the city of the Cæsars attracted

from Asia a crowd of volunteers, who aspired to the crown of

martyrdom: their military ardor was inflamed by the promise of

rich spoils and beautiful females; and the sultan’s ambition was

consecrated by the presence and prediction of Seid Bechar, a

descendant of the prophet, 83 who arrived in the camp, on a mule,

with a venerable train of five hundred disciples. But he might

blush, if a fanatic could blush, at the failure of his

assurances. The strength of the walls resisted an army of two

hundred thousand Turks; their assaults were repelled by the

sallies of the Greeks and their foreign mercenaries; the old

resources of defence were opposed to the new engines of attack;

and the enthusiasm of the dervis, who was snatched to heaven in

visionary converse with Mahomet, was answered by the credulity of

the Christians, who _beheld_ the Virgin Mary, in a violet

garment, walking on the rampart and animating their courage. 84

After a siege of two months, Amurath was recalled to Boursa by a

domestic revolt, which had been kindled by Greek treachery, and

was soon extinguished by the death of a guiltless brother. While

he led his Janizaries to new conquests in Europe and Asia, the

Byzantine empire was indulged in a servile and precarious respite

of thirty years. Manuel sank into the grave; and John Palæologus

was permitted to reign, for an annual tribute of three hundred

thousand aspers, and the dereliction of almost all that he held

beyond the suburbs of Constantinople.

83 (return) [ Cantemir, p. 80. Cananus, who describes Seid

Bechar, without naming him, supposes that the friend of Mahomet

assumed in his amours the privilege of a prophet, and that the

fairest of the Greek nuns were promised to the saint and his

disciples.]

84 (return) [ For this miraculous apparition, Cananus appeals to

the Mussulman saint; but who will bear testimony for Seid

Bechar?]

In the establishment and restoration of the Turkish empire, the

first merit must doubtless be assigned to the personal qualities

of the sultans; since, in human life, the most important scenes

will depend on the character of a single actor. By some shades of

wisdom and virtue, they may be discriminated from each other;

but, except in a single instance, a period of nine reigns, and

two hundred and sixty-five years, is occupied, from the elevation

of Othman to the death of Soliman, by a rare series of warlike

and active princes, who impressed their subjects with obedience

and their enemies with terror. Instead of the slothful luxury of

the seraglio, the heirs of royalty were educated in the council

and the field: from early youth they were intrusted by their

fathers with the command of provinces and armies; and this manly

institution, which was often productive of civil war, must have

essentially contributed to the discipline and vigor of the

monarchy. The Ottomans cannot style themselves, like the Arabian

caliphs, the descendants or successors of the apostle of God; and

the kindred which they claim with the Tartar khans of the house

of Zingis appears to be founded in flattery rather than in truth.

85 Their origin is obscure; but their sacred and indefeasible

right, which no time can erase, and no violence can infringe, was

soon and unalterably implanted in the minds of their subjects. A

weak or vicious sultan may be deposed and strangled; but his

inheritance devolves to an infant or an idiot: nor has the most

daring rebel presumed to ascend the throne of his lawful

sovereign. 86

85 (return) [ See Ricaut, (l. i. c. 13.) The Turkish sultans

assume the title of khan. Yet Abulghazi is ignorant of his

Ottoman cousins.]

86 (return) [ The third grand vizier of the name of Kiuperli, who

was slain at the battle of Salankanen in 1691, (Cantemir, p.

382,) presumed to say that all the successors of Soliman had been

fools or tyrants, and that it was time to abolish the race,

(Marsigli Stato Militaire, &c., p. 28.) This political heretic

was a good Whig, and justified against the French ambassador the

revolution of England, (Mignot, Hist. des Ottomans, tom. iii. p.

434.) His presumption condemns the singular exception of

continuing offices in the same family.]

While the transient dynasties of Asia have been continually

subverted by a crafty vizier in the palace, or a victorious

general in the camp, the Ottoman succession has been confirmed by

the practice of five centuries, and is now incorporated with the

vital principle of the Turkish nation.

To the spirit and constitution of that nation, a strong and

singular influence may, however, be ascribed. The primitive

subjects of Othman were the four hundred families of wandering

Turkmans, who had followed his ancestors from the Oxus to the

Sangar; and the plains of Anatolia are still covered with the

white and black tents of their rustic brethren. But this original

drop was dissolved in the mass of voluntary and vanquished

subjects, who, under the name of Turks, are united by the common

ties of religion, language, and manners. In the cities, from

Erzeroum to Belgrade, that national appellation is common to all

the Moslems, the first and most honorable inhabitants; but they

have abandoned, at least in Romania, the villages, and the

cultivation of the land, to the Christian peasants. In the

vigorous age of the Ottoman government, the Turks were themselves

excluded from all civil and military honors; and a servile class,

an artificial people, was raised by the discipline of education

to obey, to conquer, and to command. 87 From the time of Orchan

and the first Amurath, the sultans were persuaded that a

government of the sword must be renewed in each generation with

new soldiers; and that such soldiers must be sought, not in

effeminate Asia, but among the hardy and warlike natives of

Europe. The provinces of Thrace, Macedonia, Albania, Bulgaria,

and Servia, became the perpetual seminary of the Turkish army;

and when the royal fifth of the captives was diminished by

conquest, an inhuman tax of the fifth child, or of every fifth

year, was rigorously levied on the Christian families. At the age

of twelve or fourteen years, the most robust youths were torn

from their parents; their names were enrolled in a book; and from

that moment they were clothed, taught, and maintained, for the

public service. According to the promise of their appearance,

they were selected for the royal schools of Boursa, Pera, and

Adrianople, intrusted to the care of the bashaws, or dispersed in

the houses of the Anatolian peasantry. It was the first care of

their masters to instruct them in the Turkish language: their

bodies were exercised by every labor that could fortify their

strength; they learned to wrestle, to leap, to run, to shoot with

the bow, and afterwards with the musket; till they were drafted

into the chambers and companies of the Janizaries, and severely

trained in the military or monastic discipline of the order. The

youths most conspicuous for birth, talents, and beauty, were

admitted into the inferior class of _Agiamoglans_, or the more

liberal rank of _Ichoglans_, of whom the former were attached to

the palace, and the latter to the person, of the prince. In four

successive schools, under the rod of the white eunuchs, the arts

of horsemanship and of darting the javelin were their daily

exercise, while those of a more studious cast applied themselves

to the study of the Koran, and the knowledge of the Arabic and

Persian tongues. As they advanced in seniority and merit, they

were gradually dismissed to military, civil, and even

ecclesiastical employments: the longer their stay, the higher was

their expectation; till, at a mature period, they were admitted

into the number of the forty agas, who stood before the sultan,

and were promoted by his choice to the government of provinces

and the first honors of the empire. 88 Such a mode of institution

was admirably adapted to the form and spirit of a despotic

monarchy. The ministers and generals were, in the strictest

sense, the slaves of the emperor, to whose bounty they were

indebted for their instruction and support. When they left the

seraglio, and suffered their beards to grow as the symbol of

enfranchisement, they found themselves in an important office,

without faction or friendship, without parents and without heirs,

dependent on the hand which had raised them from the dust, and

which, on the slightest displeasure, could break in pieces these

statues of glass, as they were aptly termed by the Turkish

proverb. 89 In the slow and painful steps of education, their

characters and talents were unfolded to a discerning eye: the

_man_, naked and alone, was reduced to the standard of his

personal merit; and, if the sovereign had wisdom to choose, he

possessed a pure and boundless liberty of choice. The Ottoman

candidates were trained by the virtues of abstinence to those of

action; by the habits of submission to those of command. A

similar spirit was diffused among the troops; and their silence

and sobriety, their patience and modesty, have extorted the

reluctant praise of their Christian enemies. 90 Nor can the

victory appear doubtful, if we compare the discipline and

exercise of the Janizaries with the pride of birth, the

independence of chivalry, the ignorance of the new levies, the

mutinous temper of the veterans, and the vices of intemperance

and disorder, which so long contaminated the armies of Europe.

87 (return) [ Chalcondyles (l. v.) and Ducas (c. 23) exhibit the

rude lineament of the Ottoman policy, and the transmutation of

Christian children into Turkish soldiers.]

88 (return) [ This sketch of the Turkish education and discipline

is chiefly borrowed from Ricaut’s State of the Ottoman Empire,

the Stato Militaire del’ Imperio Ottomano of Count Marsigli, (in

Haya, 1732, in folio,) and a description of the Seraglio,

approved by Mr. Greaves himself, a curious traveller, and

inserted in the second volume of his works.]

89 (return) [ From the series of cxv. viziers, till the siege of

Vienna, (Marsigli, p. 13,) their place may be valued at three

years and a half purchase.]

90 (return) [ See the entertaining and judicious letters of

Busbequius.]

The only hope of salvation for the Greek empire, and the adjacent

kingdoms, would have been some more powerful weapon, some

discovery in the art of war, that would give them a decisive

superiority over their Turkish foes. Such a weapon was in their

hands; such a discovery had been made in the critical moment of

their fate. The chemists of China or Europe had found, by casual

or elaborate experiments, that a mixture of saltpetre, sulphur,

and charcoal, produces, with a spark of fire, a tremendous

explosion. It was soon observed, that if the expansive force were

compressed in a strong tube, a ball of stone or iron might be

expelled with irresistible and destructive velocity. The precise

æra of the invention and application of gunpowder 91 is involved

in doubtful traditions and equivocal language; yet we may clearly

discern, that it was known before the middle of the fourteenth

century; and that before the end of the same, the use of

artillery in battles and sieges, by sea and land, was familiar to

the states of Germany, Italy, Spain, France, and England. 92 The

priority of nations is of small account; none could derive any

exclusive benefit from their previous or superior knowledge; and

in the common improvement, they stood on the same level of

relative power and military science. Nor was it possible to

circumscribe the secret within the pale of the church; it was

disclosed to the Turks by the treachery of apostates and the

selfish policy of rivals; and the sultans had sense to adopt, and

wealth to reward, the talents of a Christian engineer. The

Genoese, who transported Amurath into Europe, must be accused as

his preceptors; and it was probably by their hands that his

cannon was cast and directed at the siege of Constantinople. 93

The first attempt was indeed unsuccessful; but in the general

warfare of the age, the advantage was on _their_ side, who were

most commonly the assailants: for a while the proportion of the

attack and defence was suspended; and this thundering artillery

was pointed against the walls and towers which had been erected

only to resist the less potent engines of antiquity. By the

Venetians, the use of gunpowder was communicated without reproach

to the sultans of Egypt and Persia, their allies against the

Ottoman power; the secret was soon propagated to the extremities

of Asia; and the advantage of the European was confined to his

easy victories over the savages of the new world. If we contrast

the rapid progress of this mischievous discovery with the slow

and laborious advances of reason, science, and the arts of peace,

a philosopher, according to his temper, will laugh or weep at the

folly of mankind.

91 (return) [ The first and second volumes of Dr. Watson’s

Chemical Essays contain two valuable discourses on the discovery

and composition of gunpowder.]

92 (return) [ On this subject modern testimonies cannot be

trusted. The original passages are collected by Ducange, (Gloss.

Latin. tom. i. p. 675, _Bombarda_.) But in the early doubtful

twilight, the name, sound, fire, and effect, that seem to express

_our_ artillery, may be fairly interpreted of the old engines and

the Greek fire. For the English cannon at Crecy, the authority of

John Villani (Chron. l. xii. c. 65) must be weighed against the

silence of Froissard. Yet Muratori (Antiquit. Italiæ Medii Ævi,

tom. ii. Dissert. xxvi. p. 514, 515) has produced a decisive

passage from Petrarch, (De Remediis utriusque Fortunæ Dialog.,)

who, before the year 1344, execrates this terrestrial thunder,

_nuper_ rara, _nunc_ communis. * Note: Mr. Hallam makes the

following observation on the objection thrown our by Gibbon: “The

positive testimony of Villani, who died within two years

afterwards, and had manifestly obtained much information as to

the great events passing in France, cannot be rejected. He

ascribes a material effect to the cannon of Edward, Colpi delle

bombarde, which I suspect, from his strong expressions, had not

been employed before, except against stone walls. It seems, he

says, as if God thundered con grande uccisione di genti e

efondamento di cavalli.” Middle Ages, vol. i. p. 510.—M.]

93 (return) [ The Turkish cannon, which Ducas (c. 30) first

introduces before Belgrade, (A.D. 1436,) is mentioned by

Chalcondyles (l. v. p. 123) in 1422, at the siege of

Constantinople.]

Chapter LXVI: Union Of The Greek And Latin Churches.—Part I.

Applications Of The Eastern Emperors To The Popes.—Visits To The

West, Of John The First, Manuel, And John The Second,

Palæologus.—Union Of The Greek And Latin Churches, Promoted By The

Council Of Basil, And Concluded At Ferrara And Florence.—State Of

Literature At Constantinople.—Its Revival In Italy By The Greek

Fugitives.—Cœuriosity And Emulation Of The Latins.

In the four last centuries of the Greek emperors, their friendly

or hostile aspect towards the pope and the Latins may be observed

as the thermometer of their prosperity or distress; as the scale

of the rise and fall of the Barbarian dynasties. When the Turks

of the house of Seljuk pervaded Asia, and threatened

Constantinople, we have seen, at the council of Placentia, the

suppliant ambassadors of Alexius imploring the protection of the

common father of the Christians. No sooner had the arms of the

French pilgrims removed the sultan from Nice to Iconium, than the

Greek princes resumed, or avowed, their genuine hatred and

contempt for the schismatics of the West, which precipitated the

first downfall of their empire. The date of the Mogul invasion is

marked in the soft and charitable language of John Vataces. After

the recovery of Constantinople, the throne of the first

Palæologus was encompassed by foreign and domestic enemies; as

long as the sword of Charles was suspended over his head, he

basely courted the favor of the Roman pontiff; and sacrificed to

the present danger his faith, his virtue, and the affection of

his subjects. On the decease of Michael, the prince and people

asserted the independence of their church, and the purity of

their creed: the elder Andronicus neither feared nor loved the

Latins; in his last distress, pride was the safeguard of

superstition; nor could he decently retract in his age the firm

and orthodox declarations of his youth. His grandson, the younger

Andronicus, was less a slave in his temper and situation; and the

conquest of Bithynia by the Turks admonished him to seek a

temporal and spiritual alliance with the Western princes. After a

separation and silence of fifty years, a secret agent, the monk

Barlaam, was despatched to Pope Benedict the Twelfth; and his

artful instructions appear to have been drawn by the master-hand

of the great domestic. 1 “Most holy father,” was he commissioned

to say, “the emperor is not less desirous than yourself of a

union between the two churches: but in this delicate transaction,

he is obliged to respect his own dignity and the prejudices of

his subjects. The ways of union are twofold; force and

persuasion. Of force, the inefficacy has been already tried;

since the Latins have subdued the empire, without subduing the

minds, of the Greeks. The method of persuasion, though slow, is

sure and permanent. A deputation of thirty or forty of our

doctors would probably agree with those of the Vatican, in the

love of truth and the unity of belief; but on their return, what

would be the use, the recompense, of such an agreement? the scorn

of their brethren, and the reproaches of a blind and obstinate

nation. Yet that nation is accustomed to reverence the general

councils, which have fixed the articles of our faith; and if they

reprobate the decrees of Lyons, it is because the Eastern

churches were neither heard nor represented in that arbitrary

meeting. For this salutary end, it will be expedient, and even

necessary, that a well-chosen legate should be sent into Greece,

to convene the patriarchs of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch,

and Jerusalem; and, with their aid, to prepare a free and

universal synod. But at this moment,” continued the subtle agent,

“the empire is assaulted and endangered by the Turks, who have

occupied four of the greatest cities of Anatolia. The Christian

inhabitants have expressed a wish of returning to their

allegiance and religion; but the forces and revenues of the

emperor are insufficient for their deliverance: and the Roman

legate must be accompanied, or preceded, by an army of Franks, to

expel the infidels, and open a way to the holy sepulchre.” If the

suspicious Latins should require some pledge, some previous

effect of the sincerity of the Greeks, the answers of Barlaam

were perspicuous and rational. “_1._ A general synod can alone

consummate the union of the churches; nor can such a synod be

held till the three Oriental patriarchs, and a great number of

bishops, are enfranchised from the Mahometan yoke. _2._ The

Greeks are alienated by a long series of oppression and injury:

they must be reconciled by some act of brotherly love, some

effectual succor, which may fortify the authority and arguments

of the emperor, and the friends of the union. _3._ If some

difference of faith or ceremonies should be found incurable, the

Greeks, however, are the disciples of Christ; and the Turks are

the common enemies of the Christian name. The Armenians,

Cyprians, and Rhodians, are equally attacked; and it will become

the piety of the French princes to draw their swords in the

general defence of religion. _4._ Should the subjects of

Andronicus be treated as the worst of schismatics, of heretics,

of pagans, a judicious policy may yet instruct the powers of the

West to embrace a useful ally, to uphold a sinking empire, to

guard the confines of Europe; and rather to join the Greeks

against the Turks, than to expect the union of the Turkish arms

with the troops and treasures of captive Greece.” The reasons,

the offers, and the demands, of Andronicus were eluded with cold

and stately indifference. The kings of France and Naples declined

the dangers and glory of a crusade; the pope refused to call a

new synod to determine old articles of faith; and his regard for

the obsolete claims of the Latin emperor and clergy engaged him

to use an offensive superscription,—“To the _moderator_ 2 of the

Greeks, and the persons who style themselves the patriarchs of

the Eastern churches.” For such an embassy, a time and character

less propitious could not easily have been found. Benedict the

Twelfth 3 was a dull peasant, perplexed with scruples, and

immersed in sloth and wine: his pride might enrich with a third

crown the papal tiara, but he was alike unfit for the regal and

the pastoral office.

1 (return) [ This curious instruction was transcribed (I believe)

from the Vatican archives, by Odoricus Raynaldus, in his

Continuation of the Annals of Baronius, (Romæ, 1646—1677, in x.

volumes in folio.) I have contented myself with the Abbé Fleury,

(Hist. Ecclésiastique. tom. xx. p. 1—8,) whose abstracts I have

always found to be clear, accurate, and impartial.]

2 (return) [ The ambiguity of this title is happy or ingenious;

and _moderator_, as synonymous to _rector_, _gubernator_, is a

word of classical, and even Ciceronian, Latinity, which may be

found, not in the Glossary of Ducange, but in the Thesaurus of

Robert Stephens.]

3 (return) [ The first epistle (sine titulo) of Petrarch exposes

the danger of the _bark_, and the incapacity of the _pilot_. Hæc

inter, vino madidus, ævo gravis, ac soporifero rore perfusus,

jamjam nutitat, dormitat, jam somno præceps, atque (utinam solus)

ruit..... Heu quanto felicius patrio terram sulcasset aratro,

quam scalmum piscatorium ascendisset! This satire engages his

biographer to weigh the virtues and vices of Benedict XII. which

have been exaggerated by Guelphs and Ghibe lines, by Papists and

Protestants, (see Mémoires sur la Vie de Pétrarque, tom. i. p.

259, ii. not. xv. p. 13—16.) He gave occasion to the saying,

Bibamus papaliter.]

After the decease of Andronicus, while the Greeks were distracted

by intestine war, they could not presume to agitate a general

union of the Christians. But as soon as Cantacuzene had subdued

and pardoned his enemies, he was anxious to justify, or at least

to extenuate, the introduction of the Turks into Europe, and the

nuptials of his daughter with a Mussulman prince. Two officers of

state, with a Latin interpreter, were sent in his name to the

Roman court, which was transplanted to Avignon, on the banks of

the Rhône, during a period of seventy years: they represented the

hard necessity which had urged him to embrace the alliance of the

miscreants, and pronounced by his command the specious and

edifying sounds of union and crusade. Pope Clement the Sixth, 4

the successor of Benedict, received them with hospitality and

honor, acknowledged the innocence of their sovereign, excused his

distress, applauded his magnanimity, and displayed a clear

knowledge of the state and revolutions of the Greek empire, which

he had imbibed from the honest accounts of a Savoyard lady, an

attendant of the empress Anne. 5 If Clement was ill endowed with

the virtues of a priest, he possessed, however, the spirit and

magnificence of a prince, whose liberal hand distributed

benefices and kingdoms with equal facility. Under his reign

Avignon was the seat of pomp and pleasure: in his youth he had

surpassed the licentiousness of a baron; and the palace, nay, the

bed-chamber of the pope, was adorned, or polluted, by the visits

of his female favorites. The wars of France and England were

adverse to the holy enterprise; but his vanity was amused by the

splendid idea; and the Greek ambassadors returned with two Latin

bishops, the ministers of the pontiff. On their arrival at

Constantinople, the emperor and the nuncios admired each other’s

piety and eloquence; and their frequent conferences were filled

with mutual praises and promises, by which both parties were

amused, and neither could be deceived. “I am delighted,” said the

devout Cantacuzene, “with the project of our holy war, which must

redound to my personal glory, as well as to the public benefit of

Christendom. My dominions will give a free passage to the armies

of France: my troops, my galleys, my treasures, shall be

consecrated to the common cause; and happy would be my fate,

could I deserve and obtain the crown of martyrdom. Words are

insufficient to express the ardor with which I sigh for the

reunion of the scattered members of Christ. If my death could

avail, I would gladly present my sword and my neck: if the

spiritual phœnix could arise from my ashes, I would erect the

pile, and kindle the flame with my own hands.” Yet the Greek

emperor presumed to observe, that the articles of faith which

divided the two churches had been introduced by the pride and

precipitation of the Latins: he disclaimed the servile and

arbitrary steps of the first Palæologus; and firmly declared,

that he would never submit his conscience unless to the decrees

of a free and universal synod. “The situation of the times,”

continued he, “will not allow the pope and myself to meet either

at Rome or Constantinople; but some maritime city may be chosen

on the verge of the two empires, to unite the bishops, and to

instruct the faithful, of the East and West.” The nuncios seemed

content with the proposition; and Cantacuzene affects to deplore

the failure of his hopes, which were soon overthrown by the death

of Clement, and the different temper of his successor. His own

life was prolonged, but it was prolonged in a cloister; and,

except by his prayers, the humble monk was incapable of directing

the counsels of his pupil or the state. 6

4 (return) [ See the original Lives of Clement VI. in Muratori,

(Script. Rerum Italicarum, tom. iii. P. ii. p. 550—589;) Matteo

Villani, (Chron. l. iii. c. 43, in Muratori, tom. xiv. p. 186,)

who styles him, molto cavallaresco, poco religioso; Fleury,

(Hist. Ecclés. tom. xx. p. 126;) and the Vie de Pétrarque, (tom.

ii. p. 42—45.) The abbé de Sade treats him with the most

indulgence; but _he_ is a gentleman as well as a priest.]

5 (return) [ Her name (most probably corrupted) was Zampea. She

had accompanied, and alone remained with her mistress at

Constantinople, where her prudence, erudition, and politeness

deserved the praises of the Greeks themselves, (Cantacuzen. l. i.

c. 42.)]

6 (return) [ See this whole negotiation in Cantacuzene, (l. iv.

c. 9,) who, amidst the praises and virtues which he bestows on

himself, reveals the uneasiness of a guilty conscience.]

Yet of all the Byzantine princes, that pupil, John Palæologus,

was the best disposed to embrace, to believe, and to obey, the

shepherd of the West. His mother, Anne of Savoy, was baptized in

the bosom of the Latin church: her marriage with Andronicus

imposed a change of name, of apparel, and of worship, but her

heart was still faithful to her country and religion: she had

formed the infancy of her son, and she governed the emperor,

after his mind, or at least his stature, was enlarged to the size

of man. In the first year of his deliverance and restoration, the

Turks were still masters of the Hellespont; the son of

Cantacuzene was in arms at Adrianople; and Palæologus could

depend neither on himself nor on his people. By his mother’s

advice, and in the hope of foreign aid, he abjured the rights

both of the church and state; and the act of slavery, 7

subscribed in purple ink, and sealed with the _golden_ bull, was

privately intrusted to an Italian agent. The first article of the

treaty is an oath of fidelity and obedience to Innocent the Sixth

and his successors, the supreme pontiffs of the Roman and

Catholic church. The emperor promises to entertain with due

reverence their legates and nuncios; to assign a palace for their

residence, and a temple for their worship; and to deliver his

second son Manuel as the hostage of his faith. For these

condescensions he requires a prompt succor of fifteen galleys,

with five hundred men at arms, and a thousand archers, to serve

against his Christian and Mussulman enemies. Palæologus engages

to impose on his clergy and people the same spiritual yoke; but

as the resistance of the Greeks might be justly foreseen, he

adopts the two effectual methods of corruption and education. The

legate was empowered to distribute the vacant benefices among the

ecclesiastics who should subscribe the creed of the Vatican:

three schools were instituted to instruct the youth of

Constantinople in the language and doctrine of the Latins; and

the name of Andronicus, the heir of the empire, was enrolled as

the first student. Should he fail in the measures of persuasion

or force, Palæologus declares himself unworthy to reign;

transferred to the pope all regal and paternal authority; and

invests Innocent with full power to regulate the family, the

government, and the marriage, of his son and successor. But this

treaty was neither executed nor published: the Roman galleys were

as vain and imaginary as the submission of the Greeks; and it was

only by the secrecy that their sovereign escaped the dishonor of

this fruitless humiliation.

7 (return) [ See this ignominious treaty in Fleury, (Hist.

Ecclés. p. 151—154,) from Raynaldus, who drew it from the Vatican

archives. It was not worth the trouble of a pious forgery.]

The tempest of the Turkish arms soon burst on his head; and after

the loss of Adrianople and Romania, he was enclosed in his

capital, the vassal of the haughty Amurath, with the miserable

hope of being the last devoured by the savage. In this abject

state, Palæologus embraced the resolution of embarking for

Venice, and casting himself at the feet of the pope: he was the

first of the Byzantine princes who had ever visited the unknown

regions of the West, yet in them alone he could seek consolation

or relief; and with less violation of his dignity he might appear

in the sacred college than at the Ottoman _Porte_. After a long

absence, the Roman pontiffs were returning from Avignon to the

banks of the Tyber: Urban the Fifth, 8 of a mild and virtuous

character, encouraged or allowed the pilgrimage of the Greek

prince; and, within the same year, enjoyed the glory of receiving

in the Vatican the two Imperial shadows who represented the

majesty of Constantine and Charlemagne. In this suppliant visit,

the emperor of Constantinople, whose vanity was lost in his

distress, gave more than could be expected of empty sounds and

formal submissions. A previous trial was imposed; and, in the

presence of four cardinals, he acknowledged, as a true Catholic,

the supremacy of the pope, and the double procession of the Holy

Ghost. After this purification, he was introduced to a public

audience in the church of St. Peter: Urban, in the midst of the

cardinals, was seated on his throne; the Greek monarch, after

three genuflections, devoutly kissed the feet, the hands, and at

length the mouth, of the holy father, who celebrated high mass in

his presence, allowed him to lead the bridle of his mule, and

treated him with a sumptuous banquet in the Vatican. The

entertainment of Palæologus was friendly and honorable; yet some

difference was observed between the emperors of the East and

West; 9 nor could the former be entitled to the rare privilege of

chanting the gospel in the rank of a deacon. 10 In favor of his

proselyte, Urban strove to rekindle the zeal of the French king

and the other powers of the West; but he found them cold in the

general cause, and active only in their domestic quarrels. The

last hope of the emperor was in an English mercenary, John

Hawkwood, 11 or Acuto, who, with a band of adventurers, the white

brotherhood, had ravaged Italy from the Alps to Calabria; sold

his services to the hostile states; and incurred a just

excommunication by shooting his arrows against the papal

residence. A special license was granted to negotiate with the

outlaw, but the forces, or the spirit, of Hawkwood, were unequal

to the enterprise: and it was for the advantage, perhaps, of

Palæologus to be disappointed of succor, that must have been

costly, that could not be effectual, and which might have been

dangerous. 12 The disconsolate Greek 13 prepared for his return,

but even his return was impeded by a most ignominious obstacle.

On his arrival at Venice, he had borrowed large sums at

exorbitant usury; but his coffers were empty, his creditors were

impatient, and his person was detained as the best security for

the payment. His eldest son, Andronicus, the regent of

Constantinople, was repeatedly urged to exhaust every resource;

and even by stripping the churches, to extricate his father from

captivity and disgrace. But the unnatural youth was insensible of

the disgrace, and secretly pleased with the captivity of the

emperor: the state was poor, the clergy were obstinate; nor could

some religious scruple be wanting to excuse the guilt of his

indifference and delay. Such undutiful neglect was severely

reproved by the piety of his brother Manuel, who instantly sold

or mortgaged all that he possessed, embarked for Venice, relieved

his father, and pledged his own freedom to be responsible for the

debt. On his return to Constantinople, the parent and king

distinguished his two sons with suitable rewards; but the faith

and manners of the slothful Palæologus had not been improved by

his Roman pilgrimage; and his apostasy or conversion, devoid of

any spiritual or temporal effects, was speedily forgotten by the

Greeks and Latins. 14

8 (return) [ See the two first original Lives of Urban V., (in

Muratori, Script. Rerum Italicarum, tom. iii. P. ii. p. 623,

635,) and the Ecclesiastical Annals of Spondanus, (tom. i. p.

573, A.D. 1369, No. 7,) and Raynaldus, (Fleury, Hist. Ecclés.

tom. xx. p. 223, 224.) Yet, from some variations, I suspect the

papal writers of slightly magnifying the genuflections of

Palæologus.]

9 (return) [ Paullo minus quam si fuisset Imperator Romanorum.

Yet his title of Imperator Græcorum was no longer disputed, (Vit.

Urban V. p. 623.)]

10 (return) [ It was confined to the successors of Charlemagne,

and to them only on Christmas-day. On all other festivals these

Imperial deacons were content to serve the pope, as he said mass,

with the book and the _corporale_. Yet the abbé de Sade

generously thinks that the merits of Charles IV. might have

entitled him, though not on the proper day, (A.D. 1368, November

1,) to the whole privilege. He seems to affix a just value on the

privilege and the man, (Vie de Petrarque, tom. iii. p. 735.)]

11 (return) [ Through some Italian corruptions, the etymology of

_Falcone in bosco_, (Matteo Villani, l. xi. c. 79, in Muratori,

tom. xv. p. 746,) suggests the English word _Hawkwood_, the true

name of our adventurous countryman, (Thomas Walsingham, Hist.

Anglican. inter Scriptores Camdeni, p. 184.) After two-and-twenty

victories, and one defeat, he died, in 1394, general of the

Florentines, and was buried with such honors as the republic has

not paid to Dante or Petrarch, (Muratori, Annali d’Italia, tom.

xii. p. 212—371.)]

12 (return) [ This torrent of English (by birth or service)

overflowed from France into Italy after the peace of Bretigny in

1630. Yet the exclamation of Muratori (Annali, tom. xii. p. 197)

is rather true than civil. “Ci mancava ancor questo, che dopo

essere calpestrata l’Italia da tanti masnadieri Tedeschi ed

Ungheri, venissero fin dall’ Inghliterra nuovi _cani_ a finire di

divorarla.”]

13 (return) [ Chalcondyles, l. i. p. 25, 26. The Greek supposes

his journey to the king of France, which is sufficiently refuted

by the silence of the national historians. Nor am I much more

inclined to believe, that Palæologus departed from Italy, valde

bene consolatus et contentus, (Vit. Urban V. p. 623.)]

14 (return) [ His return in 1370, and the coronation of Manuel,

Sept. 25, 1373, (Ducange, Fam. Byzant. p. 241,) leaves some

intermediate æra for the conspiracy and punishment of

Andronicus.]

Thirty years after the return of Palæologus, his son and

successor, Manuel, from a similar motive, but on a larger scale,

again visited the countries of the West. In a preceding chapter I

have related his treaty with Bajazet, the violation of that

treaty, the siege or blockade of Constantinople, and the French

succor under the command of the gallant Boucicault. 15 By his

ambassadors, Manuel had solicited the Latin powers; but it was

thought that the presence of a distressed monarch would draw

tears and supplies from the hardest Barbarians; 16 and the

marshal who advised the journey prepared the reception of the

Byzantine prince. The land was occupied by the Turks; but the

navigation of Venice was safe and open: Italy received him as the

first, or, at least, as the second, of the Christian princes;

Manuel was pitied as the champion and confessor of the faith; and

the dignity of his behavior prevented that pity from sinking into

contempt. From Venice he proceeded to Padua and Pavia; and even

the duke of Milan, a secret ally of Bajazet, gave him safe and

honorable conduct to the verge of his dominions. 17 On the

confines of France 18 the royal officers undertook the care of

his person, journey, and expenses; and two thousand of the

richest citizens, in arms and on horseback, came forth to meet

him as far as Charenton, in the neighborhood of the capital. At

the gates of Paris, he was saluted by the chancellor and the

parliament; and Charles the Sixth, attended by his princes and

nobles, welcomed his brother with a cordial embrace. The

successor of Constantine was clothed in a robe of white silk, and

mounted on a milk-white steed, a circumstance, in the French

ceremonial, of singular importance: the white color is considered

as the symbol of sovereignty; and, in a late visit, the German

emperor, after a haughty demand and a peevish refusal, had been

reduced to content himself with a black courser. Manuel was

lodged in the Louvre; a succession of feasts and balls, the

pleasures of the banquet and the chase, were ingeniously varied

by the politeness of the French, to display their magnificence,

and amuse his grief: he was indulged in the liberty of his

chapel; and the doctors of the Sorbonne were astonished, and

possibly scandalized, by the language, the rites, and the

vestments, of his Greek clergy. But the slightest glance on the

state of the kingdom must teach him to despair of any effectual

assistance. The unfortunate Charles, though he enjoyed some lucid

intervals, continually relapsed into furious or stupid insanity:

the reins of government were alternately seized by his brother

and uncle, the dukes of Orleans and Burgundy, whose factious

competition prepared the miseries of civil war. The former was a

gay youth, dissolved in luxury and love: the latter was the

father of John count of Nevers, who had so lately been ransomed

from Turkish captivity; and, if the fearless son was ardent to

revenge his defeat, the more prudent Burgundy was content with

the cost and peril of the first experiment. When Manuel had

satiated the curiosity, and perhaps fatigued the patience, of the

French, he resolved on a visit to the adjacent island. In his

progress from Dover, he was entertained at Canterbury with due

reverence by the prior and monks of St. Austin; and, on

Blackheath, King Henry the Fourth, with the English court,

saluted the Greek hero, (I copy our old historian,) who, during

many days, was lodged and treated in London as emperor of the

East. 19 But the state of England was still more adverse to the

design of the holy war. In the same year, the hereditary

sovereign had been deposed and murdered: the reigning prince was

a successful usurper, whose ambition was punished by jealousy and

remorse: nor could Henry of Lancaster withdraw his person or

forces from the defence of a throne incessantly shaken by

conspiracy and rebellion. He pitied, he praised, he feasted, the

emperor of Constantinople; but if the English monarch assumed the

cross, it was only to appease his people, and perhaps his

conscience, by the merit or semblance of his pious intention. 20

Satisfied, however, with gifts and honors, Manuel returned to

Paris; and, after a residence of two years in the West, shaped

his course through Germany and Italy, embarked at Venice, and

patiently expected, in the Morea, the moment of his ruin or

deliverance. Yet he had escaped the ignominious necessity of

offering his religion to public or private sale. The Latin church

was distracted by the great schism; the kings, the nations, the

universities, of Europe were divided in their obedience between

the popes of Rome and Avignon; and the emperor, anxious to

conciliate the friendship of both parties, abstained from any

correspondence with the indigent and unpopular rivals. His

journey coincided with the year of the jubilee; but he passed

through Italy without desiring, or deserving, the plenary

indulgence which abolished the guilt or penance of the sins of

the faithful. The Roman pope was offended by this neglect;

accused him of irreverence to an image of Christ; and exhorted

the princes of Italy to reject and abandon the obstinate

schismatic. 21

15 (return) [ Mémoires de Boucicault, P. i. c. 35, 36.]

16 (return) [ His journey into the west of Europe is slightly,

and I believe reluctantly, noticed by Chalcondyles (l. ii. c.

44—50) and Ducas, (c. 14.)]

17 (return) [ Muratori, Annali d’Italia, tom. xii. p. 406. John

Galeazzo was the first and most powerful duke of Milan. His

connection with Bajazet is attested by Froissard; and he

contributed to save and deliver the French captives of

Nicopolis.]

18 (return) [ For the reception of Manuel at Paris, see

Spondanus, (Annal. Ecclés. tom. i. p. 676, 677, A.D. 1400, No.

5,) who quotes Juvenal des Ursins and the monk of St. Denys; and

Villaret, (Hist. de France, tom. xii. p. 331—334,) who quotes

nobody according to the last fashion of the French writers.]

19 (return) [ A short note of Manuel in England is extracted by

Dr. Hody from a MS. at Lambeth, (de Græcis illustribus, p. 14,)

C. P. Imperator, diu variisque et horrendis Paganorum insultibus

coarctatus, ut pro eisdem resistentiam triumphalem perquireret,

Anglorum Regem visitare decrevit, &c. Rex (says Walsingham, p.

364) nobili apparatû... suscepit (ut decuit) tantum Heroa,

duxitque Londonias, et per multos dies exhibuit gloriose, pro

expensis hospitii sui solvens, et eum respiciens tanto fastigio

donativis. He repeats the same in his Upodigma Neustriæ, (p.

556.)]

20 (return) [ Shakspeare begins and ends the play of Henry IV.

with that prince’s vow of a crusade, and his belief that he

should die in Jerusalem.]

21 (return) [ This fact is preserved in the Historia Politica,

A.D. 1391—1478, published by Martin Crusius, (Turco Græcia, p.

1—43.) The image of Christ, which the Greek emperor refused to

worship, was probably a work of sculpture.]

Chapter LXVI: Union Of The Greek And Latin Churches.—Part II.

During the period of the crusades, the Greeks beheld with

astonishment and terror the perpetual stream of emigration that

flowed, and continued to flow, from the unknown climates of their

West. The visits of their last emperors removed the veil of

separation, and they disclosed to their eyes the powerful nations

of Europe, whom they no longer presumed to brand with the name of

Barbarians. The observations of Manuel, and his more inquisitive

followers, have been preserved by a Byzantine historian of the

times: 22 his scattered ideas I shall collect and abridge; and it

may be amusing enough, perhaps instructive, to contemplate the

rude pictures of Germany, France, and England, whose ancient and

modern state are so familiar to _our_ minds. I. Germany (says the

Greek Chalcondyles) is of ample latitude from Vienna to the

ocean; and it stretches (a strange geography) from Prague in

Bohemia to the River Tartessus, and the Pyrenæan Mountains. 23

The soil, except in figs and olives, is sufficiently fruitful;

the air is salubrious; the bodies of the natives are robust and

healthy; and these cold regions are seldom visited with the

calamities of pestilence, or earthquakes. After the Scythians or

Tartars, the Germans are the most numerous of nations: they are

brave and patient; and were they united under a single head,

their force would be irresistible. By the gift of the pope, they

have acquired the privilege of choosing the Roman emperor; 24 nor

is any people more devoutly attached to the faith and obedience

of the Latin patriarch. The greatest part of the country is

divided among the princes and prelates; but Strasburg, Cologne,

Hamburgh, and more than two hundred free cities, are governed by

sage and equal laws, according to the will, and for the

advantage, of the whole community. The use of duels, or single

combats on foot, prevails among them in peace and war: their

industry excels in all the mechanic arts; and the Germans may

boast of the invention of gunpowder and cannon, which is now

diffused over the greatest part of the world. II. The kingdom of

France is spread above fifteen or twenty days’ journey from

Germany to Spain, and from the Alps to the British Ocean;

containing many flourishing cities, and among these Paris, the

seat of the king, which surpasses the rest in riches and luxury.

Many princes and lords alternately wait in his palace, and

acknowledge him as their sovereign: the most powerful are the

dukes of Bretagne and Burgundy; of whom the latter possesses the

wealthy province of Flanders, whose harbors are frequented by the

ships and merchants of our own, and the more remote, seas. The

French are an ancient and opulent people; and their language and

manners, though somewhat different, are not dissimilar from those

of the Italians. Vain of the Imperial dignity of Charlemagne, of

their victories over the Saracens, and of the exploits of their

heroes, Oliver and Rowland, 25 they esteem themselves the first

of the western nations; but this foolish arrogance has been

recently humbled by the unfortunate events of their wars against

the English, the inhabitants of the British island. III. Britain,

in the ocean, and opposite to the shores of Flanders, may be

considered either as one, or as three islands; but the whole is

united by a common interest, by the same manners, and by a

similar government. The measure of its circumference is five

thousand stadia: the land is overspread with towns and villages:

though destitute of wine, and not abounding in fruit-trees, it is

fertile in wheat and barley; in honey and wool; and much cloth is

manufactured by the inhabitants. In populousness and power, in

richness and luxury, London, 26 the metropolis of the isle, may

claim a preeminence over all the cities of the West. It is

situate on the Thames, a broad and rapid river, which at the

distance of thirty miles falls into the Gallic Sea; and the daily

flow and ebb of the tide affords a safe entrance and departure to

the vessels of commerce. The king is head of a powerful and

turbulent aristocracy: his principal vassals hold their estates

by a free and unalterable tenure; and the laws define the limits

of his authority and their obedience. The kingdom has been often

afflicted by foreign conquest and domestic sedition: but the

natives are bold and hardy, renowned in arms and victorious in

war. The form of their shields or targets is derived from the

Italians, that of their swords from the Greeks; the use of the

long bow is the peculiar and decisive advantage of the English.

Their language bears no affinity to the idioms of the Continent:

in the habits of domestic life, they are not easily distinguished

from their neighbors of France: but the most singular

circumstance of their manners is their disregard of conjugal

honor and of female chastity. In their mutual visits, as the

first act of hospitality, the guest is welcomed in the embraces

of their wives and daughters: among friends they are lent and

borrowed without shame; nor are the islanders offended at this

strange commerce, and its inevitable consequences. 27 Informed as

we are of the customs of Old England and assured of the virtue of

our mothers, we may smile at the credulity, or resent the

injustice, of the Greek, who must have confounded a modest salute

28 with a criminal embrace. But his credulity and injustice may

teach an important lesson; to distrust the accounts of foreign

and remote nations, and to suspend our belief of every tale that

deviates from the laws of nature and the character of man. 29

22 (return) [ The Greek and Turkish history of Laonicus

Chalcondyles ends with the winter of 1463; and the abrupt

conclusion seems to mark, that he laid down his pen in the same

year. We know that he was an Athenian, and that some

contemporaries of the same name contributed to the revival of the

Greek language in Italy. But in his numerous digressions, the

modest historian has never introduced himself; and his editor

Leunclavius, as well as Fabricius, (Bibliot. Græc. tom. vi. p.

474,) seems ignorant of his life and character. For his

descriptions of Germany, France, and England, see l. ii. p. 36,

37, 44—50.]

23 (return) [ I shall not animadvert on the geographical errors

of Chalcondyles. In this instance, he perhaps followed, and

mistook, Herodotus, (l. ii. c. 33,) whose text may be explained,

(Herodote de Larcher, tom. ii. p. 219, 220,) or whose ignorance

may be excused. Had these modern Greeks never read Strabo, or any

of their lesser geographers?]

24 (return) [ A citizen of new Rome, while new Rome survived,

would have scorned to dignify the German 'Rhx with titles of

BasileuV or Autokratwr 'Rwmaiwn: but all pride was extinct in the

bosom of Chalcondyles; and he describes the Byzantine prince, and

his subject, by the proper, though humble, names of ''EllhneV and

BasileuV 'Ellhnwn.]

25 (return) [ Most of the old romances were translated in the

xivth century into French prose, and soon became the favorite

amusement of the knights and ladies in the court of Charles VI.

If a Greek believed in the exploits of Rowland and Oliver, he may

surely be excused, since the monks of St. Denys, the national

historians, have inserted the fables of Archbishop Turpin in

their Chronicles of France.]

26 (return) [ Londinh.... de te poliV dunamei te proecousa tvn en

th nhsw tauth pasvn polewn, olbw te kai th allh eudaimonia

oudemiaV tvn peoV esperan leipomenh. Even since the time of

Fitzstephen, (the xiith century,) London appears to have

maintained this preeminence of wealth and magnitude; and her

gradual increase has, at least, kept pace with the general

improvement of Europe.]

27 (return) [ If the double sense of the verb Kuw (osculor, and

in utero gero) be equivocal, the context and pious horror of

Chalcondyles can leave no doubt of his meaning and mistake, (p.

49.) * Note: I can discover no “pious horror” in the plain manner

in which Chalcondyles relates this strange usage. He says, oude

aiscunun tovto feoei eautoiV kuesqai taV te gunaikaV autvn kai

taV qugateraV, yet these are expression beyond what would be

used, if the ambiguous word kuesqai were taken in its more

innocent sense. Nor can the phrase parecontai taV eautvn gunaikaV

en toiV epithdeioiV well bear a less coarse interpretation.

Gibbon is possibly right as to the origin of this extraordinary

mistake.—M.]

28 (return) [ Erasmus (Epist. Fausto Andrelino) has a pretty

passage on the English fashion of kissing strangers on their

arrival and departure, from whence, however, he draws no

scandalous inferences.]

29 (return) [ Perhaps we may apply this remark to the community

of wives among the old Britons, as it is supposed by Cæsar and

Dion, (Dion Cassius, l. lxii. tom. ii. p. 1007,) with Reimar’s

judicious annotation. The _Arreoy_ of Otaheite, so certain at

first, is become less visible and scandalous, in proportion as we

have studied the manners of that gentle and amorous people.]