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]
[Footnote 15: MÈmoires de Boucicault, P. i. c. 35, 36.]
[Footnote 16: 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.)]
[Footnote 17: 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.]
[Footnote 18: For the reception of Manuel at Paris, see Spondanus,
(Annal. EcclÈs. 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.]
[Footnote 19: A short note of Manuel in England is extracted by Dr. Hody
from a MS. at Lambeth, (de GrÊcis 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 apparat˚... 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 NeustriÊ,
(p. 556.)]
[Footnote 20: 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.]
[Footnote 21: This fact is preserved in the Historia Politica, A.D.
1391--1478, published by Martin Crusius, (Turco GrÊcia, 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 PyrenÊan 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]
[Footnote 22: 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. GrÊc. 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.]
[Footnote 23: 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?]
[Footnote 24: 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.]
[Footnote 25: 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.]
[Footnote 26: 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.]
[Footnote 27: 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.]
[Footnote 28: 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.]
[Footnote 29: Perhaps we may apply this remark to the community of
wives among the old Britons, as it is supposed by CÊsar 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.]
After his return, and the victory of Timour, Manuel reigned many years
in prosperity and peace. As long as the sons of Bajazet solicited his
friendship and spared his dominions, he was satisfied with the national
religion; and his leisure was employed in composing twenty theological
dialogues for its defence. The appearance of the Byzantine ambassadors
at the council of Constance, [30] announces the restoration of the
Turkish power, as well as of the Latin church: the conquest of the
sultans, Mahomet and Amurath, reconciled the emperor to the Vatican;
and the siege of Constantinople almost tempted him to acquiesce in the
double procession of the Holy Ghost. When Martin the Fifth ascended
without a rival the chair of St. Peter, a friendly intercourse of
letters and embassies was revived between the East and West. Ambition on
one side, and distress on the other, dictated the same decent language
of charity and peace: the artful Greek expressed a desire of marrying
his six sons to Italian princesses; and the Roman, not less artful,
despatched the daughter of the marquis of Montferrat, with a company
of noble virgins, to soften, by their charms, the obstinacy of the
schismatics. Yet under this mask of zeal, a discerning eye will
perceive that all was hollow and insincere in the court and church of
Constantinople. According to the vicissitudes of danger and repose, the
emperor advanced or retreated; alternately instructed and disavowed his
ministers; and escaped from the importunate pressure by urging the duty
of inquiry, the obligation of collecting the sense of his patriarchs
and bishops, and the impossibility of convening them at a time when
the Turkish arms were at the gates of his capital. From a review of the
public transactions it will appear that the Greeks insisted on three
successive measures, a succor, a council, and a final reunion, while
the Latins eluded the second, and only promised the first, as a
consequential and voluntary reward of the third. But we have an
opportunity of unfolding the most secret intentions of Manuel, as he
explained them in a private conversation without artifice or disguise.
In his declining age, the emperor had associated John PalÊologus, the
second of the name, and the eldest of his sons, on whom he devolved the
greatest part of the authority and weight of government. One day, in the
presence only of the historian Phranza, [31] his favorite chamberlain,
he opened to his colleague and successor the true principle of his
negotiations with the pope. [32] "Our last resource," said Manuel,
against the Turks, "is their fear of our union with the Latins, of the
warlike nations of the West, who may arm for our relief and for their
destruction. As often as you are threatened by the miscreants, present
this danger before their eyes. Propose a council; consult on the means;
but ever delay and avoid the convocation of an assembly, which cannot
tend either to our spiritual or temporal emolument. The Latins are
proud; the Greeks are obstinate; neither party will recede or retract;
and the attempt of a perfect union will confirm the schism, alienate
the churches, and leave us, without hope or defence, at the mercy of the
Barbarians." Impatient of this salutary lesson, the royal youth arose
from his seat, and departed in silence; and the wise monarch (continued
Phranza) casting his eyes on me, thus resumed his discourse: "My son
deems himself a great and heroic prince; but, alas! our miserable age
does not afford scope for heroism or greatness. His daring spirit might
have suited the happier times of our ancestors; but the present state
requires not an emperor, but a cautious steward of the last relics of
our fortunes. Well do I remember the lofty expectations which he built
on our alliance with Mustapha; and much do I fear, that this rash
courage will urge the ruin of our house, and that even religion may
precipitate our downfall." Yet the experience and authority of Manuel
preserved the peace, and eluded the council; till, in the seventy-eighth
year of his age, and in the habit of a monk, he terminated his career,
dividing his precious movables among his children and the poor, his
physicians and his favorite servants. Of his six sons, [33] Andronicus
the Second was invested with the principality of Thessalonica, and died
of a leprosy soon after the sale of that city to the Venetians and
its final conquest by the Turks. Some fortunate incidents had restored
Peloponnesus, or the Morea, to the empire; and in his more prosperous
days, Manuel had fortified the narrow isthmus of six miles [34] with
a stone wall and one hundred and fifty-three towers. The wall was
overthrown by the first blast of the Ottomans; the fertile peninsula
might have been sufficient for the four younger brothers, Theodore and
Constantine, Demetrius and Thomas; but they wasted in domestic contests
the remains of their strength; and the least successful of the rivals
were reduced to a life of dependence in the Byzantine palace.
[Footnote 30: See Lenfant, Hist. du Concile de Constance, tom. ii.
p. 576; and or the ecclesiastical history of the times, the Annals of
Spondanus the BibliothËque of Dupin, tom. xii., and xxist and xxiid
volumes of the History, or rather the Continuation, of Fleury.]
[Footnote 31: From his early youth, George Phranza, or Phranzes, was
employed in the service of the state and palace; and Hanckius (de
Script. Byzant. P. i. c. 40) has collected his life from his own
writings. He was no more than four-and-twenty years of age at the death
of Manuel, who recommended him in the strongest terms to his successor:
Imprimis vero hunc Phranzen tibi commendo, qui ministravit mihi
fideliter et diligenter (Phranzes, l. ii. c. i.) Yet the emperor John
was cold, and he preferred the service of the despots of Peloponnesus.]
[Footnote 32: See Phranzes, l. ii. c. 13. While so many manuscripts
of the Greek original are extant in the libraries of Rome, Milan, the
Escurial, &c., it is a matter of shame and reproach, that we should be
reduced to the Latin version, or abstract, of James Pontanus, (ad calcem
Theophylact, SimocattÊ: Ingolstadt, 1604,) so deficient in accuracy and
elegance, (Fabric. Bibliot. GrÊc. tom. vi. p. 615--620.) *
Note: * The Greek text of Phranzes was edited by F. C. Alter VindobonÊ,
1796. It has been re-edited by Bekker for the new edition of the
Byzantines, Bonn, 1838.--M.]
[Footnote 33: See Ducange, Fam. Byzant. p. 243--248.]
[Footnote 34: The exact measure of the Hexamilion, from sea to sea, was
3800 orgyiÊ, or _toises_, of six Greek feet, (Phranzes, l. i. c. 38,)
which would produce a Greek mile, still smaller than that of 660 French
_toises_, which is assigned by D'Anville, as still in use in Turkey.
Five miles are commonly reckoned for the breadth of the isthmus. See the
Travels of Spon, Wheeler and Chandler.]
The eldest of the sons of Manuel, John PalÊologus the Second, was
acknowledged, after his father's death, as the sole emperor of the
Greeks. He immediately proceeded to repudiate his wife, and to contract
a new marriage with the princess of Trebizond: beauty was in his eyes
the first qualification of an empress; and the clergy had yielded to his
firm assurance, that unless he might be indulged in a divorce, he would
retire to a cloister, and leave the throne to his brother Constantine.
The first, and in truth the only, victory of PalÊologus, was over a
Jew, [35] whom, after a long and learned dispute, he converted to the
Christian faith; and this momentous conquest is carefully recorded in
the history of the times. But he soon resumed the design of uniting the
East and West; and, regardless of his father's advice, listened, as it
should seem with sincerity, to the proposal of meeting the pope in
a general council beyond the Adriatic. This dangerous project was
encouraged by Martin the Fifth, and coldly entertained by his successor
Eugenius, till, after a tedious negotiation, the emperor received a
summons from the Latin assembly of a new character, the independent
prelates of Basil, who styled themselves the representatives and judges
of the Catholic church.