treaty, the Greeks were dissatisfied with their journey, with
themselves, and with the pope. The artful pencil of his emissaries
had painted him in a prosperous state; at the head of the princes and
prelates of Europe, obedient at his voice, to believe and to arm. The
thin appearance of the universal synod of Ferrara betrayed his weakness:
and the Latins opened the first session with only five archbishops,
eighteen bishops, and ten abbots, the greatest part of whom were the
subjects or countrymen of the Italian pontiff. Except the duke of
Burgundy, none of the potentates of the West condescended to appear in
person, or by their ambassadors; nor was it possible to suppress the
judicial acts of Basil against the dignity and person of Eugenius, which
were finally concluded by a new election. Under these circumstances, a
truce or delay was asked and granted, till PalÊologus could expect from
the consent of the Latins some temporal reward for an unpopular union;
and after the first session, the public proceedings were adjourned
above six months. The emperor, with a chosen band of his favorites
and _Janizaries_, fixed his summer residence at a pleasant, spacious
monastery, six miles from Ferrara; forgot, in the pleasures of the
chase, the distress of the church and state; and persisted in destroying
the game, without listening to the just complaints of the marquis or the
husbandman. [58] In the mean while, his unfortunate Greeks were exposed
to all the miseries of exile and poverty; for the support of each
stranger, a monthly allowance was assigned of three or four gold
florins; and although the entire sum did not amount to seven hundred
florins, a long arrear was repeatedly incurred by the indigence or
policy of the Roman court. [59] They sighed for a speedy deliverance,
but their escape was prevented by a triple chain: a passport from their
superiors was required at the gates of Ferrara; the government of
Venice had engaged to arrest and send back the fugitives; and inevitable
punishment awaited them at Constantinople; excommunication, fines, and a
sentence, which did not respect the sacerdotal dignity, that they
should be stripped naked and publicly whipped. [60] It was only by the
alternative of hunger or dispute that the Greeks could be persuaded to
open the first conference; and they yielded with extreme reluctance to
attend from Ferrara to Florence the rear of a flying synod. This new
translation was urged by inevitable necessity: the city was visited
by the plague; the fidelity of the marquis might be suspected; the
mercenary troops of the duke of Milan were at the gates; and as they
occupied Romagna, it was not without difficulty and danger that the
pope, the emperor, and the bishops, explored their way through the
unfrequented paths of the Apennine. [61]
[Footnote 58: For the emperor's hunting, see Syropulus, (p. 143, 144,
191.) The pope had sent him eleven miserable hacks; but he bought a
strong and swift horse that came from Russia. The name of _Janizaries_
may surprise; but the name, rather than the institution, had passed from
the Ottoman, to the Byzantine, court, and is often used in the last age
of the empire.]
[Footnote 59: The Greeks obtained, with much difficulty, that instead of
provisions, money should be distributed, four florins _per_ month to the
persons of honorable rank, and three florins to their servants, with an
addition of thirty more to the emperor, twenty-five to the patriarch,
and twenty to the prince, or despot, Demetrius. The payment of the first
month amounted to 691 florins, a sum which will not allow us to reckon
above 200 Greeks of every condition. (Syropulus, p. 104, 105.) On the
20th October, 1438, there was an arrear of four months; in April, 1439,
of three; and of five and a half in July, at the time of the union, (p.
172, 225, 271.)]
[Footnote 60: Syropulus (p. 141, 142, 204, 221) deplores the
imprisonment of the Greeks, and the tyranny of the emperor and
patriarch.]
[Footnote 61: The wars of Italy are most clearly represented in the
xiiith vol. of the Annals of Muratori. The schismatic Greek, Syropulus,
(p. 145,) appears to have exaggerated the fear and disorder of the pope
in his retreat from Ferrara to Florence, which is proved by the acts to
have been somewhat more decent and deliberate.]
Yet all these obstacles were surmounted by time and policy. The violence
of the fathers of Basil rather promoted than injured the cause of
Eugenius; the nations of Europe abhorred the schism, and disowned the
election, of Felix the Fifth, who was successively a duke of Savoy, a
hermit, and a pope; and the great princes were gradually reclaimed by
his competitor to a favorable neutrality and a firm attachment. The
legates, with some respectable members, deserted to the Roman army,
which insensibly rose in numbers and reputation; the council of Basil
was reduced to thirty-nine bishops, and three hundred of the inferior
clergy; [62] while the Latins of Florence could produce the subscriptions
of the pope himself, eight cardinals, two patriarchs, eight archbishops,
fifty two bishops, and forty-five abbots, or chiefs of religious orders.
After the labor of nine months, and the debates of twenty-five sessions,
they attained the advantage and glory of the reunion of the Greeks. Four
principal questions had been agitated between the two churches; _1._
The use of unleavened bread in the communion of Christ's body. _2._
The nature of purgatory. _3._ The supremacy of the pope. And, _4._
The single or double procession of the Holy Ghost. The cause of either
nation was managed by ten theological champions: the Latins were
supported by the inexhaustible eloquence of Cardinal Julian; and Mark
of Ephesus and Bessarion of Nice were the bold and able leaders of the
Greek forces. We may bestow some praise on the progress of human reason,
by observing that the first of these questions was now treated as an
immaterial rite, which might innocently vary with the fashion of the age
and country. With regard to the second, both parties were agreed in the
belief of an intermediate state of purgation for the venial sins of the
faithful; and whether their souls were purified by elemental fire was
a doubtful point, which in a few years might be conveniently settled on
the spot by the disputants. The claims of supremacy appeared of a more
weighty and substantial kind; yet by the Orientals the Roman bishop had
ever been respected as the first of the five patriarchs; nor did they
scruple to admit, that his jurisdiction should be exercised agreeably to
the holy canons; a vague allowance, which might be defined or eluded by
occasional convenience. The procession of the Holy Ghost from the Father
alone, or from the Father and the Son, was an article of faith which had
sunk much deeper into the minds of men; and in the sessions of Ferrara
and Florence, the Latin addition of _filioque_ was subdivided into two
questions, whether it were legal, and whether it were orthodox. Perhaps
it may not be necessary to boast on this subject of my own impartial
indifference; but I must think that the Greeks were strongly supported
by the prohibition of the council of Chalcedon, against adding any
article whatsoever to the creed of Nice, or rather of Constantinople.
[63] In earthly affairs, it is not easy to conceive how an assembly equal
of legislators can bind their successors invested with powers equal
to their own. But the dictates of inspiration must be true and
unchangeable; nor should a private bishop, or a provincial synod, have
presumed to innovate against the judgment of the Catholic church. On the
substance of the doctrine, the controversy was equal and endless: reason
is confounded by the procession of a deity: the gospel, which lay on the
altar, was silent; the various texts of the fathers might be corrupted
by fraud or entangled by sophistry; and the Greeks were ignorant of the
characters and writings of the Latin saints. [64] Of this at least we may
be sure, that neither side could be convinced by the arguments of their
opponents. Prejudice may be enlightened by reason, and a superficial
glance may be rectified by a clear and more perfect view of an object
adapted to our faculties. But the bishops and monks had been taught from
their infancy to repeat a form of mysterious words: their national and
personal honor depended on the repetition of the same sounds; and their
narrow minds were hardened and inflamed by the acrimony of a public
dispute.
[Footnote 62: Syropulus is pleased to reckon seven hundred prelates in
the council of Basil. The error is manifest, and perhaps voluntary. That
extravagant number could not be supplied by _all_ the ecclesiastics of
every degree who were present at the council, nor by _all_ the absent
bishops of the West, who, expressly or tacitly, might adhere to its
decrees.]
[Footnote 63: The Greeks, who disliked the union, were unwilling to
sally from this strong fortress, (p. 178, 193, 195, 202, of Syropulus.)
The shame of the Latins was aggravated by their producing an old MS.
of the second council of Nice, with _filioque_ in the Nicene creed. A
palpable forgery! (p. 173.)]
[Footnote 64: 'WV egw (said an eminent Greek) otan eiV naon eiselqw
Datinwn ou proskunv tina tvn ekeise agiwn, epei oude gnwrizw tina,
(Syropulus, p. 109.) See the perplexity of the Greeks, (p. 217, 218,
252, 253, 273.)]
While they were most in a cloud of dust and darkness, the Pope and
emperor were desirous of a seeming union, which could alone accomplish
the purposes of their interview; and the obstinacy of public dispute was
softened by the arts of private and personal negotiation. The patriarch
Joseph had sunk under the weight of age and infirmities; his dying voice
breathed the counsels of charity and concord, and his vacant benefice
might tempt the hopes of the ambitious clergy. The ready and active
obedience of the archbishops of Russia and Nice, of Isidore and
Bessarion, was prompted and recompensed by their speedy promotion to the
dignity of cardinals. Bessarion, in the first debates, had stood forth
the most strenuous and eloquent champion of the Greek church; and if the
apostate, the bastard, was reprobated by his country, [65] he appears in
ecclesiastical story a rare example of a patriot who was recommended to
court favor by loud opposition and well-timed compliance. With the aid
of his two spiritual coadjutors, the emperor applied his arguments to
the general situation and personal characters of the bishops, and each
was successively moved by authority and example. Their revenues were
in the hands of the Turks, their persons in those of the Latins: an
episcopal treasure, three robes and forty ducats, was soon exhausted:
[66] the hopes of their return still depended on the ships of Venice and
the alms of Rome; and such was their indigence, that their arrears, the
payment of a debt, would be accepted as a favor, and might operate as
a bribe. [67] The danger and relief of Constantinople might excuse
some prudent and pious dissimulation; and it was insinuated, that the
obstinate heretics who should resist the consent of the East and West
would be abandoned in a hostile land to the revenge or justice of the
Roman pontiff. [68] In the first private assembly of the Greeks, the
formulary of union was approved by twenty-four, and rejected by twelve,
members; but the five _cross-bearers_ of St. Sophia, who aspired to
represent the patriarch, were disqualified by ancient discipline; and
their right of voting was transferred to the obsequious train of monks,
grammarians, and profane laymen. The will of the monarch produced a
false and servile unanimity, and no more than two patriots had courage
to speak their own sentiments and those of their country. Demetrius, the
emperor's brother, retired to Venice, that he might not be witness of
the union; and Mark of Ephesus, mistaking perhaps his pride for his
conscience, disclaimed all communion with the Latin heretics, and avowed
himself the champion and confessor of the orthodox creed. [69] In the
treaty between the two nations, several forms of consent were proposed,
such as might satisfy the Latins, without dishonoring the Greeks; and
they weighed the scruples of words and syllables, till the theological
balance trembled with a slight preponderance in favor of the Vatican.
It was agreed (I must entreat the attention of the reader) that the Holy
Ghost proceeds from the Father _and_ the Son, as from one principle and
one substance; that he proceeds _by_ the Son, being of the same nature
and substance, and that he proceeds from the Father _and_ the Son, by
one _spiration_ and production. It is less difficult to understand the
articles of the preliminary treaty; that the pope should defray all the
expenses of the Greeks in their return home; that he should annually
maintain two galleys and three hundred soldiers for the defence of
Constantinople: that all the ships which transported pilgrims to
Jerusalem should be obliged to touch at that port; that as often as they
were required, the pope should furnish ten galleys for a year, or twenty
for six months; and that he should powerfully solicit the princes of
Europe, if the emperor had occasion for land forces.
[Footnote 65: See the polite altercation of Marc and Bessarion in
Syropulus, (p. 257,) who never dissembles the vices of his own party,
and fairly praises the virtues of the Latins.]
[Footnote 66: For the poverty of the Greek bishops, see a remarkable
passage of Ducas, (c. 31.) One had possessed, for his whole property,
three old gowns, &c. By teaching one-and-twenty years in his monastery,
Bessarion himself had collected forty gold florins; but of these, the
archbishop had expended twenty-eight in his voyage from Peloponnesus,
and the remainder at Constantinople, (Syropulus, p. 127.)]
[Footnote 67: Syropulus denies that the Greeks received any money before
they had subscribed the art of union, (p. 283:) yet he relates
some suspicious circumstances; and their bribery and corruption are
positively affirmed by the historian Ducas.]
[Footnote 68: The Greeks most piteously express their own fears of exile
and perpetual slavery, (Syropul. p. 196;) and they were strongly moved
by the emperor's threats, (p. 260.)]
[Footnote 69: I had forgot another popular and orthodox protester: a
favorite bound, who usually lay quiet on the foot-cloth of the emperor's
throne but who barked most furiously while the act of union was reading
without being silenced by the soothing or the lashes of the royal
attendants, (Syropul. p. 265, 266.)]
The same year, and almost the same day, were marked by the deposition
of Eugenius at Basil; and, at Florence, by his reunion of the Greeks
and Latins. In the former synod, (which he styled indeed an assembly
of dÊmons,) the pope was branded with the guilt of simony, perjury,
tyranny, heresy, and schism; [70] and declared to be incorrigible in
his vices, unworthy of any title, and incapable of holding any
ecclesiastical office. In the latter, he was revered as the true and
holy vicar of Christ, who, after a separation of six hundred years, had
reconciled the Catholics of the East and West in one fold, and under one
shepherd. The act of union was subscribed by the pope, the emperor,
and the principal members of both churches; even by those who, like
Syropulus, [71] had been deprived of the right of voting. Two copies
might have sufficed for the East and West; but Eugenius was not
satisfied, unless four authentic and similar transcripts were signed and
attested as the monuments of his victory. [72] On a memorable day, the
sixth of July, the successors of St. Peter and Constantine ascended
their thrones the two nations assembled in the cathedral of Florence;
their representatives, Cardinal Julian and Bessarion archbishop of Nice,
appeared in the pulpit, and, after reading in their respective tongues
the act of union, they mutually embraced, in the name and the presence
of their applauding brethren. The pope and his ministers then officiated
according to the Roman liturgy; the creed was chanted with the addition
of _filioque_; the acquiescence of the Greeks was poorly excused by
their ignorance of the harmonious, but inarticulate sounds; [73] and the
more scrupulous Latins refused any public celebration of the Byzantine
rite. Yet the emperor and his clergy were not totally unmindful of
national honor. The treaty was ratified by their consent: it was
tacitly agreed that no innovation should be attempted in their creed or
ceremonies: they spared, and secretly respected, the generous firmness
of Mark of Ephesus; and, on the decease of the patriarch, they refused
to elect his successor, except in the cathedral of St. Sophia. In the
distribution of public and private rewards, the liberal pontiff exceeded
their hopes and his promises: the Greeks, with less pomp and pride,
returned by the same road of Ferrara and Venice; and their reception at
Constantinople was such as will be described in the following chapter.
[74] The success of the first trial encouraged Eugenius to repeat the
same edifying scenes; and the deputies of the Armenians, the Maronites,
the Jacobites of Syria and Egypt, the Nestorians and the ∆thiopians,
were successively introduced, to kiss the feet of the Roman pontiff, and
to announce the obedience and the orthodoxy of the East. These Oriental
embassies, unknown in the countries which they presumed to represent,
[75] diffused over the West the fame of Eugenius; and a clamor was
artfully propagated against the remnant of a schism in Switzerland and
Savoy, which alone impeded the harmony of the Christian world. The vigor
of opposition was succeeded by the lassitude of despair: the council
of Basil was silently dissolved; and Felix, renouncing the tiara, again
withdrew to the devout or delicious hermitage of Ripaille. [76] A general
peace was secured by mutual acts of oblivion and indemnity: all ideas
of reformation subsided; the popes continued to exercise and abuse
their ecclesiastical despotism; nor has Rome been since disturbed by the
mischiefs of a contested election. [77]
[Footnote 70: From the original Lives of the Popes, in Muratori's
Collection, (tom. iii. p. ii. tom. xxv.,) the manners of Eugenius IV.
appear to have been decent, and even exemplary. His situation, exposed
to the world and to his enemies, was a restraint, and is a pledge.]
[Footnote 71: Syropulus, rather than subscribe, would have assisted,
as the least evil, at the ceremony of the union. He was compelled to
do both; and the great ecclesiarch poorly excuses his submission to the
emperor, (p. 290--292.)]
[Footnote 72: None of these original acts of union can at present be
produced. Of the ten MSS. that are preserved, (five at Rome, and the
remainder at Florence, Bologna, Venice, Paris, and London,) nine have
been examined by an accurate critic, (M. de Brequigny,) who condemns
them for the variety and imperfections of the Greek signatures. Yet
several of these may be esteemed as authentic copies, which were
subscribed at Florence, before (26th of August, 1439) the final
separation of the pope and emperor, (MÈmoires de l'AcadÈmie des
Inscriptions, tom. xliii. p. 287--311.)]
[Footnote 73: Hmin de wV ashmoi edokoun jwnai, (Syropul. p. 297.)]
[Footnote 74: In their return, the Greeks conversed at Bologna with
the ambassadors of England: and after some questions and answers,
these impartial strangers laughed at the pretended union of Florence,
(Syropul. p. 307.)]
[Footnote 75: So nugatory, or rather so fabulous, are these reunions
of the Nestorians, Jacobites, &c., that I have turned over, without
success, the Bibliotheca Orientalis of Assemannus, a faithful slave of
the Vatican.]
[Footnote 76: Ripaille is situate near Thonon in Savoy, on the southern
side of the Lake of Geneva. It is now a Carthusian abbey; and Mr.
Addison (Travels into Italy, vol. ii. p. 147, 148, of Baskerville's
edition of his works) has celebrated the place and the founder. ∆neas
Sylvius, and the fathers of Basil, applaud the austere life of the ducal
hermit; but the French and Italian proverbs most unluckily attest the
popular opinion of his luxury.]
[Footnote 77: In this account of the councils of Basil, Ferrara, and
Florence, I have consulted the original acts, which fill the xviith
and xviiith tome of the edition of Venice, and are closed by the
perspicuous, though partial, history of Augustin Patricius, an
Italian of the xvth century. They are digested and abridged by Dupin,
(BibliothËque EcclÈs. tom. xii.,) and the continuator of Fleury, (tom.
xxii.;) and the respect of the Gallican church for the adverse parties
confines their members to an awkward moderation.]
The journeys of three emperors were unavailing for their temporal,
or perhaps their spiritual, salvation; but they were productive of a
beneficial consequence--the revival of the Greek learning in Italy, from
whence it was propagated to the last nations of the West and North. In
their lowest servitude and depression, the subjects of the Byzantine
throne were still possessed of a golden key that could unlock the
treasures of antiquity; of a musical and prolific language, that gives
a soul to the objects of sense, and a body to the abstractions of
philosophy. Since the barriers of the monarchy, and even of the capital,
had been trampled under foot, the various Barbarians had doubtless
corrupted the form and substance of the national dialect; and ample
glossaries have been composed, to interpret a multitude of words, of
Arabic, Turkish, Sclavonian, Latin, or French origin. [78] But a purer
idiom was spoken in the court and taught in the college; and the
flourishing state of the language is described, and perhaps embellished,
by a learned Italian, [79] who, by a long residence and noble marriage,
[80] was naturalized at Constantinople about thirty years before the
Turkish conquest. "The vulgar speech," says Philelphus, [81] "has been
depraved by the people, and infected by the multitude of strangers
and merchants, who every day flock to the city and mingle with the
inhabitants. It is from the disciples of such a school that the Latin
language received the versions of Aristotle and Plato; so obscure
in sense, and in spirit so poor. But the Greeks who have escaped the
contagion, are those whom _we_ follow; and they alone are worthy of
our imitation. In familiar discourse, they still speak the tongue
of Aristophanes and Euripides, of the historians and philosophers of
Athens; and the style of their writings is still more elaborate and
correct. The persons who, by their birth and offices, are attached to
the Byzantine court, are those who maintain, with the least alloy,
the ancient standard of elegance and purity; and the native graces
of language most conspicuously shine among the noble matrons, who are
excluded from all intercourse with foreigners. With foreigners do I
say? They live retired and sequestered from the eyes of their
fellow-citizens. Seldom are they seen in the streets; and when they
leave their houses, it is in the dusk of evening, on visits to the
churches and their nearest kindred. On these occasions, they are on
horseback, covered with a veil, and encompassed by their parents, their
husbands, or their servants." [82]
[Footnote 78: In the first attempt, Meursius collected 3600
GrÊco-barbarous words, to which, in a second edition, he subjoined 1800
more; yet what plenteous gleanings did he leave to Portius, Ducange,
Fabrotti, the Bollandists, &c.! (Fabric. Bibliot. GrÊc. tom. x. p. 101,
&c.) _Some_ Persic words may be found in Xenophon, and some Latin ones
in Plutarch; and such is the inevitable effect of war and commerce; but
the form and substance of the language were not affected by this slight
alloy.]
[Footnote 79: The life of Francis Philelphus, a sophist, proud,
restless, and rapacious, has been diligently composed by Lancelot
(MÈmoires de l'AcadÈmie des Inscriptions, tom. x. p. 691--751) (Istoria
della Letteratura Italiana, tom. vii. p. 282--294,) for the most
part from his own letters. His elaborate writings, and those of his
contemporaries, are forgotten; but their familiar epistles still
describe the men and the times.]
[Footnote 80: He married, and had perhaps debauched, the daughter
of John, and the granddaughter of Manuel Chrysoloras. She was young,
beautiful, and wealthy; and her noble family was allied to the Dorias of
Genoa and the emperors of Constantinople.]
[Footnote 81: GrÊci quibus lingua depravata non sit.... ita loquuntur
vulgo h‚c etiam tempestate ut Aristophanes comicus, aut Euripides
tragicus, ut oratores omnes, ut historiographi, ut philosophi....
litterati autem homines et doctius et emendatius.... Nam viri aulici
veterem sermonis dignitatem atque elegantiam retinebant in primisque
ipsÊ nobiles mulieres; quibus cum nullum esset omnino cum viris
peregrinis commercium, merus ille ac purus GrÊcorum sermo servabatur
intactus, (Philelph. Epist. ad ann. 1451, apud Hodium, p. 188, 189.)
He observes in another passage, uxor illa mea Theodora locutione erat
admodum moderat‚ et suavi et maxime Attic‚.]
[Footnote 82: Philelphus, absurdly enough, derives this Greek or
Oriental jealousy from the manners of ancient Rome.]