implored with fervent prayers the assistance of earth and heaven. But
the invisible powers were deaf to his supplications; and Christendom
beheld with indifference the fall of Constantinople, while she derived
at least some promise of supply from the jealous and temporal policy of
the sultan of Egypt. Some states were too weak, and others too remote;
by some the danger was considered as imaginary by others as inevitable:
the Western princes were involved in their endless and domestic
quarrels; and the Roman pontiff was exasperated by the falsehood or
obstinacy of the Greeks. Instead of employing in their favor the
arms and treasures of Italy, Nicholas the Fifth had foretold their
approaching ruin; and his honor was engaged in the accomplishment of
his prophecy. [261] Perhaps he was softened by the last extremity o their
distress; but his compassion was tardy; his efforts were faint and
unavailing; and Constantinople had fallen, before the squadrons of Genoa
and Venice could sail from their harbors. [27] Even the princes of the
Morea and of the Greek islands affected a cold neutrality: the Genoese
colony of Galata negotiated a private treaty; and the sultan indulged
them in the delusive hope, that by his clemency they might survive the
ruin of the empire. A plebeian crowd, and some Byzantine nobles basely
withdrew from the danger of their country; and the avarice of the rich
denied the emperor, and reserved for the Turks, the secret treasures
which might have raised in their defence whole armies of mercenaries.
[28] The indigent and solitary prince prepared, however, to sustain his
formidable adversary; but if his courage were equal to the peril, his
strength was inadequate to the contest. In the beginning of the spring,
the Turkish vanguard swept the towns and villages as far as the gates of
Constantinople: submission was spared and protected; whatever presumed
to resist was exterminated with fire and sword. The Greek places on
the Black Sea, Mesembria, Acheloum, and Bizon, surrendered on the first
summons; Selybria alone deserved the honors of a siege or blockade; and
the bold inhabitants, while they were invested by land, launched their
boats, pillaged the opposite coast of Cyzicus, and sold their captives
in the public market. But on the approach of Mahomet himself all was
silent and prostrate: he first halted at the distance of five miles; and
from thence advancing in battle array, planted before the gates of St.
Romanus the Imperial standard; and on the sixth day of April formed the
memorable siege of Constantinople.
[Footnote 261: See the curious Christian and Mahometan predictions of the
fall of Constantinople, Von Hammer, p. 518.--M.]
[Footnote 27: Non audivit, indignum ducens, says the honest Antoninus;
but as the Roman court was afterwards grieved and ashamed, we find the
more courtly expression of Platina, in animo fuisse pontifici juvare
GrÊcos, and the positive assertion of ∆neas Sylvius, structam classem
&c. (Spond. A.D. 1453, No. 3.)]
[Footnote 28: Antonin. in Proem.--Epist. Cardinal. Isidor. apud
Spondanum and Dr. Johnson, in the tragedy of Irene, has happily seized
this characteristic circumstance:--
The groaning Greeks dig up the golden caverns.
The accumulated wealth of hoarding ages;
That wealth which, granted to their weeping prince,
Had ranged embattled nations at their gates.]
The troops of Asia and Europe extended on the right and left from the
Propontis to the harbor; the Janizaries in the front were stationed
before the sultan's tent; the Ottoman line was covered by a deep
intrenchment; and a subordinate army enclosed the suburb of Galata, and
watched the doubtful faith of the Genoese. The inquisitive Philelphus,
who resided in Greece about thirty years before the siege, is confident,
that all the Turkish forces of any name or value could not exceed the
number of sixty thousand horse and twenty thousand foot; and he upbraids
the pusillanimity of the nations, who had tamely yielded to a handful
of Barbarians. Such indeed might be the regular establishment of the
_Capiculi_, [29] the troops of the Porte who marched with the prince, and
were paid from his royal treasury. But the bashaws, in their respective
governments, maintained or levied a provincial militia; many lands were
held by a military tenure; many volunteers were attracted by the hope
of spoil and the sound of the holy trumpet invited a swarm of hungry
and fearless fanatics, who might contribute at least to multiply the
terrors, and in a first attack to blunt the swords, of the Christians.
The whole mass of the Turkish powers is magnified by Ducas,
Chalcondyles, and Leonard of Chios, to the amount of three or four
hundred thousand men; but Phranza was a less remote and more accurate
judge; and his precise definition of two hundred and fifty-eight
thousand does not exceed the measure of experience and probability.
[30] The navy of the besiegers was less formidable: the Propontis was
overspread with three hundred and twenty sail; but of these no more than
eighteen could be rated as galleys of war; and the far greater part must
be degraded to the condition of store-ships and transports, which poured
into the camp fresh supplies of men, ammunition, and provisions. In her
last decay, Constantinople was still peopled with more than a hundred
thousand inhabitants; but these numbers are found in the accounts, not
of war, but of captivity; and they mostly consisted of mechanics, of
priests, of women, and of men devoid of that spirit which even women
have sometimes exerted for the common safety. I can suppose, I could
almost excuse, the reluctance of subjects to serve on a distant
frontier, at the will of a tyrant; but the man who dares not expose
his life in the defence of his children and his property, has lost in
society the first and most active energies of nature. By the emperor's
command, a particular inquiry had been made through the streets and
houses, how many of the citizens, or even of the monks, were able and
willing to bear arms for their country. The lists were intrusted to
Phranza; [31] and, after a diligent addition, he informed his master,
with grief and surprise, that the national defence was reduced to four
thousand nine hundred and seventy _Romans_. Between Constantine and
his faithful minister this comfortless secret was preserved; and
a sufficient proportion of shields, cross-bows, and muskets, were
distributed from the arsenal to the city bands. They derived some
accession from a body of two thousand strangers, under the command of
John Justiniani, a noble Genoese; a liberal donative was advanced to
these auxiliaries; and a princely recompense, the Isle of Lemnos, was
promised to the valor and victory of their chief. A strong chain was
drawn across the mouth of the harbor: it was supported by some Greek and
Italian vessels of war and merchandise; and the ships of every Christian
nation, that successively arrived from Candia and the Black Sea, were
detained for the public service. Against the powers of the Ottoman
empire, a city of the extent of thirteen, perhaps of sixteen, miles
was defended by a scanty garrison of seven or eight thousand soldiers.
Europe and Asia were open to the besiegers; but the strength and
provisions of the Greeks must sustain a daily decrease; nor could they
indulge the expectation of any foreign succor or supply.
[Footnote 29: The palatine troops are styled _Capiculi_, the
provincials, _Seratculi_; and most of the names and institutions of the
Turkish militia existed before the _Canon Nameh_ of Soliman II, from
which, and his own experience, Count Marsigli has composed his military
state of the Ottoman empire.]
[Footnote 30: The observation of Philelphus is approved by Cuspinian in
the year 1508, (de CÊsaribus, in Epilog. de Militi‚ Turcic‚, p. 697.)
Marsigli proves, that the effective armies of the Turks are much less
numerous than they appear. In the army that besieged Constantinople
Leonardus Chiensis reckons no more than 15,000 Janizaries.]
[Footnote 31: Ego, eidem (Imp.) tabellas extribui non absque dolore et
mstitia, mansitque apud nos duos aliis occultus numerus, (Phranza, l.
iii. c. 8.) With some indulgence for national prejudices, we cannot
desire a more authentic witness, not only of public facts, but of
private counsels.]
The primitive Romans would have drawn their swords in the resolution
of death or conquest. The primitive Christians might have embraced each
other, and awaited in patience and charity the stroke of martyrdom.
But the Greeks of Constantinople were animated only by the spirit of
religion, and that spirit was productive only of animosity and discord.
Before his death, the emperor John PalÊologus had renounced the
unpopular measure of a union with the Latins; nor was the idea revived,
till the distress of his brother Constantine imposed a last trial of
flattery and dissimulation. [32] With the demand of temporal aid,
his ambassadors were instructed to mingle the assurance of spiritual
obedience: his neglect of the church was excused by the urgent cares
of the state; and his orthodox wishes solicited the presence of a
Roman legate. The Vatican had been too often deluded; yet the signs of
repentance could not decently be overlooked; a legate was more easily
granted than an army; and about six months before the final destruction,
the cardinal Isidore of Russia appeared in that character with a retinue
of priests and soldiers. The emperor saluted him as a friend and father;
respectfully listened to his public and private sermons; and with the
most obsequious of the clergy and laymen subscribed the act of union,
as it had been ratified in the council of Florence. On the twelfth of
December, the two nations, in the church of St. Sophia, joined in the
communion of sacrifice and prayer; and the names of the two pontiffs
were solemnly commemorated; the names of Nicholas the Fifth, the vicar
of Christ, and of the patriarch Gregory, who had been driven into exile
by a rebellious people.
[Footnote 32: In Spondanus, the narrative of the union is not only
partial, but imperfect. The bishop of Pamiers died in 1642, and the
history of Ducas, which represents these scenes (c. 36, 37) with such
truth and spirit, was not printed till the year 1649.]
But the dress and language of the Latin priest who officiated at the
altar were an object of scandal; and it was observed with horror, that
he consecrated a cake or wafer of _unleavened_ bread, and poured cold
water into the cup of the sacrament. A national historian acknowledges
with a blush, that none of his countrymen, not the emperor himself, were
sincere in this occasional conformity. [33] Their hasty and unconditional
submission was palliated by a promise of future revisal; but the best,
or the worst, of their excuses was the confession of their own perjury.
When they were pressed by the reproaches of their honest brethren, "Have
patience," they whispered, "have patience till God shall have delivered
the city from the great dragon who seeks to devour us. You shall
then perceive whether we are truly reconciled with the Azymites." But
patience is not the attribute of zeal; nor can the arts of a court be
adapted to the freedom and violence of popular enthusiasm. From the dome
of St. Sophia the inhabitants of either sex, and of every degree, rushed
in crowds to the cell of the monk Gennadius, [34] to consult the oracle
of the church. The holy man was invisible; entranced, as it should seem,
in deep meditation, or divine rapture: but he had exposed on the door
of his cell a speaking tablet; and they successively withdrew, after
reading those tremendous words: "O miserable Romans, why will ye abandon
the truth? and why, instead of confiding in God, will ye put your trust
in the Italians? In losing your faith you will lose your city. Have
mercy on me, O Lord! I protest in thy presence that I am innocent of
the crime. O miserable Romans, consider, pause, and repent. At the same
moment that you renounce the religion of your fathers, by embracing
impiety, you submit to a foreign servitude." According to the advice
of Gennadius, the religious virgins, as pure as angels, and as proud as
dÊmons, rejected the act of union, and abjured all communion with the
present and future associates of the Latins; and their example was
applauded and imitated by the greatest part of the clergy and people.
From the monastery, the devout Greeks dispersed themselves in the
taverns; drank confusion to the slaves of the pope; emptied their
glasses in honor of the image of the holy Virgin; and besought her
to defend against Mahomet the city which she had formerly saved from
Chosroes and the Chagan. In the double intoxication of zeal and wine,
they valiantly exclaimed, "What occasion have we for succor, or union,
or Latins? Far from us be the worship of the Azymites!" During the
winter that preceded the Turkish conquest, the nation was distracted by
this epidemical frenzy; and the season of Lent, the approach of Easter,
instead of breathing charity and love, served only to fortify the
obstinacy and influence of the zealots. The confessors scrutinized and
alarmed the conscience of their votaries, and a rigorous penance was
imposed on those who had received the communion from a priest who had
given an express or tacit consent to the union. His service at the
altar propagated the infection to the mute and simple spectators of the
ceremony: they forfeited, by the impure spectacle, the virtue of the
sacerdotal character; nor was it lawful, even in danger of sudden death,
to invoke the assistance of their prayers or absolution. No sooner had
the church of St. Sophia been polluted by the Latin sacrifice, than it
was deserted as a Jewish synagogue, or a heathen temple, by the clergy
and people; and a vast and gloomy silence prevailed in that venerable
dome, which had so often smoked with a cloud of incense, blazed
with innumerable lights, and resounded with the voice of prayer and
thanksgiving. The Latins were the most odious of heretics and infidels;
and the first minister of the empire, the great duke, was heard to
declare, that he had rather behold in Constantinople the turban of
Mahomet, than the pope's tiara or a cardinal's hat. [35] A sentiment
so unworthy of Christians and patriots was familiar and fatal to the
Greeks: the emperor was deprived of the affection and support of his
subjects; and their native cowardice was sanctified by resignation to
the divine decree, or the visionary hope of a miraculous deliverance.
[Footnote 33: Phranza, one of the conforming Greeks, acknowledges that
the measure was adopted only propter spem auxilii; he affirms with
pleasure, that those who refused to perform their devotions in St.
Sophia, extra culpam et in pace essent, (l. iii. c. 20.)]
[Footnote 34: His primitive and secular name was George Scholarius,
which he changed for that of Gennadius, either when he became a monk or
a patriarch. His defence, at Florence, of the same union, which he so
furiously attacked at Constantinople, has tempted Leo Allatius (Diatrib.
de Georgiis, in Fabric. Bibliot. GrÊc. tom. x. p. 760--786) to divide
him into two men; but Renaudot (p. 343--383) has restored the identity
of his person and the duplicity of his character.]
[Footnote 35: Fakiolion, kaluptra, may be fairly translated a cardinal's
hat. The difference of the Greek and Latin habits imbittered the
schism.]
Of the triangle which composes the figure of Constantinople, the two
sides along the sea were made inaccessible to an enemy; the Propontis by
nature, and the harbor by art. Between the two waters, the basis of the
triangle, the land side was protected by a double wall, and a deep ditch
of the depth of one hundred feet. Against this line of fortification,
which Phranza, an eye-witness, prolongs to the measure of six miles,
[36] the Ottomans directed their principal attack; and the emperor, after
distributing the service and command of the most perilous stations,
undertook the defence of the external wall. In the first days of the
siege the Greek soldiers descended into the ditch, or sallied into
the field; but they soon discovered, that, in the proportion of their
numbers, one Christian was of more value than twenty Turks: and, after
these bold preludes, they were prudently content to maintain the rampart
with their missile weapons. Nor should this prudence be accused of
pusillanimity. The nation was indeed pusillanimous and base; but
the last Constantine deserves the name of a hero: his noble band of
volunteers was inspired with Roman virtue; and the foreign auxiliaries
supported the honor of the Western chivalry. The incessant volleys of
lances and arrows were accompanied with the smoke, the sound, and the
fire, of their musketry and cannon. Their small arms discharged at the
same time either five, or even ten, balls of lead, of the size of a
walnut; and, according to the closeness of the ranks and the force of
the powder, several breastplates and bodies were transpierced by the
same shot. But the Turkish approaches were soon sunk in trenches, or
covered with ruins. Each day added to the science of the Christians; but
their inadequate stock of gunpowder was wasted in the operations of each
day. Their ordnance was not powerful, either in size or number; and
if they possessed some heavy cannon, they feared to plant them on the
walls, lest the aged structure should be shaken and overthrown by the
explosion. [37] The same destructive secret had been revealed to the
Moslems; by whom it was employed with the superior energy of zeal,
riches, and despotism. The great cannon of Mahomet has been separately
noticed; an important and visible object in the history of the times:
but that enormous engine was flanked by two fellows almost of equal
magnitude: [38] the long order of the Turkish artillery was pointed
against the walls; fourteen batteries thundered at once on the most
accessible places; and of one of these it is ambiguously expressed, that
it was mounted with one hundred and thirty guns, or that it discharged
one hundred and thirty bullets. Yet in the power and activity of the
sultan, we may discern the infancy of the new science. Under a master
who counted the moments, the great cannon could be loaded and fired no
more than seven times in one day. [39] The heated metal unfortunately
burst; several workmen were destroyed; and the skill of an artist [391] was
admired who bethought himself of preventing the danger and the accident,
by pouring oil, after each explosion, into the mouth of the cannon.
[Footnote 36: We are obliged to reduce the Greek miles to the smallest
measure which is preserved in the wersts of Russia, of 547 French
_toises_, and of 104 2/5 to a degree. The six miles of Phranza do not
exceed four English miles, (D'Anville, Mesures Itineraires, p. 61, 123,
&c.)]
[Footnote 37: At indies doctiores nostri facti paravere contra hostes
machinamenta, quÊ tamen avare dabantur. Pulvis erat nitri modica exigua;
tela modica; bombardÊ, si aderant incommoditate loci primum hostes
offendere, maceriebus alveisque tectos, non poterant. Nam si quÊ magnÊ
erant, ne murus concuteretur noster, quiescebant. This passage of
Leonardus Chiensis is curious and important.]
[Footnote 38: According to Chalcondyles and Phranza, the great cannon
burst; an incident which, according to Ducas, was prevented by the
artist's skill. It is evident that they do not speak of the same gun. *
Note: They speak, one of a Byzantine, one of a Turkish, gun. Von
Hammer note, p. 669.]
[Footnote 39: Near a hundred years after the siege of Constantinople,
the French and English fleets in the Channel were proud of firing 300
shot in an engagement of two hours, (MÈmoires de Martin du Bellay, l.
x., in the Collection GÈnÈrale, tom. xxi. p. 239.)]
[Footnote 391: The founder of the gun. Von Hammer, p. 526.]
The first random shots were productive of more sound than effect; and
it was by the advice of a Christian, that the engineers were taught to
level their aim against the two opposite sides of the salient angles of
a bastion. However imperfect, the weight and repetition of the fire made
some impression on the walls; and the Turks, pushing their approaches
to the edge of the ditch, attempted to fill the enormous chasm, and to
build a road to the assault. [40] Innumerable fascines, and hogsheads,
and trunks of trees, were heaped on each other; and such was the
impetuosity of the throng, that the foremost and the weakest were pushed
headlong down the precipice, and instantly buried under the accumulated
mass. To fill the ditch was the toil of the besiegers; to clear away
the rubbish was the safety of the besieged; and after a long and bloody
conflict, the web that had been woven in the day was still unravelled in
the night. The next resource of Mahomet was the practice of mines; but
the soil was rocky; in every attempt he was stopped and undermined
by the Christian engineers; nor had the art been yet invented of
replenishing those subterraneous passages with gunpowder, and
blowing whole towers and cities into the air. [41] A circumstance that
distinguishes the siege of Constantinople is the reunion of the ancient
and modern artillery. The cannon were intermingled with the mechanical
engines for casting stones and darts; the bullet and the battering-ram
[411] were directed against the same walls: nor had the discovery of
gunpowder superseded the use of the liquid and unextinguishable fire. A
wooden turret of the largest size was advanced on rollers this portable
magazine of ammunition and fascines was protected by a threefold
covering of bulls' hides: incessant volleys were securely discharged
from the loop-holes; in the front, three doors were contrived for the
alternate sally and retreat of the soldiers and workmen. They ascended
by a staircase to the upper platform, and, as high as the level of that
platform, a scaling-ladder could be raised by pulleys to form a
bridge, and grapple with the adverse rampart. By these various arts of
annoyance, some as new as they were pernicious to the Greeks, the tower
of St. Romanus was at length overturned: after a severe struggle, the
Turks were repulsed from the breach, and interrupted by darkness; but
they trusted that with the return of light they should renew the attack
with fresh vigor and decisive success. Of this pause of action, this
interval of hope, each moment was improved, by the activity of the
emperor and Justiniani, who passed the night on the spot, and urged the
labors which involved the safety of the church and city. At the dawn of
day, the impatient sultan perceived, with astonishment and grief, that
his wooden turret had been reduced to ashes: the ditch was cleared and
restored; and the tower of St. Romanus was again strong and entire. He
deplored the failure of his design; and uttered a profane exclamation,
that the word of the thirty-seven thousand prophets should not have
compelled him to believe that such a work, in so short a time, could
have been accomplished by the infidels.
[Footnote 40: I have selected some curious facts, without striving to
emulate the bloody and obstinate eloquence of the abbÈ de Vertot, in
his prolix descriptions of the sieges of Rhodes, Malta, &c. But that
agreeable historian had a turn for romance; and as he wrote to please
the order he had adopted the same spirit of enthusiasm and chivalry.]
[Footnote 41: The first theory of mines with gunpowder appears in 1480
in a MS. of George of Sienna, (Tiraboschi, tom. vi. P. i. p. 324.)
They were first practised by Sarzanella, in 1487; but the honor and
improvement in 1503 is ascribed to Peter of Navarre, who used them with
success in the wars of Italy, (Hist. de la Ligue de Cambray, tom. ii. p.
93--97.)]
[Footnote 411: The battering-ram according to Von Hammer, (p. 670,) was
not used.--M.]
Chapter LXVIII: Reign Of Mahomet The Second, Extinction Of Eastern Empire.--Part III.