In his distress, the friendship of Palæo_The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes)

ecclesiastical powers of the West; but the dexterous activity of

a monarch prevailed over the slow debates and inflexible temper

of a republic. The decrees of Basil continually tended to

circumscribe the despotism of the pope, and to erect a supreme

and perpetual tribunal in the church. Eugenius was impatient of

the yoke; and the union of the Greeks might afford a decent

pretence for translating a rebellious synod from the Rhine to the

Po. The independence of the fathers was lost if they passed the

Alps: Savoy or Avignon, to which they acceded with reluctance,

were described at Constantinople as situate far beyond the

pillars of Hercules; 43 the emperor and his clergy were

apprehensive of the dangers of a long navigation; they were

offended by a haughty declaration, that after suppressing the

_new_ heresy of the Bohemians, the council would soon eradicate

the _old_ heresy of the Greeks. 44 On the side of Eugenius, all

was smooth, and yielding, and respectful; and he invited the

Byzantine monarch to heal by his presence the schism of the

Latin, as well as of the Eastern, church. Ferrara, near the coast

of the Adriatic, was proposed for their amicable interview; and

with some indulgence of forgery and theft, a surreptitious decree

was procured, which transferred the synod, with its own consent,

to that Italian city. Nine galleys were equipped for the service

at Venice, and in the Isle of Candia; their diligence anticipated

the slower vessels of Basil: the Roman admiral was commissioned

to burn, sink, and destroy; 45 and these priestly squadrons might

have encountered each other in the same seas where Athens and

Sparta had formerly contended for the preeminence of glory.

Assaulted by the importunity of the factions, who were ready to

fight for the possession of his person, Palæologus hesitated

before he left his palace and country on a perilous experiment.

His father’s advice still dwelt on his memory; and reason must

suggest, that since the Latins were divided among themselves,

they could never unite in a foreign cause. Sigismond dissuaded

the unreasonable adventure; his advice was impartial, since he

adhered to the council; and it was enforced by the strange

belief, that the German Cæsar would nominate a Greek his heir and

successor in the empire of the West. 46 Even the Turkish sultan

was a counsellor whom it might be unsafe to trust, but whom it

was dangerous to offend. Amurath was unskilled in the disputes,

but he was apprehensive of the union, of the Christians. From his

own treasures, he offered to relieve the wants of the Byzantine

court; yet he declared with seeming magnanimity, that

Constantinople should be secure and inviolate, in the absence of

her sovereign. 47 The resolution of Palæologus was decided by the

most splendid gifts and the most specious promises: he wished to

escape for a while from a scene of danger and distress and after

dismissing with an ambiguous answer the messengers of the

council, he declared his intention of embarking in the Roman

galleys. The age of the patriarch Joseph was more susceptible of

fear than of hope; he trembled at the perils of the sea, and

expressed his apprehension, that his feeble voice, with thirty

perhaps of his orthodox brethren, would be oppressed in a foreign

land by the power and numbers of a Latin synod. He yielded to the

royal mandate, to the flattering assurance, that he would be

heard as the oracle of nations, and to the secret wish of

learning from his brother of the West, to deliver the church from

the yoke of kings. 48 The five _cross-bearers_, or dignitaries,

of St. Sophia, were bound to attend his person; and one of these,

the great ecclesiarch or preacher, Sylvester Syropulus, 49 has

composed a free and curious history 50 of the _false_ union. 51

Of the clergy that reluctantly obeyed the summons of the emperor

and the patriarch, submission was the first duty, and patience

the most useful virtue. In a chosen list of twenty bishops, we

discover the metropolitan titles of Heracleæ and Cyzicus, Nice

and Nicomedia, Ephesus and Trebizond, and the personal merit of

Mark and Bessarion who, in the confidence of their learning and

eloquence, were promoted to the episcopal rank. Some monks and

philosophers were named to display the science and sanctity of

the Greek church; and the service of the choir was performed by a

select band of singers and musicians. The patriarchs of

Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem, appeared by their genuine or

fictitious deputies; the primate of Russia represented a national

church, and the Greeks might contend with the Latins in the

extent of their spiritual empire. The precious vases of St.

Sophia were exposed to the winds and waves, that the patriarch

might officiate with becoming splendor: whatever gold the emperor

could procure, was expended in the massy ornaments of his bed and

chariot; 52 and while they affected to maintain the prosperity of

their ancient fortune, they quarrelled for the division of

fifteen thousand ducats, the first alms of the Roman pontiff.

After the necessary preparations, John Palæologus, with a

numerous train, accompanied by his brother Demetrius, and the

most respectable persons of the church and state, embarked in

eight vessels with sails and oars which steered through the

Turkish Straits of Gallipoli to the Archipelago, the Morea, and

the Adriatic Gulf. 53

43 (return) [ At the end of the Latin version of Phranzes, we

read a long Greek epistle or declamation of George of Trebizond,

who advises the emperor to prefer Eugenius and Italy. He treats

with contempt the schismatic assembly of Basil, the Barbarians of

Gaul and Germany, who had conspired to transport the chair of St.

Peter beyond the Alps; oi aqlioi (says he) se kai thn meta sou

sunodon exw tvn 'Hrakleiwn sthlwn kai pera Gadhrwn exaxousi. Was

Constantinople unprovided with a map?]

44 (return) [ Syropulus (p. 26—31) attests his own indignation,

and that of his countrymen; and the Basil deputies, who excused

the rash declaration, could neither deny nor alter an act of the

council.]

45 (return) [ Condolmieri, the pope’s nephew and admiral,

expressly declared, oti orismon eceipara tou Papa ina polemhsh

opou an eurh ta katerga thV Sunodou, kai ei dunhqh, katadush, kai

ajanish. The naval orders of the synod were less peremptory, and,

till the hostile squadrons appeared, both parties tried to

conceal their quarrel from the Greeks.]

46 (return) [ Syropulus mentions the hopes of Palæologus, (p.

36,) and the last advice of Sigismond,(p. 57.) At Corfu, the

Greek emperor was informed of his friend’s death; had he known it

sooner, he would have returned home,(p. 79.)]

47 (return) [ Phranzes himself, though from different motives,

was of the advice of Amurath, (l. ii. c. 13.) Utinam ne synodus

ista unquam fuisset, si tantes offensiones et detrimenta paritura

erat. This Turkish embassy is likewise mentioned by Syropulus,

(p. 58;) and Amurath kept his word. He might threaten, (p. 125,

219,) but he never attacked, the city.]

48 (return) [ The reader will smile at the simplicity with which

he imparted these hopes to his favorites: toiauthn plhrojorian

schsein hlpize kai dia tou Papa eqarrei eleuqervdai thn ekklhsian

apo thV apoteqeishV autou douleiaV para tou basilewV, (p. 92.)

Yet it would have been difficult for him to have practised the

lessons of Gregory VII.]

49 (return) [ The Christian name of Sylvester is borrowed from

the Latin calendar. In modern Greek, pouloV, as a diminutive, is

added to the end of words: nor can any reasoning of Creyghton,

the editor, excuse his changing into S_gur_opulus, (Sguros,

fuscus,) the Syropulus of his own manuscript, whose name is

subscribed with his own hand in the acts of the council of

Florence. Why might not the author be of Syrian extraction?]

50 (return) [ From the conclusion of the history, I should fix

the date to the year 1444, four years after the synod, when great

ecclesiarch had abdicated his office, (section xii. p. 330—350.)

His passions were cooled by time and retirement; and, although

Syropulus is often partial, he is never intemperate.]

51 (return) [ _Vera historia unionis non ver inter Græcos et

Latinos_, (_Haga Comitis_, 1660, in folio,) was first published

with a loose and florid version, by Robert Creyghton, chaplain to

Charles II. in his exile. The zeal of the editor has prefixed a

polemic title, for the beginning of the original is wanting.

Syropulus may be ranked with the best of the Byzantine writers

for the merit of his narration, and even of his style; but he is

excluded from the orthodox collections of the councils.]

52 (return) [ Syropulus (p. 63) simply expresses his intention

in’ outw pompawn en’ 'ItaloiV megaV basileuV par ekeinvn

nomizoito; and the Latin of Creyghton may afford a specimen of

his florid paraphrase. Ut pompâ circumductus noster Imperator

Italiæ populis aliquis deauratus Jupiter crederetur, aut Crsus ex

opulenta Lydia.]

53 (return) [ Although I cannot stop to quote Syropulus for every

fact, I will observe that the navigation of the Greeks from

Constantinople to Venice and Ferrara is contained in the ivth

section, (p. 67—100,) and that the historian has the uncommon

talent of placing each scene before the reader’s eye.]

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

After a tedious and troublesome navigation of seventy-seven days,

this religious squadron cast anchor before Venice; and their

reception proclaimed the joy and magnificence of that powerful

republic. In the command of the world, the modest Augustus had

never claimed such honors from his subjects as were paid to his

feeble successor by an independent state. Seated on the poop on a

lofty throne, he received the visit, or, in the Greek style, the

_adoration_ of the doge and senators. 54 They sailed in the

Bucentaur, which was accompanied by twelve stately galleys: the

sea was overspread with innumerable gondolas of pomp and

pleasure; the air resounded with music and acclamations; the

mariners, and even the vessels, were dressed in silk and gold;

and in all the emblems and pageants, the Roman eagles were

blended with the lions of St. Mark. The triumphal procession,

ascending the great canal, passed under the bridge of the Rialto;

and the Eastern strangers gazed with admiration on the palaces,

the churches, and the populousness of a city, that seems to float

on the bosom of the waves. 55 They sighed to behold the spoils

and trophies with which it had been decorated after the sack of

Constantinople. After a hospitable entertainment of fifteen days,

Palæologus pursued his journey by land and water from Venice to

Ferrara; and on this occasion the pride of the Vatican was

tempered by policy to indulge the ancient dignity of the emperor

of the East. He made his entry on a _black_ horse; but a

milk-white steed, whose trappings were embroidered with golden

eagles, was led before him; and the canopy was borne over his

head by the princes of Este, the sons or kinsmen of Nicholas,

marquis of the city, and a sovereign more powerful than himself.

56 Palæologus did not alight till he reached the bottom of the

staircase: the pope advanced to the door of the apartment;

refused his proffered genuflection; and, after a paternal

embrace, conducted the emperor to a seat on his left hand. Nor

would the patriarch descend from his galley, till a ceremony

almost equal, had been stipulated between the bishops of Rome and

Constantinople. The latter was saluted by his brother with a kiss

of union and charity; nor would any of the Greek ecclesiastics

submit to kiss the feet of the Western primate. On the opening of

the synod, the place of honor in the centre was claimed by the

temporal and ecclesiastical chiefs; and it was only by alleging

that his predecessors had not assisted in person at Nice or

Chalcedon, that Eugenius could evade the ancient precedents of

Constantine and Marcian. After much debate, it was agreed that

the right and left sides of the church should be occupied by the

two nations; that the solitary chair of St. Peter should be

raised the first of the Latin line; and that the throne of the

Greek emperor, at the head of his clergy, should be equal and

opposite to the second place, the vacant seat of the emperor of

the West. 57

54 (return) [ At the time of the synod, Phranzes was in

Peloponnesus: but he received from the despot Demetrius a

faithful account of the honorable reception of the emperor and

patriarch both at Venice and Ferrara, (Dux.... sedentem

Imperatorem _adorat_,) which are more slightly mentioned by the

Latins, (l. ii. c. 14, 15, 16.)]

55 (return) [ The astonishment of a Greek prince and a French

ambassador (Mémoires de Philippe de Comines, l. vii. c. 18,) at

the sight of Venice, abundantly proves that in the xvth century

it was the first and most splendid of the Christian cities. For

the spoils of Constantinople at Venice, see Syropulus, (p. 87.)]

56 (return) [ Nicholas III. of Este reigned forty-eight years,

(A.D. 1393—1441,) and was lord of Ferrara, Modena, Reggio, Parma,

Rovigo, and Commachio. See his Life in Muratori, (Antichità

Estense, tom. ii. p. 159—201.)]

57 (return) [ The Latin vulgar was provoked to laughter at the

strange dresses of the Greeks, and especially the length of their

garments, their sleeves, and their beards; nor was the emperor

distinguished, except by the purple color, and his diadem or

tiara, with a jewel on the top, (Hody de Græcis Illustribus, p.

31.) Yet another spectator confesses that the Greek fashion was

piu grave e piu degna than the Italian. (Vespasiano in Vit.

Eugen. IV. in Muratori, tom. xxv. p. 261.)]

But as soon as festivity and form had given place to a more

serious 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

Palæologus 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

58 (return) [ 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.]

59 (return) [ 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.)]

60 (return) [ Syropulus (p. 141, 142, 204, 221) deplores the

imprisonment of the Greeks, and the tyranny of the emperor and

patriarch.]

61 (return) [ 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.

62 (return) [ 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.]

63 (return) [ 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.)]

64 (return) [ '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.

65 (return) [ 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.]

66 (return) [ 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.)]

67 (return) [ 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.]

68 (return) [ 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.)]

69 (return) [ 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 dæmons,) 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 Æthiopians, 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

70 (return) [ 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.]

71 (return) [ 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.)]

72 (return) [ 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,

(Mémoires de l’Académie des Inscriptions, tom. xliii. p.

287—311.)]

73 (return) [ Hmin de wV ashmoi edokoun jwnai, (Syropul. p.

297.)]

74 (return) [ 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.)]

75 (return) [ 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.]

76 (return) [ 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. Æneas 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.]

77 (return) [ 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, (Bibliothèque Ecclés. 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

78 (return) [ In the first attempt, Meursius collected 3600

Græco-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. Græc. 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.]

79 (return) [ The life of Francis Philelphus, a sophist, proud,

restless, and rapacious, has been diligently composed by Lancelot

(Mémoires de l’Académie 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.]

80 (return) [ 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.]

81 (return) [ Græci quibus lingua depravata non sit.... ita

loquuntur vulgo hâc 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 ipsæ nobiles mulieres; quibus

cum nullum esset omnino cum viris peregrinis commercium, merus

ille ac purus Græcorum 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

moderatâ et suavi et maxime Atticâ.]

82 (return) [ Philelphus, absurdly enough, derives this Greek or

Oriental jealousy from the manners of ancient Rome.]

Among the Greeks a numerous and opulent clergy was dedicated to

the service of religion: their monks and bishops have ever been

distinguished by the gravity and austerity of their manners; nor

were they diverted, like the Latin priests, by the pursuits and

pleasures of a secular, and even military, life. After a large

deduction for the time and talent that were lost in the devotion,

the laziness, and the discord, of the church and cloister, the

more inquisitive and ambitious minds would explore the sacred and

profane erudition of their native language. The ecclesiastics

presided over the education of youth; the schools of philosophy

and eloquence were perpetuated till the fall of the empire; and

it may be affirmed, that more books and more knowledge were

included within the walls of Constantinople, than could be

dispersed over the extensive countries of the West. 83 But an

important distinction has been already noticed: the Greeks were

stationary or retrograde, while the Latins were advancing with a

rapid and progressive motion. The nations were excited by the

spirit of independence and emulation; and even the little world

of the Italian states contained more people and industry than the

decreasing circle of the Byzantine empire. In Europe, the lower

ranks of society were relieved from the yoke of feudal servitude;

and freedom is the first step to curiosity and knowledge. The

use, however rude and corrupt, of the Latin tongue had been

preserved by superstition; the universities, from Bologna to

Oxford, 84 were peopled with thousands of scholars; and their

misguided ardor might be directed to more liberal and manly

studies. In the resurrection of science, Italy was the first that

cast away her shroud; and the eloquent Petrarch, by his lessons

and his example, may justly be applauded as the first harbinger

of day. A purer style of composition, a more generous and

rational strain of sentiment, flowed from the study and imitation

of the writers of ancient Rome; and the disciples of Cicero and

Virgil approached, with reverence and love, the sanctuary of

their Grecian masters. In the sack of Constantinople, the French,

and even the Venetians, had despised and destroyed the works of

Lysippus and Homer: the monuments of art may be annihilated by a

single blow; but the immortal mind is renewed and multiplied by

the copies of the pen; and such copies it was the ambition of

Petrarch and his friends to possess and understand. The arms of

the Turks undoubtedly pressed the flight of the Muses; yet we may

tremble at the thought, that Greece might have been overwhelmed,

with her schools and libraries, before Europe had emerged from

the deluge of barbarism; that the seeds of science might have

been scattered by the winds, before the Italian soil was prepared

for their cultivation.

83 (return) [ See the state of learning in the xiiith and xivth

centuries, in the learned and judicious Mosheim, (Instit. Hist.

Ecclés. p. 434—440, 490—494.)]

84 (return) [ At the end of the xvth century, there existed in

Europe about fifty universities, and of these the foundation of

ten or twelve is prior to the year 1300. They were crowded in

proportion to their scarcity. Bologna contained 10,000 students,

chiefly of the civil law. In the year 1357 the number at Oxford

had decreased from 30,000 to 6000 scholars, (Henry’s History of

Great Britain, vol. iv. p. 478.) Yet even this decrease is much

superior to the present list of the members of the university.]

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

The most learned Italians of the fifteenth century have confessed

and applauded the restoration of Greek literature, after a long

oblivion of many hundred years. 85 Yet in that country, and

beyond the Alps, some names are quoted; some profound scholars,

who in the darker ages were honorably distinguished by their

knowledge of the Greek tongue; and national vanity has been loud

in the praise of such rare examples of erudition. Without

scrutinizing the merit of individuals, truth must observe, that

their science is without a cause, and without an effect; that it

was easy for them to satisfy themselves and their more ignorant

contemporaries; and that the idiom, which they had so

marvellously acquired was transcribed in few manuscripts, and was

not taught in any university of the West. In a corner of Italy,

it faintly existed as the popular, or at least as the

ecclesiastical dialect. 86 The first impression of the Doric and

Ionic colonies has never been completely erased: the Calabrian

churches were long attached to the throne of Constantinople: and

the monks of St. Basil pursued their studies in Mount Athos and

the schools of the East. Calabria was the native country of

Barlaam, who has already appeared as a sectary and an ambassador;

and Barlaam was the first who revived, beyond the Alps, the

memory, or at least the writings, of Homer. 87 He is described,

by Petrarch and Boccace, 88 as a man of diminutive stature,

though truly great in the measure of learning and genius; of a

piercing discernment, though of a slow and painful elocution. For

many ages (as they affirm) Greece had not produced his equal in

the knowledge of history, grammar, and philosophy; and his merit

was celebrated in the attestations of the princes and doctors of

Constantinople. One of these attestations is still extant; and

the emperor Cantacuzene, the protector of his adversaries, is

forced to allow, that Euclid, Aristotle, and Plato, were familiar

to that profound and subtle logician. 89 In the court of Avignon,

he formed an intimate connection with Petrarch, 90 the first of

the Latin scholars; and the desire of mutual instruction was the

principle of their literary commerce. The Tuscan applied himself

with eager curiosity and assiduous diligence to the study of the

Greek language; and in a laborious struggle with the dryness and

difficulty of the first rudiments, he began to reach the sense,

and to feel the spirit, of poets and philosophers, whose minds

were congenial to his own. But he was soon deprived of the

society and lessons of this useful assistant: Barlaam

relinquished his fruitless embassy; and, on his return to Greece,

he rashly provoked the swarms of fanatic monks, by attempting to

substitute the light of reason to that of their navel. After a

separation of three years, the two friends again met in the court

of Naples: but the generous pupil renounced the fairest occasion

of improvement; and by his recommendation Barlaam was finally

settled in a small bishopric of his native Calabria. 91 The

manifold avocations of Petrarch, love and friendship, his various

correspondence and frequent journeys, the Roman laurel, and his

elaborate compositions in prose and verse, in Latin and Italian,

diverted him from a foreign idiom; and as he advanced in life,

the attainment of the Greek language was the object of his wishes

rather than of his hopes. When he was about fifty years of age, a

Byzantine ambassador, his friend, and a master of both tongues,

presented him with a copy of Homer; and the answer of Petrarch is

at one expressive of his eloquence, gratitude, and regret. After

celebrating the generosity of the donor, and the value of a gift

more precious in his estimation than gold or rubies, he thus

proceeds: “Your present of the genuine and original text of the

divine poet, the fountain of all inventions, is worthy of

yourself and of me: you have fulfilled your promise, and

satisfied my desires. Yet your liberality is still imperfect:

with Homer you should have given me yourself; a guide, who could

lead me into the fields of light, and disclose to my wondering

eyes the spacious miracles of the Iliad and Odyssey. But, alas!

Homer is dumb, or I am deaf; nor is it in my power to enjoy the

beauty which I possess. I have seated him by the side of Plato,

the prince of poets near the prince of philosophers; and I glory

in the sight of my illustrious guests. Of their immortal

writings, whatever had been translated into the Latin idiom, I

had already acquired; but, if there be no profit, there is some

pleasure, in beholding these venerable Greeks in their proper and

national habit. I am delighted with the aspect of Homer; and as

often as I embrace the silent volume, I exclaim with a sigh,

Illustrious bard! with what pleasure should I listen to thy song,

if my sense of hearing were not obstructed and lost by the death

of one friend, and in the much-lamented absence of another. Nor

do I yet despair; and the example of Cato suggests some comfort

and hope, since it was in the last period of age that he attained

the knowledge of the Greek letters.” 92

85 (return) [ Of those writers who professedly treat of the

restoration of the Greek learning in Italy, the two principal are

Hodius, Dr. Humphrey Hody, (de Græcis Illustribus, Linguæ Græcæ

Literarumque humaniorum Instauratoribus; Londini, 1742, in large

octavo,) and Tiraboschi, (Istoria della Letteratura Italiana,

tom. v. p. 364—377, tom. vii. p. 112—143.) The Oxford professor

is a laborious scholar, but the librarian of Modena enjoys the

superiority of a modern and national historian.]

86 (return) [ In Calabria quæ olim magna Græcia dicebatur,

coloniis Græcis repleta, remansit quædam linguæ veteris,

cognitio, (Hodius, p. 2.) If it were eradicated by the Romans, it

was revived and perpetuated by the monks of St. Basil, who

possessed seven convents at Rossano alone, (Giannone, Istoria di

Napoli, tom. i. p. 520.)]

87 (return) [ Ii Barbari (says Petrarch, the French and Germans)

vix, non dicam libros sed nomen Homeri audiverunt. Perhaps, in

that respect, the xiiith century was less happy than the age of

Charlemagne.]

88 (return) [ See the character of Barlaam, in Boccace de

Genealog. Deorum, l. xv. c. 6.]

89 (return) [ Cantacuzen. l. ii. c. 36.]

90 (return) [ For the connection of Petrarch and Barlaam, and the

two interviews at Avignon in 1339, and at Naples in 1342, see the

excellent Mémoires sur la Vie de Pétrarque, tom. i. p. 406—410,

tom. ii. p. 74—77.]

91 (return) [ The bishopric to which Barlaam retired, was the old

Locri, in the middle ages. Scta. Cyriaca, and by corruption

Hieracium, Gerace, (Dissert. Chorographica Italiæ Medii Ævi, p.

312.) The dives opum of the Norman times soon lapsed into

poverty, since even the church was poor: yet the town still

contains 3000 inhabitants, (Swinburne, p. 340.)]

92 (return) [ I will transcribe a passage from this epistle of

Petrarch, (Famil. ix. 2;) Donasti Homerum non in alienum sermonem

violento alveâ?? derivatum, sed ex ipsis Græci eloquii scatebris,

et qualis divino illi profluxit ingenio.... Sine tuâ voce Homerus

tuus apud me mutus, immo vero ego apud illum surdus sum. Gaudeo

tamen vel adspectû solo, ac sæpe illum amplexus atque suspirans

dico, O magne vir, &c.]

The prize which eluded the efforts of Petrarch, was obtained by

the fortune and industry of his friend Boccace, 93 the father of

the Tuscan prose. That popular writer, who derives his reputation

from the Decameron, a hundred novels of pleasantry and love, may

aspire to the more serious praise of restoring in Italy the study

of the Greek language. In the year one thousand three hundred and

sixty, a disciple of Barlaam, whose name was Leo, or Leontius

Pilatus, was detained in his way to Avignon by the advice and

hospitality of Boccace, who lodged the stranger in his house,

prevailed on the republic of Florence to allow him an annual

stipend, and devoted his leisure to the first Greek professor,

who taught that language in the Western countries of Europe. The

appearance of Leo might disgust the most eager disciple, he was

clothed in the mantle of a philosopher, or a mendicant; his

countenance was hideous; his face was overshadowed with black

hair; his beard long and uncombed; his deportment rustic; his

temper gloomy and inconstant; nor could he grace his discourse

with the ornaments, or even the perspicuity, of Latin elocution.

But his mind was stored with a treasure of Greek learning:

history and fable, philosophy and grammar, were alike at his

command; and he read the poems of Homer in the schools of

Florence. It was from his explanation that Boccace composed 931

and transcribed a literal prose version of the Iliad and Odyssey,

which satisfied the thirst of his friend Petrarch, and which,

perhaps, in the succeeding century, was clandestinely used by

Laurentius Valla, the Latin interpreter. It was from his

narratives that the same Boccace collected the materials for his

treatise on the genealogy of the heathen gods, a work, in that

age, of stupendous erudition, and which he ostentatiously

sprinkled with Greek characters and passages, to excite the

wonder and applause of his more ignorant readers. 94 The first

steps of learning are slow and laborious; no more than ten

votaries of Homer could be enumerated in all Italy; and neither

Rome, nor Venice, nor Naples, could add a single name to this

studious catalogue. But their numbers would have multiplied,

their progress would have been accelerated, if the inconstant

Leo, at the end of three years, had not relinquished an honorable

and beneficial station. In his passage, Petrarch entertained him

at Padua a short time: he enjoyed the scholar, but was justly

offended with the gloomy and unsocial temper of the man.

Discontented with the world and with himself, Leo depreciated his

present enjoyments, while absent persons and objects were dear to

his imagination. In Italy he was a Thessalian, in Greece a native

of Calabria: in the company of the Latins he disdained their

language, religion, and manners: no sooner was he landed at

Constantinople, than he again sighed for the wealth of Venice and

the elegance of Florence. His Italian friends were deaf to his

importunity: he depended on their curiosity and indulgence, and

embarked on a second voyage; but on his entrance into the

Adriatic, the ship was assailed by a tempest, and the unfortunate

teacher, who like Ulysses had fastened himself to the mast, was

struck dead by a flash of lightning. The humane Petrarch dropped

a tear on his disaster; but he was most anxious to learn whether

some copy of Euripides or Sophocles might not be saved from the

hands of the mariners. 95

93 (return) [ For the life and writings of Boccace, who was born

in 1313, and died in 1375, Fabricius (Bibliot. Latin. Medii Ævi,

tom. i. p. 248, &c.) and Tiraboschi (tom. v. p. 83, 439—451) may

be consulted. The editions, versions, imitations of his novels,

are innumerable. Yet he was ashamed to communicate that trifling,

and perhaps scandalous, work to Petrarch, his respectable friend,

in whose letters and memoirs he conspicuously appears.]

931 (return) [ This translation of Homer was by Pilatus, not by

Boccacio. See Hallam, Hist. of Lit. vol. i. p. 132.—M.]

94 (return) [ Boccace indulges an honest vanity: Ostentationis

causâ Græca carmina adscripsi.... jure utor meo; meum est hoc

decus, mea gloria scilicet inter Etruscos Græcis uti carminibus.

Nonne ego fui qui Leontium Pilatum, &c., (de Genealogia Deorum,

l. xv. c. 7, a work which, though now forgotten, has run through

thirteen or fourteen editions.)]

95 (return) [ Leontius, or Leo Pilatus, is sufficiently made

known by Hody, (p. 2—11,) and the abbé de Sade, (Vie de

Pétrarque, tom. iii. p. 625—634, 670—673,) who has very happily

caught the lively and dramatic manner of his original.]

But the faint rudiments of Greek learning, which Petrarch had

encouraged and Boccace had planted, soon withered and expired.

The succeeding generation was content for a while with the

improvement of Latin eloquence; nor was it before the end of the

fourteenth century that a new and perpetual flame was rekindled

in Italy. 96 Previous to his own journey the emperor Manuel

despatched his envoys and orators to implore the compassion of

the Western princes. Of these envoys, the most conspicuous, or

the most learned, was Manuel Chrysoloras, 97 of noble birth, and

whose Roman ancestors are supposed to have migrated with the

great Constantine. After visiting the courts of France and

England, where he obtained some contributions and more promises,

the envoy was invited to assume the office of a professor; and

Florence had again the honor of this second invitation. By his

knowledge, not only of the Greek, but of the Latin tongue,

Chrysoloras deserved the stipend, and surpassed the expectation,

of the republic. His school was frequented by a crowd of

disciples of every rank and age; and one of these, in a general

history, has described his motives and his success. “At that

time,” says Leonard Aretin, 98 “I was a student of the civil law;

but my soul was inflamed with the love of letters; and I bestowed

some application on the sciences of logic and rhetoric. On the

arrival of Manuel, I hesitated whether I should desert my legal

studies, or relinquish this golden opportunity; and thus, in the

ardor of youth, I communed with my own mind—Wilt thou be wanting

to thyself and thy fortune? Wilt thou refuse to be introduced to

a familiar converse with Homer, Plato, and Demosthenes; with

those poets, philosophers, and orators, of whom such wonders are

related, and who are celebrated by every age as the great masters

of human science? Of professors and scholars in civil law, a

sufficient supply will always be found in our universities; but a

teacher, and such a teacher, of the Greek language, if he once be

suffered to escape, may never afterwards be retrieved. Convinced

by these reasons, I gave myself to Chrysoloras; and so strong was

my passion, that the lessons which I had imbibed in the day were

the constant object of my nightly dreams.” 99 At the same time

and place, the Latin classics were explained by John of Ravenna,

the domestic pupil of Petrarch; 100 the Italians, who illustrated

their age and country, were formed in this double school; and

Florence became the fruitful seminary of Greek and Roman

erudition. 101 The presence of the emperor recalled Chrysoloras

from the college to the court; but he afterwards taught at Pavia

and Rome with equal industry and applause. The remainder of his

life, about fifteen years, was divided between Italy and

Constantinople, between embassies and lessons. In the noble

office of enlightening a foreign nation, the grammarian was not

unmindful of a more sacred duty to his prince and country; and

Emanuel Chrysoloras died at Constance on a public mission from

the emperor to the council.

96 (return) [ Dr. Hody (p. 54) is angry with Leonard Aretin,

Guarinus, Paulus Jovius, &c., for affirming, that the Greek

letters were restored in Italy _post septingentos annos_; as if,

says he, they had flourished till the end of the viith century.

These writers most probably reckoned from the last period of the

exarchate; and the presence of the Greek magistrates and troops

at Ravenna and Rome must have preserved, in some degree, the use

of their native tongue.]

97 (return) [ See the article of Emanuel, or Manuel Chrysoloras,

in Hody (p 12—54) and Tiraboschi, (tom. vii. p. 113—118.) The

precise date of his arrival floats between the years 1390 and

1400, and is only confined by the reign of Boniface IX.]

98 (return) [ The name of _Aretinus_ has been assumed by five or

six natives of _Arezzo_ in Tuscany, of whom the most famous and

the most worthless lived in the xvith century. Leonardus Brunus

Aretinus, the disciple of Chrysoloras, was a linguist, an orator,

and an historian, the secretary of four successive popes, and the

chancellor of the republic of Florence, where he died A.D. 1444,

at the age of seventy-five, (Fabric. Bibliot. Medii Ævi, tom. i.

p. 190 &c. Tiraboschi, tom. vii. p. 33—38.)]

99 (return) [ See the passage in Aretin. Commentario Rerum suo

Tempore in Italia gestarum, apud Hodium, p. 28—30.]

100 (return) [ In this domestic discipline, Petrarch, who loved

the youth, often complains of the eager curiosity, restless

temper, and proud feelings, which announce the genius and glory

of a riper age, (Mémoires sur Pétrarque, tom. iii. p. 700—709.)]

101 (return) [ Hinc Græcæ Latinæque scholæ exortæ sunt, Guarino

Philelpho, Leonardo Aretino, Caroloque, ac plerisque aliis

tanquam ex equo Trojano prodeuntibus, quorum emulatione multa

ingenia deinceps ad laudem excitata sunt, (Platina in Bonifacio

IX.) Another Italian writer adds the names of Paulus Petrus

Vergerius, Omnibonus Vincentius, Poggius, Franciscus Barbarus,

&c. But I question whether a rigid chronology would allow

Chrysoloras _all_ these eminent scholars, (Hodius, p. 25—27,

&c.)]

After his example, the restoration of the Greek letters in Italy

was prosecuted by a series of emigrants, who were destitute of

fortune, and endowed with learning, or at least with language.

From the terror or oppression of the Turkish arms, the natives of

Thessalonica and Constantinople escaped to a land of freedom,

curiosity, and wealth. The synod introduced into Florence the

lights of the Greek church, and the oracles of the Platonic

philosophy; and the fugitives who adhered to the union, had the

double merit of renouncing their country, not only for the

Christian, but for the catholic cause. A patriot, who sacrifices

his party and conscience to the allurements of favor, may be

possessed, however, of the private and social virtues: he no

longer hears the reproachful epithets of slave and apostate; and

the consideration which he acquires among his new associates will

restore in his own eyes the dignity of his character. The prudent

conformity of Bessarion was rewarded with the Roman purple: he

fixed his residence in Italy; and the Greek cardinal, the titular

patriarch of Constantinople, was respected as the chief and

protector of his nation: 102 his abilities were exercised in the

legations of Bologna, Venice, Germany, and France; and his

election to the chair of St. Peter floated for a moment on the

uncertain breath of a conclave. 103 His ecclesiastical honors

diffused a splendor and preeminence over his literary merit and

service: his palace was a school; as often as the cardinal

visited the Vatican, he was attended by a learned train of both

nations; 104 of men applauded by themselves and the public; and

whose writings, now overspread with dust, were popular and useful

in their own times. I shall not attempt to enumerate the

restorers of Grecian literature in the fifteenth century; and it

may be sufficient to mention with gratitude the names of Theodore

Gaza, of George of Trebizond, of John Argyropulus, and Demetrius

Chalcocondyles, who taught their native language in the schools

of Florence and Rome. Their labors were not inferior to those of

Bessarion, whose purple they revered, and whose fortune was the

secret object of their envy. But the lives of these grammarians

were humble and obscure: they had declined the lucrative paths of

the church; their dress and manners secluded them from the

commerce of the world; and since they were confined to the merit,

they might be content with the rewards, of learning. From this

character, Janus Lascaris 105 will deserve an exception. His

eloquence, politeness, and Imperial descent, recommended him to

the French monarch; and in the same cities he was alternately

employed to teach and to negotiate. Duty and interest prompted

them to cultivate the study of the Latin language; and the most

successful attained the faculty of writing and speaking with

fluency and elegance in a foreign idiom. But they ever retained

the inveterate vanity of their country: their praise, or at least

their esteem, was reserved for the national writers, to whom they

owed their fame and subsistence; and they sometimes betrayed

their contempt in licentious criticism or satire on Virgil’s

poetry, and the oratory of Tully. 106 The superiority of these

masters arose from the familiar use of a living language; and

their first disciples were incapable of discerning how far they

had degenerated from the knowledge, and even the practice of

their ancestors. A vicious pronunciation, 107 which they

introduced, was banished from the schools by the reason of the

succeeding age. Of the power of the Greek accents they were

ignorant; and those musical notes, which, from an Attic tongue,

and to an Attic ear, must have been the secret soul of harmony,

were to their eyes, as to our own, no more than minute and

unmeaning marks, in prose superfluous and troublesome in verse.

The art of grammar they truly possessed; the valuable fragments

of Apollonius and Herodian were transfused into their lessons;

and their treatises of syntax and etymology, though devoid of

philosophic spirit, are still useful to the Greek student. In the

shipwreck of the Byzantine libraries, each fugitive seized a

fragment of treasure, a copy of some author, who without his

industry might have perished: the transcripts were multiplied by

an assiduous, and sometimes an elegant pen; and the text was

corrected and explained by their own comments, or those of the

elder scholiasts. The sense, though not the spirit, of the Greek

classics, was interpreted to the Latin world: the beauties of

style evaporate in a version; but the judgment of Theodore Gaza

selected the more solid works of Aristotle and Theophrastus, and

their natural histories of animals and plants opened a rich fund

of genuine and experimental science.

102 (return) [ See in Hody the article of Bessarion, (p.

136—177.) Theodore Gaza, George of Trebizond, and the rest of the

Greeks whom I have named or omitted, are inserted in their proper

chapters of his learned work. See likewise Tiraboschi, in the 1st

and 2d parts of the vith tome.]

103 (return) [ The cardinals knocked at his door, but his

conclavist refused to interrupt the studies of Bessarion:

“Nicholas,” said he, “thy respect has cost thee a hat, and me the

tiara.” * Note: Roscoe (Life of Lorenzo de Medici, vol. i. p. 75)

considers that Hody has refuted this “idle tale.”—M.]

104 (return) [ Such as George of Trebizond, Theodore Gaza,

Argyropulus, Andronicus of Thessalonica, Philelphus, Poggius,

Blondus, Nicholas Perrot, Valla, Campanus, Platina, &c. Viri

(says Hody, with the pious zeal of a scholar) (nullo ævo

perituri, p. 156.)]

105 (return) [ He was born before the taking of Constantinople,

but his honorable life was stretched far into the xvith century,

(A.D. 1535.) Leo X. and Francis I. were his noblest patrons,

under whose auspices he founded the Greek colleges of Rome and

Paris, (Hody, p. 247—275.) He left posterity in France; but the

counts de Vintimille, and their numerous branches, derive the

name of Lascaris from a doubtful marriage in the xiiith century

with the daughter of a Greek emperor (Ducange, Fam. Byzant. p.

224—230.)]

106 (return) [ Two of his epigrams against Virgil, and three

against Tully, are preserved and refuted by Franciscus Floridus,

who can find no better names than Græculus ineptus et impudens,

(Hody, p. 274.) In our own times, an English critic has accused

the Æneid of containing multa languida, nugatoria, spiritû et

majestate carminis heroici defecta; many such verses as he, the

said Jeremiah Markland, would have been ashamed of owning,

(præfat. ad Statii Sylvas, p. 21, 22.)]

107 (return) [ Emanuel Chrysoloras, and his colleagues, are

accused of ignorance, envy, or avarice, (Sylloge, &c., tom. ii.

p. 235.) The modern Greeks pronounce the b as a V consonant, and

confound three vowels, (h i u,) and several diphthongs. Such was

the vulgar pronunciation which the stern Gardiner maintained by

penal statutes in the university of Cambridge: but the

monosyllable bh represented to an Attic ear the bleating of

sheep, and a bellwether is better evidence than a bishop or a

chancellor. The treatises of those scholars, particularly

Erasmus, who asserted a more classical pronunciation, are

collected in the Sylloge of Havercamp, (2 vols. in octavo, Lugd.

Bat. 1736, 1740:) but it is difficult to paint sounds by words:

and in their reference to modern use, they can be understood only

by their respective countrymen. We may observe, that our peculiar

pronunciation of the O, th, is approved by Erasmus, (tom. ii. p.

130.)]

Yet the fleeting shadows of metaphysics were pursued with more

curiosity and ardor. After a long oblivion, Plato was revived in

Italy by a venerable Greek, 108 who taught in the house of Cosmo

of Medicis. While the synod of Florence was involved in

theological debate, some beneficial consequences might flow from

the study of his elegant philosophy: his style is the purest

standard of the Attic dialect, and his sublime thoughts are

sometimes adapted to familiar conversation, and sometimes adorned

with the richest colors of poetry and eloquence. The dialogues of

Plato are a dramatic picture of the life and death of a sage;

and, as often as he descends from the clouds, his moral system

inculcates the love of truth, of our country, and of mankind. The

precept and example of Socrates recommended a modest doubt and

liberal inquiry; and if the Platonists, with blind devotion,

adored the visions and errors of their divine master, their

enthusiasm might correct the dry, dogmatic method of the

Peripatetic school. So equal, yet so opposite, are the merits of

Plato and Aristotle, that they may be balanced in endless

controversy; but some spark of freedom may be produced by the

collision of adverse servitude. The modern Greeks were divided

between the two sects: with more fury than skill they fought

under the banner of their leaders; and the field of battle was

removed in their flight from Constantinople to Rome. But this

philosophical debate soon degenerated into an angry and personal

quarrel of grammarians; and Bessarion, though an advocate for

Plato, protected the national honor, by interposing the advice

and authority of a mediator. In the gardens of the Medici, the

academical doctrine was enjoyed by the polite and learned: but

their philosophic society was quickly dissolved; and if the

writings of the Attic sage were perused in the closet, the more

powerful Stagyrite continued to reign, the oracle of the church

and school. 109

108 (return) [ George Gemistus Pletho, a various and voluminous

writer, the master of Bessarion, and all the Platonists of the

times. He visited Italy in his old age, and soon returned to end

his days in Peloponnesus. See the curious Diatribe of Leo

Allatius de Georgiis, in Fabricius. (Bibliot. Græc. tom. x. p.

739—756.)]

109 (return) [ The state of the Platonic philosophy in Italy is

illustrated by Boivin, (Mém. de l’Acad. des Inscriptions, tom.

ii. p. 715—729,) and Tiraboschi, (tom. vi. P. i. p. 259—288.)]

I have fairly represented the literary merits of the Greeks; yet

it must be confessed, that they were seconded and surpassed by

the ardor of the Latins. Italy was divided into many independent

states; and at that time it was the ambition of princes and

republics to vie with each other in the encouragement and reward

of literature. The fame of Nicholas the Fifth 110 has not been

adequate to his merits. From a plebeian origin he raised himself

by his virtue and learning: the character of the man prevailed

over the interest of the pope; and he sharpened those weapons

which were soon pointed against the Roman church. 111 He had been

the friend of the most eminent scholars of the age: he became

their patron; and such was the humility of his manners, that the

change was scarcely discernible either to them or to himself. If

he pressed the acceptance of a liberal gift, it was not as the

measure of desert, but as the proof of benevolence; and when

modest merit declined his bounty, “Accept it,” would he say, with

a consciousness of his own worth: “ye will not always have a

Nicholas among you.” The influence of the holy see pervaded

Christendom; and he exerted that influence in the search, not of

benefices, but of books. From the ruins of the Byzantine

libraries, from the darkest monasteries of Germany and Britain,

he collected the dusty manuscripts of the writers of antiquity;

and wherever the original could not be removed, a faithful copy

was transcribed and transmitted for his use. The Vatican, the old

repository for bulls and legends, for superstition and forgery,

was daily replenished with more precious furniture; and such was

the industry of Nicholas, that in a reign of eight years he

formed a library of five thousand volumes. To his munificence the

Latin world was indebted for the versions of Xenophon, Diodorus,

Polybius, Thucydides, Herodotus, and Appian; of Strabo’s

Geography, of the Iliad, of the most valuable works of Plato and

Aristotle, of Ptolemy and Theophrastus, and of the fathers of the

Greek church. The example of the Roman pontiff was preceded or

imitated by a Florentine merchant, who governed the republic

without arms and without a title. Cosmo of Medicis 112 was the

father of a line of princes, whose name and age are almost

synonymous with the restoration of learning: his credit was

ennobled into fame; his riches were dedicated to the service of

mankind; he corresponded at once with Cairo and London: and a

cargo of Indian spices and Greek books was often imported in the

same vessel. The genius and education of his grandson Lorenzo

rendered him not only a patron, but a judge and candidate, in the

literary race. In his palace, distress was entitled to relief,

and merit to reward: his leisure hours were delightfully spent in

the Platonic academy; he encouraged the emulation of Demetrius

Chalcocondyles and Angelo Politian; and his active missionary

Janus Lascaris returned from the East with a treasure of two

hundred manuscripts, fourscore of which were as yet unknown in

the libraries of Europe. 113 The rest of Italy was animated by a

similar spirit, and the progress of the nation repaid the

liberality of their princes. The Latins held the exclusive

property of their own literature; and these disciples of Greece

were soon capable of transmitting and improving the lessons which

they had imbibed. After a short succession of foreign teachers,

the tide of emigration subsided; but the language of

Constantinople was spread beyond the Alps and the natives of

France, Germany, and England, 114 imparted to their country the

sacred fire which they had kindled in the schools of Florence and

Rome. 115 In the productions of the mind, as in those of the

soil, the gifts of nature are excelled by industry and skill: the

Greek authors, forgotten on the banks of the Ilissus, have been

illustrated on those of the Elbe and the Thames: and Bessarion or

Gaza might have envied the superior science of the Barbarians;

the accuracy of Budæus, the taste of Erasmus, the copiousness of

Stephens, the erudition of Scaliger, the discernment of Reiske,

or of Bentley. On the side of the Latins, the discovery of

printing was a casual advantage: but this useful art has been

applied by Aldus, and his innumerable successors, to perpetuate

and multiply the works of antiquity. 116 A single manuscript

imported from Greece is revived in ten thousand copies; and each

copy is fairer than the original. In this form, Homer and Plato

would peruse with more satisfaction their own writings; and their

scholiasts must resign the prize to the labors of our Western

editors.

110 (return) [ See the Life of Nicholas V. by two contemporary

authors, Janottus Manettus, (tom. iii. P. ii. p. 905—962,) and

Vespasian of Florence, (tom. xxv. p. 267—290,) in the collection

of Muratori; and consult Tiraboschi, (tom. vi. P. i. p. 46—52,

109,) and Hody in the articles of Theodore Gaza, George of

Trebizond, &c.]

111 (return) [ Lord Bolingbroke observes, with truth and spirit,

that the popes in this instance, were worse politicians than the

muftis, and that the charm which had bound mankind for so many

ages was broken by the magicians themselves, (Letters on the

Study of History, l. vi. p. 165, 166, octavo edition, 1779.)]

112 (return) [ See the literary history of Cosmo and Lorenzo of

Medicis, in Tiraboschi, (tom. vi. P. i. l. i. c. 2,) who bestows

a due measure of praise on Alphonso of Arragon, king of Naples,

the dukes of Milan, Ferrara Urbino, &c. The republic of Venice

has deserved the least from the gratitude of scholars.]

113 (return) [ Tiraboschi, (tom. vi. P. i. p. 104,) from the

preface of Janus Lascaris to the Greek Anthology, printed at

Florence, 1494. Latebant (says Aldus in his preface to the Greek

orators, apud Hodium, p. 249) in Atho Thraciæ monte. Eas

Lascaris.... in Italiam reportavit. Miserat enim ipsum Laurentius

ille Medices in Græciam ad inquirendos simul, et quantovis

emendos pretio bonos libros. It is remarkable enough, that the

research was facilitated by Sultan Bajazet II.]

114 (return) [ The Greek language was introduced into the

university of Oxford in the last years of the xvth century, by

Grocyn, Linacer, and Latimer, who had all studied at Florence

under Demetrius Chalcocondyles. See Dr. Knight’s curious Life of

Erasmus. Although a stout academical patriot, he is forced to

acknowledge that Erasmus learned Greek at Oxford, and taught it

at Cambridge.]

115 (return) [ The jealous Italians were desirous of keeping a

monopoly of Greek learning. When Aldus was about to publish the

Greek scholiasts on Sophocles and Euripides, Cave, (said they,)

cave hoc facias, ne _Barbari_ istis adjuti domi maneant, et

pauciores in Italiam ventitent, (Dr. Knight, in his Life of

Erasmus, p. 365, from Beatus Rhemanus.)]

116 (return) [ The press of Aldus Manutius, a Roman, was

established at Venice about the year 1494: he printed above sixty

considerable works of Greek literature, almost all for the first

time; several containing different treatises and authors, and of

several authors, two, three, or four editions, (Fabric. Bibliot.

Græc. tom. xiii. p. 605, &c.) Yet his glory must not tempt us to

forget, that the first Greek book, the Grammar of Constantine

Lascaris, was printed at Milan in 1476; and that the Florence

Homer of 1488 displays all the luxury of the typographical art.

See the Annales Typographical of Mattaire, and the Bibliographie

Instructive of De Bure, a knowing bookseller of Paris.]

Before the revival of classic literature, the Barbarians in

Europe were immersed in ignorance; and their vulgar tongues were

marked with the rudeness and poverty of their manners. The

students of the more perfect idioms of Rome and Greece were

introduced to a new world of light and science; to the society of

the free and polished nations of antiquity; and to a familiar

converse with those immortal men who spoke the sublime language

of eloquence and reason. Such an intercourse must tend to refine

the taste, and to elevate the genius, of the moderns; and yet,

from the first experiments, it might appear that the study of the

ancients had given fetters, rather than wings, to the human mind.

However laudable, the spirit of imitation is of a servile cast;

and the first disciples of the Greeks and Romans were a colony of

strangers in the midst of their age and country. The minute and

laborious diligence which explored the antiquities of remote

times might have improved or adorned the present state of

society, the critic and metaphysician were the slaves of

Aristotle; the poets, historians, and orators, were proud to

repeat the thoughts and words of the Augustan age: the works of

nature were observed with the eyes of Pliny and Theophrastus; and

some Pagan votaries professed a secret devotion to the gods of

Homer and Plato. 117 The Italians were oppressed by the strength

and number of their ancient auxiliaries: the century after the

deaths of Petrarch and Boccace was filled with a crowd of Latin

imitators, who decently repose on our shelves; but in that æra of

learning it will not be easy to discern a real discovery of

science, a work of invention or eloquence, in the popular

language of the country. 118 But as soon as it had been deeply

saturated with the celestial dew, the soil was quickened into

vegetation and life; the modern idioms were refined; the classics

of Athens and Rome inspired a pure taste and a generous

emulation; and in Italy, as afterwards in France and England, the

pleasing reign of poetry and fiction was succeeded by the light

of speculative and experimental philosophy. Genius may anticipate

the season of maturity; but in the education of a people, as in

that of an individual, memory must be exercised, before the

powers of reason and fancy can be expanded: nor may the artist

hope to equal or surpass, till he has learned to imitate, the

works of his predecessors.

117 (return) [ I will select three singular examples of this

classic enthusiasm. I. At the synod of Florence, Gemistus Pletho

said, in familiar conversation to George of Trebizond, that in a

short time mankind would unanimously renounce the Gospel and the

Koran, for a religion similar to that of the Gentiles, (Leo

Allatius, apud Fabricium, tom. x. p. 751.) 2. Paul II. persecuted

the Roman academy, which had been founded by Pomponius Lætus; and

the principal members were accused of heresy, impiety, and

_paganism_, (Tiraboschi, tom. vi. P. i. p. 81, 82.) 3. In the

next century, some scholars and poets in France celebrated the

success of Jodelle’s tragedy of Cleopatra, by a festival of

Bacchus, and, as it is said, by the sacrifice of a goat, (Bayle,

Dictionnaire, Jodelle. Fontenelle, tom. iii. p. 56—61.) Yet the

spirit of bigotry might often discern a serious impiety in the

sportive play of fancy and learning.]

118 (return) [ The survivor Boccace died in the year 1375; and we

cannot place before 1480 the composition of the Morgante Maggiore

of Pulci and the Orlando Innamorato of Boyardo, (Tiraboschi, tom.

vi. P. ii. p. 174—177.)]

Chapter LXVII: Schism Of The Greeks And Latins.—Part I.

Schism Of The Greeks And Latins.—Reign And Character Of Amurath

The Second.—Crusade Of Ladislaus, King Of Hungary.— His Defeat And

Death.—John Huniades.—Scanderbeg.— Constantine Palæologus, Last

Emperor Of The East.

The respective merits of Rome and Constantinople are compared and

celebrated by an eloquent Greek, the father of the Italian

schools. 1 The view of the ancient capital, the seat of his

ancestors, surpassed the most sanguine expectations of Emanuel

Chrysoloras; and he no longer blamed the exclamation of an old

sophist, that Rome was the habitation, not of men, but of gods.

Those gods, and those men, had long since vanished; but to the

eye of liberal enthusiasm, the majesty of ruin restored the image

of her ancient prosperity. The monuments of the consuls and

Cæsars, of the martyrs and apostles, engaged on all sides the

curiosity of the philosopher and the Christian; and he confessed

that in every age the arms and the religion of Rome were destined

to reign over the earth. While Chrysoloras admired the venerable

beauties of the mother, he was not forgetful of his native

country, her fairest daughter, her Imperial colony; and the

Byzantine patriot expatiates with zeal and truth on the eternal

advantages of nature, and the more transitory glories of art and

dominion, which adorned, or had adorned, the city of Constantine.

Yet the perfection of the copy still redounds (as he modestly

observes) to the honor of the original, and parents are delighted

to be renewed, and even excelled, by the superior merit of their

children. “Constantinople,” says the orator, “is situate on a

commanding point, between Europe and Asia, between the

Archipelago and the Euxine. By her interposition, the two seas,

and the two continents, are united for the common benefit of

nations; and the gates of commerce may be shut or opened at her

command. The harbor, encompassed on all sides by the sea, and the

continent, is the most secure and capacious in the world. The

walls and gates of Constantinople may be compared with those of

Babylon: the towers many; each tower is a solid and lofty

structure; and the second wall, the outer fortification, would be

sufficient for the defence and dignity of an ordinary capital. A

broad and rapid stream may be introduced into the ditches and the

artificial island may be encompassed, like Athens, 2 by land or

water.” Two strong and natural causes are alleged for the

perfection of the model of new Rome. The royal founder reigned

over the most illustrious nations of the globe; and in the

accomplishment of his designs, the power of the Romans was

combined with the art and science of the Greeks. Other cities

have been reared to maturity by accident and time: their beauties

are mingled with disorder and deformity; and the inhabitants,

unwilling to remove from their natal spot, are incapable of

correcting the errors of their ancestors, and the original vices

of situation or climate. But the free idea of Constantinople was

formed and executed by a single mind; and the primitive model was

improved by the obedient zeal of the subjects and successors of

the first monarch. The adjacent isles were stored with an

inexhaustible supply of marble; but the various materials were

transported from the most remote shores of Europe and Asia; and

the public and private buildings, the palaces, churches,

aqueducts, cisterns, porticos, columns, baths, and hippodromes,

were adapted to the greatness of the capital of the East. The

superfluity of wealth was spread along the shores of Europe and

Asia; and the Byzantine territory, as far as the Euxine, the

Hellespont, and the long wall, might be considered as a populous

suburb and a perpetual garden. In this flattering picture, the

past and the present, the times of prosperity and decay, are

artfully confounded; but a sigh and a confession escape, from the

orator, that his wretched country was the shadow and sepulchre of

its former self. The works of ancient sculpture had been defaced

by Christian zeal or Barbaric violence; the fairest structures

were demolished; and the marbles of Paros or Numidia were burnt

for lime, or applied to the meanest uses. Of many a statue, the

place was marked by an empty pedestal; of many a column, the size

was determined by a broken capital; the tombs of the emperors

were scattered on the ground; the stroke of time was accelerated

by storms and earthquakes; and the vacant space was adorned, by

vulgar tradition, with fabulous monuments of gold and silver.

From these wonders, which lived only in memory or belief, he

distinguishes, however, the porphyry pillar, the column and

colossus of Justinian, 3 and the church, more especially the

dome, of St. Sophia; the best conclusion, since it could not be

described according to its merits, and after it no other object

could deserve to be mentioned. But he forgets that, a century

before, the trembling fabrics of the colossus and the church had

been saved and supported by the timely care of Andronicus the

Elder. Thirty years after the emperor had fortified St. Sophia

with two new buttresses or pyramids, the eastern hemisphere

suddenly gave way: and the images, the altars, and the sanctuary,

were crushed by the falling ruin. The mischief indeed was

speedily repaired; the rubbish was cleared by the incessant labor

of every rank and age; and the poor remains of riches and

industry were consecrated by the Greeks to the most stately and

venerable temple of the East. 4

1 (return) [ The epistle of Emanuel Chrysoloras to the emperor

John Palæologus will not offend the eye or ear of a classical

student, (ad calcem Codini de Antiquitatibus C. P. p. 107—126.)

The superscription suggests a chronological remark, that John

Palæologus II. was associated in the empire before the year 1414,

the date of Chrysoloras’s death. A still earlier date, at least

1408, is deduced from the age of his youngest sons, Demetrius and

Thomas, who were both _Porphyrogeniti_ (Ducange, Fam. Byzant. p.

244, 247.)]

2 (return) [ Somebody observed that the city of Athens might be

circumnavigated, (tiV eipen tin polin tvn Aqhnaiwn dunasqai kai

paraplein kai periplein.) But what may be true in a rhetorical

sense of Constantinople, cannot be applied to the situation of

Athens, five miles from the sea, and not intersected or

surrounded by any navigable streams.]

3 (return) [ Nicephorus Gregoras has described the Colossus of

Justinian, (l. vii. 12:) but his measures are false and

inconsistent. The editor Boivin consulted his friend Girardon;

and the sculptor gave him the true proportions of an equestrian

statue. That of Justinian was still visible to Peter Gyllius, not

on the column, but in the outward court of the seraglio; and he

was at Constantinople when it was melted down, and cast into a

brass cannon, (de Topograph. C. P. l. ii. c. 17.)]

4 (return) [ See the decay and repairs of St. Sophia, in

Nicephorus Gregoras (l. vii. 12, l. xv. 2.) The building was

propped by Andronicus in 1317, the eastern hemisphere fell in

1345. The Greeks, in their pompous rhetoric, exalt the beauty and

holiness of the church, an earthly heaven the abode of angels,

and of God himself, &c.]

The last hope of the falling city and empire was placed in the

harmony of the mother and daughter, in the maternal tenderness of

Rome, and the filial obedience of Constantinople. In the synod of

Florence, the Greeks and Latins had embraced, and subscribed, and

promised; but these signs of friendship were perfidious or

fruitless; 5 and the baseless fabric of the union vanished like a

dream. 6 The emperor and his prelates returned home in the

Venetian galleys; but as they touched at the Morea and the Isles

of Corfu and Lesbos, the subjects of the Latins complained that

the pretended union would be an instrument of oppression. No

sooner did they land on the Byzantine shore, than they were

saluted, or rather assailed, with a general murmur of zeal and

discontent. During their absence, above two years, the capital

had been deprived of its civil and ecclesiastical rulers;

fanaticism fermented in anarchy; the most furious monks reigned

over the conscience of women and bigots; and the hatred of the

Latin name was the first principle of nature and religion. Before

his departure for Italy, the emperor had flattered the city with

the assurance of a prompt relief and a powerful succor; and the

clergy, confident in their orthodoxy and science, had promised

themselves and their flocks an easy victory over the blind

shepherds of the West. The double disappointment exasperated the

Greeks; the conscience of the subscribing prelates was awakened;

the hour of temptation was past; and they had more to dread from

the public resentment, than they could hope from the favor of the

emperor or the pope. Instead of justifying their conduct, they

deplored their weakness, professed their contrition, and cast

themselves on the mercy of God and of their brethren. To the

reproachful question, what had been the event or the use of their

Italian synod? they answered with sighs and tears, “Alas! we have

made a new faith; we have exchanged piety for impiety; we have

betrayed the immaculate sacrifice; and we are become _Azymites_.”

(The Azymites were those who celebrated the communion with

unleavened bread; and I must retract or qualify the praise which

I have bestowed on the growing philosophy of the times.) “Alas!

we have been seduced by distress, by fraud, and by the hopes and

fears of a transitory life. The hand that has signed the union

should be cut off; and the tongue that has pronounced the Latin

creed deserves to be torn from the root.” The best proof of their

repentance was an increase of zeal for the most trivial rites and

the most incomprehensible doctrines; and an absolute separation

from all, without excepting their prince, who preserved some

regard for honor and consistency. After the decease of the

patriarch Joseph, the archbishops of Heraclea and Trebizond had

courage to refuse the vacant office; and Cardinal Bessarion

preferred the warm and comfortable shelter of the Vatican. The

choice of the emperor and his clergy was confined to Metrophanes

of Cyzicus: he was consecrated in St. Sophia, but the temple was

vacant. The cross-bearers abdicated their service; the infection

spread from the city to the villages; and Metrophanes discharged,

without effect, some ecclesiastical thunders against a nation of

schismatics. The eyes of the Greeks were directed to Mark of

Ephesus, the champion of his country; and the sufferings of the

holy confessor were repaid with a tribute of admiration and

applause. His example and writings propagated the flame of

religious discord; age and infirmity soon removed him from the

world; but the gospel of Mark was not a law of forgiveness; and

he requested with his dying breath, that none of the adherents of

Rome might attend his obsequies or pray for his soul.

5 (return) [ The genuine and original narrative of Syropulus (p.

312—351) opens the schism from the first _office_ of the Greeks

at Venice to the general opposition at Constantinople, of the

clergy and people.]

6 (return) [ On the schism of Constantinople, see Phranza, (l.

ii. c. 17,) Laonicus Chalcondyles, (l. vi. p. 155, 156,) and

Ducas, (c. 31;) the last of whom writes with truth and freedom.

Among the moderns we may distinguish the continuator of Fleury,

(tom. xxii. p. 338, &c., 401, 420, &c.,) and Spondanus, (A.D.

1440—50.) The sense of the latter is drowned in prejudice and

passion, as soon as Rome and religion are concerned.]

The schism was not confined to the narrow limits of the Byzantine

empire. Secure under the Mamaluke sceptre, the three patriarchs

of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem, assembled a numerous

synod; disowned their representatives at Ferrara and Florence;

condemned the creed and council of the Latins; and threatened the

emperor of Constantinople with the censures of the Eastern

church. Of the sectaries of the Greek communion, the Russians

were the most powerful, ignorant, and superstitious. Their

primate, the cardinal Isidore, hastened from Florence to Moscow,

7 to reduce the independent nation under the Roman yoke. But the

Russian bishops had been educated at Mount Athos; and the prince

and people embraced the theology of their priests. They were

scandalized by the title, the pomp, the Latin cross of the

legate, the friend of those impious men who shaved their beards,

and performed the divine office with gloves on their hands and

rings on their fingers: Isidore was condemned by a synod; his

person was imprisoned in a monastery; and it was with extreme

difficulty that the cardinal could escape from the hands of a

fierce and fanatic people. 8 The Russians refused a passage to

the missionaries of Rome who aspired to convert the Pagans beyond

the Tanais; 9 and their refusal was justified by the maxim, that

the guilt of idolatry is less damnable than that of schism. The

errors of the Bohemians were excused by their abhorrence for the

pope; and a deputation of the Greek clergy solicited the

friendship of those sanguinary enthusiasts. 10 While Eugenius

triumphed in the union and orthodoxy of the Greeks, his party was

contracted to the walls, or rather to the palace of

Constantinople. The zeal of Palæologus had been excited by

interest; it was soon cooled by opposition: an attempt to violate

the national belief might endanger his life and crown; not could

the pious rebels be destitute of foreign and domestic aid. The

sword of his brother Demetrius, who in Italy had maintained a

prudent and popular silence, was half unsheathed in the cause of

religion; and Amurath, the Turkish sultan, was displeased and

alarmed by the seeming friendship of the Greeks and Latins.

7 (return) [ Isidore was metropolitan of Kiow, but the Greeks

subject to Poland have removed that see from the ruins of Kiow to

Lemberg, or Leopold, (Herbestein, in Ramusio, tom. ii. p. 127.)

On the other hand, the Russians transferred their spiritual

obedience to the archbishop, who became, in 1588, the patriarch,

of Moscow, (Levesque Hist. de Russie, tom. iii. p. 188, 190, from

a Greek MS. at Turin, Iter et labores Archiepiscopi Arsenii.)]

8 (return) [ The curious narrative of Levesque (Hist. de Russie,

tom. ii. p. 242—247) is extracted from the patriarchal archives.

The scenes of Ferrara and Florence are described by ignorance and

passion; but the Russians are credible in the account of their

own prejudices.]

9 (return) [ The Shamanism, the ancient religion of the Samanæans

and Gymnosophists, has been driven by the more popular Bramins

from India into the northern deserts: the naked philosophers were

compelled to wrap themselves in fur; but they insensibly sunk

into wizards and physicians. The Mordvans and Tcheremisses in the

European Russia adhere to this religion, which is formed on the

earthly model of one king or God, his ministers or angels, and

the rebellious spirits who oppose his government. As these tribes

of the Volga have no images, they might more justly retort on the

Latin missionaries the name of idolaters, (Levesque, Hist. des

Peuples soumis à la Domination des Russes, tom. i. p. 194—237,

423—460.)]

10 (return) [ Spondanus, Annal. Eccles. tom ii. A.D. 1451, No.

13. The epistle of the Greeks with a Latin version, is extant in

the college library at Prague.]

“Sultan Murad, or Amurath, lived forty-nine, and reigned thirty

years, six months, and eight days. He was a just and valiant

prince, of a great soul, patient of labors, learned, merciful,

religious, charitable; a lover and encourager of the studious,

and of all who excelled in any art or science; a good emperor and

a great general. No man obtained more or greater victories than

Amurath; Belgrade alone withstood his attacks. 101 Under his

reign, the soldier was ever victorious, the citizen rich and

secure. If he subdued any country, his first care was to build

mosques and caravansaras, hospitals, and colleges. Every year he

gave a thousand pieces of gold to the sons of the Prophet; and

sent two thousand five hundred to the religious persons of Mecca,

Medina, and Jerusalem.” 11 This portrait is transcribed from the

historian of the Othman empire: but the applause of a servile and

superstitious people has been lavished on the worst of tyrants;

and the virtues of a sultan are often the vices most useful to

himself, or most agreeable to his subjects. A nation ignorant of

the equal benefits of liberty and law, must be awed by the

flashes of arbitrary power: the cruelty of a despot will assume

the character of justice; his profusion, of liberality; his

obstinacy, of firmness. If the most reasonable excuse be

rejected, few acts of obedience will be found impossible; and

guilt must tremble, where innocence cannot always be secure. The

tranquillity of the people, and the discipline of the troops,

were best maintained by perpetual action in the field; war was

the trade of the Janizaries; and those who survived the peril,

and divided the spoil, applauded the generous ambition of their

sovereign. To propagate the true religion, was the duty of a

faithful Mussulman: the unbelievers were _his_ enemies, and those

of the Prophet; and, in the hands of the Turks, the cimeter was

the only instrument of conversion. Under these circumstances,

however, the justice and moderation of Amurath are attested by

his conduct, and acknowledged by the Christians themselves; who

consider a prosperous reign and a peaceful death as the reward of

his singular merits. In the vigor of his age and military power,

he seldom engaged in war till he was justified by a previous and

adequate provocation: the victorious sultan was disarmed by

submission; and in the observance of treaties, his word was

inviolate and sacred. 12 The Hungarians were commonly the

aggressors; he was provoked by the revolt of Scanderbeg; and the

perfidious Caramanian was twice vanquished, and twice pardoned,

by the Ottoman monarch. Before he invaded the Morea, Thebes had

been surprised by the despot: in the conquest of Thessalonica,

the grandson of Bajazet might dispute the recent purchase of the

Venetians; and after the first siege of Constantinople, the

sultan was never tempted, by the distress, the absence, or the

injuries of Palæologus, to extinguish the dying light of the

Byzantine empire.

101 (return) [ See the siege and massacre at Thessalonica. Von

Hammer vol. i p. 433.—M.]

11 (return) [ See Cantemir, History of the Othman Empire, p. 94.

Murad, or Morad, may be more correct: but I have preferred the

popular name to that obscure diligence which is rarely successful

in translating an Oriental, into the Roman, alphabet.]

12 (return) [ See Chalcondyles, (l. vii. p. 186, 198,) Ducas, (c.

33,) and Marinus Barletius, (in Vit. Scanderbeg, p. 145, 146.) In

his good faith towards the garrison of Sfetigrade, he was a

lesson and example to his son Mahomet.]

But the most striking feature in the life and character of

Amurath is the double abdication of the Turkish throne; and, were

not his motives debased by an alloy of superstition, we must

praise the royal philosopher, 13 who at the age of forty could

discern the vanity of human greatness. Resigning the sceptre to

his son, he retired to the pleasant residence of Magnesia; but he

retired to the society of saints and hermits. It was not till the

fourth century of the Hegira, that the religion of Mahomet had

been corrupted by an institution so adverse to his genius; but in

the age of the crusades, the various orders of Dervises were

multiplied by the example of the Christian, and even the Latin,

monks. 14 The lord of nations submitted to fast, and pray, and

turn round 141 in endless rotation with the fanatics, who mistook

the giddiness of the head for the illumination of the spirit. 15

But he was soon awakened from his dreams of enthusiasm by the

Hungarian invasion; and his obedient son was the foremost to urge

the public danger and the wishes of the people. Under the banner

of their veteran leader, the Janizaries fought and conquered but

he withdrew from the field of Varna, again to pray, to fast, and

to turn round with his Magnesian brethren. These pious

occupations were again interrupted by the danger of the state. A

victorious army disdained the inexperience of their youthful

ruler: the city of Adrianople was abandoned to rapine and

slaughter; and the unanimous divan implored his presence to

appease the tumult, and prevent the rebellion, of the Janizaries.

At the well-known voice of their master, they trembled and

obeyed; and the reluctant sultan was compelled to support his

splendid servitude, till at the end of four years, he was

relieved by the angel of death. Age or disease, misfortune or

caprice, have tempted several princes to descend from the throne;

and they have had leisure to repent of their irretrievable step.

But Amurath alone, in the full liberty of choice, after the trial

of empire and solitude, has _repeated_ his preference of a

private life.

13 (return) [ Voltaire (Essai sur l’Histoire Générale, c. 89, p.

283, 284) admires _le Philosophe Turc:_ would he have bestowed

the same praise on a Christian prince for retiring to a

monastery? In his way, Voltaire was a bigot, an intolerant

bigot.]

14 (return) [ See the articles _Dervische_, _Fakir_, _Nasser_,

_Rohbaniat_, in D’Herbelot’s Bibliothèque Orientale. Yet the

subject is superficially treated from the Persian and Arabian

writers. It is among the Turks that these orders have principally

flourished.]

141 (return) [ Gibbon has fallen into a remarkable error. The

unmonastic retreat of Amurath was that of an epicurean rather

than of a dervis; more like that of Sardanapalus than of Charles

the Fifth. Profane, not divine, love was its chief occupation:

the only dance, that described by Horace as belonging to the

country, motus doceri gaudet Ionicos. See Von Hammer note, p.

652.—M.]

15 (return) [ Ricaut (in the Present State of the Ottoman Empire,

p. 242—268) affords much information, which he drew from his

personal conversation with the heads of the dervises, most of

whom ascribed their origin to the time of Orchan. He does not

mention the _Zichid_ of Chalcondyles, (l. vii. p. 286,) among

whom Amurath retired: the _Seids_ of that author are the

descendants of Mahomet.]

After the departure of his Greek brethren, Eugenius had not been

unmindful of their temporal interest; and his tender regard for

the Byzantine empire was animated by a just apprehension of the

Turks, who approached, and might soon invade, the borders of

Italy. But the spirit of the crusades had expired; and the

coldness of the Franks was not less unreasonable than their

headlong passion. In the eleventh century, a fanatic monk could

precipitate Europe on Asia for the recovery of the holy

sepulchre; but in the fifteenth, the most pressing motives of

religion and policy were insufficient to unite the Latins in the

defence of Christendom. Germany was an inexhaustible storehouse

of men and arms: 16 but that complex and languid body required

the impulse of a vigorous hand; and Frederic the Third was alike

impotent in his personal character and his Imperial dignity. A

long war had impaired the strength, without satiating the

animosity, of France and England: 17 but Philip duke of Burgundy

was a vain and magnificent prince; and he enjoyed, without danger

or expense, the adventurous piety of his subjects, who sailed, in

a gallant fleet, from the coast of Flanders to the Hellespont.

The maritime republics of Venice and Genoa were less remote from

the scene of action; and their hostile fleets were associated

under the standard of St. Peter. The kingdoms of Hungary and

Poland, which covered as it were the interior pale of the Latin

church, were the most nearly concerned to oppose the progress of

the Turks. Arms were the patrimony of the Scythians and

Sarmatians; and these nations might appear equal to the contest,

could they point, against the common foe, those swords that were

so wantonly drawn in bloody and domestic quarrels. But the same

spirit was adverse to concord and obedience: a poor country and a

limited monarch are incapable of maintaining a standing force;

and the loose bodies of Polish and Hungarian horse were not armed

with the sentiments and weapons which, on some occasions, have

given irresistible weight to the French chivalry. Yet, on this

side, the designs of the Roman pontiff, and the eloquence of

Cardinal Julian, his legate, were promoted by the circumstances

of the times: 18 by the union of the two crowns on the head of

Ladislaus, 19 a young and ambitious soldier; by the valor of a

hero, whose name, the name of John Huniades, was already popular

among the Christians, and formidable to the Turks. An endless

treasure of pardons and indulgences was scattered by the legate;

many private warriors of France and Germany enlisted under the

holy banner; and the crusade derived some strength, or at least

some reputation, from the new allies both of Europe and Asia. A

fugitive despot of Servia exaggerated the distress and ardor of

the Christians beyond the Danube, who would unanimously rise to

vindicate their religion and liberty. The Greek emperor, 20 with

a spirit unknown to his fathers, engaged to guard the Bosphorus,

and to sally from Constantinople at the head of his national and

mercenary troops. The sultan of Caramania 21 announced the

retreat of Amurath, and a powerful diversion in the heart of

Anatolia; and if the fleets of the West could occupy at the same

moment the Straits of the Hellespont, the Ottoman monarchy would

be dissevered and destroyed. Heaven and earth must rejoice in the

perdition of the miscreants; and the legate, with prudent

ambiguity, instilled the opinion of the invisible, perhaps the

visible, aid of the Son of God, and his divine mother.

16 (return) [ In the year 1431, Germany raised 40,000 horse,

men-at-arms, against the Hussites of Bohemia, (Lenfant, Hist. du

Concile de Basle, tom. i. p. 318.) At the siege of Nuys, on the

Rhine, in 1474, the princes, prelates, and cities, sent their

respective quotas; and the bishop of Munster (qui n’est pas des

plus grands) furnished 1400 horse, 6000 foot, all in green, with

1200 wagons. The united armies of the king of England and the

duke of Burgundy scarcely equalled one third of this German host,

(Mémoires de Philippe de Comines, l. iv. c. 2.) At present, six

or seven hundred thousand men are maintained in constant pay and

admirable discipline by the powers of Germany.]

17 (return) [ It was not till the year 1444, that France and

England could agree on a truce of some months. (See Rymer’s

Fdera, and the chronicles of both nations.)]

18 (return) [ In the Hungarian crusade, Spondanus (Annal. Ecclés.

A.D. 1443, 1444) has been my leading guide. He has diligently

read, and critically compared, the Greek and Turkish materials,

the historians of Hungary, Poland, and the West. His narrative is

perspicuous and where he can be free from a religious bias, the

judgment of Spondanus is not contemptible.]

19 (return) [ I have curtailed the harsh letter (Wladislaus)

which most writers affix to his name, either in compliance with

the Polish pronunciation, or to distinguish him from his rival

the infant Ladislaus of Austria. Their competition for the crown

of Hungary is described by Callimachus, (l. i. ii. p. 447—486,)

Bonfinius, (Decad. iii. l. iv.,) Spondanus, and Lenfant.]

20 (return) [ The Greek historians, Phranza, Chalcondyles, and

Ducas, do not ascribe to their prince a very active part in this

crusade, which he seems to have promoted by his wishes, and

injured by his fears.]

21 (return) [ Cantemir (p. 88) ascribes to his policy the

original plan, and transcribes his animating epistle to the king

of Hungary. But the Mahometan powers are seldom it formed of the

state of Christendom and the situation and correspondence of the

knights of Rhodes must connect them with the sultan of

Caramania.]

Of the Polish and Hungarian diets, a religious war was the

unanimous cry; and Ladislaus, after passing the Danube, led an

army of his confederate subjects as far as Sophia, the capital of

the Bulgarian kingdom. In this expedition they obtained two

signal victories, which were justly ascribed to the valor and

conduct of Huniades. In the first, with a vanguard of ten

thousand men, he surprised the Turkish camp; in the second, he

vanquished and made prisoner the most renowned of their generals,

who possessed the double advantage of ground and numbers. The

approach of winter, and the natural and artificial obstacles of

Mount Hæmus, arrested the progress of the hero, who measured a

narrow interval of six days’ march from the foot of the mountains

to the hostile towers of Adrianople, and the friendly capital of

the Greek empire. The retreat was undisturbed; and the entrance

into Buda was at once a military and religious triumph. An

ecclesiastical procession was followed by the king and his

warriors on foot: he nicely balanced the merits and rewards of

the two nations; and the pride of conquest was blended with the

humble temper of Christianity. Thirteen bashaws, nine standards,

and four thousand captives, were unquestionable trophies; and as

all were willing to believe, and none were present to contradict,

the crusaders multiplied, with unblushing confidence, the myriads

of Turks whom they had left on the field of battle. 22 The most

solid proof, and the most salutary consequence, of victory, was a

deputation from the divan to solicit peace, to restore Servia, to

ransom the prisoners, and to evacuate the Hungarian frontier. By

this treaty, the rational objects of the war were obtained: the

king, the despot, and Huniades himself, in the diet of Segedin,

were satisfied with public and private emolument; a truce of ten

years was concluded; and the followers of Jesus and Mahomet, who

swore on the Gospel and the Koran, attested the word of God as

the guardian of truth and the avenger of perfidy. In the place of

the Gospel, the Turkish ministers had proposed to substitute the

Eucharist, the real presence of the Catholic deity; but the

Christians refused to profane their holy mysteries; and a

superstitious conscience is less forcibly bound by the spiritual

energy, than by the outward and visible symbols of an oath. 23

22 (return) [ In their letters to the emperor Frederic III. the

Hungarians slay 80,000 Turks in one battle; but the modest Julian

reduces the slaughter to 6000 or even 2000 infidels, (Æneas

Sylvius in Europ. c. 5, and epist. 44, 81, apud Spondanum.)]

23 (return) [ See the origin of the Turkish war, and the first

expedition of Ladislaus, in the vth and vith books of the iiid

decad of Bonfinius, who, in his division and style, copies Livy

with tolerable success Callimachus (l. ii p. 487—496) is still

more pure and authentic.]

During the whole transaction, the cardinal legate had observed a

sullen silence, unwilling to approve, and unable to oppose, the

consent of the king and people. But the diet was not dissolved

before Julian was fortified by the welcome intelligence, that

Anatolia was invaded by the Caramanian, and Thrace by the Greek

emperor; that the fleets of Genoa, Venice, and Burgundy, were

masters of the Hellespont; and that the allies, informed of the

victory, and ignorant of the treaty, of Ladislaus, impatiently

waited for the return of his victorious army. “And is it thus,”

exclaimed the cardinal, 24 “that you will desert their

expectations and your own fortune? It is to them, to your God,

and your fellow-Christians, that you have pledged your faith; and

that prior obligation annihilates a rash and sacrilegious oath to

the enemies of Christ. His vicar on earth is the Roman pontiff;

without whose sanction you can neither promise nor perform. In

his name I absolve your perjury and sanctify your arms: follow my

footsteps in the paths of glory and salvation; and if still ye

have scruples, devolve on my head the punishment and the sin.”

This mischievous casuistry was seconded by his respectable

character, and the levity of popular assemblies: war was

resolved, on the same spot where peace had so lately been sworn;

and, in the execution of the treaty, the Turks were assaulted by

the Christians; to whom, with some reason, they might apply the

epithet of Infidels. The falsehood of Ladislaus to his word and

oath was palliated by the religion of the times: the most

perfect, or at least the most popular, excuse would have been the

success of his arms and the deliverance of the Eastern church.

But the same treaty which should have bound his conscience had

diminished his strength. On the proclamation of the peace, the

French and German volunteers departed with indignant murmurs: the

Poles were exhausted by distant warfare, and perhaps disgusted

with foreign command; and their palatines accepted the first

license, and hastily retired to their provinces and castles. Even

Hungary was divided by faction, or restrained by a laudable

scruple; and the relics of the crusade that marched in the second

expedition were reduced to an inadequate force of twenty thousand

men. A Walachian chief, who joined the royal standard with his

vassals, presumed to remark that their numbers did not exceed the

hunting retinue that sometimes attended the sultan; and the gift

of two horses of matchless speed might admonish Ladislaus of his

secret foresight of the event. But the despot of Servia, after

the restoration of his country and children, was tempted by the

promise of new realms; and the inexperience of the king, the

enthusiasm of the legate, and the martial presumption of Huniades

himself, were persuaded that every obstacle must yield to the

invincible virtue of the sword and the cross. After the passage

of the Danube, two roads might lead to Constantinople and the

Hellespont: the one direct, abrupt, and difficult through the

mountains of Hæmus; the other more tedious and secure, over a

level country, and along the shores of the Euxine; in which their

flanks, according to the Scythian discipline, might always be

covered by a movable fortification of wagons. The latter was

judiciously preferred: the Catholics marched through the plains

of Bulgaria, burning, with wanton cruelty, the churches and

villages of the Christian natives; and their last station was at

Warna, near the sea-shore; on which the defeat and death of

Ladislaus have bestowed a memorable name. 25

24 (return) [ I do not pretend to warrant the literal accuracy of

Julian’s speech, which is variously worded by Callimachus, (l.

iii. p. 505—507,) Bonfinius, (dec. iii. l. vi. p. 457, 458,) and

other historians, who might indulge their own eloquence, while

they represent one of the orators of the age. But they all agree

in the advice and arguments for perjury, which in the field of

controversy are fiercely attacked by the Protestants, and feebly

defended by the Catholics. The latter are discouraged by the

misfortune of Warna.]

25 (return) [ Warna, under the Grecian name of Odessus, was a

colony of the Milesians, which they denominated from the hero

Ulysses, (Cellarius, tom. i. p. 374. D’Anville, tom. i. p. 312.)

According to Arrian’s Periplus of the Euxine, (p. 24, 25, in the

first volume of Hudson’s Geographers,) it was situate 1740

stadia, or furlongs, from the mouth of the Danube, 2140 from

Byzantium, and 360 to the north of a ridge of promontory of Mount

Hæmus, which advances into the sea.]

Chapter LXVII: Schism Of The Greeks And Latins.—Part II.

It was on this fatal spot, that, instead of finding a confederate

fleet to second their operations, they were alarmed by the

approach of Amurath himself, who had issued from his Magnesian

solitude, and transported the forces of Asia to the defence of

Europe. According to some writers, the Greek emperor had been

awed, or seduced, to grant the passage of the Bosphorus; and an

indelible stain of corruption is fixed on the Genoese, or the

pope’s nephew, the Catholic admiral, whose mercenary connivance

betrayed the guard of the Hellespont. From Adrianople, the sultan

advanced by hasty marches, at the head of sixty thousand men; and

when the cardinal, and Huniades, had taken a nearer survey of the

numbers and order of the Turks, these ardent warriors proposed

the tardy and impracticable measure of a retreat. The king alone

was resolved to conquer or die; and his resolution had almost

been crowned with a glorious and salutary victory. The princes

were opposite to each other in the centre; and the Beglerbegs, or

generals of Anatolia and Romania, commanded on the right and

left, against the adverse divisions of the despot and Huniades.

The Turkish wings were broken on the first onset: but the

advantage was fatal; and the rash victors, in the heat of the

pursuit, were carried away far from the annoyance of the enemy,

or the support of their friends. When Amurath beheld the flight

of his squadrons, he despaired of his fortune and that of the

empire: a veteran Janizary seized his horse’s bridle; and he had

magnanimity to pardon and reward the soldier who dared to

perceive the terror, and arrest the flight, of his sovereign. A

copy of the treaty, the monument of Christian perfidy, had been

displayed in the front of battle; and it is said, that the sultan

in his distress, lifting his eyes and his hands to heaven,

implored the protection of the God of truth; and called on the

prophet Jesus himself to avenge the impious mockery of his name

and religion. 26 With inferior numbers and disordered ranks, the

king of Hungary rushed forward in the confidence of victory, till

his career was stopped by the impenetrable phalanx of the

Janizaries. If we may credit the Ottoman annals, his horse was

pierced by the javelin of Amurath; 27 he fell among the spears of

the infantry; and a Turkish soldier proclaimed with a loud voice,

“Hungarians, behold the head of your king!” The death of

Ladislaus was the signal of their defeat. On his return from an

intemperate pursuit, Huniades deplored his error, and the public

loss; he strove to rescue the royal body, till he was overwhelmed

by the tumultuous crowd of the victors and vanquished; and the

last efforts of his courage and conduct were exerted to save the

remnant of his Walachian cavalry. Ten thousand Christians were

slain in the disastrous battle of Warna: the loss of the Turks,

more considerable in numbers, bore a smaller proportion to their

total strength; yet the philosophic sultan was not ashamed to

confess, that his ruin must be the consequence of a second and

similar victory. 271 At his command a column was erected on the

spot where Ladislaus had fallen; but the modest inscription,

instead of accusing the rashness, recorded the valor, and

bewailed the misfortune, of the Hungarian youth. 28

26 (return) [ Some Christian writers affirm, that he drew from

his bosom the host or wafer on which the treaty had _not_ been

sworn. The Moslems suppose, with more simplicity, an appeal to

God and his prophet Jesus, which is likewise insinuated by

Callimachus, (l. iii. p. 516. Spondan. A.D. 1444, No. 8.)]

27 (return) [ A critic will always distrust these _spolia opima_

of a victorious general, so difficult for valor to obtain, so

easy for flattery to invent, (Cantemir, p. 90, 91.) Callimachus

(l. iii. p. 517) more simply and probably affirms, supervenitibus

Janizaris, telorum multitudine, non jam confossus est, quam

obrutus.]

271 (return) [ Compare Von Hammer, p. 463.—M.]

28 (return) [ Besides some valuable hints from Æneas Sylvius,

which are diligently collected by Spondanus, our best authorities

are three historians of the xvth century, Philippus Callimachus,

(de Rebus a Vladislao Polonorum atque Hungarorum Rege gestis,

libri iii. in Bel. Script. Rerum Hungaricarum, tom. i. p.

433—518,) Bonfinius, (decad. iii. l. v. p. 460—467,) and

Chalcondyles, (l. vii. p. 165—179.) The two first were Italians,

but they passed their lives in Poland and Hungary, (Fabric.

Bibliot. Latin. Med. et Infimæ Ætatis, tom. i. p. 324. Vossius,

de Hist. Latin. l. iii. c. 8, 11. Bayle, Dictionnaire,

Bonfinius.) A small tract of Fælix Petancius, chancellor of

Segnia, (ad calcem Cuspinian. de Cæsaribus, p. 716—722,)

represents the theatre of the war in the xvth century.]

Before I lose sight of the field of Warna, I am tempted to pause

on the character and story of two principal actors, the cardinal

Julian and John Huniades. Julian 29 Cæsarini was born of a noble

family of Rome: his studies had embraced both the Latin and Greek

learning, both the sciences of divinity and law; and his

versatile genius was equally adapted to the schools, the camp,

and the court. No sooner had he been invested with the Roman

purple, than he was sent into Germany to arm the empire against

the rebels and heretics of Bohemia. The spirit of persecution is

unworthy of a Christian; the military profession ill becomes a

priest; but the former is excused by the times; and the latter

was ennobled by the courage of Julian, who stood dauntless and

alone in the disgraceful flight of the German host. As the pope’s

legate, he opened the council of Basil; but the president soon

appeared the most strenuous champion of ecclesiastical freedom;

and an opposition of seven years was conducted by his ability and

zeal. After promoting the strongest measures against the

authority and person of Eugenius, some secret motive of interest

or conscience engaged him to desert on a sudden the popular

party. The cardinal withdrew himself from Basil to Ferrara; and,

in the debates of the Greeks and Latins, the two nations admired

the dexterity of his arguments and the depth of his theological

erudition. 30 In his Hungarian embassy, we have already seen the

mischievous effects of his sophistry and eloquence, of which

Julian himself was the first victim. The cardinal, who performed

the duties of a priest and a soldier, was lost in the defeat of

Warna. The circumstances of his death are variously related; but

it is believed, that a weighty encumbrance of gold impeded his

flight, and tempted the cruel avarice of some Christian

fugitives.

29 (return) [ M. Lenfant has described the origin (Hist. du

Concile de Basle, tom. i. p. 247, &c.) and Bohemian campaign (p.

315, &c.) of Cardinal Julian. His services at Basil and Ferrara,

and his unfortunate end, are occasionally related by Spondanus,

and the continuator of Fleury.]

30 (return) [ Syropulus honorably praises the talent of an enemy,

(p. 117:) toiauta tina eipen o IoulianoV peplatusmenwV agan kai

logikwV, kai met episthmhV kai deinothtoV 'RhtprikhV.]

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) · 第 75 / 79 章

In his distress, the friendship of Palæologus was disputed by the