LXII. caris, his pupil and lawful fovereign, were infenfibly abo- CHA P. lifhed. But his claims ftill lived in the minds of the people; and the royal youth must speedily attain the years of manhood and ambition. By fear or confcience, Palæologus was reftrained from dipping his hands in innocent and royal blood; but the anxiety of an ufurper and a parent urged him to fecure his throne, by one of those imperfect crimes fo familiar to the modern Greeks. The lofs of fight incapacitated the young prince for the active business of the world instead of the brutal violence of tearing out his eyes, the visual nerve was deftroyed by the intenfe glare of a red-hot bafon (22), and John Lafcaris was removed to a distant caftle, where he spent many years in privacy and oblivion. Such cool and deliberate guilt may feem incompatible with remorfe; but if Michael could truft the mercy of Heaven, he was not inacceffible to the reproaches and vengeance of mankind, which he had provoked by cruelty and treafon. His cruelty imposed on a fervile court the duties of applaufe or filence; but the clergy had a right to fpeak in the name of their invisible mafter; and their holy legions were led by a prelate, whofe character was above the temptations of hope or fear. After a fhort abdication of his dignity, Arfenius (23) had confented to afcend the ecclefiaftical throne of Conftantinople, and to prefide in the restoration of the church. His pious fimplicity was long deceived by the arts of Paleologus; and his patience and fubmiffion might foothe the ufurper and protect the fafety of the young prince, On the news of his inhuman treatment, the patriarch unfheathed the fpiritual fword; and fuperftition, on this oc- is excomcafion, was enlifted in the cause of humanity and juftice. municated In a fynod of bishops, who were ftimulated by the example by the paof his zeal, the patriarch pronounced a sentence of excom- fenius, muni (22) This milder invention for extinguishing the fight, was tried by the philofopher Democritus on himself, when he fought to withdraw his mind from the visible world: a foolish ftory! The word abbacinare, in Latin and Italian, has furnished Ducange (Gloff. Latin.) with an opportunity to review the various modes of blinding: the more violent were fcooping, burning with an iron, or hot vinegar, and binding the head with a strong cord till the eyes burft from their fockets. Ingenious tyrants! (22) See the first retreat and restoration of Arfenius, in Pachymer (1. ii. c. 15. 1. iii c. 1, 2.), and Nicephorus Gregoras (l. iii. c. 1. l. iv. c. 1.). Pofterity justly accused the QA and gatua of Arfenius, the virtues of an hermit, the vices of a minifter (1. xii. c. 2.). triarch Ar A. D. 1262-1268. LXII. CHA P. munication; though his prudence ftill repeated the name of Michael in the public prayers. The eaftern prelates had not adopted the dangerous maxims of ancient Rome; nor did they prefume to enforce their cenfures, by deposing princes, or abfolving nations from their oaths of allegiance. But the Chriftian, who had been feparated from God and the church, became an object of horror; and in a turbulent and fanatic capital, that horror might arm the hand of an affaffin, or inflame a sedition of the people. Palæologus felt his danger, confeffed his guilt, and deprecated his judge the act was irretrievable; the prize was obtained; and the most rigorous penance, which he folicited, would have raised the finner to the reputation of a faint. The unrelenting patriarch refused to announce any means of atonement or any hopes of mercy; and condefcended only to pronounce, that, for fo great a crime, great indeed must be the fatisfaction. "Do you require," faid Michael, "that I fhould abdicate the empire ?" And at these words, he offered, or feemed to offer, the fword of ftate. nius eagerly grafped this pledge of fovereignty; but when he perceived that the emperor was unwilling to purchase abfolution at fo dear a rate, he indignantly escaped to his cell, and left the royal finner kneeling and weeping before the door (24). Schifm of the Arfe nites, Arfe The danger and fcandal of this excommunication subfifted above three years, till the popular clamour was afA. D. fuaged by time and repentance; till the brethren of Arfe1266-1312. nius condemned his inflexible fpirit, fo repugnant to the unbounded forgivenefs of the gofpel. The emperor had artfully infinuated, that, if he were ftill rejected at home, he might feek, in the Roman pontiff, a more indulgent judge; but it was far more eafy and effectual to find or to place that judge at the head of the Byzantine church. Arfenius was involved in a vague rumour of conspiracy and difaffection; fome irregular steps in his ordination and government were liable to cenfure; a fynod depofed him from the epifcopal office; and he was tranfported under a guard of foldiers to a fmall ifland of the Propontis. Before his exile, he fullenly requested that a strict account might be taken (24) The crime and excommunication of Michael are fairly told by Pachymer (1. iii. c. 10. 14. 19, &c.) and Gregoras (1. iv. c. 4.). His confetfion and penance reftored their freedom. LXII. taken of the treasures of the church; boafted that his CHAP. fole riches, three pieces of gold, had been earned by tranfcribing the pfalms; continued to affert the freedom of his mind; and denied, with his laft breath, the pardon which was implored by the royal finner (25). After fome delay, Gregory, bishop of Adrianople, was tranflated to the Byzantine throne; but his authority was found infufficient to support the abfolution of the emperor; and Joseph, a reverend monk, was fubftituted to that important function. This edifying scene was reprefented in the prefence of the fenate and people; at the end of fix years, the humble penitent was reftored to the communion of the faithful; and humanity will rejoice, that a milder treatment of the captive Lafcaris was ftipulated as a proof of his remorfe. But the spirit of Arfenius ftill furvived in a powerful faction of the monks and clergy, who perfevered above fortyeight years in an obftinate fchifm. Their fcruples were treated with tenderness and refpect by Michael and his fon; and the reconciliation of the Arfenites was the serious labour of the church and state. In the confidence of fanaticism, they had proposed to try their cause by a miracle; and when the two papers, that contained their own and the adverfe caufe, were caft into a fiery brafier, they expected that the Catholic verity would be refpected by the flames. Alas! the two papers were indifcriminately confumed, and this unforeseen accident produced the union of a day, and renewed the quarrel of an age (26). final treaty displayed the victory of the Arfenites: the clerabstained during forty days from all ecclefiaftical functions; a flight penance was imposed on the laity; the body of Arfenius was depofited in the fanctuary; and in the name of the departed faint, the prince and people were released from the fins of their fathers (27). gy The The (25) Pachymer relates the exile of Arfenius (1. iv. c. 1-16.): he was one of the commiffaries who visited him in the defert ifland. The laft teftament of the unforgiving patriarch is ftill extant (Dupin, Bibliothèque Ec cléfiaftique, tom. x. p. 95.). (26) Pachymer, (I. vii. c. 22.) relates this miraculous trial like a philofopher, and treats with fimilar contempt a plot of the Arfenites, to hide a revelation in the coffin of fome old faint (1. vii. c. 13.). He compenfates this incredulity by an image that weeps, another that bleeds (1. vii. c. 30), and the miraculous cures of a deaf and a mute patient (1. xi. c. 32.). (27) The story of the Arfenites is fpread through the thirteen books of Pachymer. Their union and triumph are referved for Nicephorus Gregoras (1. vii. 9.), who neither loves nor efteems thefe fectaries. CHAP. Reign of A. D. 1259, Dec. 1 Dec. 11. Reign of Nov. 8 A. D. 1332, The establishment of his family was the motive, or at least the pretence, of the crime of Palæologus; and he was impatient to confirm the fucceffion, by fharing with his eldest fon the honours of the purple. Andronicus, afPalæologus, terwards furnamed the Elder, was proclaimed and crowned of the Romans, in the fifteenth year of his age; emperor A. D. 1282, and, from the firft æra of a prolix and inglorious reign, he held that auguft title nine years as the colleague, and fifty as the fucceffor, of his father. Michael himself, had he the Elder, died in a private ftation, would have been thought more A. D. 1273, worthy of the empire and the affaults of his temporal and spiritual enemies, left him few moments to labour for his own fame or the happiness of his fubjects. He wrefted from the Franks feveral of the noblest islands of the Archipelago, Lefbos, Chios, and Rhodes: his brother Conftantine was fent to command in Malvafia and Sparta; and the eastern fide of the Morea, from Argos and Napoli to Cape Tænarus, was repoffeffed by the Greeks. This effufion of Chriftian blood was loudly condemned by the patriarch; and the infolent prieft prefumed to interpose his fears and fcruples between the arms of princes. But in the profecution of these western conquefts, the countries beyond the Hellefpont were left naked to the Turks; and their depredations verified the prophecy of a dying fenator, that the recovery of Conftantinople would be the ruin of Afia. The victories of Michael were atchieved by his lieutenants; his fword rufted in the palace; and in the tranfactions of the emperor with the popes and the king of Naples, his political arts were ftained with cruelty and fraud (28). His union with the Latin church, I. The Vatican was the moft natural refuge of a Latin who had been driven from his throne; and pope emperor, Urban the fourth appeared to pity the misfortunes, and vindicate the caufe, of the fugitive Baldwin. A crufade, 1274-1277 with plenary indulgence, was preached by his command A. D. against the fchifmatic Greeks; he excommunicated their allies and adherents; folicited Louis the ninth in favour of his (28) Of the xiii books of Pachymer, the firft fix (as the 4th and 5th of Nicephorus Gregoras) contain the reign of Michael, at the time of whose death he was forty years of age. Inftead of breaking, like his editor the Pere Pouffin, his hiftory into two parts, I follow Ducange and Cousin, who number the xiii books in one feries. LXII. his kinfman; and demanded a tenth of the ecclefiaftic re- CHA P. venues of France and England for the fervice of the holy war (29). The fubtle Greek, who watched the rifing tempeft of the Weft, attempted to fufpend or foothe the hoftility of the pope, by fuppliant embaffies and respectful letters ; but he infinuated that the establishment of peace must prepare the reconciliation and obedience of the Eastern church. The Roman court could not be deceived by fo grofs an artifice; and Michael was admonished, that the repentance of the fon fhould precede the forgiveness of the father; and that faith (an ambiguous word) was the only basis of friendship and alliance. After a long and affected delay, the approach of danger, and the importunity of Gregory the tenth, compelled him to enter on a more ferious negociation: he alledged the example of the great Vataces; and the Greek clergy, who understood the intentions of their prince, were not alarmed by the first fteps of reconciliation and respect. But when he preffed the conclufion of the treaty, they ftrenuously declared, that the Latins, though not in name, were heretics in fact, and that they despised those strangers as the vileft and most despicable portion of the human race (30). It was the task of the emperor to perfuade, to corrupt, to intimidate, the most popular ecclefiaftics, to gain the vote of each individual, and alternately to urge the arguments of Chrif tian charity and the public welfare. The texts of the fathers and the arms of the Franks were balanced in the theological and political scale; and without approving the addition to the Nicene creed, the most moderate were taught to confefs, that the two hoftile propofitions of proceeding from the Father BY the Son, and of proceeding from the Father AND the Son, might be reduced to a safe and Catholic fenfe (31). The fupremacy of the pope was a doctrine (29) Ducange, Hift. de C. P. 1. v. c. 33, &c. from the Epiftles of Urban IV. (30) From their mercantile intercourse with the Venetians and Genoese, they branded the Latins as καπηλοι and βαναυσοι (Pachymer, l. v. c. 10.). "Some are heretics in name; others, like the Latins, in fact," said the learned Veccus (1. v. c. 12.), who soon afterwards became a convert (c. 15, 16.) and a patriarch (c. 24.). (31) In this clafs, we may place Pachymer himself, whofe copious and candid narrative occupies the 5th and 6th books of his hiftory. Yet the Greek is filent on the council of Lyons, and feems to believe that the popes always refided in Rome and Italy (1. v. c. 17, 21.), |