customs of old England, and assured of the virtue of our mothers, we may smile at the credulity, or resent the injustice, of the Greek, who must have confounded a modest salute e with a criminal embrace. But his credulity and injustice may teach an important lesson; to distrust the accounts of foreign and remote nations, and to suspend our belief of every tale that deviates from the laws of nature and the character of man.f

Indifference of

the Latins,

A. D. 1402-1417.

His negociations, A. D. 1417-1425.

we have an opportunity of unfolding His private mothe most secret intentions of Manuel, tives. as he explained them in a private conversation without artifice or disguise. In his declining age, the emperor had associated John Palæologus, the second of the name, and the eldest of his sons, on whom he devolved the greatest part of the authority and weight of government. One day, in the presence only of the historian Phranza," his favourite chamberlain, he opened to his colleague and successor the true principle of his negociations with the pope.i "Our last resource," said Manuel," against the Turks is their fear of our union with the Latins, of the warlike nations of the west, who may arm for our relief and for their destruction. As often as you are threatened by the miscreants, present this danger before their eyes. Propose a council; consult on the means; but ever delay and avoid the convocation of an assembly, which cannot tend either to our spiritual or temporal emolument. The Latins are proud; the Greeks are obstinate; neither party will recede or retract; and the attempt of a perfect union will confirm the schism, alienate the churches, and leave us, without hope or defence, at the mercy of the barbarians." Impatient of this salutary lesson, the royal youth arose from his seat, and departed in silence; and the wise monarch (continues Phranza) casting his eyes on me, thus resumed his discourse: "My son deems himself a great and heroic prince; but, alas! our miserable age does not afford scope for heroism or greatness. His daring spirit might have suited the happier times of our ancestors; but the present state requires not an emperor, but a cautious steward of the last relics of our fortunes. Well do I remember the lofty expectations which he built on our alliance with Mustapha; and much do I fear, that his rash courage will urge the ruin of our house, and that even religion may precipitate our downfall." Yet the experience and authority of Manuel preserved the peace, and eluded the council; till, in the seventy-eighth year of his in the habit of a monk, he terminated his career, dividing his precious movables among his children and the poor, his physi cians and his favourite servants. Of his six sons,* Andronicus the second was invested with the principality of Thessalonica, and died of a leprosy soon after the sale of that city to the Venetians and its final conquest by the Turks. Some fortunate incidents had restored Peloponnesus, or the Morea, to But the empire; and in his more prosperous days, Ma

After his return, and the victory of Manuel towards Timour, Manuel reigned many years in prosperity and peace. As long as the sons of Bajazet solicited his friendship and spared his dominions, he was satisfied with the national religion; and his leisure was employed in composing twenty theological dialogues for its defence. The appearance of the Byzantine ambassadors at the council of Constance announces the restoration of the Turkish power, as well as of the Latin church; the conquest of the sultans, Mahomet and Amurath, reconciled the emperor to the Vatican; and the siege of Constantinople almost tempted him to acquiesce in the double procession of the Holy Ghost. When Martin the fifth ascended without a rival the chair of St. Peter, a friendly intercourse of letters and embassies was revived between the east and west. Ambition on one side, and distress on the other, dictated the same decent language of charity and peace: the artful Greek expressed a desire of marrying his six sons to Italian princesses; and the Roman, not less artful, despatched the daughter of the marquis of Montferrat, with a company of noble virgins, to soften, by their charms, the obstinacy of the schismatics. Yet under this mask of zeal, a discerning eye will perceive that all was hollow and insincere in the court and church of Constantinople. According to the vicissitudes of danger and repose, the emperor advanced or retreated; alternately instructed and disavowed his ministers; and escaped from an importunate pressure by urging the duty of inquiry, the obligation of collecting the sense of his patriarchs and bishops, and the impossibility of convening them at a time when the Turkish arms were at the gates of his capital. From a review of the public transactions it will appear, that the Greeks insisted on three successive measures, a succour, a council, and a final re-union, while the Latins eluded the second, and only promised the first, as a consequential and voluntary reward of the third.

equivocal, the context and pious horror of Chalcondyles can leave no doubt of his meaning and mistake, (p. 49.)

e Erasmus (Epist. Fausto Andrelino) has a pretty passage on the English fashion of kissing strangers on their arrival and departure, from whence, however, he draws no scandalous inferences.

f Perhaps we may apply this remark to the community of wives among the old Britons, as it is supposed by Cæsar and Dion, (Dion Cassius, I. Ixii. tom. ii. p. 1007.) with Reimar's judicious annotation. The Arreoy of Otaheite, so certain at first, is become less visible and scandalous, in proportion as we have studied the manners of that gentle and amorous people.

g See Lenfant, Hist. du Concile de Constance, tom. ii. p. 576. and for the ecclesiastical history of the times, the Annals of Spondanus, the Bibliotheque of Dupin, tom. xii, and twenty-first and twenty-second volumes of the History, or rather the Continuation, of Fleury.

age, His death.

and

h From his early youth, George Phranza, or Phranzes, was employed in the service of the state and palace; and Hanckius (de Script. Byzat. p. i. c. 40.) has collected his life from his own writings. He was more than four and twenty years of age at the death of Manuel, whe recommended him in the strongest terms to his successor: Imprimis vero hunc Phranzen tibi commendo, qui ministravit mihi fideliter et diligenter. (Phranzes, l. ii. C. 1.) Yet the emperor John was cold, and he preferred the service of the despots of Peloponnesus.

i See Phranzes, 1. ii. c. 13. While so many manuscripts of the Greek original are extant in the libraries of Rome, Milan, the Escurial, &c. it is a matter of shame and reproach, that we should be reduced to the Latin version, or abstract, of James Pontanus, (ad calcem Theophylact Simocattæ: Ingolstadt, 1604.) so deficient in accuracy and elegance (Fabric. Bibliot. Græc. tom. vi. p. 615-620.)

k See Ducange, Fam. Byzant. p. 243-248.

!

nuel had fortified the narrow isthmus of six miles' | valuable benefices were accumulated on the heads with a stone wall and one hundred and fifty-three of aliens and absentees. During their residence at towers. The wall was overthrown by the first blast Avignon, the ambition of the popes subsided in the of the Ottomans: the fertile peninsula might have meaner passions of avarice and luxury; they been sufficient for the four younger brothers, Theo- rigorously imposed on the clergy the tributes of firstdore and Constantine, Demetrius and Thomas; but fruits and tenths; but they freely tolerated the imthey wasted in domestic contests the remains of punity of vice, disorder, and corrupSchism, their strength; and the least successful of the rivals tion. These manifold scandals were were reduced to a life of dependence in the Byzan-aggravated by the great schism of the

tine palace.

Zeal of John
Palæologus II.
A. D.
1425-1437.

The eldest of the sons of Manuel, John Palæologus the second, was acknowledged, after his father's death, as the sole emperor of the Greeks. He immediately proceeded to repudiate his wife, and to contract a new marriage with the princess of Trebizond: beauty was in his eyes the first qualification of an empress; and the clergy had yielded to his firm assurance, that unless he might be indulged in a divorce, he would retire to a cloister, and leave the throne to his brother Constantine. The first, and in truth the only, victory of Palæologus, was over a Jew," whom, after a long and learned dispute, he converted to the christian faith; and this momentous conquest is carefully recorded in the history of the times. But he soon resumed the design of uniting the east and west; and, regardless of his father's advice, listened, as it should seem with sincerity, to the proposal of meeting the pope in a general council beyond the Adriatic. This dangerous project was encouraged by Martin the fifth, and coldly entertained by his successor Eugenius, till, after a tedious negociation, the emperor received a summons from the Latin assembly of a new character, the independent prelates of Basil, who styled themselves the representatives and judges of the catholic church.

Corruption of The Roman pontiff had fought and the Latin church. conquered in the cause of ecclesiastical freedom; but the victorious clergy were soon exposed to the tyranny of their deliverer; and his sacred character was invulnerable to those arms which they found so keen and effectual against the civil magistrate. Their great charter, the right of election, was annihilated by appeals, evaded by trusts or commendams, disappointed by reversionary grants, and superseded by previous and arbitrary reservations." A public auction was instituted in the court of Rome: the cardinals and favourites were enriched with the spoils of nations; and every country might complain that the most important and

The exact measure of the Hexamilion, from sea to sea, was 3800 orgyia, or toises, of six Greek feet, (Phrauzes, I. i. c. 38.) which would produce a Greek mile still smaller than that of 669 French toises, which is assigned by D'Anville as still in use in Turkey. Five miles are commonly reckoned for the breadth of the isthmus. See the Travels of Spon, Wheeler, and Chandler.

The first objection of the Jews is on the death of Christ: if it were voluntary, Christ was a suicide: which the emperor parries with a mystery. They then dispute on the conception of the Virgin, the sense of the prophecies, &c. (Phranzes, I. ii. c. 12. a whole chapter.)

In the treatise delle Materia Beneficiarte of Fra-Paolo, (in the fourth volume of the last, and best, edition of his works,) the papal system is deeply studied and freely described. Should Rome and her religion be anni ilated, this golden volume may still survive, a philosophical history, and a salutary warning.

Pope John XXII. (in 1334) left behind him, at Avignon, eighteen

A. D.

1377-1429.

Council of Pisa,
A. D. 1409.
of Constance,
A. D.
1414-1418.

west, which continued above fifty years. In the furious conflicts of Rome and Avignon, the vices of the rivals were mutually exposed; and their precarious situation degraded their authority, relaxed their discipline, and multiplied their wants and exactions. To heal the wounds, and restore the monarchy, of the church, the synods of Pisa and Constance P were successively convened; but these great assemblies, conscious of their strength, resolved to vindicate the privileges of the christian aristocracy. From a personal sentence against two pontiffs, whom they rejected, and a third, their acknowledged sovereign, whom they deposed, the fathers of Constance proceeded to examine the nature and limits of the Roman supremacy; nor did they separate till they had established the authority, above the pope, of a general council. It was enacted, that, for the government and reformation of the church, such assemblies should be held at regular intervals; and that each synod, before its dissolution, should appoint the time and place of the subsequent meeting. By the influence of the court of Rome, the next convocation at Sienna was easily eluded; but the bold and vigorous proceedings of the council of Basil had almost been fatal to the reigning pontiff, Eugenius the fourth. A just suspicion of his design prompted the fathers to hasten the promulgation of their first decree, that the representatives of the church militant on earth were invested with a divine and spiritual jurisdiction over all christians, without excepting the pope; and that a general council could not be dissolved, prorogued, or transferred, unless by their free deliberation and consent. On the notice that Eugenius had fulminated a bull for that purpose, they ventured to summon, to admonish, to threaten, to censure, the contumacious successor of St. Peter.

of Basil,

A. D. 1431-1443.

After many delays, to allow time for Their opposition repentance, they finally declared, that, to Eugenius IV. unless he submitted within the term of sixty days, he was suspended from the exercise of all temporal

millions of gold florins, and the value of seven millions more in plateand jewels. See the Chronicle of John Villani, (1. xi. c. 20. in Muratori's Collection, tom, xiii. p. 765.) whose brother received the account from the papal treasurers. A treasure of six or eight millions sterling in the fourteenth century is enormous, and almost incredible.

P A learned and liberal protestant, M. Lenfant, has given a fair history of the councils of Pisa, Constance, and Basil, in six volumes in quarto; but the last part is the most hasty and imperfect, except in the account of the troubles of Bohemia.

The original acts or minutes of the council of Basil, are preserved in the public library, in twelve volumes in folio. Basil was a free city, conveniently situate on the Rhine, and guarded by the arms of the neighbouring and confederate Swiss. In 1459, the university was founded by pope Pius II. (Æneas Sylvius,) who had been secretary to the council. But what is a council, or a university, to the presses of Froben and the studies of Erasmus?

|

of St Sophia were exposed to the winds and waves, that the patriarch might officiate with becoming splendour; whatever gold the emperor could procure, was expended in the massy ornaments of his bed and chariot; 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 ne

merous 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.

After a tedious and troublesome na

His triumphal
entry at Venice,

A. D. 1438.
Feb. 9.

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. The resolution of Palæologus was decided by the most splendid gifts and the most specious promises: hecessary preparations, John Palæologus, with a nuwished 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 ortho-vigation of seventy-seven days, this dox brethren, would be oppressed in a foreign land religious squadron cast anchor before by the power and numbers of a Latin synod. He Venice; and their reception proclaimed the joy yielded to the royal mandate, to the flattering as- and magnificence of that powerful republic. In the surance, that he would be heard as the oracle of command of the world, the modest Augustus had nations, and to the secret wish of learning from his never claimed such honours from his subjects as brother of the west, to deliver the church from the were paid to his feeble successor by an independent yoke of kings. The five cross-bearers, or dignita- state. Seated on the poop, on a lofty throne, he ries, of St. Sophia, were bound to attend his received the visit, or, in the Greek style, the adoraperson; and one of these, the great ecclesiarch or tion, of the doge and senators. They sailed in the preacher, Sylvester Syropulus, has composed a free Bucentaur, which was accompanied by twelve stately and curious history of the false union. Of the galleys: the sea was overspread with innumerable clergy that reluctantly obeyed the summons of the gondolas of pomp and pleasure; the air resounded emperor and the patriarch, submission was the first with music and acclamations; the mariners, and duty, and patience the most useful virtue. In a even the vessels, were dressed in silk and gold; and chosen list of twenty bishops, we discover the metro- in all the emblems and pageants, the Roman eagles politan titles of Heraclea and Cyzicus, Nice and were blended with the lions of St. Mark. The triNicomedia, Ephesus and Trebizond, and the per-umphal procession, ascending the great canal, sonal 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

b

d

a Phranzes himself, though from different motives, was of the advice of Amurath. (I. ii. e. 13.) Utinam ne synodus ista unquam fuisset, si tantas 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.

bThe reader will smile at the simplicity with which he imparted these hopes to his favourites: τοιαύτην πληροφορίαν σχήσειν ήλπιζε και δια του Παπα εθάρρει ελευθερώσαι την εκκλησίαν από της αποτε θείσης αυτού δουλειας παρά τον βασιλέως, (p. 92. Yet it would have been difficult for him to have practised the lessons of Gregory VII.

e The christian name of Sylvester is borrowed from the Latin calendar. In modern Greek, Toxos, as a diminutive, is added to the ends of words: nor can any reasoning of Creyghton, the editor, excuse his changing into Squropulus (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?

d From the conclusion of the history, I should fix the date to the year 1444, four years after the synod, when the great ecclesiarch had abdicated his office, (sectio xii. p. 330-350.) His passions were cooled by time and retirement; aud, although Syropulus is often partial, he is never intemperate.

e Vera historia unionis non veræ inter Græcos et Latinos, (Haga Comitis, 1660, in folio,) was first published with a loose and florid

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. They sighed to behold the spoils and trophies with which it had been decorated after the sack of Constantinople. After an 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

into Ferrara, Feb. 28.

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 collectious of the councils.

f Syropulus (p. 63.) simply expresses his intention iv' OUT TOμπεύων ἐν Ιταλοις μέγας βασιλευς παρ' εκείνων νομίζοιτο ; and the Latin of Creyghton may afford a specimen of his florid paraphrase. Ut pompa circumductus noster Imperator Italiæ populis aliquis deauratus Jupi. ter crederetur, aut Croesus ex opulenta Lydia.

g 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 fourth section, (p. 67-100.) and that the historian has the uncommon talent of placing each scene before the reader's eye.

h At the time of the synod, Pharanzes was in Peloponnesus; but he received from the despot Demetrius, a faithful account of the honourable reception of the emperor and patriarch both at Venice and Ferrara, (Dux. sedentem Imperatorem adorat,) which are more slightly mentioned by the Latins, (1. ii. c. 14—16.)

The astonishment of a Greek prince and a French Ambassador (Memoires de Philippe de Comines, 1. vii. c. 18.) at the sight of Venice, abundantly prove, that in the fifteenth century it was the first and most splendid of the christian cities. For the spoils of Constantinople at Venice, see Syropulus, (p. 87.)

made his entry on a black horse; but a milk-white | Palæologus could expect from the consent of the steed, whose trappings were embroidered with golden Latins some temporal reward for an unpopular eagles, was led before him; and the canopy was union; and after the first session, the public proborne over his head by the princes of Este, the sons ceedings were adjourned above six months. The or kinsmen of Nicholas, marquis of the city, and a emperor, with a chosen band of his favourites and sovereign more powerful than himself. Palæologus janizaries, fixed his summer residence at a pleasant did not alight till he reached the bottom of the spacious monastery, six miles from Ferrara; forgot, staircase the pope advanced to the door of the in the pleasures of the chace, the distress of the apartment; refused his proffered genuflection; and, church and state; and persisted in destroying the after a paternal embrace, conducted the emperor to game, without listening to the just complaints of the a seat on his left-hand. Nor would the patriarch marquis or the husbandman." In the mean while, descend from his galley, till a ceremony, almost his unfortunate Greeks were exposed to all the equal, bad been stipulated between the bishops of miseries of exile and poverty; for the support of Rome and Constantinople. The latter was saluted each stranger, a monthly allowance was assigned of by his brother with a kiss of union and charity three or four gold florins; and although the entire nor would any of the Greek ecclesiastics submit to sum did not amount to seven hundred florins, a long kiss the feet of the western primate. On the open- arrear was repeatedly incurred by the indigence or ing of the synod, the place of honour in the centre was policy of the Roman court." They sighed for a claimed by the temporal and ecclesiastical chiefs; speedy deliverance, but their escape was prevented and it was only by alleging that his predecessors by a triple chain: a passport from their superiors had not assisted in person at Nice or Chalcedon, was required at the gates of Ferrara; the governthat Eugenius could evade the ancient precedents ment of Venice had engaged to arrest and send of Constantine and Marcian. After much debate, back the fugitives; and inevitable punishment it was agreed that the right and left sides of the awaited them at Constantinople: excommunication, church should be occupied by the two nations; fines, and a sentence, which did not respect the sathat the solitary chair of St. Peter should be raised cerdotal dignity, that they should be stripped naked the first of the Latin line; and that the throne of and publicly whipped. It was only by the alternathe Greek emperor, at the head of his clergy, should tive of hunger or dispute that the Greeks could be be equal and opposite to the second place, the va- persuaded to open the first conference; and they cant seat of the emperor of the west.' 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.P

Council of the

But as soon as festivity and form had

Greeks and La 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 emis

tins at Ferrara
and Florence,
A. D. 1438.
Oct. 8-
A. D. 1439.
July 6.

saries 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

k Nicholas III. of Este reigned for forty-eight years,(A. D. 13931441.) and was lord of Ferrara, Modena, Reggio, Parma, Rovigo, and Commachio. See his Life in Muratori. (Antichita Estense, tom. ii. p. 159-201.)

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 colour, 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.)

m 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.

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 favourable neutrality and a firm attachment. The legates, with some respectable members, deserted to the Roman army, which insensibly rose in numbers and reputation :

n The Greeks obtained, with much difficulty, that instead of provi sions, money should be distributed, four florins per month to the persons of honourable 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 of 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.)

Syropulus (p. 141, 142. 204, 221.) deplores the imprisonment of the Greeks, and the tyranny of the emperor and patriarch.

The wars of Italy are most clearly represented in the thirteenth volume 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.