画 mans. ence of the city. "I form no enterprise," replied the perfidious sultan, "against the city; but the empire of Constantinople is measured by her walls. Have you forgot the distress to which my father was reduced, when you formed a league with the Hungarians; when they invaded our country by land, and the Hellespont was occupied by the French galleys? Amurath was compelled to force the passage of the Bosphorus; and your strength was not equal to your malevolence. I was then a child at Adrianople; the Moslems trembled; and for a while the Gabours insulted our disgrace. But when my father had triumphed in the field of Warna, he vowed to erect a fort on the western shore, and that vow it is my duty to accomplish. Have ye the right, have ye the power, to control my actions on my own ground? For that ground is my own: as far as the shores of the Bosphorus, Asia is inhabited by the Turks, and Europe is deserted by the RoReturn, and inform your king, that the present Ottoman is far different from his predecessors; that his resolutions surpass their wishes; and that he performs more than they could resolve. Return in safety-but the next who delivers a similar message may expect to be flayed alive." After this declaration, Constantine, the first of the Greeks in spirit as in rank,° had determined to unsheath the sword, and to resist the approach and establishment of the Turks on the Bosphorus. He was disarmed by the advice of his civil and ecclesiastical ministers, who recommended a system less generous, and even less prudent, than his own, to approve their patience and long-suffering, to brand the Ottoman with the name and guilt of an aggressor, and to depend on chance and time for their own safety, and the destruction of a fort which could not long be maintained in the neighbourhood of a great and populous city. Amidst hope and fear, the fears of the wise, and the hopes of the credulous, the winter rolled away; the proper business of each man, and each hour, was postponed; and the Greeks shut their eyes against the impending danger, till the arrival of the spring and the sultan decided the assurance of their ruin. Greeks, by their own indiscretion, afforded the first | Black sea, and perhaps to annihilate the subsistpretence of the fatal rupture. Instead of labouring to be forgotten, their ambassadors pursued his camp, to demand the payment, and even the increase, of their annual stipend: the divan was importuned by their complaints, and the vizir, a secret friend of the christians, was constrained to deliver the sense of his brethren. "Ye foolish and miserable Romans," said Calil, "we know your devices, and ye are ignorant of your own danger; the scrupulous Amurath is no more; his throne is occupied by a young conqueror, whom no laws can bind, and no obstacles can resist: and if you escape from his hands, give praise to the divine clemency, which yet delays the chastisement of your sins. Why do ye seek to affright us by vain and indirect menaces? Release the fugitive Orchan, crown him sultan of Romania; call the Hungarians from beyond the Danube; arm against us the nations of the west; and be assured, that you will only provoke and precipitate your ruin." But if the fears of the ambassadors were alarmed by the stern language of the vizir, they were soothed by the courteous audience and friendly speeches of the Ottoman prince; and Mahomet assured them that on his return to Adrianople, he would redress the grievances, and consult the true interests, of the Greeks. No sooner had he repassed the Hellespont, than he issued a mandate to suppress their pension, and to expel their officers from the banks of the Strymon in this measure he betrayed an hostile mind; and the second order announced, and in some degree commenced, the siege of Constantinople. In the narrow pass of the Bosphorus, an Asiatic fortress had formerly been raised by his grandfather in the opposite situation, on the European side, he resolved to erect a more formidable castle; and a thousand masons were commanded to assemble in the spring on a spot named Asomaton, about five miles from the Greek metropolis. Persuasion is the resource of the feeble; and the feeble can seldom persuade the ambassadors of the emperor attempted, without success, to divert Mahomet from the execution of his design. They represented, that his grandfather had solicited the permission of Manuel to build a castle on his own territories; but that this double fortification, which would command the strait, could only tend to violate the alliance of the nations; to intercept the Latins who traded in the 1 Before I enter on the siege of Constantinople I shall observe, that except the short hints of Cantemir and Leunclavius, I have not been able to obtain any Turkish account of this conquest: such an account as we possess of the siege of Rhodes by Soliman II. (Memoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xxvi. p. 723-769.) I must therefore depend on the Greeks, whose prejudices, in some degree, are subdued by their distress. Our standard texts are those of Ducas, (c. 34-42.) Phranza, (I. iii. c. 7-20.) Chalcondyles, (1. viii. p. 201-214.) and Leonardus Chiensis (Historia C. P. a Turco expugnatæ. Norimbergha, 1544, in 4to. 20 leaves.) The last of these narratives is the earliest in date, since it was composed in the isle of Chios, the 16th of August, 1453, only seventy-nine days after the loss of the city, and in the first confusion of ideas and passions. Some hints may be added from an epistle of cardinal Isidore (in Farragine Rerum Turcicarum, ad calcem Chalcondyl. Clauseri, Basil, 1556.) to pope Nicholas V. and a tract of Theodosius Zygomale, which he addressed in the year 1581 to Martin Crusis. (Turco-Græcia, 1. i. p. 74-98. Basil, 1584.) The various facts and materials are briefly, though critically, reviewed by Spondanus. (A. D. 1453, No. 1-27.) The hearsay relatious of Monstrelet and the distant Latins, I shall take leave to disregard. Of a master who never forgives, the He builds a fororders are seldom disobeyed. On the tress on the Bosphorus, twenty-sixth of March, the appointed A. D. 1452. spot of Asomaton was covered with an March. m The situation of the fortress, and the topography of the Bospho rus, are best learned from Peter Gyllius, (de Bosphoro Thracio, 1. ii. c. 13.) Leunclavius, (Pandect, p. 445) and Tournefort; (Voyage dans le Levant, tom. ii. lettre xv. p. 443, 444.) but I must regret the map or plan which Tournefort sent to the French minister of the marine. The reader may turn back to ch. xvii. of this history. n The opprobrious name which the Turks bestow on the infidels, is expressed Kaßoup by Ducas, and Giaour by Leunclavius and the moderns. The former term is derived by Ducange (Gloss, Græc. tom. i. p. 530) from Kaßoupov, in vulgar Greek, a tortoise, as denoting a re. trograde motion from the faith. But, alas! Gabour is no more than Gheber, which was transferred from the Persian to the Turkish lan. guage, from the worshippers of fire to those of the crucifix. (D'Herbelot, Bibliot. Orient. p. 375.) o Phranza does justice to his master's sense and courage. Calliditatem hominis non ignorans imperator prior arma movere constituit, and stigmatizes the folly of the cum sacri tum profani proceres, which he had heard, amentes spe vanâ pasci. Ducas was not a privy-coun. sellor, Sept. 1. your impious warfare. My trust is in God alone: if it should please him to mollify your heart, I shall rejoice in the happy change; if he delivers the city into your hands, I submit without a murmur to his holy will. But until the Judge of the earth shall pronounce between us, it is my duty to live and die in the defence of my people." The sultan's answer was hostile and decisive: his fortifications were completed; and before his departure for Adrianople, he stationed a vigilant Aga and four hundred janizaries, to levy a tribute of the ships of every nation that should pass within the reach of their cannon. A Venetian vessel, refusing obedience to the new lords of the Bosphorus, was sunk with a single bullet. The master and thirty sailors escaped in the boat; but they were dragged in chains to the Porte; the chief was impaled; his companions were beheaded, and the historian Ducas' beheld, at Demotica, their bodies exposed to the wild beasts. The siege of Constantinople was deferred till the ensuing spring; but an Ottoman army marched into the Morea to divert the force of the brothers of Constantine. At this æra of calamity, one of these princes, the despot Thomas, was blessed or afflicted with the birth of a son; "the last heir," says the plaintive Phranza, "of the last spark of the Roman empire.” A. D. 1453. Jan. 17. active swarm of Turkish artificers; and the materials | sion, can secure peace, pursue," said he to Mahomet, by sea and land were diligently transported from Europe and Asia. The lime had been burnt in Cataphrygia; the timber was cut down in the woods of Heraclea and Nicomedia; and the stones were dug from the Anatolian quarries. Each of the thousand masons was assisted by two workmen; and a measure of two cubits was marked for their daily task. The fortress was built in a triangular form; each angle was flanked by a strong and massy tower; one on the declivity of the hill, two along the seashore a thickness of twenty-two feet was assigned for the walls, thirty for the towers; and the whole building was covered with a solid platform of lead. Mahomet himself pressed and directed the work with indefatigable ardour: his three vizirs claimed the honour of finishing their respective towers; the zeal of the cadbis emulated that of the janizaries; the meanest labour was ennobled by the service of God and the sultan; and the diligence of the multitude was quickened by the eye of a despot, whose smile was the hope of fortune, and whose frown was the messenger of death. The Greek emperor beheld with terror the irresistible progress of the work; and vainly strove, by flattery and gifts, to assuage an implacable foe, who sought, and secretly fomented, the slightest occasion of a quarrel. Such occasions must soon and inevitably be found. The ruins of stately churches, and even the marble columns which had been consecrated to Saint Michael the archangel, were employed without scruple by the profane and rapacious Moslems; and some christians, who presumed to oppose the removal, received from their hands the crown of martyrdom. Constantine had solicited a Turkish guard to protect the fields and harvests of his subjects: the guard was fixed; but their first order was to allow free pasture to the mules and horses of the camp, and to defend their brethren if they should be molested by the natives. The retinue of an Ottoman chief had left their horses to pass the night among the ripe corn: the damage was felt; the insult was resented; and several of both nations were slain in a tumultuous conflict. Mahomet listened with joy to the complaint; and a detachment was commanded to exterminate the guilty village: the guilty had fled; but forty innocent and unsuspecting reapers were massacred by the soldiers. Till this war, June; provocation, Constantinople had been open to the visits of commerce and curiosity: on the first alarm the gates were shut; but the emperor, still anxious for peace, released on the third day his Turkish captives; and expressed, in a last message, the firm resignation of a christian and a soldier. "Since neither oaths, nor treaty, nor submis The Turkish P Instead of this clear and consistent account, the Turkish annals, (Cantemir, p. 97.) revived the foolish tale of the ox's hide, and Dido's stratagem in the foundation of Carthage. These annals (unless we are swayed by an anti-christian prejudice) are far less valuable than the Greek historians. q In the dimensions of this fortress, the old castle of Europe, Phranza does not exactly agree with Chalcondyles, whose description has been verified on the spot by his editor Leunclavius. r Among these were some pages of Mahomet, so conscious of his in Preparations for the siege of Cou stantinople, A. D. 1432. September,AD. 1453. April. The Greeks and the Turks passed an anxious and sleepless winter: the former were kept awake by their fears, the latter by their hopes; both by the preparations of defence and attack; and the two emperors, who had the most to lose or to gain, were the most deeply affected by the national sentiment. In Mahomet, that sentiment was inflamed by the ardour of his youth and temper: he amused his leisure with building at Adrianople the lofty palace of Jehan Numa; (the watch-tower of the world ;) but his serious thoughts were irrevocably bent on the conquest of the city of Cæsar. At the dead of night, about the second watch, he started from his bed, and commanded the instant attendance of his prime vizir. The message, hour, the prince, and his own situation, alarmed the guilty conscience of Calil Basha; who had possessed the confidence, and advised the restoration, of Amurath. On the accession of the son, the vizir was confirmed in his office and the appearances favour; but the veteran statesman was not insensible that he trod on a thin and slippery ice, which might break under his footsteps, and plunge him in the abyss. His friendship for the christians, which might be innocent under the late reign, had stigma the of tized him with the name of Gabour Ortachi, or fos- | but were they more solid than those of Babylon, I ter-brother of the infidels; and his avarice enter- could oppose an engine of superior power: the tained a venal and treasonable correspondence, position and management of that engine must be which was detected and punished after the conclu- left to your engineers." On this assurance, a sion of the war. On receiving the royal mandate, foundery was established at Adrianople: the metal he embraced, perhaps for the last time, his wife and was prepared; and at the end of three months, children; filled a cup with pieces of gold, hastened Urban produced a piece of brass ordnance of stuto the palace, adored the sultan, and offered, accord- pendous, and almost incredible, magnitude; a ing to the oriental custom, the slight tribute of his measure of twelve palms is assigned to the bore; duty and gratitude. "It is not my wish," said and the stone bullet weighed above six hundred Mahomet," to resume my gifts, but rather to heap pounds. A vacant place before the new palace and multiply them on thy head. In my turn I ask was chosen for the first experiment; but, to prevent a present far more valuable and important;-Con- the sudden and mischievous effects of astonishment stantinople." As soon as the vizir had recovered and fear, a proclamation was issued, that the cannon from his surprise," The same God," said he, "who would be discharged the ensuing day. The explohas already given thee so large a portion of the sion was felt or heard in a circuit of an hundred Roman empire, will not deny the remnant, and the furlongs: the ball, by the force of gunpowder, was capital. His providence, and thy power, assure thy driven above a mile; and on the spot where it fell, success; and myself, with the rest of thy faithful it buried itself a fathom deep in the ground. For slaves, will sacrifice our lives and fortunes." the conveyance of this destructive engine, a frame "Lala," (or preceptor,) continued the sultan,“ do or carriage of thirty waggons was linked together you see this pillow? all the night, in my agitation, and drawn along by a team of sixty oxen: two I have pulled it on one side and on the other; I have hundred men on both sides were stationed to poise risen from my bed, again have I lain down; yet or support the rolling weight; two hundred and sleep has not visited these weary eyes. Beware of fifty workmen marched before to smooth the way the gold and silver of the Romans: in arms we are and repair the bridges; and near two months were superior; and with the aid of God, and the prayers employed in a laborious journey of one hundred and of the prophet, we shall speedily become masters of fifty miles. A lively philosopher' derides on this Constantinople." To sound the disposition of his occasion the credulity of the Greeks, and observes, soldiers, he often wandered through the streets with much reason, that we should always distrust alone, and in disguise; and it was fatal to discover the exaggerations of a vanquished people. He the sultan, when he wished to escape from the vul- calculates, that a ball, even of two hundred pounds, gar eye. His hours were spent in delineating the would require a charge of one hundred and fifty plan of the hostile city; in debating, with his gene-pounds of powder; and that the stroke would be rals and engineers, on what spot he should erect feeble and impotent, since not a fifteenth part of the his batteries; on which side he should assault the mass could be inflamed at the same moment. A walls; where he should spring his mines; to what stranger as I am to the art of destruction, I can displace he should apply his scaling-ladders: and the cern that the modern improvements of artillery exercises of the day repeated and proved the lucu-prefer the number of pieces to the weight of metal ; brations of the night. The great cannon Among the implements of destrucof Mahomet. tion, he studied with peculiar care the recent and tremendous discovery of the Latins; and his artillery surpassed whatever had yet appeared in the world. A founder of cannon, a Dane or Hungarian, who had been almost starved in the Greek service, deserted to the Moslems, and was liberally entertained by the Turkish sultan. Mahomet was satisfied with the answer to his first question, which he eagerly pressed on the artist. "Am I able to cast a cannon capable of throwing a ball or stone of sufficient size to batter the walls of Constantinople?" "I am not ignorant of their strength, kingdom may sometimes be ruined by the imperial fortune of their Sovereign. UvTpodos, by the president Cousin, is translated pere nourricier, most correctly indeed from the Latin version; but in his haste he has overlooked the note by which Ismael Boillaud (ad Ducam, c. 35.) acknowledges and rectifies his own error. y The oriental custom of never appearing without gifts before a sovereign or a superior, is of high antiquity, and seems analogous with the idea of sacrifice, still more ancient and universal. See the examples of such Persian gifts, Elian. Hist. Var. I. i. c. 31, 32, 33. The Lala of the Turks (Cantemir, p. 34.) and the Tata of the Greeks (Ducas, c. 35.) are derived from the natural language of chil dren; and it may be observed, that all such primitive words which de the quickness of the fire to the sound, or even the consequence, of a single explosion. Yet I dare not reject the positive and unanimous evidence of contemporary writers; nor can it seem improbable, that the first artists, in their rude and ambitious efforts, should have transgressed the standard of moderation. A Turkish cannon, more enormous than that of Mahomet, still guards the entrance of the Dardanelles; and if the use be inconvenient, it has been found on a late trial that the effect was far from contemptible. A stone bullet of eleven hundred pounds' weight was once discharged with three hundred and thirty pounds of powder; at the distance of six hundred yards it shivered into three note their parents, are the simple repetition of one syllable, composed of a labial or a dental consonant and an open vowel, (des Brosses, Me. chanisme des Langues, tom. i. p. 231--247.) a The Attic talent weighed about sixty minæ, or avoirdupois pounds; (see Hooper on ancient Weights, Measures, &c.) but among the modern Greeks, that classic appellation was extended to a weight of one hundred, or one hundred and twenty-five, pounds. (Ducange, Taλavтov.) Leonardus Chiensis measured the ball or stone of the second cannon: Lapidem, qui palmis undecim ex meis ambibat in gyro. b See Voltaire. (Hist. Generale, c. xci. p. 294, 295.) He was ambiti ous of universal monarchy; and the poet frequently aspires to the name and style of an astronomer, a chemist, &c. rocky fragments, traversed the strait, and, leaving | the waters in a foam, again rose and bounded against the opposite hill. Mahomet II, forms the siege ple, A. D. 1453. : While Mahomet threatened the ca of Constantino pital of the east, the Greek emperor implored with fervent prayers the asApril 6. sistance of earth and heaven. But the invisible powers were deaf to his supplications; and Christendom beheld with indifference the fall of Constantinople, while she derived at least some promise of supply from the jealous and temporal policy of the sultan of Egypt. Some states were too weak, and others too remote; by some the danger was considered as imaginary, by others as inevitable the western princes were involved in their endless and domestic quarrels; and the Roman pontiff was exasperated by the falsehood or obstinacy of the Greeks. Instead of employing in their favour the arms and treasures of Italy, Nicholas the fifth had foretold their approaching ruin; and his honour was engaged in the accomplishment of his prophecy. Perhaps he was softened by the last extremity of their distress; but his compassion was tardy; his efforts were faint and unavailing; and Constantinople had fallen, before the squadrons of Genoa and Venice could sail from their harbours. Even the princes of the Morea and of the Greek islands affected a cold neutrality; the Genoese colony of Galata negociated a private treaty; and the sultan indulged them in the delusive hope, that by his clemency they might survive the ruin of the empire. A plebeian crowd, and some Byzantine nobles, basely withdrew from the danger of their country; and the avarice of the rich denied the emperor, and reserved for the Turks, the secret treasures which might have raised in their defence whole armies of mercenaries. The indigent and solitary prince prepared however to sustain his formidable adversary; but if his courage were equal to the peril, his strength was inadequate to the contest. In the beginning of the spring, the Turkish vanguard swept the towns and villages as far as the gates of Constantinople: submission was spared and protected; whatever presumed to resist was exterminated with fire and sword. The Greek places on the Black sea, Mesembria, Acheloum, and Bizon, surrendered on the first summons; Selybria alone deserved the honours of a siege or blockade; and the bold inhabitants, while they were invested by land, launched their boats, pillaged the opposite coast of Cyzicus, and sold their captives in the public market. But on the approach of Mahomet himself all was silent and prostrate: he The Baron de Tott, (tom. iii. p. 85-89.) who fortified the Dardanelles against the Russians, describes in a lively, and even comic, strain his own prowess, and the consternation of the Turks. But that adventurous traveller does not possess the art of gaining our confidence. d Non audivit, indignum ducens, says the honest Antoninus; but as the Roman court was afterwards grieved and ashamed, we find the more courtly expression of Platina, in animo fuisse pontifici juvare Græcos, and the positive assertion of Eneas Sylvius, structam classem, &c. (Spond. A. D. 1453, No. 3) e Antonin, in Proem.- Epist. cardinal, Isidor, apud Spontanum; and Dr. Johnson, in the tragedy of Irene, has happily seized this characteristic circumstance: The groaning Greeks dig up the golden caverns, first halted at the distance of five miles; and from thence advancing in battle array, planted before the gate of St. Romanus the imperial standard; and, on the sixth day of April, formed the memorable siege of Constantinople. Forces of the The troops of Asia and Europe extended on the right and left from the Turks; Propontis to the harbour: the janizaries in the front were stationed before the sultan's tent; the Ottoman line was covered by a deep intrenchment; and a subordinate army enclosed the suburb of Galata, and watched the doubtful faith of the Genoese. The inquisitive Philelphus, who resided in Greece about thirty years before the siege, is confident, that all the Turkish forces, of any name or value, could not exceed the number of sixty thousand horse and twenty thousand foot; and he upbraids the pusillanimity of the nations, who had tamely yielded to an handful of barbarians. Such indeed might be the regular establishment of the Capiculi,' the troops of the Porte, who marched with the prince, and were paid from his royal treasury. But the bashaws, in their respective governments, maintained or levied a provincial militia; many lands were held by a military tenure; many volunteers were attracted by the hope of spoil; and the sound of the holy trumpet invited a swarm of hungry and fearless fanatics, who might contribute at least to multiply the terrors, and in a first attack to blunt the swords, of the christians. The whole mass of the Turkish powers is magnified by Ducas, Chalcondyles, and Leonard of Chios, to the amount of three or four hundred thousand men; but Phranza was a less remote and more accurate judge; and his precise definition of two hundred and fifty-eight thousand does not exceed the measure of experience and probability. The navy of the besiegers was less formidable: the Propontis was overspread with three hundred and twenty sail; but of these no more than eighteen could be rated as galleys of war; and the far greater part must be degraded to the condition of storeships and transports, which poured into the camp supplies of men, ammunition, and provisions. In her last decay, Constantinople was still peopled with more than an hundred thousand inhabitants; but these numbers are found in the accounts, not of war, but of captivity; and they mostly consisted of mechanics, of priests, of women, and of men devoid of that spirit which even women have sometimes exerted for the common safety. I can suppose, I could almost excuse, the reluctance of subjects to serve on a distant frontier, at the will of a tyrant; but the man fresh of the Greeks. The accumulated wealth of hoarding ages; That wealth which, granted to their weeping prince, Had rang'd embattled nations at their gates. The palatine troops are styled Capiculi, the provincials, Serate and most of the names and institutions of the Turkish militia exis before the Canon Nameh of Soliman II. from which, and his own ex perience, count Marsigli has composed his military state of the Ottomaa empire. g The observation of Philelphus is approved by Cuspinian in the year 1508, (de Cesaribus, in Epilog. de Militia Turcica, p. 697.) Marsigli proves, that the effective armies of the Turks are much less rous than they appear. In the army that besieged Constantinop Leonardus Chiensis reckons no more than 15,000 janizaries. t who dares not expose his life in the defence of his children and his property has lost in society the first and most active energies of nature. By the emperor's command, a particular inquiry had been made through the streets and houses, how many of the citizens, or even of the monks, were able and willing to bear arms for their country. The lists were intrusted to Phranza; and, after a diligent addition, he informed his master, with grief and surprise, that the national defence was reduced to four thousand nine hundred and seventy Romans. Between Constantine and his faithful minister, this comfortless secret was preserved; and a sufficient proportion of shields, cross-bows, and muskets, was distributed from the arsenal to the city bands. They derived some accession from a body of two thousand strangers, under the command of John Justiniani, a noble Genoese; a liberal donative was advanced to these auxiliaries; and a princely recompence, the isle of Lemnos, was promised to the valour and victory of their chief. A strong chain was drawn across the mouth of the harbour: it was supported by some Greek and Italian vessels of war and merchandise; and the ships of every christian nation, that successively arrived from Candia and the Black sea, were detained for the public service. Against the powers of the Ottoman empire, a city of the extent of thirteen, perhaps of sixteen, miles was defended by a scanty garrison of seven or eight thousand soldiers. Europe and Asia were open to the besiegers; but the strength and provisions of the Greeks must sustain a daily decrease; nor could they indulge the expectation of any foreign succour or supply. False union of A. D. 1452. The primitive Romans would have the two churches, drawn their swords in the resolution of death or conquest. The primitive christians might have embraced each other, and awaited in patience and charity the stroke of martyrdom. But the Greeks of Constantinople were animated only by the spirit of religion, and that spirit was productive only of animosity and discord. Before his death, the emperor John Palæologus had renounced the unpopular measure of an union with the Latins; nor was the idea revived, till the distress of his brother Constantine imposed a last trial of flattery and dissimulation. With the demand of temporal aid, his ambassadors were instructed to mingle the assurance of spiritual obedience: his neglect of the church was excused by the ardent cares of the state; and his orthodox wishes solicited the presence of a Roman legate. The Vatican had been too often deluded; yet the signs of repentance could not decently be overlooked; a legate was more easily granted than an army; and about six months before h Ego eidem (Imp.) tabellas extribui non absque dolore et mœstitiâ : mansitque apud nos duos aliis occultus numerus. (Phranza, l. iii. c. 8.) With some indulgence for national prejudices, we cannot desire a more authentic witness, not only of public facts, but of private counsels. In Spondanus, the narrative of the union is not only partial, but imperfect. The bishop of Pamiers died in 1642, and the history of Ducas, which represents these scenes (c. 36, 37.) with such truth and spirit, was not printed till the year 1649. Phranza, one of the conforming Greeks, acknowledges that the adopted only propter spem auxilii; he affirms with measure was the final destruction, the cardinal Isidore of Russia appeared in that character with a retinue of priests and soldiers. The emperor saluted him as a friend and father; respectfully listened to his public and private sermons; and with the most obsequious of the clergy and laymen subscribed the act of union, as it had been ratified in the council of Florence. On the twelfth of December, the two nations, in the church of St. Sophia, joined in the communion of sacrifice and prayer; and the names of the two pontiffs were solemnly commemorated; the names of Nicholas the fifth, the vicar of Christ, and of the patriarch Gregory who had been driven into exile by a rebellious people. 66 Greeks. But the dress and language of the Obstinacy and Latin priest who officiated at the altar, fanaticism of the were an object of scandal; and it was observed with horror, that he consecrated a cake or wafer of unleavened bread, and poured cold water into the cup of the sacrament. A national historian acknowledges with a blush, that none of his countrymen, not the emperor himself, were sincere, in this occasional conformity. Their hasty and unconditional submission was palliated by a promise of future revisal; but the best, or the worst, of their excuses was the confession of their perjury. When they were pressed by the reproaches of their honest brethren, Have patience," they whispered, "have patience till God shall have delivered the city from the great dragon who seeks to devour us. You shall then perceive whether we are truly reconciled with the Azymites." But patience is not the attribute of zeal; nor can the arts of a court be adapted to the freedom and violence of popular enthusiasm. From the dome of St. Sophia, the inhabitants of either sex, and of every degree, rushed in crowds to the cell of the monk Gennadius,' to consult the oracle of the church. The holy man was invisible; entranced, as it should seem, in deep meditation, or divine rapture but he had exposed on the door of his cell a speaking tablet; and they successively withdrew, after reading these tremendous words: “O miserable Romans, why will ye abandon the truth; and why, instead of confiding in God, will ye put your trust in the Italians? In losing your faith, you will lose your city. Have mercy on me, O Lord! I protest in thy presence, that I am innocent of the crime. O miserable Romans, consider, pause, and repent. At the same moment that you renounce the religion of your fathers, by embracing impiety, you submit to a foreign servitude." According to the advice of Gennadius, the religious virgins, as pure as angels, and as proud as dæmons, rejected the act of union, and abjured all communion with the present and future associates of the Latins; and their pleasure, that those who refused to perform their devotions in St. Sophia, extra culpam et in pace essent, (I. iii. c. 20.) 1 His primitive and secular name was George Scholarius, which he changed for that of Gennadius, either when he became a monk or a patriarch. His defence, at Florence, of the same union which he so furiously attacked at Constantinople, has tempted Leo Allatius (Diatrib. de Georgiis, in Fabric. Bibliot. Græc. tom. x. p. 769-786.) to divide him into two men; but Renaudot (p. 343-383.) has restored the identity of his person and the duplicity of his character, |