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. 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 an 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. In the treaty between the two nations, several forms of consent were proposed, such as might satisfy the Latins, without dishonouring the Greeks: and they weighed | the scruples of words and syllables, till the theolo- | gical balance trembled with a slight preponderance in favour 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 landforces.

Eugenius de- The same year, and almost the same posed at Basil, day, were marked by the deposition

A. D. 1438.

June 25. of Eugenius at Basil; and, at Florence, by his re-union of the Greeks and Latins. In the former synod, (which he styled indeed an assembly of dæmons,) the pope was branded with had subscribed the act of union (p. 283.): yet he relates some suspicious circumstances: and their bribery and corruption are positively affirmed by the historian Ducas.

y 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.)

I had forgot another popular and orthodox protester: a favourite hound, 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.)

a 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.

Syropulus, rather than subscribe, would have assisted, as the least evil, at the ceremony of the union. He was compelled to do both; and

Re-union of the

rence,

A. D. 1438. July 6.

the guilt of simony, perjury, tyranny, heresy, and schism; 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 Greeks at Floholy 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, 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. 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 ;d 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 honour. 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. 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 Ethiopians, were successively introduced, to kiss the feet of the Roman pontiff, and to announce the great ecclesiarch poorly excuses his submission to the emperor, (p. 290-292.)

Their return to Constantinople, A. D. 1440. Feb. 1.

c 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 Brequiguy,) 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 August 1439.) the final separation of the pope and emperor. (Memoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xliii. p. 287 -311.)

ὰ ̔Η μιν δε ὡς ασημοι εδόκουν φωναι. (Syropul. p. 297.)

e In their return, the Greeks conversed at Bologna with the ambas sadors of England; and after some questions and answers, these impartial strangers laughed at the pretended union of Florence. (Syropul. p. 307.)

the obedience and the orthodoxy of the east. These oriental embassies, unknown in the countries which they presumed to represent,' diffused over the west the fame of Eugenius: and a clamour was artfully propagated against the remnant of a schism in Switzerland and Savoy, which alone impeded the harmony of the christian world. The vigour of opposition was succeeded by the lassitude of despair the council of Basil was silently dissolved, and Foelix, renouncing the tiara, again withdrew to the devout or delicious hermitage of Ripaille. 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.h

Final peace of the church, A. D. 1449.

State of the

at Constantinople,

A. D. 1300-1453.

The journeys of three emperors were Greek language 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. 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, who, by a long residence and noble marriage,' was naturalized at Constantinople about thirty years before the Turkish conquest. "The vulgar speech," says Philelphus," "has been depraved by the people, and infected by the multitude of strangers and merchants who every day flock to

k

f So nugatory, or rather so fabulous, are these re-unions of the Nestorians, Jacobites, &c. that I have turned over, without success, the Bib. liotheca Orientalis of Assemannus, a faithful slave of the Vatican.

g 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 Baskervill's edition of his works) has celebrated the place and the founder. Eneas 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.

h In this account of the councils of Basil, Ferrara, and Florence, I have consulted the original acts, which fill the seventeenth and eighteenth tomes of the edition of Venice, and are closed by the perspicuous though partial history of Augustin Patricius, an Italian of the fifteenth century. They are digested and abridged by Dupin (Bibliotheque Eccles. tom. xi.) 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.

i In the first attempt, Meursins 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 aud substance of the language were not affected by this slight alloy.

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 fellowcitizens. Seldom are they scen 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.""

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 talents 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." But Comparison of an important distinction has been al- the Greeks and ready noticed: the Greeks were stationary or retrograde, while the Latins were ad

Latins.

k The Life of Francis Philelphus, a sophist, proud, restless, and ra. pacious, has been diligently composed by Launcelot, (Memoires de Academie des Inscriptions, tom. x. p. 691-751.) and Tiraboschi, (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.

1 He married, and had perhaps debauched, the daughter of John, and the grand daughter 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.

m 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.

n Philelphus, absurdly enough, derives this Greek or Oriental jealousy from the manners of ancient Rome.

o See the state of learning in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, in the learned and judicious Mosheim. (Institut. Hist. Eccles. p. 434 --440. 490-494.)

vancing 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," were peopled with thousands of scholars ; and their misguided ardour 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.

The most learned Italians of the Revival of the Greek learning fifteenth century have confessed and in Italy. applauded the restoration of Greek literature, after a long oblivion of many hundred years. Yet in that country, and beyond the Alps, some names are quoted; some profound scholars, who in the darker ages were honourably 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

p At the end of the fifteenth 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.

q 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. 361-377. 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. r In Calabria quæ olim magna Græcia dicebatur, coloniis Græcis repleta, remansit quædam linguæ veteris cognitio. (Hodius, p. 2.) If

laam, A. D. 1339.

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.' 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, be- Lessons of Baryond the Alps, the memory, or at least the writings, of Homer. He is described, by Petrarch and Boccace,' as a man of a 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." In the court of Avignon, he formed an intimate connexion with Petrarch, the first of the Latin scholars; and the desire of mutual instruction was the principle of their literary commerce. The Tuscan Studies of Peapplied himself with eager curiosity trarch, 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.

A. D. 1339-1374.

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. The manifold avocations of Petrarch, love and friendship, his various correspondence and frequent jour

it were eradicated by the Romans, it was revived and perpetuated by the monks of St. Basil, who possessed seven convents at Rosanno alone. (Giannone, Istoria di Napoli, tom. i. p. 520.)

sli Barbari (says Petrarch, the French and Germans) vix, non dicam libros sed nomen Homeri audiverunt. Perhaps, in that respect, the thirteenth century was less happy than the age of Charlemagne.

t See the character of Barlaam, in Boccace de Genealog. Deorum,

1. xv. c. 6.

u Cantacuzene, l. ii. c. 36.

x For the connexion of Petrarch and Barlaam, and the two interviews, at Avignon in 1339, and at Naples in 1342, see the excellent Memoires sur la Vie de Petrarque, tom. í. p. 406-410. tom. ii. p. 75-77. y The bishopric to which Barlaam retired, was the old Locri, in the middle ages Sancta Cyriaca, and by corruption Hieracium, Gerace. (Dissert. Chorographica Italiæ medii Evi, 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.)