CHAP. that Conftantinople fhould be fecure and inviolate, LXVI. in the absence of her fovereign. The refolu tion of Palæologus was decided by the most fplendid gifts and the moft fpecious promises: he wifhed to escape for a while from a scene of danger and 'diftrefs; and after difiniffing with an ambiguous answer the meffengers of the council, he declared his intention of embarking in the Roman gallies. The age of the patriarch Joseph was more fufceptible of fear than of hope; he trembled at the perils of the fea, and expreffed his apprehenfion, that his feeble voice, with thirty perhaps of his orthodox brethren, would be oppreffed in a foreign land by the power and numbers of a Latin fynod. He yielded to the royal mandate, to the flattering affurance, that he would be heard as the oracle of nations, and to the fecret wifh of learning from his brother of the Weft, to deliver the church from the yoke of kings 4. The five crossbearers or dignitaries of St. Sophia, were bound to attend his perfon; and one of thefe, the great ecclefiarch or preacher, Sylvefter Syropulus 49, has compofed 48 47 Phranzes himself, though from different motives, was of the advice of Amurath (1. ii. c. 13.). Utinam ne fynodus ifta unquam fuiffet, fi tantas offenfiones et detrimenta paritura erat. This Turkish embaffy is likewife mentioned by Syropulus (p. 58.); and Amurath kept his word. He might threaten (p. 125. 219.), but he never attacked the city. 48 The reader will finile at the fimplicity with which he imparted thefe hopes to his favourites: τοιαύτην πληροφορίαν σχήσειν κλπιζε και δια το Παπα εθάρρει ελευθέρωσαι την εκκλησίαν από της απ τεθείσης αυτ8 δέλειας παρα το βασιλεως (p. 92.). Yet it would have been difficult for him to have practifed the leffons of Gregory VII.; 49 The Chriftian name of Sylvefter is borrowed from the Latin calendar. In modern Greek, wag, as a diminutive, is added to the end of words: nor can any reafoning of Creyghton, the editor, excufe 50 LXVI. compofed 5° a free and curious hiftory of the falfe CHAP. union". Of the clergy that reluctantly obeyed the fummons of the emperor and the patriarch, fubmiffion was the firft duty, and patience the most useful virtue. In a chofen lift of twenty bishops, we discover the metropolitan titles of Heraclea and Cyzicus, Nice and Nicomedia, Ephefus and Trebizond, and the perfonal merit of Mark and Beffarion, who, in the confidence of their learning and eloquence, were promoted to the epifcopal rank. Some monks and philofophers were named to difplay the science and fanctity of the Greek church and the fervice of the choir was performed by a select band of fingers and musicians. The patriarchs of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerufalem, appeared by their genuine or fictitious deputies; the primate of Ruffia reprefented a national church, and the Greeks might contend with the Latins in the extent of their fpiritual empire. The precious vafes of St. Sophia were expofed to the winds and waves, that the patriarch might officiate with becoming fplendour; whatever gold excufe his changing into Sguropulus (Sguros, fufcus) the Syropulus of his own manufcript, whofe name is subscribed with his own hand in the acts of the council of Florence. Why might not the author be of Syrian extraction ? 50 From the conclufion of the hiftory, I fhould fix the date to the year 1444, four years after the fynod, when the great ecclefiarch had abdicated his office (fectio xii. p. 330-350.). His paffions were cooled by time and retirement, and, although Syropulus is often partial, he is never intemperate. 51 Vera biftoria unionis non veræ inter Græcos et Latinos (Hagee Comitis, 1660, in folio), was first published with a loose and florid verfion, by Robert Creyghton, chaplain to Charles II. in his exile. The zeal of the editor has prefixed a polemic title, for the beginning of the original is wanting. Syropulus may be ranked with the best of the Byzantine writers for the merit of his narration, and even of his style: but he is excluded from the orthodox collections of the councils. LXVI. 52 CHAP. the emperor could procure, was expended in the maffy ornaments of his bed and chariot "2: and while they affected to maintain the profperity of their ancient fortune; they quarrelled for the divifion of fifteen thousand ducats, the first alms of the Roman pontiff. After the neceffary preparations, John Palæologus, with a numerous train, accompanied by his brother Demetrius, and the most respectable perfons of the church and state, embarked in eight veffels with fails and oars, which steered through the Turkish ftreights of Gallipoli to the Archipelago, the Morea, and the Adriatic Gulf 53. His trium at Venice, A. D. 1438, February 9 ; After a tedious and troublesome navigation of phal entry feventy-feven days, this religious fquadron caft anchor before Venice; and their reception proclaimed the joy and magnificence of that powerful republic. In the command of the world, the modeft Auguftus had never claimed fuch honours from his fubjects as were were paid to his feeble fucceffor by an independent ftate. Seated on the poop, on a lofty throne, he received the vifit, or, in the Greek ftyle, the adoration, of the doge and fenators 54. They failed in the Bucentaur, which 52 Syropulus (p. 63.) fimply expreffes his intention: Ta σομπαών εν Ιταλοις μείας βασιλευς παρ' εκείνων νομιζολο; and the Latin of Creyghton may afford a fpecimen of his florid paraphrafe. Ut pompâ circumductus nofter Imperator Italiæ populis aliquis deauratus Jupiter crederetur, aut Crœfus ex opulenta Lydia. 53 Although I cannot stop to quote Syropulus for every fact, I will obferve, that the navigation of the Greeks from Conftantinople to Venice and Ferrara is contained in the ivth fection (p. 67-100.), and that the hiftorian has the uncommon talent of placing each scene before the reader's eye. 54 At the time of the fynod, Phranzes was in Peloponnefus; but he received from the defpot Demetrius, a faithful account of the LXVI. which was accompanied by twelve ftately gallies: CHAP. the fea was overspread with innumerable gondolas of pomp and pleasure; the air refounded with mufic and acclamations; the mariners, and even the veffels, were dreffed in filk and gold; and in all the emblems and pageants, the Roman eagles were blended with the lions of St. Mark. The triumphal proceffion, afcending the great canal, paffed under the bridge of the Rialto; and the eastern strangers gazed with admiration on the palaces, the churches, and the populousness of a city that seems to float on the bosom of the waves 55. They fighed to behold the fpoils and trophies with which it had been decorated after the fack of Conftantinople. After an hofpitable entertainment of fifteen days, Palæologus pursued his journey by land and water from Venice to Ferrara: and on this occafion, the pride of the Vatican was tempered by policy to indulge the ancient dignity of the emperor of the Eaft. He made his entry on a black horse; but into Fera milk-white fteed, whofe trappings were em- ruary 28. broidered with golden eagles, was led before him; and the canopy was borne over his head by the princes of Efte, the fons or kinfmen of Nicholas, marquis of the city, and a fovereign the honourable reception of the emperor and patriarch both at Venice and Ferrara (Dux . . . . fedentem Imperatorem adorat), which are more flightly mentioned by the Latins (1. ii. c. 14, 15, 16.). 55 The astonishment of a Greek prince and a French ambaffador (Memoires de Philippe de Comines, 1. vii. c. 18.) at the fight of Venice, abundantly prove, that in the xyth century it was the first and moft fplendid of the Chriftian cities. For the fpoils of Conftantinople at Venice, fee Syropulus (p. 87.).. rara, Feb. LXVI. 56 CHAP. more powerful than himself ". Palæologus did not alight till he reached the bottom of the staircafe: the pope advanced to the door of the apartment; refufed his proffered genuflexion; and, after a paternal embrace, conducted the emperor to a feat on his left-hand. Nor would the patriarch defcend from his galley, till a ceremony, almoft equal, had been ftipulated between the bishops of Rome and Conftantinople. The latter was faluted by his brother with a kiss of union and charity nor would any of the Greek ecclefiaftics fubmit to kifs the feet of the Weftern primate. On the opening of the fynod, the place of honour in the centre was claimed by the temporal and ecclefiaftical chiefs; and it was only by alleging that his predeceffors had not affifted in perfon at Nice or Chalcedon, that Eugenius could evade the ancient precedents of Conftantine and Marcian. After much debate, it was agreed that the right and left fides of the church fhould be occupied by the two nations: that the folitary chair of St. Peter fhould be raised the first of the Latin line; and that the throne of the Greek emperor, at the head of his clergy, fhould be equal and oppofite to the fecond place, the vacant feat of the emperor of the Weft "7. 57 But 56 Nicholas III. of Efte, reigned forty-eight years (A. D. 13931441), and was lord of Ferrara, Modena, Reggio, Parma, Rovigo, and Commachio. See his life in Muratori (Antichità Eftenfe, tom. ii, P. 159-201.). 57 The Latin vulgar was provoked to laughter at the ftrange dreffes of the Greeks, and especially the length of their garments, their fleeves, and their beards; nor was the emperor diftinguifhed except by the purple colour, and his diadem or tiara with a jewel on the top (Hody de |