1 LXVI. CHAP. the gofpel, which lay on the altar, was filent; the various texts of the fathers might be corrupted by fraud or entangled by sophistry; and the Greeks were ignorant of the characters and writings of the Latin faints 4. Of this at least we may be fure, that neither fide could be convinced by the arguments of their opponents. Prejudice may be enlightened by reafon, and a fuperficial glance may be rectified by a clear and more perfect view of an object adapted to our faculties. But the bishops and monks had been taught from their infancy to repeat a form of mysterious words; their national and perfonal honour depended on the repetition of the fame founds; and their narrow minds were hardened and inflamed by the acrimony of a public difpute. Negoci ations with the Greeks. While they were loft in a cloud of dust and darkness, the pope and emperor were defirous of a feeming union, which could alone accomplish the purposes of their interview; and the obftinacy of public dispute was foftened by the arts of private and perfonal negociation. The patriarch Jofeph had funk under the weight of age and infirmities; his dying voice breathed the counfels of charity and concord, and his vacant benefice might tempt the hopes of the ambitious clergy. The ready and active obedience of the archbishops of Ruffia and Nice, of Ifidore and Beffarion, was prompted and recompensed by their fpeedy promotion to the dignity of cardinals. Beffarion, in the firft de 64 Ως εδω (faid an eminent Greek) όταν εις ναον εισελθω Λατίνων 2 προσκυνω τινα των εκείσε άγιων, επεί εδε γνωρίζω τινα (Syropulus, p. 1o9.). See the perplexity of the Greeks (p. 217, 218. 252, 253. 273.). bates, LXVI. bates, had ftood forth the most strenuous and CHAP. 67 65 See the polite altercation of Mark and Beffarion in Syropulus (p. 257.), who never diffembles the vices of his own party, and fairly praises the virtues of the Latins. 66 For the poverty of the Greek bishops, fee a remarkable paffage of Ducas (c. 31.). One had poffeffed, for his whole property, three old gowns, &c. By teaching one-and-twenty years in his monaftery, Bessarion himself had collected forty gold florins; but of thefe, the archbishop had expended twenty-eight in his voyage from Peloponnefus, and the remainder at Conftantinople (Syropulus, p. 127.). 67 Syropulus denies that the Greeks received any money before they had fubfcribed the act of union (p. 283.): yet he relates fome fufpicious circumstances; and their bribery and corruption are positively affirmed by the hiftorian Ducas. 6 Eaft ་་ LXVI. CHAP. Eaft and Weft, would be abandoned in a hostile land to the revenge or juftice of the Roman pontiff 68. In the firft private affembly 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 difqualified by ancient difcipline; and their right of voting was tranfferred to an obfequious train of monks, grammarians, and profane laymen. The will of the monarch produced a falfe and fervile unanimity, and no more than two patriots had courage to fpeak their own fentiments and thofe of their country. Demetrius, the emperor's brother, retired to Venice, that he might not be witness of the union; and Mark of Ephefus, miftaking perhaps his pride for his confcience, difclaimed all communion with the Latin heretics, and avowed himself the champion and confeffor of the orthodox creed"". In the treaty between the two nations, feveral forms of confent were propofed, fuch as might fatisfy the Latins, without dishonouring the Greeks and they weighed the fcruples of words and fyllables, till the theological balance trembled with a flight preponderance in favour of the Vatican. It was agreed (I must intreat the attention. of the reader), that the Holy Ghoft proceeds from 68 The Greeks moft piteously exprefs their own fears of exile and perpetual flavery (Syropul. p. 196.): and they were ftrongly moved by the emperor's threats (p. 260.). 69 I had forgot another popular and orthodox protefter; a favourite hound, who ufually lay quiet on the foot-cloth of the emperor's throne; but who barked moft furiously while the act of union was reading, without being filenced by the foothing or the lafhes of the royal attendants (Syropul. p. 265, 266.). the וין זיי LXVI. the Father and the Son, as from one principle and CHAP. one fubftance; that he proceeds by the Son, being of the fame nature and fubftance, and that he proceeds from the Father and the Son, by one Spiration and production. It is lefs difficult to understand the articles of the preliminary treaty; that the pope fhould defray all the expences of the Greeks in their return home; that he should annually maintain two gallies and three hundred foldiers for the defence of Conftantinople; that all the fhips which tranfported pilgrims to Jerufalem, fhould be obliged to touch at that port; that as often as they were required, the pope should furnifh ten gallies for a year, or twenty for fix months; and that he should powerfully folicit the princes of Europe, if the emperor had occafion for landforces. Balil, A. D. 1438, June 25. The fame year, and almost the same day, were Eugenius marked by the depofition of Eugenius at Bafil; depofed at and, at Florence, by his re-union of the Greeks and Latins. In the former fynod (which he ftyled indeed an assembly of dæmons), the pope was branded with the guilt of fimony, perjury, tyranny, herefy, and fchifm 70; and declared to be incorrigible in his vices, unworthy of any title, and incapable of holding any ecclefiaftical office. In the latter he was revered as the true and holy vicar of Chrift, who, after a feparation of fix hundred years, had reconciled the Catholics of the East 70 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 fituation, exposed to the world and to his enemies, was a restraint, and is a pledge. 5 and Re-union of the Greeks at Florence, A. D. 1438, July 6, LXVI. 72 CHAP. and Weft, in one fold, and under one shepherd. The act of union was fubfcribed 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 fufficed for the Eaft and Weft; but Eugenius was not fatisfied, unless four authentic and fimilar trapfcripts were figned and attested as the monuments of his victory ". On a memorable day, the fixth of July, the fucceffors of St. Peter and Conftantine afcended their thrones; the two nations affembled in the cathedral of Florence; their reprefentatives, cardinal Julian and Beffarion archbishop of Nice, appeared in the pulpit, and, after reading in their refpective tongues the act of union, they mutually embraced in the name and the prefence of their applauding brethren. The pope and his ministers then officiated according to the Roman liturgy; the creed was chaunted with the addition of filioque; the acquiefcence of the Greeks was poorly excufed by their ignorance of the harmonious, but inarti 71 Syropulus, rather than fubfcribe, would have affifted, as the leaft evil, at the ceremony of the union. He was compelled to do both; and the great ecclefiarch poorly excuses his fubmiffion to the emperor (p. 290-292.). 72 None of thefe 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 Brequigny), who condemns them for the variety and imperfections of the Greek fignatures. Yet feveral of thefe may be esteemed as authentic copies, which were fubfcribed at Florence before (26th of Auguft 1439) the final feparation of the pope and emperor (Memoires de l'Academie des Infcriptions, tom. xliii. p. 287-311.). culate, |