LXVI.

Their return to

culate, founds 73; and the more fcrupulous Latins CHA P. 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 confent: it was tacitly agreed that no innovation fhould be attempted in their creed or ceremonies; they fpared, and fecretly respected, the generous firmness of Mark of Ephefus; and, on the decease of the patriarch, they refused to elect his fucceffor, 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 lefs pomp and pride, returned by the fame road of Ferrara and Venice; and their reception at Conftantinople was fuch as will be defcribed in the following chapter 74. The fuccefs of the first trial encouraged Eugenius to repeat the fame edifying scenes; and the deputies of the Armenians, the Maronites, the Jacobites of Syria and Egypt, the Neftorians and the Ethiopians, were fucceffively introduced, to kifs the feet of the Roman pontiff, and to announce the obedience and the orthodoxy of the Eaft. These Oriental embassies, unknown in the countries which they prefumed to rep efent ", diffused over the Weft the fame of Euge

75

73 Ημιν δε ὡς ασημοι εδόκων φωναι (Syropul. p. 297.).

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

75 So nugatory, or rather fo fabulous, are thefe reunions of the Neftorians, Jacobites, &c. that I have turned over, without succefs, the Bibliotheca Orientalis of Affemannus, a faithful slave of the Vatican.

VOL. XII.

I

nius:

Conftanti

nople,

A. D. 1440,

February

I.

LXVI.

CHAP. nius and a clamour was artfully propagated against the remnant of a fchifm in Switzerland and Savoy, which alone impeded the harmony of the Chriftian world. The vigour of oppofition was fucceeded by the laffitude of defpair: the council of Bafil was filently diffolved; and Fœlix, renouncing the tiara, again withdrew to the devout or delicious hermitage of Ripaille ". A general peace was fecured by mutual acts of oblivion and indemnity: all ideas of reformation fubfided; the popes continued to exercife and abufe their ecclefiaftical defpotifm; nor has Rome been fince disturbed by the mischiefs of a contefted election ??.

Final peace of

the church, A. D.

1449.

State of

the Greek

at Con

ple,

76

The journies of three emperors were unavailing language for their temporal, or perhaps their spiritual, falvaftantino- tion; but they were productive of a beneficial confequence; the revival of the Greek learning in 1300 Italy, from whence it was propagated to the laft nations of the Weft and North. In their lowest fervitude and depreffion, the fubjects of the Byzan

A. D.

1453.

76 Ripaille is fituate near Thonon in Savoy, on the fouthern fide of the lake of Geneva. It is now a Carthufian abbey; and Mr. Addison (Travels into Italy, vol. ii. p. 147, 148. of Basker. ville's edition of his works) has celebrated the place and the les of Bafil, applaud the founder. Æneas Sylvius, and the auftere life of the ducal hermit; but the French and Italian proverbs most unluckily atteft the popular opinion of his luxury.

77 In this account of the councils of Bafil, Ferrara, and Florence, I have confulted the original acts, which fill the xviith and xviiith tomes of the edition of Venice, and are closed by the perfpicuous, though partial, hiftory of Auguftin Patricius, an Italian of the xyth century. They are digefted and abridged by Dupin (Bibliotheque Ecclef. tom. xi.), and the continuator of Fleury (tom. xxii.), and the refpect of the Gallican church for the adverfe parties confines their members to an awkward moderation.

LXVI.

tine throne were still poffeffed of a golden key that CHAP. could unlock the treasures of antiquity; of a mufical and prolific language, that gives a foul to the objects of sense, and a body to the abstractions of philofophy. Since the barriers of the monarchy, and even of the capital, had been trampled under foot, the various Barbarians had doubtlefs corrupted the form and fubftance of the national dialect; and ample gloffaries have been compofed, 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 refidence and noble marriage, was naturalized at Conftantinople about thirty years before the Turkish conqueft. "The vulgar fpeech," fays Philel

78

78 In the first attempt, Meurfius 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 Perfic words may be found in Xenophon, and fome Latin ones in Plutarch; and such is the inevitable effect of war and commerce but the form and substance of the language were not affected by this flight alloy.

79 The life of Francis Philelphus, a sophist, proud, restless, and rapacious, has been diligently composed by Lancelot (Memoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. x. p. 691-751.)` `and Tiraboschi (Istoria della Letteratura Italiana, tom. vii. p. 282-2941.), for the most part from his own letters. His elaborate writings, and thofe of his contemporaries, are forgotten: but their fami liar epistles still describe the men and the times.

80 He married, and had perhaps debauched, the daughter of John, and the grand-daughter of Manuel Chryfoloras. She was young, beautiful, and wealthy; and her noble family was allied to the Dorias of Genoa and the emperors of Conftantinople.

CHAP. phus", " has been depraved by the people, and LXVI. "infected by the multitude of strangers and mer"chants, who every day flock to the city and

mingle with the inhabitants. It is from the difciples of fuch a fchool that the Latin language received the verfions of Aristotle and "Plato; fo obfcure in fenfe, and in fpirit fo

poor. But the Greeks who have escaped the "contagion, are thofe whom we follow; and they "alone are worthy of our imitation. In familiar "difcourfe, they still speak the tongue of Arifto"phanes and Euripides, of the hiftorians and phi

lofophers of Athens; and the style of their ઘરે writings is still more elaborate and correct. "The perfons who, by their birth and offices, are "attached to the Byzantine court, are those who "maintain, with the leaft alloy, the ancient "standard of elegance and purity; and the na"tive graces of language moft confpicuoufly fhine τε among the noble matrons, who are excluded "from all intercourfe with foreigners. With "foreigners do I fay? They live retired and fe"questered from the eyes of their fellow-citizens. "Seldom are they seen in the streets; and when "they leave their houfes, it is in the dufk of

81 Græci quibus lingua depravata non fit.... ita loquuntur vulgo hâc etiam tempeftate ut Ariftophanes comicus, aut Euripides tragicus, ut oratores omnes ut historiographi ut philofophi ..... litterati autem homines et doctius et emendatius..... Nam viri aulici veterem fermonis dignitatem atque elegantiam retine bant in primifque ipfæ nobiles mulieres; quibus cum nullum effet omnino cum viris peregrinis commercium, merus ille ac purus Græcorum fermo fervabatur intactus (Philelph. Epift. ad ann. 1451, apud Hodium, p. 188, 189.). He obferves in another paf fage, uxor illa mea Theodora locutione erat admodum moderatâ et fuavi et maxime Atticâ. .

❝evening,

LXVI.

evening, on vifits to the churches and their CHA P. nearest kindred. On these occafions, they are "on horfeback, covered with a veil, and en"compaffed by their parents, their husbands, or "their fervants 82,"

Among the Greeks, a numerous and opulent clergy was dedicated to the fervice of religion: their monks and bishops have ever been distinguished by the gravity and aufterity of their manners; nor were they diverted, like the Latin priests, by the pursuits and pleasures of a fecular, and even military, life. After a large deduction for the time and talents that were loft in the devotion, the laziness, and the difcord, of the church and cloyfter, the more inquifitive and ambitious minds would explore the facred and profane erudition of their native language. The ecclefiaftics prefided over the education of youth; the fchools of philofophy 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 Conftantinople than could be difperfed over the extenfive countries of the Weft 83. But an important diftinction has been already noticed the Greeks were stationary or retrograde, while the Latins were advancing with a rapid and progreffive motion. The nations were excited by the spirit of independence and emula

82 Philelphus, abfurdly enough, derives this Greek or Oriental jealoufy from the manners of ancient Rome.

83 See the ftate of learning in the xiiith and xivth centuries, in the learned and judicious Mofheim (Inftitut. Hift. Ecclef. p. 434440. 490—494.).

I 3

tion;

Compari

fon of the

Greeks

and

Latins.