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Greeks.

Ducas, Chalcocondyles, and Leonard of Chios, to CHAP. the amount of three or four hundred thousand men; but Phranza was a lefs remote and more accurate judge; and his precife definition of two hundred and fifty-eight thousand does not exceed the measure of experience and probability 30. The navy of the befiegers was lefs formidable: the Propontis was overfpread with three hundred and twenty fail; but of thefe no more than eighteen could be rated as gallies of war; and the far greater part must be degraded to the condition of ftorefhips and tranfports, which poured into the camp fresh fupplies of men, ammunition, and provifions. In her laft decay, Conftantinople of the was ftill peopled with more than an hundred thousand inhabitants; but these numbers are found in the accounts, not of war, but of captivity; and they moftly confifted of mechanics, of priests, of women, and of men devoid of that spirit which even women have fometimes exerted for the common fafety. I can fuppofe, I could almoft excufe, the reluctance of fubjects to serve on a distant frontier, at the will of a tyrant; but the man who dares not expofe his life in the defence of his children and his property has loft in society the first and most active energies of nature. By the emperor's command, a particular enquiry had been made through the streets and houses, how

30 The obfervation of Philelphus is approved by Cufpinian in the year 1508 (de Cxfaribus, in Epilog. de Militiâ Turcicâ, p.. (97.). Marfigli proves, that the effective armies of the Turks are much lefs numerous than they appear. In the army that befieged Conftantinople, Leonardus Chienfis reckons no more than 15,0co Janizaries.

many

CHAP. many of the citizens, or even of the monks, LXVIII. were able and willing to bear arms for their

country. The lifts were intrusted to Phranza 3× and, after a diligent addition, he informed his master, with grief and furprise, that the national defence was reduced to four thoufand nine hundred and feventy Romans. Between Conftantine and his faithful minister, this comfortless fecret was preserved; and a fufficient proportion of fhields, crofs-bows, and mufkets, was diftributed from the arfenal to the city bands. They derived fome acceffion from a body of two thoufand ftrangers, under the command of John Juftiniani, a noble Genoefe; a liberal donative was advanced to thefe auxiliaries; and a princely recompence, the iffe of Lemnos, was promised to the valour and victory of their chief. A ftrong chain was drawn acrofs the mouth of the harbour: it was fupported by fome Greek and Italian veffels of war and merchandife; and the fhips of every Chriftian nation, that fucceffively arrived from Candia and the Black Sea, were detained for the public fervice. Against the powers of the Ottoman empire, a city of the extent of thirteen, perhaps of fixteen, miles was defended by a fcanty garrifon of feven or eight thoufand foldiers. Europe and Afia were open to the befiegers; but the strength and provisions of the

31 Ego, eidem (Imp.) tabellas extribui non abfque dolore et mœftitia, manfitque apud nos duos aliis occultus numerus (Phranza, 1. iii. c. 8.). With fome indulgence for national prejudices, we cannot defire a more authentic witness, not only of public facts, but of private counfels.

Greeks

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Greeks muft fuftain a daily decreafe; nor could CHAP. they indulge the expectation of any foreign fuccour or fupply.

Falfe

union of

churches,

A. D.

1452,

Dec. 12.

The primitive Romans would have drawn their fwords in the refolution of death or conqueft. the two The primitive Chriftians might have embraced each other, and awaited in patience and charity the stroke of martyrdom. But the Greeks of Conftantinople were animated only by the spirit of religion, and that fpirit was productive only of animofity and difcord. 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 diftrefs of his brother Conftantine impofed a laft trial of flattery and diffimulation 32. With the demand of temporal aid, his ambaffadors were inftructed to mingle the affurance of fpiritual obedience: his neglect of the church was excufed by the urgent cares of the ftate; and his orthodox wifhes folicited the presence of a Roman legate. The Vatican had been too often deluded; yet the figns of repentance could not decently be overlooked; a legate was more eafily granted than an army; and about fix months before the final deftruction, the cardinal Ifidore of Ruffia appeared in that character with a retinue of priefts and foldiers. The emperor faluted him as a friend and father; refpectfully liftened to his public and private fer

32 In Spondanus, the narrative of the union is not only partial, but imperfect. The bishop of Pamiers died in 1642, and the hiftory of Ducas, which reprefents thefe fcenes (c. 36, 37.) with fuch truth and spirit, was not printed till the year 1649.

mons;

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CHAP. mons; and with the moft obfequious of the clergy and laymen fubfcribed 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 facrifice and prayer; and the names of the two pontiffs were folemnly 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.

Obftinacy and fanaticifm of the Greeks.

But the dress and language of the Latin priest who officiated at the altar, were an object of fcandal; and it was obferved with horror, that he confecrated a cake or wafer of unleavened bread, and poured cold water into the cup of the facrament. A national hiftorian acknowledges with a blush, that none of his countrymen, not the emperor himself, were fincere in this occafional conformity 33. Their hafty and unconditional fubmiffion was palliated by a promife of future revifal; but the best, or the worst, of their excufes was the confeffion of their own perjury. When they were preffed by the reproaches of their honeft brethren, "Have patience," they whispered," have patience till God fhall have "delivered the city from the great dragon who "feeks to devour us. You fhall then perceive "whether we are truly reconciled with the Azy"mites." But patience is not the attribute of

33 Phranza, one of the conforming Greeks, acknowledges that the measure was adopted only propter fpem auxilii; he affirms with pleasure, that thofe who refused to perform their devotions in St. Sophia, extra culpam et in pace effent (1. iii. c. 20.). zeal;

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zeal; nor can the arts, of a court be adapted to CHAP. the freedom and violence of popular enthufiafm. From the dome of St. Sophia, the inhabitants of either fex, and of every degree, rufhed in crowds to the cell of the monk Gennadius 34, to confult the oracle of the church. The holy man was invisible; entranced, as it fhould feem, in deep meditation, or divine rapture: but he had expofed on the door of his cell, a fpeaking tablet; and they fucceffively withdrew after reading thefe tremendous words: "O miferable Romans, why "will ye abandon the truth; and why, inftead "of confiding in God, will ye put your truft in "the Italians? In lofing your faith, you will ❝lofe your city. Have mercy on me, O Lord! "I protest in thy prefence, that I am innocent "of the crime. O miferable Romans, confider, paufe, and repent. At the fame moment that

166

you renounce the religion of your fathers, by "embracing impiety, you fubmit to a foreign "fervitude." 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 affociates of the Latins; and their example was applauded and imitated by the greatest part

34 His primitive and fecular 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 fame union which he so furiously attacked at Conftantinople, has tempted Leo Allatius (Diatrib. de Georgiis, in Fabric. Bibliot. Græc. tom. x. p. 760-786.) to divide him into two men; but Renaudot (p. 343-383.) has restored the identity of his perfon and the duplicity of his character.

of