Chapter LXVI: Union Of The Greek And Latin Churches.—Part II

During the period of the crusades, the Greeks beheld with
astonishment and terror the perpetual stream of emigration that
flowed, and continued to flow, from the unknown climates of their
West. The visits of their last emperors removed the veil of
separation, and they disclosed to their eyes the powerful nations
of Europe, whom they no longer presumed to brand with the name of
Barbarians. The observations of Manuel, and his more inquisitive
followers, have been preserved by a Byzantine historian of the
times: 22 his scattered ideas I shall collect and abridge; and it
may be amusing enough, perhaps instructive, to contemplate the
rude pictures of Germany, France, and England, whose ancient and
modern state are so familiar to _our_ minds. I. Germany (says the
Greek Chalcondyles) is of ample latitude from Vienna to the
ocean; and it stretches (a strange geography) from Prague in
Bohemia to the River Tartessus, and the Pyrenæan Mountains. 23
The soil, except in figs and olives, is sufficiently fruitful;
the air is salubrious; the bodies of the natives are robust and
healthy; and these cold regions are seldom visited with the
calamities of pestilence, or earthquakes. After the Scythians or
Tartars, the Germans are the most numerous of nations: they are
brave and patient; and were they united under a single head,
their force would be irresistible. By the gift of the pope, they
have acquired the privilege of choosing the Roman emperor; 24 nor
is any people more devoutly attached to the faith and obedience
of the Latin patriarch. The greatest part of the country is
divided among the princes and prelates; but Strasburg, Cologne,
Hamburgh, and more than two hundred free cities, are governed by
sage and equal laws, according to the will, and for the
advantage, of the whole community. The use of duels, or single
combats on foot, prevails among them in peace and war: their
industry excels in all the mechanic arts; and the Germans may
boast of the invention of gunpowder and cannon, which is now
diffused over the greatest part of the world. II. The kingdom of
France is spread above fifteen or twenty days’ journey from
Germany to Spain, and from the Alps to the British Ocean;
containing many flourishing cities, and among these Paris, the
seat of the king, which surpasses the rest in riches and luxury.
Many princes and lords alternately wait in his palace, and
acknowledge him as their sovereign: the most powerful are the
dukes of Bretagne and Burgundy; of whom the latter possesses the
wealthy province of Flanders, whose harbors are frequented by the
ships and merchants of our own, and the more remote, seas. The
French are an ancient and opulent people; and their language and
manners, though somewhat different, are not dissimilar from those
of the Italians. Vain of the Imperial dignity of Charlemagne, of
their victories over the Saracens, and of the exploits of their
heroes, Oliver and Rowland, 25 they esteem themselves the first
of the western nations; but this foolish arrogance has been
recently humbled by the unfortunate events of their wars against
the English, the inhabitants of the British island. III. Britain,
in the ocean, and opposite to the shores of Flanders, may be
considered either as one, or as three islands; but the whole is
united by a common interest, by the same manners, and by a
similar government. The measure of its circumference is five
thousand stadia: the land is overspread with towns and villages:
though destitute of wine, and not abounding in fruit-trees, it is
fertile in wheat and barley; in honey and wool; and much cloth is
manufactured by the inhabitants. In populousness and power, in
richness and luxury, London, 26 the metropolis of the isle, may
claim a preeminence over all the cities of the West. It is
situate on the Thames, a broad and rapid river, which at the
distance of thirty miles falls into the Gallic Sea; and the daily
flow and ebb of the tide affords a safe entrance and departure to
the vessels of commerce. The king is head of a powerful and
turbulent aristocracy: his principal vassals hold their estates
by a free and unalterable tenure; and the laws define the limits
of his authority and their obedience. The kingdom has been often
afflicted by foreign conquest and domestic sedition: but the
natives are bold and hardy, renowned in arms and victorious in
war. The form of their shields or targets is derived from the
Italians, that of their swords from the Greeks; the use of the
long bow is the peculiar and decisive advantage of the English.
Their language bears no affinity to the idioms of the Continent:
in the habits of domestic life, they are not easily distinguished
from their neighbors of France: but the most singular
circumstance of their manners is their disregard of conjugal
honor and of female chastity. In their mutual visits, as the
first act of hospitality, the guest is welcomed in the embraces
of their wives and daughters: among friends they are lent and
borrowed without shame; nor are the islanders offended at this
strange commerce, and its inevitable consequences. 27 Informed as
we are of the customs of Old England and assured of the virtue of
our mothers, we may smile at the credulity, or resent the
injustice, of the Greek, who must have confounded a modest salute
28 with a criminal embrace. But his credulity and injustice may
teach an important lesson; to distrust the accounts of foreign
and remote nations, and to suspend our belief of every tale that
deviates from the laws of nature and the character of man. 29

22 (return) [ The Greek and Turkish history of Laonicus
Chalcondyles ends with the winter of 1463; and the abrupt
conclusion seems to mark, that he laid down his pen in the same
year. We know that he was an Athenian, and that some
contemporaries of the same name contributed to the revival of the
Greek language in Italy. But in his numerous digressions, the
modest historian has never introduced himself; and his editor
Leunclavius, as well as Fabricius, (Bibliot. Græc. tom. vi. p.
474,) seems ignorant of his life and character. For his
descriptions of Germany, France, and England, see l. ii. p. 36,
37, 44—50.]

23 (return) [ I shall not animadvert on the geographical errors
of Chalcondyles. In this instance, he perhaps followed, and
mistook, Herodotus, (l. ii. c. 33,) whose text may be explained,
(Herodote de Larcher, tom. ii. p. 219, 220,) or whose ignorance
may be excused. Had these modern Greeks never read Strabo, or any
of their lesser geographers?]

24 (return) [ A citizen of new Rome, while new Rome survived,
would have scorned to dignify the German 'Rhx with titles of
BasileuV or Autokratwr 'Rwmaiwn: but all pride was extinct in the
bosom of Chalcondyles; and he describes the Byzantine prince, and
his subject, by the proper, though humble, names of ''EllhneV and
BasileuV 'Ellhnwn.]

25 (return) [ Most of the old romances were translated in the
xivth century into French prose, and soon became the favorite
amusement of the knights and ladies in the court of Charles VI.
If a Greek believed in the exploits of Rowland and Oliver, he may
surely be excused, since the monks of St. Denys, the national
historians, have inserted the fables of Archbishop Turpin in
their Chronicles of France.]

26 (return) [ Londinh.... de te poliV dunamei te proecousa tvn en
th nhsw tauth pasvn polewn, olbw te kai th allh eudaimonia
oudemiaV tvn peoV esperan leipomenh. Even since the time of
Fitzstephen, (the xiith century,) London appears to have
maintained this preeminence of wealth and magnitude; and her
gradual increase has, at least, kept pace with the general
improvement of Europe.]

27 (return) [ If the double sense of the verb Kuw (osculor, and
in utero gero) be equivocal, the context and pious horror of
Chalcondyles can leave no doubt of his meaning and mistake, (p.
49.) * Note: I can discover no “pious horror” in the plain manner
in which Chalcondyles relates this strange usage. He says, oude
aiscunun tovto feoei eautoiV kuesqai taV te gunaikaV autvn kai
taV qugateraV, yet these are expression beyond what would be
used, if the ambiguous word kuesqai were taken in its more
innocent sense. Nor can the phrase parecontai taV eautvn gunaikaV
en toiV epithdeioiV well bear a less coarse interpretation.
Gibbon is possibly right as to the origin of this extraordinary
mistake.—M.]

28 (return) [ Erasmus (Epist. Fausto Andrelino) has a pretty
passage on the English fashion of kissing strangers on their
arrival and departure, from whence, however, he draws no
scandalous inferences.]

29 (return) [ Perhaps we may apply this remark to the community
of wives among the old Britons, as it is supposed by Cæsar and
Dion, (Dion Cassius, l. lxii. tom. ii. p. 1007,) with Reimar’s
judicious annotation. The _Arreoy_ of Otaheite, so certain at
first, is become less visible and scandalous, in proportion as we
have studied the manners of that gentle and amorous people.]

After his return, and the victory of Timour, Manuel reigned many
years in prosperity and peace. As long as the sons of Bajazet
solicited his friendship and spared his dominions, he was
satisfied with the national religion; and his leisure was
employed in composing twenty theological dialogues for its
defence. The appearance of the Byzantine ambassadors at the
council of Constance, 30 announces the restoration of the Turkish
power, as well as of the Latin church: the conquest of the
sultans, Mahomet and Amurath, reconciled the emperor to the
Vatican; and the siege of Constantinople almost tempted him to
acquiesce in the double procession of the Holy Ghost. When Martin
the Fifth ascended without a rival the chair of St. Peter, a
friendly intercourse of letters and embassies was revived between
the East and West. Ambition on one side, and distress on the
other, dictated the same decent language of charity and peace:
the artful Greek expressed a desire of marrying his six sons to
Italian princesses; and the Roman, not less artful, despatched
the daughter of the marquis of Montferrat, with a company of
noble virgins, to soften, by their charms, the obstinacy of the
schismatics. Yet under this mask of zeal, a discerning eye will
perceive that all was hollow and insincere in the court and
church of Constantinople. According to the vicissitudes of danger
and repose, the emperor advanced or retreated; alternately
instructed and disavowed his ministers; and escaped from the
importunate pressure by urging the duty of inquiry, the
obligation of collecting the sense of his patriarchs and bishops,
and the impossibility of convening them at a time when the
Turkish arms were at the gates of his capital. From a review of
the public transactions it will appear that the Greeks insisted
on three successive measures, a succor, a council, and a final
reunion, while the Latins eluded the second, and only promised
the first, as a consequential and voluntary reward of the third.
But we have an opportunity of unfolding the most secret
intentions of Manuel, as he explained them in a private
conversation without artifice or disguise. In his declining age,
the emperor had associated John Palæologus, the second of the
name, and the eldest of his sons, on whom he devolved the
greatest part of the authority and weight of government. One day,
in the presence only of the historian Phranza, 31 his favorite
chamberlain, he opened to his colleague and successor the true
principle of his negotiations with the pope. 32 “Our last
resource,” said Manuel, against the Turks, “is their fear of our
union with the Latins, of the warlike nations of the West, who
may arm for our relief and for their destruction. As often as you
are threatened by the miscreants, present this danger before
their eyes. Propose a council; consult on the means; but ever
delay and avoid the convocation of an assembly, which cannot tend
either to our spiritual or temporal emolument. The Latins are
proud; the Greeks are obstinate; neither party will recede or
retract; and the attempt of a perfect union will confirm the
schism, alienate the churches, and leave us, without hope or
defence, at the mercy of the Barbarians.” Impatient of this
salutary lesson, the royal youth arose from his seat, and
departed in silence; and the wise monarch (continued Phranza)
casting his eyes on me, thus resumed his discourse: “My son deems
himself a great and heroic prince; but, alas! our miserable age
does not afford scope for heroism or greatness. His daring spirit
might have suited the happier times of our ancestors; but the
present state requires not an emperor, but a cautious steward of
the last relics of our fortunes. Well do I remember the lofty
expectations which he built on our alliance with Mustapha; and
much do I fear, that this rash courage will urge the ruin of our
house, and that even religion may precipitate our downfall.” Yet
the experience and authority of Manuel preserved the peace, and
eluded the council; till, in the seventy-eighth year of his age,
and in the habit of a monk, he terminated his career, dividing
his precious movables among his children and the poor, his
physicians and his favorite servants. Of his six sons, 33
Andronicus the Second was invested with the principality of
Thessalonica, and died of a leprosy soon after the sale of that
city to the Venetians and its final conquest by the Turks. Some
fortunate incidents had restored Peloponnesus, or the Morea, to
the empire; and in his more prosperous days, Manuel had fortified
the narrow isthmus of six miles 34 with a stone wall and one
hundred and fifty-three towers. The wall was overthrown by the
first blast of the Ottomans; the fertile peninsula might have
been sufficient for the four younger brothers, Theodore and
Constantine, Demetrius and Thomas; but they wasted in domestic
contests the remains of their strength; and the least successful
of the rivals were reduced to a life of dependence in the
Byzantine palace.

30 (return) [ See Lenfant, Hist. du Concile de Constance, tom.
ii. p. 576; and or the ecclesiastical history of the times, the
Annals of Spondanus the Bibliothèque of Dupin, tom. xii., and
xxist and xxiid volumes of the History, or rather the
Continuation, of Fleury.]

31 (return) [ From his early youth, George Phranza, or Phranzes,
was employed in the service of the state and palace; and Hanckius
(de Script. Byzant. P. i. c. 40) has collected his life from his
own writings. He was no more than four-and-twenty years of age at
the death of Manuel, who recommended him in the strongest terms
to his successor: Imprimis vero hunc Phranzen tibi commendo, qui
ministravit mihi fideliter et diligenter (Phranzes, l. ii. c. i.)
Yet the emperor John was cold, and he preferred the service of
the despots of Peloponnesus.]

32 (return) [ See Phranzes, l. ii. c. 13. While so many
manuscripts of the Greek original are extant in the libraries of
Rome, Milan, the Escurial, &c., it is a matter of shame and
reproach, that we should be reduced to the Latin version, or
abstract, of James Pontanus, (ad calcem Theophylact, Simocattæ:
Ingolstadt, 1604,) so deficient in accuracy and elegance,
(Fabric. Bibliot. Græc. tom. vi. p. 615—620.) * Note: The Greek
text of Phranzes was edited by F. C. Alter Vindobonæ, 1796. It
has been re-edited by Bekker for the new edition of the
Byzantines, Bonn, 1838.—M.]

33 (return) [ See Ducange, Fam. Byzant. p. 243—248.]

34 (return) [ The exact measure of the Hexamilion, from sea to
sea, was 3800 orgyiæ, or _toises_, of six Greek feet, (Phranzes,
l. i. c. 38,) which would produce a Greek mile, still smaller
than that of 660 French _toises_, which is assigned by D’Anville,
as still in use in Turkey. Five miles are commonly reckoned for
the breadth of the isthmus. See the Travels of Spon, Wheeler and
Chandler.]

The eldest of the sons of Manuel, John Palæologus the Second, was
acknowledged, after his father’s death, as the sole emperor of
the Greeks. He immediately proceeded to repudiate his wife, and
to contract a new marriage with the princess of Trebizond: beauty
was in his eyes the first qualification of an empress; and the
clergy had yielded to his firm assurance, that unless he might be
indulged in a divorce, he would retire to a cloister, and leave
the throne to his brother Constantine. The first, and in truth
the only, victory of Palæologus, was over a Jew, 35 whom, after a
long and learned dispute, he converted to the Christian faith;
and this momentous conquest is carefully recorded in the history
of the times. But he soon resumed the design of uniting the East
and West; and, regardless of his father’s advice, listened, as it
should seem with sincerity, to the proposal of meeting the pope
in a general council beyond the Adriatic. This dangerous project
was encouraged by Martin the Fifth, and coldly entertained by his
successor Eugenius, till, after a tedious negotiation, the
emperor received a summons from the Latin assembly of a new
character, the independent prelates of Basil, who styled
themselves the representatives and judges of the Catholic church.

35 (return) [ The first objection of the Jews is on the death of
Christ: if it were voluntary, Christ was a suicide; which the
emperor parries with a mystery. They then dispute on the
conception of the Virgin, the sense of the prophecies, &c.,
(Phranzes, l. ii. c. 12, a whole chapter.)]

The Roman pontiff had fought and conquered in the cause of
ecclesiastical freedom; but the victorious clergy were soon
exposed to the tyranny of their deliverer; and his sacred
character was invulnerable to those arms which they found so keen
and effectual against the civil magistrate. Their great charter,
the right of election, was annihilated by appeals, evaded by
trusts or commendams, disappointed by reversionary grants, and
superseded by previous and arbitrary reservations. 36 A public
auction was instituted in the court of Rome: the cardinals and
favorites were enriched with the spoils of nations; and every
country might complain that the most important and valuable
benefices were accumulated on the heads of aliens and absentees.
During their residence at Avignon, the ambition of the popes
subsided in the meaner passions of avarice 37 and luxury: they
rigorously imposed on the clergy the tributes of first-fruits and
tenths; but they freely tolerated the impunity of vice, disorder,
and corruption. These manifold scandals were aggravated by the
great schism of the West, which continued above fifty years. In
the furious conflicts of Rome and Avignon, the vices of the
rivals were mutually exposed; and their precarious situation
degraded their authority, relaxed their discipline, and
multiplied their wants and exactions. To heal the wounds, and
restore the monarchy, of the church, the synods of Pisa and
Constance 38 were successively convened; but these great
assemblies, conscious of their strength, resolved to vindicate
the privileges of the Christian aristocracy. From a personal
sentence against two pontiffs, whom they rejected, and a third,
their acknowledged sovereign, whom they deposed, the fathers of
Constance proceeded to examine the nature and limits of the Roman
supremacy; nor did they separate till they had established the
authority, above the pope, of a general council. It was enacted,
that, for the government and reformation of the church, such
assemblies should be held at regular intervals; and that each
synod, before its dissolution, should appoint the time and place
of the subsequent meeting. By the influence of the court of Rome,
the next convocation at Sienna was easily eluded; but the bold
and vigorous proceedings of the council of Basil 39 had almost
been fatal to the reigning pontiff, Eugenius the Fourth. A just
suspicion of his design prompted the fathers to hasten the
promulgation of their first decree, that the representatives of
the church-militant on earth were invested with a divine and
spiritual jurisdiction over all Christians, without excepting the
pope; and that a general council could not be dissolved,
prorogued, or transferred, unless by their free deliberation and
consent. On the notice that Eugenius had fulminated a bull for
that purpose, they ventured to summon, to admonish, to threaten,
to censure the contumacious successor of St. Peter. After many
delays, to allow time for repentance, they finally declared,
that, unless he submitted within the term of sixty days, he was
suspended from the exercise of all temporal and ecclesiastical
authority. And to mark their jurisdiction over the prince as well
as the priest, they assumed the government of Avignon, annulled
the alienation of the sacred patrimony, and protected Rome from
the imposition of new taxes. Their boldness was justified, not
only by the general opinion of the clergy, but by the support and
power of the first monarchs of Christendom: the emperor Sigismond
declared himself the servant and protector of the synod; Germany
and France adhered to their cause; the duke of Milan was the
enemy of Eugenius; and he was driven from the Vatican by an
insurrection of the Roman people. Rejected at the same time by
temporal and spiritual subjects, submission was his only choice:
by a most humiliating bull, the pope repealed his own acts, and
ratified those of the council; incorporated his legates and
cardinals with that venerable body; and _seemed_ to resign
himself to the decrees of the supreme legislature. Their fame
pervaded the countries of the East: and it was in their presence
that Sigismond received the ambassadors of the Turkish sultan, 40
who laid at his feet twelve large vases, filled with robes of
silk and pieces of gold. The fathers of Basil aspired to the
glory of reducing the Greeks, as well as the Bohemians, within
the pale of the church; and their deputies invited the emperor
and patriarch of Constantinople to unite with an assembly which
possessed the confidence of the Western nations. Palæologus was
not averse to the proposal; and his ambassadors were introduced
with due honors into the Catholic senate. But the choice of the
place appeared to be an insuperable obstacle, since he refused to
pass the Alps, or the sea of Sicily, and positively required that
the synod should be adjourned to some convenient city in Italy,
or at least on the Danube. The other articles of this treaty were
more readily stipulated: it was agreed to defray the travelling
expenses of the emperor, with a train of seven hundred persons,
41 to remit an immediate sum of eight thousand ducats 42 for the
accommodation of the Greek clergy; and in his absence to grant a
supply of ten thousand ducats, with three hundred archers and
some galleys, for the protection of Constantinople. The city of
Avignon advanced the funds for the preliminary expenses; and the
embarkation was prepared at Marseilles with some difficulty and
delay.

36 (return) [ In the treatise delle Materie Beneficiarie of Fra
Paolo, (in the ivth volume of the last, and best, edition of his
works,) the papal system is deeply studied and freely described.
Should Rome and her religion be annihilated, this golden volume
may still survive, a philosophical history, and a salutary
warning.]

37 (return) [ Pope John XXII. (in 1334) left behind him, at
Avignon, eighteen millions of gold florins, and the value of
seven millions more in plate and jewels. See the Chronicle of
John Villani, (l. xi. c. 20, in Muratori’s Collection, tom. xiii.
p. 765,) whose brother received the account from the papal
treasurers. A treasure of six or eight millions sterling in the
xivth century is enormous, and almost incredible.]

38 (return) [ A learned and liberal Protestant, M. Lenfant, has
given a fair history of the councils of Pisa, Constance, and
Basil, in six volumes in quarto; but the last part is the most
hasty and imperfect, except in the account of the troubles of
Bohemia.]

39 (return) [ The original acts or minutes of the council of
Basil are preserved in the public library, in twelve volumes in
folio. Basil was a free city, conveniently situate on the Rhine,
and guarded by the arms of the neighboring and confederate Swiss.
In 1459, the university was founded by Pope Pius II., (Æneas
Sylvius,) who had been secretary to the council. But what is a
council, or a university, to the presses o Froben and the studies
of Erasmus?]

40 (return) [ This Turkish embassy, attested only by Crantzius,
is related with some doubt by the annalist Spondanus, A.D. 1433,
No. 25, tom. i. p. 824.]

41 (return) [ Syropulus, p. 19. In this list, the Greeks appear
to have exceeded the real numbers of the clergy and laity which
afterwards attended the emperor and patriarch, but which are not
clearly specified by the great ecclesiarch. The 75,000 florins
which they asked in this negotiation of the pope, (p. 9,) were
more than they could hope or want.]

42 (return) [ I use indifferently the words _ducat_ and _florin_,
which derive their names, the former from the _dukes_ of Milan,
the latter from the republic of _Florence_. These gold pieces,
the first that were coined in Italy, perhaps in the Latin world,
may be compared in weight and value to one third of the English
guinea.]

In his distress, the friendship of Palæologus was disputed by the
ecclesiastical powers of the West; but the dexterous activity of
a monarch prevailed over the slow debates and inflexible temper
of a republic. The decrees of Basil continually tended to
circumscribe the despotism of the pope, and to erect a supreme
and perpetual tribunal in the church. Eugenius was impatient of
the yoke; and the union of the Greeks might afford a decent
pretence for translating a rebellious synod from the Rhine to the
Po. The independence of the fathers was lost if they passed the
Alps: Savoy or Avignon, to which they acceded with reluctance,
were described at Constantinople as situate far beyond the
pillars of Hercules; 43 the emperor and his clergy were
apprehensive of the dangers of a long navigation; they were
offended by a haughty declaration, that after suppressing the
_new_ heresy of the Bohemians, the council would soon eradicate
the _old_ heresy of the Greeks. 44 On the side of Eugenius, all
was smooth, and yielding, and respectful; and he invited the
Byzantine monarch to heal by his presence the schism of the
Latin, as well as of the Eastern, church. Ferrara, near the coast
of the Adriatic, was proposed for their amicable interview; and
with some indulgence of forgery and theft, a surreptitious decree
was procured, which transferred the synod, with its own consent,
to that Italian city. Nine galleys were equipped for the service
at Venice, and in the Isle of Candia; their diligence anticipated
the slower vessels of Basil: the Roman admiral was commissioned
to burn, sink, and destroy; 45 and these priestly squadrons might
have encountered each other in the same seas where Athens and
Sparta had formerly contended for the preeminence of glory.
Assaulted by the importunity of the factions, who were ready to
fight for the possession of his person, Palæologus hesitated
before he left his palace and country on a perilous experiment.
His father’s advice still dwelt on his memory; and reason must
suggest, that since the Latins were divided among themselves,
they could never unite in a foreign cause. Sigismond dissuaded
the unreasonable adventure; his advice was impartial, since he
adhered to the council; and it was enforced by the strange
belief, that the German Cæsar would nominate a Greek his heir and
successor in the empire of the West. 46 Even the Turkish sultan
was a counsellor whom it might be unsafe to trust, but whom it
was dangerous to offend. Amurath was unskilled in the disputes,
but he was apprehensive of the union, of the Christians. From his
own treasures, he offered to relieve the wants of the Byzantine
court; yet he declared with seeming magnanimity, that
Constantinople should be secure and inviolate, in the absence of
her sovereign. 47 The resolution of Palæologus was decided by the
most splendid gifts and the most specious promises: he wished to
escape for a while from a scene of danger and distress and after
dismissing with an ambiguous answer the messengers of the
council, he declared his intention of embarking in the Roman
galleys. The age of the patriarch Joseph was more susceptible of
fear than of hope; he trembled at the perils of the sea, and
expressed his apprehension, that his feeble voice, with thirty
perhaps of his orthodox brethren, would be oppressed in a foreign
land by the power and numbers of a Latin synod. He yielded to the
royal mandate, to the flattering assurance, that he would be
heard as the oracle of nations, and to the secret wish of
learning from his brother of the West, to deliver the church from
the yoke of kings. 48 The five _cross-bearers_, or dignitaries,
of St. Sophia, were bound to attend his person; and one of these,
the great ecclesiarch or preacher, Sylvester Syropulus, 49 has
composed a free and curious history 50 of the _false_ union. 51
Of the clergy that reluctantly obeyed the summons of the emperor
and the patriarch, submission was the first duty, and patience
the most useful virtue. In a chosen list of twenty bishops, we
discover the metropolitan titles of Heracleæ and Cyzicus, Nice
and Nicomedia, Ephesus and Trebizond, and the personal merit of
Mark and Bessarion who, in the confidence of their learning and
eloquence, were promoted to the episcopal rank. Some monks and
philosophers were named to display the science and sanctity of
the Greek church; and the service of the choir was performed by a
select band of singers and musicians. The patriarchs of
Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem, appeared by their genuine or
fictitious deputies; the primate of Russia represented a national
church, and the Greeks might contend with the Latins in the
extent of their spiritual empire. The precious vases of St.
Sophia were exposed to the winds and waves, that the patriarch
might officiate with becoming splendor: whatever gold the emperor
could procure, was expended in the massy ornaments of his bed and
chariot; 52 and while they affected to maintain the prosperity of
their ancient fortune, they quarrelled for the division of
fifteen thousand ducats, the first alms of the Roman pontiff.
After the necessary preparations, John Palæologus, with a
numerous train, accompanied by his brother Demetrius, and the
most respectable persons of the church and state, embarked in
eight vessels with sails and oars which steered through the
Turkish Straits of Gallipoli to the Archipelago, the Morea, and
the Adriatic Gulf. 53

43 (return) [ At the end of the Latin version of Phranzes, we
read a long Greek epistle or declamation of George of Trebizond,
who advises the emperor to prefer Eugenius and Italy. He treats
with contempt the schismatic assembly of Basil, the Barbarians of
Gaul and Germany, who had conspired to transport the chair of St.
Peter beyond the Alps; oi aqlioi (says he) se kai thn meta sou
sunodon exw tvn 'Hrakleiwn sthlwn kai pera Gadhrwn exaxousi. Was
Constantinople unprovided with a map?]

44 (return) [ Syropulus (p. 26—31) attests his own indignation,
and that of his countrymen; and the Basil deputies, who excused
the rash declaration, could neither deny nor alter an act of the
council.]

45 (return) [ Condolmieri, the pope’s nephew and admiral,
expressly declared, oti orismon eceipara tou Papa ina polemhsh
opou an eurh ta katerga thV Sunodou, kai ei dunhqh, katadush, kai
ajanish. The naval orders of the synod were less peremptory, and,
till the hostile squadrons appeared, both parties tried to
conceal their quarrel from the Greeks.]

46 (return) [ Syropulus mentions the hopes of Palæologus, (p.
36,) and the last advice of Sigismond,(p. 57.) At Corfu, the
Greek emperor was informed of his friend’s death; had he known it
sooner, he would have returned home,(p. 79.)]

47 (return) [ Phranzes himself, though from different motives,
was of the advice of Amurath, (l. ii. c. 13.) Utinam ne synodus
ista unquam fuisset, si tantes offensiones et detrimenta paritura
erat. This Turkish embassy is likewise mentioned by Syropulus,
(p. 58;) and Amurath kept his word. He might threaten, (p. 125,
219,) but he never attacked, the city.]

48 (return) [ The reader will smile at the simplicity with which
he imparted these hopes to his favorites: toiauthn plhrojorian
schsein hlpize kai dia tou Papa eqarrei eleuqervdai thn ekklhsian
apo thV apoteqeishV autou douleiaV para tou basilewV, (p. 92.)
Yet it would have been difficult for him to have practised the
lessons of Gregory VII.]

49 (return) [ The Christian name of Sylvester is borrowed from
the Latin calendar. In modern Greek, pouloV, as a diminutive, is
added to the end of words: nor can any reasoning of Creyghton,
the editor, excuse his changing into S_gur_opulus, (Sguros,
fuscus,) the Syropulus of his own manuscript, whose 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 (return) [ From the conclusion of the history, I should fix
the date to the year 1444, four years after the synod, when great
ecclesiarch had abdicated his office, (section xii. p. 330—350.)
His passions were cooled by time and retirement; and, although
Syropulus is often partial, he is never intemperate.]

51 (return) [ _Vera historia unionis non ver inter Græcos et
Latinos_, (_Haga Comitis_, 1660, in folio,) was first published
with a loose and florid version, 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.]

52 (return) [ Syropulus (p. 63) simply expresses his intention
in’ outw pompawn en’ 'ItaloiV megaV basileuV par ekeinvn
nomizoito; and the Latin of Creyghton may afford a specimen of
his florid paraphrase. Ut pompâ circumductus noster Imperator
Italiæ populis aliquis deauratus Jupiter crederetur, aut Crsus ex
opulenta Lydia.]

53 (return) [ Although I cannot stop to quote Syropulus for every
fact, I will observe that the navigation of the Greeks from
Constantinople to Venice and Ferrara is contained in the ivth
section, (p. 67—100,) and that the historian has the uncommon
talent of placing each scene before the reader’s eye.]