Chapter LXVII: Schism Of The Greeks And Latins.—Part I

Schism Of The Greeks And Latins.—Reign And Character Of Amurath
The Second.—Crusade Of Ladislaus, King Of Hungary.— His Defeat And
Death.—John Huniades.—Scanderbeg.— Constantine Palæologus, Last
Emperor Of The East.

The respective merits of Rome and Constantinople are compared and
celebrated by an eloquent Greek, the father of the Italian
schools. 1 The view of the ancient capital, the seat of his
ancestors, surpassed the most sanguine expectations of Emanuel
Chrysoloras; and he no longer blamed the exclamation of an old
sophist, that Rome was the habitation, not of men, but of gods.
Those gods, and those men, had long since vanished; but to the
eye of liberal enthusiasm, the majesty of ruin restored the image
of her ancient prosperity. The monuments of the consuls and
Cæsars, of the martyrs and apostles, engaged on all sides the
curiosity of the philosopher and the Christian; and he confessed
that in every age the arms and the religion of Rome were destined
to reign over the earth. While Chrysoloras admired the venerable
beauties of the mother, he was not forgetful of his native
country, her fairest daughter, her Imperial colony; and the
Byzantine patriot expatiates with zeal and truth on the eternal
advantages of nature, and the more transitory glories of art and
dominion, which adorned, or had adorned, the city of Constantine.
Yet the perfection of the copy still redounds (as he modestly
observes) to the honor of the original, and parents are delighted
to be renewed, and even excelled, by the superior merit of their
children. “Constantinople,” says the orator, “is situate on a
commanding point, between Europe and Asia, between the
Archipelago and the Euxine. By her interposition, the two seas,
and the two continents, are united for the common benefit of
nations; and the gates of commerce may be shut or opened at her
command. The harbor, encompassed on all sides by the sea, and the
continent, is the most secure and capacious in the world. The
walls and gates of Constantinople may be compared with those of
Babylon: the towers many; each tower is a solid and lofty
structure; and the second wall, the outer fortification, would be
sufficient for the defence and dignity of an ordinary capital. A
broad and rapid stream may be introduced into the ditches and the
artificial island may be encompassed, like Athens, 2 by land or
water.” Two strong and natural causes are alleged for the
perfection of the model of new Rome. The royal founder reigned
over the most illustrious nations of the globe; and in the
accomplishment of his designs, the power of the Romans was
combined with the art and science of the Greeks. Other cities
have been reared to maturity by accident and time: their beauties
are mingled with disorder and deformity; and the inhabitants,
unwilling to remove from their natal spot, are incapable of
correcting the errors of their ancestors, and the original vices
of situation or climate. But the free idea of Constantinople was
formed and executed by a single mind; and the primitive model was
improved by the obedient zeal of the subjects and successors of
the first monarch. The adjacent isles were stored with an
inexhaustible supply of marble; but the various materials were
transported from the most remote shores of Europe and Asia; and
the public and private buildings, the palaces, churches,
aqueducts, cisterns, porticos, columns, baths, and hippodromes,
were adapted to the greatness of the capital of the East. The
superfluity of wealth was spread along the shores of Europe and
Asia; and the Byzantine territory, as far as the Euxine, the
Hellespont, and the long wall, might be considered as a populous
suburb and a perpetual garden. In this flattering picture, the
past and the present, the times of prosperity and decay, are
artfully confounded; but a sigh and a confession escape, from the
orator, that his wretched country was the shadow and sepulchre of
its former self. The works of ancient sculpture had been defaced
by Christian zeal or Barbaric violence; the fairest structures
were demolished; and the marbles of Paros or Numidia were burnt
for lime, or applied to the meanest uses. Of many a statue, the
place was marked by an empty pedestal; of many a column, the size
was determined by a broken capital; the tombs of the emperors
were scattered on the ground; the stroke of time was accelerated
by storms and earthquakes; and the vacant space was adorned, by
vulgar tradition, with fabulous monuments of gold and silver.
From these wonders, which lived only in memory or belief, he
distinguishes, however, the porphyry pillar, the column and
colossus of Justinian, 3 and the church, more especially the
dome, of St. Sophia; the best conclusion, since it could not be
described according to its merits, and after it no other object
could deserve to be mentioned. But he forgets that, a century
before, the trembling fabrics of the colossus and the church had
been saved and supported by the timely care of Andronicus the
Elder. Thirty years after the emperor had fortified St. Sophia
with two new buttresses or pyramids, the eastern hemisphere
suddenly gave way: and the images, the altars, and the sanctuary,
were crushed by the falling ruin. The mischief indeed was
speedily repaired; the rubbish was cleared by the incessant labor
of every rank and age; and the poor remains of riches and
industry were consecrated by the Greeks to the most stately and
venerable temple of the East. 4

1 (return) [ The epistle of Emanuel Chrysoloras to the emperor
John Palæologus will not offend the eye or ear of a classical
student, (ad calcem Codini de Antiquitatibus C. P. p. 107—126.)
The superscription suggests a chronological remark, that John
Palæologus II. was associated in the empire before the year 1414,
the date of Chrysoloras’s death. A still earlier date, at least
1408, is deduced from the age of his youngest sons, Demetrius and
Thomas, who were both _Porphyrogeniti_ (Ducange, Fam. Byzant. p.
244, 247.)]

2 (return) [ Somebody observed that the city of Athens might be
circumnavigated, (tiV eipen tin polin tvn Aqhnaiwn dunasqai kai
paraplein kai periplein.) But what may be true in a rhetorical
sense of Constantinople, cannot be applied to the situation of
Athens, five miles from the sea, and not intersected or
surrounded by any navigable streams.]

3 (return) [ Nicephorus Gregoras has described the Colossus of
Justinian, (l. vii. 12:) but his measures are false and
inconsistent. The editor Boivin consulted his friend Girardon;
and the sculptor gave him the true proportions of an equestrian
statue. That of Justinian was still visible to Peter Gyllius, not
on the column, but in the outward court of the seraglio; and he
was at Constantinople when it was melted down, and cast into a
brass cannon, (de Topograph. C. P. l. ii. c. 17.)]

4 (return) [ See the decay and repairs of St. Sophia, in
Nicephorus Gregoras (l. vii. 12, l. xv. 2.) The building was
propped by Andronicus in 1317, the eastern hemisphere fell in
1345. The Greeks, in their pompous rhetoric, exalt the beauty and
holiness of the church, an earthly heaven the abode of angels,
and of God himself, &c.]

The last hope of the falling city and empire was placed in the
harmony of the mother and daughter, in the maternal tenderness of
Rome, and the filial obedience of Constantinople. In the synod of
Florence, the Greeks and Latins had embraced, and subscribed, and
promised; but these signs of friendship were perfidious or
fruitless; 5 and the baseless fabric of the union vanished like a
dream. 6 The emperor and his prelates returned home in the
Venetian galleys; but as they touched at the Morea and the Isles
of Corfu and Lesbos, the subjects of the Latins complained that
the pretended union would be an instrument of oppression. No
sooner did they land on the Byzantine shore, than they were
saluted, or rather assailed, with a general murmur of zeal and
discontent. During their absence, above two years, the capital
had been deprived of its civil and ecclesiastical rulers;
fanaticism fermented in anarchy; the most furious monks reigned
over the conscience of women and bigots; and the hatred of the
Latin name was the first principle of nature and religion. Before
his departure for Italy, the emperor had flattered the city with
the assurance of a prompt relief and a powerful succor; and the
clergy, confident in their orthodoxy and science, had promised
themselves and their flocks an easy victory over the blind
shepherds of the West. The double disappointment exasperated the
Greeks; the conscience of the subscribing prelates was awakened;
the hour of temptation was past; and they had more to dread from
the public resentment, than they could hope from the favor of the
emperor or the pope. Instead of justifying their conduct, they
deplored their weakness, professed their contrition, and cast
themselves on the mercy of God and of their brethren. To the
reproachful question, what had been the event or the use of their
Italian synod? they answered with sighs and tears, “Alas! we have
made a new faith; we have exchanged piety for impiety; we have
betrayed the immaculate sacrifice; and we are become _Azymites_.”
(The Azymites were those who celebrated the communion with
unleavened bread; and I must retract or qualify the praise which
I have bestowed on the growing philosophy of the times.) “Alas!
we have been seduced by distress, by fraud, and by the hopes and
fears of a transitory life. The hand that has signed the union
should be cut off; and the tongue that has pronounced the Latin
creed deserves to be torn from the root.” The best proof of their
repentance was an increase of zeal for the most trivial rites and
the most incomprehensible doctrines; and an absolute separation
from all, without excepting their prince, who preserved some
regard for honor and consistency. After the decease of the
patriarch Joseph, the archbishops of Heraclea and Trebizond had
courage to refuse the vacant office; and Cardinal Bessarion
preferred the warm and comfortable shelter of the Vatican. The
choice of the emperor and his clergy was confined to Metrophanes
of Cyzicus: he was consecrated in St. Sophia, but the temple was
vacant. The cross-bearers abdicated their service; the infection
spread from the city to the villages; and Metrophanes discharged,
without effect, some ecclesiastical thunders against a nation of
schismatics. The eyes of the Greeks were directed to Mark of
Ephesus, the champion of his country; and the sufferings of the
holy confessor were repaid with a tribute of admiration and
applause. His example and writings propagated the flame of
religious discord; age and infirmity soon removed him from the
world; but the gospel of Mark was not a law of forgiveness; and
he requested with his dying breath, that none of the adherents of
Rome might attend his obsequies or pray for his soul.

5 (return) [ The genuine and original narrative of Syropulus (p.
312—351) opens the schism from the first _office_ of the Greeks
at Venice to the general opposition at Constantinople, of the
clergy and people.]

6 (return) [ On the schism of Constantinople, see Phranza, (l.
ii. c. 17,) Laonicus Chalcondyles, (l. vi. p. 155, 156,) and
Ducas, (c. 31;) the last of whom writes with truth and freedom.
Among the moderns we may distinguish the continuator of Fleury,
(tom. xxii. p. 338, &c., 401, 420, &c.,) and Spondanus, (A.D.
1440—50.) The sense of the latter is drowned in prejudice and
passion, as soon as Rome and religion are concerned.]

The schism was not confined to the narrow limits of the Byzantine
empire. Secure under the Mamaluke sceptre, the three patriarchs
of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem, assembled a numerous
synod; disowned their representatives at Ferrara and Florence;
condemned the creed and council of the Latins; and threatened the
emperor of Constantinople with the censures of the Eastern
church. Of the sectaries of the Greek communion, the Russians
were the most powerful, ignorant, and superstitious. Their
primate, the cardinal Isidore, hastened from Florence to Moscow,
7 to reduce the independent nation under the Roman yoke. But the
Russian bishops had been educated at Mount Athos; and the prince
and people embraced the theology of their priests. They were
scandalized by the title, the pomp, the Latin cross of the
legate, the friend of those impious men who shaved their beards,
and performed the divine office with gloves on their hands and
rings on their fingers: Isidore was condemned by a synod; his
person was imprisoned in a monastery; and it was with extreme
difficulty that the cardinal could escape from the hands of a
fierce and fanatic people. 8 The Russians refused a passage to
the missionaries of Rome who aspired to convert the Pagans beyond
the Tanais; 9 and their refusal was justified by the maxim, that
the guilt of idolatry is less damnable than that of schism. The
errors of the Bohemians were excused by their abhorrence for the
pope; and a deputation of the Greek clergy solicited the
friendship of those sanguinary enthusiasts. 10 While Eugenius
triumphed in the union and orthodoxy of the Greeks, his party was
contracted to the walls, or rather to the palace of
Constantinople. The zeal of Palæologus had been excited by
interest; it was soon cooled by opposition: an attempt to violate
the national belief might endanger his life and crown; not could
the pious rebels be destitute of foreign and domestic aid. The
sword of his brother Demetrius, who in Italy had maintained a
prudent and popular silence, was half unsheathed in the cause of
religion; and Amurath, the Turkish sultan, was displeased and
alarmed by the seeming friendship of the Greeks and Latins.

7 (return) [ Isidore was metropolitan of Kiow, but the Greeks
subject to Poland have removed that see from the ruins of Kiow to
Lemberg, or Leopold, (Herbestein, in Ramusio, tom. ii. p. 127.)
On the other hand, the Russians transferred their spiritual
obedience to the archbishop, who became, in 1588, the patriarch,
of Moscow, (Levesque Hist. de Russie, tom. iii. p. 188, 190, from
a Greek MS. at Turin, Iter et labores Archiepiscopi Arsenii.)]

8 (return) [ The curious narrative of Levesque (Hist. de Russie,
tom. ii. p. 242—247) is extracted from the patriarchal archives.
The scenes of Ferrara and Florence are described by ignorance and
passion; but the Russians are credible in the account of their
own prejudices.]

9 (return) [ The Shamanism, the ancient religion of the Samanæans
and Gymnosophists, has been driven by the more popular Bramins
from India into the northern deserts: the naked philosophers were
compelled to wrap themselves in fur; but they insensibly sunk
into wizards and physicians. The Mordvans and Tcheremisses in the
European Russia adhere to this religion, which is formed on the
earthly model of one king or God, his ministers or angels, and
the rebellious spirits who oppose his government. As these tribes
of the Volga have no images, they might more justly retort on the
Latin missionaries the name of idolaters, (Levesque, Hist. des
Peuples soumis à la Domination des Russes, tom. i. p. 194—237,
423—460.)]

10 (return) [ Spondanus, Annal. Eccles. tom ii. A.D. 1451, No.
13. The epistle of the Greeks with a Latin version, is extant in
the college library at Prague.]

“Sultan Murad, or Amurath, lived forty-nine, and reigned thirty
years, six months, and eight days. He was a just and valiant
prince, of a great soul, patient of labors, learned, merciful,
religious, charitable; a lover and encourager of the studious,
and of all who excelled in any art or science; a good emperor and
a great general. No man obtained more or greater victories than
Amurath; Belgrade alone withstood his attacks. 101 Under his
reign, the soldier was ever victorious, the citizen rich and
secure. If he subdued any country, his first care was to build
mosques and caravansaras, hospitals, and colleges. Every year he
gave a thousand pieces of gold to the sons of the Prophet; and
sent two thousand five hundred to the religious persons of Mecca,
Medina, and Jerusalem.” 11 This portrait is transcribed from the
historian of the Othman empire: but the applause of a servile and
superstitious people has been lavished on the worst of tyrants;
and the virtues of a sultan are often the vices most useful to
himself, or most agreeable to his subjects. A nation ignorant of
the equal benefits of liberty and law, must be awed by the
flashes of arbitrary power: the cruelty of a despot will assume
the character of justice; his profusion, of liberality; his
obstinacy, of firmness. If the most reasonable excuse be
rejected, few acts of obedience will be found impossible; and
guilt must tremble, where innocence cannot always be secure. The
tranquillity of the people, and the discipline of the troops,
were best maintained by perpetual action in the field; war was
the trade of the Janizaries; and those who survived the peril,
and divided the spoil, applauded the generous ambition of their
sovereign. To propagate the true religion, was the duty of a
faithful Mussulman: the unbelievers were _his_ enemies, and those
of the Prophet; and, in the hands of the Turks, the cimeter was
the only instrument of conversion. Under these circumstances,
however, the justice and moderation of Amurath are attested by
his conduct, and acknowledged by the Christians themselves; who
consider a prosperous reign and a peaceful death as the reward of
his singular merits. In the vigor of his age and military power,
he seldom engaged in war till he was justified by a previous and
adequate provocation: the victorious sultan was disarmed by
submission; and in the observance of treaties, his word was
inviolate and sacred. 12 The Hungarians were commonly the
aggressors; he was provoked by the revolt of Scanderbeg; and the
perfidious Caramanian was twice vanquished, and twice pardoned,
by the Ottoman monarch. Before he invaded the Morea, Thebes had
been surprised by the despot: in the conquest of Thessalonica,
the grandson of Bajazet might dispute the recent purchase of the
Venetians; and after the first siege of Constantinople, the
sultan was never tempted, by the distress, the absence, or the
injuries of Palæologus, to extinguish the dying light of the
Byzantine empire.

101 (return) [ See the siege and massacre at Thessalonica. Von
Hammer vol. i p. 433.—M.]

11 (return) [ See Cantemir, History of the Othman Empire, p. 94.
Murad, or Morad, may be more correct: but I have preferred the
popular name to that obscure diligence which is rarely successful
in translating an Oriental, into the Roman, alphabet.]

12 (return) [ See Chalcondyles, (l. vii. p. 186, 198,) Ducas, (c.
33,) and Marinus Barletius, (in Vit. Scanderbeg, p. 145, 146.) In
his good faith towards the garrison of Sfetigrade, he was a
lesson and example to his son Mahomet.]

But the most striking feature in the life and character of
Amurath is the double abdication of the Turkish throne; and, were
not his motives debased by an alloy of superstition, we must
praise the royal philosopher, 13 who at the age of forty could
discern the vanity of human greatness. Resigning the sceptre to
his son, he retired to the pleasant residence of Magnesia; but he
retired to the society of saints and hermits. It was not till the
fourth century of the Hegira, that the religion of Mahomet had
been corrupted by an institution so adverse to his genius; but in
the age of the crusades, the various orders of Dervises were
multiplied by the example of the Christian, and even the Latin,
monks. 14 The lord of nations submitted to fast, and pray, and
turn round 141 in endless rotation with the fanatics, who mistook
the giddiness of the head for the illumination of the spirit. 15
But he was soon awakened from his dreams of enthusiasm by the
Hungarian invasion; and his obedient son was the foremost to urge
the public danger and the wishes of the people. Under the banner
of their veteran leader, the Janizaries fought and conquered but
he withdrew from the field of Varna, again to pray, to fast, and
to turn round with his Magnesian brethren. These pious
occupations were again interrupted by the danger of the state. A
victorious army disdained the inexperience of their youthful
ruler: the city of Adrianople was abandoned to rapine and
slaughter; and the unanimous divan implored his presence to
appease the tumult, and prevent the rebellion, of the Janizaries.
At the well-known voice of their master, they trembled and
obeyed; and the reluctant sultan was compelled to support his
splendid servitude, till at the end of four years, he was
relieved by the angel of death. Age or disease, misfortune or
caprice, have tempted several princes to descend from the throne;
and they have had leisure to repent of their irretrievable step.
But Amurath alone, in the full liberty of choice, after the trial
of empire and solitude, has _repeated_ his preference of a
private life.

13 (return) [ Voltaire (Essai sur l’Histoire Générale, c. 89, p.
283, 284) admires _le Philosophe Turc:_ would he have bestowed
the same praise on a Christian prince for retiring to a
monastery? In his way, Voltaire was a bigot, an intolerant
bigot.]

14 (return) [ See the articles _Dervische_, _Fakir_, _Nasser_,
_Rohbaniat_, in D’Herbelot’s Bibliothèque Orientale. Yet the
subject is superficially treated from the Persian and Arabian
writers. It is among the Turks that these orders have principally
flourished.]

141 (return) [ Gibbon has fallen into a remarkable error. The
unmonastic retreat of Amurath was that of an epicurean rather
than of a dervis; more like that of Sardanapalus than of Charles
the Fifth. Profane, not divine, love was its chief occupation:
the only dance, that described by Horace as belonging to the
country, motus doceri gaudet Ionicos. See Von Hammer note, p.
652.—M.]

15 (return) [ Ricaut (in the Present State of the Ottoman Empire,
p. 242—268) affords much information, which he drew from his
personal conversation with the heads of the dervises, most of
whom ascribed their origin to the time of Orchan. He does not
mention the _Zichid_ of Chalcondyles, (l. vii. p. 286,) among
whom Amurath retired: the _Seids_ of that author are the
descendants of Mahomet.]

After the departure of his Greek brethren, Eugenius had not been
unmindful of their temporal interest; and his tender regard for
the Byzantine empire was animated by a just apprehension of the
Turks, who approached, and might soon invade, the borders of
Italy. But the spirit of the crusades had expired; and the
coldness of the Franks was not less unreasonable than their
headlong passion. In the eleventh century, a fanatic monk could
precipitate Europe on Asia for the recovery of the holy
sepulchre; but in the fifteenth, the most pressing motives of
religion and policy were insufficient to unite the Latins in the
defence of Christendom. Germany was an inexhaustible storehouse
of men and arms: 16 but that complex and languid body required
the impulse of a vigorous hand; and Frederic the Third was alike
impotent in his personal character and his Imperial dignity. A
long war had impaired the strength, without satiating the
animosity, of France and England: 17 but Philip duke of Burgundy
was a vain and magnificent prince; and he enjoyed, without danger
or expense, the adventurous piety of his subjects, who sailed, in
a gallant fleet, from the coast of Flanders to the Hellespont.
The maritime republics of Venice and Genoa were less remote from
the scene of action; and their hostile fleets were associated
under the standard of St. Peter. The kingdoms of Hungary and
Poland, which covered as it were the interior pale of the Latin
church, were the most nearly concerned to oppose the progress of
the Turks. Arms were the patrimony of the Scythians and
Sarmatians; and these nations might appear equal to the contest,
could they point, against the common foe, those swords that were
so wantonly drawn in bloody and domestic quarrels. But the same
spirit was adverse to concord and obedience: a poor country and a
limited monarch are incapable of maintaining a standing force;
and the loose bodies of Polish and Hungarian horse were not armed
with the sentiments and weapons which, on some occasions, have
given irresistible weight to the French chivalry. Yet, on this
side, the designs of the Roman pontiff, and the eloquence of
Cardinal Julian, his legate, were promoted by the circumstances
of the times: 18 by the union of the two crowns on the head of
Ladislaus, 19 a young and ambitious soldier; by the valor of a
hero, whose name, the name of John Huniades, was already popular
among the Christians, and formidable to the Turks. An endless
treasure of pardons and indulgences was scattered by the legate;
many private warriors of France and Germany enlisted under the
holy banner; and the crusade derived some strength, or at least
some reputation, from the new allies both of Europe and Asia. A
fugitive despot of Servia exaggerated the distress and ardor of
the Christians beyond the Danube, who would unanimously rise to
vindicate their religion and liberty. The Greek emperor, 20 with
a spirit unknown to his fathers, engaged to guard the Bosphorus,
and to sally from Constantinople at the head of his national and
mercenary troops. The sultan of Caramania 21 announced the
retreat of Amurath, and a powerful diversion in the heart of
Anatolia; and if the fleets of the West could occupy at the same
moment the Straits of the Hellespont, the Ottoman monarchy would
be dissevered and destroyed. Heaven and earth must rejoice in the
perdition of the miscreants; and the legate, with prudent
ambiguity, instilled the opinion of the invisible, perhaps the
visible, aid of the Son of God, and his divine mother.

16 (return) [ In the year 1431, Germany raised 40,000 horse,
men-at-arms, against the Hussites of Bohemia, (Lenfant, Hist. du
Concile de Basle, tom. i. p. 318.) At the siege of Nuys, on the
Rhine, in 1474, the princes, prelates, and cities, sent their
respective quotas; and the bishop of Munster (qui n’est pas des
plus grands) furnished 1400 horse, 6000 foot, all in green, with
1200 wagons. The united armies of the king of England and the
duke of Burgundy scarcely equalled one third of this German host,
(Mémoires de Philippe de Comines, l. iv. c. 2.) At present, six
or seven hundred thousand men are maintained in constant pay and
admirable discipline by the powers of Germany.]

17 (return) [ It was not till the year 1444, that France and
England could agree on a truce of some months. (See Rymer’s
Fdera, and the chronicles of both nations.)]

18 (return) [ In the Hungarian crusade, Spondanus (Annal. Ecclés.
A.D. 1443, 1444) has been my leading guide. He has diligently
read, and critically compared, the Greek and Turkish materials,
the historians of Hungary, Poland, and the West. His narrative is
perspicuous and where he can be free from a religious bias, the
judgment of Spondanus is not contemptible.]

19 (return) [ I have curtailed the harsh letter (Wladislaus)
which most writers affix to his name, either in compliance with
the Polish pronunciation, or to distinguish him from his rival
the infant Ladislaus of Austria. Their competition for the crown
of Hungary is described by Callimachus, (l. i. ii. p. 447—486,)
Bonfinius, (Decad. iii. l. iv.,) Spondanus, and Lenfant.]

20 (return) [ The Greek historians, Phranza, Chalcondyles, and
Ducas, do not ascribe to their prince a very active part in this
crusade, which he seems to have promoted by his wishes, and
injured by his fears.]

21 (return) [ Cantemir (p. 88) ascribes to his policy the
original plan, and transcribes his animating epistle to the king
of Hungary. But the Mahometan powers are seldom it formed of the
state of Christendom and the situation and correspondence of the
knights of Rhodes must connect them with the sultan of
Caramania.]

Of the Polish and Hungarian diets, a religious war was the
unanimous cry; and Ladislaus, after passing the Danube, led an
army of his confederate subjects as far as Sophia, the capital of
the Bulgarian kingdom. In this expedition they obtained two
signal victories, which were justly ascribed to the valor and
conduct of Huniades. In the first, with a vanguard of ten
thousand men, he surprised the Turkish camp; in the second, he
vanquished and made prisoner the most renowned of their generals,
who possessed the double advantage of ground and numbers. The
approach of winter, and the natural and artificial obstacles of
Mount Hæmus, arrested the progress of the hero, who measured a
narrow interval of six days’ march from the foot of the mountains
to the hostile towers of Adrianople, and the friendly capital of
the Greek empire. The retreat was undisturbed; and the entrance
into Buda was at once a military and religious triumph. An
ecclesiastical procession was followed by the king and his
warriors on foot: he nicely balanced the merits and rewards of
the two nations; and the pride of conquest was blended with the
humble temper of Christianity. Thirteen bashaws, nine standards,
and four thousand captives, were unquestionable trophies; and as
all were willing to believe, and none were present to contradict,
the crusaders multiplied, with unblushing confidence, the myriads
of Turks whom they had left on the field of battle. 22 The most
solid proof, and the most salutary consequence, of victory, was a
deputation from the divan to solicit peace, to restore Servia, to
ransom the prisoners, and to evacuate the Hungarian frontier. By
this treaty, the rational objects of the war were obtained: the
king, the despot, and Huniades himself, in the diet of Segedin,
were satisfied with public and private emolument; a truce of ten
years was concluded; and the followers of Jesus and Mahomet, who
swore on the Gospel and the Koran, attested the word of God as
the guardian of truth and the avenger of perfidy. In the place of
the Gospel, the Turkish ministers had proposed to substitute the
Eucharist, the real presence of the Catholic deity; but the
Christians refused to profane their holy mysteries; and a
superstitious conscience is less forcibly bound by the spiritual
energy, than by the outward and visible symbols of an oath. 23

22 (return) [ In their letters to the emperor Frederic III. the
Hungarians slay 80,000 Turks in one battle; but the modest Julian
reduces the slaughter to 6000 or even 2000 infidels, (Æneas
Sylvius in Europ. c. 5, and epist. 44, 81, apud Spondanum.)]

23 (return) [ See the origin of the Turkish war, and the first
expedition of Ladislaus, in the vth and vith books of the iiid
decad of Bonfinius, who, in his division and style, copies Livy
with tolerable success Callimachus (l. ii p. 487—496) is still
more pure and authentic.]

During the whole transaction, the cardinal legate had observed a
sullen silence, unwilling to approve, and unable to oppose, the
consent of the king and people. But the diet was not dissolved
before Julian was fortified by the welcome intelligence, that
Anatolia was invaded by the Caramanian, and Thrace by the Greek
emperor; that the fleets of Genoa, Venice, and Burgundy, were
masters of the Hellespont; and that the allies, informed of the
victory, and ignorant of the treaty, of Ladislaus, impatiently
waited for the return of his victorious army. “And is it thus,”
exclaimed the cardinal, 24 “that you will desert their
expectations and your own fortune? It is to them, to your God,
and your fellow-Christians, that you have pledged your faith; and
that prior obligation annihilates a rash and sacrilegious oath to
the enemies of Christ. His vicar on earth is the Roman pontiff;
without whose sanction you can neither promise nor perform. In
his name I absolve your perjury and sanctify your arms: follow my
footsteps in the paths of glory and salvation; and if still ye
have scruples, devolve on my head the punishment and the sin.”
This mischievous casuistry was seconded by his respectable
character, and the levity of popular assemblies: war was
resolved, on the same spot where peace had so lately been sworn;
and, in the execution of the treaty, the Turks were assaulted by
the Christians; to whom, with some reason, they might apply the
epithet of Infidels. The falsehood of Ladislaus to his word and
oath was palliated by the religion of the times: the most
perfect, or at least the most popular, excuse would have been the
success of his arms and the deliverance of the Eastern church.
But the same treaty which should have bound his conscience had
diminished his strength. On the proclamation of the peace, the
French and German volunteers departed with indignant murmurs: the
Poles were exhausted by distant warfare, and perhaps disgusted
with foreign command; and their palatines accepted the first
license, and hastily retired to their provinces and castles. Even
Hungary was divided by faction, or restrained by a laudable
scruple; and the relics of the crusade that marched in the second
expedition were reduced to an inadequate force of twenty thousand
men. A Walachian chief, who joined the royal standard with his
vassals, presumed to remark that their numbers did not exceed the
hunting retinue that sometimes attended the sultan; and the gift
of two horses of matchless speed might admonish Ladislaus of his
secret foresight of the event. But the despot of Servia, after
the restoration of his country and children, was tempted by the
promise of new realms; and the inexperience of the king, the
enthusiasm of the legate, and the martial presumption of Huniades
himself, were persuaded that every obstacle must yield to the
invincible virtue of the sword and the cross. After the passage
of the Danube, two roads might lead to Constantinople and the
Hellespont: the one direct, abrupt, and difficult through the
mountains of Hæmus; the other more tedious and secure, over a
level country, and along the shores of the Euxine; in which their
flanks, according to the Scythian discipline, might always be
covered by a movable fortification of wagons. The latter was
judiciously preferred: the Catholics marched through the plains
of Bulgaria, burning, with wanton cruelty, the churches and
villages of the Christian natives; and their last station was at
Warna, near the sea-shore; on which the defeat and death of
Ladislaus have bestowed a memorable name. 25

24 (return) [ I do not pretend to warrant the literal accuracy of
Julian’s speech, which is variously worded by Callimachus, (l.
iii. p. 505—507,) Bonfinius, (dec. iii. l. vi. p. 457, 458,) and
other historians, who might indulge their own eloquence, while
they represent one of the orators of the age. But they all agree
in the advice and arguments for perjury, which in the field of
controversy are fiercely attacked by the Protestants, and feebly
defended by the Catholics. The latter are discouraged by the
misfortune of Warna.]

25 (return) [ Warna, under the Grecian name of Odessus, was a
colony of the Milesians, which they denominated from the hero
Ulysses, (Cellarius, tom. i. p. 374. D’Anville, tom. i. p. 312.)
According to Arrian’s Periplus of the Euxine, (p. 24, 25, in the
first volume of Hudson’s Geographers,) it was situate 1740
stadia, or furlongs, from the mouth of the Danube, 2140 from
Byzantium, and 360 to the north of a ridge of promontory of Mount
Hæmus, which advances into the sea.]