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

After a tedious and troublesome navigation of seventy-seven days,
this religious squadron cast anchor before Venice; and their
reception proclaimed the joy and magnificence of that powerful
republic. In the command of the world, the modest Augustus had
never claimed such honors from his subjects as were paid to his
feeble successor by an independent state. Seated on the poop on a
lofty throne, he received the visit, or, in the Greek style, the
_adoration_ of the doge and senators. 54 They sailed in the
Bucentaur, which was accompanied by twelve stately galleys: the
sea was overspread with innumerable gondolas of pomp and
pleasure; the air resounded with music and acclamations; the
mariners, and even the vessels, were dressed in silk and gold;
and in all the emblems and pageants, the Roman eagles were
blended with the lions of St. Mark. The triumphal procession,
ascending the great canal, passed under the bridge of the Rialto;
and the Eastern strangers gazed with admiration on the palaces,
the churches, and the populousness of a city, that seems to float
on the bosom of the waves. 55 They sighed to behold the spoils
and trophies with which it had been decorated after the sack of
Constantinople. After a hospitable entertainment of fifteen days,
Palæologus pursued his journey by land and water from Venice to
Ferrara; and on this occasion the pride of the Vatican was
tempered by policy to indulge the ancient dignity of the emperor
of the East. He made his entry on a _black_ horse; but a
milk-white steed, whose trappings were embroidered with golden
eagles, was led before him; and the canopy was borne over his
head by the princes of Este, the sons or kinsmen of Nicholas,
marquis of the city, and a sovereign more powerful than himself.
56 Palæologus did not alight till he reached the bottom of the
staircase: the pope advanced to the door of the apartment;
refused his proffered genuflection; and, after a paternal
embrace, conducted the emperor to a seat on his left hand. Nor
would the patriarch descend from his galley, till a ceremony
almost equal, had been stipulated between the bishops of Rome and
Constantinople. The latter was saluted by his brother with a kiss
of union and charity; nor would any of the Greek ecclesiastics
submit to kiss the feet of the Western primate. On the opening of
the synod, the place of honor in the centre was claimed by the
temporal and ecclesiastical chiefs; and it was only by alleging
that his predecessors had not assisted in person at Nice or
Chalcedon, that Eugenius could evade the ancient precedents of
Constantine and Marcian. After much debate, it was agreed that
the right and left sides of the church should be occupied by the
two nations; that the solitary chair of St. Peter should be
raised the first of the Latin line; and that the throne of the
Greek emperor, at the head of his clergy, should be equal and
opposite to the second place, the vacant seat of the emperor of
the West. 57

54 (return) [ At the time of the synod, Phranzes was in
Peloponnesus: but he received from the despot Demetrius a
faithful account of the honorable reception of the emperor and
patriarch both at Venice and Ferrara, (Dux.... sedentem
Imperatorem _adorat_,) which are more slightly mentioned by the
Latins, (l. ii. c. 14, 15, 16.)]

55 (return) [ The astonishment of a Greek prince and a French
ambassador (Mémoires de Philippe de Comines, l. vii. c. 18,) at
the sight of Venice, abundantly proves that in the xvth century
it was the first and most splendid of the Christian cities. For
the spoils of Constantinople at Venice, see Syropulus, (p. 87.)]

56 (return) [ Nicholas III. of Este reigned forty-eight years,
(A.D. 1393—1441,) and was lord of Ferrara, Modena, Reggio, Parma,
Rovigo, and Commachio. See his Life in Muratori, (Antichità
Estense, tom. ii. p. 159—201.)]

57 (return) [ The Latin vulgar was provoked to laughter at the
strange dresses of the Greeks, and especially the length of their
garments, their sleeves, and their beards; nor was the emperor
distinguished, except by the purple color, and his diadem or
tiara, with a jewel on the top, (Hody de Græcis Illustribus, p.
31.) Yet another spectator confesses that the Greek fashion was
piu grave e piu degna than the Italian. (Vespasiano in Vit.
Eugen. IV. in Muratori, tom. xxv. p. 261.)]

But as soon as festivity and form had given place to a more
serious treaty, the Greeks were dissatisfied with their journey,
with themselves, and with the pope. The artful pencil of his
emissaries had painted him in a prosperous state; at the head of
the princes and prelates of Europe, obedient at his voice, to
believe and to arm. The thin appearance of the universal synod of
Ferrara betrayed his weakness: and the Latins opened the first
session with only five archbishops, eighteen bishops, and ten
abbots, the greatest part of whom were the subjects or countrymen
of the Italian pontiff. Except the duke of Burgundy, none of the
potentates of the West condescended to appear in person, or by
their ambassadors; nor was it possible to suppress the judicial
acts of Basil against the dignity and person of Eugenius, which
were finally concluded by a new election. Under these
circumstances, a truce or delay was asked and granted, till
Palæologus could expect from the consent of the Latins some
temporal reward for an unpopular union; and after the first
session, the public proceedings were adjourned above six months.
The emperor, with a chosen band of his favorites and
_Janizaries_, fixed his summer residence at a pleasant, spacious
monastery, six miles from Ferrara; forgot, in the pleasures of
the chase, the distress of the church and state; and persisted in
destroying the game, without listening to the just complaints of
the marquis or the husbandman. 58 In the mean while, his
unfortunate Greeks were exposed to all the miseries of exile and
poverty; for the support of each stranger, a monthly allowance
was assigned of three or four gold florins; and although the
entire sum did not amount to seven hundred florins, a long arrear
was repeatedly incurred by the indigence or policy of the Roman
court. 59 They sighed for a speedy deliverance, but their escape
was prevented by a triple chain: a passport from their superiors
was required at the gates of Ferrara; the government of Venice
had engaged to arrest and send back the fugitives; and inevitable
punishment awaited them at Constantinople; excommunication,
fines, and a sentence, which did not respect the sacerdotal
dignity, that they should be stripped naked and publicly whipped.
60 It was only by the alternative of hunger or dispute that the
Greeks could be persuaded to open the first conference; and they
yielded with extreme reluctance to attend from Ferrara to
Florence the rear of a flying synod. This new translation was
urged by inevitable necessity: the city was visited by the
plague; the fidelity of the marquis might be suspected; the
mercenary troops of the duke of Milan were at the gates; and as
they occupied Romagna, it was not without difficulty and danger
that the pope, the emperor, and the bishops, explored their way
through the unfrequented paths of the Apennine. 61

58 (return) [ For the emperor’s hunting, see Syropulus, (p. 143,
144, 191.) The pope had sent him eleven miserable hacks; but he
bought a strong and swift horse that came from Russia. The name
of _Janizaries_ may surprise; but the name, rather than the
institution, had passed from the Ottoman, to the Byzantine,
court, and is often used in the last age of the empire.]

59 (return) [ The Greeks obtained, with much difficulty, that
instead of provisions, money should be distributed, four florins
_per_ month to the persons of honorable rank, and three florins
to their servants, with an addition of thirty more to the
emperor, twenty-five to the patriarch, and twenty to the prince,
or despot, Demetrius. The payment of the first month amounted to
691 florins, a sum which will not allow us to reckon above 200
Greeks of every condition. (Syropulus, p. 104, 105.) On the 20th
October, 1438, there was an arrear of four months; in April,
1439, of three; and of five and a half in July, at the time of
the union, (p. 172, 225, 271.)]

60 (return) [ Syropulus (p. 141, 142, 204, 221) deplores the
imprisonment of the Greeks, and the tyranny of the emperor and
patriarch.]

61 (return) [ The wars of Italy are most clearly represented in
the xiiith vol. of the Annals of Muratori. The schismatic Greek,
Syropulus, (p. 145,) appears to have exaggerated the fear and
disorder of the pope in his retreat from Ferrara to Florence,
which is proved by the acts to have been somewhat more decent and
deliberate.]

Yet all these obstacles were surmounted by time and policy. The
violence of the fathers of Basil rather promoted than injured the
cause of Eugenius; the nations of Europe abhorred the schism, and
disowned the election, of Felix the Fifth, who was successively a
duke of Savoy, a hermit, and a pope; and the great princes were
gradually reclaimed by his competitor to a favorable neutrality
and a firm attachment. The legates, with some respectable
members, deserted to the Roman army, which insensibly rose in
numbers and reputation; the council of Basil was reduced to
thirty-nine bishops, and three hundred of the inferior clergy; 62
while the Latins of Florence could produce the subscriptions of
the pope himself, eight cardinals, two patriarchs, eight
archbishops, fifty two bishops, and forty-five abbots, or chiefs
of religious orders. After the labor of nine months, and the
debates of twenty-five sessions, they attained the advantage and
glory of the reunion of the Greeks. Four principal questions had
been agitated between the two churches; _1._ The use of
unleavened bread in the communion of Christ’s body. _2._ The
nature of purgatory. _3._ The supremacy of the pope. And, _4._
The single or double procession of the Holy Ghost. The cause of
either nation was managed by ten theological champions: the
Latins were supported by the inexhaustible eloquence of Cardinal
Julian; and Mark of Ephesus and Bessarion of Nice were the bold
and able leaders of the Greek forces. We may bestow some praise
on the progress of human reason, by observing that the first of
these questions was now treated as an immaterial rite, which
might innocently vary with the fashion of the age and country.
With regard to the second, both parties were agreed in the belief
of an intermediate state of purgation for the venial sins of the
faithful; and whether their souls were purified by elemental fire
was a doubtful point, which in a few years might be conveniently
settled on the spot by the disputants. The claims of supremacy
appeared of a more weighty and substantial kind; yet by the
Orientals the Roman bishop had ever been respected as the first
of the five patriarchs; nor did they scruple to admit, that his
jurisdiction should be exercised agreeably to the holy canons; a
vague allowance, which might be defined or eluded by occasional
convenience. The procession of the Holy Ghost from the Father
alone, or from the Father and the Son, was an article of faith
which had sunk much deeper into the minds of men; and in the
sessions of Ferrara and Florence, the Latin addition of
_filioque_ was subdivided into two questions, whether it were
legal, and whether it were orthodox. Perhaps it may not be
necessary to boast on this subject of my own impartial
indifference; but I must think that the Greeks were strongly
supported by the prohibition of the council of Chalcedon, against
adding any article whatsoever to the creed of Nice, or rather of
Constantinople. 63 In earthly affairs, it is not easy to conceive
how an assembly equal of legislators can bind their successors
invested with powers equal to their own. But the dictates of
inspiration must be true and unchangeable; nor should a private
bishop, or a provincial synod, have presumed to innovate against
the judgment of the Catholic church. On the substance of the
doctrine, the controversy was equal and endless: reason is
confounded by the procession of a deity: the gospel, which lay on
the altar, was silent; 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 saints. 64
Of this at least we may be sure, that neither side could be
convinced by the arguments of their opponents. Prejudice may be
enlightened by reason, and a superficial 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
personal honor depended on the repetition of the same sounds; and
their narrow minds were hardened and inflamed by the acrimony of
a public dispute.

62 (return) [ Syropulus is pleased to reckon seven hundred
prelates in the council of Basil. The error is manifest, and
perhaps voluntary. That extravagant number could not be supplied
by _all_ the ecclesiastics of every degree who were present at
the council, nor by _all_ the absent bishops of the West, who,
expressly or tacitly, might adhere to its decrees.]

63 (return) [ The Greeks, who disliked the union, were unwilling
to sally from this strong fortress, (p. 178, 193, 195, 202, of
Syropulus.) The shame of the Latins was aggravated by their
producing an old MS. of the second council of Nice, with
_filioque_ in the Nicene creed. A palpable forgery! (p. 173.)]

64 (return) [ 'WV egw (said an eminent Greek) otan eiV naon
eiselqw Datinwn ou proskunv tina tvn ekeise agiwn, epei oude
gnwrizw tina, (Syropulus, p. 109.) See the perplexity of the
Greeks, (p. 217, 218, 252, 253, 273.)]

While they were most in a cloud of dust and darkness, the Pope
and emperor were desirous of a seeming union, which could alone
accomplish the purposes of their interview; and the obstinacy of
public dispute was softened by the arts of private and personal
negotiation. The patriarch Joseph had sunk under the weight of
age and infirmities; his dying voice breathed the counsels 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 Russia and Nice, of Isidore and Bessarion, was
prompted and recompensed by their speedy promotion to the dignity
of cardinals. Bessarion, in the first debates, had stood forth
the most strenuous and eloquent champion of the Greek church; and
if the apostate, the bastard, was reprobated by his country, 65
he appears in ecclesiastical story a rare example of a patriot
who was recommended to court favor by loud opposition and
well-timed compliance. With the aid of his two spiritual
coadjutors, the emperor applied his arguments to the general
situation and personal characters of the bishops, and each was
successively moved by authority and example. Their revenues were
in the hands of the Turks, their persons in those of the Latins:
an episcopal treasure, three robes and forty ducats, was soon
exhausted: 66 the hopes of their return still depended on the
ships of Venice and the alms of Rome; and such was their
indigence, that their arrears, the payment of a debt, would be
accepted as a favor, and might operate as a bribe. 67 The danger
and relief of Constantinople might excuse some prudent and pious
dissimulation; and it was insinuated, that the obstinate heretics
who should resist the consent of the East and West would be
abandoned in a hostile land to the revenge or justice of the
Roman pontiff. 68 In the first private assembly 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 disqualified by
ancient discipline; and their right of voting was transferred to
the obsequious train of monks, grammarians, and profane laymen.
The will of the monarch produced a false and servile unanimity,
and no more than two patriots had courage to speak their own
sentiments and those of their country. Demetrius, the emperor’s
brother, retired to Venice, that he might not be witness of the
union; and Mark of Ephesus, mistaking perhaps his pride for his
conscience, disclaimed all communion with the Latin heretics, and
avowed himself the champion and confessor of the orthodox creed.
69 In the treaty between the two nations, several forms of
consent were proposed, such as might satisfy the Latins, without
dishonoring the Greeks; and they weighed the scruples of words
and syllables, till the theological balance trembled with a
slight preponderance in favor of the Vatican. It was agreed (I
must entreat the attention of the reader) that the Holy Ghost
proceeds from the Father _and_ the Son, as from one principle and
one substance; that he proceeds _by_ the Son, being of the same
nature and substance, and that he proceeds from the Father _and_
the Son, by one _spiration_ and production. It is less difficult
to understand the articles of the preliminary treaty; that the
pope should defray all the expenses of the Greeks in their return
home; that he should annually maintain two galleys and three
hundred soldiers for the defence of Constantinople: that all the
ships which transported pilgrims to Jerusalem should be obliged
to touch at that port; that as often as they were required, the
pope should furnish ten galleys for a year, or twenty for six
months; and that he should powerfully solicit the princes of
Europe, if the emperor had occasion for land forces.

65 (return) [ See the polite altercation of Marc and Bessarion in
Syropulus, (p. 257,) who never dissembles the vices of his own
party, and fairly praises the virtues of the Latins.]

66 (return) [ For the poverty of the Greek bishops, see a
remarkable passage of Ducas, (c. 31.) One had possessed, for his
whole property, three old gowns, &c. By teaching one-and-twenty
years in his monastery, Bessarion himself had collected forty
gold florins; but of these, the archbishop had expended
twenty-eight in his voyage from Peloponnesus, and the remainder
at Constantinople, (Syropulus, p. 127.)]

67 (return) [ Syropulus denies that the Greeks received any money
before they had subscribed the art of union, (p. 283:) yet he
relates some suspicious circumstances; and their bribery and
corruption are positively affirmed by the historian Ducas.]

68 (return) [ The Greeks most piteously express their own fears
of exile and perpetual slavery, (Syropul. p. 196;) and they were
strongly moved by the emperor’s threats, (p. 260.)]

69 (return) [ I had forgot another popular and orthodox
protester: a favorite bound, who usually lay quiet on the
foot-cloth of the emperor’s throne but who barked most furiously
while the act of union was reading without being silenced by the
soothing or the lashes of the royal attendants, (Syropul. p. 265,
266.)]

The same year, and almost the same day, were marked by the
deposition of Eugenius at Basil; and, at Florence, by his reunion
of the Greeks and Latins. In the former synod, (which he styled
indeed an assembly of dæmons,) the pope was branded with the
guilt of simony, perjury, tyranny, heresy, and schism; 70 and
declared to be incorrigible in his vices, unworthy of any title,
and incapable of holding any ecclesiastical office. In the
latter, he was revered as the true and holy vicar of Christ, who,
after a separation of six hundred years, had reconciled the
Catholics of the East and West in one fold, and under one
shepherd. The act of union was subscribed by the pope, the
emperor, and the principal members of both churches; even by
those who, like Syropulus, 71 had been deprived of the right of
voting. Two copies might have sufficed for the East and West; but
Eugenius was not satisfied, unless four authentic and similar
transcripts were signed and attested as the monuments of his
victory. 72 On a memorable day, the sixth of July, the successors
of St. Peter and Constantine ascended their thrones the two
nations assembled in the cathedral of Florence; their
representatives, Cardinal Julian and Bessarion archbishop of
Nice, appeared in the pulpit, and, after reading in their
respective tongues the act of union, they mutually embraced, in
the name and the presence of their applauding brethren. The pope
and his ministers then officiated according to the Roman liturgy;
the creed was chanted with the addition of _filioque_; the
acquiescence of the Greeks was poorly excused by their ignorance
of the harmonious, but inarticulate sounds; 73 and the more
scrupulous Latins refused any public celebration of the Byzantine
rite. Yet the emperor and his clergy were not totally unmindful
of national honor. The treaty was ratified by their consent: it
was tacitly agreed that no innovation should be attempted in
their creed or ceremonies: they spared, and secretly respected,
the generous firmness of Mark of Ephesus; and, on the decease of
the patriarch, they refused to elect his successor, 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 less pomp and pride, returned by the
same road of Ferrara and Venice; and their reception at
Constantinople was such as will be described in the following
chapter. 74 The success of the first trial encouraged Eugenius to
repeat the same edifying scenes; and the deputies of the
Armenians, the Maronites, the Jacobites of Syria and Egypt, the
Nestorians and the Æthiopians, were successively introduced, to
kiss the feet of the Roman pontiff, and to announce the obedience
and the orthodoxy of the East. These Oriental embassies, unknown
in the countries which they presumed to represent, 75 diffused
over the West the fame of Eugenius; and a clamor was artfully
propagated against the remnant of a schism in Switzerland and
Savoy, which alone impeded the harmony of the Christian world.
The vigor of opposition was succeeded by the lassitude of
despair: the council of Basil was silently dissolved; and Felix,
renouncing the tiara, again withdrew to the devout or delicious
hermitage of Ripaille. 76 A general peace was secured by mutual
acts of oblivion and indemnity: all ideas of reformation
subsided; the popes continued to exercise and abuse their
ecclesiastical despotism; nor has Rome been since disturbed by
the mischiefs of a contested election. 77

70 (return) [ 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
situation, exposed to the world and to his enemies, was a
restraint, and is a pledge.]

71 (return) [ Syropulus, rather than subscribe, would have
assisted, as the least evil, at the ceremony of the union. He was
compelled to do both; and the great ecclesiarch poorly excuses
his submission to the emperor, (p. 290—292.)]

72 (return) [ None of these 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 signatures. Yet several of these may be esteemed as
authentic copies, which were subscribed at Florence, before (26th
of August, 1439) the final separation of the pope and emperor,
(Mémoires de l’Académie des Inscriptions, tom. xliii. p.
287—311.)]

73 (return) [ Hmin de wV ashmoi edokoun jwnai, (Syropul. p.
297.)]

74 (return) [ In their return, the Greeks conversed at Bologna
with the ambassadors of England: and after some questions and
answers, these impartial strangers laughed at the pretended union
of Florence, (Syropul. p. 307.)]

75 (return) [ So nugatory, or rather so fabulous, are these
reunions of the Nestorians, Jacobites, &c., that I have turned
over, without success, the Bibliotheca Orientalis of Assemannus,
a faithful slave of the Vatican.]

76 (return) [ Ripaille is situate near Thonon in Savoy, on the
southern side of the Lake of Geneva. It is now a Carthusian
abbey; and Mr. Addison (Travels into Italy, vol. ii. p. 147, 148,
of Baskerville’s edition of his works) has celebrated the place
and the founder. Æneas Sylvius, and the fathers of Basil, applaud
the austere life of the ducal hermit; but the French and Italian
proverbs most unluckily attest the popular opinion of his
luxury.]

77 (return) [ In this account of the councils of Basil, Ferrara,
and Florence, I have consulted the original acts, which fill the
xviith and xviiith tome of the edition of Venice, and are closed
by the perspicuous, though partial, history of Augustin
Patricius, an Italian of the xvth century. They are digested and
abridged by Dupin, (Bibliothèque Ecclés. tom. xii.,) and the
continuator of Fleury, (tom. xxii.;) and the respect of the
Gallican church for the adverse parties confines their members to
an awkward moderation.]

The journeys of three emperors were unavailing for their
temporal, or perhaps their spiritual, salvation; but they were
productive of a beneficial consequence—the revival of the Greek
learning in Italy, from whence it was propagated to the last
nations of the West and North. In their lowest servitude and
depression, the subjects of the Byzantine throne were still
possessed of a golden key that could unlock the treasures of
antiquity; of a musical and prolific language, that gives a soul
to the objects of sense, and a body to the abstractions of
philosophy. Since the barriers of the monarchy, and even of the
capital, had been trampled under foot, the various Barbarians had
doubtless corrupted the form and substance of the national
dialect; and ample glossaries have been composed, to interpret a
multitude of words, of Arabic, Turkish, Sclavonian, Latin, or
French origin. 78 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, 79
who, by a long residence and noble marriage, 80 was naturalized
at Constantinople about thirty years before the Turkish conquest.
“The vulgar speech,” says Philelphus, 81 “has been depraved by
the people, and infected by the multitude of strangers and
merchants, who every day flock to the city and mingle with the
inhabitants. It is from the disciples of such a school that the
Latin language received the versions of Aristotle and Plato; so
obscure in sense, and in spirit so poor. But the Greeks who have
escaped the contagion, are those whom _we_ follow; and they alone
are worthy of our imitation. In familiar discourse, they still
speak the tongue of Aristophanes and Euripides, of the historians
and philosophers of Athens; and the style of their writings is
still more elaborate and correct. The persons who, by their birth
and offices, are attached to the Byzantine court, are those who
maintain, with the least alloy, the ancient standard of elegance
and purity; and the native graces of language most conspicuously
shine among the noble matrons, who are excluded from all
intercourse with foreigners. With foreigners do I say? They live
retired and sequestered from the eyes of their fellow-citizens.
Seldom are they seen in the streets; and when they leave their
houses, it is in the dusk of evening, on visits to the churches
and their nearest kindred. On these occasions, they are on
horseback, covered with a veil, and encompassed by their parents,
their husbands, or their servants.” 82

78 (return) [ In the first attempt, Meursius 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_ Persic words may be
found in Xenophon, and some 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 slight
alloy.]

79 (return) [ The life of Francis Philelphus, a sophist, proud,
restless, and rapacious, has been diligently composed by Lancelot
(Mémoires de l’Académie des Inscriptions, tom. x. p. 691—751)
(Istoria della Letteratura Italiana, tom. vii. p. 282—294,) for
the most part from his own letters. His elaborate writings, and
those of his contemporaries, are forgotten; but their familiar
epistles still describe the men and the times.]

80 (return) [ He married, and had perhaps debauched, the daughter
of John, and the granddaughter of Manuel Chrysoloras. She was
young, beautiful, and wealthy; and her noble family was allied to
the Dorias of Genoa and the emperors of Constantinople.]

81 (return) [ Græci quibus lingua depravata non sit.... ita
loquuntur vulgo hâc etiam tempestate ut Aristophanes comicus, aut
Euripides tragicus, ut oratores omnes, ut historiographi, ut
philosophi.... litterati autem homines et doctius et
emendatius.... Nam viri aulici veterem sermonis dignitatem atque
elegantiam retinebant in primisque ipsæ nobiles mulieres; quibus
cum nullum esset omnino cum viris peregrinis commercium, merus
ille ac purus Græcorum sermo servabatur intactus, (Philelph.
Epist. ad ann. 1451, apud Hodium, p. 188, 189.) He observes in
another passage, uxor illa mea Theodora locutione erat admodum
moderatâ et suavi et maxime Atticâ.]

82 (return) [ Philelphus, absurdly enough, derives this Greek or
Oriental jealousy from the manners of ancient Rome.]

Among the Greeks a numerous and opulent clergy was dedicated to
the service of religion: their monks and bishops have ever been
distinguished by the gravity and austerity of their manners; nor
were they diverted, like the Latin priests, by the pursuits and
pleasures of a secular, and even military, life. After a large
deduction for the time and talent that were lost in the devotion,
the laziness, and the discord, of the church and cloister, the
more inquisitive and ambitious minds would explore the sacred and
profane erudition of their native language. The ecclesiastics
presided over the education of youth; the schools of philosophy
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 Constantinople, than could be
dispersed over the extensive countries of the West. 83 But an
important distinction has been already noticed: the Greeks were
stationary or retrograde, while the Latins were advancing with a
rapid and progressive motion. The nations were excited by the
spirit of independence and emulation; and even the little world
of the Italian states contained more people and industry than the
decreasing circle of the Byzantine empire. In Europe, the lower
ranks of society were relieved from the yoke of feudal servitude;
and freedom is the first step to curiosity and knowledge. The
use, however rude and corrupt, of the Latin tongue had been
preserved by superstition; the universities, from Bologna to
Oxford, 84 were peopled with thousands of scholars; and their
misguided ardor might be directed to more liberal and manly
studies. In the resurrection of science, Italy was the first that
cast away her shroud; and the eloquent Petrarch, by his lessons
and his example, may justly be applauded as the first harbinger
of day. A purer style of composition, a more generous and
rational strain of sentiment, flowed from the study and imitation
of the writers of ancient Rome; and the disciples of Cicero and
Virgil approached, with reverence and love, the sanctuary of
their Grecian masters. In the sack of Constantinople, the French,
and even the Venetians, had despised and destroyed the works of
Lysippus and Homer: the monuments of art may be annihilated by a
single blow; but the immortal mind is renewed and multiplied by
the copies of the pen; and such copies it was the ambition of
Petrarch and his friends to possess and understand. The arms of
the Turks undoubtedly pressed the flight of the Muses; yet we may
tremble at the thought, that Greece might have been overwhelmed,
with her schools and libraries, before Europe had emerged from
the deluge of barbarism; that the seeds of science might have
been scattered by the winds, before the Italian soil was prepared
for their cultivation.

83 (return) [ See the state of learning in the xiiith and xivth
centuries, in the learned and judicious Mosheim, (Instit. Hist.
Ecclés. p. 434—440, 490—494.)]

84 (return) [ At the end of the xvth century, there existed in
Europe about fifty universities, and of these the foundation of
ten or twelve is prior to the year 1300. They were crowded in
proportion to their scarcity. Bologna contained 10,000 students,
chiefly of the civil law. In the year 1357 the number at Oxford
had decreased from 30,000 to 6000 scholars, (Henry’s History of
Great Britain, vol. iv. p. 478.) Yet even this decrease is much
superior to the present list of the members of the university.]