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In the four last centuries of the Greek emperors, their
friendly or hostile aspect towards the pope and the Latins
may be observed as the thermometer of their prosperity or
distress; as the scale of the rise and fall of the Barbarian
dynasties. When the Turks of the house of Seljuk pervaded
Asia, and threatened Constantinople, we have seen, at the
council of Placentia, the suppliant ambassadors of Alexius
imploring the protection of the common father of the
Christians. No sooner had the arms of the French pilgrims
removed the sultan from Nice to Iconium, than the Greek
princes resumed, or avowed, their genuine hatred and
contempt for the schismatics of the West, which precipitated
the first downfall of their empire. The date of the Mogul
invasion is marked in the soft and charitable language of
John Vataces. After the recovery of Constantinople, the
throne of the first Palaeologus was encompassed by foreign
and domestic enemies; as long as the sword of Charles was
suspended over his head, he basely courted the favor of the
Roman pontiff; and sacrificed to the present danger his
faith, his virtue, and the affection of his subjects. On
the decease of Michael, the prince and people asserted the
independence of their church, and the purity of their creed:
the elder Andronicus neither feared nor loved the Latins; in
his last distress, pride was the safeguard of superstition;
nor could he decently retract in his age the firm and
orthodox declarations of his youth. His grandson, the
younger Andronicus, was less a slave in his temper and
situation; and the conquest of Bithynia by the Turks
admonished him to seek a temporal and spiritual alliance
with the Western princes. After a separation and silence of
fifty years, a secret agent, the monk Barlaam, was
despatched to Pope Benedict the Twelfth; and his artful
instructions appear to have been drawn by the master-hand of
the great domestic. (1) "Most holy father," was he
commissioned to say, "the emperor is not less desirous than
yourself of a union between the two churches: but in this
delicate transaction, he is obliged to respect his own
dignity and the prejudices of his subjects. The ways of
union are twofold; force and persuasion. Of force, the
inefficacy has been already tried; since the Latins have
subdued the empire, without subduing the minds, of the
Greeks. The method of persuasion, though slow, is sure and
permanent. A deputation of thirty or forty of our doctors
would probably agree with those of the Vatican, in the love
of truth and the unity of belief; but on their return, what
would be the use, the recompense, of such an agreement? the
scorn of their brethren, and the reproaches of a blind and
obstinate nation. Yet that nation is accustomed to reverence
the general councils, which have fixed the articles of our
faith; and if they reprobate the decrees of Lyons, it is
because the Eastern churches were neither heard nor
represented in that arbitrary meeting. For this salutary
end, it will be expedient, and even necessary, that a
well-chosen legate should be sent into Greece, to convene
the patriarchs of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and
Jerusalem; and, with their aid, to prepare a free and
universal synod. But at this moment," continued the subtle
agent, "the empire is assaulted and endangered by the Turks,
who have occupied four of the greatest cities of Anatolia.
The Christian inhabitants have expressed a wish of returning
to their allegiance and religion; but the forces and
revenues of the emperor are insufficient for their
deliverance: and the Roman legate must be accompanied, or
preceded, by an army of Franks, to expel the infidels, and
open a way to the holy sepulchre." If the suspicious Latins
should require some pledge, some previous effect of the
sincerity of the Greeks, the answers of Barlaam were
perspicuous and rational. "1. A general synod can alone
consummate the union of the churches; nor can such a synod
be held till the three Oriental patriarchs, and a great
number of bishops, are enfranchised from the Mahometan yoke.
2. The Greeks are alienated by a long series of oppression
and injury: they must be reconciled by some act of brotherly
love, some effectual succor, which may fortify the authority
and arguments of the emperor, and the friends of the union.
3. If some difference of faith or ceremonies should be found
incurable, the Greeks, however, are the disciples of Christ;
and the Turks are the common enemies of the Christian name.
The Armenians, Cyprians, and Rhodians, are equally attacked;
and it will become the piety of the French princes to draw
their swords in the general defence of religion. 4. Should
the subjects of Andronicus be treated as the worst of
schismatics, of heretics, of pagans, a judicious policy may
yet instruct the powers of the West to embrace a useful
ally, to uphold a sinking empire, to guard the confines of
Europe; and rather to join the Greeks against the Turks,
than to expect the union of the Turkish arms with the troops
and treasures of captive Greece." The reasons, the offers,
and the demands, of Andronicus were eluded with cold and
stately indifference. The kings of France and Naples
declined the dangers and glory of a crusade; the pope
refused to call a new synod to determine old articles of
faith; and his regard for the obsolete claims of the Latin
emperor and clergy engaged him to use an offensive
superscription, - "To the moderator (2) of the Greeks, and
the persons who style themselves the patriarchs of the
Eastern churches." For such an embassy, a time and character
less propitious could not easily have been found. Benedict
the Twelfth (3) was a dull peasant, perplexed with scruples,
and immersed in sloth and wine: his pride might enrich with
a third crown the papal tiara, but he was alike unfit for
the regal and the pastoral office.
After the decease of Andronicus, while the Greeks were
distracted by intestine war, they could not presume to
agitate a general union of the Christians. But as soon as
Cantacuzene had subdued and pardoned his enemies, he was
anxious to justify, or at least to extenuate, the
introduction of the Turks into Europe, and the nuptials of
his daughter with a Mussulman prince. Two officers of state,
with a Latin interpreter, were sent in his name to the Roman
court, which was transplanted to Avignon, on the banks of
the Rhone, during a period of seventy years: they
represented the hard necessity which had urged him to
embrace the alliance of the miscreants, and pronounced by
his command the specious and edifying sounds of union and
crusade. Pope Clement the Sixth, (4) the successor of
Benedict, received them with hospitality and honor,
acknowledged the innocence of their sovereign, excused his
distress, applauded his magnanimity, and displayed a clear
knowledge of the state and revolutions of the Greek empire,
which he had imbibed from the honest accounts of a Savoyard
lady, an attendant of the empress Anne. (5) If Clement was
ill endowed with the virtues of a priest, he possessed,
however, the spirit and magnificence of a prince, whose
liberal hand distributed benefices and kingdoms with equal
facility. Under his reign Avignon was the seat of pomp and
pleasure: in his youth he had surpassed the licentiousness
of a baron; and the palace, nay, the bed-chamber of the
pope, was adorned, or polluted, by the visits of his female
favorites. The wars of France and England were adverse to
the holy enterprise; but his vanity was amused by the
splendid idea; and the Greek ambassadors returned with two
Latin bishops, the ministers of the pontiff. On their
arrival at Constantinople, the emperor and the nuncios
admired each other's piety and eloquence; and their frequent
conferences were filled with mutual praises and promises, by
which both parties were amused, and neither could be
deceived. "I am delighted," said the devout Cantacuzene,
"with the project of our holy war, which must redound to my
personal glory, as well as to the public benefit of
Christendom. My dominions will give a free passage to the
armies of France: my troops, my galleys, my treasures, shall
be consecrated to the common cause; and happy would be my
fate, could I deserve and obtain the crown of martyrdom.
Words are insufficient to express the ardor with which I
sigh for the reunion of the scattered members of Christ. If
my death could avail, I would gladly present my sword and my
neck: if the spiritual phoenix could arise from my ashes, I
would erect the pile, and kindle the flame with my own
hands." Yet the Greek emperor presumed to observe, that the
articles of faith which divided the two churches had been
introduced by the pride and precipitation of the Latins: he
disclaimed the servile and arbitrary steps of the first
Palaeologus; and firmly declared, that he would never submit
his conscience unless to the decrees of a free and universal
synod. "The situation of the times," continued he, "will
not allow the pope and myself to meet either at Rome or
Constantinople; but some maritime city may be chosen on the
verge of the two empires, to unite the bishops, and to
instruct the faithful, of the East and West." The nuncios
seemed content with the proposition; and Cantacuzene affects
to deplore the failure of his hopes, which were soon
overthrown by the death of Clement, and the different temper
of his successor. His own life was prolonged, but it was
prolonged in a cloister; and, except by his prayers, the
humble monk was incapable of directing the counsels of his
pupil or the state. (6)
Yet of all the Byzantine princes, that pupil, John
Palaeologus, was the best disposed to embrace, to believe,
and to obey, the shepherd of the West. His mother, Anne of
Savoy, was baptized in the bosom of the Latin church: her
marriage with Andronicus imposed a change of name, of
apparel, and of worship, but her heart was still faithful to
her country and religion: she had formed the infancy of her
son, and she governed the emperor, after his mind, or at
least his stature, was enlarged to the size of man. In the
first year of his deliverance and restoration, the Turks
were still masters of the Hellespont; the son of Cantacuzene
was in arms at Adrianople; and Palaeologus could depend
neither on himself nor on his people. By his mother's
advice, and in the hope of foreign aid, he abjured the
rights both of the church and state; and the act of slavery,
(7) subscribed in purple ink, and sealed with the golden
bull, was privately intrusted to an Italian agent. The
first article of the treaty is an oath of fidelity and
obedience to Innocent the Sixth and his successors, the
supreme pontiffs of the Roman and Catholic church. The
emperor promises to entertain with due reverence their
legates and nuncios; to assign a palace for their residence,
and a temple for their worship; and to deliver his second
son Manuel as the hostage of his faith. For these
condescensions he requires a prompt succor of fifteen
galleys, with five hundred men at arms, and a thousand
archers, to serve against his Christian and Mussulman
enemies. Palaeologus engages to impose on his clergy and
people the same spiritual yoke; but as the resistance of the
Greeks might be justly foreseen, he adopts the two effectual
methods of corruption and education. The legate was
empowered to distribute the vacant benefices among the
ecclesiastics who should subscribe the creed of the Vatican:
three schools were instituted to instruct the youth of
Constantinople in the language and doctrine of the Latins;
and the name of Andronicus, the heir of the empire, was
enrolled as the first student. Should he fail in the
measures of persuasion or force, Palaeologus declares
himself unworthy to reign; transferred to the pope all regal
and paternal authority; and invests Innocent with full power
to regulate the family, the government, and the marriage, of
his son and successor. But this treaty was neither executed
nor published: the Roman galleys were as vain and imaginary
as the submission of the Greeks; and it was only by the
secrecy that their sovereign escaped the dishonor of this
fruitless humiliation.
The tempest of the Turkish arms soon burst on his head; and
after the loss of Adrianople and Romania, he was enclosed in
his capital, the vassal of the haughty Amurath, with the
miserable hope of being the last devoured by the savage. In
this abject state, Palaeologus embraced the resolution of
embarking for Venice, and casting himself at the feet of the
pope: he was the first of the Byzantine princes who had ever
visited the unknown regions of the West, yet in them alone
he could seek consolation or relief; and with less violation
of his dignity he might appear in the sacred college than at
the Ottoman Porte. After a long absence, the Roman pontiffs
were returning from Avignon to the banks of the Tyber: Urban
the Fifth, (8) of a mild and virtuous character, encouraged
or allowed the pilgrimage of the Greek prince; and, within
the same year, enjoyed the glory of receiving in the Vatican
the two Imperial shadows who represented the majesty of
Constantine and Charlemagne. In this suppliant visit, the
emperor of Constantinople, whose vanity was lost in his
distress, gave more than could be expected of empty sounds
and formal submissions. A previous trial was imposed; and,
in the presence of four cardinals, he acknowledged, as a
true Catholic, the supremacy of the pope, and the double
procession of the Holy Ghost. After this purification, he
was introduced to a public audience in the church of St.
Peter: Urban, in the midst of the cardinals, was seated on
his throne; the Greek monarch, after three genuflections,
devoutly kissed the feet, the hands, and at length the
mouth, of the holy father, who celebrated high mass in his
presence, allowed him to lead the bridle of his mule, and
treated him with a sumptuous banquet in the Vatican. The
entertainment of Palaeologus was friendly and honorable; yet
some difference was observed between the emperors of the
East and West; (9) nor could the former be entitled to the
rare privilege of chanting the gospel in the rank of a
deacon. (10) In favor of his proselyte, Urban strove to
rekindle the zeal of the French king and the other powers of
the West; but he found them cold in the general cause, and
active only in their domestic quarrels. The last hope of
the emperor was in an English mercenary, John Hawkwood, (11)
or Acuto, who, with a band of adventurers, the white
brotherhood, had ravaged Italy from the Alps to Calabria;
sold his services to the hostile states; and incurred a just
excommunication by shooting his arrows against the papal
residence. A special license was granted to negotiate with
the outlaw, but the forces, or the spirit, of Hawkwood, were
unequal to the enterprise: and it was for the advantage,
perhaps, of Palaeologus to be disappointed of succor, that
must have been costly, that could not be effectual, and
which might have been dangerous. (12) The disconsolate Greek
(13) prepared for his return, but even his return was impeded
by a most ignominious obstacle. On his arrival at Venice,
he had borrowed large sums at exorbitant usury; but his
coffers were empty, his creditors were impatient, and his
person was detained as the best security for the payment.
His eldest son, Andronicus, the regent of Constantinople,
was repeatedly urged to exhaust every resource; and even by
stripping the churches, to extricate his father from
captivity and disgrace. But the unnatural youth was
insensible of the disgrace, and secretly pleased with the
captivity of the emperor: the state was poor, the clergy
were obstinate; nor could some religious scruple be wanting
to excuse the guilt of his indifference and delay. Such
undutiful neglect was severely reproved by the piety of his
brother Manuel, who instantly sold or mortgaged all that he
possessed, embarked for Venice, relieved his father, and
pledged his own freedom to be responsible for the debt. On
his return to Constantinople, the parent and king
distinguished his two sons with suitable rewards; but the
faith and manners of the slothful Palaeologus had not been
improved by his Roman pilgrimage; and his apostasy or
conversion, devoid of any spiritual or temporal effects, was
speedily forgotten by the Greeks and Latins. (14)
Thirty years after the return of Palaeologus, his son and
successor, Manuel, from a similar motive, but on a larger
scale, again visited the countries of the West. In a
preceding chapter I have related his treaty with Bajazet,
the violation of that treaty, the siege or blockade of
Constantinople, and the French succor under the command of
the gallant Boucicault. (15) By his ambassadors, Manuel had
solicited the Latin powers; but it was thought that the
presence of a distressed monarch would draw tears and
supplies from the hardest Barbarians; (16) and the marshal
who advised the journey prepared the reception of the
Byzantine prince. The land was occupied by the Turks; but
the navigation of Venice was safe and open: Italy received
him as the first, or, at least, as the second, of the
Christian princes; Manuel was pitied as the champion and
confessor of the faith; and the dignity of his behavior
prevented that pity from sinking into contempt. From Venice
he proceeded to Padua and Pavia; and even the duke of Milan,
a secret ally of Bajazet, gave him safe and honorable
conduct to the verge of his dominions. (17) On the confines
of France (18) the royal officers undertook the care of his
person, journey, and expenses; and two thousand of the
richest citizens, in arms and on horseback, came forth to
meet him as far as Charenton, in the neighborhood of the
capital. At the gates of Paris, he was saluted by the
chancellor and the parliament; and Charles the Sixth,
attended by his princes and nobles, welcomed his brother
with a cordial embrace. The successor of Constantine was
clothed in a robe of white silk, and mounted on a milk-white
steed, a circumstance, in the French ceremonial, of singular
importance: the white color is considered as the symbol of
sovereignty; and, in a late visit, the German emperor, after
a haughty demand and a peevish refusal, had been reduced to
content himself with a black courser. Manuel was lodged in
the Louvre; a succession of feasts and balls, the pleasures
of the banquet and the chase, were ingeniously varied by the
politeness of the French, to display their magnificence, and
amuse his grief: he was indulged in the liberty of his
chapel; and the doctors of the Sorbonne were astonished, and
possibly scandalized, by the language, the rites, and the
vestments, of his Greek clergy. But the slightest glance on
the state of the kingdom must teach him to despair of any
effectual assistance. The unfortunate Charles, though he
enjoyed some lucid intervals, continually relapsed into
furious or stupid insanity: the reins of government were
alternately seized by his brother and uncle, the dukes of
Orleans and Burgundy, whose factious competition prepared
the miseries of civil war. The former was a gay youth,
dissolved in luxury and love: the latter was the father of
John count of Nevers, who had so lately been ransomed from
Turkish captivity; and, if the fearless son was ardent to
revenge his defeat, the more prudent Burgundy was content
with the cost and peril of the first experiment. When
Manuel had satiated the curiosity, and perhaps fatigued the
patience, of the French, he resolved on a visit to the
adjacent island. In his progress from Dover, he was
entertained at Canterbury with due reverence by the prior
and monks of St. Austin; and, on Blackheath, King Henry the
Fourth, with the English court, saluted the Greek hero, (I
copy our old historian,) who, during many days, was lodged
and treated in London as emperor of the East. (19) But the
state of England was still more adverse to the design of the
holy war. In the same year, the hereditary sovereign had
been deposed and murdered: the reigning prince was a
successful usurper, whose ambition was punished by jealousy
and remorse: nor could Henry of Lancaster withdraw his
person or forces from the defence of a throne incessantly
shaken by conspiracy and rebellion. He pitied, he praised,
he feasted, the emperor of Constantinople; but if the
English monarch assumed the cross, it was only to appease
his people, and perhaps his conscience, by the merit or
semblance of his pious intention. (20) Satisfied, however,
with gifts and honors, Manuel returned to Paris; and, after
a residence of two years in the West, shaped his course
through Germany and Italy, embarked at Venice, and patiently
expected, in the Morea, the moment of his ruin or
deliverance. Yet he had escaped the ignominious necessity
of offering his religion to public or private sale. The
Latin church was distracted by the great schism; the kings,
the nations, the universities, of Europe were divided in
their obedience between the popes of Rome and Avignon; and
the emperor, anxious to conciliate the friendship of both
parties, abstained from any correspondence with the indigent
and unpopular rivals. His journey coincided with the year
of the jubilee; but he passed through Italy without
desiring, or deserving, the plenary indulgence which
abolished the guilt or penance of the sins of the faithful.
The Roman pope was offended by this neglect; accused him of
irreverence to an image of Christ; and exhorted the princes
of Italy to reject and abandon the obstinate schismatic. (21)
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 Pyrenaean 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)
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 Palaeologus,
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.
The eldest of the sons of Manuel, John Palaeologus 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 Palaeologus, 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.
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. Palaeologus 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.
In his distress, the friendship of Palaeologus 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, Palaeologus 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 Caesar 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 Palaeologus 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 Heracleae
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 Palaeologus, 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)
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, Palaeologus
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) Palaeologus 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)
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 Palaeologus 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)
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 unleaven 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.
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.
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 daemons,) 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
Aethiopians, 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)
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)
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.
The most learned Italians of the fifteenth century have
confessed and applauded the restoration of Greek literature,
after a long oblivion of many hundred years. (85) Yet in that
country, and beyond the Alps, some names are quoted; some
profound scholars, who in the darker ages were honorably
distinguished by their knowledge of the Greek tongue; and
national vanity has been loud in the praise of such rare
examples of erudition. Without scrutinizing the merit of
individuals, truth must observe, that their science is
without a cause, and without an effect; that it was easy for
them to satisfy themselves and their more ignorant
contemporaries; and that the idiom, which they had so
marvellously acquired was transcribed in few manuscripts,
and was not taught in any university of the West. In a
corner of Italy, it faintly existed as the popular, or at
least as the ecclesiastical dialect. (86) The first
impression of the Doric and Ionic colonies has never been
completely erased: the Calabrian churches were long attached
to the throne of Constantinople: and the monks of St. Basil
pursued their studies in Mount Athos and the schools of the
East. Calabria was the native country of Barlaam, who has
already appeared as a sectary and an ambassador; and Barlaam
was the first who revived, beyond the Alps, the memory, or
at least the writings, of Homer. (87) He is described, by
Petrarch and Boccace, (88) as a man of diminutive stature,
though truly great in the measure of learning and genius; of
a piercing discernment, though of a slow and painful
elocution. For many ages (as they affirm) Greece had not
produced his equal in the knowledge of history, grammar, and
philosophy; and his merit was celebrated in the attestations
of the princes and doctors of Constantinople. One of these
attestations is still extant; and the emperor Cantacuzene,
the protector of his adversaries, is forced to allow, that
Euclid, Aristotle, and Plato, were familiar to that profound
and subtle logician. (89) In the court of Avignon, he formed
an intimate connection with Petrarch, (90) the first of the
Latin scholars; and the desire of mutual instruction was the
principle of their literary commerce. The Tuscan applied
himself with eager curiosity and assiduous diligence to the
study of the Greek language; and in a laborious struggle
with the dryness and difficulty of the first rudiments, he
began to reach the sense, and to feel the spirit, of poets
and philosophers, whose minds were congenial to his own.
But he was soon deprived of the society and lessons of this
useful assistant: Barlaam relinquished his fruitless
embassy; and, on his return to Greece, he rashly provoked
the swarms of fanatic monks, by attempting to substitute the
light of reason to that of their navel. After a separation
of three years, the two friends again met in the court of
Naples: but the generous pupil renounced the fairest
occasion of improvement; and by his recommendation Barlaam
was finally settled in a small bishopric of his native
Calabria. (91) The manifold avocations of Petrarch, love and
friendship, his various correspondence and frequent
journeys, the Roman laurel, and his elaborate compositions
in prose and verse, in Latin and Italian, diverted him from
a foreign idiom; and as he advanced in life, the attainment
of the Greek language was the object of his wishes rather
than of his hopes. When he was about fifty years of age, a
Byzantine ambassador, his friend, and a master of both
tongues, presented him with a copy of Homer; and the answer
of Petrarch is at one expressive of his eloquence,
gratitude, and regret. After celebrating the generosity of
the donor, and the value of a gift more precious in his
estimation than gold or rubies, he thus proceeds: "Your
present of the genuine and original text of the divine poet,
the fountain of all inventions, is worthy of yourself and of
me: you have fulfilled your promise, and satisfied my
desires. Yet your liberality is still imperfect: with Homer
you should have given me yourself; a guide, who could lead
me into the fields of light, and disclose to my wondering
eyes the spacious miracles of the Iliad and Odyssey. But,
alas! Homer is dumb, or I am deaf; nor is it in my power to
enjoy the beauty which I possess. I have seated him by the
side of Plato, the prince of poets near the prince of
philosophers; and I glory in the sight of my illustrious
guests. Of their immortal writings, whatever had been
translated into the Latin idiom, I had already acquired;
but, if there be no profit, there is some pleasure, in
beholding these venerable Greeks in their proper and
national habit. I am delighted with the aspect of Homer;
and as often as I embrace the silent volume, I exclaim with
a sigh, Illustrious bard! with what pleasure should I listen
to thy song, if my sense of hearing were not obstructed and
lost by the death of one friend, and in the much-lamented
absence of another. Nor do I yet despair; and the example
of Cato suggests some comfort and hope, since it was in the
last period of age that he attained the knowledge of the
Greek letters." (92)
The prize which eluded the efforts of Petrarch, was obtained
by the fortune and industry of his friend Boccace, the
father of the Tuscan prose. That popular writer, who derives
his reputation from the Decameron, a hundred novels of
pleasantry and love, may aspire to the more serious praise
of restoring in Italy the study of the Greek language. In
the year one thousand three hundred and sixty, a disciple of
Barlaam, whose name was Leo, or Leontius Pilatus, was
detained in his way to Avignon by the advice and hospitality
of Boccace, who lodged the stranger in his house, prevailed
on the republic of Florence to allow him an annual stipend,
and devoted his leisure to the first Greek professor, who
taught that language in the Western countries of Europe.
The appearance of Leo might disgust the most eager disciple,
he was clothed in the mantle of a philosopher, or a
mendicant; his countenance was hideous; his face was
overshadowed with black hair; his beard long an uncombed;
his deportment rustic; his temper gloomy and inconstant; nor
could he grace his discourse with the ornaments, or even the
perspicuity, of Latin elocution. But his mind was stored
with a treasure of Greek learning: history and fable,
philosophy and grammar, were alike at his command; and he
read the poems of Homer in the schools of Florence. It was
from his explanation that Boccace composed (A) and
transcribed a literal prose version of the Iliad and
Odyssey, which satisfied the thirst of his friend Petrarch,
and which, perhaps, in the succeeding century, was
clandestinely used by Laurentius Valla, the Latin
interpreter. It was from his narratives that the same
Boccace collected the materials for his treatise on the
genealogy of the heathen gods, a work, in that age, of
stupendous erudition, and which he ostentatiously sprinkled
with Greek characters and passages, to excite the wonder and
applause of his more ignorant readers. (94) The first steps
of learning are slow and laborious; no more than ten
votaries of Homer could be enumerated in all Italy; and
neither Rome, nor Venice, nor Naples, could add a single
name to this studious catalogue. But their numbers would
have multiplied, their progress would have been accelerated,
if the inconstant Leo, at the end of three years, had not
relinquished an honorable and beneficial station. In his
passage, Petrarch entertained him at Padua a short time: he
enjoyed the scholar, but was justly offended with the gloomy
and unsocial temper of the man. Discontented with the world
and with himself, Leo depreciated his present enjoyments,
while absent persons and objects were dear to his
imagination. In Italy he was a Thessalian, in Greece a
native of Calabria: in the company of the Latins he
disdained their language, religion, and manners: no sooner
was he landed at Constantinople, than he again sighed for
the wealth of Venice and the elegance of Florence. His
Italian friends were deaf to his importunity: he depended on
their curiosity and indulgence, and embarked on a second
voyage; but on his entrance into the Adriatic, the ship was
assailed by a tempest, and the unfortunate teacher, who like
Ulysses had fastened himself to the mast, was struck dead by
a flash of lightning. The humane Petrarch dropped a tear on
his disaster; but he was most anxious to learn whether some
copy of Euripides or Sophocles might not be saved from the
hands of the mariners. (95)
But the faint rudiments of Greek learning, which Petrarch
had encouraged and Boccace had planted, soon withered and
expired. The succeeding generation was content for a while
with the improvement of Latin eloquence; nor was it before
the end of the fourteenth century that a new and perpetual
flame was rekindled in Italy. (96) Previous to his own
journey the emperor Manuel despatched his envoys and orators
to implore the compassion of the Western princes. Of these
envoys, the most conspicuous, or the most learned, was
Manuel Chrysoloras, (97) of noble birth, and whose Roman
ancestors are supposed to have migrated with the great
Constantine. After visiting the courts of France and
England, where he obtained some contributions and more
promises, the envoy was invited to assume the office of a
professor; and Florence had again the honor of this second
invitation. By his knowledge, not only of the Greek, but of
the Latin tongue, Chrysoloras deserved the stipend, and
surpassed the expectation, of the republic. His school was
frequented by a crowd of disciples of every rank and age;
and one of these, in a general history, has described his
motives and his success. "At that time," says Leonard
Aretin, (98) "I was a student of the civil law; but my soul
was inflamed with the love of letters; and I bestowed some
application on the sciences of logic and rhetoric. On the
arrival of Manuel, I hesitated whether I should desert my
legal studies, or relinquish this golden opportunity; and
thus, in the ardor of youth, I communed with my own mind
Wilt thou be wanting to thyself and thy fortune? Wilt thou
refuse to be introduced to a familiar converse with Homer,
Plato, and Demosthenes; with those poets, philosophers, and
orators, of whom such wonders are related, and who are
celebrated by every age as the great masters of human
science? Of professors and scholars in civil law, a
sufficient supply will always be found in our universities;
but a teacher, and such a teacher, of the Greek language, if
he once be suffered to escape, may never afterwards be
retrieved. Convinced by these reasons, I gave myself to
Chrysoloras; and so strong was my passion, that the lessons
which I had imbibed in the day were the constant object of
my nightly dreams." (99) At the same time and place, the
Latin classics were explained by John of Ravenna, the
domestic pupil of Petrarch; (100) the Italians, who
illustrated their age and country, were formed in this
double school; and Florence became the fruitful seminary of
Greek and Roman erudition. (101) The presence of the emperor
recalled Chrysoloras from the college to the court; but he
afterwards taught at Pavia and Rome with equal industry and
applause. The remainder of his life, about fifteen years,
was divided between Italy and Constantinople, between
embassies and lessons. In the noble office of enlightening
a foreign nation, the grammarian was not unmindful of a more
sacred duty to his prince and country; and Emanuel
Chrysoloras died at Constance on a public mission from the
emperor to the council.
After his example, the restoration of the Greek letters in
Italy was prosecuted by a series of emigrants, who were
destitute of fortune, and endowed with learning, or at least
with language. From the terror or oppression of the Turkish
arms, the natives of Thessalonica and Constantinople escaped
to a land of freedom, curiosity, and wealth. The synod
introduced into Florence the lights of the Greek church, and
the oracles of the Platonic philosophy; and the fugitives
who adhered to the union, had the double merit of renouncing
their country, not only for the Christian, but for the
catholic cause. A patriot, who sacrifices his party and
conscience to the allurements of favor, may be possessed,
however, of the private and social virtues: he no longer
hears the reproachful epithets of slave and apostate; and
the consideration which he acquires among his new associates
will restore in his own eyes the dignity of his character.
The prudent conformity of Bessarion was rewarded with the
Roman purple: he fixed his residence in Italy; and the Greek
cardinal, the titular patriarch of Constantinople, was
respected as the chief and protector of his nation: (102) his
abilities were exercised in the legations of Bologna,
Venice, Germany, and France; and his election to the chair
of St. Peter floated for a moment on the uncertain breath of
a conclave. (103) His ecclesiastical honors diffused a
splendor and preeminence over his literary merit and
service: his palace was a school; as often as the cardinal
visited the Vatican, he was attended by a learned train of
both nations; (104) of men applauded by themselves and the
public; and whose writings, now overspread with dust, were
popular and useful in their own times. I shall not attempt
to enumerate the restorers of Grecian literature in the
fifteenth century; and it may be sufficient to mention with
gratitude the names of Theodore Gaza, of George of
Trebizond, of John Argyropulus, and Demetrius
Chalcocondyles, who taught their native language in the
schools of Florence and Rome. Their labors were not
inferior to those of Bessarion, whose purple they revered,
and whose fortune was the secret object of their envy. But
the lives of these grammarians were humble and obscure: they
had declined the lucrative paths of the church; their dress
and manners secluded them from the commerce of the world;
and since they were confined to the merit, they might be
content with the rewards, of learning. From this character,
Janus Lascaris (105) will deserve an exception. His
eloquence, politeness, and Imperial descent, recommended him
to the French monarch; and in the same cities he was
alternately employed to teach and to negotiate. Duty and
interest prompted them to cultivate the study of the Latin
language; and the most successful attained the faculty of
writing and speaking with fluency and elegance in a foreign
idiom. But they ever retained the inveterate vanity of
their country: their praise, or at least their esteem, was
reserved for the national writers, to whom they owed their
fame and subsistence; and they sometimes betrayed their
contempt in licentious criticism or satire on Virgil's
poetry, and the oratory of Tully. (106) The superiority of
these masters arose from the familiar use of a living
language; and their first disciples were incapable of
discerning how far they had degenerated from the knowledge,
and even the practice of their ancestors. A vicious
pronunciation, (107) which they introduced, was banished from
the schools by the reason of the succeeding age. Of the
power of the Greek accents they were ignorant; and those
musical notes, which, from an Attic tongue, and to an Attic
ear, must have been the secret soul of harmony, were to
their eyes, as to our own, no more than minute and unmeaning
marks, in prose superfluous and troublesome in verse. The
art of grammar they truly possessed; the valuable fragments
of Apollonius and Herodian were transfused into their
lessons; and their treatises of syntax and etymology, though
devoid of philosophic spirit, are still useful to the Greek
student. In the shipwreck of the Byzantine libraries, each
fugitive seized a fragment of treasure, a copy of some
author, who without his industry might have perished: the
transcripts were multiplied by an assiduous, and sometimes
an elegant pen; and the text was corrected and explained by
their own comments, or those of the elder scholiasts. The
sense, though not the spirit, of the Greek classics, was
interpreted to the Latin world: the beauties of style
evaporate in a version; but the judgment of Theodore Gaza
selected the more solid works of Aristotle and Theophrastus,
and their natural histories of animals and plants opened a
rich fund of genuine and experimental science.
Yet the fleeting shadows of metaphysics were pursued with
more curiosity and ardor. After a long oblivion, Plato was
revived in Italy by a venerable Greek, (108) who taught in
the house of Cosmo of Medicis. While the synod of Florence
was involved in theological debate, some beneficial
consequences might flow from the study of his elegant
philosophy: his style is the purest standard of the Attic
dialect, and his sublime thoughts are sometimes adapted to
familiar conversation, and sometimes adorned with the
richest colors of poetry and eloquence. The dialogues of
Plato are a dramatic picture of the life and death of a
sage; and, as often as he descends from the clouds, his
moral system inculcates the love of truth, of our country,
and of mankind. The precept and example of Socrates
recommended a modest doubt and liberal inquiry; and if the
Platonists, with blind devotion, adored the visions and
errors of their divine master, their enthusiasm might
correct the dry, dogmatic method of the Peripatetic school.
So equal, yet so opposite, are the merits of Plato and
Aristotle, that they may be balanced in endless controversy;
but some spark of freedom may be produced by the collision
of adverse servitude. The modern Greeks were divided
between the two sects: with more fury than skill they fought
under the banner of their leaders; and the field of battle
was removed in their flight from Constantinople to Rome. But
this philosophical debate soon degenerated into an angry and
personal quarrel of grammarians; and Bessarion, though an
advocate for Plato, protected the national honor, by
interposing the advice and authority of a mediator. In the
gardens of the Medici, the academical doctrine was enjoyed
by the polite and learned: but their philosophic society was
quickly dissolved; and if the writings of the Attic sage
were perused in the closet, the more powerful Stagyrite
continued to reign, the oracle of the church and school.
(109)
I have fairly represented the literary merits of the Greeks;
yet it must be confessed, that they were seconded and
surpassed by the ardor of the Latins. Italy was divided
into many independent states; and at that time it was the
ambition of princes and republics to vie with each other in
the encouragement and reward of literature. The fame of
Nicholas the Fifth (110) has not been adequate to his merits.
From a plebeian origin he raised himself by his virtue and
learning: the character of the man prevailed over the
interest of the pope; and he sharpened those weapons which
were soon pointed against the Roman church. (111) He had been
the friend of the most eminent scholars of the age: he
became their patron; and such was the humility of his
manners, that the change was scarcely discernible either to
them or to himself. If he pressed the acceptance of a
liberal gift, it was not as the measure of desert, but as
the proof of benevolence; and when modest merit declined his
bounty, "Accept it," would he say, with a consciousness of
his own worth: "ye will not always have a Nicholas among
you." The influence of the holy see pervaded Christendom;
and he exerted that influence in the search, not of
benefices, but of books. From the ruins of the Byzantine
libraries, from the darkest monasteries of Germany and
Britain, he collected the dusty manuscripts of the writers
of antiquity; and wherever the original could not be
removed, a faithful copy was transcribed and transmitted for
his use. The Vatican, the old repository for bulls and
legends, for superstition and forgery, was daily replenished
with more precious furniture; and such was the industry of
Nicholas, that in a reign of eight years he formed a library
of five thousand volumes. To his munificence the Latin
world was indebted for the versions of Xenophon, Diodorus,
Polybius, Thucydides, Herodotus, and Appian; of Strabo's
Geography, of the Iliad, of the most valuable works of Plato
and Aristotle, of Ptolemy and Theophrastus, and of the
fathers of the Greek church. The example of the Roman
pontiff was preceded or imitated by a Florentine merchant,
who governed the republic without arms and without a title.
Cosmo of Medicis (112) was the father of a line of princes,
whose name and age are almost synonymous with the
restoration of learning: his credit was ennobled into fame;
his riches were dedicated to the service of mankind; he
corresponded at once with Cairo and London: and a cargo of
Indian spices and Greek books was often imported in the same
vessel. The genius and education of his grandson Lorenzo
rendered him not only a patron, but a judge and candidate,
in the literary race. In his pallace, distress was entitled
to relief, and merit to reward: his leisure hours were
delightfully spent in the Platonic academy; he encouraged
the emulation of Demetrius Chalcocondyles and Angelo
Politian; and his active missionary Janus Lascaris returned
from the East with a treasure of two hundred manuscripts,
fourscore of which were as yet unknown in the libraries of
Europe. (113) The rest of Italy was animated by a similar
spirit, and the progress of the nation repaid the liberality
of their princes. The Latins held the exclusive property of
their own literature; and these disciples of Greece were
soon capable of transmitting and improving the lessons which
they had imbibed. After a short succession of foreign
teachers, the tide of emigration subsided; but the language
of Constantinople was spread beyond the Alps and the natives
of France, Germany, and England, (114) imparted to their
country the sacred fire which they had kindled in the
schools of Florence and Rome. (115) In the productions of the
mind, as in those of the soil, the gifts of nature are
excelled by industry and skill: the Greek authors, forgotten
on the banks of the Ilissus, have been illustrated on those
of the Elbe and the Thames: and Bessarion or Gaza might have
envied the superior science of the Barbarians; the accuracy
of Budaeus, the taste of Erasmus, the copiousness of
Stephens, the erudition of Scaliger, the discernment of
Reiske, or of Bentley. On the side of the Latins, the
discovery of printing was a casual advantage: but this
useful art has been applied by Aldus, and his innumerable
successors, to perpetuate and multiply the works of
antiquity. (116) A single manuscript imported from Greece is
revived in ten thousand copies; and each copy is fairer than
the original. In this form, Homer and Plato would peruse
with more satisfaction their own writings; and their
scholiasts must resign the prize to the labors of our
Western editors.
Before the revival of classic literature, the Barbarians in
Europe were immersed in ignorance; and their vulgar tongues
were marked with the rudeness and poverty of their manners.
The students of the more perfect idioms of Rome and Greece
were introduced to a new world of light and science; to the
society of the free and polished nations of antiquity; and
to a familiar converse with those immortal men who spoke the
sublime language of eloquence and reason. Such an
intercourse must tend to refine the taste, and to elevate
the genius, of the moderns; and yet, from the first
experiments, it might appear that the study of the ancients
had given fetters, rather than wings, to the human mind.
However laudable, the spirit of imitation is of a servile
cast; and the first disciples of the Greeks and Romans were
a colony of strangers in the midst of their age and country.
The minute and laborious diligence which explored the
antiquities of remote times might have improved or adorned
the present state of society, the critic and metaphysician
were the slaves of Aristotle; the poets, historians, and
orators, were proud to repeat the thoughts and words of the
Augustan age: the works of nature were observed with the
eyes of Pliny and Theophrastus; and some Pagan votaries
professed a secret devotion to the gods of Homer and Plato.
(117) The Italians were oppressed by the strength and number
of their ancient auxiliaries: the century after the deaths
of Petrarch and Boccace was filled with a crowd of Latin
imitators, who decently repose on our shelves; but in that
aera of learning it will not be easy to discern a real
discovery of science, a work of invention or eloquence, in
the popular language of the country. (118) But as soon as it
had been deeply saturated with the celestial dew, the soil
was quickened into vegetation and life; the modern idioms
were refined; the classics of Athens and Rome inspired a
pure taste and a generous emulation; and in Italy, as
afterwards in France and England, the pleasing reign of
poetry and fiction was succeeded by the light of speculative
and experimental philosophy. Genius may anticipate the
season of maturity; but in the education of a people, as in
that of an individual, memory must be exercised, before the
powers of reason and fancy can be expanded: nor may the
artist hope to equal or surpass, till he has learned to
imitate, the works of his predecessors.