CHAP. LIV.

:

OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

or German caravans to their respective countries.
The trade and dominion of Venice pervaded
the coast of the Adriatic, and the hospitable
republic opened her bosom to foreigners of
every climate and religion. Under the Byzan-
tine standard, the Paulicians were often trans-
ported to the Greek provinces of Italy and
Sicily in peace and war they freely conversed
with strangers and natives, and their opinions
were silently propagated in Rome, Milan, and
It was soon
the kingdoms beyond the Alps. 28
discovered that many thousand Catholics of
every rank, and of either sex, had embraced the
Manichæan heresy; and the flames which con-
sumed twelve canons of Orleans, was the first
act and signal of persecution. The Bulgarians,29
a name so innocent in its origin, so odious in
its application, spread their branches over the
face of Europe. United in common hatred of
idolatry and Rome, they were connected by a
form of episcopal and presbyterian government;
their various sects were discriminated by some
fainter or darker shades of theology; but they
generally agreed in the two principles, the
contempt of the Old Testament, and the denial
of the body of Christ, either on the cross or in
the Eucharist. A confession of simple worship
and blameless manners is extorted from their
enemies; and so high was their standard of
perfection, that the increasing congregations
were divided into two classes of disciples, of
those who practised, and of those who aspired.
It was in the country of the Albi-
the Albigeois. geois,30 in the southern provinces of
A.D. 1200, &c. France, that the Paulicians were
most deeply implanted; and the same vicissi-
tudes of martyrdom and revenge which had
been displayed in the neighbourhood of the
Euphrates, were repeated in the thirteenth cen-
The laws of
tury on the banks of the Rhône.
the Eastern emperors were revived by Frederic
the Second. The insurgents of Tephrice were
represented by the barons and cities of Lan-
guedoc: pope Innocent the Third surpassed
the sanguinary fame of Theodora.

Persecution of

It was in cruelty alone that her soldiers could equal the heroes of the Crusades, and the cruelty of her priests was far excelled by the founders of the inquisition; 31 an office more adapted to confirm, than to refute, the belief of an evil principle. The visible assemblies of the Paulicians, or Albigeois, were extirpated by fire and sword; and the bleeding remnant escaped by flight, concealment, or Catholic conformity. But the invincible spirit which they had kindled still lived and breathed in the Western

28 The introduction of the Paulicians into Italy and France, is
amply discussed by Muratori (Antiquitat. Italie Medii Evi, tom. v.
dissert. Ix. p. 81-152.), and Mosheim (p. 379-382. 419-422.). Yet
both have overlooked a curious passage of William the Apulian, who
clearly describes them in a battle between the Greeks and Normans,
A. D. 1040 (in Muratori, Script. Rerum Ital. tom. v. p. 256.):

Cum Græcis aderant quidam, quos pessimus error
Fecerat amentes, et ab ipso nomen habebant.
But he is so ignorant of their doctrine as to make them a kind of Sa-
bellians or Patripassians.

29 Bulgari, Boulgres, Bougres, a national appellation, has been ap
plied by the French as a term of reproach to usurers and unnatural
sinners. The Paterini, or Putelini, has been made to signify a smooth
and flattering hypocrite, such as l'Avocat Patelin of that original and
pleasant farce (Ducange, Gloss. Latinitat. Medii et Intimi Evi). The
Manichæans were likewise named Cathari, or the pure, by corruption,
Gatari, &c.

30 of the laws, crusade, and persecution against the Albigeois, a just, though general idea, is expressed by Mosheim (p. 477–481.). The detail may be found in the ccclesiastical historians, ancient and

world. In the state, in the church, and even. in the cloister, a latent succession was preserved of the disciples of St. Paul; who protested against the tyranny of Rome, embraced the Bible as the rule of faith, and purified their creed from all the visions of the Gnostic theology. The struggles of Wickliff in England, of Huss in Bohemia, were premature and ineffectual; but the names of Zuinglius, Luther, and Calvin, are pronounced with gratitude as the deliverers of nations.

Character and

of the reform.

A philosopher, who calculates the degree of their merit and the value consequences of their reformation, will prudently ation. ask from what articles of faith, above or against our reason, they have enfranchised the Christians; for such enfranchisement is doubtless a benefit so far as it may be compatible with truth and piety. After a fair discussion we shall rather be surprised by the timidity, than scandalised by the freedom, of our first reformers, 32 With the Jews, they adopted the belief and defence of all the Hebrew Scriptures, with all their prodigies, from the garden of Eden to the visions of the prophet Daniel; and they were bound, like the Catholics, to justify against the Jews the abolition of a divine law. In the great mysteries of the Trinity and Incarnation the reformers were severely orthodox : they freely adopted the theology of the four, or the six first councils; and with the Athanasian Creed, they pronounced the eternal damnation of all who did not believe the Catholic faith. Transubstantiation, the invisible change of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ, is a tenet that may defy the power of argument and pleasantry; but instead of consulting the evidence of their senses, of their sight, their feeling, and their taste, the first protestants were entangled in their own scruples, and awed by the words of Jesus in the instiLuther maintained a tution of the sacrament. corporeal, and Calvin a real, presence of Christ in the eucharist; and the opinion of Zuinglius, that it is no more than a spiritual communion, a simple memorial, has slowly prevailed in the But the loss of one mysreformed churches.33

tery was amply compensated by the stupendous doctrines of original sin, redemption, faith, grace, and predestination, which have been strained from the Epistles of St. Paul. These subtle questions had most assuredly been prepared by the fathers and schoolmen; but the final improvement and popular use may be attributed to the first reformers, who enforced them as the absolute and essential terms of salmodern, Catholics and Protestants; and among these Fleury is the most impartial and moderate.

31 The Acts (Liber Sententiarum) of the Inquisition of Thoulouse (A. D. 1307-1323) have been published by Limborch (Amstelodami, 1692), with a previous History of the Inquisition in general. They deserved a more learned and critical editor. As we must not calumniate even Satan, or the Holy Office, I will observe, that of a list of criminals which fills nineteen folio pages, only fifteen men and four women were delivered to the secular arm.

32 The opinions and proceedings of the reformers are exposed in the second part of the general history of Mosheim; but the balance, which he has held with so clear an eye, and so steady an hand, begins to incline in favour of his Lutheran brethren.

33 Under Edward VI. our reformation was more bold and perfect : but in the fundamental articles of the church of England, a strong and explicit declaration against the real presence was obliterated in the original copy, to please the people, or the Lutherans, or queen Elizabeth (Burnet's History of the Reformation, vol. ii. p. 82. 128. 302.).

CHAP. LV.

OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

caliphs, their unknown and accidental auxiliaries: the Roman legions were occupied in Asia; and after the loss of Syria, Egypt, and Africa, the Cæsars were twice reduced to the danger and disgrace of defending their capital against the Saracens. If, in the account of this interesting people, I have deviated from the strict and original line of my undertaking, the merit of the subject will hide my transgression, or solicit my

excuse.

In the East, in the West, in war, in religion, in science, in their prosperity, and in their decay, the Arabians press themselves on our curiosity: the first overthrow of the church and empire of the Greeks may be imputed to their arms; and the disciples of Mahomet still hold the civil and religious sceptre of the Oriental world. But the same labour would be unworthily bestowed on the swarms of savages, who, between the seventh and the twelfth century, descended from the plains of Scythia, in transient inroad, or perpetual emigration. Their names are uncouth, their origins doubtful, their actions obscure, their superstition was blind, their valour brutal, and the uniformity of their public and private lives was neither softened by innocence, nor refined by policy. The majesty of the Byzantine throne repelled and survived their disorderly attacks; the greater part of these barbarians has disappeared without leaving any memorial of their existence, and the despicable remnant continues, and may long continue, to groan under the dominion of a foreign tyrant. From the antiquities of, I. Bulgarians, II. Hungarians, and, III. Russians, I shall content myself with selecting such facts as yet deserve to be remembered. The conquests of the, IV. NORMANS, and the monarchy of the, V. TURKS, will naturally terminate in the memorable Crusades to the Holy Land, and the double fall of the city and empire of Constantine.

I. In his march to Italy, TheodoEmigration of the Bulgarians. ric the Ostrogoth had trampled on A. D. 680, &c. the arms of the Bulgarians. After this defeat, the name and the nation are lost during a century and a half; and it may be suspected that the same or a similar appellation was revived by strange colonies from the Borysthenes, the Tanais, or the Volga. A king of the ancient Bulgaria bequeathed to his five sons a last It was relesson of moderation and concord.

1 All the passages of the Byzantine history which relate to the barbarians, are compiled, methodised, and transcribed, in a Latin version, by the laborious John Gotthelf Stritter, in his "Memoriæ Populorum, ad Danubium, Pontum Euxinum, Paludem Mæotidem, Caucasum, Mare Caspium, et inde magis ad Septemtriones incolentium." l'etropoli, 1771-1779; in four tomes, or six volumes, in 4to. But the fashion has not enhanced the price of these raw materials. 2 Hist. p. 617.

3 Theophanes, p. 296 299. Anastasius, p. 113. Nicephorus, C. P. p. 22, 23. Theophanes places the old Bulgaria on the banks of the A tell or Volga; but he deprives himself of all geographical credit, by discharging that river into the Euxine Sea.

4 Paul. Diacon. de Gestis Langobard. 1. v. c. 29. p. 881, 882. The apparent difference between the Lombard historian and the abovementioned Greeks, is easily reconciled by Camillo Pellegrino (de Ducatů Beneventano, dissert. vii. in the Scriptores Rerum Ital. tom. v. p. 186, 187.) and Beretti (Chorograph. Italie Medii Evi, p. 273, &c.). This Bulgarian colony was planted in a vacant district of Samnium, and learned the Latin, without forgetting their native language.

5 These provinces of the Greek idiom and empire, are assigned to the Bulgarian kingdom in the dispute of ecclesiastical jurisdiction between the patriarchs of Rome and Constantinople (Baronius, Annal. Eccles. A. D. 869, No. 75.).

6 The situation and royalty of Lychnidus, or Achrida, are clearly expressed in Cedrenus (p. 713.). The removal of an archbishop or patriarch from Justinianea prima to Lychnidus, and at length to Ternovo, has produced some perplexity in the ideas or language of the Greeks (Nicephorus Gregoras, 1. ii. c. 2. p. 14, 15. Thomassin, Discipline de l'Eglise, tom. I. 1. i. c. 19. 23.); and a Frenchman (D'An

ceived as youth has ever received the coun-
sels of age and experience: the five princes
buried their father; divided his subjects and
cattle; forgot his advice; separated from each
other; and wandered in quest of fortune, till we
find the most adventurous in the heart of Italy,
under the protection of the exarch of Ravenna.*
But the stream of emigration was directed or
impelled towards the capital. The modern Bul-
garia, along the southern banks of the Danube,
was stamped with the name and image which it
has retained to the present hour: the new con-
querors successively acquired, by war or treaty,
the Roman provinces of Dardania, Thessaly,
and the two Epirus'; 5 the ecclesiastical supre-
macy was translated from the native city of
Justinian; and, in their prosperous age, the ob-
scure town of Lychnidus, or Achrida, was
honoured with the throne of a king and a patri-
arch.6 The unquestionable evidence of language
attests the descent of the Bulgarians from the
original stock of the Sclavonian, or more pro-
perly Slavonian, race; 7 and the kindred bands
of Servians, Bosnians, Rascians, Croatians, Wa-
lachians, &c. followed either the standard or
From the
the example of the leading tribe.
Euxine to the Adriatic, in the state of captives,
or subjects, or allies, or enemies, of the Greek
empire, they overspread the land; and the
national appellation of the SLAVES? has been de-
graded by chance or malice from the signifi-
cation of glory to that of servitude. 10 Among
these colonies, the Chrobatians,11 or Croats or Scla-
Croats, who now attend the motions vonians of Dal-
of an Austrian army, are the de- A. D. 900, &c.
scendants of a mighty people, the conquerors
The maritime
and sovereigns of Dalmatia.
cities, and of these the infant republic of Ragusa,
implored the aid and instructions of the Byzan-
tine court: they were advised by the magnani-
mous Basil to reserve a small acknowledgment
of their fidelity to the Roman empire, and to
appease, by an annual tribute, the wrath of these
irresistible barbarians. The kingdom of Croatia
was shared by eleven Zoupans, or feudatory
lords; and their united forces were numbered at
sixty thousand horse and one hundred thousand
foot.
A long sea-coast, indented with capacious
harbours, covered with a string of islands, and
almost in sight of the Italian shores, disposed

matia.

ville) is more accurately skilled in the geography of their own country (Hist. de l'Académie des Inscriptions, tom. xxxi.).

7 Chalcocondyles, a competent judge, affirms the identity of the language of the Dalmatians, Bosnians, Servians, Bulgarians, Poles (de Rebus Turcicis, 1. x. p. 283.), and elsewhere of the Bohemians (1. H. p. 38.). The same author has marked the separate idiom of the Hungarians.

8 See the work of John Christopher de Jordan, de Originibus Selavicis, Vindobona, 1745, in four parts, or two volumes in folio. His collections and researches are useful to elucidate the antiquities of Bohemia and the adjacent countries: but his plan is narrow, his style barbarous, his criticism shallow, and the Aulic counsellor is not free from the prejudices of a Bohemian,

9 Jordan subscribes to the well known and probable derivation from Slava, laus, gloria, a word of familiar use in the different dia. lects and parts of speech, and which forms the termination of the most illustrious names (de Originibus Sclavicis, pars i. p. 40. pars iv. p. 101, 102.).

10 This conversion of a national into an appellative name appears to have arisen in the viiith century, in the Oriental France, where the princes and bishops were rich in Sclavonian captives, not of the Bohemian (exclaims Jordan), but of Sorabian race. From thence the word was extended to general use, to the modern languages, and even to the style of the last Byzantines (see the Greek and Latin Glossaries of Du Cange). The confusion of the ZepShot, or Servians, with the Latin Servi, was still more fortunate and familiar (Constant. Porphyr. de Administrando Imperio, c. 32. p. 99.).

11 The emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus, most accurate for his own times, most fabulous for preceding ages, describes the Sclavonians of Dalmatia (c. 29-36.).

both the natives and strangers to the practice of | intercourse with the Greeks, the possession of a navigation. The boats or brigantines of the Croats were constructed after the fashion of the old Liburnians: one hundred and eighty vessels may excite the idea of a respectable navy; but our seamen will smile at the allowance of ten, or twenty, or forty, men for each of these ships of war. They were gradually converted to the more honourable service of commerce; yet the Selavonian pirates were still frequent and dangerous; and it was not before the close of the tenth century that the freedom and sovereignty of the Gulf were effectually vindicated by the Venetian republic. 12 The ancestors of these

Dalmatian kings were equally removed from the use and abuse of navigation: they dwelt in the White Croatia, in the inland regions of Silesia and Little Poland, thirty days' journey, according to the Greek computation, from the sea of darkness.

First king.

Bulgarians.

The glory of the Bulgarians 13 dom of the was confined to a narrow scope A. D. 610-1017. both of time and place. In the ninth and tenth centuries, they reigned to the south of the Danube; but the more powerful nations that had followed their emigration, repelled all return to the north and all progress to the west. Yet, in the obscure catalogue of their exploits, they might boast an honour which had hitherto been appropriated to the Goths; that of slaying in battle one of the successors of Augustus and Constantine. The emperor Nicephorus had lost his fame in the Arabian, he lost his life in the Sclavonian, war. In his first operations he advanced with boldness and success into the centre of Bulgaria, and burnt the royal court, which was probably no more than an edifice and village of timber. But, while he searched the spoil and refused all offers of treaty, his enemies collected their spirits and their forces: the passes of retreat were insuperably barred; and the trembling Nicephorus was heard to exclaim: "Alas, alas! unless we could as"sume the wings of birds, we cannot hope to "escape."

A. D. 811.

Two days he waited his fate in the inactivity of despair; but, on the morning of the third, the Bulgarians surprised the camp; and the Roman prince, with the great officers of the empire, were slaughtered in their tents. The body of Valens had been saved from insult; but the head of Nicephorus was exposed on a spear, and his skull, enchased with gold, was often replenished in the feasts of victory. The Greeks bewailed the dishonour of the throne; but they acknowledged the just punishment of avarice and cruelty. This savage cup was deeply tinctured with the manners of the Scythian wilderness; but they were softened before the end of the same century by a peaceful

12 See the anonymous Chronicle of the xith century, ascribed to John Sagorninus (p. 91--102.), and that composed in the xivth by the Doge Andrew Dandolo (Script. Rerum Ital. tom. xii. p. 227-230.); the two oldest monuments of the history of Venice.

13 The first kingdom of the Bulgarians may be found, under the proper dates, in the Annals of Cedrenus and Zonaras. The Byzantine materials are collected by Stritter (Memorie Populorum, tom. ii. pars il. p. 411-647.); and the series of their kings is disposed and settled by Ducange (Fam. Byzant. p. 305-318.).

14 Simeonem semi-Gracum esse aiebant, eo quod à pueriti Byzantii Demosthenis rhetoricam et Aristotelis syllogismos didicerat. Liutprand, I. iii. c. 8. He says in another place, Simeon, fortis belLator, Bulgaria præerat; Christianus, sed vicinis Græcis valde inimicus (i. I. c. 2.).

or 932

cultivated region, and the introduction of the
Christian worship. The nobles of Bulgaria were
educated in the schools and palace of Constan-
tinople; and Simeon,14 a youth of the royal line,
was instructed in the rhetoric of Demosthenes
and the logic of Aristotle. He re- A. D. 588-987,
linquished the profession of a monk
for that of a king and warrior; and in his reign,
of more than forty years, Bulgaria assumed a
rank among the civilised powers of the earth.
The Greeks, whom he repeatedly attacked, de-
rived a faint consolation from indulging them-
selves in the reproaches of perfidy and sacrilege.
They purchased the aid of the Pagan Turks;
but Simeon, in a second battle, redeemed the
loss of the first, at a time when it was esteemed
a victory to elude the arms of that formidable
nation. The Servians were overthrown, made
captive, and dispersed; and those who visited
the country before their restoration could dis-
cover no more than fifty vagrants, without women
or children, who extorted a precarious subsist-
ence from the chase. On classic ground, on the
banks of the Achelöus, the Greeks were de-
feated; their horn was broken by the strength
of the barbaric Hercules. 15 He formed the
siege of Constantinople; and, in a personal con-
ference with the emperor, Simeon imposed the
conditions of peace. They met with the most
jealous precautions: the royal galley was drawn
close to an artificial and well-fortified platform;
and the majesty of the purple was emulated by
the pomp of the Bulgarian. "Are you a Chris-
"tian?" said the humble Romanus; "it is

your duty to abstain from the blood of your "fellow-Christians. Has the thirst of riches "seduced you from the blessings of peace? "Sheath your sword, open your hand, and I "will satiate the utmost measure of your de "sires." The reconciliation was sealed by a domestic alliance; the freedom of trade was granted or restored; the first honours of the court were secured to the friends of Bulgaria, above the ambassadors of enemies or strangers; 16 and her princes were dignified with the high and invidious title of Basileus, or emperor. But this friendship was soon disturbed: after the death of Simeon, the nations were again in arms; his feeble successors were divided and extinguished; and, in the be ginning of the eleventh century, the second Basil, who was born in the purple, deserved the appellation of conqueror of the Bulgarians. His avarice was in some measure gratified by a treasure of four hundred thousand pounds sterling (ten thousand pounds' weight of gold), which be found in the palace of Lychnidus. His cruelty inflicted a cool and exquisite vengeance on fifteen

15

Rigidum fera dextera cornu

A. D. 950, &

Dum tenet, infregit, truncaque à fronte revellit. Ovid (Metamorph. ix. 1-100.) has boldly painted the combat of the river-god and the hero; the native and the stranger.

16 The ambassador of Otho was provoked by the Greek excuses, cum Christophori filiam Petrus Bulgarorum l'asileus conjugem du ceret, Symphona, id est consonantia, scripto juramento firmata ut omnium gentium Apostolis, id est nunciis, penes nos Bulgarorum Apostoli praeponantur, honorentur, diligantur (Liutprand in Legatione, p. 482.). See the Ceremoniale of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, tom. i. p. 82. tom. ii. p. 429, 430. 434, 455. 445, 414. 446, 447. with

the annotations of Reiske.