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CHAP. pulus," had been deprived of the right of voting. Two co pies 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 chaunted 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 honour. 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 Their re- 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

turn to

Constanti

nople,

A. D. 1440,

Feb. 1.

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

72 None of these original acts of union can at present be produced. Of the ten MSS. that are preserved (five at Rome, and the remainder at Florence, Bologna, Venice, Paris, and London), nine have been examined by an accurate critic (M. de Brequigny), who condemns them for the variety and imperfections of the Greek signatures. Yet several of these may be esteemed as authentic copies, which were subscribed at Florence before (26th of August 1439) the final separation of the pope and emperor (Memoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xliii. p. 287...311).

73 Ήμιν δε ὡς ασημοι εδοκεν φωναι (Syropul. p. 297).

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

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the deputies of the Armenians, the Maronites, the Jacobites CHAP. of Syria and Egypt, the Nestorians and the Æthiopians, were successively introduced, to kiss the feet of the Roman pontiff, and to announce the obedience and the orthodoxy of the East. These Oriental embassies, unknown in the countries which they presumed to represent,75 diffused over the West the fame of Eugenius; and a clamour was artfully propagated against the remnant of a schism in Switzerland and Savoy, which alone impeded the harmony of the Christian world. The vigour of opposition was succeeded by the lassitude of despair: the council of Basil was silently dissolved ; and Fœlix, renouncing the tiara, again withdrew to the devout or delicious hermitage of Ripaille." A general Final peace 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

of the

church,

A. D.

1449,

Greek lan

guage at

nople,

A. D. 1300... 1453.

The journies of three emperors were unavailing for their State of the temporal, or perhaps their spiritual, salvation; but they were productive of a beneficial consequence; the revival of the ConstantiGreek 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

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

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

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

79

CHAP. form and substance of the national dialect; and ample glosLXVI. saries 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, 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, "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

78 In the first attempt Meursius collected 3600 Græco-barbarous words, to which, in a second edition, he subjoined 1800 more; yet what plenteous gleanings did he leave to Portius, Ducange, Fabrotti, the Bollandists, &c. (Fabric. Bibliot. Græc. tom. x. p. 101, &c.) Some Persic words may be found in Xenophon, and some Latin ones in Plutarch; and such is the inevitable effect of war and commerce: but the form and substance of the language were not affected by this slight alloy.

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

80 He married, and had perhaps debauched, the daughter of John, and the grand-daughter of Manuel Chrysoleras. She was young, beautiful, and wealthy; and her noble family was allied to the Dorias of Genoa and the empe rors of Constantinople.

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

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"purity; and the native graces of language most conspicu- CHAP. "ously shine among the noble matrons, who are excluded "from all intercourse with foreigners. With foreigners do "I say? They live retired and sequested 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 eve"ning, 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 talents that were lost in the devotion, the laziness, and the discord, of the church and cloyster, the more inquisitive and ambitious minds would explore the sacred and profane erudition of their native language. The ecclesiastics presided over the edu cation 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 Compariimportant distinction has been already noticed: the Greeks son of the were stationary or retrogade, while the Latins were advanc- Latins. ing 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

82 Philelphus, absurdly enough, derives this Greek or Oriental jealousy from the manners of ancient Rome.

83 See the state of learning in the xiiith and xivth centuries, in the learned and judicious Mosheim (Institut. Hist. Eccles. p. 434...440.490...494).

84 At the end of the xvth century, there existed in Europe about fifty universities, and of these the foundation of ten or twelve is prior to the year 1300.

Greeks and

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CHAP. were peopled with thousands of scholars: and their misguided ardour 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.

learning in Italy.

Revival of The most learned Italians of the fifteenth century have the Greek 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 honourably 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

They were crowded in proportion to their scarcity. Bologna contained 10,000 students, chiefly of the civil law. In the year 1357 the number at Oxford had decreased from 30,000 to 6000 scholars (Henry's History of Great Britain, vol. iv. p. 478). Yet even this decrease is much superior to the present list of the members of the university.

85 Of those writers who professedly treat of the restoration of the Greek learning in Italy, the two principal are Hodius, Dr. Humphrey Hody (de Græcis Illustribus, Linguæ Græcæ Literarumque humaniorum Instauratoribus; Londini, 1742, in large octavo), and Tiraboschi (Istoria della Letteratura Italiana, tom. v. p. 364...377. tom. vii. p. 112...143). The Oxford professor is a laborious scholar, but the librarian of Modena enjoys the superiority of a modern and national historian.