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The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Edward Gibbon

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The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

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History Of The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire

Edward Gibbon, Esq.

With notes by the Rev. H. H. Milman

Vol. 6

The Crusades.

Part I.

Preservation Of The Greek Empire. - Numbers, Passage, And

Event, Of The Second And Third Crusades. - St. Bernard. - Reign

Of Saladin In Egypt And Syria. - His Conquest Of Jerusalem. -

Naval Crusades. - Richard The First Of England. - Pope Innocent

The Third; And The Fourth And Fifth Crusades. - The Emperor

Frederic The Second. - Louis The Ninth Of France; And The Two

Last Crusades. - Expulsion Of The Latins Or Franks By The

Mamelukes.

In a style less grave than that of history, I should perhaps

compare the emperor Alexius ^1 to the jackal, who is said to

follow the steps, and to devour the leavings, of the lion.

Whatever had been his fears and toils in the passage of the first

crusade, they were amply recompensed by the subsequent benefits

which he derived from the exploits of the Franks. His dexterity

and vigilance secured their first conquest of Nice; and from this

threatening station the Turks were compelled to evacuate the

neighborhood of Constantinople. While the crusaders, with blind

valor, advanced into the midland countries of Asia, the crafty

Greek improved the favorable occasion when the emirs of the

sea-coast were recalled to the standard of the sultan. The Turks

were driven from the Isles of Rhodes and Chios: the cities of

Ephesu and Smyrna, of Sardes, Philadelphia, and Laodicea, were

restored to the empire, which Alexius enlarged from the

Hellespont to the banks of the Maeander, and the rocky shores of

Pamphylia. The churches resumed their splendor: the towns were

rebuilt and fortified; and the desert country was peopled with

colonies of Christians, who were gently removed from the more

distant and dangerous frontier. In these paternal cares, we may

forgive Alexius, if he forgot the deliverance of the holy

sepulchre; but, by the Latins, he was stigmatized with the foul

reproach of treason and desertion. They had sworn fidelity and

obedience to his throne; but he had promised to assist their

enterprise in person, or, at least, with his troops and

treasures: his base retreat dissolved their obligations; and the

sword, which had been the instrument of their victory, was the

pledge and title of their just independence. It does not appear

that the emperor attempted to revive his obsolete claims over the

kingdom of Jerusalem; ^2 but the borders of Cilicia and Syria

were more recent in his possession, and more accessible to his

arms. The great army of the crusaders was annihilated or

dispersed; the principality of Antioch was left without a head,

by the surprise and captivity of Bohemond; his ransom had

oppressed him with a heavy debt; and his Norman followers were

insufficient to repel the hostilities of the Greeks and Turks. In

this distress, Bohemond embraced a magnanimous resolution, of

leaving the defence of Antioch to his kinsman, the faithful

Tancred; of arming the West against the Byzantine empire; and of

executing the design which he inherited from the lessons and

example of his father Guiscard. His embarkation was clandestine:

and, if we may credit a tale of the princess Anne, he passed the

hostile sea closely secreted in a coffin. ^3 But his reception in

France was dignified by the public applause, and his marriage

with the king's daughter: his return was glorious, since the

bravest spirits of the age enlisted under his veteran command;

and he repassed the Adriatic at the head of five thousand horse

and forty thousand foot, assembled from the most remote climates

of Europe. ^4 The strength of Durazzo, and prudence of Alexius,

the progress of famine and approach of winter, eluded his

ambitious hopes; and the venal confederates were seduced from his

standard. A treaty of peace ^5 suspended the fears of the Greeks;

and they were finally delivered by the death of an adversary,

whom neither oaths could bind, nor dangers could appal, nor

prosperity could satiate. His children succeeded to the

principality of Antioch; but the boundaries were strictly

defined, the homage was clearly stipulated, and the cities of

Tarsus and Malmistra were restored to the Byzantine emperors. Of

the coast of Anatolia, they possessed the entire circuit from

Trebizond to the Syrian gates. The Seljukian dynasty of Roum ^6

was separated on all sides from the sea and their Mussulman

brethren; the power of the sultan was shaken by the victories and

even the defeats of the Franks; and after the loss of Nice, they

removed their throne to Cogni or Iconium, an obscure and in land

town above three hundred miles from Constantinople. ^7 Instead of

trembling for their capital, the Comnenian princes waged an

offensive war against the Turks, and the first crusade prevented

the fall of the declining empire.

[Footnote 1: Anna Comnena relates her father's conquests in Asia

Minor Alexiad, l. xi. p. 321 - 325, l. xiv. p. 419; his Cilician

war against Tancred and Bohemond, p. 328 - 324; the war of

Epirus, with tedious prolixity, l. xii. xiii. p. 345 - 406; the

death of Bohemond, l. xiv. p. 419.]

[Footnote 2: The kings of Jerusalem submitted, however, to a

nominal dependence, and in the dates of their inscriptions, (one

is still legible in the church of Bethlem,) they respectfully

placed before their own the name of the reigning emperor,

(Ducange, Dissertations sur Joinville xxvii. p. 319.)]

[Footnote 3: Anna Comnena adds, that, to complete the imitation,

he was shut up with a dead cock; and condescends to wonder how

the Barbarian could endure the confinement and putrefaction.

This absurd tale is unknown to the Latins.

Note: The Greek writers, in general, Zonaras, p. 2, 303, and

Glycas, p. 334 agree in this story with the princess Anne, except

in the absurd addition of the dead cock. Ducange has already

quoted some instances where a similar stratagem had been adopted

by Norman princes. On this authority Wilker inclines to believe

the fact. Appendix to vol. ii. p. 14. - M.]

[Footnote 4: In the Byzantine geography, must mean England; yet

we are more credibly informed, that our Henry I. would not

suffer him to levy any troops in his kingdom, (Ducange, Not. ad

Alexiad. p. 41.)]

[Footnote 5: The copy of the treaty (Alexiad. l. xiii. p. 406 -

416) is an original and curious piece, which would require, and

might afford, a good map of the principality of Antioch.]

[Footnote 6: See, in the learned work of M. De Guignes, (tom. ii.

part ii.,) the history of the Seljukians of Iconium, Aleppo, and

Damascus, as far as it may be collected from the Greeks, Latins,

and Arabians. The last are ignorant or regardless of the affairs

of Roum.]

[Footnote 7: Iconium is mentioned as a station by Xenophon, and

by Strabo, with an ambiguous title, (Cellarius, tom. ii. p. 121.)

Yet St. Paul found in that place a multitude of Jews and

Gentiles. under the corrupt name of Kunijah, it is described as

a great city, with a river and garden, three leagues from the

mountains, and decorated (I know not why) with Plato's tomb,

(Abulfeda, tabul. xvii. p. 303 vers. Reiske; and the Index

Geographicus of Schulrens from Ibn Said.)]

In the twelfth century, three great emigrations marched by

land from the West for the relief of Palestine. The soldiers and

pilgrims of Lombardy, France, and Germany were excited by the

example and success of the first crusade. ^8 Forty-eight years

after the deliverance of the holy sepulchre, the emperor, and the

French king, Conrad the Third and Louis the Seventh, undertook

the second crusade to support the falling fortunes of the Latins.

^9 A grand division of the third crusade was led by the emperor

Frederic Barbarossa, ^10 who sympathized with his brothers of

France and England in the common loss of Jerusalem. These three

expeditions may be compared in their resemblance of the greatness

of numbers, their passage through the Greek empire, and the

nature and event of their Turkish warfare, and a brief parallel

may save the repetition of a tedious narrative. However splendid

it may seem, a regular story of the crusades would exhibit the

perpetual return of the same causes and effects; and the frequent

attempts for the defence or recovery of the Holy Land would

appear so many faint and unsuccessful copies of the original.

[Footnote 8: For this supplement to the first crusade, see Anna

Comnena, Alexias, l. xi. p. 331, &c., and the viiith book of

Albert Aquensis.)]

[Footnote 9: For the second crusade, of Conrad III. and Louis

VII., see William of Tyre, (l. xvi. c. 18 - 19,) Otho of

Frisingen, (l. i. c. 34 - 45 59, 60,) Matthew Paris, (Hist.

Major. p. 68,) Struvius, (Corpus Hist Germanicae, p. 372, 373,)

Scriptores Rerum Francicarum a Duchesne tom. iv.: Nicetas, in

Vit. Manuel, l. i. c. 4, 5, 6, p. 41 - 48 Cinnamus l. ii. p. 41 -

49.]

[Footnote 10: For the third crusade, of Frederic Barbarossa, see

Nicetas in Isaac Angel. l. ii. c. 3 - 8, p. 257 - 266. Struv.

(Corpus. Hist. Germ. p. 414,) and two historians, who probably

were spectators, Tagino, (in Scriptor. Freher. tom. i. p. 406 -

416, edit Struv.,) and the Anonymus de Expeditione Asiatica Fred.

I. (in Canisii Antiq. Lection. tom. iii. p. ii. p. 498 - 526,

edit. Basnage.)]

I. Of the swarms that so closely trod in the footsteps of

the first pilgrims, the chiefs were equal in rank, though unequal

in fame and merit, to Godfrey of Bouillon and his

fellow-adventurers. At their head were displayed the banners of

the dukes of Burgundy, Bavaria, and Aquitain; the first a

descendant of Hugh Capet, the second, a father of the Brunswick

line: the archbishop of Milan, a temporal prince, transported,

for the benefit of the Turks, the treasures and ornaments of his

church and palace; and the veteran crusaders, Hugh the Great and

Stephen of Chartres, returned to consummate their unfinished vow.

The huge and disorderly bodies of their followers moved forward

in two columns; and if the first consisted of two hundred and

sixty thousand persons, the second might possibly amount to sixty

thousand horse and one hundred thousand foot. ^11 ^* The armies

of the second crusade might have claimed the conquest of Asia;

the nobles of France and Germany were animated by the presence of

their sovereigns; and both the rank and personal character of

Conrad and Louis gave a dignity to their cause, and a discipline

to their force, which might be vainly expected from the feudatory

chiefs. The cavalry of the emperor, and that of the king, was

each composed of seventy thousand knights, and their immediate

attendants in the field; ^12 and if the light-armed troops, the

peasant infantry, the women and children, the priests and monks,

be rigorously excluded, the full account will scarcely be

satisfied with four hundred thousand souls. The West, from Rome

to Britain, was called into action; the kings of Poland and

Bohemia obeyed the summons of Conrad; and it is affirmed by the

Greeks and Latins, that, in the passage of a strait or river, the

Byzantine agents, after a tale of nine hundred thousand, desisted

from the endless and formidable computation. ^13 In the third

crusade, as the French and English preferred the navigation of

the Mediterranean, the host of Frederic Barbarossa was less

numerous. Fifteen thousand knights, and as many squires, were the

flower of the German chivalry: sixty thousand horse, and one

hundred thousand foot, were mustered by the emperor in the plains

of Hungary; and after such repetitions, we shall no longer be

startled at the six hundred thousand pilgrims, which credulity

has ascribed to this last emigration. ^14 Such extravagant

reckonings prove only the astonishment of contemporaries; but

their astonishment most strongly bears testimony to the existence

of an enormous, though indefinite, multitude. The Greeks might

applaud their superior knowledge of the arts and stratagems of

war, but they confessed the strength and courage of the French

cavalry, and the infantry of the Germans; ^15 and the strangers

are described as an iron race, of gigantic stature, who darted

fire from their eyes, and spilt blood like water on the ground.

Under the banners of Conrad, a troop of females rode in the

attitude and armor of men; and the chief of these Amazons, from

her gilt spurs and buskins, obtained the epithet of the Golden-

footed Dame.

[Footnote 11: Anne, who states these later swarms at 40,000 horse

and 100,000 foot, calls them Normans, and places at their head

two brothers of Flanders. The Greeks were strangely ignorant of

the names, families, and possessions of the Latin princes.]

[Footnote *: It was this army of pilgrims, the first body of

which was headed by the archbishop of Milan and Count Albert of

Blandras, which set forth on the wild, yet, with a more

disciplined army, not impolitic, enterprise of striking at the

heart of the Mahometan power, by attacking the sultan in Bagdad.

For their adventures and fate, see Wilken, vol. ii. p. 120, &c.,

Wichaud, book iv. - M.]

[Footnote 12: William of Tyre, and Matthew Paris, reckon 70,000

loricati in each of the armies.]

[Footnote 13: The imperfect enumeration is mentioned by Cinnamus,

and confirmed by Odo de Diogilo apud Ducange ad Cinnamum, with

the more precise sum of 900,556. Why must therefore the version

and comment suppose the modest and insufficient reckoning of

90,000? Does not Godfrey of Viterbo (Pantheon, p. xix. in

Muratori, tom. vii. p. 462) exclaim?

- Numerum si poscere quaeras, Millia millena militis agmen

erat.]

[Footnote 14: This extravagant account is given by Albert of

Stade, (apud Struvium, p. 414;) my calculation is borrowed from

Godfrey of Viterbo, Arnold of Lubeck, apud eundem, and Bernard

Thesaur. (c. 169, p. 804.) The original writers are silent. The

Mahometans gave him 200,000, or 260,000, men, (Bohadin, in Vit.

Saladin, p. 110.)]

[Footnote 15: I must observe, that, in the second and third

crusades, the subjects of Conrad and Frederic are styled by the

Greeks and Orientals Alamanni. The Lechi and Tzechi of Cinnamus

are the Poles and Bohemians; and it is for the French that he

reserves the ancient appellation of Germans.

Note: He names both - M.]

II. The number and character of the strangers was an object

of terror to the effeminate Greeks, and the sentiment of fear is

nearly allied to that of hatred. This aversion was suspended or

softened by the apprehension of the Turkish power; and the

invectives of the Latins will not bias our more candid belief,

that the emperor Alexius dissembled their insolence, eluded their

hostilities, counselled their rashness, and opened to their ardor

the road of pilgrimage and conquest. But when the Turks had been

driven from Nice and the sea-coast, when the Byzantine princes no

longer dreaded the distant sultans of Cogni, they felt with purer

indignation the free and frequent passage of the western

Barbarians, who violated the majesty, and endangered the safety,

of the empire. The second and third crusades were undertaken

under the reign of Manuel Comnenus and Isaac Angelus. Of the

former, the passions were always impetuous, and often malevolent;

and the natural union of a cowardly and a mischievous temper was

exemplified in the latter, who, without merit or mercy, could

punish a tyrant, and occupy his throne. It was secretly, and

perhaps tacitly, resolved by the prince and people to destroy, or

at least to discourage, the pilgrims, by every species of injury

and oppression; and their want of prudence and discipline

continually afforded the pretence or the opportunity. The

Western monarchs had stipulated a safe passage and fair market in

the country of their Christian brethren; the treaty had been

ratified by oaths and hostages; and the poorest soldier of

Frederic's army was furnished with three marks of silver to

defray his expenses on the road. But every engagement was

violated by treachery and injustice; and the complaints of the

Latins are attested by the honest confession of a Greek

historian, who has dared to prefer truth to his country. ^16

Instead of a hospitable reception, the gates of the cities, both

in Europe and Asia, were closely barred against the crusaders;

and the scanty pittance of food was let down in baskets from the

walls. Experience or foresight might excuse this timid jealousy;

but the common duties of humanity prohibited the mixture of

chalk, or other poisonous ingredients, in the bread; and should

Manuel be acquitted of any foul connivance, he is guilty of

coining base money for the purpose of trading with the pilgrims.

In every step of their march they were stopped or misled: the

governors had private orders to fortify the passes and break down

the bridges against them: the stragglers were pillaged and

murdered: the soldiers and horses were pierced in the woods by

arrows from an invisible hand; the sick were burnt in their beds;

and the dead bodies were hung on gibbets along the highways.

These injuries exasperated the champions of the cross, who were

not endowed with evangelical patience; and the Byzantine princes,

who had provoked the unequal conflict, promoted the embarkation

and march of these formidable guests. On the verge of the

Turkish frontier Barbarossa spared the guilty Philadelphia, ^17

rewarded the hospitable Laodicea, and deplored the hard necessity

that had stained his sword with any drops of Christian blood. In

their intercourse with the monarchs of Germany and France, the

pride of the Greeks was exposed to an anxious trial. They might

boast that on the first interview the seat of Louis was a low

stool, beside the throne of Manuel; ^18 but no sooner had the

French king transported his army beyond the Bosphorus, than he

refused the offer of a second conference, unless his brother

would meet him on equal terms, either on the sea or land. With

Conrad and Frederic, the ceremonial was still nicer and more

difficult: like the successors of Constantine, they styled

themselves emperors of the Romans; ^19 and firmly maintained the

purity of their title and dignity. The first of these

representatives of Charlemagne would only converse with Manuel on

horseback in the open field; the second, by passing the

Hellespont rather than the Bosphorus, declined the view of

Constantinople and its sovereign. An emperor, who had been

crowned at Rome, was reduced in the Greek epistles to the humble

appellation of Rex, or prince, of the Alemanni; and the vain and

feeble Angelus affected to be ignorant of the name of one of the

greatest men and monarchs of the age. While they viewed with

hatred and suspicion the Latin pilgrims the Greek emperors

maintained a strict, though secret, alliance with the Turks and

Saracens. Isaac Angelus complained, that by his friendship for

the great Saladin he had incurred the enmity of the Franks; and a

mosque was founded at Constantinople for the public exercise of

the religion of Mahomet. ^20

[Footnote 16: Nicetas was a child at the second crusade, but in

the third he commanded against the Franks the important post of

Philippopolis. Cinnamus is infected with national prejudice and

pride.]

[Footnote 17: The conduct of the Philadelphians is blamed by

Nicetas, while the anonymous German accuses the rudeness of his

countrymen, (culpa nostra.) History would be pleasant, if we were

embarrassed only by such contradictions. It is likewise from

Nicetas, that we learn the pious and humane sorrow of Frederic.]

[Footnote 18: Cinnamus translates into Latin. Ducange works very

hard to save his king and country from such ignominy, (sur

Joinville, dissertat. xxvii. p. 317 - 320.) Louis afterwards

insisted on a meeting in mari ex aequo, not ex equo, according to

the laughable readings of some MSS.]

[Footnote 19: Ego Romanorum imperator sum, ille Romaniorum,

(Anonym Canis. p. 512.)]

[Footnote 20: In the Epistles of Innocent III., (xiii. p. 184,)

and the History of Bohadin, (p. 129, 130,) see the views of a

pope and a cadhi on this singular toleration.]

III. The swarms that followed the first crusade were

destroyed in Anatolia by famine, pestilence, and the Turkish

arrows; and the princes only escaped with some squadrons of horse

to accomplish their lamentable pilgrimage. A just opinion may be

formed of their knowledge and humanity; of their knowledge, from

the design of subduing Persia and Chorasan in their way to

Jerusalem; ^* of their humanity, from the massacre of the

Christian people, a friendly city, who came out to meet them with

palms and crosses in their hands. The arms of Conrad and Louis

were less cruel and imprudent; but the event of the second

crusade was still more ruinous to Christendom; and the Greek

Manuel is accused by his own subjects of giving seasonable

intelligence to the sultan, and treacherous guides to the Latin

princes. Instead of crushing the common foe, by a double attack

at the same time but on different sides, the Germans were urged

by emulation, and the French were retarded by jealousy. Louis

had scarcely passed the Bosphorus when he was met by the

returning emperor, who had lost the greater part of his army in

glorious, but unsuccessful, actions on the banks of the Maender.

The contrast of the pomp of his rival hastened the retreat of

Conrad: ^! the desertion of his independent vassals reduced him

to his hereditary troops; and he borrowed some Greek vessels to

execute by sea the pilgrimage of Palestine. Without studying the

lessons of experience, or the nature of the war, the king of

France advanced through the same country to a similar fate. The

vanguard, which bore the royal banner and the oriflamme of St.

Denys, ^21 had doubled their march with rash and inconsiderate

speed; and the rear, which the king commanded in person, no

longer found their companions in the evening camp. In darkness

and disorder, they were encompassed, assaulted, and overwhelmed,

by the innumerable host of Turks, who, in the art of war, were

superior to the Christians of the twelfth century. ^* Louis, who

climbed a tree in the general discomfiture, was saved by his own

valor and the ignorance of his adversaries; and with the dawn of

day he escaped alive, but almost alone, to the camp of the

vanguard. But instead of pursuing his expedition by land, he was

rejoiced to shelter the relics of his army in the friendly

seaport of Satalia. From thence he embarked for Antioch; but so

penurious was the supply of Greek vessels, that they could only

afford room for his knights and nobles; and the plebeian crowd of

infantry was left to perish at the foot of the Pamphylian hills.

The emperor and the king embraced and wept at Jerusalem; their

martial trains, the remnant of mighty armies, were joined to the

Christian powers of Syria, and a fruitless siege of Damascus was

the final effort of the second crusade. Conrad and Louis

embarked for Europe with the personal fame of piety and courage;

but the Orientals had braved these potent monarchs of the Franks,

with whose names and military forces they had been so often

threatened. ^22 Perhaps they had still more to fear from the

veteran genius of Frederic the First, who in his youth had served

in Asia under his uncle Conrad. Forty campaigns in Germany and

Italy had taught Barbarossa to command; and his soldiers, even

the princes of the empire, were accustomed under his reign to

obey. As soon as he lost sight of Philadelphia and Laodicea, the

last cities of the Greek frontier, he plunged into the salt and

barren desert, a land (says the historian) of horror and

tribulation. ^23 During twenty days, every step of his fainting

and sickly march was besieged by the innumerable hordes of

Turkmans, ^24 whose numbers and fury seemed after each defeat to

multiply and inflame. The emperor continued to struggle and to

suffer; and such was the measure of his calamities, that when he

reached the gates of Iconium, no more than one thousand knights

were able to serve on horseback. By a sudden and resolute

assault he defeated the guards, and stormed the capital of the

sultan, ^25 who humbly sued for pardon and peace. The road was

now open, and Frederic advanced in a career of triumph, till he

was unfortunately drowned in a petty torrent of Cilicia. ^26 The

remainder of his Germans was consumed by sickness and desertion:

and the emperor's son expired with the greatest part of his

Swabian vassals at the siege of Acre. Among the Latin heroes,

Godfrey of Bouillon and Frederic Barbarossa could alone achieve

the passage of the Lesser Asia; yet even their success was a

warning; and in the last and most experienced age of the

crusades, every nation preferred the sea to the toils and perils

of an inland expedition. ^27

[Footnote *: This was the design of the pilgrims under the

archbishop of Milan. See note, p. 102. - M.]

[Footnote !: Conrad had advanced with part of his army along a

central road, between that on the coast and that which led to

Iconium. He had been betrayed by the Greeks, his army destroyed

without a battle. Wilken, vol. iii. p. 165. Michaud, vol. ii. p.

156. Conrad advanced again with Louis as far as Ephesus, and

from thence, at the invitation of Manuel, returned to

Constantinople. It was Louis who, at the passage of the

Maeandes, was engaged in a "glorious action." Wilken, vol. iii.

p. 179. Michaud vol. ii. p. 160. Gibbon followed Nicetas. - M.]

[Footnote 21: As counts of Vexin, the kings of France were the

vassals and advocates of the monastery of St. Denys. The saint's

peculiar banner, which they received from the abbot, was of a

square form, and a red or flaming color. The oriflamme appeared

at the head of the French armies from the xiith to the xvth

century, (Ducange sur Joinville, Dissert. xviii. p. 244 - 253.)]

[Footnote *: They descended the heights to a beautiful valley

which by beneath them. The Turks seized the heights which

separated the two divisions of the army. The modern historians

represent differently the act to which Louis owed his safety,

which Gibbon has described by the undignified phrase, "he climbed

a tree." According to Michaud, vol. ii. p. 164, the king got upon

a rock, with his back against a tree; according to Wilken, vol.

iii., he dragged himself up to the top of the rock by the roots

of a tree, and continued to defend himself till nightfall. - M.]

[Footnote 22: The original French histories of the second crusade

are the Gesta Ludovici VII. published in the ivth volume of

Duchesne's collection. The same volume contains many original

letters of the king, of Suger his minister, &c., the best

documents of authentic history.]

[Footnote 23: Terram horroris et salsuginis, terram siccam

sterilem, inamoenam. Anonym. Canis. p. 517. The emphatic

language of a sufferer.]

[Footnote 24: Gens innumera, sylvestris, indomita, praedones sine

ductore. The sultan of Cogni might sincerely rejoice in their

defeat. Anonym. Canis. p. 517, 518.]

[Footnote 25: See, in the anonymous writer in the Collection of

Canisius, Tagino and Bohadin, (Vit. Saladin. p. 119, 120,) the

ambiguous conduct of Kilidge Arslan, sultan of Cogni, who hated

and feared both Saladin and Frederic.]

[Footnote 26: The desire of comparing two great men has tempted

many writers to drown Frederic in the River Cydnus, in which

Alexander so imprudently bathed, (Q. Curt. l. iii c. 4, 5.) But,

from the march of the emperor, I rather judge, that his Saleph is

the Calycadnus, a stream of less fame, but of a longer course.

Note: It is now called the Girama: its course is described

in M'Donald Kinneir's Travels. - M.]

[Footnote 27: Marinus Sanutus, A.D. 1321, lays it down as a

precept, Quod stolus ecclesiae per terram nullatenus est ducenda.

He resolves, by the divine aid, the objection, or rather

exception, of the first crusade, (Secreta Fidelium Crucis, l. ii.

pars ii. c. i. p. 37.)]

The enthusiasm of the first crusade is a natural and simple

event, while hope was fresh, danger untried, and enterprise

congenial to the spirit of the times. But the obstinate

perseverance of Europe may indeed excite our pity and admiration;

that no instruction should have been drawn from constant and

adverse experience; that the same confidence should have

repeatedly grown from the same failures; that six succeeding

generations should have rushed headlong down the precipice that

was open before them; and that men of every condition should have

staked their public and private fortunes on the desperate

adventure of possessing or recovering a tombstone two thousand

miles from their country. In a period of two centuries after the

council of Clermont, each spring and summer produced a new

emigration of pilgrim warriors for the defence of the Holy Land;

but the seven great armaments or crusades were excited by some

impending or recent calamity: the nations were moved by the

authority of their pontiffs, and the example of their kings:

their zeal was kindled, and their reason was silenced, by the

voice of their holy orators; and among these, Bernard, ^28 the

monk, or the saint, may claim the most honorable place. ^* About

eight years before the first conquest of Jerusalem, he was born

of a noble family in Burgundy; at the age of three- and-twenty he

buried himself in the monastery of Citeaux, then in the primitive

fervor of the institution; at the end of two years he led forth

her third colony, or daughter, to the valley of Clairvaux ^29 in

Champagne; and was content, till the hour of his death, with the

humble station of abbot of his own community. A philosophic age

has abolished, with too liberal and indiscriminate disdain, the

honors of these spiritual heroes. The meanest among them are

distinguished by some energies of the mind; they were at least

superior to their votaries and disciples; and, in the race of

superstition, they attained the prize for which such numbers

contended. In speech, in writing, in action, Bernard stood high

above his rivals and contemporaries; his compositions are not

devoid of wit and eloquence; and he seems to have preserved as

much reason and humanity as may be reconciled with the character

of a saint. In a secular life, he would have shared the seventh

part of a private inheritance; by a vow of poverty and penance,

by closing his eyes against the visible world, ^30 by the refusal

of all ecclesiastical dignities, the abbot of Clairvaux became

the oracle of Europe, and the founder of one hundred and sixty

convents. Princes and pontiffs trembled at the freedom of his

apostolical censures: France, England, and Milan, consulted and

obeyed his judgment in a schism of the church: the debt was

repaid by the gratitude of Innocent the Second; and his

successor, Eugenius the Third, was the friend and disciple of the

holy Bernard. It was in the proclamation of the second crusade

that he shone as the missionary and prophet of God, who called

the nations to the defence of his holy sepulchre. ^31 At the

parliament of Vezelay he spoke before the king; and Louis the

Seventh, with his nobles, received their crosses from his hand.

The abbot of Clairvaux then marched to the less easy conquest of

the emperor Conrad: ^* a phlegmatic people, ignorant of his

language, was transported by the pathetic vehemence of his tone

and gestures; and his progress, from Constance to Cologne, was

the triumph of eloquence and zeal. Bernard applauds his own

success in the depopulation of Europe; affirms that cities and

castles were emptied of their inhabitants; and computes, that

only one man was left behind for the consolation of seven widows.

^32 The blind fanatics were desirous of electing him for their

general; but the example of the hermit Peter was before his eyes;

and while he assured the crusaders of the divine favor, he

prudently declined a military command, in which failure and

victory would have been almost equally disgraceful to his

character. ^33 Yet, after the calamitous event, the abbot of

Clairvaux was loudly accused as a false prophet, the author of

the public and private mourning; his enemies exulted, his friends

blushed, and his apology was slow and unsatisfactory. He

justifies his obedience to the commands of the pope; expatiates

on the mysterious ways of Providence; imputes the misfortunes of

the pilgrims to their own sins; and modestly insinuates, that his

mission had been approved by signs and wonders. ^34 Had the fact

been certain, the argument would be decisive; and his faithful

disciples, who enumerate twenty or thirty miracles in a day,

appeal to the public assemblies of France and Germany, in which

they were performed. ^35 At the present hour, such prodigies will

not obtain credit beyond the precincts of Clairvaux; but in the

preternatural cures of the blind, the lame, and the sick, who

were presented to the man of God, it is impossible for us to

ascertain the separate shares of accident, of fancy, of

imposture, and of fiction.

[Footnote 28: The most authentic information of St. Bernard must

be drawn from his own writings, published in a correct edition by

Pere Mabillon, and reprinted at Venice, 1750, in six volumes in

folio. Whatever friendship could recollect, or superstition

could add, is contained in the two lives, by his disciples, in

the vith volume: whatever learning and criticism could ascertain,

may be found in the prefaces of the Benedictine editor]

[Footnote *: Gibbon, whose account of the crusades is perhaps the

least accurate and satisfactory chapter in his History, has here

failed in that lucid arrangement, which in general gives

perspicuity to his most condensed and crowded narratives. He has

unaccountably, and to the great perplexity of the reader, placed

the preaching of St Bernard after the second crusade to which i

led. - M.]

[Footnote 29: Clairvaux, surnamed the valley of Absynth, is

situate among the woods near Bar sur Aube in Champagne. St.

Bernard would blush at the pomp of the church and monastery; he

would ask for the library, and I know not whether he would be

much edified by a tun of 800 muids, (914 1-7 hogsheads,) which

almost rivals that of Heidelberg, (Melanges tires d'une Grande

Bibliotheque, tom. xlvi. p. 15 - 20.)]

[Footnote 30: The disciples of the saint (Vit. ima, l. iii. c. 2,

p. 1232. Vit. iida, c. 16, No. 45, p. 1383) record a marvellous

example of his pious apathy. Juxta lacum etiam Lausannensem

totius diei itinere pergens, penitus non attendit aut se videre

non vidit. Cum enim vespere facto de eodem lacu socii

colloquerentur, interrogabat eos ubi lacus ille esset, et mirati

sunt universi. To admire or despise St. Bernard as he ought, the

reader, like myself, should have before the windows of his

library the beauties of that incomparable landscape.]

[Footnote 31: Otho Frising. l. i. c. 4. Bernard. Epist. 363, ad

Francos Orientales Opp. tom. i. p. 328. Vit. ima, l. iii. c. 4,

tom. vi. p. 1235.]

[Footnote *: Bernard had a nobler object in his expedition into

Germany - to arrest the fierce and merciless persecution of the

Jews, which was preparing, under the monk Radulph, to renew the

frightful scenes which had preceded the first crusade, in the

flourishing cities on the banks of the Rhine. The Jews

acknowledge the Christian intervention of St. Bernard. See the

curious extract from the History of Joseph ben Meir. Wilken,

vol. iii. p. 1. and p. 63 - M]

[Footnote 32: Mandastis et obedivi . . . . multiplicati sunt

super numerum; vacuantur urbes et castella; et pene jam non

inveniunt quem apprehendant septem mulieres unum virum; adeo

ubique viduae vivis remanent viris. Bernard. Epist. p. 247. We

must be careful not to construe pene as a substantive.]

[Footnote 33: Quis ego sum ut disponam acies, ut egrediar ante

facies armatorum, aut quid tam remotum a professione mea, si

vires, si peritia, &c. Epist. 256, tom. i. p. 259. He speaks

with contempt of the hermit Peter, vir quidam, Epist. 363.]

[Footnote 34: Sic dicunt forsitan isti, unde scimus quod a Domino

sermo egressus sit? Quae signa tu facis ut credamus tibi? Non

est quod ad ista ipse respondeam; parcendum verecundiae meae,

responde tu pro me, et pro te ipso, secundum quae vidisti et

audisti, et secundum quod te inspiraverit Deus. Consolat. l. ii.

c. 1. Opp. tom. ii. p. 421 - 423.]

[Footnote 35: See the testimonies in Vita ima, l. iv. c. 5, 6.

Opp. tom. vi. p. 1258 - 1261, l. vi. c. 1 - 17, p. 1286 - 1314.]

Omnipotence itself cannot escape the murmurs of its

discordant votaries; since the same dispensation which was

applauded as a deliverance in Europe, was deplored, and perhaps

arraigned, as a calamity in Asia. After the loss of Jerusalem,

the Syrian fugitives diffused their consternation and sorrow;

Bagdad mourned in the dust; the cadhi Zeineddin of Damascus tore

his beard in the caliph's presence; and the whole divan shed

tears at his melancholy tale. ^36 But the commanders of the

faithful could only weep; they were themselves captives in the

hands of the Turks: some temporal power was restored to the last

age of the Abbassides; but their humble ambition was confined to

Bagdad and the adjacent province. Their tyrants, the Seljukian

sultans, had followed the common law of the Asiatic dynasties,

the unceasing round of valor, greatness, discord, degeneracy, and

decay; their spirit and power were unequal to the defence of

religion; and, in his distant realm of Persia, the Christians

were strangers to the name and the arms of Sangiar, the last hero

of his race. ^37 While the sultans were involved in the silken

web of the harem, the pious task was undertaken by their slaves,

the Atabeks, ^38 a Turkish name, which, like the Byzantine

patricians, may be translated by Father of the Prince. Ascansar,

a valiant Turk, had been the favorite of Malek Shaw, from whom he

received the privilege of standing on the right hand of the

throne; but, in the civil wars that ensued on the monarch's

death, he lost his head and the government of Aleppo. His

domestic emirs persevered in their attachment to his son Zenghi,

who proved his first arms against the Franks in the defeat of

Antioch: thirty campaigns in the service of the caliph and sultan

established his military fame; and he was invested with the

command of Mosul, as the only champion that could avenge the

cause of the prophet. The public hope was not disappointed: after

a siege of twenty-five days, he stormed the city of Edessa, and

recovered from the Franks their conquests beyond the Euphrates:

^39 the martial tribes of Curdistan were subdued by the

independent sovereign of Mosul and Aleppo: his soldiers were

taught to behold the camp as their only country; they trusted to

his liberality for their rewards; and their absent families were

protected by the vigilance of Zenghi. At the head of these

veterans, his son Noureddin gradually united the Mahometan

powers; ^* added the kingdom of Damascus to that of Aleppo, and

waged a long and successful war against the Christians of Syria;

he spread his ample reign from the Tigris to the Nile, and the

Abbassides rewarded their faithful servant with all the titles

and prerogatives of royalty. The Latins themselves were

compelled to own the wisdom and courage, and even the justice and

piety, of this implacable adversary. ^40 In his life and

government the holy warrior revived the zeal and simplicity of

the first caliphs. Gold and silk were banished from his palace;

the use of wine from his dominions; the public revenue was

scrupulously applied to the public service; and the frugal

household of Noureddin was maintained from his legitimate share

of the spoil which he vested in the purchase of a private estate.

His favorite sultana sighed for some female object of expense.

"Alas," replied the king, "I fear God, and am no more than the

treasurer of the Moslems. Their property I cannot alienate; but

I still possess three shops in the city of Hems: these you may

take; and these alone can I bestow." His chamber of justice was

the terror of the great and the refuge of the poor. Some years

after the sultan's death, an oppressed subject called aloud in

the streets of Damascus, "O Noureddin, Noureddin, where art thou

now? Arise, arise, to pity and protect us!" A tumult was

apprehended, and a living tyrant blushed or trembled at the name

of a departed monarch.

[Footnote 36: Abulmahasen apud de Guignes, Hist. des Huns, tom.

ii. p. ii. p. 99.]

[Footnote 37: See his article in the Bibliotheque Orientale of

D'Herbelot, and De Guignes, tom. ii. p. i. p. 230 - 261. Such

was his valor, that he was styled the second Alexander; and such

the extravagant love of his subjects, that they prayed for the

sultan a year after his decease. Yet Sangiar might have been

made prisoner by the Franks, as well as by the Uzes. He reigned

near fifty years, (A.D. 1103 - 1152,) and was a munificent patron

of Persian poetry.]

[Footnote 38: See the Chronology of the Atabeks of Irak and

Syria, in De Guignes, tom. i. p. 254; and the reigns of Zenghi

and Noureddin in the same writer, (tom. ii. p. ii. p. 147 - 221,)

who uses the Arabic text of Benelathir, Ben Schouna and Abulfeda;

the Bibliotheque Orientale, under the articles Atabeks and

Noureddin, and the Dynasties of Abulpharagius, p. 250 - 267,

vers. Pocock.]

[Footnote 39: William of Tyre (l. xvi. c. 4, 5, 7) describes the

loss of Edessa, and the death of Zenghi. The corruption of his

name into Sanguin, afforded the Latins a comfortable allusion to

his sanguinary character and end, fit sanguine sanguinolentus.]

[Footnote *: On Noureddin's conquest of Damascus, see extracts

from Arabian writers prefixed to the second part of the third

volume of Wilken. - M.]

[Footnote 40: Noradinus (says William of Tyre, l. xx. 33) maximus

nominis et fidei Christianae persecutor; princeps tamen justus,

vafer, providus' et secundum gentis suae traditiones religiosus.

To this Catholic witness we may add the primate of the Jacobites,

(Abulpharag. p. 267,) quo non alter erat inter reges vitae

ratione magis laudabili, aut quae pluribus justitiae experimentis

abundaret. The true praise of kings is after their death, and

from the mouth of their enemies.]

Chapter LIX: The Crusades.

Part II.

By the arms of the Turks and Franks, the Fatimites had been

deprived of Syria. In Egypt the decay of their character and

influence was still more essential. Yet they were still revered

as the descendants and successors of the prophet; they maintained

their invisible state in the palace of Cairo; and their person

was seldom violated by the profane eyes of subjects or strangers.

The Latin ambassadors ^41 have described their own introduction,

through a series of gloomy passages, and glittering porticos: the

scene was enlivened by the warbling of birds and the murmur of

fountains: it was enriched by a display of rich furniture and

rare animals; of the Imperial treasures, something was shown, and

much was supposed; and the long order of unfolding doors was

guarded by black soldiers and domestic eunuchs. The sanctuary of

the presence chamber was veiled with a curtain; and the vizier,

who conducted the ambassadors, laid aside the cimeter, and

prostrated himself three times on the ground; the veil was then

removed; and they beheld the commander of the faithful, who

signified his pleasure to the first slave of the throne. But

this slave was his master: the viziers or sultans had usurped the

supreme administration of Egypt; the claims of the rival

candidates were decided by arms; and the name of the most worthy,

of the strongest, was inserted in the royal patent of command.

The factions of Dargham and Shawer alternately expelled each

other from the capital and country; and the weaker side implored

the dangerous protection of the sultan of Damascus, or the king

of Jerusalem, the perpetual enemies of the sect and monarchy of

the Fatimites. By his arms and religion the Turk was most

formidable; but the Frank, in an easy, direct march, could

advance from Gaza to the Nile; while the intermediate situation

of his realm compelled the troops of Noureddin to wheel round the

skirts of Arabia, a long and painful circuit, which exposed them

to thirst, fatigue, and the burning winds of the desert. The

secret zeal and ambition of the Turkish prince aspired to reign

in Egypt under the name of the Abbassides; but the restoration of

the suppliant Shawer was the ostensible motive of the first

expedition; and the success was intrusted to the emir Shiracouh,

a valiant and veteran commander. Dargham was oppressed and slain;

but the ingratitude, the jealousy, the just apprehensions, of his

more fortunate rival, soon provoked him to invite the king of

Jerusalem to deliver Egypt from his insolent benefactors. To

this union the forces of Shiracouh were unequal: he relinquished

the premature conquest; and the evacuation of Belbeis or Pelusium

was the condition of his safe retreat. As the Turks defiled

before the enemy, and their general closed the rear, with a

vigilant eye, and a battle axe in his hand, a Frank presumed to

ask him if he were not afraid of an attack. "It is doubtless in

your power to begin the attack," replied the intrepid emir; "but

rest assured, that not one of my soldiers will go to paradise

till he has sent an infidel to hell." His report of the riches of

the land, the effeminacy of the natives, and the disorders of the

government, revived the hopes of Noureddin; the caliph of Bagdad

applauded the pious design; and Shiracouh descended into Egypt a

second time with twelve thousand Turks and eleven thousand Arabs.

Yet his forces were still inferior to the confederate armies of

the Franks and Saracens; and I can discern an unusual degree of

military art, in his passage of the Nile, his retreat into

Thebais, his masterly evolutions in the battle of Babain, the

surprise of Alexandria, and his marches and countermarches in the

flats and valley of Egypt, from the tropic to the sea. His

conduct was seconded by the courage of his troops, and on the eve

of action a Mamaluke ^42 exclaimed, "If we cannot wrest Egypt

from the Christian dogs, why do we not renounce the honors and

rewards of the sultan, and retire to labor with the peasants, or

to spin with the females of the harem?" Yet, after all his

efforts in the field, ^43 after the obstinate defence of

Alexandria ^44 by his nephew Saladin, an honorable capitulation

and retreat ^* concluded the second enterprise of Shiracouh; and

Noureddin reserved his abilities for a third and more propitious

occasion. It was soon offered by the ambition and avarice of

Amalric or Amaury, king of Jerusalem, who had imbibed the

pernicious maxim, that no faith should be kept with the enemies

of God. ^! A religious warrior, the great master of the hospital,

encouraged him to proceed; the emperor of Constantinople either

gave, or promised, a fleet to act with the armies of Syria; and

the perfidious Christian, unsatisfied with spoil and subsidy,

aspired to the conquest of Egypt. In this emergency, the Moslems

turned their eyes towards the sultan of Damascus; the vizier,

whom danger encompassed on all sides, yielded to their unanimous

wishes, and Noureddin seemed to be tempted by the fair offer of

one third of the revenue of the kingdom. The Franks were already

at the gates of Cairo; but the suburbs, the old city, were burnt

on their approach; they were deceived by an insidious

negotiation, and their vessels were unable to surmount the

barriers of the Nile. They prudently declined a contest with the

Turks in the midst of a hostile country; and Amaury retired into

Palestine with the shame and reproach that always adhere to

unsuccessful injustice. After this deliverance, Shiracouh was

invested with a robe of honor, which he soon stained with the

blood of the unfortunate Shawer. For a while, the Turkish emirs

condescended to hold the office of vizier; but this foreign

conquest precipitated the fall of the Fatimites themselves; and

the bloodless change was accomplished by a message and a word.

The caliphs had been degraded by their own weakness and the

tyranny of the viziers: their subjects blushed, when the

descendant and successor of the prophet presented his naked hand

to the rude gripe of a Latin ambassador; they wept when he sent

the hair of his women, a sad emblem of their grief and terror, to

excite the pity of the sultan of Damascus. By the command of

Noureddin, and the sentence of the doctors, the holy names of

Abubeker, Omar, and Othman, were solemnly restored: the caliph

Mosthadi, of Bagdad, was acknowledged in the public prayers as

the true commander of the faithful; and the green livery of the

sons of Ali was exchanged for the black color of the Abbassides.

The last of his race, the caliph Adhed, who survived only ten

days, expired in happy ignorance of his fate; his treasures

secured the loyalty of the soldiers, and silenced the murmurs of

the sectaries; and in all subsequent revolutions, Egypt has never

departed from the orthodox tradition of the Moslems. ^45

[Footnote 41: From the ambassador, William of Tyre (l. xix. c.

17, 18,) describes the palace of Cairo. In the caliph's treasure

were found a pearl as large as a pigeon's egg, a ruby weighing

seventeen Egyptian drams, an emerald a palm and a half in length,

and many vases of crystal and porcelain of China, (Renaudot, p.

536.)]

[Footnote 42: Mamluc, plur. Mamalic, is defined by Pocock,

(Prolegom. ad Abulpharag. p. 7,) and D'Herbelot, (p. 545,) servum

emptitium, seu qui pretio numerato in domini possessionem cedit.

They frequently occur in the wars of Saladin, (Bohadin, p. 236,

&c.;) and it was only the Bahartie Mamalukes that were first

introduced into Egypt by his descendants.]

[Footnote 43: Jacobus a Vitriaco (p. 1116) gives the king of

Jerusalem no more than 374 knights. Both the Franks and the

Moslems report the superior numbers of the enemy; a difference

which may be solved by counting or omitting the unwarlike

Egyptians.]

[Footnote 44: It was the Alexandria of the Arabs, a middle term

in extent and riches between the period of the Greeks and Romans,

and that of the Turks, (Savary, Lettres sur l'Egypte, tom. i. p.

25, 26.)]

[Footnote *: The treaty stipulated that both the Christians and

the Arabs should withdraw from Egypt. Wilken, vol. iii. part ii.

p. 113. - M.]

[Footnote !: The Knights Templars, abhorring the perfidious

breach of treaty partly, perhaps, out of jealousy of the

Hospitallers, refused to join in this enterprise. Will. Tyre c.

xx. p. 5. Wilken, vol. iii. part ii. p. 117 - M.]

[Footnote 45: For this great revolution of Egypt, see William of

Tyre, (l. xix. 5, 6, 7, 12 - 31, xx. 5 - 12,) Bohadin, (in Vit.

Saladin, p. 30 - 39,) Abulfeda, (in Excerpt. Schultens, p. 1 -

12,) D'Herbelot, (Bibliot. Orient. Adhed, Fathemah, but very

incorrect,) Renaudot, (Hist. Patriarch. Alex. p. 522 - 525, 532 -

537,) Vertot, (Hist. des Chevaliers de Malthe, tom. i. p. 141 -

163, in 4to.,) and M. de Guignes, (tom. ii. p. 185 - 215.)]

The hilly country beyond the Tigris is occupied by the

pastoral tribes of the Curds; ^46 a people hardy, strong, savage

impatient of the yoke, addicted to rapine, and tenacious of the

government of their national chiefs. The resemblance of name,

situation, and manners, seems to identify them with the

Carduchians of the Greeks; ^47 and they still defend against the

Ottoman Porte the antique freedom which they asserted against the

successors of Cyrus. Poverty and ambition prompted them to

embrace the profession of mercenary soldiers: the service of his

father and uncle prepared the reign of the great Saladin; ^48 and

the son of Job or Ayud, a simple Curd, magnanimously smiled at

his pedigree, which flattery deduced from the Arabian caliphs.

^49 So unconscious was Noureddin of the impending ruin of his

house, that he constrained the reluctant youth to follow his

uncle Shiracouh into Egypt: his military character was

established by the defence of Alexandria; and, if we may believe

the Latins, he solicited and obtained from the Christian general

the profane honors of knighthood. ^50 On the death of Shiracouh,

the office of grand vizier was bestowed on Saladin, as the

youngest and least powerful of the emirs; but with the advice of

his father, whom he invited to Cairo, his genius obtained the

ascendant over his equals, and attached the army to his person

and interest. While Noureddin lived, these ambitious Curds were

the most humble of his slaves; and the indiscreet murmurs of the

divan were silenced by the prudent Ayub, who loudly protested

that at the command of the sultan he himself would lead his sons

in chains to the foot of the throne. "Such language," he added in

private, "was prudent and proper in an assembly of your rivals;

but we are now above fear and obedience; and the threats of

Noureddin shall not extort the tribute of a sugar-cane." His

seasonable death relieved them from the odious and doubtful

conflict: his son, a minor of eleven years of age, was left for a

while to the emirs of Damascus; and the new lord of Egypt was

decorated by the caliph with every title ^51 that could sanctify

his usurpation in the eyes of the people. Nor was Saladin long

content with the possession of Egypt; he despoiled the Christians

of Jerusalem, and the Atabeks of Damascus, Aleppo, and Diarbekir:

Mecca and Medina acknowledged him for their temporal protector:

his brother subdued the distant regions of Yemen, or the happy

Arabia; and at the hour of his death, his empire was spread from

the African Tripoli to the Tigris, and from the Indian Ocean to

the mountains of Armenia. In the judgment of his character, the

reproaches of treason and ingratitude strike forcibly on our

minds, impressed, as they are, with the principle and experience

of law and loyalty. But his ambition may in some measure be

excused by the revolutions of Asia, ^52 which had erased every

notion of legitimate succession; by the recent example of the

Atabeks themselves; by his reverence to the son of his

benefactor; his humane and generous behavior to the collateral

branches; by their incapacity and his merit; by the approbation

of the caliph, the sole source of all legitimate power; and,

above all, by the wishes and interest of the people, whose

happiness is the first object of government. In his virtues, and

in those of his patron, they admired the singular union of the

hero and the saint; for both Noureddin and Saladin are ranked

among the Mahometan saints; and the constant meditation of the

holy war appears to have shed a serious and sober color over

their lives and actions. The youth of the latter ^53 was

addicted to wine and women: but his aspiring spirit soon

renounced the temptations of pleasure for the graver follies of

fame and dominion: the garment of Saladin was of coarse woollen;

water was his only drink; and, while he emulated the temperance,

he surpassed the chastity, of his Arabian prophet. Both in faith

and practice he was a rigid Mussulman: he ever deplored that the

defence of religion had not allowed him to accomplish the

pilgrimage of Mecca; but at the stated hours, five times each

day, the sultan devoutly prayed with his brethren: the

involuntary omission of fasting was scrupulously repaid; and his

perusal of the Koran, on horseback between the approaching

armies, may be quoted as a proof, however ostentatious, of piety

and courage. ^54 The superstitious doctrine of the sect of Shafei

was the only study that he deigned to encourage: the poets were

safe in his contempt; but all profane science was the object of

his aversion; and a philosopher, who had invented some

speculative novelties, was seized and strangled by the command of

the royal saint. The justice of his divan was accessible to the

meanest suppliant against himself and his ministers; and it was

only for a kingdom that Saladin would deviate from the rule of

equity. While the descendants of Seljuk and Zenghi held his

stirrup and smoothed his garments, he was affable and patient

with the meanest of his servants. So boundless was his

liberality, that he distributed twelve thousand horses at the

siege of Acre; and, at the time of his death, no more than

forty-seven drams of silver and one piece of gold coin were found

in the treasury; yet, in a martial reign, the tributes were

diminished, and the wealthy citizens enjoyed, without fear or

danger, the fruits of their industry. Egypt, Syria, and Arabia,

were adorned by the royal foundations of hospitals, colleges, and

mosques; and Cairo was fortified with a wall and citadel; but his

works were consecrated to public use: ^55 nor did the sultan

indulge himself in a garden or palace of private luxury. In a

fanatic age, himself a fanatic, the genuine virtues of Saladin

commanded the esteem of the Christians; the emperor of Germany

gloried in his friendship; ^56 the Greek emperor solicited his

alliance; ^57 and the conquest of Jerusalem diffused, and perhaps

magnified, his fame both in the East and West.

[Footnote 46: For the Curds, see De Guignes, tom. ii. p. 416,

417, the Index Geographicus of Schultens and Tavernier, Voyages,

p. i. p. 308, 309. The Ayoubites descended from the tribe of the

Rawadiaei, one of the noblest; but as they were infected with the

heresy of the Metempsychosis, the orthodox sultans insinuated

that their descent was only on the mother's side, and that their

ancestor was a stranger who settled among the Curds.]

[Footnote 47: See the ivth book of the Anabasis of Xenophon. The

ten thousand suffered more from the arrows of the free

Carduchians, than from the splendid weakness of the great king.]

[Footnote 48: We are indebted to the professor Schultens (Lugd.

Bat, 1755, in folio) for the richest and most authentic

materials, a life of Saladin by his friend and minister the Cadhi

Bohadin, and copious extracts from the history of his kinsman the

prince Abulfeda of Hamah. To these we may add, the article of

Salaheddin in the Bibliotheque Orientale, and all that may be

gleaned from the Dynasties of Abulpharagius.]

[Footnote 49: Since Abulfeda was himself an Ayoubite, he may

share the praise, for imitating, at least tacitly, the modesty of

the founder.]

[Footnote 50: Hist. Hierosol. in the Gesta Dei per Francos, p.

1152. A similar example may be found in Joinville, (p. 42,

edition du Louvre;) but the pious St. Louis refused to dignify

infidels with the order of Christian knighthood, (Ducange,

Observations, p 70.)]

[Footnote 51: In these Arabic titles, religionis must always be

understood; Noureddin, lumen r.; Ezzodin, decus; Amadoddin,

columen: our hero's proper name was Joseph, and he was styled

Salahoddin, salus; Al Malichus, Al Nasirus, rex defensor; Abu

Modaffer, pater victoriae, Schultens, Praefat.]

[Footnote 52: Abulfeda, who descended from a brother of Saladin,

observes, from many examples, that the founders of dynasties took

the guilt for themselves, and left the reward to their innocent

collaterals, (Excerpt p. 10.)]

[Footnote 53: See his life and character in Renaudot, p. 537 -

548.]

[Footnote 54: His civil and religious virtues are celebrated in

the first chapter of Bohadin, (p. 4 - 30,) himself an

eye-witness, and an honest bigot.]

[Footnote 55: In many works, particularly Joseph's well in the

castle of Cairo, the Sultan and the Patriarch have been

confounded by the ignorance of natives and travellers.]

[Footnote 56: Anonym. Canisii, tom. iii. p. ii. p. 504.]

[Footnote 57: Bohadin, p. 129, 130.]

During his short existence, the kingdom of Jerusalem ^58 was

supported by the discord of the Turks and Saracens; and both the

Fatimite caliphs and the sultans of Damascus were tempted to

sacrifice the cause of their religion to the meaner

considerations of private and present advantage. But the powers

of Egypt, Syria, and Arabia, were now united by a hero, whom

nature and fortune had armed against the Christians. All without

now bore the most threatening aspect; and all was feeble and

hollow in the internal state of Jerusalem. After the two first

Baldwins, the brother and cousin of Godfrey of Bouillon, the

sceptre devolved by female succession to Melisenda, daughter of

the second Baldwin, and her husband Fulk, count of Anjou, the

father, by a former marriage, of our English Plantagenets. Their

two sons, Baldwin the Third, and Amaury, waged a strenuous, and

not unsuccessful, war against the infidels; but the son of

Amaury, Baldwin the Fourth, was deprived, by the leprosy, a gift

of the crusades, of the faculties both of mind and body. His

sister Sybilla, the mother of Baldwin the Fifth, was his natural

heiress: after the suspicious death of her child, she crowned her

second husband, Guy of Lusignan, a prince of a handsome person,

but of such base renown, that his own brother Jeffrey was heard

to exclaim, "Since they have made him a king, surely they would

have made me a god!" The choice was generally blamed; and the

most powerful vassal, Raymond count of Tripoli, who had been

excluded from the succession and regency, entertained an

implacable hatred against the king, and exposed his honor and

conscience to the temptations of the sultan. Such were the

guardians of the holy city; a leper, a child, a woman, a coward,

and a traitor: yet its fate was delayed twelve years by some

supplies from Europe, by the valor of the military orders, and by

the distant or domestic avocations of their great enemy. At

length, on every side, the sinking state was encircled and

pressed by a hostile line: and the truce was violated by the

Franks, whose existence it protected. A soldier of fortune,

Reginald of Chatillon, had seized a fortress on the edge of the

desert, from whence he pillaged the caravans, insulted Mahomet,

and threatened the cities of Mecca and Medina. Saladin

condescended to complain; rejoiced in the denial of justice, and

at the head of fourscore thousand horse and foot invaded the Holy

Land. The choice of Tiberias for his first siege was suggested

by the count of Tripoli, to whom it belonged; and the king of

Jerusalem was persuaded to drain his garrison, and to arm his

people, for the relief of that important place. ^59 By the advice

of the perfidious Raymond, the Christians were betrayed into a

camp destitute of water: he fled on the first onset, with the

curses of both nations: ^60 Lusignan was overthrown, with the

loss of thirty thousand men; and the wood of the true cross (a

dire misfortune!) was left in the power of the infidels. ^* The

royal captive was conducted to the tent of Saladin; and as he

fainted with thirst and terror, the generous victor presented him

with a cup of sherbet, cooled in snow, without suffering his

companion, Reginald of Chatillon, to partake of this pledge of

hospitality and pardon. "The person and dignity of a king," said

the sultan, "are sacred, but this impious robber must instantly

acknowledge the prophet, whom he has blasphemed, or meet the

death which he has so often deserved." On the proud or

conscientious refusal of the Christian warrior, Saladin struck

him on the head with his cimeter, and Reginald was despatched by

the guards. ^61 The trembling Lusignan was sent to Damascus, to

an honorable prison and speedy ransom; but the victory was

stained by the execution of two hundred and thirty knights of the

hospital, the intrepid champions and martyrs of their faith. The

kingdom was left without a head; and of the two grand masters of

the military orders, the one was slain and the other was a

prisoner. From all the cities, both of the sea-coast and the

inland country, the garrisons had been drawn away for this fatal

field: Tyre and Tripoli alone could escape the rapid inroad of

Saladin; and three months after the battle of Tiberias, he

appeared in arms before the gates of Jerusalem. ^62

[Footnote 58: For the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem, see William of

Tyre, from the ixth to the xxiid book. Jacob a Vitriaco, Hist.

Hierosolem l i., and Sanutus Secreta Fidelium Crucis, l. iii. p.

vi. vii. viii. ix.]

[Footnote 59: Templarii ut apes bombabant et Hospitalarii ut

venti stridebant, et barones se exitio offerebant, et Turcopuli

(the Christian light troops) semet ipsi in ignem injiciebant,

(Ispahani de Expugnatione Kudsitica, p. 18, apud Schultens;) a

specimen of Arabian eloquence, somewhat different from the style

of Xenophon!]

[Footnote 60: The Latins affirm, the Arabians insinuate, the

treason of Raymond; but had he really embraced their religion, he

would have been a saint and a hero in the eyes of the latter.]

[Footnote *: Raymond's advice would have prevented the

abandonment of a secure camp abounding with water near Sepphoris.

The rash and insolent valor of the master of the order of Knights

Templars, which had before exposed the Christians to a fatal

defeat at the brook Kishon, forced the feeble king to annul the

determination of a council of war, and advance to a camp in an

enclosed valley among the mountains, near Hittin, without water.

Raymond did not fly till the battle was irretrievably lost, and

then the Saracens seem to have opened their ranks to allow him

free passage. The charge of suggesting the siege of Tiberias

appears ungrounded Raymond, no doubt, played a double part: he

was a man of strong sagacity, who foresaw the desperate nature of

the contest with Saladin, endeavored by every means to maintain

the treaty, and, though he joined both his arms and his still

more valuable counsels to the Christian army, yet kept up a kind

of amicable correspondence with the Mahometans. See Wilken, vol.

iii. part ii. p. 276, et seq. Michaud, vol. ii. p. 278, et seq.

M. Michaud is still more friendly than Wilken to the memory of

Count Raymond, who died suddenly, shortly after the battle of

Hittin. He quotes a letter written in the name of Saladin by the

caliph Alfdel, to show that Raymond was considered by the

Mahometans their most dangerous and detested enemy. "No person

of distinction among the Christians escaped, except the count,

(of Tripoli) whom God curse. God made him die shortly

afterwards, and sent him from the kingdom of death to hell." -

M.]

[Footnote 61: Benaud, Reginald, or Arnold de Chatillon, is

celebrated by the Latins in his life and death; but the

circumstances of the latter are more distinctly related by

Bohadin and Abulfeda; and Joinville (Hist. de St. Louis, p. 70)

alludes to the practice of Saladin, of never putting to death a

prisoner who had tasted his bread and salt. Some of the

companions of Arnold had been slaughtered, and almost sacrificed,

in a valley of Mecca, ubi sacrificia mactantur, (Abulfeda, p.

32.)]

[Footnote 62: Vertot, who well describes the loss of the kingdom

and city (Hist. des Chevaliers de Malthe, tom. i. l. ii. p. 226 -

278,) inserts two original epistles of a Knight Templar.]

He might expect that the siege of a city so venerable on

earth and in heaven, so interesting to Europe and Asia, would

rekindle the last sparks of enthusiasm; and that, of sixty

thousand Christians, every man would be a soldier, and every

soldier a candidate for martyrdom. But Queen Sybilla trembled

for herself and her captive husband; and the barons and knights,

who had escaped from the sword and chains of the Turks, displayed

the same factious and selfish spirit in the public ruin. The

most numerous portion of the inhabitants was composed of the

Greek and Oriental Christians, whom experience had taught to

prefer the Mahometan before the Latin yoke; ^63 and the holy

sepulchre attracted a base and needy crowd, without arms or

courage, who subsisted only on the charity of the pilgrims. Some

feeble and hasty efforts were made for the defence of Jerusalem:

but in the space of fourteen days, a victorious army drove back

the sallies of the besieged, planted their engines, opened the

wall to the breadth of fifteen cubits, applied their

scaling-ladders, and erected on the breach twelve banners of the

prophet and the sultan. It was in vain that a barefoot

procession of the queen, the women, and the monks, implored the

Son of God to save his tomb and his inheritance from impious

violation. Their sole hope was in the mercy of the conqueror,

and to their first suppliant deputation that mercy was sternly

denied. "He had sworn to avenge the patience and long-suffering

of the Moslems; the hour of forgiveness was elapsed, and the

moment was now arrived to expiate, in blood, the innocent blood

which had been spilt by Godfrey and the first crusaders." But a

desperate and successful struggle of the Franks admonished the

sultan that his triumph was not yet secure; he listened with

reverence to a solemn adjuration in the name of the common Father

of mankind; and a sentiment of human sympathy mollified the rigor

of fanaticism and conquest. He consented to accept the city, and

to spare the inhabitants. The Greek and Oriental Christians were

permitted to live under his dominion, but it was stipulated, that

in forty days all the Franks and Latins should evacuate

Jerusalem, and be safely conducted to the seaports of Syria and

Egypt; that ten pieces of gold should be paid for each man, five

for each woman, and one for every child; and that those who were

unable to purchase their freedom should be detained in perpetual

slavery. Of some writers it is a favorite and invidious theme to

compare the humanity of Saladin with the massacre of the first

crusade. The difference would be merely personal; but we should

not forget that the Christians had offered to capitulate, and

that the Mahometans of Jerusalem sustained the last extremities

of an assault and storm. Justice is indeed due to the fidelity

with which the Turkish conqueror fulfilled the conditions of the

treaty; and he may be deservedly praised for the glance of pity

which he cast on the misery of the vanquished. Instead of a

rigorous exaction of his debt, he accepted a sum of thirty

thousand byzants, for the ransom of seven thousand poor; two or

three thousand more were dismissed by his gratuitous clemency;

and the number of slaves was reduced to eleven or fourteen

thousand persons. In this interview with the queen, his words,

and even his tears suggested the kindest consolations; his

liberal alms were distributed among those who had been made

orphans or widows by the fortune of war; and while the knights of

the hospital were in arms against him, he allowed their more

pious brethren to continue, during the term of a year, the care

and service of the sick. In these acts of mercy the virtue of

Saladin deserves our admiration and love: he was above the

necessity of dissimulation, and his stern fanaticism would have

prompted him to dissemble, rather than to affect, this profane

compassion for the enemies of the Koran. After Jerusalem had been

delivered from the presence of the strangers, the sultan made his

triumphal entry, his banners waving in the wind, and to the

harmony of martial music. The great mosque of Omar, which had

been converted into a church, was again consecrated to one God

and his prophet Mahomet: the walls and pavement were purified

with rose-water; and a pulpit, the labor of Noureddin, was

erected in the sanctuary. But when the golden cross that

glittered on the dome was cast down, and dragged through the

streets, the Christians of every sect uttered a lamentable groan,

which was answered by the joyful shouts of the Moslems. In four

ivory chests the patriarch had collected the crosses, the images,

the vases, and the relics of the holy place; they were seized by

the conqueror, who was desirous of presenting the caliph with the

trophies of Christian idolatry. He was persuaded, however, to

intrust them to the patriarch and prince of Antioch; and the

pious pledge was redeemed by Richard of England, at the expense

of fifty-two thousand byzants of gold. ^64

[Footnote 63: Renaudot, Hist. Patriarch. Alex. p. 545.]

[Footnote 64: For the conquest of Jerusalem, Bohadin (p. 67 - 75)

and Abulfeda (p. 40 - 43) are our Moslem witnesses. Of the

Christian, Bernard Thesaurarius (c. 151 - 167) is the most

copious and authentic; see likewise Matthew Paris, (p. 120 -

124.)]

The nations might fear and hope the immediate and final

expulsion of the Latins from Syria; which was yet delayed above a

century after the death of Saladin. ^65 In the career of victory,

he was first checked by the resistance of Tyre; the troops and

garrisons, which had capitulated, were imprudently conducted to

the same port: their numbers were adequate to the defence of the

place; and the arrival of Conrad of Montferrat inspired the

disorderly crowd with confidence and union. His father, a

venerable pilgrim, had been made prisoner in the battle of

Tiberias; but that disaster was unknown in Italy and Greece, when

the son was urged by ambition and piety to visit the inheritance

of his royal nephew, the infant Baldwin. The view of the Turkish

banners warned him from the hostile coast of Jaffa; and Conrad

was unanimously hailed as the prince and champion of Tyre, which

was already besieged by the conqueror of Jerusalem. The firmness

of his zeal, and perhaps his knowledge of a generous foe, enabled

him to brave the threats of the sultan, and to declare, that

should his aged parent be exposed before the walls, he himself

would discharge the first arrow, and glory in his descent from a

Christian martyr. ^66 The Egyptian fleet was allowed to enter the

harbor of Tyre; but the chain was suddenly drawn, and five

galleys were either sunk or taken: a thousand Turks were slain in

a sally; and Saladin, after burning his engines, concluded a

glorious campaign by a disgraceful retreat to Damascus. He was

soon assailed by a more formidable tempest. The pathetic

narratives, and even the pictures, that represented in lively

colors the servitude and profanation of Jerusalem, awakened the

torpid sensibility of Europe: the emperor Frederic Barbarossa,

and the kings of France and England, assumed the cross; and the

tardy magnitude of their armaments was anticipated by the

maritime states of the Mediterranean and the Ocean. The skilful

and provident Italians first embarked in the ships of Genoa,

Pisa, and Venice. They were speedily followed by the most eager

pilgrims of France, Normandy, and the Western Isles. The

powerful succor of Flanders, Frise, and Denmark, filled near a

hundred vessels: and the Northern warriors were distinguished in

the field by a lofty stature and a ponderous battle- axe. ^67

Their increasing multitudes could no longer be confined within

the walls of Tyre, or remain obedient to the voice of Conrad.

They pitied the misfortunes, and revered the dignity, of

Lusignan, who was released from prison, perhaps, to divide the

army of the Franks. He proposed the recovery of Ptolemais, or

Acre, thirty miles to the south of Tyre; and the place was first

invested by two thousand horse and thirty thousand foot under his

nominal command. I shall not expatiate on the story of this

memorable siege; which lasted near two years, and consumed, in a

narrow space, the forces of Europe and Asia. Never did the flame

of enthusiasm burn with fiercer and more destructive rage; nor

could the true believers, a common appellation, who consecrated

their own martyrs, refuse some applause to the mistaken zeal and

courage of their adversaries. At the sound of the holy trumpet,

the Moslems of Egypt, Syria, Arabia, and the Oriental provinces,

assembled under the servant of the prophet: ^68 his camp was

pitched and removed within a few miles of Acre; and he labored,

night and day, for the relief of his brethren and the annoyance

of the Franks. Nine battles, not unworthy of the name, were

fought in the neighborhood of Mount Carmel, with such vicissitude

of fortune, that in one attack, the sultan forced his way into

the city; that in one sally, the Christians penetrated to the

royal tent. By the means of divers and pigeons, a regular

correspondence was maintained with the besieged; and, as often as

the sea was left open, the exhausted garrison was withdrawn, and

a fresh supply was poured into the place. The Latin camp was

thinned by famine, the sword and the climate; but the tents of

the dead were replenished with new pilgrims, who exaggerated the

strength and speed of their approaching countrymen. The vulgar

was astonished by the report, that the pope himself, with an

innumerable crusade, was advanced as far as Constantinople. The

march of the emperor filled the East with more serious alarms:

the obstacles which he encountered in Asia, and perhaps in

Greece, were raised by the policy of Saladin: his joy on the

death of Barbarossa was measured by his esteem; and the

Christians were rather dismayed than encouraged at the sight of

the duke of Swabia and his way-worn remnant of five thousand

Germans. At length, in the spring of the second year, the royal

fleets of France and England cast anchor in the Bay of Acre, and

the siege was more vigorously prosecuted by the youthful

emulation of the two kings, Philip Augustus and Richard

Plantagenet. After every resource had been tried, and every hope

was exhausted, the defenders of Acre submitted to their fate; a

capitulation was granted, but their lives and liberties were

taxed at the hard conditions of a ransom of two hundred thousand

pieces of gold, the deliverance of one hundred nobles, and

fifteen hundred inferior captives, and the restoration of the

wood of the holy cross. Some doubts in the agreement, and some

delay in the execution, rekindled the fury of the Franks, and

three thousand Moslems, almost in the sultan's view, were

beheaded by the command of the sanguinary Richard. ^69 By the

conquest of Acre, the Latin powers acquired a strong town and a

convenient harbor; but the advantage was most dearly purchased.

The minister and historian of Saladin computes, from the report

of the enemy, that their numbers, at different periods, amounted

to five or six hundred thousand; that more than one hundred

thousand Christians were slain; that a far greater number was

lost by disease or shipwreck; and that a small portion of this

mighty host could return in safety to their native countries. ^70

[Footnote 65: The sieges of Tyre and Acre are most copiously

described by Bernard Thesaurarius, (de Acquisitione Terrae

Sanctae, c. 167 - 179,) the author of the Historia

Hierosolymitana, (p. 1150 - 1172, in Bongarnius,) Abulfeda, (p.

43 - 50,) and Bohadin, (p. 75 - 179.)]

[Footnote 66: I have followed a moderate and probable

representation of the fact; by Vertot, who adopts without

reluctance a romantic tale the old marquis is actually exposed to

the darts of the besieged.]

[Footnote 67: Northmanni et Gothi, et caeteri populi insularum

quae inter occidentem et septentrionem sitae sunt, gentes

bellicosae, corporis proceri mortis intrepidae, bipenbibus

armatae, navibus rotundis, quae Ysnachiae dicuntur, advectae.]

[Footnote 68: The historian of Jerusalem (p. 1108) adds the

nations of the East from the Tigris to India, and the swarthy

tribes of Moors and Getulians, so that Asia and Africa fought

against Europe.]

[Footnote 69: Bohadin, p. 180; and this massacre is neither

denied nor blamed by the Christian historians. Alacriter jussa

complentes, (the English soldiers,) says Galfridus a Vinesauf,

(l. iv. c. 4, p. 346,) who fixes at 2700 the number of victims;

who are multiplied to 5000 by Roger Hoveden, (p. 697, 698.) The

humanity or avarice of Philip Augustus was persuaded to ransom

his prisoners, (Jacob a Vitriaco, l. i. c. 98, p. 1122.)]

[Footnote 70: Bohadin, p. 14. He quotes the judgment of

Balianus, and the prince of Sidon, and adds, ex illo mundo quasi

hominum paucissimi redierunt. Among the Christians who died

before St. John d'Acre, I find the English names of De Ferrers

earl of Derby, (Dugdale, Baronage, part i. p. 260,) Mowbray,

(idem, p. 124,) De Mandevil, De Fiennes, St. John, Scrope, Bigot,

Talbot, &c.]

Chapter LIX: The Crusades.

Part III.

Philip Augustus, and Richard the First, are the only kings

of France and England who have fought under the same banners; but

the holy service in which they were enlisted was incessantly

disturbed by their national jealousy; and the two factions, which

they protected in Palestine, were more averse to each other than

to the common enemy. In the eyes of the Orientals; the French

monarch was superior in dignity and power; and, in the emperor's

absence, the Latins revered him as their temporal chief. ^71 His

exploits were not adequate to his fame. Philip was brave, but

the statesman predominated in his character; he was soon weary of

sacrificing his health and interest on a barren coast: the

surrender of Acre became the signal of his departure; nor could

he justify this unpopular desertion, by leaving the duke of

Burgundy with five hundred knights and ten thousand foot, for the

service of the Holy Land. The king of England, though inferior

in dignity, surpassed his rival in wealth and military renown;

^72 and if heroism be confined to brutal and ferocious valor,

Richard Plantagenet will stand high among the heroes of the age.

The memory of Coeur de Lion, of the lion-hearted prince, was long

dear and glorious to his English subjects; and, at the distance

of sixty years, it was celebrated in proverbial sayings by the

grandsons of the Turks and Saracens, against whom he had fought:

his tremendous name was employed by the Syrian mothers to silence

their infants; and if a horse suddenly started from the way, his

rider was wont to exclaim, "Dost thou think King Richard is in

that bush?" ^73 His cruelty to the Mahometans was the effect of

temper and zeal; but I cannot believe that a soldier, so free and

fearless in the use of his lance, would have descended to whet a

dagger against his valiant brother Conrad of Montferrat, who was

slain at Tyre by some secret assassins. ^74 After the surrender

of Acre, and the departure of Philip, the king of England led the

crusaders to the recovery of the sea-coast; and the cities of

Caesarea and Jaffa were added to the fragments of the kingdom of

Lusignan. A march of one hundred miles from Acre to Ascalon was a

great and perpetual battle of eleven days. In the disorder of

his troops, Saladin remained on the field with seventeen guards,

without lowering his standard, or suspending the sound of his

brazen kettle-drum: he again rallied and renewed the charge; and

his preachers or heralds called aloud on the unitarians, manfully

to stand up against the Christian idolaters. But the progress of

these idolaters was irresistible; and it was only by demolishing

the walls and buildings of Ascalon, that the sultan could prevent

them from occupying an important fortress on the confines of

Egypt. During a severe winter, the armies slept; but in the

spring, the Franks advanced within a day's march of Jerusalem,

under the leading standard of the English king; and his active

spirit intercepted a convoy, or caravan, of seven thousand

camels. Saladin ^75 had fixed his station in the holy city; but

the city was struck with consternation and discord: he fasted; he

prayed; he preached; he offered to share the dangers of the

siege; but his Mamalukes, who remembered the fate of their

companions at Acre, pressed the sultan with loyal or seditious

clamors, to reserve his person and their courage for the future

defence of the religion and empire. ^76 The Moslems were

delivered by the sudden, or, as they deemed, the miraculous,

retreat of the Christians; ^77 and the laurels of Richard were

blasted by the prudence, or envy, of his companions. The hero,

ascending a hill, and veiling his face, exclaimed with an

indignant voice, "Those who are unwilling to rescue, are unworthy

to view, the sepulchre of Christ!" After his return to Acre, on

the news that Jaffa was surprised by the sultan, he sailed with

some merchant vessels, and leaped foremost on the beach: the

castle was relieved by his presence; and sixty thousand Turks and

Saracens fled before his arms. The discovery of his weakness,

provoked them to return in the morning; and they found him

carelessly encamped before the gates with only seventeen knights

and three hundred archers. Without counting their numbers, he

sustained their charge; and we learn from the evidence of his

enemies, that the king of England, grasping his lance, rode

furiously along their front, from the right to the left wing,

without meeting an adversary who dared to encounter his career.

^78 Am I writing the history of Orlando or Amadis?

[Footnote 71: Magnus hic apud eos, interque reges eorum tum

virtute tum majestate eminens . . . . summus rerum arbiter,

(Bohadin, p. 159.) He does not seem to have known the names

either of Philip or Richard.]

[Footnote 72: Rex Angliae, praestrenuus . . . . rege Gallorum

minor apud eos censebatur ratione regni atque dignitatis; sed tum

divitiis florentior, tum bellica virtute multo erat celebrior,

(Bohadin, p. 161.) A stranger might admire those riches; the

national historians will tell with what lawless and wasteful

oppression they were collected.]

[Footnote 73: Joinville, p. 17. Cuides-tu que ce soit le roi

Richart?]

[Footnote 74: Yet he was guilty in the opinion of the Moslems,

who attest the confession of the assassins, that they were sent

by the king of England, (Bohadin, p. 225;) and his only defence

is an absurd and palpable forgery, (Hist. de l'Academie des

Inscriptions, tom. xv. p. 155 - 163,) a pretended letter from the

prince of the assassins, the Sheich, or old man of the mountain,

who justified Richard, by assuming to himself the guilt or merit

of the murder.

Note: Von Hammer (Geschichte der Assassinen, p. 202) sums up

against Richard, Wilken (vol. iv. p. 485) as strongly for

acquittal. Michaud (vol. ii. p. 420) delivers no decided

opinion. This crime was also attributed to Saladin, who is said,

by an Oriental authority, (the continuator of Tabari,) to have

employed the assassins to murder both Conrad and Richard. It is a

melancholy admission, but it must be acknowledged, that such an

act would be less inconsistent with the character of the

Christian than of the Mahometan king. - M.]

[Footnote 75: See the distress and pious firmness of Saladin, as

they are described by Bohadin, (p. 7 - 9, 235 - 237,) who himself

harangued the defenders of Jerusalem; their fears were not

unknown to the enemy, (Jacob. a Vitriaco, l. i. c. 100, p. 1123.

Vinisauf, l. v. c. 50, p. 399.)]

[Footnote 76: Yet unless the sultan, or an Ayoubite prince,

remained in Jerusalem, nec Curdi Turcis, nec Turci essent

obtemperaturi Curdis, (Bohadin, p. 236.) He draws aside a corner

of the political curtain.]

[Footnote 77: Bohadin, (p. 237,) and even Jeffrey de Vinisauf,

(l. vi. c. 1 - 8, p. 403 - 409,) ascribe the retreat to Richard

himself; and Jacobus a Vitriaco observes, that in his impatience

to depart, in alterum virum muta tus est, (p. 1123.) Yet

Joinville, a French knight, accuses the envy of Hugh duke of

Burgundy, (p. 116,) without supposing, like Matthew Paris, that

he was bribed by Saladin.]

[Footnote 78: The expeditions to Ascalon, Jerusalem, and Jaffa,

are related by Bohadin (p. 184 - 249) and Abulfeda, (p. 51, 52.)

The author of the Itinerary, or the monk of St. Alban's, cannot

exaggerate the cadhi's account of the prowess of Richard,

(Vinisauf, l. vi. c. 14 - 24, p. 412 - 421. Hist. Major, p. 137

- 143;) and on the whole of this war there is a marvellous

agreement between the Christian and Mahometan writers, who

mutually praise the virtues of their enemies.]

During these hostilities, a languid and tedious negotiation

^79 between the Franks and Moslems was started, and continued,

and broken, and again resumed, and again broken. Some acts of

royal courtesy, the gift of snow and fruit, the exchange of

Norway hawks and Arabian horses, softened the asperity of

religious war: from the vicissitude of success, the monarchs

might learn to suspect that Heaven was neutral in the quarrel;

nor, after the trial of each other, could either hope for a

decisive victory. ^80 The health both of Richard and Saladin

appeared to be in a declining state; and they respectively

suffered the evils of distant and domestic warfare: Plantagenet

was impatient to punish a perfidious rival who had invaded

Normandy in his absence; and the indefatigable sultan was subdued

by the cries of the people, who was the victim, and of the

soldiers, who were the instruments, of his martial zeal. The

first demands of the king of England were the restitution of

Jerusalem, Palestine, and the true cross; and he firmly declared,

that himself and his brother pilgrims would end their lives in

the pious labor, rather than return to Europe with ignominy and

remorse. But the conscience of Saladin refused, without some

weighty compensation, to restore the idols, or promote the

idolatry, of the Christians; he asserted, with equal firmness,

his religious and civil claim to the sovereignty of Palestine;

descanted on the importance and sanctity of Jerusalem; and

rejected all terms of the establishment, or partition of the

Latins. The marriage which Richard proposed, of his sister with

the sultan's brother, was defeated by the difference of faith;

the princess abhorred the embraces of a Turk; and Adel, or

Saphadin, would not easily renounce a plurality of wives. A

personal interview was declined by Saladin, who alleged their

mutual ignorance of each other's language; and the negotiation

was managed with much art and delay by their interpreters and

envoys. The final agreement was equally disapproved by the

zealots of both parties, by the Roman pontiff and the caliph of

Bagdad. It was stipulated that Jerusalem and the holy sepulchre

should be open, without tribute or vexation, to the pilgrimage of

the Latin Christians; that, after the demolition of Ascalon, they

should inclusively possess the sea-coast from Jaffa to Tyre; that

the count of Tripoli and the prince of Antioch should be

comprised in the truce; and that, during three years and three

months, all hostilities should cease. The principal chiefs of

the two armies swore to the observance of the treaty; but the

monarchs were satisfied with giving their word and their right

hand; and the royal majesty was excused from an oath, which

always implies some suspicion of falsehood and dishonor. Richard

embarked for Europe, to seek a long captivity and a premature

grave; and the space of a few months concluded the life and

glories of Saladin. The Orientals describe his edifying death,

which happened at Damascus; but they seem ignorant of the equal

distribution of his alms among the three religions, ^81 or of the

display of a shroud, instead of a standard, to admonish the East

of the instability of human greatness. The unity of empire was

dissolved by his death; his sons were oppressed by the stronger

arm of their uncle Saphadin; the hostile interests of the sultans

of Egypt, Damascus, and Aleppo, ^82 were again revived; and the

Franks or Latins stood and breathed, and hoped, in their

fortresses along the Syrian coast.

[Footnote 79: See the progress of negotiation and hostility in

Bohadin, (p. 207 - 260,) who was himself an actor in the treaty.

Richard declared his intention of returning with new armies to

the conquest of the Holy Land; and Saladin answered the menace

with a civil compliment, (Vinisauf l. vi. c. 28, p. 423.)]

[Footnote 80: The most copious and original account of this holy

war is Galfridi a Vinisauf, Itinerarium Regis Anglorum Richardi

et aliorum in Terram Hierosolymorum, in six books, published in

the iid volume of Gale's Scriptores Hist. Anglicanae, (p. 247 -

429.) Roger Hoveden and Matthew Paris afford likewise many

valuable materials; and the former describes, with accuracy, the

discipline and navigation of the English fleet.]

[Footnote 81: Even Vertot (tom. i. p. 251) adopts the foolish

notion of the indifference of Saladin, who professed the Koran

with his last breath.]

[Footnote 82: See the succession of the Ayoubites, in

Abulpharagius, (Dynast. p. 277, &c.,) and the tables of M. De

Guignes, l'Art de Verifier les Dates, and the Bibliotheque

Orientale.]

The noblest monument of a conqueror's fame, and of the

terror which he inspired, is the Saladine tenth, a general tax

which was imposed on the laity, and even the clergy, of the Latin

church, for the service of the holy war. The practice was too

lucrative to expire with the occasion: and this tribute became

the foundation of all the tithes and tenths on ecclesiastical

benefices, which have been granted by the Roman pontiffs to

Catholic sovereigns, or reserved for the immediate use of the

apostolic see. ^83 This pecuniary emolument must have tended to

increase the interest of the popes in the recovery of Palestine:

after the death of Saladin, they preached the crusade, by their

epistles, their legates, and their missionaries; and the

accomplishment of the pious work might have been expected from

the zeal and talents of Innocent the Third. ^84 Under that young

and ambitious priest, the successors of St. Peter attained the

full meridian of their greatness: and in a reign of eighteen

years, he exercised a despotic command over the emperors and

kings, whom he raised and deposed; over the nations, whom an

interdict of months or years deprived, for the offence of their

rulers, of the exercise of Christian worship. In the council of

the Lateran he acted as the ecclesiastical, almost as the

temporal, sovereign of the East and West. It was at the feet of

his legate that John of England surrendered his crown; and

Innocent may boast of the two most signal triumphs over sense and

humanity, the establishment of transubstantiation, and the origin

of the inquisition. At his voice, two crusades, the fourth and

the fifth, were undertaken; but, except a king of Hungary, the

princes of the second order were at the head of the pilgrims: the

forces were inadequate to the design; nor did the effects

correspond with the hopes and wishes of the pope and the people.

The fourth crusade was diverted from Syria to Constantinople; and

the conquest of the Greek or Roman empire by the Latins will form

the proper and important subject of the next chapter. In the

fifth, ^85 two hundred thousand Franks were landed at the eastern

mouth of the Nile. They reasonably hoped that Palestine must be

subdued in Egypt, the seat and storehouse of the sultan; and,

after a siege of sixteen months, the Moslems deplored the loss of

Damietta. But the Christian army was ruined by the pride and

insolence of the legate Pelagius, who, in the pope's name,

assumed the character of general: the sickly Franks were

encompassed by the waters of the Nile and the Oriental forces;

and it was by the evacuation of Damietta that they obtained a

safe retreat, some concessions for the pilgrims, and the tardy

restitution of the doubtful relic of the true cross. The failure

may in some measure be ascribed to the abuse and multiplication

of the crusades, which were preached at the same time against the

Pagans of Livonia, the Moors of Spain, the Albigeois of France,

and the kings of Sicily of the Imperial family. ^86 In these

meritorious services, the volunteers might acquire at home the

same spiritual indulgence, and a larger measure of temporal

rewards; and even the popes, in their zeal against a domestic

enemy, were sometimes tempted to forget the distress of their

Syrian brethren. From the last age of the crusades they derived

the occasional command of an army and revenue; and some deep

reasoners have suspected that the whole enterprise, from the

first synod of Placentia, was contrived and executed by the

policy of Rome. The suspicion is not founded, either in nature

or in fact. The successors of St. Peter appear to have followed,

rather than guided, the impulse of manners and prejudice; without

much foresight of the seasons, or cultivation of the soil, they

gathered the ripe and spontaneous fruits of the superstition of

the times. They gathered these fruits without toil or personal

danger: in the council of the Lateran, Innocent the Third

declared an ambiguous resolution of animating the crusaders by

his example; but the pilot of the sacred vessel could not abandon

the helm; nor was Palestine ever blessed with the presence of a

Roman pontiff. ^87 [Footnote 83: Thomassin (Discipline de

l'Eglise, tom. iii. p. 311 - 374) has copiously treated of the

origin, abuses, and restrictions of these tenths. A theory was

started, but not pursued, that they were rightfully due to the

pope, a tenth of the Levite's tenth to the high priest, (Selden

on Tithes; see his Works, vol. iii. p. ii. p. 1083.)]

[Footnote 84: See the Gesta Innocentii III. in Murat. Script.

Rer. Ital., (tom. iii. p. 486 - 568.)]

[Footnote 85: See the vth crusade, and the siege of Damietta, in

Jacobus a Vitriaco, (l. iii. p. 1125 - 1149, in the Gesta Dei of

Bongarsius,) an eye- witness, Bernard Thesaurarius, (in Script.

Muratori, tom. vii. p. 825 - 846, c. 190 - 207,) a contemporary,

and Sanutus, (Secreta Fidel Crucis, l. iii. p. xi. c. 4 - 9,) a

diligent compiler; and of the Arabians Abulpharagius, (Dynast. p.

294,) and the Extracts at the end of Joinville, (p. 533, 537,

540, 547, &c.)]

[Footnote 86: To those who took the cross against Mainfroy, the

pope (A.D. 1255) granted plenissimam peccatorum remissionem.

Fideles mirabantur quod tantum eis promitteret pro sanguine

Christianorum effundendo quantum pro cruore infidelium aliquando,

(Matthew Paris p. 785.) A high flight for the reason of the

xiiith century.]

[Footnote 87: This simple idea is agreeable to the good sense of

Mosheim, (Institut. Hist. Eccles. p. 332,) and the fine

philosophy of Hume, (Hist. of England, vol. i. p. 330.)]

The persons, the families, and estates of the pilgrims, were

under the immediate protection of the popes; and these spiritual

patrons soon claimed the prerogative of directing their

operations, and enforcing, by commands and censures, the

accomplishment of their vow. Frederic the Second, ^88 the

grandson of Barbarossa, was successively the pupil, the enemy,

and the victim of the church. At the age of twenty-one years,

and in obedience to his guardian Innocent the Third, he assumed

the cross; the same promise was repeated at his royal and

imperial coronations; and his marriage with the heiress of

Jerusalem forever bound him to defend the kingdom of his son

Conrad. But as Frederic advanced in age and authority, he

repented of the rash engagements of his youth: his liberal sense

and knowledge taught him to despise the phantoms of superstition

and the crowns of Asia: he no longer entertained the same

reverence for the successors of Innocent: and his ambition was

occupied by the restoration of the Italian monarchy from Sicily

to the Alps. But the success of this project would have reduced

the popes to their primitive simplicity; and, after the delays

and excuses of twelve years, they urged the emperor, with

entreaties and threats, to fix the time and place of his

departure for Palestine. In the harbors of Sicily and Apulia, he

prepared a fleet of one hundred galleys, and of one hundred

vessels, that were framed to transport and land two thousand five

hundred knights, with their horses and attendants; his vassals of

Naples and Germany formed a powerful army; and the number of

English crusaders was magnified to sixty thousand by the report

of fame. But the inevitable or affected slowness of these mighty

preparations consumed the strength and provisions of the more

indigent pilgrims: the multitude was thinned by sickness and

desertion; and the sultry summer of Calabria anticipated the

mischiefs of a Syrian campaign. At length the emperor hoisted

sail at Brundusium, with a fleet and army of forty thousand men:

but he kept the sea no more than three days; and his hasty

retreat, which was ascribed by his friends to a grievous

indisposition, was accused by his enemies as a voluntary and

obstinate disobedience. For suspending his vow was Frederic

excommunicated by Gregory the Ninth; for presuming, the next

year, to accomplish his vow, he was again excommunicated by the

same pope. ^89 While he served under the banner of the cross, a

crusade was preached against him in Italy; and after his return

he was compelled to ask pardon for the injuries which he had

suffered. The clergy and military orders of Palestine were

previously instructed to renounce his communion and dispute his

commands; and in his own kingdom, the emperor was forced to

consent that the orders of the camp should be issued in the name

of God and of the Christian republic. Frederic entered Jerusalem

in triumph; and with his own hands (for no priest would perform

the office) he took the crown from the altar of the holy

sepulchre. But the patriarch cast an interdict on the church

which his presence had profaned; and the knights of the hospital

and temple informed the sultan how easily he might be surprised

and slain in his unguarded visit to the River Jordan. In such a

state of fanaticism and faction, victory was hopeless, and

defence was difficult; but the conclusion of an advantageous

peace may be imputed to the discord of the Mahometans, and their

personal esteem for the character of Frederic. The enemy of the

church is accused of maintaining with the miscreants an

intercourse of hospitality and friendship unworthy of a

Christian; of despising the barrenness of the land; and of

indulging a profane thought, that if Jehovah had seen the kingdom

of Naples he never would have selected Palestine for the

inheritance of his chosen people. Yet Frederic obtained from the

sultan the restitution of Jerusalem, of Bethlem and Nazareth, of

Tyre and Sidon; the Latins were allowed to inhabit and fortify

the city; an equal code of civil and religious freedom was

ratified for the sectaries of Jesus and those of Mahomet; and,

while the former worshipped at the holy sepulchre, the latter

might pray and preach in the mosque of the temple, ^90 from

whence the prophet undertook his nocturnal journey to heaven.

The clergy deplored this scandalous toleration; and the weaker

Moslems were gradually expelled; but every rational object of the

crusades was accomplished without bloodshed; the churches were

restored, the monasteries were replenished; and, in the space of

fifteen years, the Latins of Jerusalem exceeded the number of six

thousand. This peace and prosperity, for which they were

ungrateful to their benefactor, was terminated by the irruption

of the strange and savage hordes of Carizmians. ^91 Flying from

the arms of the Moguls, those shepherds ^* of the Caspian rolled

headlong on Syria; and the union of the Franks with the sultans

of Aleppo, Hems, and Damascus, was insufficient to stem the

violence of the torrent. Whatever stood against them was cut off

by the sword, or dragged into captivity: the military orders were

almost exterminated in a single battle; and in the pillage of the

city, in the profanation of the holy sepulchre, the Latins

confess and regret the modesty and discipline of the Turks and

Saracens.

[Footnote 88: The original materials for the crusade of Frederic

II. may be drawn from Richard de St. Germano (in Muratori,

Script. Rerum Ital. tom. vii. p. 1002 - 1013) and Matthew Paris,

(p. 286, 291, 300, 302, 304.) The most rational moderns are

Fleury, (Hist. Eccles. tom. xvi.,) Vertot, (Chevaliers de

Malthe, tom. i. l. iii.,) Giannone, (Istoria Civile di Napoli,

tom. ii. l. xvi.,) and Muratori, (Annali d' Italia, tom. x.)]

[Footnote 89: Poor Muratori knows what to think, but knows not

what to say: "Chino qui il capo,' &c. p. 322]

[Footnote 90: The clergy artfully confounded the mosque or church

of the temple with the holy sepulchre, and their wilful error has

deceived both Vertot and Muratori.]

[Footnote 91: The irruption of the Carizmians, or Corasmins, is

related by Matthew Paris, (p. 546, 547,) and by Joinville,

Nangis, and the Arabians, (p. 111, 112, 191, 192, 528, 530.)]

[Footnote *: They were in alliance with Eyub, sultan of Syria.

Wilken vol. vi. p. 630. - M.]

Of the seven crusades, the two last were undertaken by Louis

the Ninth, king of France; who lost his liberty in Egypt, and his

life on the coast of Africa. Twenty-eight years after his death,

he was canonized at Rome; and sixty-five miracles were readily

found, and solemnly attested, to justify the claim of the royal

saint. ^92 The voice of history renders a more honorable

testimony, that he united the virtues of a king, a hero, and a

man; that his martial spirit was tempered by the love of private

and public justice; and that Louis was the father of his people,

the friend of his neighbors, and the terror of the infidels.

Superstition alone, in all the extent of her baleful influence,

^93 corrupted his understanding and his heart: his devotion

stooped to admire and imitate the begging friars of Francis and

Dominic: he pursued with blind and cruel zeal the enemies of the

faith; and the best of kings twice descended from his throne to

seek the adventures of a spiritual knight-errant. A monkish

historian would have been content to applaud the most despicable

part of his character; but the noble and gallant Joinville, ^94

who shared the friendship and captivity of Louis, has traced with

the pencil of nature the free portrait of his virtues as well as

of his failings. From this intimate knowledge we may learn to

suspect the political views of depressing their great vassals,

which are so often imputed to the royal authors of the crusades.

Above all the princes of the middle ages, Louis the Ninth

successfully labored to restore the prerogatives of the crown;

but it was at home and not in the East, that he acquired for

himself and his posterity: his vow was the result of enthusiasm

and sickness; and if he were the promoter, he was likewise the

victim, of his holy madness. For the invasion of Egypt, France

was exhausted of her troops and treasures; he covered the sea of

Cyprus with eighteen hundred sails; the most modest enumeration

amounts to fifty thousand men; and, if we might trust his own

confession, as it is reported by Oriental vanity, he disembarked

nine thousand five hundred horse, and one hundred and thirty

thousand foot, who performed their pilgrimage under the shadow of

his power. ^95

[Footnote 92: Read, if you can, the Life and Miracles of St.

Louis, by the confessor of Queen Margaret, (p. 291 - 523.

Joinville, du Louvre.)]

[Footnote 93: He believed all that mother church taught,

(Joinville, p. 10,) but he cautioned Joinville against disputing

with infidels. "L'omme lay (said he in his old language) quand

il ot medire de la loi Crestienne, ne doit pas deffendre la loi

Crestienne ne mais que de l'espee, dequoi il doit donner parmi le

ventre dedens, tant comme elle y peut entrer' (p. 12.)]

[Footnote 94: I have two editions of Joinville, the one (Paris,

1668) most valuable for the observations of Ducange; the other

(Paris, au Louvre, 1761) most precious for the pure and authentic

text, a MS. of which has been recently discovered. The last

edition proves that the history of St. Louis was finished A.D.

1309, without explaining, or even admiring, the age of the

author, which must have exceeded ninety years, (Preface, p. x.

Observations de Ducange, p. 17.)]

[Footnote 95: Joinville, p. 32. Arabic Extracts, p. 549.

Note: Compare Wilken, vol. vii. p. 94. - M.]

In complete armor, the oriflamme waving before him, Louis

leaped foremost on the beach; and the strong city of Damietta,

which had cost his predecessors a siege of sixteen months, was

abandoned on the first assault by the trembling Moslems. But

Damietta was the first and the last of his conquests; and in the

fifth and sixth crusades, the same causes, almost on the same

ground, were productive of similar calamities. ^96 After a

ruinous delay, which introduced into the camp the seeds of an

epidemic disease, the Franks advanced from the sea-coast towards

the capital of Egypt, and strove to surmount the unseasonable

inundation of the Nile, which opposed their progress. Under the

eye of their intrepid monarch, the barons and knights of France

displayed their invincible contempt of danger and discipline: his

brother, the count of Artois, stormed with inconsiderate valor

the town of Massoura; and the carrier pigeons announced to the

inhabitants of Cairo that all was lost. But a soldier, who

afterwards usurped the sceptre, rallied the flying troops: the

main body of the Christians was far behind the vanguard; and

Artois was overpowered and slain. A shower of Greek fire was

incessantly poured on the invaders; the Nile was commanded by the

Egyptian galleys, the open country by the Arabs; all provisions

were intercepted; each day aggravated the sickness and famine;

and about the same time a retreat was found to be necessary and

impracticable. The Oriental writers confess, that Louis might

have escaped, if he would have deserted his subjects; he was made

prisoner, with the greatest part of his nobles; all who could not

redeem their lives by service or ransom were inhumanly massacred;

and the walls of Cairo were decorated with a circle of Christian

heads. ^97 The king of France was loaded with chains; but the

generous victor, a great-grandson of the brother of Saladin, sent

a robe of honor to his royal captive, and his deliverance, with

that of his soldiers, was obtained by the restitution of Damietta

^98 and the payment of four hundred thousand pieces of gold. In

a soft and luxurious climate, the degenerate children of the

companions of Noureddin and Saladin were incapable of resisting

the flower of European chivalry: they triumphed by the arms of

their slaves or Mamalukes, the hardy natives of Tartary, who at a

tender age had been purchased of the Syrian merchants, and were

educated in the camp and palace of the sultan. But Egypt soon

afforded a new example of the danger of praetorian bands; and the

rage of these ferocious animals, who had been let loose on the

strangers, was provoked to devour their benefactor. In the pride

of conquest, Touran Shaw, the last of his race, was murdered by

his Mamalukes; and the most daring of the assassins entered the

chamber of the captive king, with drawn cimeters, and their hands

imbrued in the blood of their sultan. The firmness of Louis

commanded their respect; ^99 their avarice prevailed over cruelty

and zeal; the treaty was accomplished; and the king of France,

with the relics of his army, was permitted to embark for

Palestine. He wasted four years within the walls of Acre, unable

to visit Jerusalem, and unwilling to return without glory to his

native country.

[Footnote 96: The last editors have enriched their Joinville with

large and curious extracts from the Arabic historians, Macrizi,

Abulfeda, &c. See likewise Abulpharagius, (Dynast. p. 322 -

325,) who calls him by the corrupt name of Redefrans. Matthew

Paris (p. 683, 684) has described the rival folly of the French

and English who fought and fell at Massoura.]

[Footnote 97: Savary, in his agreeable Letters sur L'Egypte, has

given a description of Damietta, (tom. i. lettre xxiii. p. 274 -

290,) and a narrative of the exposition of St. Louis, (xxv. p.

306 - 350.)]

[Footnote 98: For the ransom of St. Louis, a million of byzants

was asked and granted; but the sultan's generosity reduced that

sum to 800,000 byzants, which are valued by Joinville at 400,000

French livres of his own time, and expressed by Matthew Paris by

100,000 marks of silver, (Ducange, Dissertation xx. sur

Joinville.)]

[Footnote 99: The idea of the emirs to choose Louis for their

sultan is seriously attested by Joinville, (p. 77, 78,) and does

not appear to me so absurd as to M. de Voltaire, (Hist. Generale,

tom. ii. p. 386, 387.) The Mamalukes themselves were strangers,

rebels, and equals: they had felt his valor, they hoped his

conversion; and such a motion, which was not seconded, might be

made, perhaps by a secret Christian in their tumultuous assembly.

Note: Wilken, vol. vii. p. 257, thinks the proposition could

not have been made in earnest. - M.]

The memory of his defeat excited Louis, after sixteen years

of wisdom and repose, to undertake the seventh and last of the

crusades. His finances were restored, his kingdom was enlarged;

a new generation of warriors had arisen, and he advanced with

fresh confidence at the head of six thousand horse and thirty

thousand foot. The loss of Antioch had provoked the enterprise;

a wild hope of baptizing the king of Tunis tempted him to steer

for the African coast; and the report of an immense treasure

reconciled his troops to the delay of their voyage to the Holy

Land. Instead of a proselyte, he found a siege: the French

panted and died on the burning sands: St. Louis expired in his

tent; and no sooner had he closed his eyes, than his son and

successor gave the signal of the retreat. ^100 "It is thus," says

a lively writer, "that a Christian king died near the ruins of

Carthage, waging war against the sectaries of Mahomet, in a land

to which Dido had introduced the deities of Syria." ^101

[Footnote 100: See the expedition in the annals of St. Louis, by

William de Nangis, p. 270 - 287; and the Arabic extracts, p. 545,

555, of the Louvre edition of Joinville.]

[Footnote 101: Voltaire, Hist. Generale, tom. ii. p. 391.]

A more unjust and absurd constitution cannot be devised than

that which condemns the natives of a country to perpetual

servitude, under the arbitrary dominion of strangers and slaves.

Yet such has been the state of Egypt above five hundred years.

The most illustrious sultans of the Baharite and Borgite

dynasties ^102 were themselves promoted from the Tartar and

Circassian bands; and the four-and-twenty beys, or military

chiefs, have ever been succeeded, not by their sons, but by their

servants. They produce the great charter of their liberties, the

treaty of Selim the First with the republic: ^103 and the Othman

emperor still accepts from Egypt a slight acknowledgment of

tribute and subjection. With some breathing intervals of peace

and order, the two dynasties are marked as a period of rapine and

bloodshed: ^104 but their throne, however shaken, reposed on the

two pillars of discipline and valor: their sway extended over

Egypt, Nubia, Arabia, and Syria: their Mamalukes were multiplied

from eight hundred to twenty-five thousand horse; and their

numbers were increased by a provincial militia of one hundred and

seven thousand foot, and the occasional aid of sixty-six thousand

Arabs. ^105 Princes of such power and spirit could not long

endure on their coast a hostile and independent nation; and if

the ruin of the Franks was postponed about forty years, they were

indebted to the cares of an unsettled reign, to the invasion of

the Moguls, and to the occasional aid of some warlike pilgrims.

Among these, the English reader will observe the name of our

first Edward, who assumed the cross in the lifetime of his father

Henry. At the head of a thousand soldiers the future conqueror

of Wales and Scotland delivered Acre from a siege; marched as far

as Nazareth with an army of nine thousand men; emulated the fame

of his uncle Richard; extorted, by his valor, a ten years' truce;

^* and escaped, with a dangerous wound, from the dagger of a

fanatic assassin. ^106 ^! Antioch, ^107 whose situation had been

less exposed to the calamities of the holy war, was finally

occupied and ruined by Bondocdar, or Bibars, sultan of Egypt and

Syria; the Latin principality was extinguished; and the first

seat of the Christian name was dispeopled by the slaughter of

seventeen, and the captivity of one hundred, thousand of her

inhabitants. The maritime towns of Laodicea, Gabala, Tripoli,

Berytus, Sidon, Tyre and Jaffa, and the stronger castles of the

Hospitallers and Templars, successively fell; and the whole

existence of the Franks was confined to the city and colony of

St. John of Acre, which is sometimes described by the more

classic title of Ptolemais.

[Footnote 102: The chronology of the two dynasties of Mamalukes,

the Baharites, Turks or Tartars of Kipzak, and the Borgites,

Circassians, is given by Pocock (Prolegom. ad Abulpharag. p. 6 -

31) and De Guignes (tom. i. p. 264 - 270;) their history from

Abulfeda, Macrizi, &c., to the beginning of the xvth century, by

the same M. De Guignes, (tom. iv. p. 110 - 328.)]

[Footnote 103: Savary, Lettres sur l'Egypte, tom. ii. lettre xv.

p. 189 - 208. I much question the authenticity of this copy; yet

it is true, that Sultan Selim concluded a treaty with the

Circassians or Mamalukes of Egypt, and left them in possession of

arms, riches, and power. See a new Abrege de l'Histoire

Ottomane, composed in Egypt, and translated by M. Digeon, (tom.

i. p. 55 - 58, Paris, 1781,) a curious, authentic, and national

history.]

[Footnote 104: Si totum quo regnum occuparunt tempus respicias,

praesertim quod fini propius, reperies illud bellis, pugnis,

injuriis, ac rapinis refertum, (Al Jannabi, apud Pocock, p. 31.)

The reign of Mohammed (A.D. 1311 - 1341) affords a happy

exception, (De Guignes, tom. iv. p. 208 - 210.)]

[Footnote 105: They are now reduced to 8500: but the expense of

each Mamaluke may be rated at a hundred louis: and Egypt groans

under the avarice and insolence of these strangers, (Voyages de

Volney, tom. i. p. 89 - 187.)]

[Footnote *: Gibbon colors rather highly the success of Edward.

Wilken is more accurate vol. vii. p. 593, &c. - M.]

[Footnote 106: See Carte's History of England, vol. ii. p. 165 -

175, and his original authors, Thomas Wikes and Walter

Hemingford, (l. iii. c. 34, 35,) in Gale's Collection, tom. ii.

p. 97, 589 - 592.) They are both ignorant of the princess

Eleanor's piety in sucking the poisoned wound, and saving her

husband at the risk of her own life.]

[Footnote !: The sultan Bibars was concerned in this attempt at

assassination Wilken, vol. vii. p. 602. Ptolemaeus Lucensis is

the earliest authority for the devotion of Eleanora. Ibid. 605.

- M.]

[Footnote 107: Sanutus, Secret. Fidelium Crucis, 1. iii. p. xii.

c. 9, and De Guignes, Hist. des Huns, tom. iv. p. 143, from the

Arabic historians.]

After the loss of Jerusalem, Acre, ^108 which is distant

about seventy miles, became the metropolis of the Latin

Christians, and was adorned with strong and stately buildings,

with aqueducts, an artificial port, and a double wall. The

population was increased by the incessant streams of pilgrims and

fugitives: in the pauses of hostility the trade of the East and

West was attracted to this convenient station; and the market

could offer the produce of every clime and the interpreters of

every tongue. But in this conflux of nations, every vice was

propagated and practised: of all the disciples of Jesus and

Mahomet, the male and female inhabitants of Acre were esteemed

the most corrupt; nor could the abuse of religion be corrected by

the discipline of law. The city had many sovereigns, and no

government. The kings of Jerusalem and Cyprus, of the house of

Lusignan, the princes of Antioch, the counts of Tripoli and

Sidon, the great masters of the hospital, the temple, and the

Teutonic order, the republics of Venice, Genoa, and Pisa, the

pope's legate, the kings of France and England, assumed an

independent command: seventeen tribunals exercised the power of

life and death; every criminal was protected in the adjacent

quarter; and the perpetual jealousy of the nations often burst

forth in acts of violence and blood. Some adventurers, who

disgraced the ensign of the cross, compensated their want of pay

by the plunder of the Mahometan villages: nineteen Syrian

merchants, who traded under the public faith, were despoiled and

hanged by the Christians; and the denial of satisfaction

justified the arms of the sultan Khalil. He marched against

Acre, at the head of sixty thousand horse and one hundred and

forty thousand foot: his train of artillery (if I may use the

word) was numerous and weighty: the separate timbers of a single

engine were transported in one hundred wagons; and the royal

historian Abulfeda, who served with the troops of Hamah, was

himself a spectator of the holy war. Whatever might be the vices

of the Franks, their courage was rekindled by enthusiasm and

despair; but they were torn by the discord of seventeen chiefs,

and overwhelmed on all sides by the powers of the sultan. After

a siege of thirty three days, the double wall was forced by the

Moslems; the principal tower yielded to their engines; the

Mamalukes made a general assault; the city was stormed; and death

or slavery was the lot of sixty thousand Christians. The

convent, or rather fortress, of the Templars resisted three days

longer; but the great master was pierced with an arrow; and, of

five hundred knights, only ten were left alive, less happy than

the victims of the sword, if they lived to suffer on a scaffold,

in the unjust and cruel proscription of the whole order. The

king of Jerusalem, the patriarch and the great master of the

hospital, effected their retreat to the shore; but the sea was

rough, the vessels were insufficient; and great numbers of the

fugitives were drowned before they could reach the Isle of

Cyprus, which might comfort Lusignan for the loss of Palestine.

By the command of the sultan, the churches and fortifications of

the Latin cities were demolished: a motive of avarice or fear

still opened the holy sepulchre to some devout and defenceless

pilgrims; and a mournful and solitary silence prevailed along the

coast which had so long resounded with the world's debate. ^109

[Footnote 108: The state of Acre is represented in all the

chronicles of te times, and most accurately in John Villani, l.

vii. c. 144, in Muratoru Scriptores Rerum Italicarum, tom. xiii.

337, 338.]

[Footnote 109: See the final expulsion of the Franks, in Sanutus,

l. iii. p. xii. c. 11 - 22; Abulfeda, Macrizi, &c., in De

Guignes, tom. iv. p. 162, 164; and Vertot, tom. i. l. iii. p. 307

- 428.

Note: After these chapters of Gibbon, the masterly prize

composition, "Essai sur 'Influence des Croisades sur l'Europe,

par A H. L. Heeren: traduit de l'Allemand par Charles Villars,

Paris, 1808,' or the original German, in Heeren's "Vermischte

Schriften," may be read with great advantage. - M.]

Chapter LX: The Fourth Crusade.

Part I.

Schism Of The Greeks And Latins. - State Of Constantinople.

- Revolt Of The Bulgarians. - Isaac Angelus Dethroned By His

Brother Alexius. - Origin Of The Fourth Crusade. - Alliance Of

The French And Venetians With The Son Of Isaac. - Their Naval

Expedition To Constantinople. - The Two Sieges And Final Conquest

Of The City By The Latins.

The restoration of the Western empire by Charlemagne was

speedily followed by the separation of the Greek and Latin

churches. ^1 A religious and national animosity still divides the

two largest communions of the Christian world; and the schism of

Constantinople, by alienating her most useful allies, and

provoking her most dangerous enemies, has precipitated the

decline and fall of the Roman empire in the East.

[Footnote 1: In the successive centuries, from the ixth to the

xviiith, Mosheim traces the schism of the Greeks with learning,

clearness, and impartiality; the filioque (Institut. Hist.

Eccles. p. 277,) Leo III. p. 303 Photius, p. 307, 308. Michael

Cerularius, p. 370, 371, &c.]

In the course of the present History, the aversion of the

Greeks for the Latins has been often visible and conspicuous. It

was originally derived from the disdain of servitude, inflamed,

after the time of Constantine, by the pride of equality or

dominion; and finally exasperated by the preference which their

rebellious subjects had given to the alliance of the Franks. In

every age the Greeks were proud of their superiority in profane

and religious knowledge: they had first received the light of

Christianity; they had pronounced the decrees of the seven

general councils; they alone possessed the language of Scripture

and philosophy; nor should the Barbarians, immersed in the

darkness of the West, ^2 presume to argue on the high and

mysterious questions of theological science. Those Barbarians

despised in then turn the restless and subtile levity of the

Orientals, the authors of every heresy; and blessed their own

simplicity, which was content to hold the tradition of the

apostolic church. Yet in the seventh century, the synods of

Spain, and afterwards of France, improved or corrupted the Nicene

creed, on the mysterious subject of the third person of the

Trinity. ^3 In the long controversies of the East, the nature and

generation of the Christ had been scrupulously defined; and the

well-known relation of father and son seemed to convey a faint

image to the human mind. The idea of birth was less analogous to

the Holy Spirit, who, instead of a divine gift or attribute, was

considered by the Catholics as a substance, a person, a god; he

was not begotten, but in the orthodox style he proceeded. Did he

proceed from the Father alone, perhaps by the Son? or from the

Father and the Son? The first of these opinions was asserted by

the Greeks, the second by the Latins; and the addition to the

Nicene creed of the word filioque, kindled the flame of discord

between the Oriental and the Gallic churches. In the origin of

the disputes the Roman pontiffs affected a character of

neutrality and moderation: ^4 they condemned the innovation, but

they acquiesced in the sentiment, of their Transalpine brethren:

they seemed desirous of casting a veil of silence and charity

over the superfluous research; and in the correspondence of

Charlemagne and Leo the Third, the pope assumes the liberality of

a statesman, and the prince descends to the passions and

prejudices of a priest. ^5 But the orthodoxy of Rome

spontaneously obeyed the impulse of the temporal policy; and the

filioque, which Leo wished to erase, was transcribed in the

symbol and chanted in the liturgy of the Vatican. The Nicene and

Athanasian creeds are held as the Catholic faith, without which

none can be saved; and both Papists and Protestants must now

sustain and return the anathemas of the Greeks, who deny the

procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son, as well as from the

Father. Such articles of faith are not susceptible of treaty;

but the rules of discipline will vary in remote and independent

churches; and the reason, even of divines, might allow, that the

difference is inevitable and harmless. The craft or superstition

of Rome has imposed on her priests and deacons the rigid

obligation of celibacy; among the Greeks it is confined to the

bishops; the loss is compensated by dignity or annihilated by

age; and the parochial clergy, the papas, enjoy the conjugal

society of the wives whom they have married before their entrance

into holy orders. A question concerning the Azyms was fiercely

debated in the eleventh century, and the essence of the Eucharist

was supposed in the East and West to depend on the use of

leavened or unleavened bread. Shall I mention in a serious

history the furious reproaches that were urged against the

Latins, who for a long while remained on the defensive? They

neglected to abstain, according to the apostolical decree, from

things strangled, and from blood: they fasted (a Jewish

observance!) on the Saturday of each week: during the first week

of Lent they permitted the use of milk and cheese; ^6 their

infirm monks were indulged in the taste of flesh; and animal

grease was substituted for the want of vegetable oil: the holy

chrism or unction in baptism was reserved to the episcopal order:

the bishops, as the bridegrooms of their churches, were decorated

with rings; their priests shaved their faces, and baptized by a

single immersion. Such were the crimes which provoked the zeal

of the patriarchs of Constantinople; and which were justified

with equal zeal by the doctors of the Latin church. ^7

[Footnote 2: (Phot. Epist. p. 47, edit. Montacut.) The Oriental

patriarch continues to apply the images of thunder, earthquake,

hail, wild boar, precursors of Antichrist, &c., &c.]

[Footnote 3: The mysterious subject of the procession of the Holy

Ghost is discussed in the historical, theological, and

controversial sense, or nonsense, by the Jesuit Petavius.

(Dogmata Theologica, tom. ii. l. vii. p. 362 - 440.)]

[Footnote 4: Before the shrine of St. Peter he placed two shields

of the weight of 94 1/2 pounds of pure silver; on which he

inscribed the text of both creeds, (utroque symbolo,) pro amore

et cautela orthodoxae fidei, (Anastas. in Leon. III. in Muratori,

tom. iii. pars. i. p. 208.) His language most clearly proves,

that neither the filioque, nor the Athanasian creed were received

at Rome about the year 830.]

[Footnote 5: The Missi of Charlemagne pressed him to declare,

that all who rejected the filioque, or at least the doctrine,

must be damned. All, replies the pope, are not capable of

reaching the altiora mysteria qui potuerit, et non voluerit,

salvus esse non potest, (Collect. Concil. tom. ix. p. 277 - 286.)

The potuerit would leave a large loophole of salvation!]

[Footnote 6: In France, after some harsher laws, the

ecclesiastical discipline is now relaxed: milk, cheese, and

butter, are become a perpetual, and eggs an annual, indulgence in

Lent, (Vie privee des Francois, tom. ii. p. 27 - 38.)]

[Footnote 7: The original monuments of the schism, of the charges

of the Greeks against the Latins, are deposited in the epistles

of Photius, (Epist Encyclica, ii. p. 47 - 61,) and of Michael

Cerularius, (Canisii Antiq. Lectiones, tom. iii. p. i. p. 281 -

324, edit. Basnage, with the prolix answer of Cardinal Humbert.)]

Bigotry and national aversion are powerful magnifiers of

every object of dispute; but the immediate cause of the schism of

the Greeks may be traced in the emulation of the leading

prelates, who maintained the supremacy of the old metropolis

superior to all, and of the reigning capital, inferior to none,

in the Christian world. About the middle of the ninth century,

Photius, ^8 an ambitious layman, the captain of the guards and

principal secretary, was promoted by merit and favor to the more

desirable office of patriarch of Constantinople. In science,

even ecclesiastical science, he surpassed the clergy of the age;

and the purity of his morals has never been impeached: but his

ordination was hasty, his rise was irregular; and Ignatius, his

abdicated predecessor, was yet supported by the public compassion

and the obstinacy of his adherents. They appealed to the

tribunal of Nicholas the First, one of the proudest and most

aspiring of the Roman pontiffs, who embraced the welcome

opportunity of judging and condemning his rival of the East.

Their quarrel was embittered by a conflict of jurisdiction over

the king and nation of the Bulgarians; nor was their recent

conversion to Christianity of much avail to either prelate,

unless he could number the proselytes among the subjects of his

power. With the aid of his court the Greek patriarch was

victorious; but in the furious contest he deposed in his turn the

successor of St. Peter, and involved the Latin church in the

reproach of heresy and schism. Photius sacrificed the peace of

the world to a short and precarious reign: he fell with his

patron, the Caesar Bardas; and Basil the Macedonian performed an

act of justice in the restoration of Ignatius, whose age and

dignity had not been sufficiently respected. From his monastery,

or prison, Photius solicited the favor of the emperor by pathetic

complaints and artful flattery; and the eyes of his rival were

scarcely closed, when he was again restored to the throne of

Constantinople. After the death of Basil he experienced the

vicissitudes of courts and the ingratitude of a royal pupil: the

patriarch was again deposed, and in his last solitary hours he

might regret the freedom of a secular and studious life. In each

revolution, the breath, the nod, of the sovereign had been

accepted by a submissive clergy; and a synod of three hundred

bishops was always prepared to hail the triumph, or to stigmatize

the fall, of the holy, or the execrable, Photius. ^9 By a

delusive promise of succor or reward, the popes were tempted to

countenance these various proceedings; and the synods of

Constantinople were ratified by their epistles or legates. But

the court and the people, Ignatius and Photius, were equally

adverse to their claims; their ministers were insulted or

imprisoned; the procession of the Holy Ghost was forgotten;

Bulgaria was forever annexed to the Byzantine throne; and the

schism was prolonged by their rigid censure of all the multiplied

ordinations of an irregular patriarch. The darkness and

corruption of the tenth century suspended the intercourse,

without reconciling the minds, of the two nations. But when the

Norman sword restored the churches of Apulia to the jurisdiction

of Rome, the departing flock was warned, by a petulant epistle of

the Greek patriarch, to avoid and abhor the errors of the Latins.

The rising majesty of Rome could no longer brook the insolence of

a rebel; and Michael Cerularius was excommunicated in the heart

of Constantinople by the pope's legates. Shaking the dust from

their feet, they deposited on the altar of St. Sophia a direful

anathema, ^10 which enumerates the seven mortal heresies of the

Greeks, and devotes the guilty teachers, and their unhappy

sectaries, to the eternal society of the devil and his angels.

According to the emergencies of the church and state, a friendly

correspondence was some times resumed; the language of charity

and concord was sometimes affected; but the Greeks have never

recanted their errors; the popes have never repealed their

sentence; and from this thunderbolt we may date the consummation

of the schism. It was enlarged by each ambitious step of the

Roman pontiffs: the emperors blushed and trembled at the

ignominious fate of their royal brethren of Germany; and the

people were scandalized by the temporal power and military life

of the Latin clergy. ^11

[Footnote 8: The xth volume of the Venice edition of the Councils

contains all the acts of the synods, and history of Photius: they

are abridged, with a faint tinge of prejudice or prudence, by

Dupin and Fleury.]

[Footnote 9: The synod of Constantinople, held in the year 869,

is the viiith of the general councils, the last assembly of the

East which is recognized by the Roman church. She rejects the

synods of Constantinople of the years 867 and 879, which were,

however, equally numerous and noisy; but they were favorable to

Photius.]

[Footnote 10: See this anathema in the Councils, tom. xi. p. 1457

- 1460.]

[Footnote 11: Anna Comnena (Alexiad, l. i. p. 31 - 33) represents

the abhorrence, not only of the church, but of the palace, for

Gregory VII., the popes and the Latin communion. The style of

Cinnamus and Nicetas is still more vehement. Yet how calm is the

voice of history compared with that of polemics!]

The aversion of the Greeks and Latins was nourished and

manifested in the three first expeditions to the Holy Land.

Alexius Comnenus contrived the absence at least of the formidable

pilgrims: his successors, Manuel and Isaac Angelus, conspired

with the Moslems for the ruin of the greatest princes of the

Franks; and their crooked and malignant policy was seconded by

the active and voluntary obedience of every order of their

subjects. Of this hostile temper, a large portion may doubtless

be ascribed to the difference of language, dress, and manners,

which severs and alienates the nations of the globe. The pride,

as well as the prudence, of the sovereign was deeply wounded by

the intrusion of foreign armies, that claimed a right of

traversing his dominions, and passing under the walls of his

capital: his subjects were insulted and plundered by the rude

strangers of the West: and the hatred of the pusillanimous Greeks

was sharpened by secret envy of the bold and pious enterprises of

the Franks. But these profane causes of national enmity were

fortified and inflamed by the venom of religious zeal. Instead of

a kind embrace, a hospitable reception from their Christian

brethren of the East, every tongue was taught to repeat the names

of schismatic and heretic, more odious to an orthodox ear than

those of pagan and infidel: instead of being loved for the

general conformity of faith and worship, they were abhorred for

some rules of discipline, some questions of theology, in which

themselves or their teachers might differ from the Oriental

church. In the crusade of Louis the Seventh, the Greek clergy

washed and purified the altars which had been defiled by the

sacrifice of a French priest. The companions of Frederic

Barbarossa deplore the injuries which they endured, both in word

and deed, from the peculiar rancor of the bishops and monks.

Their prayers and sermons excited the people against the impious

Barbarians; and the patriarch is accused of declaring, that the

faithful might obtain the redemption of all their sins by the

extirpation of the schismatics. ^12 An enthusiast, named

Dorotheus, alarmed the fears, and restored the confidence, of the

emperor, by a prophetic assurance, that the German heretic, after

assaulting the gate of Blachernes, would be made a signal example

of the divine vengeance. The passage of these mighty armies were

rare and perilous events; but the crusades introduced a frequent

and familiar intercourse between the two nations, which enlarged

their knowledge without abating their prejudices. The wealth and

luxury of Constantinople demanded the productions of every

climate these imports were balanced by the art and labor of her

numerous inhabitants; her situation invites the commerce of the

world; and, in every period of her existence, that commerce has

been in the hands of foreigners. After the decline of Amalphi,

the Venetians, Pisans, and Genoese, introduced their factories

and settlements into the capital of the empire: their services

were rewarded with honors and immunities; they acquired the

possession of lands and houses; their families were multiplied by

marriages with the natives; and, after the toleration of a

Mahometan mosque, it was impossible to interdict the churches of

the Roman rite. ^13 The two wives of Manuel Comnenus ^14 were of

the race of the Franks: the first, a sister-in-law of the emperor

Conrad; the second, a daughter of the prince of Antioch: he

obtained for his son Alexius a daughter of Philip Augustus, king

of France; and he bestowed his own daughter on a marquis of

Montferrat, who was educated and dignified in the palace of

Constantinople. The Greek encountered the arms, and aspired to

the empire, of the West: he esteemed the valor, and trusted the

fidelity, of the Franks; ^15 their military talents were unfitly

recompensed by the lucrative offices of judges and treasures; the

policy of Manuel had solicited the alliance of the pope; and the

popular voice accused him of a partial bias to the nation and

religion of the Latins. ^16 During his reign, and that of his

successor Alexius, they were exposed at Constantinople to the

reproach of foreigners, heretics, and favorites; and this triple

guilt was severely expiated in the tumult, which announced the

return and elevation of Andronicus. ^17 The people rose in arms:

from the Asiatic shore the tyrant despatched his troops and

galleys to assist the national revenge; and the hopeless

resistance of the strangers served only to justify the rage, and

sharpen the daggers, of the assassins. Neither age, nor sex, nor

the ties of friendship or kindred, could save the victims of

national hatred, and avarice, and religious zeal; the Latins were

slaughtered in their houses and in the streets; their quarter was

reduced to ashes; the clergy were burnt in their churches, and

the sick in their hospitals; and some estimate may be formed of

the slain from the clemency which sold above four thousand

Christians in perpetual slavery to the Turks. The priests and

monks were the loudest and most active in the destruction of the

schismatics; and they chanted a thanksgiving to the Lord, when

the head of a Roman cardinal, the pope's legate, was severed from

his body, fastened to the tail of a dog, and dragged, with savage

mockery, through the city. The more diligent of the strangers

had retreated, on the first alarm, to their vessels, and escaped

through the Hellespont from the scene of blood. In their flight,

they burnt and ravaged two hundred miles of the sea-coast;

inflicted a severe revenge on the guiltless subjects of the

empire; marked the priests and monks as their peculiar enemies;

and compensated, by the accumulation of plunder, the loss of

their property and friends. On their return, they exposed to

Italy and Europe the wealth and weakness, the perfidy and malice,

of the Greeks, whose vices were painted as the genuine characters

of heresy and schism. The scruples of the first crusaders had

neglected the fairest opportunities of securing, by the

possession of Constantinople, the way to the Holy Land: domestic

revolution invited, and almost compelled, the French and

Venetians to achieve the conquest of the Roman empire of the

East.

[Footnote 12: His anonymous historian (de Expedit. Asiat. Fred.

I. in Canisii Lection. Antiq. tom. iii. pars ii. p. 511, edit.

Basnage) mentions the sermons of the Greek patriarch, quomodo

Graecis injunxerat in remissionem peccatorum peregrinos occidere

et delere de terra. Tagino observes, (in Scriptores Freher. tom.

i. p. 409, edit. Struv.,) Graeci haereticos nos appellant:

clerici et monachi dictis et factis persequuntur. We may add the

declaration of the emperor Baldwin fifteen years afterwards: Haec

est (gens) quae Latinos omnes non hominum nomine, sed canum

dignabatur; quorum sanguinem effundere pene inter merita

reputabant, (Gesta Innocent. III., c. 92, in Muratori, Script.

Rerum Italicarum, tom. iii. pars i. p. 536.) There may be some

exaggeration, but it was as effectual for the action and reaction

of hatred.]

[Footnote 13: See Anna Comnena, (Alexiad, l. vi. p. 161, 162,)

and a remarkable passage of Nicetas, (in Manuel, l. v. c. 9,) who

observes of the Venetians, &c.]

[Footnote 14: Ducange, Fam. Byzant. p. 186, 187.]

[Footnote 15: Nicetas in Manuel. l. vii. c. 2. Regnante enim

(Manuele) . . apud eum tantam Latinus populus repererat gratiam

ut neglectis Graeculis suis tanquam viris mollibus et

effoeminatis, . . . . solis Latinis grandia committeret negotia .

. . . erga eos profusa liberalitate abundabat . . . . ex omni

orbe ad eum tanquam ad benefactorem nobiles et ignobiles

concurrebant. Willelm. Tyr. xxii. c. 10.]

[Footnote 16: The suspicions of the Greeks would have been

confirmed, if they had seen the political epistles of Manuel to

Pope Alexander III., the enemy of his enemy Frederic I., in which

the emperor declares his wish of uniting the Greeks and Latins as

one flock under one shephero, &c (See Fleury, Hist. Eccles. tom.

xv. p. 187, 213, 243.)]

[Footnote 17: See the Greek and Latin narratives in Nicetas (in

Alexio Comneno, c. 10) and William of Tyre, (l. xxii. c. 10, 11,

12, 13;) the first soft and concise, the second loud, copious,

and tragical.]

In the series of the Byzantine princes, I have exhibited the

hypocrisy and ambition, the tyranny and fall, of Andronicus, the

last male of the Comnenian family who reigned at Constantinople.

The revolution, which cast him headlong from the throne, saved

and exalted Isaac Angelus, ^18 who descended by the females from

the same Imperial dynasty. The successor of a second Nero might

have found it an easy task to deserve the esteem and affection of

his subjects; they sometimes had reason to regret the

administration of Andronicus. The sound and vigorous mind of the

tyrant was capable of discerning the connection between his own

and the public interest; and while he was feared by all who could

inspire him with fear, the unsuspected people, and the remote

provinces, might bless the inexorable justice of their master.

But his successor was vain and jealous of the supreme power,

which he wanted courage and abilities to exercise: his vices were

pernicious, his virtues (if he possessed any virtues) were

useless, to mankind; and the Greeks, who imputed their calamities

to his negligence, denied him the merit of any transient or

accidental benefits of the times. Isaac slept on the throne, and

was awakened only by the sound of pleasure: his vacant hours were

amused by comedians and buffoons, and even to these buffoons the

emperor was an object of contempt: his feasts and buildings

exceeded the examples of royal luxury: the number of his eunuchs

and domestics amounted to twenty thousand; and a daily sum of

four thousand pounds of silver would swell to four millions

sterling the annual expense of his household and table. His

poverty was relieved by oppression; and the public discontent was

inflamed by equal abuses in the collection, and the application,

of the revenue. While the Greeks numbered the days of their

servitude, a flattering prophet, whom he rewarded with the

dignity of patriarch, assured him of a long and victorious reign

of thirty-two years; during which he should extend his sway to

Mount Libanus, and his conquests beyond the Euphrates. But his

only step towards the accomplishment of the prediction was a

splendid and scandalous embassy to Saladin, ^19 to demand the

restitution of the holy sepulchre, and to propose an offensive

and defensive league with the enemy of the Christian name. In

these unworthy hands, of Isaac and his brother, the remains of

the Greek empire crumbled into dust. The Island of Cyprus, whose

name excites the ideas of elegance and pleasure, was usurped by

his namesake, a Comnenian prince; and by a strange concatenation

of events, the sword of our English Richard bestowed that kingdom

on the house of Lusignan, a rich compensation for the loss of

Jerusalem.

[Footnote 18: The history of the reign of Isaac Angelus is

composed, in three books, by the senator Nicetas, (p. 228 - 290;)

and his offices of logothete, or principal secretary, and judge

of the veil or palace, could not bribe the impartiality of the

historian. He wrote, it is true, after the fall and death of his

benefactor.]

[Footnote 19: See Bohadin, Vit. Saladin. p. 129 - 131, 226, vers.

Schultens. The ambassador of Isaac was equally versed in the

Greek, French, and Arabic languages; a rare instance in those

times. His embassies were received with honor, dismissed without

effect, and reported with scandal in the West.]

The honor of the monarchy and the safety of the capital were

deeply wounded by the revolt of the Bulgarians and Walachians.

Since the victory of the second Basil, they had supported, above

a hundred and seventy years, the loose dominion of the Byzantine

princes; but no effectual measures had been adopted to impose the

yoke of laws and manners on these savage tribes. By the command

of Isaac, their sole means of subsistence, their flocks and

herds, were driven away, to contribute towards the pomp of the

royal nuptials; and their fierce warriors were exasperated by the

denial of equal rank and pay in the military service. Peter and

Asan, two powerful chiefs, of the race of the ancient kings, ^20

asserted their own rights and the national freedom; their

daemoniac impostors proclaimed to the crowd, that their glorious

patron St. Demetrius had forever deserted the cause of the

Greeks; and the conflagration spread from the banks of the Danube

to the hills of Macedonia and Thrace. After some faint efforts,

Isaac Angelus and his brother acquiesced in their independence;

and the Imperial troops were soon discouraged by the bones of

their fellow-soldiers, that were scattered along the passes of

Mount Haemus. By the arms and policy of John or Joannices, the

second kingdom of Bulgaria was firmly established. The subtle

Barbarian sent an embassy to Innocent the Third, to acknowledge

himself a genuine son of Rome in descent and religion, ^21 and

humbly received from the pope the license of coining money, the

royal title, and a Latin archbishop or patriarch. The Vatican

exulted in the spiritual conquest of Bulgaria, the first object

of the schism; and if the Greeks could have preserved the

prerogatives of the church, they would gladly have resigned the

rights of the monarchy.

[Footnote 20: Ducange, Familiae, Dalmaticae, p. 318, 319, 320.

The original correspondence of the Bulgarian king and the Roman

pontiff is inscribed in the Gesta Innocent. III. c. 66 - 82, p.

513 - 525.]

[Footnote 21: The pope acknowledges his pedigree, a nobili urbis

Romae prosapia genitores tui originem traxerunt. This tradition,

and the strong resemblance of the Latin and Walachian idioms, is

explained by M. D'Anville, (Etats de l'Europe, p. 258 - 262.) The

Italian colonies of the Dacia of Trajan were swept away by the

tide of emigration from the Danube to the Volga, and brought back

by another wave from the Volga to the Danube. Possible, but

strange!]

The Bulgarians were malicious enough to pray for the long

life of Isaac Angelus, the surest pledge of their freedom and

prosperity. Yet their chiefs could involve in the same

indiscriminate contempt the family and nation of the emperor.

"In all the Greeks," said Asan to his troops, "the same climate,

and character, and education, will be productive of the same

fruits. Behold my lance," continued the warrior, "and the long

streamers that float in the wind. They differ only in color; they

are formed of the same silk, and fashioned by the same workman;

nor has the stripe that is stained in purple any superior price

or value above its fellows." ^22 Several of these candidates for

the purple successively rose and fell under the empire of Isaac;

a general, who had repelled the fleets of Sicily, was driven to

revolt and ruin by the ingratitude of the prince; and his

luxurious repose was disturbed by secret conspiracies and popular

insurrections. The emperor was saved by accident, or the merit

of his servants: he was at length oppressed by an ambitious

brother, who, for the hope of a precarious diadem, forgot the

obligations of nature, of loyalty, and of friendship. ^23 While

Isaac in the Thracian valleys pursued the idle and solitary

pleasures of the chase, his brother, Alexius Angelus, was

invested with the purple, by the unanimous suffrage of the camp;

the capital and the clergy subscribed to their choice; and the

vanity of the new sovereign rejected the name of his fathers for

the lofty and royal appellation of the Comnenian race. On the

despicable character of Isaac I have exhausted the language of

contempt, and can only add, that, in a reign of eight years, the

baser Alexius ^24 was supported by the masculine vices of his

wife Euphrosyne. The first intelligence of his fall was conveyed

to the late emperor by the hostile aspect and pursuit of the

guards, no longer his own: he fled before them above fifty miles,

as far as Stagyra, in Macedonia; but the fugitive, without an

object or a follower, was arrested, brought back to

Constantinople, deprived of his eyes, and confined in a lonesome

tower, on a scanty allowance of bread and water. At the moment

of the revolution, his son Alexius, whom he educated in the hope

of empire, was twelve years of age. He was spared by the

usurper, and reduced to attend his triumph both in peace and war;

but as the army was encamped on the sea-shore, an Italian vessel

facilitated the escape of the royal youth; and, in the disguise

of a common sailor, he eluded the search of his enemies, passed

the Hellespont, and found a secure refuge in the Isle of Sicily.

After saluting the threshold of the apostles, and imploring the

protection of Pope Innocent the Third, Alexius accepted the kind

invitation of his sister Irene, the wife of Philip of Swabia,

king of the Romans. But in his passage through Italy, he heard

that the flower of Western chivalry was assembled at Venice for

the deliverance of the Holy Land; and a ray of hope was kindled

in his bosom, that their invincible swords might be employed in

his father's restoration.

[Footnote 22: This parable is in the best savage style; but I

wish the Walach had not introduced the classic name of Mysians,

the experiment of the magnet or loadstone, and the passage of an

old comic poet, (Nicetas in Alex. Comneno, l. i. p. 299, 300.)]

[Footnote 23: The Latins aggravate the ingratitude of Alexius, by

supposing that he had been released by his brother Isaac from

Turkish captivity This pathetic tale had doubtless been repeated

at Venice and Zara but I do not readily discover its grounds in

the Greek historians.]

[Footnote 24: See the reign of Alexius Angelus, or Comnenus, in

the three books of Nicetas, p. 291 - 352.]

About ten or twelve years after the loss of Jerusalem, the

nobles of France were again summoned to the holy war by the voice

of a third prophet, less extravagant, perhaps, than Peter the

hermit, but far below St. Bernard in the merit of an orator and a

statesman. An illiterate priest of the neighborhood of Paris,

Fulk of Neuilly, ^25 forsook his parochial duty, to assume the

more flattering character of a popular and itinerant missionary.

The fame of his sanctity and miracles was spread over the land;

he declaimed, with severity and vehemence, against the vices of

the age; and his sermons, which he preached in the streets of

Paris, converted the robbers, the usurers, the prostitutes, and

even the doctors and scholars of the university. No sooner did

Innocent the Third ascend the chair of St. Peter, than he

proclaimed in Italy, Germany, and France, the obligation of a new

crusade. ^26 The eloquent pontiff described the ruin of

Jerusalem, the triumph of the Pagans, and the shame of

Christendom; his liberality proposed the redemption of sins, a

plenary indulgence to all who should serve in Palestine, either a

year in person, or two years by a substitute; ^27 and among his

legates and orators who blew the sacred trumpet, Fulk of Neuilly

was the loudest and most successful. The situation of the

principal monarchs was averse to the pious summons. The emperor

Frederic the Second was a child; and his kingdom of Germany was

disputed by the rival houses of Brunswick and Swabia, the

memorable factions of the Guelphs and Ghibelines. Philip Augustus

of France had performed, and could not be persuaded to renew, the

perilous vow; but as he was not less ambitious of praise than of

power, he cheerfully instituted a perpetual fund for the defence

of the Holy Land Richard of England was satiated with the glory

and misfortunes of his first adventure; and he presumed to deride

the exhortations of Fulk of Neuilly, who was not abashed in the

presence of kings. "You advise me," said Plantagenet, "to

dismiss my three daughters, pride, avarice, and incontinence: I

bequeath them to the most deserving; my pride to the knights

templars, my avarice to the monks of Cisteaux, and my

incontinence to the prelates." But the preacher was heard and

obeyed by the great vassals, the princes of the second order; and

Theobald, or Thibaut, count of Champagne, was the foremost in the

holy race. The valiant youth, at the age of twenty-two years,

was encouraged by the domestic examples of his father, who

marched in the second crusade, and of his elder brother, who had

ended his days in Palestine with the title of King of Jerusalem;

two thousand two hundred knights owed service and homage to his

peerage; ^28 the nobles of Champagne excelled in all the

exercises of war; ^29 and, by his marriage with the heiress of

Navarre, Thibaut could draw a band of hardy Gascons from either

side of the Pyrenaean mountains. His companion in arms was

Louis, count of Blois and Chartres; like himself of regal

lineage, for both the princes were nephews, at the same time, of

the kings of France and England. In a crowd of prelates and

barons, who imitated their zeal, I distinguish the birth and

merit of Matthew of Montmorency; the famous Simon of Montfort,

the scourge of the Albigeois; and a valiant noble, Jeffrey of

Villehardouin, ^30 marshal of Champagne, ^31 who has

condescended, in the rude idiom of his age and country, ^32 to

write or dictate ^33 an original narrative of the councils and

actions in which he bore a memorable part. At the same time,

Baldwin, count of Flanders, who had married the sister of

Thibaut, assumed the cross at Bruges, with his brother Henry, and

the principal knights and citizens of that rich and industrious

province. ^34 The vow which the chiefs had pronounced in

churches, they ratified in tournaments; the operations of the war

were debated in full and frequent assemblies; and it was resolved

to seek the deliverance of Palestine in Egypt, a country, since

Saladin's death, which was almost ruined by famine and civil war.

But the fate of so many royal armies displayed the toils and

perils of a land expedition; and if the Flemings dwelt along the

ocean, the French barons were destitute of ships and ignorant of

navigation. They embraced the wise resolution of choosing six

deputies or representatives, of whom Villehardouin was one, with

a discretionary trust to direct the motions, and to pledge the

faith, of the whole confederacy. The maritime states of Italy

were alone possessed of the means of transporting the holy

warriors with their arms and horses; and the six deputies

proceeded to Venice, to solicit, on motives of piety or interest,

the aid of that powerful republic.

[Footnote 25: See Fleury, Hist. Eccles. tom. xvi. p. 26, &c., and

Villehardouin, No. 1, with the observations of Ducange, which I

always mean to quote with the original text.]

[Footnote 26: The contemporary life of Pope Innocent III.,

published by Baluze and Muratori, (Scriptores Rerum Italicarum,

tom. iii. pars i. p. 486 - 568, is most valuable for the

important and original documents which are inserted in the text.

The bull of the crusade may be read, c. 84, 85.]

[Footnote 27: Por-ce que cil pardon, fut issi gran, si s'en

esmeurent mult licuers des genz, et mult s'en croisierent, porce

que li pardons ere su gran. Villehardouin, No. 1. Our

philosophers may refine on the causes of the crusades, but such

were the genuine feelings of a French knight.]

[Footnote 28: This number of fiefs (of which 1800 owed liege

homage) was enrolled in the church of St. Stephen at Troyes, and

attested A.D. 1213, by the marshal and butler of Champagne,

(Ducange, Observ. p. 254.)]

[Footnote 29: Campania . . . . militiae privilegio singularius

excellit . . . . in tyrociniis . . . . prolusione armorum, &c.,

Duncage, p. 249, from the old Chronicle of Jerusalem, A.D. 1177 -

1199.]

[Footnote 30: The name of Villehardouin was taken from a village

and castle in the diocese of Troyes, near the River Aube, between

Bar and Arcis. The family was ancient and noble; the elder

branch of our historian existed after the year 1400, the younger,

which acquired the principality of Achaia, merged in the house of

Savoy, (Ducange, p. 235 - 245.)]

[Footnote 31: This office was held by his father and his

descendants; but Ducange has not hunted it with his usual

sagacity. I find that, in the year 1356, it was in the family of

Conflans; but these provincial have been long since eclipsed by

the national marshals of France.]

[Footnote 32: This language, of which I shall produce some

specimens, is explained by Vigenere and Ducange, in a version and

glossary. The president Des Brosses (Mechanisme des Langues,

tom. ii. p. 83) gives it as the example of a language which has

ceased to be French, and is understood only by grammarians.]

[Footnote 33: His age, and his own expression, moi qui ceste

oeuvre dicta. (No. 62, &c.,) may justify the suspicion (more

probable than Mr. Wood's on Homer) that he could neither read nor

write. Yet Champagne may boast of the two first historians, the

noble authors of French prose, Villehardouin and Joinville.]

[Footnote 34: The crusade and reigns of the counts of Flanders,

Baldwin and his brother Henry, are the subject of a particular

history by the Jesuit Doutremens, (Constantinopolis Belgica;

Turnaci, 1638, in 4to.,) which I have only seen with the eyes of

Ducange.]

In the invasion of Italy by Attila, I have mentioned ^35 the

flight of the Venetians from the fallen cities of the continent,

and their obscure shelter in the chain of islands that line the

extremity of the Adriatic Gulf. In the midst of the waters, free,

indigent, laborious, and inaccessible, they gradually coalesced

into a republic: the first foundations of Venice were laid in the

Island of Rialto; and the annual election of the twelve tribunes

was superseded by the permanent office of a duke or doge. On the

verge of the two empires, the Venetians exult in the belief of

primitive and perpetual independence. ^36 Against the Latins,

their antique freedom has been asserted by the sword, and may be

justified by the pen. Charlemagne himself resigned all claims of

sovereignty to the islands of the Adriatic Gulf: his son Pepin

was repulsed in the attacks of the lagunas or canals, too deep

for the cavalry, and too shallow for the vessels; and in every

age, under the German Caesars, the lands of the republic have

been clearly distinguished from the kingdom of Italy. But the

inhabitants of Venice were considered by themselves, by

strangers, and by their sovereigns, as an inalienable portion of

the Greek empire: ^37 in the ninth and tenth centuries, the

proofs of their subjection are numerous and unquestionable; and

the vain titles, the servile honors, of the Byzantine court, so

ambitiously solicited by their dukes, would have degraded the

magistrates of a free people. But the bands of this dependence,

which was never absolute or rigid, were imperceptibly relaxed by

the ambition of Venice and the weakness of Constantinople.

Obedience was softened into respect, privilege ripened into

prerogative, and the freedom of domestic government was fortified

by the independence of foreign dominion. The maritime cities of

Istria and Dalmatia bowed to the sovereigns of the Adriatic; and

when they armed against the Normans in the cause of Alexius, the

emperor applied, not to the duty of his subjects, but to the

gratitude and generosity of his faithful allies. The sea was

their patrimony: ^38 the western parts of the Mediterranean, from

Tuscany to Gibraltar, were indeed abandoned to their rivals of

Pisa and Genoa; but the Venetians acquired an early and lucrative

share of the commerce of Greece and Egypt. Their riches

increased with the increasing demand of Europe; their

manufactures of silk and glass, perhaps the institution of their

bank, are of high antiquity; and they enjoyed the fruits of their

industry in the magnificence of public and private life. To

assert her flag, to avenge her injuries, to protect the freedom

of navigation, the republic could launch and man a fleet of a

hundred galleys; and the Greeks, the Saracens, and the Normans,

were encountered by her naval arms. The Franks of Syria were

assisted by the Venetians in the reduction of the sea coast; but

their zeal was neither blind nor disinterested; and in the

conquest of Tyre, they shared the sovereignty of a city, the

first seat of the commerce of the world. The policy of Venice

was marked by the avarice of a trading, and the insolence of a

maritime, power; yet her ambition was prudent: nor did she often

forget that if armed galleys were the effect and safeguard,

merchant vessels were the cause and supply, of her greatness. In

her religion, she avoided the schisms of the Greeks, without

yielding a servile obedience to the Roman pontiff; and a free

intercourse with the infidels of every clime appears to have

allayed betimes the fever of superstition. Her primitive

government was a loose mixture of democracy and monarchy; the

doge was elected by the votes of the general assembly; as long as

he was popular and successful, he reigned with the pomp and

authority of a prince; but in the frequent revolutions of the

state, he was deposed, or banished, or slain, by the justice or

injustice of the multitude. The twelfth century produced the

first rudiments of the wise and jealous aristocracy, which has

reduced the doge to a pageant, and the people to a cipher. ^39

[Footnote 35: History, &c., vol. iii. p. 446, 447.]

[Footnote 36: The foundation and independence of Venice, and

Pepin's invasion, are discussed by Pagi (Critica, tom. iii. A.D.

81), No. 4, &c.) and Beretti, (Dissert. Chorograph. Italiae Medii

Aevi, in Muratori, Script. tom. x. p. 153.) The two critics have

a slight bias, the Frenchman adverse, the Italian favorable, to

the republic.]

[Footnote 37: When the son of Charlemagne asserted his right of

sovereignty, he was answered by the loyal Venetians, (Constantin.

Porphyrogenit. de Administrat Imperii, pars ii. c. 28, p. 85;)

and the report of the ixth establishes the fact of the xth

century, which is confirmed by the embassy of Liutprand of

Cremona. The annual tribute, which the emperor allows them to

pay to the king of Italy, alleviates, by doubling, their

servitude; but the hateful word must be translated, as in the

charter of 827, (Laugier, Hist. de Venice, tom. i. p. 67, &c.,)

by the softer appellation of subditi, or fideles.]

[Footnote 38: See the xxvth and xxxth dissertations of the

Antiquitates Medii Aevi of Muratori. From Anderson's History of

Commerce, I understand that the Venetians did not trade to

England before the year 1323. The most flourishing state of

their wealth and commerce, in the beginning of the xvth century,

is agreeably described by the Abbe Dubos, (Hist. de la Ligue de

Cambray, tom. ii. p. 443 - 480.)]

[Footnote 39: The Venetians have been slow in writing and

publishing their history. Their most ancient monuments are, 1.

The rude Chronicle (perhaps) of John Sagorninus, (Venezia, 1765,

in octavo,) which represents the state and manners of Venice in

the year 1008. 2. The larger history of the doge, (1342 - 1354,)

Andrew Dandolo, published for the first time in the xiith tom. of

Muratori, A.D. 1728. The History of Venice by the Abbe Laugier,

(Paris, 1728,) is a work of some merit, which I have chiefly used

for the constitutional part.

Note: It is scarcely necessary to mention the valuable work

of Count Daru, "History de Venise," of which I hear that an

Italian translation has been published, with notes defensive of

the ancient republic. I have not yet seen this work. - M.]

Chapter LX: The Fourth Crusade.

Part II.

When the six ambassadors of the French pilgrims arrived at

Venice, they were hospitably entertained in the palace of St.

Mark, by the reigning duke; his name was Henry Dandolo; ^40 and

he shone in the last period of human life as one of the most

illustrious characters of the times. Under the weight of years,

and after the loss of his eyes, ^41 Dandolo retained a sound

understanding and a manly courage: the spirit of a hero,

ambitious to signalize his reign by some memorable exploits; and

the wisdom of a patriot, anxious to build his fame on the glory

and advantage of his country. He praised the bold enthusiasm and

liberal confidence of the barons and their deputies: in such a

cause, and with such associates, he should aspire, were he a

private man, to terminate his life; but he was the servant of the

republic, and some delay was requisite to consult, on this

arduous business, the judgment of his colleagues. The proposal

of the French was first debated by the six sages who had been

recently appointed to control the administration of the doge: it

was next disclosed to the forty members of the council of state;

and finally communicated to the legislative assembly of four

hundred and fifty representatives, who were annually chosen in

the six quarters of the city. In peace and war, the doge was

still the chief of the republic; his legal authority was

supported by the personal reputation of Dandolo: his arguments of

public interest were balanced and approved; and he was authorized

to inform the ambassadors of the following conditions of the

treaty. ^42 It was proposed that the crusaders should assemble at

Venice, on the feast of St. John of the ensuing year; that

flat-bottomed vessels should be prepared for four thousand five

hundred horses, and nine thousand squires, with a number of ships

sufficient for the embarkation of four thousand five hundred

knights, and twenty thousand foot; that during a term of nine

months they should be supplied with provisions, and transported

to whatsoever coast the service of God and Christendom should

require; and that the republic should join the armament with a

squadron of fifty galleys. It was required, that the pilgrims

should pay, before their departure, a sum of eighty-five thousand

marks of silver; and that all conquests, by sea and land, should

be equally divided between the confederates. The terms were

hard; but the emergency was pressing, and the French barons were

not less profuse of money than of blood. A general assembly was

convened to ratify the treaty: the stately chapel and place of

St. Mark were filled with ten thousand citizens; and the noble

deputies were taught a new lesson of humbling themselves before

the majesty of the people. "Illustrious Venetians," said the

marshal of Champagne, "we are sent by the greatest and most

powerful barons of France to implore the aid of the masters of

the sea for the deliverance of Jerusalem. They have enjoined us

to fall prostrate at your feet; nor will we rise from the ground

till you have promised to avenge with us the injuries of Christ."

The eloquence of their words and tears, ^43 their martial aspect,

and suppliant attitude, were applauded by a universal shout; as

it were, says Jeffrey, by the sound of an earthquake. The

venerable doge ascended the pulpit to urge their request by those

motives of honor and virtue, which alone can be offered to a

popular assembly: the treaty was transcribed on parchment,

attested with oaths and seals, mutually accepted by the weeping

and joyful representatives of France and Venice; and despatched

to Rome for the approbation of Pope Innocent the Third. Two

thousand marks were borrowed of the merchants for the first

expenses of the armament. Of the six deputies, two repassed the

Alps to announce their success, while their four companions made

a fruitless trial of the zeal and emulation of the republics of

Genoa and Pisa.

[Footnote 40: Henry Dandolo was eighty-four at his election,

(A.D. 1192,) and ninety-seven at his death, (A.D. 1205.) See the

Observations of Ducange sur Villehardouin, No. 204. But this

extraordinary longevity is not observed by the original writers,

nor does there exist another example of a hero near a hundred

years of age. Theophrastus might afford an instance of a writer

of ninety-nine; but instead of Prooem. ad Character.,)I am much

inclined to read with his last editor Fischer, and the first

thoughts of Casaubon. It is scarcely possible that the powers of

the mind and body should support themselves till such a period of

life.]

[Footnote 41: The modern Venetians (Laugier, tom. ii. p. 119)

accuse the emperor Manuel; but the calumny is refuted by

Villehardouin and the older writers, who suppose that Dandolo

lost his eyes by a wound, (No. 31, and Ducange.)

Note: The accounts differ, both as to the extent and the

cause of his blindness According to Villehardouin and others, the

sight was totally lost; according to the Chronicle of Andrew

Dandolo. (Murat. tom. xii. p. 322,) he was vise debilis. See

Wilken, vol. v. p. 143. - M.]

[Footnote 42: See the original treaty in the Chronicle of Andrew

Dandolo, p. 323 - 326.]

[Footnote 43: A reader of Villehardouin must observe the frequent

tears of the marshal and his brother knights. Sachiez que la ot

mainte lerme ploree de pitie, (No. 17;) mult plorant, (ibid;)

mainte lerme ploree, (No. 34;) si orent mult pitie et plorerent

mult durement, (No. 60;) i ot mainte lerme ploree de pitie, (No.

202.) They weep on every occasion of grief, joy, or devotion.]

The execution of the treaty was still opposed by unforeseen

difficulties and delays. The marshal, on his return to Troyes,

was embraced and approved by Thibaut count of Champagne, who had

been unanimously chosen general of the confederates. But the

health of that valiant youth already declined, and soon became

hopeless; and he deplored the untimely fate, which condemned him

to expire, not in a field of battle, but on a bed of sickness.

To his brave and numerous vassals, the dying prince distributed

his treasures: they swore in his presence to accomplish his vow

and their own; but some there were, says the marshal, who

accepted his gifts and forfeited their words. The more resolute

champions of the cross held a parliament at Soissons for the

election of a new general; but such was the incapacity, or

jealousy, or reluctance, of the princes of France, that none

could be found both able and willing to assume the conduct of the

enterprise. They acquiesced in the choice of a stranger, of

Boniface marquis of Montferrat, descended of a race of heroes,

and himself of conspicuous fame in the wars and negotiations of

the times; ^44 nor could the piety or ambition of the Italian

chief decline this honorable invitation. After visiting the

French court, where he was received as a friend and kinsman, the

marquis, in the church of Soissons, was invested with the cross

of a pilgrim and the staff of a general; and immediately repassed

the Alps, to prepare for the distant expedition of the East.

About the festival of the Pentecost he displayed his banner, and

marched towards Venice at the head of the Italians: he was

preceded or followed by the counts of Flanders and Blois, and the

most respectable barons of France; and their numbers were swelled

by the pilgrims of Germany, ^45 whose object and motives were

similar to their own. The Venetians had fulfilled, and even

surpassed, their engagements: stables were constructed for the

horses, and barracks for the troops: the magazines were

abundantly replenished with forage and provisions; and the fleet

of transports, ships, and galleys, was ready to hoist sail as

soon as the republic had received the price of the freight and

armament. But that price far exceeded the wealth of the

crusaders who were assembled at Venice. The Flemings, whose

obedience to their count was voluntary and precarious, had

embarked in their vessels for the long navigation of the ocean

and Mediterranean; and many of the French and Italians had

preferred a cheaper and more convenient passage from Marseilles

and Apulia to the Holy Land. Each pilgrim might complain, that

after he had furnished his own contribution, he was made

responsible for the deficiency of his absent brethren: the gold

and silver plate of the chiefs, which they freely delivered to

the treasury of St. Marks, was a generous but inadequate

sacrifice; and after all their efforts, thirty-four thousand

marks were still wanting to complete the stipulated sum. The

obstacle was removed by the policy and patriotism of the doge,

who proposed to the barons, that if they would join their arms in

reducing some revolted cities of Dalmatia, he would expose his

person in the holy war, and obtain from the republic a long

indulgence, till some wealthy conquest should afford the means of

satisfying the debt. After much scruple and hesitation, they

chose rather to accept the offer than to relinquish the

enterprise; and the first hostilities of the fleet and army were

directed against Zara, ^46 a strong city of the Sclavonian coast,

which had renounced its allegiance to Venice, and implored the

protection of the king of Hungary. ^47 The crusaders burst the

chain or boom of the harbor; landed their horses, troops, and

military engines; and compelled the inhabitants, after a defence

of five days, to surrender at discretion: their lives were

spared, but the revolt was punished by the pillage of their

houses and the demolition of their walls. The season was far

advanced; the French and Venetians resolved to pass the winter in

a secure harbor and plentiful country; but their repose was

disturbed by national and tumultuous quarrels of the soldiers and

mariners. The conquest of Zara had scattered the seeds of

discord and scandal: the arms of the allies had been stained in

their outset with the blood, not of infidels, but of Christians:

the king of Hungary and his new subjects were themselves enlisted

under the banner of the cross; and the scruples of the devout

were magnified by the fear of lassitude of the reluctant

pilgrims. The pope had excommunicated the false crusaders who

had pillaged and massacred their brethren, ^48 and only the

marquis Boniface and Simon of Montfort ^* escaped these spiritual

thunders; the one by his absence from the siege, the other by his

final departure from the camp. Innocent might absolve the simple

and submissive penitents of France; but he was provoked by the

stubborn reason of the Venetians, who refused to confess their

guilt, to accept their pardon, or to allow, in their temporal

concerns, the interposition of a priest.

[Footnote 44: By a victory (A.D. 1191) over the citizens of Asti,

by a crusade to Palestine, and by an embassy from the pope to the

German princes, (Muratori, Annali d'Italia, tom. x. p. 163,

202.)]

[Footnote 45: See the crusade of the Germans in the Historia C.

P. of Gunther, (Canisii Antiq. Lect. tom. iv. p. v. - viii.,) who

celebrates the pilgrimage of his abbot Martin, one of the

preaching rivals of Fulk of Neuilly. His monastery, of the

Cistercian order, was situate in the diocese of Basil]

[Footnote 46: Jadera, now Zara, was a Roman colony, which

acknowledged Augustus for its parent. It is now only two miles

round, and contains five or six thousand inhabitants; but the

fortifications are strong, and it is joined to the main land by a

bridge. See the travels of the two companions, Spon and Wheeler,

(Voyage de Dalmatie, de Grece, &c., tom. i. p. 64 - 70. Journey

into Greece, p. 8 - 14;) the last of whom, by mistaking Sestertia

for Sestertii, values an arch with statues and columns at twelve

pounds. If, in his time, there were no trees near Zara, the

cherry-trees were not yet planted which produce our incomparable

marasquin.]

[Footnote 47: Katona (Hist. Critica Reg. Hungariae, Stirpis

Arpad. tom. iv. p. 536 - 558) collects all the facts and

testimonies most adverse to the conquerors of Zara.]

[Footnote 48: See the whole transaction, and the sentiments of

the pope, in the Epistles of Innocent III. Gesta, c. 86, 87,

88.]

[Footnote *: Montfort protested against the siege. Guido, the

abbot of Vaux de Sernay, in the name of the pope, interdicted the

attack on a Christian city; and the immediate surrender of the

town was thus delayed for five days of fruitless resistance.

Wilken, vol. v. p. 167. See likewise, at length, the history of

the interdict issued by the pope. Ibid. - M.]

The assembly of such formidable powers by sea and land had

revived the hopes of young ^49 Alexius; and both at Venice and

Zara, he solicited the arms of the crusaders, for his own

restoration and his father's ^50 deliverance. The royal youth was

recommended by Philip king of Germany: his prayers and presence

excited the compassion of the camp; and his cause was embraced

and pleaded by the marquis of Montferrat and the doge of Venice.

A double alliance, and the dignity of Caesar, had connected with

the Imperial family the two elder brothers of Boniface: ^51 he

expected to derive a kingdom from the important service; and the

more generous ambition of Dandolo was eager to secure the

inestimable benefits of trade and dominion that might accrue to

his country. ^52 Their influence procured a favorable audience

for the ambassadors of Alexius; and if the magnitude of his

offers excited some suspicion, the motives and rewards which he

displayed might justify the delay and diversion of those forces

which had been consecrated to the deliverance of Jerusalem. He

promised in his own and his father's name, that as soon as they

should be seated on the throne of Constantinople, they would

terminate the long schism of the Greeks, and submit themselves

and their people to the lawful supremacy of the Roman church. He

engaged to recompense the labors and merits of the crusaders, by

the immediate payment of two hundred thousand marks of silver; to

accompany them in person to Egypt; or, if it should be judged

more advantageous, to maintain, during a year, ten thousand men,

and, during his life, five hundred knights, for the service of

the Holy Land. These tempting conditions were accepted by the

republic of Venice; and the eloquence of the doge and marquis

persuaded the counts of Flanders, Blois, and St. Pol, with eight

barons of France, to join in the glorious enterprise. A treaty of

offensive and defensive alliance was confirmed by their oaths and

seals; and each individual, according to his situation and

character, was swayed by the hope of public or private advantage;

by the honor of restoring an exiled monarch; or by the sincere

and probable opinion, that their efforts in Palestine would be

fruitless and unavailing, and that the acquisition of

Constantinople must precede and prepare the recovery of

Jerusalem. But they were the chiefs or equals of a valiant band

of freemen and volunteers, who thought and acted for themselves:

the soldiers and clergy were divided; and, if a large majority

subscribed to the alliance, the numbers and arguments of the

dissidents were strong and respectable. ^53 The boldest hearts

were appalled by the report of the naval power and impregnable

strength of Constantinople; and their apprehensions were

disguised to the world, and perhaps to themselves, by the more

decent objections of religion and duty. They alleged the sanctity

of a vow, which had drawn them from their families and homes to

the rescue of the holy sepulchre; nor should the dark and crooked

counsels of human policy divert them from a pursuit, the event of

which was in the hands of the Almighty. Their first offence, the

attack of Zara, had been severely punished by the reproach of

their conscience and the censures of the pope; nor would they

again imbrue their hands in the blood of their fellow-Christians.

The apostle of Rome had pronounced; nor would they usurp the

right of avenging with the sword the schism of the Greeks and the

doubtful usurpation of the Byzantine monarch. On these

principles or pretences, many pilgrims, the most distinguished

for their valor and piety, withdrew from the camp; and their

retreat was less pernicious than the open or secret opposition of

a discontented party, that labored, on every occasion, to

separate the army and disappoint the enterprise.

[Footnote 49: A modern reader is surprised to hear of the valet

de Constantinople, as applied to young Alexius, on account of his

youth, like the infants of Spain, and the nobilissimus puer of

the Romans. The pages and valets of the knights were as noble as

themselves, (Villehardouin and Ducange, No. 36.)]

[Footnote 50: The emperor Isaac is styled by Villehardouin,

Sursac, (No. 35, &c.,) which may be derived from the French Sire,

or the Greek melted into his proper name; the further corruptions

of Tursac and Conserac will instruct us what license may have

been used in the old dynasties of Assyria and Egypt.]

[Footnote 51: Reinier and Conrad: the former married Maria,

daughter of the emperor Manuel Comnenus; the latter was the

husband of Theodora Angela, sister of the emperors Isaac and

Alexius. Conrad abandoned the Greek court and princess for the

glory of defending Tyre against Saladin, (Ducange, Fam. Byzant.

p. 187, 203.)]

[Footnote 52: Nicetas (in Alexio Comneno, l. iii. c. 9) accuses

the doge and Venetians as the first authors of the war against

Constantinople, and considers the arrival and shameful offers of

the royal exile.

Note: He admits, however, that the Angeli had committed

depredations on the Venetian trade, and the emperor himself had

refused the payment of part of the stipulated compensation for

the seizure of the Venetian merchandise by the emperor Manuel.

Nicetas, in loc. - M.]

[Footnote 53: Villehardouin and Gunther represent the sentiments

of the two parties. The abbot Martin left the army at Zara,

proceeded to Palestine, was sent ambassador to Constantinople,

and became a reluctant witness of the second siege.]

Notwithstanding this defection, the departure of the fleet

and army was vigorously pressed by the Venetians, whose zeal for

the service of the royal youth concealed a just resentment to his

nation and family. They were mortified by the recent preference

which had been given to Pisa, the rival of their trade; they had

a long arrear of debt and injury to liquidate with the Byzantine

court; and Dandolo might not discourage the popular tale, that he

had been deprived of his eyes by the emperor Manuel, who

perfidiously violated the sanctity of an ambassador. A similar

armament, for ages, had not rode the Adriatic: it was composed of

one hundred and twenty flat- bottomed vessels or palanders for

the horses; two hundred and forty transports filled with men and

arms; seventy store-ships laden with provisions; and fifty stout

galleys, well prepared for the encounter of an enemy. ^54 While

the wind was favorable, the sky serene, and the water smooth,

every eye was fixed with wonder and delight on the scene of

military and naval pomp which overspread the sea. ^* The shields

of the knights and squires, at once an ornament and a defence,

were arranged on either side of the ships; the banners of the

nations and families were displayed from the stern; our modern

artillery was supplied by three hundred engines for casting

stones and darts: the fatigues of the way were cheered with the

sound of music; and the spirits of the adventurers were raised by

the mutual assurance, that forty thousand Christian heroes were

equal to the conquest of the world. ^55 In the navigation ^56

from Venice and Zara, the fleet was successfully steered by the

skill and experience of the Venetian pilots: at Durazzo, the

confederates first landed on the territories of the Greek empire:

the Isle of Corfu afforded a station and repose; they doubled,

without accident, the perilous cape of Malea, the southern point

of Peloponnesus or the Morea; made a descent in the islands of

Negropont and Andros; and cast anchor at Abydus on the Asiatic

side of the Hellespont. These preludes of conquest were easy and

bloodless: the Greeks of the provinces, without patriotism or

courage, were crushed by an irresistible force: the presence of

the lawful heir might justify their obedience; and it was

rewarded by the modesty and discipline of the Latins. As they

penetrated through the Hellespont, the magnitude of their navy

was compressed in a narrow channel, and the face of the waters

was darkened with innumerable sails. They again expanded in the

basin of the Propontis, and traversed that placid sea, till they

approached the European shore, at the abbey of St. Stephen, three

leagues to the west of Constantinople. The prudent doge

dissuaded them from dispersing themselves in a populous and

hostile land; and, as their stock of provisions was reduced, it

was resolved, in the season of harvest, to replenish their

store-ships in the fertile islands of the Propontis. With this

resolution, they directed their course: but a strong gale, and

their own impatience, drove them to the eastward; and so near did

they run to the shore and the city, that some volleys of stones

and darts were exchanged between the ships and the rampart. As

they passed along, they gazed with admiration on the capital of

the East, or, as it should seem, of the earth; rising from her

seven hills, and towering over the continents of Europe and Asia.

The swelling domes and lofty spires of five hundred palaces and

churches were gilded by the sun and reflected in the waters: the

walls were crowded with soldiers and spectators, whose numbers

they beheld, of whose temper they were ignorant; and each heart

was chilled by the reflection, that, since the beginning of the

world, such an enterprise had never been undertaken by such a

handful of warriors. But the momentary apprehension was

dispelled by hope and valor; and every man, says the marshal of

Champagne, glanced his eye on the sword or lance which he must

speedily use in the glorious conflict. ^57 The Latins cast anchor

before Chalcedon; the mariners only were left in the vessels: the

soldiers, horses, and arms, were safely landed; and, in the

luxury of an Imperial palace, the barons tasted the first fruits

of their success. On the third day, the fleet and army moved

towards Scutari, the Asiatic suburb of Constantinople: a

detachment of five hundred Greek horse was surprised and defeated

by fourscore French knights; and in a halt of nine days, the camp

was plentifully supplied with forage and provisions.

[Footnote 54: The birth and dignity of Andrew Dandolo gave him

the motive and the means of searching in the archives of Venice

the memorable story of his ancestor. His brevity seems to accuse

the copious and more recent narratives of Sanudo, (in Muratori,

Script. Rerum Italicarum, tom. xxii.,) Blondus, Sabellicus, and

Rhamnusius.]

[Footnote *: This description rather belongs to the first setting

sail of the expedition from Venice, before the siege of Zara.

The armament did not return to Venice. - M.]

[Footnote 55: Villehardouin, No. 62. His feelings and

expressions are original: he often weeps, but he rejoices in the

glories and perils of war with a spirit unknown to a sedentary

writer.]

[Footnote 56: In this voyage, almost all the geographical names

are corrupted by the Latins. The modern appellation of Chalcis,

and all Euboea, is derived from its Euripus, Euripo, Negri-po,

Negropont, which dishonors our maps, (D'Anville, Geographie

Ancienne, tom. i. p. 263.)]

[Footnote 57: Et sachiez que il ni ot si hardi cui le cuer ne

fremist, (c. 66.) . . Chascuns regardoit ses armes . . . . que

par tems en arons mestier, (c. 67.) Such is the honesty of

courage.]

In relating the invasion of a great empire, it may seem

strange that I have not described the obstacles which should have

checked the progress of the strangers. The Greeks, in truth,

were an unwarlike people; but they were rich, industrious, and

subject to the will of a single man: had that man been capable of

fear, when his enemies were at a distance, or of courage, when

they approached his person. The first rumor of his nephew's

alliance with the French and Venetians was despised by the

usurper Alexius: his flatterers persuaded him, that in this

contempt he was bold and sincere; and each evening, in the close

of the banquet, he thrice discomfited the Barbarians of the West.

These Barbarians had been justly terrified by the report of his

naval power; and the sixteen hundred fishing boats of

Constantinople ^58 could have manned a fleet, to sink them in the

Adriatic, or stop their entrance in the mouth of the Hellespont.

But all force may be annihilated by the negligence of the prince

and the venality of his ministers. The great duke, or admiral,

made a scandalous, almost a public, auction of the sails, the

masts, and the rigging: the royal forests were reserved for the

more important purpose of the chase; and the trees, says Nicetas,

were guarded by the eunuchs, like the groves of religious

worship. ^59 From his dream of pride, Alexius was awakened by the

siege of Zara, and the rapid advances of the Latins; as soon as

he saw the danger was real, he thought it inevitable, and his

vain presumption was lost in abject despondency and despair. He

suffered these contemptible Barbarians to pitch their camp in the

sight of the palace; and his apprehensions were thinly disguised

by the pomp and menace of a suppliant embassy. The sovereign of

the Romans was astonished (his ambassadors were instructed to

say) at the hostile appearance of the strangers. If these

pilgrims were sincere in their vow for the deliverance of

Jerusalem, his voice must applaud, and his treasures should

assist, their pious design but should they dare to invade the

sanctuary of empire, their numbers, were they ten times more

considerable, should not protect them from his just resentment.

The answer of the doge and barons was simple and magnanimous.

"In the cause of honor and justice," they said, "we despise the

usurper of Greece, his threats, and his offers. Our friendship

and his allegiance are due to the lawful heir, to the young

prince, who is seated among us, and to his father, the emperor

Isaac, who has been deprived of his sceptre, his freedom, and his

eyes, by the crime of an ungrateful brother. Let that brother

confess his guilt, and implore forgiveness, and we ourselves will

intercede, that he may be permitted to live in affluence and

security. But let him not insult us by a second message; our

reply will be made in arms, in the palace of Constantinople."

[Footnote 58: Eandem urbem plus in solis navibus piscatorum

abundare, quam illos in toto navigio. Habebat enim mille et

sexcentas piscatorias naves ..... Bellicas autem sive mercatorias

habebant infinitae multitudinis et portum tutissimum. Gunther,

Hist. C. P. c. 8, p. 10.]

[Footnote 59: Nicetas in Alex. Comneno, l. iii. c. 9, p. 348.]

On the tenth day of their encampment at Scutari, the

crusaders prepared themselves, as soldiers and as Catholics, for

the passage of the Bosphorus. Perilous indeed was the adventure;

the stream was broad and rapid: in a calm the current of the

Euxine might drive down the liquid and unextinguishable fires of

the Greeks; and the opposite shores of Europe were defended by

seventy thousand horse and foot in formidable array. On this

memorable day, which happened to be bright and pleasant, the

Latins were distributed in six battles or divisions; the first,

or vanguard, was led by the count of Flanders, one of the most

powerful of the Christian princes in the skill and number of his

crossbows. The four successive battles of the French were

commanded by his brother Henry, the counts of St. Pol and Blois,

and Matthew of Montmorency; the last of whom was honored by the

voluntary service of the marshal and nobles of Champagne. The

sixth division, the rear-guard and reserve of the army, was

conducted by the marquis of Montferrat, at the head of the

Germans and Lombards. The chargers, saddled, with their long

comparisons dragging on the ground, were embarked in the flat

palanders; ^60 and the knights stood by the side of their horses,

in complete armor, their helmets laced, and their lances in their

hands. The numerous train of sergeants ^61 and archers occupied

the transports; and each transport was towed by the strength and

swiftness of a galley. The six divisions traversed the

Bosphorus, without encountering an enemy or an obstacle: to land

the foremost was the wish, to conquer or die was the resolution,

of every division and of every soldier. Jealous of the

preeminence of danger, the knights in their heavy armor leaped

into the sea, when it rose as high as their girdle; the sergeants

and archers were animated by their valor; and the squires,

letting down the draw-bridges of the palanders, led the horses to

the shore. Before their squadrons could mount, and form, and

couch their Lances, the seventy thousand Greeks had vanished from

their sight: the timid Alexius gave the example to his troops;

and it was only by the plunder of his rich pavilions that the

Latins were informed that they had fought against an emperor. In

the first consternation of the flying enemy, they resolved, by a

double attack, to open the entrance of the harbor. The tower of

Galata, ^62 in the suburb of Pera, was attacked and stormed by

the French, while the Venetians assumed the more difficult task

of forcing the boom or chain that was stretched from that tower

to the Byzantine shore. After some fruitless attempts, their

intrepid perseverance prevailed: twenty ships of war, the relics

of the Grecian navy, were either sunk or taken: the enormous and

massy links of iron were cut asunder by the shears, or broken by

the weight, of the galleys; ^63 and the Venetian fleet, safe and

triumphant, rode at anchor in the port of Constantinople. By

these daring achievements, a remnant of twenty thousand Latins

solicited the license of besieging a capital which contained

above four hundred thousand inhabitants, ^64 able, though not

willing, to bear arms in defence of their country. Such an

account would indeed suppose a population of near two millions;

but whatever abatement may be required in the numbers of the

Greeks, the belief of those numbers will equally exalt the

fearless spirit of their assailants.

[Footnote 60: From the version of Vignere I adopt the

well-sounding word palander, which is still used, I believe, in

the Mediterranean. But had I written in French, I should have

preserved the original and expressive denomination of vessiers or

huissiers, from the huis or door which was let down as a

draw-bridge; but which, at sea, was closed into the side of the

ship, (see Ducange au Villehardouin, No. 14, and Joinville. p.

27, 28, edit. du Louvre.)]

[Footnote 61: To avoid the vague expressions of followers, &c., I

use, after Villehardouin, the word sergeants for all horsemen who

were not knights. There were sergeants at arms, and sergeants at

law; and if we visit the parade and Westminster Hall, we may

observe the strange result of the distinction, (Ducange, Glossar.

Latin, Servientes, &c., tom. vi. p. 226 - 231.)]

[Footnote 62: It is needless to observe, that on the subject of

Galata, the chain, &c., Ducange is accurate and full. Consult

likewise the proper chapters of the C. P. Christiana of the same

author. The inhabitants of Galata were so vain and ignorant,

that they applied to themselves St. Paul's Epistle to the

Galatians.]

[Footnote 63: The vessel that broke the chain was named the

Eagle, Aquila, (Dandolo, Chronicon, p. 322,) which Blondus (de

Gestis Venet.) has changed into Aquilo, the north wind. Ducange

(Observations, No. 83) maintains the latter reading; but he had

not seen the respectable text of Dandolo, nor did he enough

consider the topography of the harbor. The south-east would have

been a more effectual wind. (Note to Wilken, vol. v. p. 215.)]

[Footnote 64: Quatre cens mil homes ou plus, (Villehardouin, No.

134,) must be understood of men of a military age. Le Beau

(Hist. du. Bas Empire, tom. xx. p. 417) allows Constantinople a

million of inhabitants, of whom 60,000 horse, and an infinite

number of foot-soldiers. In its present decay, the capital of

the Ottoman empire may contain 400,000 souls, (Bell's Travels,

vol. ii. p. 401, 402;) but as the Turks keep no registers, and as

circumstances are fallacious, it is impossible to ascertain

(Niebuhr, Voyage en Arabie, tom. i. p. 18, 19) the real

populousness of their cities.]

In the choice of the attack, the French and Venetians were

divided by their habits of life and warfare. The former affirmed

with truth, that Constantinople was most accessible on the side

of the sea and the harbor. The latter might assert with honor,

that they had long enough trusted their lives and fortunes to a

frail bark and a precarious element, and loudly demanded a trial

of knighthood, a firm ground, and a close onset, either on foot

or on horseback. After a prudent compromise, of employing the

two nations by sea and land, in the service best suited to their

character, the fleet covering the army, they both proceeded from

the entrance to the extremity of the harbor: the stone bridge of

the river was hastily repaired; and the six battles of the French

formed their encampment against the front of the capital, the

basis of the triangle which runs about four miles from the port

to the Propontis. ^65 On the edge of a broad ditch, at the foot

of a lofty rampart, they had leisure to contemplate the

difficulties of their enterprise. The gates to the right and left

of their narrow camp poured forth frequent sallies of cavalry and

light-infantry, which cut off their stragglers, swept the country

of provisions, sounded the alarm five or six times in the course

of each day, and compelled them to plant a palisade, and sink an

intrenchment, for their immediate safety. In the supplies and

convoys the Venetians had been too sparing, or the Franks too

voracious: the usual complaints of hunger and scarcity were

heard, and perhaps felt their stock of flour would be exhausted

in three weeks; and their disgust of salt meat tempted them to

taste the flesh of their horses. The trembling usurper was

supported by Theodore Lascaris, his son-in-law, a valiant youth,

who aspired to save and to rule his country; the Greeks,

regardless of that country, were awakened to the defence of their

religion; but their firmest hope was in the strength and spirit

of the Varangian guards, of the Danes and English, as they are

named in the writers of the times. ^66 After ten days' incessant

labor, the ground was levelled, the ditch filled, the approaches

of the besiegers were regularly made, and two hundred and fifty

engines of assault exercised their various powers to clear the

rampart, to batter the walls, and to sap the foundations. On the

first appearance of a breach, the scaling-ladders were applied:

the numbers that defended the vantage ground repulsed and

oppressed the adventurous Latins; but they admired the resolution

of fifteen knights and sergeants, who had gained the ascent, and

maintained their perilous station till they were precipitated or

made prisoners by the Imperial guards. On the side of the harbor

the naval attack was more successfully conducted by the

Venetians; and that industrious people employed every resource

that was known and practiced before the invention of gunpowder.

A double line, three bow-shots in front, was formed by the

galleys and ships; and the swift motion of the former was

supported by the weight and loftiness of the latter, whose decks,

and poops, and turret, were the platforms of military engines,

that discharged their shot over the heads of the first line. The

soldiers, who leaped from the galleys on shore, immediately

planted and ascended their scaling-ladders, while the large

ships, advancing more slowly into the intervals, and lowering a

draw-bridge, opened a way through the air from their masts to the

rampart. In the midst of the conflict, the doge, a venerable and

conspicuous form, stood aloft in complete armor on the prow of

his galley. The great standard of St. Mark was displayed before

him; his threats, promises, and exhortations, urged the diligence

of the rowers; his vessel was the first that struck; and Dandolo

was the first warrior on the shore. The nations admired the

magnanimity of the blind old man, without reflecting that his age

and infirmities diminished the price of life, and enhanced the

value of immortal glory. On a sudden, by an invisible hand, (for

the standard-bearer was probably slain,) the banner of the

republic was fixed on the rampart: twenty-five towers were

rapidly occupied; and, by the cruel expedient of fire, the Greeks

were driven from the adjacent quarter. The doge had despatched

the intelligence of his success, when he was checked by the

danger of his confederates. Nobly declaring that he would rather

die with the pilgrims than gain a victory by their destruction,

Dandolo relinquished his advantage, recalled his troops, and

hastened to the scene of action. He found the six weary

diminutive battles of the French encompassed by sixty squadrons

of the Greek cavalry, the least of which was more numerous than

the largest of their divisions. Shame and despair had provoked

Alexius to the last effort of a general sally; but he was awed by

the firm order and manly aspect of the Latins; and, after

skirmishing at a distance, withdrew his troops in the close of

the evening. The silence or tumult of the night exasperated his

fears; and the timid usurper, collecting a treasure of ten

thousand pounds of gold, basely deserted his wife, his people,

and his fortune; threw himself into a bark; stole through the

Bosphorus; and landed in shameful safety in an obscure harbor of

Thrace. As soon as they were apprised of his flight, the Greek

nobles sought pardon and peace in the dungeon where the blind

Isaac expected each hour the visit of the executioner. Again

saved and exalted by the vicissitudes of fortune, the captive in

his Imperial robes was replace on the throne, and surrounded with

prostrate slaves, whose real terror and affected joy he was

incapable of discerning. At the dawn of day, hostilities were

suspended, and the Latin chiefs were surprised by a message from

the lawful and reigning emperor, who was impatient to embrace his

son, and to reward his generous deliverers. ^67

[Footnote 65: On the most correct plans of Constantinople, I know

not how to measure more than 4000 paces. Yet Villehardouin

computes the space at three leagues, (No. 86.) If his eye were

not deceived, he must reckon by the old Gallic league of 1500

paces, which might still be used in Champagne.]

[Footnote 66: The guards, the Varangi, are styled by

Villehardouin, (No. 89, 95) Englois et Danois avec leurs haches.

Whatever had been their origin, a French pilgrim could not be

mistaken in the nations of which they were at that time

composed.]

[Footnote 67: For the first siege and conquest of Constantinople,

we may read the original letter of the crusaders to Innocent

III., Gesta, c. 91, p. 533, 534. Villehardouin, No. 75 - 99.

Nicetas, in Alexio Comnen. l. iii. c. 10, p. 349 - 352. Dandolo,

in Chron. p. 322. Gunther, and his abbot Martin, were not yet

returned from their obstinate pilgrim age to Jerusalem, or St.

John d'Acre, where the greatest part of the company had died of

the plague.]

Chapter LX: The Fourth Crusade.

Part III.

But these generous deliverers were unwilling to release

their hostage, till they had obtained from his father the

payment, or at least the promise, of their recompense. They

chose four ambassadors, Matthew of Montmorency, our historian the

marshal of Champagne, and two Venetians, to congratulate the

emperor. The gates were thrown open on their approach, the

streets on both sides were lined with the battle axes of the

Danish and English guard: the presence-chamber glittered with

gold and jewels, the false substitute of virtue and power: by the

side of the blind Isaac his wife was seated, the sister of the

king of Hungary: and by her appearance, the noble matrons of

Greece were drawn from their domestic retirement, and mingled

with the circle of senators and soldiers. The Latins, by the

mouth of the marshal, spoke like men conscious of their merits,

but who respected the work of their own hands; and the emperor

clearly understood, that his son's engagements with Venice and

the pilgrims must be ratified without hesitation or delay.

Withdrawing into a private chamber with the empress, a

chamberlain, an interpreter, and the four ambassadors, the father

of young Alexius inquired with some anxiety into the nature of

his stipulations. The submission of the Eastern empire to the

pope, the succor of the Holy Land, and a present contribution of

two hundred thousand marks of silver. - "These conditions are

weighty," was his prudent reply: "they are hard to accept, and

difficult to perform. But no conditions can exceed the measure

of your services and deserts." After this satisfactory assurance,

the barons mounted on horseback, and introduced the heir of

Constantinople to the city and palace: his youth and marvellous

adventures engaged every heart in his favor, and Alexius was

solemnly crowned with his father in the dome of St. Sophia. In

the first days of his reign, the people, already blessed with the

restoration of plenty and peace, was delighted by the joyful

catastrophe of the tragedy; and the discontent of the nobles,

their regret, and their fears, were covered by the polished

surface of pleasure and loyalty The mixture of two discordant

nations in the same capital might have been pregnant with

mischief and danger; and the suburb of Galata, or Pera, was

assigned for the quarters of the French and Venetians. But the

liberty of trade and familiar intercourse was allowed between the

friendly nations: and each day the pilgrims were tempted by

devotion or curiosity to visit the churches and palaces of

Constantinople. Their rude minds, insensible perhaps of the

finer arts, were astonished by the magnificent scenery: and the

poverty of their native towns enhanced the populousness and

riches of the first metropolis of Christendom. ^68 Descending

from his state, young Alexius was prompted by interest and

gratitude to repeat his frequent and familiar visits to his Latin

allies; and in the freedom of the table, the gay petulance of the

French sometimes forgot the emperor of the East. ^69 In their

most serious conferences, it was agreed, that the reunion of the

two churches must be the result of patience and time; but avarice

was less tractable than zeal; and a larger sum was instantly

disbursed to appease the wants, and silence the importunity, of

the crusaders. ^70 Alexius was alarmed by the approaching hour of

their departure: their absence might have relieved him from the

engagement which he was yet incapable of performing; but his

friends would have left him, naked and alone, to the caprice and

prejudice of a perfidious nation. He wished to bribe their stay,

the delay of a year, by undertaking to defray their expense, and

to satisfy, in their name, the freight of the Venetian vessels.

The offer was agitated in the council of the barons; and, after a

repetition of their debates and scruples, a majority of votes

again acquiesced in the advice of the doge and the prayer of the

young emperor. At the price of sixteen hundred pounds of gold,

he prevailed on the marquis of Montferrat to lead him with an

army round the provinces of Europe; to establish his authority,

and pursue his uncle, while Constantinople was awed by the

presence of Baldwin and his confederates of France and Flanders.

The expedition was successful: the blind emperor exulted in the

success of his arms, and listened to the predictions of his

flatterers, that the same Providence which had raised him from

the dungeon to the throne, would heal his gout, restore his

sight, and watch over the long prosperity of his reign. Yet the

mind of the suspicious old man was tormented by the rising

glories of his son; nor could his pride conceal from his envy,

that, while his own name was pronounced in faint and reluctant

acclamations, the royal youth was the theme of spontaneous and

universal praise. ^71

[Footnote 68: Compare, in the rude energy of Villehardouin, (No.

66, 100,) the inside and outside views of Constantinople, and

their impression on the minds of the pilgrims: cette ville (says

he) que de toutes les autres ere souveraine. See the parallel

passages of Fulcherius Carnotensis, Hist. Hierosol. l. i. c. 4,

and Will. Tyr. ii. 3, xx. 26.]

[Footnote 69: As they played at dice, the Latins took off his

diadem, and clapped on his head a woollen or hairy cap, (Nicetas,

p. 358.) If these merry companions were Venetians, it was the

insolence of trade and a commonwealth.]

[Footnote 70: Villehardouin, No. 101. Dandolo, p. 322. The doge

affirms, that the Venetians were paid more slowly than the

French; but he owns, that the histories of the two nations

differed on that subject. Had he read Villehardouin? The Greeks

complained, however, good totius Graeciae opes transtulisset,

(Gunther, Hist. C. P. c 13) See the lamentations and invectives

of Nicetas, (p. 355.)]

[Footnote 71: The reign of Alexius Comnenus occupies three books

in Nicetas, p. 291-352. The short restoration of Isaac and his

son is despatched in five chapters, p. 352 - 362.]

By the recent invasion, the Greeks were awakened from a

dream of nine centuries; from the vain presumption that the

capital of the Roman empire was impregnable to foreign arms. The

strangers of the West had violated the city, and bestowed the

sceptre, of Constantine: their Imperial clients soon became as

unpopular as themselves: the well-known vices of Isaac were

rendered still more contemptible by his infirmities, and the

young Alexius was hated as an apostate, who had renounced the

manners and religion of his country. His secret covenant with

the Latins was divulged or suspected; the people, and especially

the clergy, were devoutly attached to their faith and

superstition; and every convent, and every shop, resounded with

the danger of the church and the tyranny of the pope. ^72 An

empty treasury could ill supply the demands of regal luxury and

foreign extortion: the Greeks refused to avert, by a general tax,

the impending evils of servitude and pillage; the oppression of

the rich excited a more dangerous and personal resentment; and if

the emperor melted the plate, and despoiled the images, of the

sanctuary, he seemed to justify the complaints of heresy and

sacrilege. During the absence of Marquis Boniface and his

Imperial pupil, Constantinople was visited with a calamity which

might be justly imputed to the zeal and indiscretion of the

Flemish pilgrims. ^73 In one of their visits to the city, they

were scandalized by the aspect of a mosque or synagogue, in which

one God was worshipped, without a partner or a son. Their

effectual mode of controversy was to attack the infidels with the

sword, and their habitation with fire: but the infidels, and some

Christian neighbors, presumed to defend their lives and

properties; and the flames which bigotry had kindled, consumed

the most orthodox and innocent structures. During eight days and

nights, the conflagration spread above a league in front, from

the harbor to the Propontis, over the thickest and most populous

regions of the city. It is not easy to count the stately

churches and palaces that were reduced to a smoking ruin, to

value the merchandise that perished in the trading streets, or to

number the families that were involved in the common destruction.

By this outrage, which the doge and the barons in vain affected

to disclaim, the name of the Latins became still more unpopular;

and the colony of that nation, above fifteen thousand persons,

consulted their safety in a hasty retreat from the city to the

protection of their standard in the suburb of Pera. The emperor

returned in triumph; but the firmest and most dexterous policy

would have been insufficient to steer him through the tempest,

which overwhelmed the person and government of that unhappy

youth. His own inclination, and his father's advice, attached him

to his benefactors; but Alexius hesitated between gratitude and

patriotism, between the fear of his subjects and of his allies.

^74 By his feeble and fluctuating conduct he lost the esteem and

confidence of both; and, while he invited the marquis of

Monferrat to occupy the palace, he suffered the nobles to

conspire, and the people to arm, for the deliverance of their

country. Regardless of his painful situation, the Latin chiefs

repeated their demands, resented his delays, suspected his

intentions, and exacted a decisive answer of peace or war. The

haughty summons was delivered by three French knights and three

Venetian deputies, who girded their swords, mounted their horses,

pierced through the angry multitude, and entered, with a fearful

countenance, the palace and presence of the Greek emperor. In a

peremptory tone, they recapitulated their services and his

engagements; and boldly declared, that unless their just claims

were fully and immediately satisfied, they should no longer hold

him either as a sovereign or a friend. After this defiance, the

first that had ever wounded an Imperial ear, they departed

without betraying any symptoms of fear; but their escape from a

servile palace and a furious city astonished the ambassadors

themselves; and their return to the camp was the signal of mutual

hostility.

[Footnote 72: When Nicetas reproaches Alexius for his impious

league, he bestows the harshest names on the pope's new religion,

(p. 348.) Such was the sincere language of every Greek to the

last gasp of the empire.]

[Footnote 73: Nicetas (p. 355) is positive in the charge, and

specifies the Flemings, though he is wrong in supposing it an

ancient name. Villehardouin (No. 107) exculpates the barons, and

is ignorant (perhaps affectedly ignorant) of the names of the

guilty.]

[Footnote 74: Compare the suspicions and complaints of Nicetas

(p. 359 - 362) with the blunt charges of Baldwin of Flanders,

(Gesta Innocent III. c. 92, p. 534,) cum patriarcha et mole

nobilium, nobis promises perjurus et mendax.]

Among the Greeks, all authority and wisdom were overborne by

the impetuous multitude, who mistook their rage for valor, their

numbers for strength, and their fanaticism for the support and

inspiration of Heaven. In the eyes of both nations Alexius was

false and contemptible; the base and spurious race of the Angeli

was rejected with clamorous disdain; and the people of

Constantinople encompassed the senate, to demand at their hands a

more worthy emperor. To every senator, conspicuous by his birth

or dignity, they successively presented the purple: by each

senator the deadly garment was repulsed: the contest lasted three

days; and we may learn from the historian Nicetas, one of the

members of the assembly, that fear and weaknesses were the

guardians of their loyalty. A phantom, who vanished in oblivion,

was forcibly proclaimed by the crowd: ^75 but the author of the

tumult, and the leader of the war, was a prince of the house of

Ducas; and his common appellation of Alexius must be

discriminated by the epithet of Mourzoufle, ^76 which in the

vulgar idiom expressed the close junction of his black and shaggy

eyebrows. At once a patriot and a courtier, the perfidious

Mourzoufle, who was not destitute of cunning and courage, opposed

the Latins both in speech and action, inflamed the passions and

prejudices of the Greeks, and insinuated himself into the favor

and confidence of Alexius, who trusted him with the office of

great chamberlain, and tinged his buskins with the colors of

royalty. At the dead of night, he rushed into the bed-chamber

with an affrighted aspect, exclaiming, that the palace was

attacked by the people and betrayed by the guards. Starting from

his couch, the unsuspecting prince threw himself into the arms of

his enemy, who had contrived his escape by a private staircase.

But that staircase terminated in a prison: Alexius was seized,

stripped, and loaded with chains; and, after tasting some days

the bitterness of death, he was poisoned, or strangled, or beaten

with clubs, at the command, or in the presence, of the tyrant.

The emperor Isaac Angelus soon followed his son to the grave; and

Mourzoufle, perhaps, might spare the superfluous crime of

hastening the extinction of impotence and blindness.

[Footnote 75: His name was Nicholas Canabus: he deserved the

praise of Nicetas and the vengeance of Mourzoufle, (p. 362.)]

[Footnote 76: Villehardouin (No. 116) speaks of him as a

favorite, without knowing that he was a prince of the blood,

Angelus and Ducas. Ducange, who pries into every corner,

believes him to be the son of Isaac Ducas Sebastocrator, and

second cousin of young Alexius.]

The death of the emperors, and the usurpation of Mourzoufle,

had changed the nature of the quarrel. It was no longer the

disagreement of allies who overvalued their services, or

neglected their obligations: the French and Venetians forgot

their complaints against Alexius, dropped a tear on the untimely

fate of their companion, and swore revenge against the perfidious

nation who had crowned his assassin. Yet the prudent doge was

still inclined to negotiate: he asked as a debt, a subsidy, or a

fine, fifty thousand pounds of gold, about two millions sterling;

nor would the conference have been abruptly broken, if the zeal,

or policy, of Mourzoufle had not refused to sacrifice the Greek

church to the safety of the state. ^77 Amidst the invectives of

his foreign and domestic enemies, we may discern, that he was not

unworthy of the character which he had assumed, of the public

champion: the second siege of Constantinople was far more

laborious than the first; the treasury was replenished, and

discipline was restored, by a severe inquisition into the abuses

of the former reign; and Mourzoufle, an iron mace in his hand,

visiting the posts, and affecting the port and aspect of a

warrior, was an object of terror to his soldiers, at least, and

to his kinsmen. Before and after the death of Alexius, the

Greeks made two vigorous and well-conducted attempts to burn the

navy in the harbor; but the skill and courage of the Venetians

repulsed the fire-ships; and the vagrant flames wasted themselves

without injury in the sea. ^78 In a nocturnal sally the Greek

emperor was vanquished by Henry, brother of the count of

Flanders: the advantages of number and surprise aggravated the

shame of his defeat: his buckler was found on the field of

battle; and the Imperial standard, ^79 a divine image of the

Virgin, was presented, as a trophy and a relic to the Cistercian

monks, the disciples of St. Bernard. Near three months, without

excepting the holy season of Lent, were consumed in skirmishes

and preparations, before the Latins were ready or resolved for a

general assault. The land fortifications had been found

impregnable; and the Venetian pilots represented, that, on the

shore of the Propontis, the anchorage was unsafe, and the ships

must be driven by the current far away to the straits of the

Hellespont; a prospect not unpleasing to the reluctant pilgrims,

who sought every opportunity of breaking the army. From the

harbor, therefore, the assault was determined by the assailants,

and expected by the besieged; and the emperor had placed his

scarlet pavilions on a neighboring height, to direct and animate

the efforts of his troops. A fearless spectator, whose mind

could entertain the ideas of pomp and pleasure, might have

admired the long array of two embattled armies, which extended

above half a league, the one on the ships and galleys, the other

on the walls and towers raised above the ordinary level by

several stages of wooden turrets. Their first fury was spent in

the discharge of darts, stones, and fire, from the engines; but

the water was deep; the French were bold; the Venetians were

skilful; they approached the walls; and a desperate conflict of

swords, spears, and battle- axes, was fought on the trembling

bridges that grappled the floating, to the stable, batteries. In

more than a hundred places, the assault was urged, and the

defence was sustained; till the superiority of ground and numbers

finally prevailed, and the Latin trumpets sounded a retreat. On

the ensuing days, the attack was renewed with equal vigor, and a

similar event; and, in the night, the doge and the barons held a

council, apprehensive only for the public danger: not a voice

pronounced the words of escape or treaty; and each warrior,

according to his temper, embraced the hope of victory, or the

assurance of a glorious death. ^80 By the experience of the

former siege, the Greeks were instructed, but the Latins were

animated; and the knowledge that Constantinople might be taken,

was of more avail than the local precautions which that knowledge

had inspired for its defence. In the third assault, two ships

were linked together to double their strength; a strong north

wind drove them on the shore; the bishops of Troyes and Soissons

led the van; and the auspicious names of the pilgrim and the

paradise resounded along the line. ^81 The episcopal banners were

displayed on the walls; a hundred marks of silver had been

promised to the first adventurers; and if their reward was

intercepted by death, their names have been immortalized by fame.

^* Four towers were scaled; three gates were burst open; and the

French knights, who might tremble on the waves, felt themselves

invincible on horseback on the solid ground. Shall I relate that

the thousands who guarded the emperor's person fled on the

approach, and before the lance, of a single warrior? Their

ignominious flight is attested by their countryman Nicetas: an

army of phantoms marched with the French hero, and he was

magnified to a giant in the eyes of the Greeks. ^82 While the

fugitives deserted their posts and cast away their arms, the

Latins entered the city under the banners of their leaders: the

streets and gates opened for their passage; and either design or

accident kindled a third conflagration, which consumed in a few

hours the measure of three of the largest cities of France. ^83

In the close of evening, the barons checked their troops, and

fortified their stations: They were awed by the extent and

populousness of the capital, which might yet require the labor of

a month, if the churches and palaces were conscious of their

internal strength. But in the morning, a suppliant procession,

with crosses and images, announced the submission of the Greeks,

and deprecated the wrath of the conquerors: the usurper escaped

through the golden gate: the palaces of Blachernae and Boucoleon

were occupied by the count of Flanders and the marquis of

Montferrat; and the empire, which still bore the name of

Constantine, and the title of Roman, was subverted by the arms of

the Latin pilgrims. ^84

[Footnote 77: This negotiation, probable in itself, and attested

by Nicetas, (p 65,) is omitted as scandalous by the delicacy of

Dandolo and Villehardouin.

Note: Wilken places it before the death of Alexius, vol. v.

p. 276. - M]

[Footnote 78: Baldwin mentions both attempts to fire the fleet,

(Gest. c. 92, p. 534, 535;) Villehardouin, (No. 113 - 15) only

describes the first. It is remarkable that neither of these

warriors observe any peculiar properties in the Greek fire.]

[Footnote 79: Ducange (No. 119) pours forth a torrent of learning

on the Gonfanon Imperial. This banner of the Virgin is shown at

Venice as a trophy and relic: if it be genuine the pious doge

must have cheated the monks of Citeaux]

[Footnote 80: Villehardouin (No. 126) confesses, that mult ere

grant peril; and Guntherus (Hist. C. P. c. 13) affirms, that

nulla spes victoriae arridere poterat. Yet the knight despises

those who thought of flight, and the monk praises his countrymen

who were resolved on death.]

[Footnote 81: Baldwin, and all the writers, honor the names of

these two galleys, felici auspicio.]

[Footnote *: Pietro Alberti, a Venetion noble and Andrew

d'Amboise a French knight. - M.]

[Footnote 82: With an allusion to Homer, Nicetas calls him

eighteen yards high, a stature which would, indeed, have excused

the terror of the Greek. On this occasion, the historian seems

fonder of the marvellous than of his country, or perhaps of

truth. Baldwin exclaims in the words of the psalmist,

persequitur unus ex nobis centum alienos.]

[Footnote 83: Villehardouin (No. 130) is again ignorant of the

authors of this more legitimate fire, which is ascribed by

Gunther to a quidam comes Teutonicus, (c. 14.) They seem ashamed,

the incendiaries!]

[Footnote 84: For the second siege and conquest of

Constantinople, see Villehardouin (No. 113 - 132,) Baldwin's iid

Epistle to Innocent III., (Gesta c. 92, p. 534 - 537,) with the

whole reign of Mourzoufle, in Nicetas, (p 363 - 375;) and

borrowed some hints from Dandolo (Chron. Venet. p. 323 - 330) and

Gunther, (Hist. C. P. c. 14 - 18,) who added the decorations of

prophecy and vision. The former produces an oracle of the

Erythraean sibyl, of a great armament on the Adriatic, under a

blind chief, against Byzantium, &c. Curious enough, were the

prediction anterior to the fact.]

Constantinople had been taken by storm; and no restraints,

except those of religion and humanity, were imposed on the

conquerors by the laws of war. Boniface, marquis of Montferrat,

still acted as their general; and the Greeks, who revered his

name as that of their future sovereign, were heard to exclaim in

a lamentable tone, "Holy marquis-king, have mercy upon us!" His

prudence or compassion opened the gates of the city to the

fugitives; and he exhorted the soldiers of the cross to spare the

lives of their fellow- Christians. The streams of blood that

flowed down the pages of Nicetas may be reduced to the slaughter

of two thousand of his unresisting countrymen; ^85 and the

greater part was massacred, not by the strangers, but by the

Latins, who had been driven from the city, and who exercised the

revenge of a triumphant faction. Yet of these exiles, some were

less mindful of injuries than of benefits; and Nicetas himself

was indebted for his safety to the generosity of a Venetian

merchant. Pope Innocent the Third accuses the pilgrims for

respecting, in their lust, neither age nor sex, nor religious

profession; and bitterly laments that the deeds of darkness,

fornication, adultery, and incest, were perpetrated in open day;

and that noble matrons and holy nuns were polluted by the grooms

and peasants of the Catholic camp. ^86 It is indeed probable that

the license of victory prompted and covered a multitude of sins:

but it is certain, that the capital of the East contained a stock

of venal or willing beauty, sufficient to satiate the desires of

twenty thousand pilgrims; and female prisoners were no longer

subject to the right or abuse of domestic slavery. The marquis

of Montferrat was the patron of discipline and decency; the count

of Flanders was the mirror of chastity: they had forbidden, under

pain of death, the rape of married women, or virgins, or nuns;

and the proclamation was sometimes invoked by the vanquished ^87

and respected by the victors. Their cruelty and lust were

moderated by the authority of the chiefs, and feelings of the

soldiers; for we are no longer describing an irruption of the

northern savages; and however ferocious they might still appear,

time, policy, and religion had civilized the manners of the

French, and still more of the Italians. But a free scope was

allowed to their avarice, which was glutted, even in the holy

week, by the pillage of Constantinople. The right of victory,

unshackled by any promise or treaty, had confiscated the public

and private wealth of the Greeks; and every hand, according to

its size and strength, might lawfully execute the sentence and

seize the forfeiture. A portable and universal standard of

exchange was found in the coined and uncoined metals of gold and

silver, which each captor, at home or abroad, might convert into

the possessions most suitable to his temper and situation. Of

the treasures, which trade and luxury had accumulated, the silks,

velvets, furs, the gems, spices, and rich movables, were the most

precious, as they could not be procured for money in the ruder

countries of Europe. An order of rapine was instituted; nor was

the share of each individual abandoned to industry or chance.

Under the tremendous penalties of perjury, excommunication, and

death, the Latins were bound to deliver their plunder into the

common stock: three churches were selected for the deposit and

distribution of the spoil: a single share was allotted to a

foot-soldier; two for a sergeant on horseback; four to a knight;

and larger proportions according to the rank and merit of the

barons and princes. For violating this sacred engagement, a

knight belonging to the count of St. Paul was hanged with his

shield and coat of arms round his neck; his example might render

similar offenders more artful and discreet; but avarice was more

powerful than fear; and it is generally believed that the secret

far exceeded the acknowledged plunder. Yet the magnitude of the

prize surpassed the largest scale of experience or expectation.

^88 After the whole had been equally divided between the French

and Venetians, fifty thousand marks were deducted to satisfy the

debts of the former and the demands of the latter. The residue

of the French amounted to four hundred thousand marks of silver,

^89 about eight hundred thousand pounds sterling; nor can I

better appreciate the value of that sum in the public and private

transactions of the age, than by defining it as seven times the

annual revenue of the kingdom of England. ^90

[Footnote 85: Ceciderunt tamen ea die civium quasi duo millia,

&c., (Gunther, c. 18.) Arithmetic is an excellent touchstone to

try the amplifications of passion and rhetoric.]

[Footnote 86: Quidam (says Innocent III., Gesta, c. 94, p. 538)

nec religioni, nec aetati, nec sexui pepercerunt: sed

fornicationes, adulteria, et incestus in oculis omnium

exercentes, non solum maritatas et viduas, sed et matronas et

virgines Deoque dicatas, exposuerunt spurcitiis garcionum.

Villehardouin takes no notice of these common incidents.]

[Footnote 87: Nicetas saved, and afterwards married, a noble

virgin, (p. 380,) whom a soldier, had almost violated.]

[Footnote 88: Of the general mass of wealth, Gunther observes, ut

de pauperius et advenis cives ditissimi redderentur, (Hist. C. P.

c. 18; (Villehardouin, (No. 132,) that since the creation, ne fu

tant gaaignie dans une ville; Baldwin, (Gesta, c. 92,) ut tantum

tota non videatur possidere Latinitas.]

[Footnote 89: Villehardouin, No. 133 - 135. Instead of 400,000,

there is a various reading of 500,000. The Venetians had offered

to take the whole booty, and to give 400 marks to each knight,

200 to each priest and horseman, and 100 to each foot-soldier:

they would have been great losers, (Le Beau, Hist. du. Bas Empire

tom. xx. p. 506. I know not from whence.)]

[Footnote 90: At the council of Lyons (A.D. 1245) the English

ambassadors stated the revenue of the crown as below that of the

foreign clergy, which amounted to 60,000 marks a year, (Matthew

Paris, p. 451 Hume's Hist. of England, vol. ii. p. 170.)]

In this great revolution we enjoy the singular felicity of

comparing the narratives of Villehardouin and Nicetas, the

opposite feelings of the marshal of Champagne and the Byzantine

senator. ^91 At the first view it should seem that the wealth of

Constantinople was only transferred from one nation to another;

and that the loss and sorrow of the Greeks is exactly balanced by

the joy and advantage of the Latins. But in the miserable

account of war, the gain is never equivalent to the loss, the

pleasure to the pain; the smiles of the Latins were transient and

fallacious; the Greeks forever wept over the ruins of their

country; and their real calamities were aggravated by sacrilege

and mockery. What benefits accrued to the conquerors from the

three fires which annihilated so vast a portion of the buildings

and riches of the city? What a stock of such things, as could

neither be used nor transported, was maliciously or wantonly

destroyed! How much treasure was idly wasted in gaming,

debauchery, and riot! And what precious objects were bartered

for a vile price by the impatience or ignorance of the soldiers,

whose reward was stolen by the base industry of the last of the

Greeks! These alone, who had nothing to lose, might derive some

profit from the revolution; but the misery of the upper ranks of

society is strongly painted in the personal adventures of Nicetas

himself His stately palace had been reduced to ashes in the

second conflagration; and the senator, with his family and

friends, found an obscure shelter in another house which he

possessed near the church of St. Sophia. It was the door of this

mean habitation that his friend, the Venetian merchant, guarded

in the disguise of a soldier, till Nicetas could save, by a

precipitate flight, the relics of his fortune and the chastity of

his daughter. In a cold, wintry season, these fugitives, nursed

in the lap of prosperity, departed on foot; his wife was with

child; the desertion of their slaves compelled them to carry

their baggage on their own shoulders; and their women, whom they

placed in the centre, were exhorted to conceal their beauty with

dirt, instead of adorning it with paint and jewels Every step was

exposed to insult and danger: the threats of the strangers were

less painful than the taunts of the plebeians, with whom they

were now levelled; nor did the exiles breathe in safety till

their mournful pilgrimage was concluded at Sclymbria, above forty

miles from the capital. On the way they overtook the patriarch,

without attendance and almost without apparel, riding on an ass,

and reduced to a state of apostolical poverty, which, had it been

voluntary, might perhaps have been meritorious. In the mean

while, his desolate churches were profaned by the licentiousness

and party zeal of the Latins. After stripping the gems and

pearls, they converted the chalices into drinking-cups; their

tables, on which they gamed and feasted, were covered with the

pictures of Christ and the saints; and they trampled under foot

the most venerable objects of the Christian worship. In the

cathedral of St. Sophia, the ample veil of the sanctuary was rent

asunder for the sake of the golden fringe; and the altar, a

monument of art and riches, was broken in pieces and shared among

the captors. Their mules and horses were laden with the wrought

silver and gilt carvings, which they tore down from the doors and

pulpit; and if the beasts stumbled under the burden, they were

stabbed by their impatient drivers, and the holy pavement

streamed with their impure blood. A prostitute was seated on the

throne of the patriarch; and that daughter of Belial, as she is

styled, sung and danced in the church, to ridicule the hymns and

processions of the Orientals. Nor were the repositories of the

royal dead secure from violation: in the church of the Apostles,

the tombs of the emperors were rifled; and it is said, that after

six centuries the corpse of Justinian was found without any signs

of decay or putrefaction. In the streets, the French and

Flemings clothed themselves and their horses in painted robes and

flowing head-dresses of linen; and the coarse intemperance of

their feasts ^92 insulted the splendid sobriety of the East. To

expose the arms of a people of scribes and scholars, they

affected to display a pen, an inkhorn, and a sheet of paper,

without discerning that the instruments of science and valor were

alike feeble and useless in the hands of the modern Greeks.

[Footnote 91: The disorders of the sack of Constantinople, and

his own adventures, are feelingly described by Nicetas, p. 367 -

369, and in the Status Urb. C. P. p. 375 - 384. His complaints,

even of sacrilege, are justified by Innocent III., (Gesta, c.

92;) but Villehardouin does not betray a symptom of pity or

remorse]

[Footnote 92: If I rightly apprehend the Greek of Nicetas's

receipts, their favorite dishes were boiled buttocks of beef,

salt pork and peas, and soup made of garlic and sharp or sour

herbs, (p. 382.)]

Their reputation and their language encouraged them,

however, to despise the ignorance and to overlook the progress of

the Latins. ^93 In the love of the arts, the national difference

was still more obvious and real; the Greeks preserved with

reverence the works of their ancestors, which they could not

imitate; and, in the destruction of the statues of

Constantinople, we are provoked to join in the complaints and

invectives of the Byzantine historian. ^94 We have seen how the

rising city was adorned by the vanity and despotism of the

Imperial founder: in the ruins of paganism, some gods and heroes

were saved from the axe of superstition; and the forum and

hippodrome were dignified with the relics of a better age.

Several of these are described by Nicetas, ^95 in a florid and

affected style; and from his descriptions I shall select some

interesting particulars. 1. The victorious charioteers were cast

in bronze, at their own or the public charge, and fitly placed in

the hippodrome: they stood aloft in their chariots, wheeling

round the goal: the spectators could admire their attitude, and

judge of the resemblance; and of these figures, the most perfect

might have been transported from the Olympic stadium. 2. The

sphinx, river-horse, and crocodile, denote the climate and

manufacture of Egypt and the spoils of that ancient province. 3.

The she-wolf suckling Romulus and Remus, a subject alike pleasing

to the old and the new Romans, but which could really be treated

before the decline of the Greek sculpture. 4. An eagle holding

and tearing a serpent in his talons, a domestic monument of the

Byzantines, which they ascribed, not to a human artist, but to

the magic power of the philosopher Apollonius, who, by this

talisman, delivered the city from such venomous reptiles. 5. An

ass and his driver, which were erected by Augustus in his colony

of Nicopolis, to commemorate a verbal omen of the victory of

Actium. 6. An equestrian statue which passed, in the vulgar

opinion, for Joshua, the Jewish conqueror, stretching out his

hand to stop the course of the descending sun. A more classical

tradition recognized the figures of Bellerophon and Pegasus; and

the free attitude of the steed seemed to mark that he trod on

air, rather than on the earth. 7. A square and lofty obelisk of

brass; the sides were embossed with a variety of picturesque and

rural scenes, birds singing; rustics laboring, or playing on

their pipes; sheep bleating; lambs skipping; the sea, and a scene

of fish and fishing; little naked cupids laughing, playing, and

pelting each other with apples; and, on the summit, a female

figure, turning with the slightest breath, and thence denominated

the wind's attendant. 8. The Phrygian shepherd presenting to

Venus the prize of beauty, the apple of discord. 9. The

incomparable statue of Helen, which is delineated by Nicetas in

the words of admiration and love: her well-turned feet, snowy

arms, rosy lips, bewitching smiles, swimming eyes, arched

eyebrows, the harmony of her shape, the lightness of her drapery,

and her flowing locks that waved in the wind; a beauty that might

have moved her Barbarian destroyers to pity and remorse. 10. The

manly or divine form of Hercules, ^96 as he was restored to life

by the masterhand of Lysippus; of such magnitude, that his thumb

was equal to his waist, his leg to the stature, of a common man:

^97 his chest ample, his shoulders broad, his limbs strong and

muscular, his hair curled, his aspect commanding. Without his

bow, or quiver, or club, his lion's skin carelessly thrown over

him, he was seated on an osier basket, his right leg and arm

stretched to the utmost, his left knee bent, and supporting his

elbow, his head reclining on his left hand, his countenance

indignant and pensive. 11. A colossal statue of Juno, which had

once adorned her temple of Samos, the enormous head by four yoke

of oxen was laboriously drawn to the palace. 12. Another

colossus, of Pallas or Minerva, thirty feet in height, and

representing with admirable spirit the attributes and character

of the martial maid. Before we accuse the Latins, it is just to

remark, that this Pallas was destroyed after the first siege, by

the fear and superstition of the Greeks themselves. ^98 The other

statues of brass which I have enumerated were broken and melted

by the unfeeling avarice of the crusaders: the cost and labor

were consumed in a moment; the soul of genius evaporated in

smoke; and the remnant of base metal was coined into money for

the payment of the troops. Bronze is not the most durable of

monuments: from the marble forms of Phidias and Praxiteles, the

Latins might turn aside with stupid contempt; ^99 but unless they

were crushed by some accidental injury, those useless stones

stood secure on their pedestals. ^100 The most enlightened of the

strangers, above the gross and sensual pursuits of their

countrymen, more piously exercised the right of conquest in the

search and seizure of the relics of the saints. ^101 Immense was

the supply of heads and bones, crosses and images, that were

scattered by this revolution over the churches of Europe; and

such was the increase of pilgrimage and oblation, that no branch,

perhaps, of more lucrative plunder was imported from the East.

^102 Of the writings of antiquity, many that still existed in the

twelfth century, are now lost. But the pilgrims were not

solicitous to save or transport the volumes of an unknown tongue:

the perishable substance of paper or parchment can only be

preserved by the multiplicity of copies; the literature of the

Greeks had almost centred in the metropolis; and, without

computing the extent of our loss, we may drop a tear over the

libraries that have perished in the triple fire of

Constantinople. ^103

[Footnote 93: Nicetas uses very harsh expressions, (Fragment,

apud Fabric. Bibliot. Graec. tom. vi. p. 414.) This reproach, it

is true, applies most strongly to their ignorance of Greek and of

Homer. In their own language, the Latins of the xiith and xiiith

centuries were not destitute of literature. See Harris's

Philological Inquiries, p. iii. c. 9, 10, 11.]

[Footnote 94: Nicetas was of Chonae in Phrygia, (the old Colossae

of St. Paul:) he raised himself to the honors of senator, judge

of the veil, and great logothete; beheld the fall of the empire,

retired to Nice, and composed an elaborate history from the death

of Alexius Comnenus to the reign of Henry.]

[Footnote 95: A manuscript of Nicetas in the Bodleian library

contains this curious fragment on the statues of Constantinople,

which fraud, or shame, or rather carelessness, has dropped in the

common editions. It is published by Fabricius, (Bibliot. Graec.

tom. vi. p. 405 - 416,) and immoderately praised by the late

ingenious Mr. Harris of Salisbury, (Philological Inquiries, p.

iii. c. 5, p. 301 - 312.)]

[Footnote 96: To illustrate the statue of Hercules, Mr. Harris

quotes a Greek epigram, and engraves a beautiful gem, which does

not, however, copy the attitude of the statue: in the latter,

Hercules had not his club, and his right leg and arm were

extended.]

[Footnote 97: I transcribe these proportions, which appear to me

inconsistent with each other; and may possibly show, that the

boasted taste of Nicetas was no more than affectation and

vanity.]

[Footnote 98: Nicetas in Isaaco Angelo et Alexio, c. 3, p. 359.

The Latin editor very properly observes, that the historian, in

his bombast style, produces ex pulice elephantem.]

[Footnote 99: In two passages of Nicetas (edit. Paris, p. 360.

Fabric. p. 408) the Latins are branded with the lively reproach

and their avarice of brass is clearly expressed. Yet the

Venetians had the merit of removing four bronze horses from

Constantinople to the place of St. Mark, (Sanuto, Vite del Dogi,

in Muratori, Script. Rerum Italicarum, tom. xxii. p. 534.)]

[Footnote 100: Winckelman, Hist. de l'Art. tom. iii. p. 269,

270.]

[Footnote 101: See the pious robbery of the abbot Martin, who

transferred a rich cargo to his monastery of Paris, diocese of

Basil, (Gunther, Hist. C. P. c. 19, 23, 24.) Yet in secreting

this booty, the saint incurred an excommunication, and perhaps

broke his oath. (Compare Wilken vol. v. p. 308. - M.)]

[Footnote 102: Fleury, Hist. Eccles tom. xvi. p. 139 - 145.]

[Footnote 103: I shall conclude this chapter with the notice of a

modern history, which illustrates the taking of Constantinople by

the Latins; but which has fallen somewhat late into my hands.

Paolo Ramusio, the son of the compiler of Voyages, was directed

by the senate of Venice to write the history of the conquest: and

this order, which he received in his youth, he executed in a

mature age, by an elegant Latin work, de Bello

Constantinopolitano et Imperatoribus Comnenis per Gallos et

Venetos restitutis, (Venet. 1635, in folio.) Ramusio, or

Rhamnusus, transcribes and translates, sequitur ad unguem, a Ms.

of Villehardouin, which he possessed; but he enriches his

narrative with Greek and Latin materials, and we are indebted to

him for a correct state of the fleet, the names of the fifty

Venetian nobles who commanded the galleys of the republic, and

the patriot opposition of Pantaleon Barbus to the choice of the

doge for emperor.]

Chapter LXI: Partition Of The Empire By The French And Venetians.

Part I.

Partition Of The Empire By The French And Venetians, - Five

Latin Emperors Of The Houses Of Flanders And Courtenay. - Their

Wars Against The Bulgarians And Greeks. - Weakness And Poverty Of

The Latin Empire. - Recovery Of Constantinople By The Greeks. -

General Consequences Of The Crusades.

After the death of the lawful princes, the French and

Venetians, confident of justice and victory, agreed to divide and

regulate their future possessions. ^1 It was stipulated by

treaty, that twelve electors, six of either nation, should be

nominated; that a majority should choose the emperor of the East;

and that, if the votes were equal, the decision of chance should

ascertain the successful candidate. To him, with all the titles

and prerogatives of the Byzantine throne, they assigned the two

palaces of Boucoleon and Blachernae, with a fourth part of the

Greek monarchy. It was defined that the three remaining portions

should be equally shared between the republic of Venice and the

barons of France; that each feudatory, with an honorable

exception for the doge, should acknowledge and perform the duties

of homage and military service to the supreme head of the empire;

that the nation which gave an emperor, should resign to their

brethren the choice of a patriarch; and that the pilgrims,

whatever might be their impatience to visit the Holy Land, should

devote another year to the conquest and defence of the Greek

provinces. After the conquest of Constantinople by the Latins,

the treaty was confirmed and executed; and the first and most

important step was the creation of an emperor. The six electors

of the French nation were all ecclesiastics, the abbot of Loces,

the archbishop elect of Acre in Palestine, and the bishops of

Troyes, Soissons, Halberstadt, and Bethlehem, the last of whom

exercised in the camp the office of pope's legate: their

profession and knowledge were respectable; and as they could not

be the objects, they were best qualified to be the authors of the

choice. The six Venetians were the principal servants of the

state, and in this list the noble families of Querini and

Contarini are still proud to discover their ancestors. The

twelve assembled in the chapel of the palace; and after the

solemn invocation of the Holy Ghost, they proceeded to deliberate

and vote. A just impulse of respect and gratitude prompted them

to crown the virtues of the doge; his wisdom had inspired their

enterprise; and the most youthful knights might envy and applaud

the exploits of blindness and age. But the patriot Dandolo was

devoid of all personal ambition, and fully satisfied that he had

been judged worthy to reign. His nomination was overruled by the

Venetians themselves: his countrymen, and perhaps his friends, ^2

represented, with the eloquence of truth, the mischiefs that

might arise to national freedom and the common cause, from the

union of two incompatible characters, of the first magistrate of

a republic and the emperor of the East. The exclusion of the

doge left room for the more equal merits of Boniface and Baldwin;

and at their names all meaner candidates respectfully withdrew.

The marquis of Montferrat was recommended by his mature age and

fair reputation, by the choice of the adventurers, and the wishes

of the Greeks; nor can I believe that Venice, the mistress of the

sea, could be seriously apprehensive of a petty lord at the foot

of the Alps. ^3 But the count of Flanders was the chief of a

wealthy and warlike people: he was valiant, pious, and chaste; in

the prime of life, since he was only thirty- two years of age; a

descendant of Charlemagne, a cousin of the king of France, and a

compeer of the prelates and barons who had yielded with

reluctance to the command of a foreigner. Without the chapel,

these barons, with the doge and marquis at their head, expected

the decision of the twelve electors. It was announced by the

bishop of Soissons, in the name of his colleagues: "Ye have sworn

to obey the prince whom we should choose: by our unanimous

suffrage, Baldwin count of Flanders and Hainault is now your

sovereign, and the emperor of the East." He was saluted with loud

applause, and the proclamation was reechoed through the city by

the joy of the Latins, and the trembling adulation of the Greeks.

Boniface was the first to kiss the hand of his rival, and to

raise him on the buckler: and Baldwin was transported to the

cathedral, and solemnly invested with the purple buskins. At the

end of three weeks he was crowned by the legate, in the vacancy

of the patriarch; but the Venetian clergy soon filled the chapter

of St. Sophia, seated Thomas Morosini on the ecclesiastical

throne, and employed every art to perpetuate in their own nation

the honors and benefices of the Greek church. ^4 Without delay

the successor of Constantine instructed Palestine, France, and

Rome, of this memorable revolution. To Palestine he sent, as a

trophy, the gates of Constantinople, and the chain of the harbor;

^5 and adopted, from the Assise of Jerusalem, the laws or customs

best adapted to a French colony and conquest in the East. In his

epistles, the natives of France are encouraged to swell that

colony, and to secure that conquest, to people a magnificent city

and a fertile land, which will reward the labors both of the

priest and the soldier. He congratulates the Roman pontiff on

the restoration of his authority in the East; invites him to

extinguish the Greek schism by his presence in a general council;

and implores his blessing and forgiveness for the disobedient

pilgrims. Prudence and dignity are blended in the answer of

Innocent. ^6 In the subversion of the Byzantine empire, he

arraigns the vices of man, and adores the providence of God; the

conquerors will be absolved or condemned by their future conduct;

the validity of their treaty depends on the judgment of St.

Peter; but he inculcates their most sacred duty of establishing a

just subordination of obedience and tribute, from the Greeks to

the Latins, from the magistrate to the clergy, and from the

clergy to the pope.

[Footnote 1: See the original treaty of partition, in the

Venetian Chronicle of Andrew Dandolo, p. 326 - 330, and the

subsequent election in Ville hardouin, No. 136 - 140, with

Ducange in his Observations, and the book of his Histoire de

Constantinople sous l'Empire des Francois]

[Footnote 2: After mentioning the nomination of the doge by a

French elector his kinsman Andrew Dandolo approves his exclusion,

quidam Venetorum fidelis et nobilis senex, usus oratione satis

probabili, &c., which has been embroidered by modern writers from

Blondus to Le Beau.]

[Footnote 3: Nicetas, (p. 384,) with the vain ignorance of a

Greek, describes the marquis of Montferrat as a maritime power.

Was he deceived by the Byzantine theme of Lombardy which extended

along the coast of Calabria?]

[Footnote 4: They exacted an oath from Thomas Morosini to appoint

no canons of St. Sophia the lawful electors, except Venetians who

had lived ten years at Venice, &c. But the foreign clergy was

envious, the pope disapproved this national monopoly, and of the

six Latin patriarchs of Constantinople, only the first and the

last were Venetians.]

[Footnote 5: Nicetas, p. 383.]

[Footnote 6: The Epistles of Innocent III. are a rich fund for

the ecclesiastical and civil institution of the Latin empire of

Constantinople; and the most important of these epistles (of

which the collection in 2 vols. in folio is published by Stephen

Baluze) are inserted in his Gesta, in Muratori, Script. Rerum

Italicarum,, tom. iii. p. l. c. 94 - 105.]

In the division of the Greek provinces, ^7 the share of the

Venetians was more ample than that of the Latin emperor. No more

than one fourth was appropriated to his domain; a clear moiety of

the remainder was reserved for Venice; and the other moiety was

distributed among the adventures of France and Lombardy. The

venerable Dandolo was proclaimed despot of Romania, and invested

after the Greek fashion with the purple buskins. He ended at

Constantinople his long and glorious life; and if the prerogative

was personal, the title was used by his successors till the

middle of the fourteenth century, with the singular, though true,

addition of lords of one fourth and a half of the Roman empire.

^8 The doge, a slave of state, was seldom permitted to depart

from the helm of the republic; but his place was supplied by the

bail, or regent, who exercised a supreme jurisdiction over the

colony of Venetians: they possessed three of the eight quarters

of the city; and his independent tribunal was composed of six

judges, four counsellors, two chamberlains two fiscal advocates,

and a constable. Their long experience of the Eastern trade

enabled them to select their portion with discernment: they had

rashly accepted the dominion and defence of Adrianople; but it

was the more reasonable aim of their policy to form a chain of

factories, and cities, and islands, along the maritime coast,

from the neighborhood of Ragusa to the Hellespont and the

Bosphorus. The labor and cost of such extensive conquests

exhausted their treasury: they abandoned their maxims of

government, adopted a feudal system, and contented themselves

with the homage of their nobles, ^9 for the possessions which

these private vassals undertook to reduce and maintain. And thus

it was that the family of Sanut acquired the duchy of Naxos,

which involved the greatest part of the archipelago. For the

price of ten thousand marks, the republic purchased of the

marquis of Montferrat the fertile Island of Crete or Candia, with

the ruins of a hundred cities; ^10 but its improvement was

stinted by the proud and narrow spirit of an aristocracy; ^11 and

the wisest senators would confess that the sea, not the land, was

the treasury of St. Mark. In the moiety of the adventurers the

marquis Boniface might claim the most liberal reward; and,

besides the Isle of Crete, his exclusion from the throne was

compensated by the royal title and the provinces beyond the

Hellespont. But he prudently exchanged that distant and

difficult conquest for the kingdom of Thessalonica Macedonia,

twelve days' journey from the capital, where he might be

supported by the neighboring powers of his brother-in-law the

king of Hungary. His progress was hailed by the voluntary or

reluctant acclamations of the natives; and Greece, the proper and

ancient Greece, again received a Latin conqueror, ^12 who trod

with indifference that classic ground. He viewed with a careless

eye the beauties of the valley of Tempe; traversed with a

cautious step the straits of Thermopylae; occupied the unknown

cities of Thebes, Athens, and Argos; and assaulted the

fortifications of Corinth and Napoli, ^13 which resisted his

arms. The lots of the Latin pilgrims were regulated by chance,

or choice, or subsequent exchange; and they abused, with

intemperate joy, their triumph over the lives and fortunes of a

great people. After a minute survey of the provinces, they

weighed in the scales of avarice the revenue of each district,

the advantage of the situation, and the ample on scanty supplies

for the maintenance of soldiers and horses. Their presumption

claimed and divided the long-lost dependencies of the Roman

sceptre: the Nile and Euphrates rolled through their imaginary

realms; and happy was the warrior who drew for his prize the

palace of the Turkish sultan of Iconium. ^14 I shall not descend

to the pedigree of families and the rent- roll of estates, but I

wish to specify that the counts of Blois and St. Pol were

invested with the duchy of Nice and the lordship of Demotica: ^15

the principal fiefs were held by the service of constable,

chamberlain, cup- bearer, butler, and chief cook; and our

historian, Jeffrey of Villehardouin, obtained a fair

establishment on the banks of the Hebrus, and united the double

office of marshal of Champagne and Romania. At the head of his

knights and archers, each baron mounted on horseback to secure

the possession of his share, and their first efforts were

generally successful. But the public force was weakened by their

dispersion; and a thousand quarrels must arise under a law, and

among men, whose sole umpire was the sword. Within three months

after the conquest of Constantinople, the emperor and the king of

Thessalonica drew their hostile followers into the field; they

were reconciled by the authority of the doge, the advice of the

marshal, and the firm freedom of their peers. ^16

[Footnote 7: In the treaty of partition, most of the names are

corrupted by the scribes: they might be restored, and a good map,

suited to the last age of the Byzantine empire, would be an

improvement of geography. But, alas D'Anville is no more!]

[Footnote 8: Their style was dominus quartae partis et dimidiae

imperii Romani, till Giovanni Dolfino, who was elected doge in

the year of 1356, (Sanuto, p. 530, 641.) For the government of

Constantinople, see Ducange, Histoire de C. P. i. 37.]

[Footnote 9: Ducange (Hist. de C. P. ii. 6) has marked the

conquests made by the state or nobles of Venice of the Islands of

Candia, Corfu, Cephalonia, Zante, Naxos, Paros, Melos, Andros,

Mycone, Syro, Cea, and Lemnos.]

[Footnote 10: Boniface sold the Isle of Candia, August 12, A.D.

1204. See the act in Sanuto, p. 533: but I cannot understand how

it could be his mother's portion, or how she could be the

daughter of an emperor Alexius.]

[Footnote 11: In the year 1212, the doge Peter Zani sent a colony

to Candia, drawn from every quarter of Venice. But in their

savage manners and frequent rebellions, the Candiots may be

compared to the Corsicans under the yoke of Genoa; and when I

compare the accounts of Belon and Tournefort, I cannot discern

much difference between the Venetian and the Turkish island.]

[Footnote 12: Villehardouin (No. 159, 160, 173 - 177) and Nicetas

(p. 387 - 394) describe the expedition into Greece of the marquis

Boniface. The Choniate might derive his information from his

brother Michael, archbishop of Athens, whom he paints as an

orator, a statesman, and a saint. His encomium of Athens, and

the description of Tempe, should be published from the Bodleian

MS. of Nicetas, (Fabric. Bibliot. Graec. tom. vi. p. 405,) and

would have deserved Mr. Harris's inquiries.]

[Footnote 13: Napoli de Romania, or Nauplia, the ancient seaport

of Argos, is still a place of strength and consideration, situate

on a rocky peninsula, with a good harbor, (Chandler's Travels

into Greece, p. 227.)]

[Footnote 14: I have softened the expression of Nicetas, who

strives to expose the presumption of the Franks. See the Rebus

post C.P. expugnatam, p. 375 - 384.]

[Footnote 15: A city surrounded by the River Hebrus, and six

leagues to the south of Adrianople, received from its double wall

the Greek name of Didymoteichos, insensibly corrupted into

Demotica and Dimot. I have preferred the more convenient and

modern appellation of Demotica. This place was the last Turkish

residence of Charles XII.]

[Footnote 16: Their quarrel is told by Villehardouin (No. 146 -

158) with the spirit of freedom. The merit and reputation of the

marshal are so knowledged by the Greek historian (p. 387): unlike

some modern heroes, whose exploits are only visible in their own

memoirs.

Note: William de Champlite, brother of the count of Dijon,

assumed the title of Prince of Achaia: on the death of his

brother, he returned, with regret, to France, to assume his

paternal inheritance, and left Villehardouin his "bailli," on

condition that if he did not return within a year Villehardouin

was to retain an investiture. Brosset's Add. to Le Beau, vol.

xvii. p. 200. M. Brosset adds, from the Greek chronicler edited

by M. Buchon, the somewhat unknightly trick by which

Villehardouin disembarrassed himself from the troublesome claim

of Robert, the cousin of the count of Dijon. to the succession.

He contrived that Robert should arrive just fifteen days too

late; and with the general concurrence of the assembled knights

was himself invested with the principality. Ibid p. 283. M.]

Two fugitives, who had reigned at Constantinople, still

asserted the title of emperor; and the subjects of their fallen

throne might be moved to pity by the misfortunes of the elder

Alexius, or excited to revenge by the spirit of Mourzoufle. A

domestic alliance, a common interest, a similar guilt, and the

merit of extinguishing his enemies, a brother and a nephew,

induced the more recent usurper to unite with the former the

relics of his power. Mourzoufle was received with smiles and

honors in the camp of his father Alexius; but the wicked can

never love, and should rarely trust, their fellow-criminals; he

was seized in the bath, deprived of his eyes, stripped of his

troops and treasures, and turned out to wander an object of

horror and contempt to those who with more propriety could hate,

and with more justice could punish, the assassin of the emperor

Isaac and his son. As the tyrant, pursued by fear or remorse,

was stealing over to Asia, he was seized by the Latins of

Constantinople, and condemned, after an open trial, to an

ignominious death. His judges debated the mode of his execution,

the axe, the wheel, or the stake; and it was resolved that

Mourzoufle ^17 should ascend the Theodosian column, a pillar of

white marble of one hundred and forty-seven feet in height. ^18

From the summit he was cast down headlong, and dashed in pieces

on the pavement, in the presence of innumerable spectators, who

filled the forum of Taurus, and admired the accomplishment of an

old prediction, which was explained by this singular event. ^19

The fate of Alexius is less tragical: he was sent by the marquis

a captive to Italy, and a gift to the king of the Romans; but he

had not much to applaud his fortune, if the sentence of

imprisonment and exile were changed from a fortress in the Alps

to a monastery in Asia. But his daughter, before the national

calamity, had been given in marriage to a young hero who

continued the succession, and restored the throne, of the Greek

princes. ^20 The valor of Theodore Lascaris was signalized in the

two sieges of Constantinople. After the flight of Mourzoufle,

when the Latins were already in the city, he offered himself as

their emperor to the soldiers and people; and his ambition, which

might be virtuous, was undoubtedly brave. Could he have infused

a soul into the multitude, they might have crushed the strangers

under their feet: their abject despair refused his aid; and

Theodore retired to breathe the air of freedom in Anatolia,

beyond the immediate view and pursuit of the conquerors. Under

the title, at first of despot, and afterwards of emperor, he drew

to his standard the bolder spirits, who were fortified against

slavery by the contempt of life; and as every means was lawful

for the public safety implored without scruple the alliance of

the Turkish sultan Nice, where Theodore established his

residence, Prusa and Philadelphia, Smyrna and Ephesus, opened

their gates to their deliverer: he derived strength and

reputation from his victories, and even from his defeats; and the

successor of Constantine preserved a fragment of the empire from

the banks of the Maeander to the suburbs of Nicomedia, and at

length of Constantinople. Another portion, distant and obscure,

was possessed by the lineal heir of the Comneni, a son of the

virtuous Manuel, a grandson of the tyrant Andronicus. His name

was Alexius; and the epithet of great ^* was applied perhaps to

his stature, rather than to his exploits. By the indulgence of

the Angeli, he was appointed governor or duke of Trebizond: ^21

^! his birth gave him ambition, the revolution independence; and,

without changing his title, he reigned in peace from Sinope to

the Phasis, along the coast of the Black Sea. His nameless son

and successor ^!! is described as the vassal of the sultan, whom

he served with two hundred lances: that Comnenian prince was no

more than duke of Trebizond, and the title of emperor was first

assumed by the pride and envy of the grandson of Alexius. In the

West, a third fragment was saved from the common shipwreck by

Michael, a bastard of the house of Angeli, who, before the

revolution, had been known as a hostage, a soldier, and a rebel.

His flight from the camp of the marquis Boniface secured his

freedom; by his marriage with the governor's daughter, he

commanded the important place of Durazzo, assumed the title of

despot, and founded a strong and conspicuous principality in

Epirus, Aetolia, and Thessaly, which have ever been peopled by a

warlike race. The Greeks, who had offered their service to their

new sovereigns, were excluded by the haughty Latins ^22 from all

civil and military honors, as a nation born to tremble and obey.

Their resentment prompted them to show that they might have been

useful friends, since they could be dangerous enemies: their

nerves were braced by adversity: whatever was learned or holy,

whatever was noble or valiant, rolled away into the independent

states of Trebizond, Epirus, and Nice; and a single patrician is

marked by the ambiguous praise of attachment and loyalty to the

Franks. The vulgar herd of the cities and the country would have

gladly submitted to a mild and regular servitude; and the

transient disorders of war would have been obliterated by some

years of industry and peace. But peace was banished, and

industry was crushed, in the disorders of the feudal system. The

Roman emperors of Constantinople, if they were endowed with

abilities, were armed with power for the protection of their

subjects: their laws were wise, and their administration was

simple. The Latin throne was filled by a titular prince, the

chief, and often the servant, of his licentious confederates; the

fiefs of the empire, from a kingdom to a castle, were held and

ruled by the sword of the barons; and their discord, poverty, and

ignorance, extended the ramifications of tyranny to the most

sequestered villages. The Greeks were oppressed by the double

weight of the priest, who were invested with temporal power, and

of the soldier, who was inflamed by fanatic hatred; and the

insuperable bar of religion and language forever separated the

stranger and the native. As long as the crusaders were united at

Constantinople, the memory of their conquest, and the terror of

their arms, imposed silence on the captive land: their dispersion

betrayed the smallness of their numbers and the defects of their

discipline; and some failures and mischances revealed the secret,

that they were not invincible. As the fears of the Greeks abated,

their hatred increased. They murdered; they conspired; and

before a year of slavery had elapsed, they implored, or accepted,

the succor of a Barbarian, whose power they had felt, and whose

gratitude they trusted. ^23

[Footnote 17: See the fate of Mourzoufle in Nicetas, (p. 393,)

Villehardouin, (No. 141 - 145, 163,) and Guntherus, (c. 20, 21.)

Neither the marshal nor the monk afford a grain of pity for a

tyrant or rebel, whose punishment, however, was more unexampled

than his crime.]

[Footnote 18: The column of Arcadius, which represents in basso

relievo his victories, or those of his father Theodosius, is

still extant at Constantinople. It is described and measured,

Gyllius, (Topograph. iv. 7,) Banduri, (ad l. i. Antiquit. C.P. p.

507, &c.,) and Tournefort, (Voyage du Levant, tom. ii. lettre

xii. p. 231.) (Compare Wilken, note, vol. v p. 388. - M.)]

[Footnote 19: The nonsense of Gunther and the modern Greeks

concerning this columna fatidica, is unworthy of notice; but it

is singular enough, that fifty years before the Latin conquest,

the poet Tzetzes, (Chiliad, ix. 277) relates the dream of a

matron, who saw an army in the forum, and a man sitting on the

column, clapping his hands, and uttering a loud exclamation.

Note: We read in the "Chronicle of the Conquest of

Constantinople, and of the Establishment of the French in the

Morea," translated by J A Buchon, Paris, 1825, p. 64 that Leo

VI., called the Philosopher, had prophesied that a perfidious

emperor should be precipitated from the top of this column. The

crusaders considered themselves under an obligation to fulfil

this prophecy. Brosset, note on Le Beau, vol. xvii. p. 180. M

Brosset announces that a complete edition of this work, of which

the original Greek of the first book only has been published by

M. Buchon in preparation, to form part of the new series of the

Byzantine historian - M.]

[Footnote 20: The dynasties of Nice, Trebizond, and Epirus (of

which Nicetas saw the origin without much pleasure or hope) are

learnedly explored, and clearly represented, in the Familiae

Byzantinae of Ducange.]

[Footnote *: This was a title, not a personal appellation.

Joinville speaks of the "Grant Comnenie, et sire de

Traffezzontes." Fallmerayer, p. 82. - M.]

[Footnote 21: Except some facts in Pachymer and Nicephorus

Gregoras, which will hereafter be used, the Byzantine writers

disdain to speak of the empire of Trebizond, or principality of

the Lazi; and among the Latins, it is conspicuous only in the

romancers of the xivth or xvth centuries. Yet the indefatigable

Ducange has dug out (Fam. Byz. p. 192) two authentic passages in

Vincent of Beauvais (l. xxxi. c. 144) and the prothonotary

Ogerius, (apud Wading, A.D. 1279, No. 4.)]

[Footnote !: On the revolutions of Trebizond under the later

empire down to this period, see Fallmerayer, Geschichte des

Kaiserthums von Trapezunt, ch. iii. The wife of Manuel fled with

her infant sons and her treasure from the relentless enmity of

Isaac Angelus. Fallmerayer conjectures that her arrival enabled

the Greeks of that region to make head against the formidable

Thamar, the Georgian queen of Teflis, p. 42. They gradually

formed a dominion on the banks of the Phasis, which the

distracted government of the Angeli neglected or were unable to

suppress. On the capture of Constantinople by the Latins,

Alexius was joined by many noble fugitives from Constantinople.

He had always retained the name of Caesar. He now fixed the seat

of his empire at Trebizond; but he had never abandoned his

pretensions to the Byzantine throne, ch. iii. Fallmerayer appears

to make out a triumphant case as to the assumption of the royal

title by Alexius the First. Since the publication of M.

Fallmerayer's work, (Munchen, 1827,) M. Tafel has published, at

the end of the opuscula of Eustathius, a curious chronicle of

Trebizond by Michael Panaretas, (Frankfort, 1832.) It gives the

succession of the emperors, and some other curious circumstances

of their wars with the several Mahometan powers. - M.]

[Footnote !!: The successor of Alexius was his son-in-law

Andronicus I., of the Comnenian family, surnamed Gidon. There

were five successions between Alexius and John, according to

Fallmerayer, p. 103. The troops of Trebizond fought in the army

of Dschelaleddin, the Karismian, against Alleddin, the Seljukian

sultan of Roum, but as allies rather than vassals, p. 107. It

was after the defeat of Dschelaleddin that they furnished their

contingent to Alai-eddin. Fallmerayer struggles in vain to

mitigate this mark of the subjection of the Comneni to the

sultan. p. 116. - M.]

[Footnote 22: The portrait of the French Latins is drawn in

Nicetas by the hand of prejudice and resentment. (P. 791 Ed.

Bak.)]

[Footnote 23: I here begin to use, with freedom and confidence,

the eight books of the Histoire de C. P. sous l'Empire des

Francois, which Ducange has given as a supplement to

Villehardouin; and which, in a barbarous style, deserves the

praise of an original and classic work.]

The Latin conquerors had been saluted with a solemn and

early embassy from John, or Joannice, or Calo-John, the revolted

chief of the Bulgarians and Walachians. He deemed himself their

brother, as the votary of the Roman pontiff, from whom he had

received the regal title and a holy banner; and in the subversion

of the Greek monarchy, he might aspire to the name of their

friend and accomplice. But Calo-John was astonished to find,

that the Count of Flanders had assumed the pomp and pride of the

successors of Constantine; and his ambassadors were dismissed

with a haughty message, that the rebel must deserve a pardon, by

touching with his forehead the footstool of the Imperial throne.

His resentment ^24 would have exhaled in acts of violence and

blood: his cooler policy watched the rising discontent of the

Greeks; affected a tender concern for their sufferings; and

promised, that their first struggles for freedom should be

supported by his person and kingdom. The conspiracy was

propagated by national hatred, the firmest band of association

and secrecy: the Greeks were impatient to sheathe their daggers

in the breasts of the victorious strangers; but the execution was

prudently delayed, till Henry, the emperor's brother, had

transported the flower of his troops beyond the Hellespont. Most

of the towns and villages of Thrace were true to the moment and

the signal; and the Latins, without arms or suspicion, were

slaughtered by the vile and merciless revenge of their slaves.

From Demotica, the first scene of the massacre, the surviving

vassals of the count of St. Pol escaped to Adrianople; but the

French and Venetians, who occupied that city, were slain or

expelled by the furious multitude: the garrisons that could

effect their retreat fell back on each other towards the

metropolis; and the fortresses, that separately stood against the

rebels, were ignorant of each other's and of their sovereign's

fate. The voice of fame and fear announced the revolt of the

Greeks and the rapid approach of their Bulgarian ally; and

Calo-John, not depending on the forces of his own kingdom, had

drawn from the Scythian wilderness a body of fourteen thousand

Comans, who drank, as it was said, the blood of their captives,

and sacrificed the Christians on the altars of their gods. ^25

[Footnote 24: In Calo-John's answer to the pope we may find his

claims and complaints, (Gesta Innocent III. c. 108, 109:) he was

cherished at Rome as the prodigal son.]

[Footnote 25: The Comans were a Tartar or Turkman horde, which

encamped in the xiith and xiiith centuries on the verge of

Moldavia. The greater part were pagans, but some were

Mahometans, and the whole horde was converted to Christianity

(A.D. 1370) by Lewis, king of Hungary]

Alarmed by this sudden and growing danger, the emperor

despatched a swift messenger to recall Count Henry and his

troops; and had Baldwin expected the return of his gallant

brother, with a supply of twenty thousand Armenians, he might

have encountered the invader with equal numbers and a decisive

superiority of arms and discipline. But the spirit of chivalry

could seldom discriminate caution from cowardice; and the emperor

took the field with a hundred and forty knights, and their train

of archers and sergeants. The marshal, who dissuaded and obeyed,

led the vanguard in their march to Adrianople; the main body was

commanded by the count of Blois; the aged doge of Venice followed

with the rear; and their scanty numbers were increased from all

sides by the fugitive Latins. They undertook to besiege the

rebels of Adrianople; and such was the pious tendency of the

crusades that they employed the holy week in pillaging the

country for their subsistence, and in framing engines for the

destruction of their fellow- Christians. But the Latins were

soon interrupted and alarmed by the light cavalry of the Comans,

who boldly skirmished to the edge of their imperfect lines: and a

proclamation was issued by the marshal of Romania, that, on the

trumpet's sound, the cavalry should mount and form; but that

none, under pain of death, should abandon themselves to a

desultory and dangerous pursuit. This wise injunction was first

disobeyed by the count of Blois, who involved the emperor in his

rashness and ruin. The Comans, of the Parthian or Tartar school,

fled before their first charge; but after a career of two

leagues, when the knights and their horses were almost

breathless, they suddenly turned, rallied, and encompassed the

heavy squadrons of the Franks. The count was slain on the field;

the emperor was made prisoner; and if the one disdained to fly,

if the other refused to yield, their personal bravery made a poor

atonement for their ignorance, or neglect, of the duties of a

general. ^26

[Footnote 26: Nicetas, from ignorance or malice, imputes the

defeat to the cowardice of Dandolo, (p. 383;) but Villehardouin

shares his own glory with his venerable friend, qui viels home

ere et gote ne veoit, mais mult ere sages et preus et vigueros,

(No. 193.)

Note: Gibbon appears to me to have misapprehended the

passage of Nicetas. He says, "that principal and subtlest

mischief. that primary cause of all the horrible miseries

suffered by the Romans," i. e. the Byzantines. It is an effusion

of malicious triumph against the Venetians, to whom he always

ascribes the capture of Constantinople. - M.]

Chapter LXI: Partition Of The Empire By The French And Venetians.

Part II.

Proud of his victory and his royal prize, the Bulgarian

advanced to relieve Adrianople and achieve the destruction of the

Latins. They must inevitably have been destroyed, if the marshal

of Romania had not displayed a cool courage and consummate skill;

uncommon in all ages, but most uncommon in those times, when war

was a passion, rather than a science. His grief and fears were

poured into the firm and faithful bosom of the doge; but in the

camp he diffused an assurance of safety, which could only be

realized by the general belief. All day he maintained his

perilous station between the city and the Barbarians:

Villehardouin decamped in silence at the dead of night; and his

masterly retreat of three days would have deserved the praise of

Xenophon and the ten thousand. In the rear, the marshal

supported the weight of the pursuit; in the front, he moderated

the impatience of the fugitives; and wherever the Comans

approached, they were repelled by a line of impenetrable spears.

On the third day, the weary troops beheld the sea, the solitary

town of Rodosta, ^27 and their friends, who had landed from the

Asiatic shore. They embraced, they wept; but they united their

arms and counsels; and in his brother's absence, Count Henry

assumed the regency of the empire, at once in a state of

childhood and caducity. ^28 If the Comans withdrew from the

summer heats, seven thousand Latins, in the hour of danger,

deserted Constantinople, their brethren, and their vows. Some

partial success was overbalanced by the loss of one hundred and

twenty knights in the field of Rusium; and of the Imperial

domain, no more was left than the capital, with two or three

adjacent fortresses on the shores of Europe and Asia. The king

of Bulgaria was resistless and inexorable; and Calo-John

respectfully eluded the demands of the pope, who conjured his new

proselyte to restore peace and the emperor to the afflicted

Latins. The deliverance of Baldwin was no longer, he said, in

the power of man: that prince had died in prison; and the manner

of his death is variously related by ignorance and credulity.

The lovers of a tragic legend will be pleased to hear, that the

royal captive was tempted by the amorous queen of the Bulgarians;

that his chaste refusal exposed him to the falsehood of a woman

and the jealousy of a savage; that his hands and feet were

severed from his body; that his bleeding trunk was cast among the

carcasses of dogs and horses; and that he breathed three days,

before he was devoured by the birds of prey. ^29 About twenty

years afterwards, in a wood of the Netherlands, a hermit

announced himself as the true Baldwin, the emperor of

Constantinople, and lawful sovereign of Flanders. He related the

wonders of his escape, his adventures, and his penance, among a

people prone to believe and to rebel; and, in the first

transport, Flanders acknowledged her long-lost sovereign. A

short examination before the French court detected the impostor,

who was punished with an ignominious death; but the Flemings

still adhered to the pleasing error; and the countess Jane is

accused by the gravest historians of sacrificing to her ambition

the life of an unfortunate father. ^30

[Footnote 27: The truth of geography, and the original text of

Villehardouin, (No. 194,) place Rodosto three days' journey

(trois jornees) from Adrianople: but Vigenere, in his version,

has most absurdly substituted trois heures; and this error, which

is not corrected by Ducange has entrapped several moderns, whose

names I shall spare.]

[Footnote 28: The reign and end of Baldwin are related by

Villehardouin and Nicetas, (p. 386 - 416;) and their omissions

are supplied by Ducange in his Observations, and to the end of

his first book.]

[Footnote 29: After brushing away all doubtful and improbable

circumstances, we may prove the death of Baldwin, 1. By the firm

belief of the French barons, (Villehardouin, No. 230.) 2. By the

declaration of Calo-John himself, who excuses his not releasing

the captive emperor, quia debitum carnis exsolverat cum carcere

teneretur, (Gesta Innocent III. c. 109.)

Note: Compare Von Raumer. Geschichte der Hohenstaufen, vol.

ii. p. 237. Petitot, in his preface to Villehardouin in the

Collection des Memoires, relatifs a l'Histoire de France, tom. i.

p. 85, expresses his belief in the first part of the "tragic

legend." - M.]

[Footnote 30: See the story of this impostor from the French and

Flemish writers in Ducange, Hist. de C. P. iii. 9; and the

ridiculous fables that were believed by the monks of St. Alban's,

in Matthew Paris, Hist. Major, p. 271, 272.

In all civilized hostility, a treaty is established for the

exchange or ransom of prisoners; and if their captivity be

prolonged, their condition is known, and they are treated

according to their rank with humanity or honor. But the savage

Bulgarian was a stranger to the laws of war: his prisons were

involved in darkness and silence; and above a year elapsed before

the Latins could be assured of the death of Baldwin, before his

brother, the regent Henry, would consent to assume the title of

emperor. His moderation was applauded by the Greeks as an act of

rare and inimitable virtue. Their light and perfidious ambition

was eager to seize or anticipate the moment of a vacancy, while a

law of succession, the guardian both of the prince and people,

was gradually defined and confirmed in the hereditary monarchies

of Europe. In the support of the Eastern empire, Henry was

gradually left without an associate, as the heroes of the crusade

retired from the world or from the war. The doge of Venice, the

venerable Dandolo, in the fulness of years and glory, sunk into

the grave. The marquis of Montferrat was slowly recalled from

the Peloponnesian war to the revenge of Baldwin and the defence

of Thessalonica. Some nice disputes of feudal homage and service

were reconciled in a personal interview between the emperor and

the king; they were firmly united by mutual esteem and the common

danger; and their alliance was sealed by the nuptials of Henry

with the daughter of the Italian prince. He soon deplored the

loss of his friend and father. At the persuasion of some

faithful Greeks, Boniface made a bold and successful inroad among

the hills of Rhodope: the Bulgarians fled on his approach; they

assembled to harass his retreat. On the intelligence that his

rear was attacked, without waiting for any defensive armor, he

leaped on horseback, couched his lance, and drove the enemies

before him; but in the rash pursuit he was pierced with a mortal

wound; and the head of the king of Thessalonica was presented to

Calo-John, who enjoyed the honors, without the merit, of victory.

It is here, at this melancholy event, that the pen or the voice

of Jeffrey of Villehardouin seems to drop or to expire; ^31 and

if he still exercised his military office of marshal of Romania,

his subsequent exploits are buried in oblivion. ^32 The character

of Henry was not unequal to his arduous situation: in the siege

of Constantinople, and beyond the Hellespont, he had deserved the

fame of a valiant knight and a skilful commander; and his courage

was tempered with a degree of prudence and mildness unknown to

his impetuous brother. In the double war against the Greeks of

Asia and the Bulgarians of Europe, he was ever the foremost on

shipboard or on horseback; and though he cautiously provided for

the success of his arms, the drooping Latins were often roused by

his example to save and to second their fearless emperor. But

such efforts, and some supplies of men and money from France,

were of less avail than the errors, the cruelty, and death, of

their most formidable adversary. When the despair of the Greek

subjects invited Calo- John as their deliverer, they hoped that

he would protect their liberty and adopt their laws: they were

soon taught to compare the degrees of national ferocity, and to

execrate the savage conqueror, who no longer dissembled his

intention of dispeopling Thrace, of demolishing the cities, and

of transplanting the inhabitants beyond the Danube. Many towns

and villages of Thrace were already evacuated: a heap of ruins

marked the place of Philippopolis, and a similar calamity was

expected at Demotica and Adrianople, by the first authors of the

revolt. They raised a cry of grief and repentance to the throne

of Henry; the emperor alone had the magnanimity to forgive and

trust them. No more than four hundred knights, with their

sergeants and archers, could be assembled under his banner; and

with this slender force he fought ^* and repulsed the Bulgarian,

who, besides his infantry, was at the head of forty thousand

horse. In this expedition, Henry felt the difference between a

hostile and a friendly country: the remaining cities were

preserved by his arms; and the savage, with shame and loss, was

compelled to relinquish his prey. The siege of Thessalonica was

the last of the evils which Calo-John inflicted or suffered: he

was stabbed in the night in his tent; and the general, perhaps

the assassin, who found him weltering in his blood, ascribed the

blow, with general applause, to the lance of St. Demetrius. ^33

After several victories, the prudence of Henry concluded an

honorable peace with the successor of the tyrant, and with the

Greek princes of Nice and Epirus. If he ceded some doubtful

limits, an ample kingdom was reserved for himself and his

feudatories; and his reign, which lasted only ten years, afforded

a short interval of prosperity and peace. Far above the narrow

policy of Baldwin and Boniface, he freely intrusted to the Greeks

the most important offices of the state and army; and this

liberality of sentiment and practice was the more seasonable, as

the princes of Nice and Epirus had already learned to seduce and

employ the mercenary valor of the Latins. It was the aim of

Henry to unite and reward his deserving subjects, of every nation

and language; but he appeared less solicitous to accomplish the

impracticable union of the two churches. Pelagius, the pope's

legate, who acted as the sovereign of Constantinople, had

interdicted the worship of the Greeks, and sternly imposed the

payment of tithes, the double procession of the Holy Ghost, and a

blind obedience to the Roman pontiff. As the weaker party, they

pleaded the duties of conscience, and implored the rights of

toleration: "Our bodies," they said, "are Caesar's, but our souls

belong only to God. The persecution was checked by the firmness

of the emperor: ^34 and if we can believe that the same prince

was poisoned by the Greeks themselves, we must entertain a

contemptible idea of the sense and gratitude of mankind. His

valor was a vulgar attribute, which he shared with ten thousand

knights; but Henry possessed the superior courage to oppose, in a

superstitious age, the pride and avarice of the clergy. In the

cathedral of St. Sophia he presumed to place his throne on the

right hand of the patriarch; and this presumption excited the

sharpest censure of Pope Innocent the Third. By a salutary

edict, one of the first examples of the laws of mortmain, he

prohibited the alienation of fiefs: many of the Latins, desirous

of returning to Europe, resigned their estates to the church for

a spiritual or temporal reward; these holy lands were immediately

discharged from military service, and a colony of soldiers would

have been gradually transformed into a college of priests. ^35

[Footnote 31: Villehardouin, No. 257. I quote, with regret, this

lamentable conclusion, where we lose at once the original

history, and the rich illustrations of Ducange. The last pages

may derive some light from Henry's two epistles to Innocent III.,

(Gesta, c. 106, 107.)]

[Footnote 32: The marshal was alive in 1212, but he probably died

soon afterwards, without returning to France, (Ducange,

Observations sur Villehardouin, p. 238.) His fief of Messinople,

the gift of Boniface, was the ancient Maximianopolis, which

flourished in the time of Ammianus Marcellinus, among the cities

of Thrace, (No. 141.)]

[Footnote *: There was no battle. On the advance of the Latins,

John suddenly broke up his camp and retreated. The Latins

considered this unexpected deliverance almost a miracle. Le Beau

suggests the probability that the detection of the Comans, who

usually quitted the camp during the heats of summer, may have

caused the flight of the Bulgarians. Nicetas, c. 8

Villebardouin, c. 225. Le Beau, vol. xvii. p. 242. - M.]

[Footnote 33: The church of this patron of Thessalonica was

served by the canons of the holy sepulchre, and contained a

divine ointment which distilled daily and stupendous miracles,

(Ducange, Hist. de C. P. ii. 4.)]

[Footnote 34: Acropolita (c. 17) observes the persecution of the

legate, and the toleration of Henry, ('Eon, as he calls him).]

[Footnote 35: See the reign of Henry, in Ducange, (Hist. de C. P.

l. i. c. 35 - 41, l. ii. c. 1 - 22,) who is much indebted to the

Epistles of the Popes. Le Beau (Hist. du Bas Empire, tom. xxi. p.

120 - 122) has found, perhaps in Doutreman, some laws of Henry,

which determined the service of fiefs, and the prerogatives of

the emperor.]

The virtuous Henry died at Thessalonica, in the defence of

that kingdom, and of an infant, the son of his friend Boniface.

In the two first emperors of Constantinople the male line of the

counts of Flanders was extinct. But their sister Yolande was the

wife of a French prince, the mother of a numerous progeny; and

one of her daughters had married Andrew king of Hungary, a brave

and pious champion of the cross. By seating him on the Byzantine

throne, the barons of Romania would have acquired the forces of a

neighboring and warlike kingdom; but the prudent Andrew revered

the laws of succession; and the princess Yolande, with her

husband Peter of Courtenay, count of Auxerre, was invited by the

Latins to assume the empire of the East. The royal birth of his

father, the noble origin of his mother, recommended to the barons

of France the first cousin of their king. His reputation was

fair, his possessions were ample, and in the bloody crusade

against the Albigeois, the soldiers and the priests had been

abundantly satisfied of his zeal and valor. Vanity might applaud

the elevation of a French emperor of Constantinople; but prudence

must pity, rather than envy, his treacherous and imaginary

greatness. To assert and adorn his title, he was reduced to sell

or mortgage the best of his patrimony. By these expedients, the

liberality of his royal kinsman Philip Augustus, and the national

spirit of chivalry, he was enabled to pass the Alps at the head

of one hundred and forty knights, and five thousand five hundred

sergeants and archers. After some hesitation, Pope Honorius the

Third was persuaded to crown the successor of Constantine: but he

performed the ceremony in a church without the walls, lest he

should seem to imply or to bestow any right of sovereignty over

the ancient capital of the empire. The Venetians had engaged to

transport Peter and his forces beyond the Adriatic, and the

empress, with her four children, to the Byzantine palace; but

they required, as the price of their service, that he should

recover Durazzo from the despot of Epirus. Michael Angelus, or

Comnenus, the first of his dynasty, had bequeathed the succession

of his power and ambition to Theodore, his legitimate brother,

who already threatened and invaded the establishments of the

Latins. After discharging his debt by a fruitless assault, the

emperor raised the siege to prosecute a long and perilous journey

over land from Durazzo to Thessalonica. He was soon lost in the

mountains of Epirus: the passes were fortified; his provisions

exhausted; he was delayed and deceived by a treacherous

negotiation; and, after Peter of Courtenay and the Roman legate

had been arrested in a banquet, the French troops, without

leaders or hopes, were eager to exchange their arms for the

delusive promise of mercy and bread. The Vatican thundered; and

the impious Theodore was threatened with the vengeance of earth

and heaven; but the captive emperor and his soldiers were

forgotten, and the reproaches of the pope are confined to the

imprisonment of his legate. No sooner was he satisfied by the

deliverance of the priests and a promise of spiritual obedience,

than he pardoned and protected the despot of Epirus. His

peremptory commands suspended the ardor of the Venetians and the

king of Hungary; and it was only by a natural or untimely death

^36 that Peter of Courtenay was released from his hopeless

captivity. ^37

[Footnote 36: Acropolita (c. 14) affirms, that Peter of Courtenay

died by the sword, but from his dark expressions, I should

conclude a previous captivity. The Chronicle of Auxerre delays

the emperor's death till the year 1219; and Auxerre is in the

neighborhood of Courtenay.

Note: Whatever may have been the fact, this can hardly be

made out from the expressions of Acropolita. - M.]

[Footnote 37: See the reign and death of Peter of Courtenay, in

Ducange, (Hist. de C. P. l. ii. c. 22 - 28,) who feebly strives

to excuse the neglect of the emperor by Honorius III.]

The long ignorance of his fate, and the presence of the

lawful sovereign, of Yolande, his wife or widow, delayed the

proclamation of a new emperor. Before her death, and in the midst

of her grief, she was delivered of a son, who was named Baldwin,

the last and most unfortunate of the Latin princes of

Constantinople. His birth endeared him to the barons of Romania;

but his childhood would have prolonged the troubles of a

minority, and his claims were superseded by the elder claims of

his brethren. The first of these, Philip of Courtenay, who

derived from his mother the inheritance of Namur, had the wisdom

to prefer the substance of a marquisate to the shadow of an

empire; and on his refusal, Robert, the second of the sons of

Peter and Yolande, was called to the throne of Constantinople.

Warned by his father's mischance, he pursued his slow and secure

journey through Germany and along the Danube: a passage was

opened by his sister's marriage with the king of Hungary; and the

emperor Robert was crowned by the patriarch in the cathedral of

St. Sophia. But his reign was an aera of calamity and disgrace;

and the colony, as it was styled, of New France yielded on all

sides to the Greeks of Nice and Epirus. After a victory, which he

owed to his perfidy rather than his courage, Theodore Angelus

entered the kingdom of Thessalonica, expelled the feeble

Demetrius, the son of the marquis Boniface, erected his standard

on the walls of Adrianople; and added, by his vanity, a third or

a fourth name to the list of rival emperors. The relics of the

Asiatic province were swept away by John Vataces, the son-in-law

and successor of Theodore Lascaris, and who, in a triumphant

reign of thirty-three years, displayed the virtues both of peace

and war. Under his discipline, the swords of the French

mercenaries were the most effectual instruments of his conquests,

and their desertion from the service of their country was at once

a symptom and a cause of the rising ascendant of the Greeks. By

the construction of a fleet, he obtained the command of the

Hellespont, reduced the islands of Lesbos and Rhodes, attacked

the Venetians of Candia, and intercepted the rare and

parsimonious succors of the West. Once, and once only, the Latin

emperor sent an army against Vataces; and in the defeat of that

army, the veteran knights, the last of the original conquerors,

were left on the field of battle. But the success of a foreign

enemy was less painful to the pusillanimous Robert than the

insolence of his Latin subjects, who confounded the weakness of

the emperor and of the empire. His personal misfortunes will

prove the anarchy of the government and the ferociousness of the

times. The amorous youth had neglected his Greek bride, the

daughter of Vataces, to introduce into the palace a beautiful

maid, of a private, though noble family of Artois; and her mother

had been tempted by the lustre of the purple to forfeit her

engagements with a gentleman of Burgundy. His love was converted

into rage; he assembled his friends, forced the palace gates,

threw the mother into the sea, and inhumanly cut off the nose and

lips of the wife or concubine of the emperor. Instead of

punishing the offender, the barons avowed and applauded the

savage deed, ^38 which, as a prince and as a man, it was

impossible that Robert should forgive. He escaped from the

guilty city to implore the justice or compassion of the pope: the

emperor was coolly exhorted to return to his station; before he

could obey, he sunk under the weight of grief, shame, and

impotent resentment. ^39

[Footnote 38: Marinus Sanutus (Secreta Fidelium Crucis, l. ii. p.

4, c. 18, p. 73) is so much delighted with this bloody deed, that

he has transcribed it in his margin as a bonum exemplum. Yet he

acknowledges the damsel for the lawful wife of Robert.]

[Footnote 39: See the reign of Robert, in Ducange, (Hist. de C.

P. l. ii. c. - 12.)]

It was only in the age of chivalry, that valor could ascend

from a private station to the thrones of Jerusalem and

Constantinople. The titular kingdom of Jerusalem had devolved to

Mary, the daughter of Isabella and Conrad of Montferrat, and the

granddaughter of Almeric or Amaury. She was given to John of

Brienne, of a noble family in Champagne, by the public voice, and

the judgment of Philip Augustus, who named him as the most worthy

champion of the Holy Land. ^40 In the fifth crusade, he led a

hundred thousand Latins to the conquest of Egypt: by him the

siege of Damietta was achieved; and the subsequent failure was

justly ascribed to the pride and avarice of the legate. After the

marriage of his daughter with Frederic the Second, ^41 he was

provoked by the emperor's ingratitude to accept the command of

the army of the church; and though advanced in life, and

despoiled of royalty, the sword and spirit of John of Brienne

were still ready for the service of Christendom. In the seven

years of his brother's reign, Baldwin of Courtenay had not

emerged from a state of childhood, and the barons of Romania felt

the strong necessity of placing the sceptre in the hands of a man

and a hero. The veteran king of Jerusalem might have disdained

the name and office of regent; they agreed to invest him for his

life with the title and prerogatives of emperor, on the sole

condition that Baldwin should marry his second daughter, and

succeed at a mature age to the throne of Constantinople. The

expectation, both of the Greeks and Latins, was kindled by the

renown, the choice, and the presence of John of Brienne; and they

admired his martial aspect, his green and vigorous age of more

than fourscore years, and his size and stature, which surpassed

the common measure of mankind. ^42 But avarice, and the love of

ease, appear to have chilled the ardor of enterprise: ^* his

troops were disbanded, and two years rolled away without action

or honor, till he was awakened by the dangerous alliance of

Vataces emperor of Nice, and of Azan king of Bulgaria. They

besieged Constantinople by sea and land, with an army of one

hundred thousand men, and a fleet of three hundred ships of war;

while the entire force of the Latin emperor was reduced to one

hundred and sixty knights, and a small addition of sergeants and

archers. I tremble to relate, that instead of defending the

city, the hero made a sally at the head of his cavalry; and that

of forty- eight squadrons of the enemy, no more than three

escaped from the edge of his invincible sword. Fired by his

example, the infantry and the citizens boarded the vessels that

anchored close to the walls; and twenty-five were dragged in

triumph into the harbor of Constantinople. At the summons of the

emperor, the vassals and allies armed in her defence; broke

through every obstacle that opposed their passage; and, in the

succeeding year, obtained a second victory over the same enemies.

By the rude poets of the age, John of Brienne is compared to

Hector, Roland, and Judas Machabaeus: ^43 but their credit, and

his glory, receive some abatement from the silence of the Greeks.

The empire was soon deprived of the last of her champions; and

the dying monarch was ambitious to enter paradise in the habit of

a Franciscan friar. ^44

[Footnote 40: Rex igitur Franciae, deliberatione habita,

respondit nuntiis, se daturum hominem Syriae partibus aptum; in

armis probum (preux) in bellis securum, in agendis providum,

Johannem comitem Brennensem. Sanut. Secret. Fidelium, l. iii. p.

xi. c. 4, p. 205 Matthew Paris, p. 159.]

[Footnote 41: Giannone (Istoria Civile, tom. ii. l. xvi. p. 380 -

385) discusses the marriage of Frederic II. with the daughter of

John of Brienne, and the double union of the crowns of Naples and

Jerusalem.]

[Footnote 42: Acropolita, c. 27. The historian was at that time

a boy, and educated at Constantinople. In 1233, when he was

eleven years old, his father broke the Latin chain, left a

splendid fortune, and escaped to the Greek court of Nice, where

his son was raised to the highest honors.]

[Footnote *: John de Brienne, elected emperor 1229, wasted two

years in preparations, and did not arrive at Constantinople till

1231. Two years more glided away in inglorious inaction; he then

made some ineffective warlike expeditions. Constantinople was

not besieged till 1234. - M.]

[Footnote 43: Philip Mouskes, bishop of Tournay, (A.D. 1274 -

1282,) has composed a poem, or rather string of verses, in bad

old Flemish French, on the Latin emperors of Constantinople,

which Ducange has published at the end of Villehardouin; see p.

38, for the prowess of John of Brienne.

N'Aie, Ector, Roll' ne Ogiers Ne Judas Machabeus li fiers Tant ne

fit d'armes en estors Com fist li Rois Jehans cel jors Et il

defors et il dedans La paru sa force et ses sens Et li hardiment

qu'il avoit.]

[Footnote 44: See the reign of John de Brienne, in Ducange, Hist.

de C. P. l. ii. c. 13 - 26.]

In the double victory of John of Brienne, I cannot discover

the name or exploits of his pupil Baldwin, who had attained the

age of military service, and who succeeded to the imperial

dignity on the decease of his adoptive father. ^45 The royal

youth was employed on a commission more suitable to his temper;

he was sent to visit the Western courts, of the pope more

especially, and of the king of France; to excite their pity by

the view of his innocence and distress; and to obtain some

supplies of men or money for the relief of the sinking empire.

He thrice repeated these mendicant visits, in which he seemed to

prolong his stay and postpone his return; of the five-and-twenty

years of his reign, a greater number were spent abroad than at

home; and in no place did the emperor deem himself less free and

secure than in his native country and his capital. On some

public occasions, his vanity might be soothed by the title of

Augustus, and by the honors of the purple; and at the general

council of Lyons, when Frederic the Second was excommunicated and

deposed, his Oriental colleague was enthroned on the right hand

of the pope. But how often was the exile, the vagrant, the

Imperial beggar, humbled with scorn, insulted with pity, and

degraded in his own eyes and those of the nations! In his first

visit to England, he was stopped at Dover by a severe reprimand,

that he should presume, without leave, to enter an independent

kingdom. After some delay, Baldwin, however, was permitted to

pursue his journey, was entertained with cold civility, and

thankfully departed with a present of seven hundred marks. ^46

From the avarice of Rome he could only obtain the proclamation of

a crusade, and a treasure of indulgences; a coin whose currency

was depreciated by too frequent and indiscriminate abuse. His

birth and misfortunes recommended him to the generosity of his

cousin Louis the Ninth; but the martial zeal of the saint was

diverted from Constantinople to Egypt and Palestine; and the

public and private poverty of Baldwin was alleviated, for a

moment, by the alienation of the marquisate of Namur and the

lordship of Courtenay, the last remains of his inheritance. ^47

By such shameful or ruinous expedients, he once more returned to

Romania, with an army of thirty thousand soldiers, whose numbers

were doubled in the apprehension of the Greeks. His first

despatches to France and England announced his victories and his

hopes: he had reduced the country round the capital to the

distance of three days' journey; and if he succeeded against an

important, though nameless, city, (most probably Chiorli,) the

frontier would be safe and the passage accessible. But these

expectations (if Baldwin was sincere) quickly vanished like a

dream: the troops and treasures of France melted away in his

unskilful hands; and the throne of the Latin emperor was

protected by a dishonorable alliance with the Turks and Comans.

To secure the former, he consented to bestow his niece on the

unbelieving sultan of Cogni; to please the latter, he complied

with their Pagan rites; a dog was sacrificed between the two

armies; and the contracting parties tasted each other's blood, as

a pledge of their fidelity. ^48 In the palace, or prison, of

Constantinople, the successor of Augustus demolished the vacant

houses for winter fuel, and stripped the lead from the churches

for the daily expense of his family. Some usurious loans were

dealt with a scanty hand by the merchants of Italy; and Philip,

his son and heir, was pawned at Venice as the security for a

debt. ^49 Thirst, hunger, and nakedness, are positive evils: but

wealth is relative; and a prince who would be rich in a private

station, may be exposed by the increase of his wants to all the

anxiety and bitterness of poverty.

[Footnote 45: See the reign of Baldwin II. till his expulsion

from Constantinople, in Ducange, Hist. de C. P. l. iv. c. 1 - 34,

the end l. v. c. 1 - 33]

[Footnote 46: Matthew Paris relates the two visits of Baldwin II.

to the English court, p. 396, 637; his return to Greece armata

manu, p. 407 his letters of his nomen formidabile, &c., p. 481,

(a passage which has escaped Ducange;) his expulsion, p. 850.]

[Footnote 47: Louis IX. disapproved and stopped the alienation of

Courtenay (Ducange, l. iv. c. 23.) It is now annexed to the royal

demesne but granted for a term (engage) to the family of

Boulainvilliers. Courtenay, in the election of Nemours in the

Isle de France, is a town of 900 inhabitants, with the remains of

a castle, (Melanges tires d'une Grande Bibliotheque, tom. xlv. p.

74 - 77.)]

[Footnote 48: Joinville, p. 104, edit. du Louvre. A Coman

prince, who died without baptism, was buried at the gates of

Constantinople with a live retinue of slaves and horses.]

[Footnote 49: Sanut. Secret. Fidel. Crucis, l. ii. p. iv. c. 18,

p. 73.]

Chapter LXI: Partition Of The Empire By The French And Venetians.

Part III.

But in this abject distress, the emperor and empire were

still possessed of an ideal treasure, which drew its fantastic

value from the superstition of the Christian world. The merit of

the true cross was somewhat impaired by its frequent division;

and a long captivity among the infidels might shed some suspicion

on the fragments that were produced in the East and West. But

another relic of the Passion was preserved in the Imperial chapel

of Constantinople; and the crown of thorns which had been placed

on the head of Christ was equally precious and authentic. It had

formerly been the practice of the Egyptian debtors to deposit, as

a security, the mummies of their parents; and both their honor

and religion were bound for the redemption of the pledge. In the

same manner, and in the absence of the emperor, the barons of

Romania borrowed the sum of thirteen thousand one hundred and

thirty-four pieces of gold ^50 on the credit of the holy crown:

they failed in the performance of their contract; and a rich

Venetian, Nicholas Querini, undertook to satisfy their impatient

creditors, on condition that the relic should be lodged at

Venice, to become his absolute property, if it were not redeemed

within a short and definite term. The barons apprised their

sovereign of the hard treaty and impending loss and as the empire

could not afford a ransom of seven thousand pounds sterling,

Baldwin was anxious to snatch the prize from the Venetians, and

to vest it with more honor and emolument in the hands of the most

Christian king. ^51 Yet the negotiation was attended with some

delicacy. In the purchase of relics, the saint would have

started at the guilt of simony; but if the mode of expression

were changed, he might lawfully repay the debt, accept the gift,

and acknowledge the obligation. His ambassadors, two Dominicans,

were despatched to Venice to redeem and receive the holy crown

which had escaped the dangers of the sea and the galleys of

Vataces. On opening a wooden box, they recognized the seals of

the doge and barons, which were applied on a shrine of silver;

and within this shrine the monument of the Passion was enclosed

in a golden vase. The reluctant Venetians yielded to justice and

power: the emperor Frederic granted a free and honorable passage;

the court of France advanced as far as Troyes in Champagne, to

meet with devotion this inestimable relic: it was borne in

triumph through Paris by the king himself, barefoot, and in his

shirt; and a free gift of ten thousand marks of silver reconciled

Baldwin to his loss. The success of this transaction tempted the

Latin emperor to offer with the same generosity the remaining

furniture of his chapel; ^52 a large and authentic portion of the

true cross; the baby-linen of the Son of God, the lance, the

sponge, and the chain, of his Passion; the rod of Moses, and part

of the skull of St. John the Baptist. For the reception of these

spiritual treasures, twenty thousand marks were expended by St.

Louis on a stately foundation, the holy chapel of Paris, on which

the muse of Boileau has bestowed a comic immortality. The truth

of such remote and ancient relics, which cannot be proved by any

human testimony, must be admitted by those who believe in the

miracles which they have performed. About the middle of the last

age, an inveterate ulcer was touched and cured by a holy prickle

of the holy crown: ^53 the prodigy is attested by the most pious

and enlightened Christians of France; nor will the fact be easily

disproved, except by those who are armed with a general antidote

against religious credulity. ^54

[Footnote 50: Under the words Perparus, Perpera, Hyperperum,

Ducange is short and vague: Monetae genus. From a corrupt

passage of Guntherus, (Hist. C. P. c. 8, p. 10,) I guess that the

Perpera was the nummus aureus, the fourth part of a mark of

silver, or about ten shillings sterling in value. In lead it

would be too contemptible.]

[Footnote 51: For the translation of the holy crown, &c., from

Constantinople to Paris, see Ducange (Hist. de C. P. l. iv. c. 11

- 14, 24, 35) and Fleury, (Hist. Eccles. tom. xvii. p. 201 -

204.)]

[Footnote 52: Melanges tires d'une Grande Bibliotheque, tom.

xliii. p. 201 - 205. The Lutrin of Boileau exhibits the inside,

the soul and manners of the Sainte Chapelle; and many facts

relative to the institution are collected and explained by his

commentators, Brosset and De St. Marc.]

[Footnote 53: It was performed A.D. 1656, March 24, on the niece

of Pascal; and that superior genius, with Arnauld, Nicole, &c.,

were on the spot, to believe and attest a miracle which

confounded the Jesuits, and saved Port Royal, (Oeuvres de Racine,

tom. vi. p. 176 - 187, in his eloquent History of Port Royal.)]

[Footnote 54: Voltaire (Siecle de Louis XIV. c. 37, (Oeuvres,

tom. ix. p. 178, 179) strives to invalidate the fact: but Hume,

(Essays, vol. ii. p. 483, 484,) with more skill and success,

seizes the battery, and turns the cannon against his enemies.]

The Latins of Constantinople ^55 were on all sides

encompassed and pressed; their sole hope, the last delay of their

ruin, was in the division of their Greek and Bulgarian enemies;

and of this hope they were deprived by the superior arms and

policy of Vataces, emperor of Nice. From the Propontis to the

rocky coast of Pamphylia, Asia was peaceful and prosperous under

his reign; and the events of every campaign extended his

influence in Europe. The strong cities of the hills of Macedonia

and Thrace were rescued from the Bulgarians; and their kingdom

was circumscribed by its present and proper limits, along the

southern banks of the Danube. The sole emperor of the Romans

could no longer brook that a lord of Epirus, a Comnenian prince

of the West, should presume to dispute or share the honors of the

purple; and the humble Demetrius changed the color of his

buskins, and accepted with gratitude the appellation of despot.

His own subjects were exasperated by his baseness and incapacity;

they implored the protection of their supreme lord. After some

resistance, the kingdom of Thessalonica was united to the empire

of Nice; and Vataces reigned without a competitor from the

Turkish borders to the Adriatic Gulf. The princes of Europe

revered his merit and power; and had he subscribed an orthodox

creed, it should seem that the pope would have abandoned without

reluctance the Latin throne of Constantinople. But the death of

Vataces, the short and busy reign of Theodore his son, and the

helpless infancy of his grandson John, suspended the restoration

of the Greeks. In the next chapter, I shall explain their

domestic revolutions; in this place, it will be sufficient to

observe, that the young prince was oppressed by the ambition of

his guardian and colleague, Michael Palaeologus, who displayed

the virtues and vices that belong to the founder of a new

dynasty. The emperor Baldwin had flattered himself, that he

might recover some provinces or cities by an impotent

negotiation. His ambassadors were dismissed from Nice with

mockery and contempt. At every place which they named,

Palaeologus alleged some special reason, which rendered it dear

and valuable in his eyes: in the one he was born; in another he

had been first promoted to military command; and in a third he

had enjoyed, and hoped long to enjoy, the pleasures of the chase.

"And what then do you propose to give us?" said the astonished

deputies. "Nothing," replied the Greek, "not a foot of land. If

your master be desirous of peace, let him pay me, as an annual

tribute, the sum which he receives from the trade and customs of

Constantinople. On these terms, I may allow him to reign. If he

refuses, it is war. I am not ignorant of the art of war, and I

trust the event to God and my sword." ^56 An expedition against

the despot of Epirus was the first prelude of his arms. If a

victory was followed by a defeat; if the race of the Comneni or

Angeli survived in those mountains his efforts and his reign; the

captivity of Villehardouin, prince of Achaia, deprived the Latins

of the most active and powerful vassal of their expiring

monarchy. The republics of Venice and Genoa disputed, in the

first of their naval wars, the command of the sea and the

commerce of the East. Pride and interest attached the Venetians

to the defence of Constantinople; their rivals were tempted to

promote the designs of her enemies, and the alliance of the

Genoese with the schismatic conqueror provoked the indignation of

the Latin church. ^57

[Footnote 55: The gradual losses of the Latins may be traced in

the third fourth, and fifth books of the compilation of Ducange:

but of the Greek conquests he has dropped many circumstances,

which may be recovered from the larger history of George

Acropolita, and the three first books of Nicephorus, Gregoras,

two writers of the Byzantine series, who have had the good

fortune to meet with learned editors Leo Allatius at Rome, and

John Boivin in the Academy of Inscriptions of Paris.]

[Footnote 56: George Acropolita, c. 78, p. 89, 90. edit. Paris.]

[Footnote 57: The Greeks, ashamed of any foreign aid, disguise

the alliance and succor of the Genoese: but the fact is proved by

the testimony of J Villani (Chron. l. vi. c. 71, in Muratori,

Script. Rerum Italicarum, tom. xiii. p. 202, 203) and William de

Nangis, (Annales de St. Louis, p. 248 in the Louvre Joinville,)

two impartial foreigners; and Urban IV threatened to deprive

Genoa of her archbishop.]

Intent on his great object, the emperor Michael visited in

person and strengthened the troops and fortifications of Thrace.

The remains of the Latins were driven from their last

possessions: he assaulted without success the suburb of Galata;

and corresponded with a perfidious baron, who proved unwilling,

or unable, to open the gates of the metropolis. The next spring,

his favorite general, Alexius Strategopulus, whom he had

decorated with the title of Caesar, passed the Hellespont with

eight hundred horse and some infantry, ^58 on a secret

expedition. His instructions enjoined him to approach, to

listen, to watch, but not to risk any doubtful or dangerous

enterprise against the city. The adjacent territory between the

Propontis and the Black Sea was cultivated by a hardy race of

peasants and outlaws, exercised in arms, uncertain in their

allegiance, but inclined by language, religion, and present

advantage, to the party of the Greeks. They were styled the

volunteers; ^59 and by their free service the army of Alexius,

with the regulars of Thrace and the Coman auxiliaries, ^60 was

augmented to the number of five-and-twenty thousand men. By the

ardor of the volunteers, and by his own ambition, the Caesar was

stimulated to disobey the precise orders of his master, in the

just confidence that success would plead his pardon and reward.

The weakness of Constantinople, and the distress and terror of

the Latins, were familiar to the observation of the volunteers;

and they represented the present moment as the most propitious to

surprise and conquest. A rash youth, the new governor of the

Venetian colony, had sailed away with thirty galleys, and the

best of the French knights, on a wild expedition to Daphnusia, a

town on the Black Sea, at the distance of forty leagues; ^* and

the remaining Latins were without strength or suspicion. They

were informed that Alexius had passed the Hellespont; but their

apprehensions were lulled by the smallness of his original

numbers; and their imprudence had not watched the subsequent

increase of his army. If he left his main body to second and

support his operations, he might advance unperceived in the night

with a chosen detachment. While some applied scaling-ladders to

the lowest part of the walls, they were secure of an old Greek,

who would introduce their companions through a subterraneous

passage into his house; they could soon on the inside break an

entrance through the golden gate, which had been long obstructed;

and the conqueror would be in the heart of the city before the

Latins were conscious of their danger. After some debate, the

Caesar resigned himself to the faith of the volunteers; they were

trusty, bold, and successful; and in describing the plan, I have

already related the execution and success. ^61 But no sooner had

Alexius passed the threshold of the golden gate, than he trembled

at his own rashness; he paused, he deliberated; till the

desperate volunteers urged him forwards, by the assurance that in

retreat lay the greatest and most inevitable danger. Whilst the

Caesar kept his regulars in firm array, the Comans dispersed

themselves on all sides; an alarm was sounded, and the threats of

fire and pillage compelled the citizens to a decisive resolution.

The Greeks of Constantinople remembered their native sovereigns;

the Genoese merchants their recent alliance and Venetian foes;

every quarter was in arms; and the air resounded with a general

acclamation of "Long life and victory to Michael and John, the

august emperors of the Romans!" Their rival, Baldwin, was

awakened by the sound; but the most pressing danger could not

prompt him to draw his sword in the defence of a city which he

deserted, perhaps, with more pleasure than regret: he fled from

the palace to the seashore, where he descried the welcome sails

of the fleet returning from the vain and fruitless attempt on

Daphnusia. Constantinople was irrecoverably lost; but the Latin

emperor and the principal families embarked on board the Venetian

galleys, and steered for the Isle of Euboea, and afterwards for

Italy, where the royal fugitive was entertained by the pope and

Sicilian king with a mixture of contempt and pity. From the loss

of Constantinople to his death, he consumed thirteen years,

soliciting the Catholic powers to join in his restoration: the

lesson had been familiar to his youth; nor was his last exile

more indigent or shameful than his three former pilgrimages to

the courts of Europe. His son Philip was the heir of an ideal

empire; and the pretensions of his daughter Catherine were

transported by her marriage to Charles of Valois, the brother of

Philip the Fair, king of France. The house of Courtenay was

represented in the female line by successive alliances, till the

title of emperor of Constantinople, too bulky and sonorous for a

private name, modestly expired in silence and oblivion. ^62

[Footnote 58: Some precautions must be used in reconciling the

discordant numbers; the 800 soldiers of Nicetas, the 25,000 of

Spandugino, (apud Ducange, l. v. c. 24;) the Greeks and Scythians

of Acropolita; and the numerous army of Michael, in the Epistles

of Pope Urban IV. (i. 129.)]

[Footnote 59: They are described and named by Pachymer, (l. ii.

c. 14.)]

[Footnote 60: It is needless to seek these Comans in the deserts

of Tartary, or even of Moldavia. A part of the horde had

submitted to John Vataces, and was probably settled as a nursery

of soldiers on some waste lands of Thrace, (Cantacuzen. l. i. c.

2.)]

[Footnote *: According to several authorities, particularly

Abulfaradj. Chron. Arab. p. 336, this was a stratagem on the part

of the Greeks to weaken the garrison of Constantinople. The

Greek commander offered to surrender the town on the appearance

of the Venetians. - M.]

[Footnote 61: The loss of Constantinople is briefly told by the

Latins: the conquest is described with more satisfaction by the

Greeks; by Acropolita, (c. 85,) Pachymer, (l. ii. c. 26, 27,)

Nicephorus Gregoras, (l. iv. c. 1, 2) See Ducange, Hist. de C. P.

l. v. c. 19 - 27.]

[Footnote 62: See the three last books (l. v. - viii.) and the

genealogical tables of Ducange. In the year 1382, the titular

emperor of Constantinople was James de Baux, duke of Andria in

the kingdom of Naples, the son of Margaret, daughter of Catherine

de Valois, daughter of Catharine, daughter of Philip, son of

Baldwin II., (Ducange, l. viii. c. 37, 38.) It is uncertain

whether he left any posterity.]

After this narrative of the expeditions of the Latins to

Palestine and Constantinople, I cannot dismiss the subject

without resolving the general consequences on the countries that

were the scene, and on the nations that were the actors, of these

memorable crusades. ^63 As soon as the arms of the Franks were

withdrawn, the impression, though not the memory, was erased in

the Mahometan realms of Egypt and Syria. The faithful disciples

of the prophet were never tempted by a profane desire to study

the laws or language of the idolaters; nor did the simplicity of

their primitive manners receive the slightest alteration from

their intercourse in peace and war with the unknown strangers of

the West. The Greeks, who thought themselves proud, but who were

only vain, showed a disposition somewhat less inflexible. In the

efforts for the recovery of their empire, they emulated the

valor, discipline, and tactics of their antagonists. The modern

literature of the West they might justly despise; but its free

spirit would instruct them in the rights of man; and some

institutions of public and private life were adopted from the

French. The correspondence of Constantinople and Italy diffused

the knowledge of the Latin tongue; and several of the fathers and

classics were at length honored with a Greek version. ^64 But the

national and religious prejudices of the Orientals were inflamed

by persecution, and the reign of the Latins confirmed the

separation of the two churches.

[Footnote 63: Abulfeda, who saw the conclusion of the crusades,

speaks of the kingdoms of the Franks, and those of the Negroes,

as equally unknown, (Prolegom. ad Geograph.) Had he not disdained

the Latin language, how easily might the Syrian prince have found

books and interpreters!]

[Footnote 64: A short and superficial account of these versions

from Latin into Greek is given by Huet, (de Interpretatione et de

claris Interpretibus (p. 131 - 135.) Maximus Planudes, a monk of

Constantinople, (A.D. 1327 - 1353) has translated Caesar's

Commentaries, the Somnium Scipionis, the Metamorphoses and

Heroides of Ovid, &c., (Fabric. Bib. Graec. tom. x. p. 533.)]

If we compare the aera of the crusades, the Latins of Europe

with the Greeks and Arabians, their respective degrees of

knowledge, industry, and art, our rude ancestors must be content

with the third rank in the scale of nations. Their successive

improvement and present superiority may be ascribed to a peculiar

energy of character, to an active and imitative spirit, unknown

to their more polished rivals, who at that time were in a

stationary or retrograde state. With such a disposition, the

Latins should have derived the most early and essential benefits

from a series of events which opened to their eyes the prospect

of the world, and introduced them to a long and frequent

intercourse with the more cultivated regions of the East. The

first and most obvious progress was in trade and manufactures, in

the arts which are strongly prompted by the thirst of wealth, the

calls of necessity, and the gratification of the sense or vanity.

Among the crowd of unthinking fanatics, a captive or a pilgrim

might sometimes observe the superior refinements of Cairo and

Constantinople: the first importer of windmills ^65 was the

benefactor of nations; and if such blessings are enjoyed without

any grateful remembrance, history has condescended to notice the

more apparent luxuries of silk and sugar, which were transported

into Italy from Greece and Egypt. But the intellectual wants of

the Latins were more slowly felt and supplied; the ardor of

studious curiosity was awakened in Europe by different causes and

more recent events; and, in the age of the crusades, they viewed

with careless indifference the literature of the Greeks and

Arabians. Some rudiments of mathematical and medicinal knowledge

might be imparted in practice and in figures; necessity might

produce some interpreters for the grosser business of merchants

and soldiers; but the commerce of the Orientals had not diffused

the study and knowledge of their languages in the schools of

Europe. ^66 If a similar principle of religion repulsed the idiom

of the Koran, it should have excited their patience and curiosity

to understand the original text of the gospel; and the same

grammar would have unfolded the sense of Plato and the beauties

of Homer. Yet in a reign of sixty years, the Latins of

Constantinople disdained the speech and learning of their

subjects; and the manuscripts were the only treasures which the

natives might enjoy without rapine or envy. Aristotle was indeed

the oracle of the Western universities, but it was a barbarous

Aristotle; and, instead of ascending to the fountain head, his

Latin votaries humbly accepted a corrupt and remote version, from

the Jews and Moors of Andalusia. The principle of the crusades

was a savage fanaticism; and the most important effects were

analogous to the cause. Each pilgrim was ambitious to return

with his sacred spoils, the relics of Greece and Palestine; ^67

and each relic was preceded and followed by a train of miracles

and visions. The belief of the Catholics was corrupted by new

legends, their practice by new superstitions; and the

establishment of the inquisition, the mendicant orders of monks

and friars, the last abuse of indulgences, and the final progress

of idolatry, flowed from the baleful fountain of the holy war.

The active spirit of the Latins preyed on the vitals of their

reason and religion; and if the ninth and tenth centuries were

the times of darkness, the thirteenth and fourteenth were the age

of absurdity and fable.

[Footnote 65: Windmills, first invented in the dry country of

Asia Minor, were used in Normandy as early as the year 1105, (Vie

privee des Francois, tom. i. p. 42, 43. Ducange, Gloss. Latin.

tom. iv. p. 474)]

[Footnote 66: See the complaints of Roger Bacon, (Biographia

Britannica, vol. i. p. 418, Kippis's edition.) If Bacon himself,

or Gerbert, understood some Greek, they were prodigies, and owed

nothing to the commerce of the East.]

[Footnote 67: Such was the opinion of the great Leibnitz,

(Oeuvres de Fontenelle, tom. v. p. 458,) a master of the history

of the middle ages. I shall only instance the pedigree of the

Carmelites, and the flight of the house of Loretto, which were

both derived from Palestine.]

Chapter LXI: Partition Of The Empire By The French And Venetians.

Part III.

In the profession of Christianity, in the cultivation of a

fertile land, the northern conquerors of the Roman empire

insensibly mingled with the provincials, and rekindled the embers

of the arts of antiquity. Their settlements about the age of

Charlemagne had acquired some degree of order and stability, when

they were overwhelmed by new swarms of invaders, the Normans,

Saracens, ^68 and Hungarians, who replunged the western countries

of Europe into their former state of anarchy and barbarism.

About the eleventh century, the second tempest had subsided by

the expulsion or conversion of the enemies of Christendom: the

tide of civilization, which had so long ebbed, began to flow with

a steady and accelerated course; and a fairer prospect was opened

to the hopes and efforts of the rising generations. Great was the

increase, and rapid the progress, during the two hundred years of

the crusades; and some philosophers have applauded the propitious

influence of these holy wars, which appear to me to have checked

rather than forwarded the maturity of Europe. ^69 The lives and

labors of millions, which were buried in the East, would have

been more profitably employed in the improvement of their native

country: the accumulated stock of industry and wealth would have

overflowed in navigation and trade; and the Latins would have

been enriched and enlightened by a pure and friendly

correspondence with the climates of the East. In one respect I

can indeed perceive the accidental operation of the crusades, not

so much in producing a benefit as in removing an evil. The

larger portion of the inhabitants of Europe was chained to the

soil, without freedom, or property, or knowledge; and the two

orders of ecclesiastics and nobles, whose numbers were

comparatively small, alone deserved the name of citizens and men.

This oppressive system was supported by the arts of the clergy

and the swords of the barons. The authority of the priests

operated in the darker ages as a salutary antidote: they

prevented the total extinction of letters, mitigated the

fierceness of the times, sheltered the poor and defenceless, and

preserved or revived the peace and order of civil society. But

the independence, rapine, and discord of the feudal lords were

unmixed with any semblance of good; and every hope of industry

and improvement was crushed by the iron weight of the martial

aristocracy. Among the causes that undermined that Gothic

edifice, a conspicuous place must be allowed to the crusades.

The estates of the barons were dissipated, and their race was

often extinguished, in these costly and perilous expeditions.

Their poverty extorted from their pride those charters of freedom

which unlocked the fetters of the slave, secured the farm of the

peasant and the shop of the artificer, and gradually restored a

substance and a soul to the most numerous and useful part of the

community. The conflagration which destroyed the tall and barren

trees of the forest gave air and scope to the vegetation of the

smaller and nutritive plants of the soil. ^*

[Footnote 68: If I rank the Saracens with the Barbarians, it is

only relative to their wars, or rather inroads, in Italy and

France, where their sole purpose was to plunder and destroy.]

[Footnote 69: On this interesting subject, the progress of

society in Europe, a strong ray of philosophical light has broke

from Scotland in our own times; and it is with private, as well

as public regard, that I repeat the names of Hume, Robertson, and

Adam Smith.]

[Footnote *: On the consequences of the crusades, compare the

valuable Essay of Reeren, that of M. Choiseul d'Aillecourt, and a

chapter of Mr. Forster's "Mahometanism Unveiled." I may admire

this gentleman's learning and industry, without pledging myself

to his wild theory of prophets interpretation. - M.]

Digression On The Family Of Courtenay.

The purple of three emperors, who have reigned at

Constantinople, will authorize or excuse a digression on the

origin and singular fortunes of the house of Courtenay, ^70 in

the three principal branches: I. Of Edessa; II. Of France; and

III. Of England; of which the last only has survived the

revolutions of eight hundred years.

[Footnote 70: I have applied, but not confined, myself to A

genealogical History of the noble and illustrious Family of

Courtenay, by Ezra Cleaveland, Tutor to Sir William Courtenay,

and Rector of Honiton; Exon. 1735, in folio. The first part is

extracted from William of Tyre; the second from Bouchet's French

history; and the third from various memorials, public,

provincial, and private, of the Courtenays of Devonshire The

rector of Honiton has more gratitude than industry, and more

industry than criticism.]

I. Before the introduction of trade, which scatters riches,

and of knowledge, which dispels prejudice, the prerogative of

birth is most strongly felt and most humbly acknowledged. In

every age, the laws and manners of the Germans have discriminated

the ranks of society; the dukes and counts, who shared the empire

of Charlemagne, converted their office to an inheritance; and to

his children, each feudal lord bequeathed his honor and his

sword. The proudest families are content to lose, in the darkness

of the middle ages, the tree of their pedigree, which, however

deep and lofty, must ultimately rise from a plebeian root; and

their historians must descend ten centuries below the Christian

aera, before they can ascertain any lineal succession by the

evidence of surnames, of arms, and of authentic records. With the

first rays of light, ^71 we discern the nobility and opulence of

Atho, a French knight; his nobility, in the rank and title of a

nameless father; his opulence, in the foundation of the castle of

Courtenay in the district of Gatinois, about fifty-six miles to

the south of Paris. From the reign of Robert, the son of Hugh

Capet, the barons of Courtenay are conspicuous among the

immediate vassals of the crown; and Joscelin, the grandson of

Atho and a noble dame, is enrolled among the heroes of the first

crusade. A domestic alliance (their mothers were sisters)

attached him to the standard of Baldwin of Bruges, the second

count of Edessa; a princely fief, which he was worthy to receive,

and able to maintain, announces the number of his martial

followers; and after the departure of his cousin, Joscelin

himself was invested with the county of Edessa on both sides of

the Euphrates. By economy in peace, his territories were

replenished with Latin and Syrian subjects; his magazines with

corn, wine, and oil; his castles with gold and silver, with arms

and horses. In a holy warfare of thirty years, he was

alternately a conqueror and a captive: but he died like a

soldier, in a horse litter at the head of his troops; and his

last glance beheld the flight of the Turkish invaders who had

presumed on his age and infirmities. His son and successor, of

the same name, was less deficient in valor than in vigilance; but

he sometimes forgot that dominion is acquired and maintained by

the same arms. He challenged the hostility of the Turks, without

securing the friendship of the prince of Antioch; and, amidst the

peaceful luxury of Turbessel, in Syria, ^72 Joscelin neglected

the defence of the Christian frontier beyond the Euphrates. In

his absence, Zenghi, the first of the Atabeks, besieged and

stormed his capital, Edessa, which was feebly defended by a

timorous and disloyal crowd of Orientals: the Franks were

oppressed in a bold attempt for its recovery, and Courtenay ended

his days in the prison of Aleppo. He still left a fair and ample

patrimony But the victorious Turks oppressed on all sides the

weakness of a widow and orphan; and, for the equivalent of an

annual pension, they resigned to the Greek emperor the charge of

defending, and the shame of losing, the last relics of the Latin

conquest. The countess-dowager of Edessa retired to Jerusalem

with her two children; the daughter, Agnes, became the wife and

mother of a king; the son, Joscelin the Third, accepted the

office of seneschal, the first of the kingdom, and held his new

estates in Palestine by the service of fifty knights. His name

appears with honor in the transactions of peace and war; but he

finally vanishes in the fall of Jerusalem; and the name of

Courtenay, in this branch of Edessa, was lost by the marriage of

his two daughters with a French and German baron. ^73

[Footnote 71: The primitive record of the family is a passage of

the continuator of Aimoin, a monk of Fleury, who wrote in the

xiith century. See his Chronicle, in the Historians of France,

(tom. xi. p. 276.)]

[Footnote 72: Turbessel, or, as it is now styled, Telbesher, is

fixed by D'Anville four-and-twenty miles from the great passage

over the Euphrates at Zeugma.]

[Footnote 73: His possessions are distinguished in the Assises of

Jerusalem (c. B26) among the feudal tenures of the kingdom, which

must therefore have been collected between the years 1153 and

1187. His pedigree may be found in the Lignages d'Outremer, c.

16.]

II. While Joscelin reigned beyond the Euphrates, his elder

brother Milo, the son of Joscelin, the son of Atho, continued,

near the Seine, to possess the castle of their fathers, which was

at length inherited by Rainaud, or Reginald, the youngest of his

three sons. Examples of genius or virtue must be rare in the

annals of the oldest families; and, in a remote age their pride

will embrace a deed of rapine and violence; such, however, as

could not be perpetrated without some superiority of courage, or,

at least, of power. A descendant of Reginald of Courtenay may

blush for the public robber, who stripped and imprisoned several

merchants, after they had satisfied the king's duties at Sens and

Orleans. He will glory in the offence, since the bold offender

could not be compelled to obedience and restitution, till the

regent and the count of Champagne prepared to march against him

at the head of an army. ^74 Reginald bestowed his estates on his

eldest daughter, and his daughter on the seventh son of King

Louis the Fat; and their marriage was crowned with a numerous

offspring. We might expect that a private should have merged in

a royal name; and that the descendants of Peter of France and

Elizabeth of Courtenay would have enjoyed the titles and honors

of princes of the blood. But this legitimate claim was long

neglected, and finally denied; and the causes of their disgrace

will represent the story of this second branch. 1. Of all the

families now extant, the most ancient, doubtless, and the most

illustrious, is the house of France, which has occupied the same

throne above eight hundred years, and descends, in a clear and

lineal series of males, from the middle of the ninth century. ^75

In the age of the crusades, it was already revered both in the

East and West. But from Hugh Capet to the marriage of Peter, no

more than five reigns or generations had elapsed; and so

precarious was their title, that the eldest sons, as a necessary

precaution, were previously crowned during the lifetime of their

fathers. The peers of France have long maintained their

precedency before the younger branches of the royal line, nor had

the princes of the blood, in the twelfth century, acquired that

hereditary lustre which is now diffused over the most remote

candidates for the succession. 2. The barons of Courtenay must

have stood high in their own estimation, and in that of the

world, since they could impose on the son of a king the

obligation of adopting for himself and all his descendants the

name and arms of their daughter and his wife. In the marriage of

an heiress with her inferior or her equal, such exchange often

required and allowed: but as they continued to diverge from the

regal stem, the sons of Louis the Fat were insensibly confounded

with their maternal ancestors; and the new Courtenays might

deserve to forfeit the honors of their birth, which a motive of

interest had tempted them to renounce. 3. The shame was far more

permanent than the reward, and a momentary blaze was followed by

a long darkness. The eldest son of these nuptials, Peter of

Courtenay, had married, as I have already mentioned, the sister

of the counts of Flanders, the two first emperors of

Constantinople: he rashly accepted the invitation of the barons

of Romania; his two sons, Robert and Baldwin, successively held

and lost the remains of the Latin empire in the East, and the

granddaughter of Baldwin the Second again mingled her blood with

the blood of France and of Valois. To support the expenses of a

troubled and transitory reign, their patrimonial estates were

mortgaged or sold: and the last emperors of Constantinople

depended on the annual charity of Rome and Naples.

[Footnote 74: The rapine and satisfaction of Reginald de

Courtenay, are preposterously arranged in the Epistles of the

abbot and regent Suger, (cxiv. cxvi.,) the best memorials of the

age, (Duchesne, Scriptores Hist. Franc. tom. iv. p. 530.)]

[Footnote 75: In the beginning of the xith century, after naming

the father and grandfather of Hugh Capet, the monk Glaber is

obliged to add, cujus genus valde in-ante reperitur obscurum.

Yet we are assured that the great- grandfather of Hugh Capet was

Robert the Strong count of Anjou, (A.D. 863 - 873,) a noble Frank

of Neustria, Neustricus . . . generosae stirpis, who was slain in

the defence of his country against the Normans, dum patriae fines

tuebatur. Beyond Robert, all is conjecture or fable. It is a

probable conjecture, that the third race descended from the

second by Childebrand, the brother of Charles Martel. It is an

absurd fable that the second was allied to the first by the

marriage of Ansbert, a Roman senator and the ancestor of St.

Arnoul, with Blitilde, a daughter of Clotaire I. The Saxon

origin of the house of France is an ancient but incredible

opinion. See a judicious memoir of M. de Foncemagne, (Memoires

de l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xx. p. 548 - 579.) He had

promised to declare his own opinion in a second memoir, which has

never appeared.]

While the elder brothers dissipated their wealth in romantic

adventures, and the castle of Courtenay was profaned by a

plebeian owner, the younger branches of that adopted name were

propagated and multiplied. But their splendor was clouded by

poverty and time: after the decease of Robert, great butler of

France, they descended from princes to barons; the next

generations were confounded with the simple gentry; the

descendants of Hugh Capet could no longer be visible in the rural

lords of Tanlay and of Champignelles. The more adventurous

embraced without dishonor the profession of a soldier: the least

active and opulent might sink, like their cousins of the branch

of Dreux, into the condition of peasants. Their royal descent,

in a dark period of four hundred years, became each day more

obsolete and ambiguous; and their pedigree, instead of being

enrolled in the annals of the kingdom, must be painfully searched

by the minute diligence of heralds and genealogists. It was not

till the end of the sixteenth century, on the accession of a

family almost as remote as their own, that the princely spirit of

the Courtenays again revived; and the question of the nobility

provoked them to ascertain the royalty of their blood. They

appealed to the justice and compassion of Henry the Fourth;

obtained a favorable opinion from twenty lawyers of Italy and

Germany, and modestly compared themselves to the descendants of

King David, whose prerogatives were not impaired by the lapse of

ages or the trade of a carpenter. ^76 But every ear was deaf, and

every circumstance was adverse, to their lawful claims. The

Bourbon kings were justified by the neglect of the Valois; the

princes of the blood, more recent and lofty, disdained the

alliance of his humble kindred: the parliament, without denying

their proofs, eluded a dangerous precedent by an arbitrary

distinction, and established St. Louis as the first father of the

royal line. ^77 A repetition of complaints and protests was

repeatedly disregarded; and the hopeless pursuit was terminated

in the present century by the death of the last male of the

family. ^78 Their painful and anxious situation was alleviated by

the pride of conscious virtue: they sternly rejected the

temptations of fortune and favor; and a dying Courtenay would

have sacrificed his son, if the youth could have renounced, for

any temporal interest, the right and title of a legitimate prince

of the blood of France. ^79

[Footnote 76: Of the various petitions, apologies, &c., published

by the princes of Courtenay, I have seen the three following, all

in octavo: 1. De Stirpe et Origine Domus de Courtenay: addita

sunt Responsa celeberrimorum Europae Jurisconsultorum; Paris,

1607. 2. Representation du Procede tenu a l'instance faicte

devant le Roi, par Messieurs de Courtenay, pour la conservation

de l'Honneur et Dignite de leur Maison, branche de la royalle

Maison de France; a Paris, 1613. 3. Representation du subject

qui a porte Messieurs de Salles et de Fraville, de la Maison de

Courtenay, a se retirer hors du Royaume, 1614. It was a

homicide, for which the Courtenays expected to be pardoned, or

tried, as princes of the blood.]

[Footnote 77: The sense of the parliaments is thus expressed by

Thuanus Principis nomen nusquam in Gallia tributum, nisi iis qui

per mares e regibus nostris originem repetunt; qui nunc tantum a

Ludovico none beatae memoriae numerantur; nam Cortinoei et

Drocenses, a Ludovico crasso genus ducentes, hodie inter eos

minime recensentur. A distinction of expediency rather than

justice. The sanctity of Louis IX. could not invest him with any

special prerogative, and all the descendants of Hugh Capet must

be included in his original compact with the French nation.]

[Footnote 78: The last male of the Courtenays was Charles Roger,

who died in the year 1730, without leaving any sons. The last

female was Helene de Courtenay, who married Louis de Beaufremont.

Her title of Princesse du Sang Royal de France was suppressed

(February 7th, 1737) by an arret of the parliament of Paris.]

[Footnote 79: The singular anecdote to which I allude is related

in the Recueil des Pieces interessantes et peu connues,

(Maestricht, 1786, in 4 vols. 12mo.;) and the unknown editor

quotes his author, who had received it from Helene de Courtenay,

marquise de Beaufremont.]

III. According to the old register of Ford Abbey, the

Courtenays of Devonshire are descended from Prince Florus, the

second son of Peter, and the grandson of Louis the Fat. ^80 This

fable of the grateful or venal monks was too respectfully

entertained by our antiquaries, Cambden ^81 and Dugdale: ^82 but

it is so clearly repugnant to truth and time, that the rational

pride of the family now refuses to accept this imaginary founder.

Their most faithful historians believe, that, after giving his

daughter to the king's son, Reginald of Courtenay abandoned his

possessions in France, and obtained from the English monarch a

second wife and a new inheritance. It is certain, at least, that

Henry the Second distinguished in his camps and councils a

Reginald, of the name and arms, and, as it may be fairly

presumed, of the genuine race, of the Courtenays of France. The

right of wardship enabled a feudal lord to reward his vassal with

the marriage and estate of a noble heiress; and Reginald of

Courtenay acquired a fair establishment in Devonshire, where his

posterity has been seated above six hundred years. ^83 From a

Norman baron, Baldwin de Brioniis, who had been invested by the

Conqueror, Hawise, the wife of Reginald, derived the honor of

Okehampton, which was held by the service of ninety-three

knights; and a female might claim the manly offices of hereditary

viscount or sheriff, and of captain of the royal castle of

Exeter. Their son Robert married the sister of the earl of

Devon: at the end of a century, on the failure of the family of

Rivers, ^84 his great-grandson, Hugh the Second, succeeded to a

title which was still considered as a territorial dignity; and

twelve earls of Devonshire, of the name of Courtenay, have

flourished in a period of two hundred and twenty years. They

were ranked among the chief of the barons of the realm; nor was

it till after a strenuous dispute, that they yielded to the fief

of Arundel the first place in the parliament of England: their

alliances were contracted with the noblest families, the Veres,

Despensers, St. Johns, Talbots, Bohuns, and even the Plantagenets

themselves; and in a contest with John of Lancaster, a Courtenay,

bishop of London, and afterwards archbishop of Canterbury, might

be accused of profane confidence in the strength and number of

his kindred. In peace, the earls of Devon resided in their

numerous castles and manors of the west; their ample revenue was

appropriated to devotion and hospitality; and the epitaph of

Edward, surnamed from his misfortune, the blind, from his

virtues, the good, earl, inculcates with much ingenuity a moral

sentence, which may, however, be abused by thoughtless

generosity. After a grateful commemoration of the fifty-five

years of union and happiness which he enjoyed with Mabel his

wife, the good earl thus speaks from the tomb: -

"What we gave, we have;

What we spent, we had;

What we left, we lost." ^85

But their losses, in this sense, were far superior to their gifts

and expenses; and their heirs, not less than the poor, were the

objects of their paternal care. The sums which they paid for

livery and seizin attest the greatness of their possessions; and

several estates have remained in their family since the

thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. In war, the Courtenays of

England fulfilled the duties, and deserved the honors, of

chivalry. They were often intrusted to levy and command the

militia of Devonshire and Cornwall; they often attended their

supreme lord to the borders of Scotland; and in foreign service,

for a stipulated price, they sometimes maintained fourscore

men-at-arms and as many archers. By sea and land they fought

under the standard of the Edwards and Henries: their names are

conspicuous in battles, in tournaments, and in the original list

of the Order of the Garter; three brothers shared the Spanish

victory of the Black Prince; and in the lapse of six generations,

the English Courtenays had learned to despise the nation and

country from which they derived their origin. In the quarrel of

the two roses, the earls of Devon adhered to the house of

Lancaster; and three brothers successively died either in the

field or on the scaffold. Their honors and estates were restored

by Henry the Seventh; a daughter of Edward the Fourth was not

disgraced by the nuptials of a Courtenay; their son, who was

created Marquis of Exeter, enjoyed the favor of his cousin Henry

the Eighth; and in the camp of Cloth of Gold, he broke a lance

against the French monarch. But the favor of Henry was the

prelude of disgrace; his disgrace was the signal of death; and of

the victims of the jealous tyrant, the marquis of Exeter is one

of the most noble and guiltless. His son Edward lived a prisoner

in the Tower, and died in exile at Padua; and the secret love of

Queen Mary, whom he slighted, perhaps for the princess Elizabeth,

has shed a romantic color on the story of this beautiful youth.

The relics of his patrimony were conveyed into strange families

by the marriages of his four aunts; and his personal honors, as

if they had been legally extinct, were revived by the patents of

succeeding princes. But there still survived a lineal descendant

of Hugh, the first earl of Devon, a younger branch of the

Courtenays, who have been seated at Powderham Castle above four

hundred years, from the reign of Edward the Third to the present

hour. Their estates have been increased by the grant and

improvement of lands in Ireland, and they have been recently

restored to the honors of the peerage. Yet the Courtenays still

retain the plaintive motto, which asserts the innocence, and

deplores the fall, of their ancient house. ^86 While they sigh

for past greatness, they are doubtless sensible of present

blessings: in the long series of the Courtenay annals, the most

splendid aera is likewise the most unfortunate; nor can an

opulent peer of Britain be inclined to envy the emperors of

Constantinople, who wandered over Europe to solicit alms for the

support of their dignity and the defence of their capital.

[Footnote 80: Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum, vol. i. p. 786.

Yet this fable must have been invented before the reign of Edward

III. The profuse devotion of the three first generations to Ford

Abbey was followed by oppression on one side and ingratitude on

the other; and in the sixth generation, the monks ceased to

[Footnote 81: In his Britannia, in the list of the earls of

Devonshire. His expression, e regio sanguine ortos, credunt,

betrays, however, some doubt or suspicion.]

[Footnote 82: In his Baronage, P. i. p. 634, he refers to his own

Monasticon. Should he not have corrected the register of Ford

Abbey, and annihilated the phantom Florus, by the unquestionable

evidence of the French historians?]

[Footnote 83: Besides the third and most valuable book of

Cleaveland's History, I have consulted Dugdale, the father of our

genealogical science, (Baronage, P. i. p. 634 - 643.)]

[Footnote 84: This great family, de Ripuariis, de Redvers, de

Rivers, ended, in Edward the Fifth's time, in Isabella de

Fortibus, a famous and potent dowager, who long survived her

brother and husband, (Dugdale, Baronage, P i. p. 254 - 257.)]

[Footnote 85: Cleaveland p. 142. By some it is assigned to a

Rivers earl of Devon; but the English denotes the xvth, rather

than the xiiith century.]

[Footnote 86: Ubi lapsus!) Quid feci? a motto which was probably

adopted by the Powderham branch, after the loss of the earldom of

Devonshire, &c. The primitive arms of the Courtenays were, Or,

three torteaux, Gules, which seem to denote their affinity with

Godfrey of Bouillon, and the ancient counts of Boulogne.]

Chapter LXII: Greek Emperors Of Nice And Constantinople.

Part I.

The Greek Emperors Of Nice And Constantinople. - Elevation

And Reign Of Michael Palaeologus. - His False Union With The Pope

And The Latin Church. - Hostile Designs Of Charles Of Anjou. -

Revolt Of Sicily. - War Of The Catalans In Asia And Greece. -

Revolutions And Present State Of Athens.

The loss of Constantinople restored a momentary vigor to the

Greeks. From their palaces, the princes and nobles were driven

into the field; and the fragments of the falling monarchy were

grasped by the hands of the most vigorous or the most skilful

candidates. In the long and barren pages of the Byzantine

annals, ^1 it would not be an easy task to equal the two

characters of Theodore Lascaris and John Ducas Vataces, ^2 who

replanted and upheld the Roman standard at Nice in Bithynia. The

difference of their virtues was happily suited to the diversity

of their situation. In his first efforts, the fugitive Lascaris

commanded only three cities and two thousand soldiers: his reign

was the season of generous and active despair: in every military

operation he staked his life and crown; and his enemies of the

Hellespont and the Maeander, were surprised by his celerity and

subdued by his boldness. A victorious reign of eighteen years

expanded the principality of Nice to the magnitude of an empire.

The throne of his successor and son-in-law Vataces was founded on

a more solid basis, a larger scope, and more plentiful resources;

and it was the temper, as well as the interest, of Vataces to

calculate the risk, to expect the moment, and to insure the

success, of his ambitious designs. In the decline of the Latins,

I have briefly exposed the progress of the Greeks; the prudent

and gradual advances of a conqueror, who, in a reign of

thirty-three years, rescued the provinces from national and

foreign usurpers, till he pressed on all sides the Imperial city,

a leafless and sapless trunk, which must full at the first stroke

of the axe. But his interior and peaceful administration is

still more deserving of notice and praise. ^3 The calamities of

the times had wasted the numbers and the substance of the Greeks;

the motives and the means of agriculture were extirpated; and the

most fertile lands were left without cultivation or inhabitants.

A portion of this vacant property was occupied and improved by

the command, and for the benefit, of the emperor: a powerful hand

and a vigilant eye supplied and surpassed, by a skilful

management, the minute diligence of a private farmer: the royal

domain became the garden and granary of Asia; and without

impoverishing the people, the sovereign acquired a fund of

innocent and productive wealth. According to the nature of the

soil, his lands were sown with corn or planted with vines; the

pastures were filled with horses and oxen, with sheep and hogs;

and when Vataces presented to the empress a crown of diamonds and

pearls, he informed her, with a smile, that this precious

ornament arose from the sale of the eggs of his innumerable

poultry. The produce of his domain was applied to the

maintenance of his palace and hospitals, the calls of dignity and

benevolence: the lesson was still more useful than the revenue:

the plough was restored to its ancient security and honor; and

the nobles were taught to seek a sure and independent revenue

from their estates, instead of adorning their splendid beggary by

the oppression of the people, or (what is almost the same) by the

favors of the court. The superfluous stock of corn and cattle

was eagerly purchased by the Turks, with whom Vataces preserved a

strict and sincere alliance; but he discouraged the importation

of foreign manufactures, the costly silks of the East, and the

curious labors of the Italian looms. "The demands of nature and

necessity," was he accustomed to say, "are indispensable; but the

influence of fashion may rise and sink at the breath of a

monarch;" and both his precept and example recommended simplicity

of manners and the use of domestic industry. The education of

youth and the revival of learning were the most serious objects

of his care; and, without deciding the precedency, he pronounced

with truth, that a prince and a philosopher ^4 are the two most

eminent characters of human society. His first wife was Irene,

the daughter of Theodore Lascaris, a woman more illustrious by

her personal merit, the milder virtues of her sex, than by the

blood of the Angeli and Comneni that flowed in her veins, and

transmitted the inheritance of the empire. After her death he

was contracted to Anne, or Constance, a natural daughter of the

emperor Frederic ^* the Second; but as the bride had not attained

the years of puberty, Vataces placed in his solitary bed an

Italian damsel of her train; and his amorous weakness bestowed on

the concubine the honors, though not the title, of a lawful

empress. His frailty was censured as a flagitious and damnable

sin by the monks; and their rude invectives exercised and

displayed the patience of the royal lover. A philosophic age may

excuse a single vice, which was redeemed by a crowd of virtues;

and in the review of his faults, and the more intemperate

passions of Lascaris, the judgment of their contemporaries was

softened by gratitude to the second founders of the empire. ^5

The slaves of the Latins, without law or peace, applauded the

happiness of their brethren who had resumed their national

freedom; and Vataces employed the laudable policy of convincing

the Greeks of every dominion that it was their interest to be

enrolled in the number of his subjects.

[Footnote 1: For the reigns of the Nicene emperors, more

especially of John Vataces and his son, their minister, George

Acropolita, is the only genuine contemporary; but George Pachymer

returned to Constantinople with the Greeks at the age of

nineteen, (Hanckius de Script. Byzant. c. 33, 34, p. 564 - 578.

Fabric. Bibliot. Graec. tom. vi. p. 448 - 460.) Yet the history

of Nicephorus Gregoras, though of the xivth century, is a

valuable narrative from the taking of Constantinople by the

Latins.]

[Footnote 2: Nicephorus Gregoras (l. ii. c. 1) distinguishes

between Lascaris, and Vataces. The two portraits are in a very

good style.]

[Footnote 3: Pachymer, l. i. c. 23, 24. Nic. Greg. l. ii. c. 6.

The reader of the Byzantines must observe how rarely we are

indulged with such precious details.]

[Footnote 4: (Greg. Acropol. c. 32.) The emperor, in a familiar

conversation, examined and encouraged the studies of his future

logothete.]

[Footnote *: Sister of Manfred, afterwards king of Naples. Nic

Greg. p. 45. - M.]

[Footnote 5: Compare Acropolita, (c. 18, 52,) and the two first

books of Nicephorus Gregoras.]

A strong shade of degeneracy is visible between John Vataces

and his son Theodore; between the founder who sustained the

weight, and the heir who enjoyed the splendor, of the Imperial

crown. ^6 Yet the character of Theodore was not devoid of energy;

he had been educated in the school of his father, in the exercise

of war and hunting; Constantinople was yet spared; but in the

three years of a short reign, he thrice led his armies into the

heart of Bulgaria. His virtues were sullied by a choleric and

suspicious temper: the first of these may be ascribed to the

ignorance of control; and the second might naturally arise from a

dark and imperfect view of the corruption of mankind. On a march

in Bulgaria, he consulted on a question of policy his principal

ministers; and the Greek logothete, George Acropolita, presumed

to offend him by the declaration of a free and honest opinion.

The emperor half unsheathed his cimeter; but his more deliberate

rage reserved Acropolita for a baser punishment. One of the

first officers of the empire was ordered to dismount, stripped of

his robes, and extended on the ground in the presence of the

prince and army. In this posture he was chastised with so many

and such heavy blows from the clubs of two guards or

executioners, that when Theodore commanded them to cease, the

great logothete was scarcely able to rise and crawl away to his

tent. After a seclusion of some days, he was recalled by a

peremptory mandate to his seat in council; and so dead were the

Greeks to the sense of honor and shame, that it is from the

narrative of the sufferer himself that we acquire the knowledge

of his disgrace. ^7 The cruelty of the emperor was exasperated by

the pangs of sickness, the approach of a premature end, and the

suspicion of poison and magic. The lives and fortunes, the eyes

and limbs, of his kinsmen and nobles, were sacrificed to each

sally of passion; and before he died, the son of Vataces might

deserve from the people, or at least from the court, the

appellation of tyrant. A matron of the family of the Palaeologi

had provoked his anger by refusing to bestow her beauteous

daughter on the vile plebeian who was recommended by his caprice.

Without regard to her birth or age, her body, as high as the

neck, was enclosed in a sack with several cats, who were pricked

with pins to irritate their fury against their unfortunate

fellow-captive. In his last hours the emperor testified a wish

to forgive and be forgiven, a just anxiety for the fate of John

his son and successor, who, at the age of eight years, was

condemned to the dangers of a long minority. His last choice

intrusted the office of guardian to the sanctity of the patriarch

Arsenius, and to the courage of George Muzalon, the great

domestic, who was equally distinguished by the royal favor and

the public hatred. Since their connection with the Latins, the

names and privileges of hereditary rank had insinuated themselves

into the Greek monarchy; and the noble families ^8 were provoked

by the elevation of a worthless favorite, to whose influence they

imputed the errors and calamities of the late reign. In the

first council, after the emperor's death, Muzalon, from a lofty

throne, pronounced a labored apology of his conduct and

intentions: his modesty was subdued by a unanimous assurance of

esteem and fidelity; and his most inveterate enemies were the

loudest to salute him as the guardian and savior of the Romans.

Eight days were sufficient to prepare the execution of the

conspiracy. On the ninth, the obsequies of the deceased monarch

were solemnized in the cathedral of Magnesia, ^9 an Asiatic city,

where he expired, on the banks of the Hermus, and at the foot of

Mount Sipylus. The holy rites were interrupted by a sedition of

the guards; Muzalon, his brothers, and his adherents, were

massacred at the foot of the altar; and the absent patriarch was

associated with a new colleague, with Michael Palaeologus, the

most illustrious, in birth and merit, of the Greek nobles. ^10

[Footnote 6: A Persian saying, that Cyrus was the father and

Darius the master, of his subjects, was applied to Vataces and

his son. But Pachymer (l. i. c. 23) has mistaken the mild Darius

for the cruel Cambyses, despot or tyrant of his people. By the

institution of taxes, Darius had incurred the less odious, but

more contemptible, name of merchant or broker, (Herodotus, iii.

89.)]

[Footnote 7: Acropolita (c. 63) seems to admire his own firmness

in sustaining a beating, and not returning to council till he was

called. He relates the exploits of Theodore, and his own

services, from c. 53 to c. 74 of his history. See the third book

of Nicephorus Gregoras.]

[Footnote 8: Pachymer (l. i. c. 21) names and discriminates

fifteen or twenty Greek families. Does he mean, by this

decoration, a figurative or a real golden chain? Perhaps, both.]

[Footnote 9: The old geographers, with Cellarius and D'Anville,

and our travellers, particularly Pocock and Chandler, will teach

us to distinguish the two Magnesias of Asia Minor, of the

Maeander and of Sipylus. The latter, our present object, is

still flourishing for a Turkish city, and lies eight hours, or

leagues, to the north-east of Smyrna, (Tournefort, Voyage du

Levant, tom. iii. lettre xxii. p. 365 - 370. Chandler's Travels

into Asia Minor, p. 267.)]

[Footnote 10: See Acropolita, (c. 75, 76, &c.,) who lived too

near the times; Pachymer, (l. i. c. 13 - 25,) Gregoras, (l. iii.

c. 3, 4, 5.)]

Of those who are proud of their ancestors, the far greater

part must be content with local or domestic renown; and few there

are who dare trust the memorials of their family to the public

annals of their country. As early as the middle of the eleventh

century, the noble race of the Palaeologi ^11 stands high and

conspicuous in the Byzantine history: it was the valiant George

Palaeologus who placed the father of the Comneni on the throne;

and his kinsmen or descendants continue, in each generation, to

lead the armies and councils of the state. The purple was not

dishonored by their alliance, and had the law of succession, and

female succession, been strictly observed, the wife of Theodore

Lascaris must have yielded to her elder sister, the mother of

Michael Palaeologus, who afterwards raised his family to the

throne. In his person, the splendor of birth was dignified by

the merit of the soldier and statesman: in his early youth he was

promoted to the office of constable or commander of the French

mercenaries; the private expense of a day never exceeded three

pieces of gold; but his ambition was rapacious and profuse; and

his gifts were doubled by the graces of his conversation and

manners. The love of the soldiers and people excited the

jealousy of the court, and Michael thrice escaped from the

dangers in which he was involved by his own imprudence or that of

his friends. I. Under the reign of Justice and Vataces, a

dispute arose ^12 between two officers, one of whom accused the

other of maintaining the hereditary right of the Palaeologi The

cause was decided, according to the new jurisprudence of the

Latins, by single combat; the defendant was overthrown; but he

persisted in declaring that himself alone was guilty; and that he

had uttered these rash or treasonable speeches without the

approbation or knowledge of his patron Yet a cloud of suspicion

hung over the innocence of the constable; he was still pursued by

the whispers of malevolence; and a subtle courtier, the

archbishop of Philadelphia, urged him to accept the judgment of

God in the fiery proof of the ordeal. ^13 Three days before the

trial, the patient's arm was enclosed in a bag, and secured by

the royal signet; and it was incumbent on him to bear a red-hot

ball of iron three times from the altar to the rails of the

sanctuary, without artifice and without injury. Palaeologus

eluded the dangerous experiment with sense and pleasantry. "I am

a soldier," said he, "and will boldly enter the lists with my

accusers; but a layman, a sinner like myself, is not endowed with

the gift of miracles. Your piety, most holy prelate, may deserve

the interposition of Heaven, and from your hands I will receive

the fiery globe, the pledge of my innocence." The archbishop

started; the emperor smiled; and the absolution or pardon of

Michael was approved by new rewards and new services. II. In

the succeeding reign, as he held the government of Nice, he was

secretly informed, that the mind of the absent prince was

poisoned with jealousy; and that death, or blindness, would be

his final reward. Instead of awaiting the return and sentence of

Theodore, the constable, with some followers, escaped from the

city and the empire; and though he was plundered by the Turkmans

of the desert, he found a hospitable refuge in the court of the

sultan. In the ambiguous state of an exile, Michael reconciled

the duties of gratitude and loyalty: drawing his sword against

the Tartars; admonishing the garrisons of the Roman limit; and

promoting, by his influence, the restoration of peace, in which

his pardon and recall were honorably included. III. While he

guarded the West against the despot of Epirus, Michael was again

suspected and condemned in the palace; and such was his loyalty

or weakness, that he submitted to be led in chains above six

hundred miles from Durazzo to Nice. The civility of the messenger

alleviated his disgrace; the emperor's sickness dispelled his

danger; and the last breath of Theodore, which recommended his

infant son, at once acknowledged the innocence and the power of

Palaeologus.

[Footnote 11: The pedigree of Palaeologus is explained by

Ducange, (Famil. Byzant. p. 230, &c.:) the events of his private

life are related by Pachymer (l. i. c. 7 - 12) and Gregoras (l.

ii. 8, l. iii. 2, 4, l. iv. 1) with visible favor to the father

of the reigning dynasty.]

[Footnote 12: Acropolita (c. 50) relates the circumstances of

this curious adventure, which seem to have escaped the more

recent writers.]

[Footnote 13: Pachymer, (l. i. c. 12,) who speaks with proper

contempt of this barbarous trial, affirms, that he had seen in

his youth many person who had sustained, without injury, the

fiery ordeal. As a Greek, he is credulous; but the ingenuity of

the Greeks might furnish some remedies of art or fraud against

their own superstition, or that of their tyrant.]

But his innocence had been too unworthily treated, and his

power was too strongly felt, to curb an aspiring subject in the

fair field that was opened to his ambition. ^14 In the council,

after the death of Theodore, he was the first to pronounce, and

the first to violate, the oath of allegiance to Muzalon; and so

dexterous was his conduct, that he reaped the benefit, without

incurring the guilt, or at least the reproach, of the subsequent

massacre. In the choice of a regent, he balanced the interests

and passions of the candidates; turned their envy and hatred from

himself against each other, and forced every competitor to own,

that after his own claims, those of Palaeologus were best

entitled to the preference. Under the title of great duke, he

accepted or assumed, during a long minority, the active powers of

government; the patriarch was a venerable name; and the factious

nobles were seduced, or oppressed, by the ascendant of his

genius. The fruits of the economy of Vataces were deposited in a

strong castle on the banks of the Hermus, in the custody of the

faithful Varangians: the constable retained his command or

influence over the foreign troops; he employed the guards to

possess the treasure, and the treasure to corrupt the guards; and

whatsoever might be the abuse of the public money, his character

was above the suspicion of private avarice. By himself, or by

his emissaries, he strove to persuade every rank of subjects,

that their own prosperity would rise in just proportion to the

establishment of his authority. The weight of taxes was

suspended, the perpetual theme of popular complaint; and he

prohibited the trials by the ordeal and judicial combat. These

Barbaric institutions were already abolished or undermined in

France ^15 and England; ^16 and the appeal to the sword offended

the sense of a civilized, ^17 and the temper of an unwarlike,

people. For the future maintenance of their wives and children,

the veterans were grateful: the priests and the philosophers

applauded his ardent zeal for the advancement of religion and

learning; and his vague promise of rewarding merit was applied by

every candidate to his own hopes. Conscious of the influence of

the clergy, Michael successfully labored to secure the suffrage

of that powerful order. Their expensive journey from Nice to

Magnesia, afforded a decent and ample pretence: the leading

prelates were tempted by the liberality of his nocturnal visits;

and the incorruptible patriarch was flattered by the homage of

his new colleague, who led his mule by the bridle into the town,

and removed to a respectful distance the importunity of the

crowd. Without renouncing his title by royal descent,

Palaeologus encouraged a free discussion into the advantages of

elective monarchy; and his adherents asked, with the insolence of

triumph, what patient would trust his health, or what merchant

would abandon his vessel, to the hereditary skill of a physician

or a pilot? The youth of the emperor, and the impending dangers

of a minority, required the support of a mature and experienced

guardian; of an associate raised above the envy of his equals,

and invested with the name and prerogatives of royalty. For the

interest of the prince and people, without any selfish views for

himself or his family, the great duke consented to guard and

instruct the son of Theodore; but he sighed for the happy moment

when he might restore to his firmer hands the administration of

his patrimony, and enjoy the blessings of a private station. He

was first invested with the title and prerogatives of despot,

which bestowed the purple ornaments and the second place in the

Roman monarchy. It was afterwards agreed that John and Michael

should be proclaimed as joint emperors, and raised on the

buckler, but that the preeminence should be reserved for the

birthright of the former. A mutual league of amity was pledged

between the royal partners; and in case of a rupture, the

subjects were bound, by their oath of allegiance, to declare

themselves against the aggressor; an ambiguous name, the seed of

discord and civil war. Palaeologus was content; but, on the day

of the coronation, and in the cathedral of Nice, his zealous

adherents most vehemently urged the just priority of his age and

merit. The unseasonable dispute was eluded by postponing to a

more convenient opportunity the coronation of John Lascaris; and

he walked with a slight diadem in the train of his guardian, who

alone received the Imperial crown from the hands of the

patriarch. It was not without extreme reluctance that Arsenius

abandoned the cause of his pupil; out the Varangians brandished

their battle-axes; a sign of assent was extorted from the

trembling youth; and some voices were heard, that the life of a

child should no longer impede the settlement of the nation. A

full harvest of honors and employments was distributed among his

friends by the grateful Palaeologus. In his own family he

created a despot and two sebastocrators; Alexius Strategopulus

was decorated with the title of Caesar; and that veteran

commander soon repaid the obligation, by restoring Constantinople

to the Greek emperor.

[Footnote 14: Without comparing Pachymer to Thucydides or

Tacitus, I will praise his narrative, (l. i. c. 13 - 32, l. ii.

c. 1 - 9,) which pursues the ascent of Palaeologus with

eloquence, perspicuity, and tolerable freedom. Acropolita is more

cautious, and Gregoras more concise.]

[Footnote 15: The judicial combat was abolished by St. Louis in

his own territories; and his example and authority were at length

prevalent in France, (Esprit des Loix, l. xxviii. c. 29.)]

[Footnote 16: In civil cases Henry II. gave an option to the

defendant: Glanville prefers the proof by evidence; and that by

judicial combat is reprobated in the Fleta. Yet the trial by

battle has never been abrogated in the English law, and it was

ordered by the judges as late as the beginning of the last

century.

Note *: And even demanded in the present - M.]

[Footnote 17: Yet an ingenious friend has urged to me in

mitigation of this practice, 1. That in nations emerging from

barbarism, it moderates the license of private war and arbitrary

revenge. 2. That it is less absurd than the trials by the

ordeal, or boiling water, or the cross, which it has contributed

to abolish. 3. That it served at least as a test of personal

courage; a quality so seldom united with a base disposition, that

the danger of a trial might be some check to a malicious

prosecutor, and a useful barrier against injustice supported by

power. The gallant and unfortunate earl of Surrey might probably

have escaped his unmerited fate, had not his demand of the combat

against his accuser been overruled]

It was in the second year of his reign, while he resided in

the palace and gardens of Nymphaeum, ^18 near Smyrna, that the

first messenger arrived at the dead of night; and the stupendous

intelligence was imparted to Michael, after he had been gently

waked by the tender precaution of his sister Eulogia. The man was

unknown or obscure; he produced no letters from the victorious

Caesar; nor could it easily be credited, after the defeat of

Vataces and the recent failure of Palaeologus himself, that the

capital had been surprised by a detachment of eight hundred

soldiers. As a hostage, the doubtful author was confined, with

the assurance of death or an ample recompense; and the court was

left some hours in the anxiety of hope and fear, till the

messengers of Alexius arrived with the authentic intelligence,

and displayed the trophies of the conquest, the sword and

sceptre, ^19 the buskins and bonnet, ^20 of the usurper Baldwin,

which he had dropped in his precipitate flight. A general

assembly of the bishops, senators, and nobles, was immediately

convened, and never perhaps was an event received with more

heartfelt and universal joy. In a studied oration, the new

sovereign of Constantinople congratulated his own and the public

fortune. "There was a time," said he, "a far distant time, when

the Roman empire extended to the Adriatic, the Tigris, and the

confines of Aethiopia. After the loss of the provinces, our

capital itself, in these last and calamitous days, has been

wrested from our hands by the Barbarians of the West. From the

lowest ebb, the tide of prosperity has again returned in our

favor; but our prosperity was that of fugitives and exiles: and

when we were asked, which was the country of the Romans, we

indicated with a blush the climate of the globe, and the quarter

of the heavens. The divine Providence has now restored to our

arms the city of Constantine, the sacred seat of religion and

empire; and it will depend on our valor and conduct to render

this important acquisition the pledge and omen of future

victories." So eager was the impatience of the prince and people,

that Michael made his triumphal entry into Constantinople only

twenty days after the expulsion of the Latins. The golden gate

was thrown open at his approach; the devout conqueror dismounted

from his horse; and a miraculous image of Mary the Conductress

was borne before him, that the divine Virgin in person might

appear to conduct him to the temple of her Son, the cathedral of

St. Sophia. But after the first transport of devotion and pride,

he sighed at the dreary prospect of solitude and ruin. The

palace was defiled with smoke and dirt, and the gross

intemperance of the Franks; whole streets had been consumed by

fire, or were decayed by the injuries of time; the sacred and

profane edifices were stripped of their ornaments: and, as if

they were conscious of their approaching exile, the industry of

the Latins had been confined to the work of pillage and

destruction. Trade had expired under the pressure of anarchy and

distress, and the numbers of inhabitants had decreased with the

opulence of the city. It was the first care of the Greek monarch

to reinstate the nobles in the palaces of their fathers; and the

houses or the ground which they occupied were restored to the

families that could exhibit a legal right of inheritance. But the

far greater part was extinct or lost; the vacant property had

devolved to the lord; he repeopled Constantinople by a liberal

invitation to the provinces; and the brave volunteers were seated

in the capital which had been recovered by their arms. The

French barons and the principal families had retired with their

emperor; but the patient and humble crowd of Latins was attached

to the country, and indifferent to the change of masters.

Instead of banishing the factories of the Pisans, Venetians, and

Genoese, the prudent conqueror accepted their oaths of

allegiance, encouraged their industry, confirmed their

privileges, and allowed them to live under the jurisdiction of

their proper magistrates. Of these nations, the Pisans and

Venetians preserved their respective quarters in the city; but

the services and power of the Genoese deserved at the same time

the gratitude and the jealousy of the Greeks. Their independent

colony was first planted at the seaport town of Heraclea in

Thrace. They were speedily recalled, and settled in the

exclusive possession of the suburb of Galata, an advantageous

post, in which they revived the commerce, and insulted the

majesty, of the Byzantine empire. ^21

[Footnote 18: The site of Nymphaeum is not clearly defined in

ancient or modern geography. But from the last hours of Vataces,

(Acropolita, c. 52,) it is evident the palace and gardens of his

favorite residence were in the neighborhood of Smyrna. Nymphaeum

might be loosely placed in Lydia, (Gregoras, l. vi. 6.)]

[Footnote 19: This sceptre, the emblem of justice and power, was

a long staff, such as was used by the heroes in Homer. By the

latter Greeks it was named Dicanice, and the Imperial sceptre was

distinguished as usual by the red or purple color]

[Footnote 20: Acropolita affirms (c. 87,) that this bonnet was

after the French fashion; but from the ruby at the point or

summit, Ducange (Hist. de C. P. l. v. c. 28, 29) believes that it

was the high-crowned hat of the Greeks. Could Acropolita mistake

the dress of his own court?]

[Footnote 21: See Pachymer, (l. ii. c. 28 - 33,) Acropolita, (c.

88,) Nicephorus Gregoras, (l. iv. 7,) and for the treatment of

the subject Latins, Ducange, (l. v. c. 30, 31.)]

The recovery of Constantinople was celebrated as the aera of

a new empire: the conqueror, alone, and by the right of the

sword, renewed his coronation in the church of St. Sophia; and

the name and honors of John Lascaris, his pupil and lawful

sovereign, were insensibly abolished. But his claims still lived

in the minds of the people; and the royal youth must speedily

attain the years of manhood and ambition. By fear or conscience,

Palaeologus was restrained from dipping his hands in innocent and

royal blood; but the anxiety of a usurper and a parent urged him

to secure his throne by one of those imperfect crimes so familiar

to the modern Greeks. The loss of sight incapacitated the young

prince for the active business of the world; instead of the

brutal violence of tearing out his eyes, the visual nerve was

destroyed by the intense glare of a red-hot basin, ^22 and John

Lascaris was removed to a distant castle, where he spent many

years in privacy and oblivion. Such cool and deliberate guilt

may seem incompatible with remorse; but if Michael could trust

the mercy of Heaven, he was not inaccessible to the reproaches

and vengeance of mankind, which he had provoked by cruelty and

treason. His cruelty imposed on a servile court the duties of

applause or silence; but the clergy had a right to speak in the

name of their invisible Master; and their holy legions were led

by a prelate, whose character was above the temptations of hope

or fear. After a short abdication of his dignity, Arsenius ^23

had consented to ascend the ecclesiastical throne of

Constantinople, and to preside in the restoration of the church.

His pious simplicity was long deceived by the arts of

Palaeologus; and his patience and submission might soothe the

usurper, and protect the safety of the young prince. On the news

of his inhuman treatment, the patriarch unsheathed the spiritual

sword; and superstition, on this occasion, was enlisted in the

cause of humanity and justice. In a synod of bishops, who were

stimulated by the example of his zeal, the patriarch pronounced a

sentence of excommunication; though his prudence still repeated

the name of Michael in the public prayers. The Eastern prelates

had not adopted the dangerous maxims of ancient Rome; nor did

they presume to enforce their censures, by deposing princes, or

absolving nations from their oaths of allegiance. But the

Christian, who had been separated from God and the church, became

an object of horror; and, in a turbulent and fanatic capital,

that horror might arm the hand of an assassin, or inflame a

sedition of the people. Palaeologus felt his danger, confessed

his guilt, and deprecated his judge: the act was irretrievable;

the prize was obtained; and the most rigorous penance, which he

solicited, would have raised the sinner to the reputation of a

saint. The unrelenting patriarch refused to announce any means

of atonement or any hopes of mercy; and condescended only to

pronounce, that for so great a crime, great indeed must be the

satisfaction. "Do you require," said Michael, "that I should

abdicate the empire?" and at these words, he offered, or seemed

to offer, the sword of state. Arsenius eagerly grasped this

pledge of sovereignty; but when he perceived that the emperor was

unwilling to purchase absolution at so dear a rate, he

indignantly escaped to his cell, and left the royal sinner

kneeling and weeping before the door. ^24

[Footnote 22: This milder invention for extinguishing the sight

was tried by the philosopher Democritus on himself, when he

sought to withdraw his mind from the visible world: a foolish

story! The word abacinare, in Latin and Italian, has furnished

Ducange (Gloss. Lat.) with an opportunity to review the various

modes of blinding: the more violent were scooping, burning with

an iron, or hot vinegar, and binding the head with a strong cord

till the eyes burst from their sockets. Ingenious tyrants!]

[Footnote 23: See the first retreat and restoration of Arsenius,

in Pachymer (l. ii. c. 15, l. iii. c. 1, 2) and Nicephorus

Gregoras, (l. iii. c. 1, l. iv. c. 1.) Posterity justly accused

Arsenius the virtues of a hermit, the vices of a minister, (l.

xii. c. 2.)]

[Footnote 24: The crime and excommunication of Michael are fairly

told by Pachymer (l. iii. c. 10, 14, 19, &c.) and Gregoras, (l.

iv. c. 4.) His confession and penance restored their freedom.]

Chapter LXII: Greek Emperors Of Nice And Constantinople.

Part II.

The danger and scandal of this excommunication subsisted

above three years, till the popular clamor was assuaged by time

and repentance; till the brethren of Arsenius condemned his

inflexible spirit, so repugnant to the unbounded forgiveness of

the gospel. The emperor had artfully insinuated, that, if he

were still rejected at home, he might seek, in the Roman pontiff,

a more indulgent judge; but it was far more easy and effectual to

find or to place that judge at the head of the Byzantine church.

Arsenius was involved in a vague rumor of conspiracy and

disaffection; ^* some irregular steps in his ordination and

government were liable to censure; a synod deposed him from the

episcopal office; and he was transported under a guard of

soldiers to a small island of the Propontis. Before his exile,

he sullenly requested that a strict account might be taken of the

treasures of the church; boasted, that his sole riches, three

pieces of gold, had been earned by transcribing the psalms;

continued to assert the freedom of his mind; and denied, with his

last breath, the pardon which was implored by the royal sinner.

^25 After some delay, Gregory, ^* bishop of Adrianople, was

translated to the Byzantine throne; but his authority was found

insufficient to support the absolution of the emperor; and

Joseph, a reverend monk, was substituted to that important

function. This edifying scene was represented in the presence of

the senate and the people; at the end of six years the humble

penitent was restored to the communion of the faithful; and

humanity will rejoice, that a milder treatment of the captive

Lascaris was stipulated as a proof of his remorse. But the spirit

of Arsenius still survived in a powerful faction of the monks and

clergy, who persevered about forty-eight years in an obstinate

schism. Their scruples were treated with tenderness and respect

by Michael and his son; and the reconciliation of the Arsenites

was the serious labor of the church and state. In the confidence

of fanaticism, they had proposed to try their cause by a miracle;

and when the two papers, that contained their own and the adverse

cause, were cast into a fiery brazier, they expected that the

Catholic verity would be respected by the flames. Alas! the two

papers were indiscriminately consumed, and this unforeseen

accident produced the union of a day, and renewed the quarrel of

an age. ^26 The final treaty displayed the victory of the

Arsenites: the clergy abstained during forty days from all

ecclesiastical functions; a slight penance was imposed on the

laity; the body of Arsenius was deposited in the sanctuary; and,

in the name of the departed saint, the prince and people were

released from the sins of their fathers. ^27

[Footnote *: Except the omission of a prayer for the emperor, the

charges against Arsenius were of different nature: he was accused

of having allowed the sultan of Iconium to bathe in vessels

signed with the cross, and to have admitted him to the church,

though unbaptized, during the service. It was pleaded, in favor

of Arsenius, among other proofs of the sultan's Christianity,

that he had offered to eat ham. Pachymer, l. iv. c. 4, p. 265.

It was after his exile that he was involved in a charge of

conspiracy. - M.]

[Footnote 25: Pachymer relates the exile of Arsenius, (l. iv. c.

1 - 16:) he was one of the commissaries who visited him in the

desert island. The last testament of the unforgiving patriarch

is still extant, (Dupin, Bibliotheque Ecclesiastique, tom. x. p.

95.)]

[Footnote *: Pachymer calls him Germanus. - M.]

[Footnote 26: Pachymer (l. vii. c. 22) relates this miraculous

trial like a philosopher, and treats with similar contempt a plot

of the Arsenites, to hide a revelation in the coffin of some old

saint, (l. vii. c. 13.) He compensates this incredulity by an

image that weeps, another that bleeds, (l. vii. c. 30,) and the

miraculous cures of a deaf and a mute patient, (l. xi. c. 32.)]

[Footnote 27: The story of the Arsenites is spread through the

thirteen books of Pachymer. Their union and triumph are reserved

for Nicephorus Gregoras, (l. vii. c. 9,) who neither loves nor

esteems these sectaries.]

The establishment of his family was the motive, or at least

the pretence, of the crime of Palaeologus; and he was impatient

to confirm the succession, by sharing with his eldest son the

honors of the purple. Andronicus, afterwards surnamed the Elder,

was proclaimed and crowned emperor of the Romans, in the

fifteenth year of his age; and, from the first aera of a prolix

and inglorious reign, he held that august title nine years as the

colleague, and fifty as the successor, of his father. Michael

himself, had he died in a private station, would have been

thought more worthy of the empire; and the assaults of his

temporal and spiritual enemies left him few moments to labor for

his own fame or the happiness of his subjects. He wrested from

the Franks several of the noblest islands of the Archipelago,

Lesbos, Chios, and Rhodes: his brother Constantine was sent to

command in Malvasia and Sparta; and the eastern side of the

Morea, from Argos and Napoli to Cape Thinners, was repossessed by

the Greeks. This effusion of Christian blood was loudly

condemned by the patriarch; and the insolent priest presumed to

interpose his fears and scruples between the arms of princes.

But in the prosecution of these western conquests, the countries

beyond the Hellespont were left naked to the Turks; and their

depredations verified the prophecy of a dying senator, that the

recovery of Constantinople would be the ruin of Asia. The

victories of Michael were achieved by his lieutenants; his sword

rusted in the palace; and, in the transactions of the emperor

with the popes and the king of Naples, his political acts were

stained with cruelty and fraud. ^28

[Footnote 28: Of the xiii books of Pachymer, the first six (as

the ivth and vth of Nicephorus Gregoras) contain the reign of

Michael, at the time of whose death he was forty years of age.

Instead of breaking, like his editor the Pere Poussin, his

history into two parts, I follow Ducange and Cousin, who number

the xiii. books in one series.]

I. The Vatican was the most natural refuge of a Latin

emperor, who had been driven from his throne; and Pope Urban the

Fourth appeared to pity the misfortunes, and vindicate the cause,

of the fugitive Baldwin. A crusade, with plenary indulgence, was

preached by his command against the schismatic Greeks: he

excommunicated their allies and adherents; solicited Louis the

Ninth in favor of his kinsman; and demanded a tenth of the

ecclesiastical revenues of France and England for the service of

the holy war. ^29 The subtle Greek, who watched the rising

tempest of the West, attempted to suspend or soothe the hostility

of the pope, by suppliant embassies and respectful letters; but

he insinuated that the establishment of peace must prepare the

reconciliation and obedience of the Eastern church. The Roman

court could not be deceived by so gross an artifice; and Michael

was admonished, that the repentance of the son should precede the

forgiveness of the father; and that faith (an ambiguous word) was

the only basis of friendship and alliance. After a long and

affected delay, the approach of danger, and the importunity of

Gregory the Tenth, compelled him to enter on a more serious

negotiation: he alleged the example of the great Vataces; and the

Greek clergy, who understood the intentions of their prince, were

not alarmed by the first steps of reconciliation and respect.

But when he pressed the conclusion of the treaty, they

strenuously declared, that the Latins, though not in name, were

heretics in fact, and that they despised those strangers as the

vilest and most despicable portion of the human race. ^30 It was

the task of the emperor to persuade, to corrupt, to intimidate

the most popular ecclesiastics, to gain the vote of each

individual, and alternately to urge the arguments of Christian

charity and the public welfare. The texts of the fathers and the

arms of the Franks were balanced in the theological and political

scale; and without approving the addition to the Nicene creed,

the most moderate were taught to confess, that the two hostile

propositions of proceeding from the Father by the Son, and of

proceeding from the Father and the Son, might be reduced to a

safe and Catholic sense. ^31 The supremacy of the pope was a

doctrine more easy to conceive, but more painful to acknowledge:

yet Michael represented to his monks and prelates, that they

might submit to name the Roman bishop as the first of the

patriarchs; and that their distance and discretion would guard

the liberties of the Eastern church from the mischievous

consequences of the right of appeal. He protested that he would

sacrifice his life and empire rather than yield the smallest

point of orthodox faith or national independence; and this

declaration was sealed and ratified by a golden bull. The

patriarch Joseph withdrew to a monastery, to resign or resume his

throne, according to the event of the treaty: the letters of

union and obedience were subscribed by the emperor, his son

Andronicus, and thirty-five archbishops and metropolitans, with

their respective synods; and the episcopal list was multiplied by

many dioceses which were annihilated under the yoke of the

infidels. An embassy was composed of some trusty ministers and

prelates: they embarked for Italy, with rich ornaments and rare

perfumes for the altar of St. Peter; and their secret orders

authorized and recommended a boundless compliance. They were

received in the general council of Lyons, by Pope Gregory the

Tenth, at the head of five hundred bishops. ^32 He embraced with

tears his long-lost and repentant children; accepted the oath of

the ambassadors, who abjured the schism in the name of the two

emperors; adorned the prelates with the ring and mitre; chanted

in Greek and Latin the Nicene creed with the addition of

filioque; and rejoiced in the union of the East and West, which

had been reserved for his reign. To consummate this pious work,

the Byzantine deputies were speedily followed by the pope's

nuncios; and their instruction discloses the policy of the

Vatican, which could not be satisfied with the vain title of

supremacy. After viewing the temper of the prince and people,

they were enjoined to absolve the schismatic clergy, who should

subscribe and swear their abjuration and obedience; to establish

in all the churches the use of the perfect creed; to prepare the

entrance of a cardinal legate, with the full powers and dignity

of his office; and to instruct the emperor in the advantages

which he might derive from the temporal protection of the Roman

pontiff. ^33

[Footnote 29: Ducange, Hist. de C. P. l. v. c. 33, &c., from the

Epistles of Urban IV.]

[Footnote 30: From their mercantile intercourse with the

Venetians and Genoese, they branded the Latins: (Pachymer, l. v.

c. 10.) "Some are heretics in name; others, like the Latins, in

fact," said the learned Veccus, (l. v. c. 12,) who soon

afterwards became a convert (c. 15, 16) and a patriarch, (c.

24.)]

[Footnote 31: In this class we may place Pachymer himself, whose

copious and candid narrative occupies the vth and vith books of

his history. Yet the Greek is silent on the council of Lyons,

and seems to believe that the popes always resided in Rome and

Italy, (l. v. c. 17, 21.)]

[Footnote 32: See the acts of the council of Lyons in the year

1274. Fleury, Hist. Ecclesiastique, tom. xviii. p. 181 - 199.

Dupin, Bibliot. Eccles. tom. x. p. 135.]

[Footnote 33: This curious instruction, which has been drawn with

more or less honesty by Wading and Leo Allatius from the archives

of the Vatican, is given in an abstract or version by Fleury,

(tom. xviii. p. 252 - 258.)]

But they found a country without a friend, a nation in which

the names of Rome and Union were pronounced with abhorrence. The

patriarch Joseph was indeed removed: his place was filled by

Veccus, an ecclesiastic of learning and moderation; and the

emperor was still urged by the same motives, to persevere in the

same professions. But in his private language Palaeologus

affected to deplore the pride, and to blame the innovations, of

the Latins; and while he debased his character by this double

hypocrisy, he justified and punished the opposition of his

subjects. By the joint suffrage of the new and the ancient Rome,

a sentence of excommunication was pronounced against the

obstinate schismatics; the censures of the church were executed

by the sword of Michael; on the failure of persuasion, he tried

the arguments of prison and exile, of whipping and mutilation;

those touchstones, says an historian, of cowards and the brave.

Two Greeks still reigned in Aetolia, Epirus, and Thessaly, with

the appellation of despots: they had yielded to the sovereign of

Constantinople, but they rejected the chains of the Roman

pontiff, and supported their refusal by successful arms. Under

their protection, the fugitive monks and bishops assembled in

hostile synods; and retorted the name of heretic with the galling

addition of apostate: the prince of Trebizond was tempted to

assume the forfeit title of emperor; ^* and even the Latins of

Negropont, Thebes, Athens, and the Morea, forgot the merits of

the convert, to join, with open or clandestine aid, the enemies

of Palaeologus. His favorite generals, of his own blood, and

family, successively deserted, or betrayed, the sacrilegious

trust. His sister Eulogia, a niece, and two female cousins,

conspired against him; another niece, Mary queen of Bulgaria,

negotiated his ruin with the sultan of Egypt; and, in the public

eye, their treason was consecrated as the most sublime virtue.

^34 To the pope's nuncios, who urged the consummation of the

work, Palaeologus exposed a naked recital of all that he had done

and suffered for their sake. They were assured that the guilty

sectaries, of both sexes and every rank, had been deprived of

their honors, their fortunes, and their liberty; a spreading list

of confiscation and punishment, which involved many persons, the

dearest to the emperor, or the best deserving of his favor. They

were conducted to the prison, to behold four princes of the royal

blood chained in the four corners, and shaking their fetters in

an agony of grief and rage. Two of these captives were

afterwards released; the one by submission, the other by death:

but the obstinacy of their two companions was chastised by the

loss of their eyes; and the Greeks, the least adverse to the

union, deplored that cruel and inauspicious tragedy. ^35

Persecutors must expect the hatred of those whom they oppress;

but they commonly find some consolation in the testimony of their

conscience, the applause of their party, and, perhaps, the

success of their undertaking. But the hypocrisy of Michael,

which was prompted only by political motives, must have forced

him to hate himself, to despise his followers, and to esteem and

envy the rebel champions by whom he was detested and despised.

While his violence was abhorred at Constantinople, at Rome his

slowness was arraigned, and his sincerity suspected; till at

length Pope Martin the Fourth excluded the Greek emperor from the

pale of a church, into which he was striving to reduce a

schismatic people. No sooner had the tyrant expired, than the

union was dissolved, and abjured by unanimous consent; the

churches were purified; the penitents were reconciled; and his

son Andronicus, after weeping the sins and errors of his youth

most piously denied his father the burial of a prince and a

Christian. ^36

[Footnote *: According to Fallmarayer he had always maintained

this title. - M.]

[Footnote 34: This frank and authentic confession of Michael's

distress is exhibited in barbarous Latin by Ogerius, who signs

himself Protonotarius Interpretum, and transcribed by Wading from

the MSS. of the Vatican, (A.D. 1278, No. 3.) His annals of the

Franciscan order, the Fratres Minores, in xvii. volumes in folio,

(Rome, 1741,) I have now accidentally seen among the waste paper

of a bookseller.]

[Footnote 35: See the vith book of Pachymer, particularly the

chapters 1, 11, 16, 18, 24 - 27. He is the more credible, as he

speaks of this persecution with less anger than sorrow.]

[Footnote 36: Pachymer, l. vii. c. 1 - ii. 17. The speech of

Andronicus the Elder (lib. xii. c. 2) is a curious record, which

proves that if the Greeks were the slaves of the emperor, the

emperor was not less the slave of superstition and the clergy.]

II. In the distress of the Latins, the walls and towers of

Constantinople had fallen to decay: they were restored and

fortified by the policy of Michael, who deposited a plenteous

store of corn and salt provisions, to sustain the siege which he

might hourly expect from the resentment of the Western powers.

Of these, the sovereign of the Two Sicilies was the most

formidable neighbor: but as long as they were possessed by

Mainfroy, the bastard of Frederic the Second, his monarchy was

the bulwark, rather than the annoyance, of the Eastern empire.

The usurper, though a brave and active prince, was sufficiently

employed in the defence of his throne: his proscription by

successive popes had separated Mainfroy from the common cause of

the Latins; and the forces that might have besieged

Constantinople were detained in a crusade against the domestic

enemy of Rome. The prize of her avenger, the crown of the Two

Sicilies, was won and worn by the brother of St Louis, by Charles

count of Anjou and Provence, who led the chivalry of France on

this holy expedition. ^37 The disaffection of his Christian

subjects compelled Mainfroy to enlist a colony of Saracens whom

his father had planted in Apulia; and this odious succor will

explain the defiance of the Catholic hero, who rejected all terms

of accommodation. "Bear this message," said Charles, "to the

sultan of Nocera, that God and the sword are umpire between us;

and that he shall either send me to paradise, or I will send him

to the pit of hell." The armies met: and though I am ignorant of

Mainfroy's doom in the other world, in this he lost his friends,

his kingdom, and his life, in the bloody battle of Benevento.

Naples and Sicily were immediately peopled with a warlike race of

French nobles; and their aspiring leader embraced the future

conquest of Africa, Greece, and Palestine. The most specious

reasons might point his first arms against the Byzantine empire;

and Palaeologus, diffident of his own strength, repeatedly

appealed from the ambition of Charles to the humanity of St.

Louis, who still preserved a just ascendant over the mind of his

ferocious brother. For a while the attention of that brother was

confined at home by the invasion of Conradin, the last heir to

the imperial house of Swabia; but the hapless boy sunk in the

unequal conflict; and his execution on a public scaffold taught

the rivals of Charles to tremble for their heads as well as their

dominions. A second respite was obtained by the last crusade of

St. Louis to the African coast; and the double motive of interest

and duty urged the king of Naples to assist, with his powers and

his presence, the holy enterprise. The death of St. Louis

released him from the importunity of a virtuous censor: the king

of Tunis confessed himself the tributary and vassal of the crown

of Sicily; and the boldest of the French knights were free to

enlist under his banner against the Greek empire. A treaty and a

marriage united his interest with the house of Courtenay; his

daughter Beatrice was promised to Philip, son and heir of the

emperor Baldwin; a pension of six hundred ounces of gold was

allowed for his maintenance; and his generous father distributed

among his aliens the kingdoms and provinces of the East,

reserving only Constantinople, and one day's journey round the

city for the imperial domain. ^38 In this perilous moment,

Palaeologus was the most eager to subscribe the creed, and

implore the protection, of the Roman pontiff, who assumed, with

propriety and weight, the character of an angel of peace, the

common father of the Christians. By his voice, the sword of

Charles was chained in the scabbard; and the Greek ambassadors

beheld him, in the pope's antechamber, biting his ivory sceptre

in a transport of fury, and deeply resenting the refusal to

enfranchise and consecrate his arms. He appears to have

respected the disinterested mediation of Gregory the Tenth; but

Charles was insensibly disgusted by the pride and partiality of

Nicholas the Third; and his attachment to his kindred, the Ursini

family, alienated the most strenuous champion from the service of

the church. The hostile league against the Greeks, of Philip the

Latin emperor, the king of the Two Sicilies, and the republic of

Venice, was ripened into execution; and the election of Martin

the Fourth, a French pope, gave a sanction to the cause. Of the

allies, Philip supplied his name; Martin, a bull of

excommunication; the Venetians, a squadron of forty galleys; and

the formidable powers of Charles consisted of forty counts, ten

thousand men at arms, a numerous body of infantry, and a fleet of

more than three hundred ships and transports. A distant day was

appointed for assembling this mighty force in the harbor of

Brindisi; and a previous attempt was risked with a detachment of

three hundred knights, who invaded Albania, and besieged the

fortress of Belgrade. Their defeat might amuse with a triumph

the vanity of Constantinople; but the more sagacious Michael,

despairing of his arms, depended on the effects of a conspiracy;

on the secret workings of a rat, who gnawed the bowstring ^39 of

the Sicilian tyrant.

[Footnote 37: The best accounts, the nearest the time, the most

full and entertaining, of the conquest of Naples by Charles of

Anjou, may be found in the Florentine Chronicles of Ricordano

Malespina, (c. 175 - 193,) and Giovanni Villani, (l. vii. c. 1 -

10, 25 - 30,) which are published by Muratori in the viiith and

xiiith volumes of the Historians of Italy. In his Annals (tom.

xi. p. 56 - 72) he has abridged these great events which are

likewise described in the Istoria Civile of Giannone. tom. l.

xix. tom. iii. l. xx]

[Footnote 38: Ducange, Hist. de C. P. l. v. c. 49 - 56, l. vi. c.

1 - 13. See Pachymer, l. iv. c. 29, l. v. c. 7 - 10, 25 l. vi. c.

30, 32, 33, and Nicephorus Gregoras, l. iv. 5, l. v. 1, 6.]

[Footnote 39: The reader of Herodotus will recollect how

miraculously the Assyrian host of Sennacherib was disarmed and

destroyed, (l. ii. c. 141.)]

Among the proscribed adherents of the house of Swabia, John

of Procida forfeited a small island of that name in the Bay of

Naples. His birth was noble, but his education was learned; and

in the poverty of exile, he was relieved by the practice of

physic, which he had studied in the school of Salerno. Fortune

had left him nothing to lose, except life; and to despise life is

the first qualification of a rebel. Procida was endowed with the

art of negotiation, to enforce his reasons and disguise his

motives; and in his various transactions with nations and men, he

could persuade each party that he labored solely for their

interest. The new kingdoms of Charles were afflicted by every

species of fiscal and military oppression; ^40 and the lives and

fortunes of his Italian subjects were sacrificed to the greatness

of their master and the licentiousness of his followers. The

hatred of Naples was repressed by his presence; but the looser

government of his vicegerents excited the contempt, as well as

the aversion, of the Sicilians: the island was roused to a sense

of freedom by the eloquence of Procida; and he displayed to every

baron his private interest in the common cause. In the

confidence of foreign aid, he successively visited the courts of

the Greek emperor, and of Peter king of Arragon, ^41 who

possessed the maritime countries of Valentia and Catalonia. To

the ambitious Peter a crown was presented, which he might justly

claim by his marriage with the sister ^* of Mainfroy, and by the

dying voice of Conradin, who from the scaffold had cast a ring to

his heir and avenger. Palaeologus was easily persuaded to divert

his enemy from a foreign war by a rebellion at home; and a Greek

subsidy of twenty-five thousand ounces of gold was most

profitably applied to arm a Catalan fleet, which sailed under a

holy banner to the specious attack of the Saracens of Africa. In

the disguise of a monk or beggar, the indefatigable missionary of

revolt flew from Constantinople to Rome, and from Sicily to

Saragossa: the treaty was sealed with the signet of Pope Nicholas

himself, the enemy of Charles; and his deed of gift transferred

the fiefs of St. Peter from the house of Anjou to that of

Arragon. So widely diffused and so freely circulated, the secret

was preserved above two years with impenetrable discretion; and

each of the conspirators imbibed the maxim of Peter, who declared

that he would cut off his left hand if it were conscious of the

intentions of his right. The mine was prepared with deep and

dangerous artifice; but it may be questioned, whether the instant

explosion of Palermo were the effect of accident or design.

[Footnote 40: According to Sabas Malaspina, (Hist. Sicula, l.

iii. c. 16, in Muratori, tom. viii. p. 832,) a zealous Guelph,

the subjects of Charles, who had reviled Mainfroy as a wolf,

began to regret him as a lamb; and he justifies their discontent

by the oppressions of the French government, (l. vi. c. 2, 7.)

See the Sicilian manifesto in Nicholas Specialis, (l. i. c. 11,

in Muratori, tom. x. p. 930.)]

[Footnote 41: See the character and counsels of Peter, king of

Arragon, in Mariana, (Hist. Hispan. l. xiv. c. 6, tom. ii. p.

133.) The reader for gives the Jesuit's defects, in favor, always

of his style, and often of his sense.]

[Footnote *: Daughter. See Hallam's Middle Ages, vol. i. p. 517.

- M.]

On the vigil of Easter, a procession of the disarmed

citizens visited a church without the walls; and a noble damsel

was rudely insulted by a French soldier. ^42 The ravisher was

instantly punished with death; and if the people was at first

scattered by a military force, their numbers and fury prevailed:

the conspirators seized the opportunity; the flame spread over

the island; and eight thousand French were exterminated in a

promiscuous massacre, which has obtained the name of the Sicilian

Vespers. ^43 From every city the banners of freedom and the

church were displayed: the revolt was inspired by the presence or

the soul of Procida and Peter of Arragon, who sailed from the

African coast to Palermo, was saluted as the king and savior of

the isle. By the rebellion of a people on whom he had so long

trampled with impunity, Charles was astonished and confounded;

and in the first agony of grief and devotion, he was heard to

exclaim, "O God! if thou hast decreed to humble me, grant me at

least a gentle and gradual descent from the pinnacle of

greatness!" His fleet and army, which already filled the seaports

of Italy, were hastily recalled from the service of the Grecian

war; and the situation of Messina exposed that town to the first

storm of his revenge. Feeble in themselves, and yet hopeless of

foreign succor, the citizens would have repented, and submitted

on the assurance of full pardon and their ancient privileges.

But the pride of the monarch was already rekindled; and the most

fervent entreaties of the legate could extort no more than a

promise, that he would forgive the remainder, after a chosen list

of eight hundred rebels had been yielded to his discretion. The

despair of the Messinese renewed their courage: Peter of Arragon

approached to their relief; ^44 and his rival was driven back by

the failure of provision and the terrors of the equinox to the

Calabrian shore. At the same moment, the Catalan admiral, the

famous Roger de Loria, swept the channel with an invincible

squadron: the French fleet, more numerous in transports than in

galleys, was either burnt or destroyed; and the same blow assured

the independence of Sicily and the safety of the Greek empire. A

few days before his death, the emperor Michael rejoiced in the

fall of an enemy whom he hated and esteemed; and perhaps he might

be content with the popular judgment, that had they not been

matched with each other, Constantinople and Italy must speedily

have obeyed the same master. ^45 From this disastrous moment, the

life of Charles was a series of misfortunes: his capital was

insulted, his son was made prisoner, and he sunk into the grave

without recovering the Isle of Sicily, which, after a war of

twenty years, was finally severed from the throne of Naples, and

transferred, as an independent kingdom, to a younger branch of

the house of Arragon. ^46

[Footnote 42: After enumerating the sufferings of his country,

Nicholas Specialis adds, in the true spirit of Italian jealousy,

Quae omnia et graviora quidem, ut arbitror, patienti animo Siculi

tolerassent, nisi (quod primum cunctis dominantibus cavendum est)

alienas foeminas invasissent, (l. i. c. 2, p. 924.)]

[Footnote 43: The French were long taught to remember this bloody

lesson: "If I am provoked, (said Henry the Fourth,) I will

breakfast at Milan, and dine at Naples." "Your majesty (replied

the Spanish ambassador) may perhaps arrive in Sicily for

vespers."]

[Footnote 44: This revolt, with the subsequent victory, are

related by two national writers, Bartholemy a Neocastro (in

Muratori, tom. xiii.,) and Nicholas Specialis (in Muratori, tom.

x.,) the one a contemporary, the other of the next century. The

patriot Specialis disclaims the name of rebellion, and all

previous correspondence with Peter of Arragon, (nullo communicato

consilio,) who happened to be with a fleet and army on the

African coast, (l. i. c. 4, 9.)]

[Footnote 45: Nicephorus Gregoras (l. v. c. 6) admires the wisdom

of Providence in this equal balance of states and princes. For

the honor of Palaeologus, I had rather this balance had been

observed by an Italian writer.]

[Footnote 46: See the Chronicle of Villani, the xith volume of

the Annali d'Italia of Muratori, and the xxth and xxist books of

the Istoria Civile of Giannone.]

Chapter LXII: Greek Emperors Of Nice And Constantinople.

Part III.

I shall not, I trust, be accused of superstition; but I must

remark that, even in this world, the natural order of events will

sometimes afford the strong appearances of moral retribution.

The first Palaeologus had saved his empire by involving the

kingdoms of the West in rebellion and blood; and from these

scenes of discord uprose a generation of iron men, who assaulted

and endangered the empire of his son. In modern times our debts

and taxes are the secret poison which still corrodes the bosom of

peace: but in the weak and disorderly government of the middle

ages, it was agitated by the present evil of the disbanded

armies. Too idle to work, too proud to beg, the mercenaries were

accustomed to a life of rapine: they could rob with more dignity

and effect under a banner and a chief; and the sovereign, to whom

their service was useless, and their presence importunate,

endeavored to discharge the torrent on some neighboring

countries. After the peace of Sicily, many thousands of Genoese,

Catalans, ^47 &c., who had fought, by sea and land, under the

standard of Anjou or Arragon, were blended into one nation by the

resemblance of their manners and interest. They heard that the

Greek provinces of Asia were invaded by the Turks: they resolved

to share the harvest of pay and plunder: and Frederic king of

Sicily most liberally contributed the means of their departure.

In a warfare of twenty years, a ship, or a camp, was become their

country; arms were their sole profession and property; valor was

the only virtue which they knew; their women had imbibed the

fearless temper of their lovers and husbands: it was reported,

that, with a stroke of their broadsword, the Catalans could

cleave a horseman and a horse; and the report itself was a

powerful weapon. Roger de Flor ^* was the most popular of their

chiefs; and his personal merit overshadowed the dignity of his

prouder rivals of Arragon. The offspring of a marriage between a

German gentleman of the court of Frederic the Second and a damsel

of Brindisi, Roger was successively a templar, an apostate, a

pirate, and at length the richest and most powerful admiral of

the Mediterranean. He sailed from Messina to Constantinople,

with eighteen galleys, four great ships, and eight thousand

adventurers; ^* and his previous treaty was faithfully

accomplished by Andronicus the elder, who accepted with joy and

terror this formidable succor. A palace was allotted for his

reception, and a niece of the emperor was given in marriage to

the valiant stranger, who was immediately created great duke or

admiral of Romania. After a decent repose, he transported his

troops over the Propontis, and boldly led them against the Turks:

in two bloody battles thirty thousand of the Moslems were slain:

he raised the siege of Philadelphia, and deserved the name of the

deliverer of Asia. But after a short season of prosperity, the

cloud of slavery and ruin again burst on that unhappy province.

The inhabitants escaped (says a Greek historian) from the smoke

into the flames; and the hostility of the Turks was less

pernicious than the friendship of the Catalans. ^! The lives and

fortunes which they had rescued they considered as their own: the

willing or reluctant maid was saved from the race of circumcision

for the embraces of a Christian soldier: the exaction of fines

and supplies was enforced by licentious rapine and arbitrary

executions; and, on the resistance of Magnesia, the great duke

besieged a city of the Roman empire. ^48 These disorders he

excused by the wrongs and passions of a victorious army; nor

would his own authority or person have been safe, had he dared to

punish his faithful followers, who were defrauded of the just and

covenanted price of their services. The threats and complaints

of Andronicus disclosed the nakedness of the empire. His golden

bull had invited no more than five hundred horse and a thousand

foot soldiers; yet the crowds of volunteers, who migrated to the

East, had been enlisted and fed by his spontaneous bounty. While

his bravest allies were content with three byzants or pieces of

gold, for their monthly pay, an ounce, or even two ounces, of

gold were assigned to the Catalans, whose annual pension would

thus amount to near a hundred pounds sterling: one of their

chiefs had modestly rated at three hundred thousand crowns the

value of his future merits; and above a million had been issued

from the treasury for the maintenance of these costly

mercenaries. A cruel tax had been imposed on the corn of the

husbandman: one third was retrenched from the salaries of the

public officers; and the standard of the coin was so shamefully

debased, that of the four-and-twenty parts only five were of pure

gold. ^49 At the summons of the emperor, Roger evacuated a

province which no longer supplied the materials of rapine; ^* but

he refused to disperse his troops; and while his style was

respectful, his conduct was independent and hostile. He

protested, that if the emperor should march against him, he would

advance forty paces to kiss the ground before him; but in rising

from this prostrate attitude Roger had a life and sword at the

service of his friends. The great duke of Romania condescended

to accept the title and ornaments of Caesar; but he rejected the

new proposal of the government of Asia with a subsidy of corn and

money, ^* on condition that he should reduce his troops to the

harmless number of three thousand men. Assassination is the last

resource of cowards. The Caesar was tempted to visit the royal

residence of Adrianople; in the apartment, and before the eyes,

of the empress he was stabbed by the Alani guards; and though the

deed was imputed to their private revenge, ^!! his countrymen,

who dwelt at Constantinople in the security of peace, were

involved in the same proscription by the prince or people. The

loss of their leader intimidated the crowd of adventurers, who

hoisted the sails of flight, and were soon scattered round the

coasts of the Mediterranean. But a veteran band of fifteen

hundred Catalans, or French, stood firm in the strong fortress of

Gallipoli on the Hellespont, displayed the banners of Arragon,

and offered to revenge and justify their chief, by an equal

combat of ten or a hundred warriors. Instead of accepting this

bold defiance, the emperor Michael, the son and colleague of

Andronicus, resolved to oppress them with the weight of

multitudes: every nerve was strained to form an army of thirteen

thousand horse and thirty thousand foot; and the Propontis was

covered with the ships of the Greeks and Genoese. In two battles

by sea and land, these mighty forces were encountered and

overthrown by the despair and discipline of the Catalans: the

young emperor fled to the palace; and an insufficient guard of

light-horse was left for the protection of the open country.

Victory renewed the hopes and numbers of the adventures: every

nation was blended under the name and standard of the great

company; and three thousand Turkish proselytes deserted from the

Imperial service to join this military association. In the

possession of Gallipoli, ^!!! the Catalans intercepted the trade

of Constantinople and the Black Sea, while they spread their

devastation on either side of the Hellespont over the confines of

Europe and Asia. To prevent their approach, the greatest part of

the Byzantine territory was laid waste by the Greeks themselves:

the peasants and their cattle retired into the city; and myriads

of sheep and oxen, for which neither place nor food could be

procured, were unprofitably slaughtered on the same day. Four

times the emperor Andronicus sued for peace, and four times he

was inflexibly repulsed, till the want of provisions, and the

discord of the chiefs, compelled the Catalans to evacuate the

banks of the Hellespont and the neighborhood of the capital.

After their separation from the Turks, the remains of the great

company pursued their march through Macedonia and Thessaly, to

seek a new establishment in the heart of Greece. ^50

[Footnote 47: In this motley multitude, the Catalans and

Spaniards, the bravest of the soldiery, were styled by themselves

and the Greeks Amogavares. Moncada derives their origin from the

Goths, and Pachymer (l. xi. c. 22) from the Arabs; and in spite

of national and religious pride, I am afraid the latter is in the

right.]

[Footnote *: On Roger de Flor and his companions, see an

historical fragment, detailed and interesting, entitled "The

Spaniards of the Fourteenth Century," and inserted in "L'Espagne

en 1808," a work translated from the German, vol. ii. p. 167.

This narrative enables us to detect some slight errors which have

crept into that of Gibbon. - G.]

[Footnote *: The troops of Roger de Flor, according to his

companions Ramon de Montaner, were 1500 men at arms, 4000

Almogavares, and 1040 other foot, besides the sailors and

mariners, vol. ii. p. 137. - M.]

[Footnote !: Ramon de Montaner suppresses the cruelties and

oppressions of the Catalans, in which, perhaps, he shared. - M]

[Footnote 48: Some idea may be formed of the population of these

cities, from the 36,000 inhabitants of Tralles, which, in the

preceding reign, was rebuilt by the emperor, and ruined by the

Turks. (Pachymer, l. vi. c. 20, 21.)]

[Footnote 49: I have collected these pecuniary circumstances from

Pachymer, (l. xi. c. 21, l. xii. c. 4, 5, 8, 14, 19,) who

describes the progressive degradation of the gold coin. Even in

the prosperous times of John Ducas Vataces, the byzants were

composed in equal proportions of the pure and the baser metal.

The poverty of Michael Palaeologus compelled him to strike a new

coin, with nine parts, or carats, of gold, and fifteen of copper

alloy. After his death, the standard rose to ten carats, till in

the public distress it was reduced to the moiety. The prince was

relieved for a moment, while credit and commerce were forever

blasted. In France, the gold coin is of twenty-two carats, (one

twelfth alloy,) and the standard of England and Holland is still

higher.]

[Footnote *: Roger de Flor, according to Ramon de Montaner, was

recalled from Natolia, on account of the war which had arisen on

the death of Asan, king of Bulgaria. Andronicus claimed the

kingdom for his nephew, the sons of Asan by his sister. Roger de

Flor turned the tide of success in favor of the emperor of

Constantinople and made peace. - M.]

[Footnote *: Andronicus paid the Catalans in the debased money,

much to their indignation. - M.]

[Footnote !!: According to Ramon de Montaner, he was murdered by

order of Kyr Michael, son of the emperor. p. 170. - M.]

[Footnote !!!: Ramon de Montaner describes his sojourn at

Gallipoli: Nous etions si riches, que nous ne semions, ni ne

labourions, ni ne faisions enver des vins ni ne cultivions les

vignes: et cependant tous les ans nous recucillions tour ce qu'il

nous fallait, en vin, froment et avoine. p. 193. This lasted for

five merry years. Ramon de Montaner is high authority, for he

was "chancelier et maitre rational de l'armee," (commissary of

rations.) He was left governor; all the scribes of the army

remained with him, and with their aid he kept the books in which

were registered the number of horse and foot employed on each

expedition. According to this book the plunder was shared, of

which he had a fifth for his trouble. p. 197. - M.]

[Footnote 50: The Catalan war is most copiously related by

Pachymer, in the xith, xiith, and xiiith books, till he breaks

off in the year 1308. Nicephorus Gregoras (l. vii. 3 - 6) is more

concise and complete. Ducange, who adopts these adventurers as

French, has hunted their footsteps with his usual diligence,

(Hist. de C. P. l. vi. c. 22 - 46.) He quotes an Arragonese

history, which I have read with pleasure, and which the Spaniards

extol as a model of style and composition, (Expedicion de los

Catalanes y Arragoneses contra Turcos y Griegos: Barcelona, 1623

in quarto: Madrid, 1777, in octavo.) Don Francisco de Moncada

Conde de Ossona, may imitate Caesar or Sallust; he may transcribe

the Greek or Italian contemporaries: but he never quotes his

authorities, and I cannot discern any national records of the

exploits of his countrymen.

Note: Ramon de Montaner, one of the Catalans, who

accompanied Roger de Flor, and who was governor of Gallipoli, has

written, in Spanish, the history of this band of adventurers, to

which he belonged, and from which he separated when it left the

Thracian Chersonese to penetrate into Macedonia and Greece. - G.

The autobiography of Ramon de Montaner has been published in

French by M. Buchon, in the great collection of Memoires relatifs

a l'Histoire de France. I quote this edition. - M.]

After some ages of oblivion, Greece was awakened to new

misfortunes by the arms of the Latins. In the two hundred and

fifty years between the first and the last conquest of

Constantinople, that venerable land was disputed by a multitude

of petty tyrants; without the comforts of freedom and genius, her

ancient cities were again plunged in foreign and intestine war;

and, if servitude be preferable to anarchy, they might repose

with joy under the Turkish yoke. I shall not pursue the obscure

and various dynasties, that rose and fell on the continent or in

the isles; but our silence on the fate of Athens ^51 would argue

a strange ingratitude to the first and purest school of liberal

science and amusement. In the partition of the empire, the

principality of Athens and Thebes was assigned to Otho de la

Roche, a noble warrior of Burgundy, ^52 with the title of great

duke, ^53 which the Latins understood in their own sense, and the

Greeks more foolishly derived from the age of Constantine. ^54

Otho followed the standard of the marquis of Montferrat: the

ample state which he acquired by a miracle of conduct or fortune,

^55 was peaceably inherited by his son and two grandsons, till

the family, though not the nation, was changed, by the marriage

of an heiress into the elder branch of the house of Brienne. The

son of that marriage, Walter de Brienne, succeeded to the duchy

of Athens; and, with the aid of some Catalan mercenaries, whom he

invested with fiefs, reduced above thirty castles of the vassal

or neighboring lords. But when he was informed of the approach

and ambition of the great company, he collected a force of seven

hundred knights, six thousand four hundred horse, and eight

thousand foot, and boldly met them on the banks of the River

Cephisus in Boeotia. The Catalans amounted to no more than three

thousand five hundred horse, and four thousand foot; but the

deficiency of numbers was compensated by stratagem and order.

They formed round their camp an artificial inundation; the duke

and his knights advanced without fear or precaution on the

verdant meadow; their horses plunged into the bog; and he was cut

in pieces, with the greatest part of the French cavalry. His

family and nation were expelled; and his son Walter de Brienne,

the titular duke of Athens, the tyrant of Florence, and the

constable of France, lost his life in the field of Poitiers

Attica and Boeotia were the rewards of the victorious Catalans;

they married the widows and daughters of the slain; and during

fourteen years, the great company was the terror of the Grecian

states. Their factions drove them to acknowledge the sovereignty

of the house of Arragon; and during the remainder of the

fourteenth century, Athens, as a government or an appanage, was

successively bestowed by the kings of Sicily. After the French

and Catalans, the third dynasty was that of the Accaioli, a

family, plebeian at Florence, potent at Naples, and sovereign in

Greece. Athens, which they embellished with new buildings,

became the capital of a state, that extended over Thebes, Argos,

Corinth, Delphi, and a part of Thessaly; and their reign was

finally determined by Mahomet the Second, who strangled the last

duke, and educated his sons in the discipline and religion of the

seraglio.

[Footnote 51: See the laborious history of Ducange, whose

accurate table of the French dynasties recapitulates the

thirty-five passages, in which he mentions the dukes of Athens.]

[Footnote 52: He is twice mentioned by Villehardouin with honor,

(No. 151, 235;) and under the first passage, Ducange observes all

that can be known of his person and family.]

[Footnote 53: From these Latin princes of the xivth century,

Boccace, Chaucer. and Shakspeare, have borrowed their Theseus

duke of Athens. An ignorant age transfers its own language and

manners to the most distant times.]

[Footnote 54: The same Constantine gave to Sicily a king, to

Russia the magnus dapifer of the empire, to Thebes the

primicerius; and these absurd fables are properly lashed by

Ducange, (ad Nicephor. Greg. l. vii. c. 5.) By the Latins, the

lord of Thebes was styled, by corruption, the Megas Kurios, or

Grand Sire!]

[Footnote 55: Quodam miraculo, says Alberic. He was probably

received by Michael Choniates, the archbishop who had defended

Athens against the tyrant Leo Sgurus, (Nicetas urbs capta, p.

805, ed. Bek.) Michael was the brother of the historian Nicetas;

and his encomium of Athens is still extant in Ms. in the Bodleian

library, (Fabric. Bibliot. Graec tom. vi. p. 405.)

Note: Nicetas says expressly that Michael surrendered the

Acropolis to the marquis. - M.]

Athens, ^56 though no more than the shadow of her former

self, still contains about eight or ten thousand inhabitants; of

these, three fourths are Greeks in religion and language; and the

Turks, who compose the remainder, have relaxed, in their

intercourse with the citizens, somewhat of the pride and gravity

of their national character. The olive-tree, the gift of

Minerva, flourishes in Attica; nor has the honey of Mount

Hymettus lost any part of its exquisite flavor: ^57 but the

languid trade is monopolized by strangers, and the agriculture of

a barren land is abandoned to the vagrant Walachians. The

Athenians are still distinguished by the subtlety and acuteness

of their understandings; but these qualities, unless ennobled by

freedom, and enlightened by study, will degenerate into a low and

selfish cunning: and it is a proverbial saying of the country,

"From the Jews of Thessalonica, the Turks of Negropont, and the

Greeks of Athens, good Lord deliver us!" This artful people has

eluded the tyranny of the Turkish bashaws, by an expedient which

alleviates their servitude and aggravates their shame. About the

middle of the last century, the Athenians chose for their

protector the Kislar Aga, or chief black eunuch of the seraglio.

This Aethiopian slave, who possesses the sultan's ear,

condescends to accept the tribute of thirty thousand crowns: his

lieutenant, the Waywode, whom he annually confirms, may reserve

for his own about five or six thousand more; and such is the

policy of the citizens, that they seldom fail to remove and

punish an oppressive governor. Their private differences are

decided by the archbishop, one of the richest prelates of the

Greek church, since he possesses a revenue of one thousand pounds

sterling; and by a tribunal of the eight geronti or elders,

chosen in the eight quarters of the city: the noble families

cannot trace their pedigree above three hundred years; but their

principal members are distinguished by a grave demeanor, a fur

cap, and the lofty appellation of archon. By some, who delight

in the contrast, the modern language of Athens is represented as

the most corrupt and barbarous of the seventy dialects of the

vulgar Greek: ^58 this picture is too darkly colored: but it

would not be easy, in the country of Plato and Demosthenes, to

find a reader or a copy of their works. The Athenians walk with

supine indifference among the glorious ruins of antiquity; and

such is the debasement of their character, that they are

incapable of admiring the genius of their predecessors. ^59

[Footnote 56: The modern account of Athens, and the Athenians, is

extracted from Spon, (Voyage en Grece, tom. ii. p. 79 - 199,) and

Wheeler, (Travels into Greece, p. 337 - 414,) Stuart,

(Antiquities of Athens, passim,) and Chandler, (Travels into

Greece, p. 23 - 172.) The first of these travellers visited

Greece in the year 1676; the last, 1765; and ninety years had not

produced much difference in the tranquil scene.]

[Footnote 57: The ancients, or at least the Athenians, believed

that all the bees in the world had been propagated from Mount

Hymettus. They taught, that health might be preserved, and life

prolonged, by the external use of oil, and the internal use of

honey, (Geoponica, l. xv. c 7, p. 1089 - 1094, edit. Niclas.)]

[Footnote 58: Ducange, Glossar. Graec. Praefat. p. 8, who quotes

for his author Theodosius Zygomalas, a modern grammarian. Yet

Spon (tom. ii. p. 194) and Wheeler, (p. 355,) no incompetent

judges, entertain a more favorable opinion of the Attic dialect.]

[Footnote 59: Yet we must not accuse them of corrupting the name

of Athens, which they still call Athini. We have formed our own

barbarism of Setines.

Note: Gibbon did not foresee a Bavarian prince on the throne

of Greece, with Athens as his capital. - M.]

Chapter LXIII: Civil Wars And The Ruin Of The Greek Empire.

Part I.

Civil Wars, And Ruin Of The Greek Empire. - Reigns Of

Andronicus, The Elder And Younger, And John Palaeologus. -

Regency, Revolt, Reign, And Abdication Of John Cantacuzene. -

Establishment Of A Genoese Colony At Pera Or Galata. - Their Wars

With The Empire And City Of Constantinople.

The long reign of Andronicus ^1 the elder is chiefly

memorable by the disputes of the Greek church, the invasion of

the Catalans, and the rise of the Ottoman power. He is

celebrated as the most learned and virtuous prince of the age;

but such virtue, and such learning, contributed neither to the

perfection of the individual, nor to the happiness of society A

slave of the most abject superstition, he was surrounded on all

sides by visible and invisible enemies; nor were the flames of

hell less dreadful to his fancy, than those of a Catalan or

Turkish war. Under the reign of the Palaeologi, the choice of

the patriarch was the most important business of the state; the

heads of the Greek church were ambitious and fanatic monks; and

their vices or virtues, their learning or ignorance, were equally

mischievous or contemptible. By his intemperate discipline, the

patriarch Athanasius ^2 excited the hatred of the clergy and

people: he was heard to declare, that the sinner should swallow

the last dregs of the cup of penance; and the foolish tale was

propagated of his punishing a sacrilegious ass that had tasted

the lettuce of a convent garden. Driven from the throne by the

universal clamor, Athanasius composed before his retreat two

papers of a very opposite cast. His public testament was in the

tone of charity and resignation; the private codicil breathed the

direst anathemas against the authors of his disgrace, whom he

excluded forever from the communion of the holy trinity, the

angels, and the saints. This last paper he enclosed in an

earthen pot, which was placed, by his order, on the top of one of

the pillars, in the dome of St. Sophia, in the distant hope of

discovery and revenge. At the end of four years, some youths,

climbing by a ladder in search of pigeons' nests, detected the

fatal secret; and, as Andronicus felt himself touched and bound

by the excommunication, he trembled on the brink of the abyss

which had been so treacherously dug under his feet. A synod of

bishops was instantly convened to debate this important question:

the rashness of these clandestine anathemas was generally

condemned; but as the knot could be untied only by the same hand,

as that hand was now deprived of the crosier, it appeared that

this posthumous decree was irrevocable by any earthly power.

Some faint testimonies of repentance and pardon were extorted

from the author of the mischief; but the conscience of the

emperor was still wounded, and he desired, with no less ardor

than Athanasius himself, the restoration of a patriarch, by whom

alone he could be healed. At the dead of night, a monk rudely

knocked at the door of the royal bed-chamber, announcing a

revelation of plague and famine, of inundations and earthquakes.

Andronicus started from his bed, and spent the night in prayer,

till he felt, or thought that he felt, a slight motion of the

earth. The emperor on foot led the bishops and monks to the cell

of Athanasius; and, after a proper resistance, the saint, from

whom this message had been sent, consented to absolve the prince,

and govern the church of Constantinople. Untamed by disgrace,

and hardened by solitude, the shepherd was again odious to the

flock, and his enemies contrived a singular, and as it proved, a

successful, mode of revenge. In the night, they stole away the

footstool or foot-cloth of his throne, which they secretly

replaced with the decoration of a satirical picture. The emperor

was painted with a bridle in his mouth, and Athanasius leading

the tractable beast to the feet of Christ. The authors of the

libel were detected and punished; but as their lives had been

spared, the Christian priest in sullen indignation retired to his

cell; and the eyes of Andronicus, which had been opened for a

moment, were again closed by his successor.

[Footnote 1: Andronicus himself will justify our freedom in the

invective, (Nicephorus Gregoras, l. i. c. i.,) which he

pronounced against historic falsehood. It is true, that his

censure is more pointedly urged against calumny than against

adulation.]

[Footnote 2: For the anathema in the pigeon's nest, see Pachymer,

(l. ix. c. 24,) who relates the general history of Athanasius,

(l. viii. c. 13 - 16, 20, 24, l. x. c. 27 - 29, 31 - 36, l. xi.

c. 1 - 3, 5, 6, l. xiii. c. 8, 10, 23, 35,) and is followed by

Nicephorus Gregoras, (l. vi. c. 5, 7, l. vii. c. 1, 9,) who

includes the second retreat of this second Chrysostom.]

If this transaction be one of the most curious and important

of a reign of fifty years, I cannot at least accuse the brevity

of my materials, since I reduce into some few pages the enormous

folios of Pachymer, ^3 Cantacuzene, ^4 and Nicephorus Gregoras,

^5 who have composed the prolix and languid story of the times.

The name and situation of the emperor John Cantacuzene might

inspire the most lively curiosity. His memorials of forty years

extend from the revolt of the younger Andronicus to his own

abdication of the empire; and it is observed, that, like Moses

and Caesar, he was the principal actor in the scenes which he

describes. But in this eloquent work we should vainly seek the

sincerity of a hero or a penitent. Retired in a cloister from

the vices and passions of the world, he presents not a

confession, but an apology, of the life of an ambitious

statesman. Instead of unfolding the true counsels and characters

of men, he displays the smooth and specious surface of events,

highly varnished with his own praises and those of his friends.

Their motives are always pure; their ends always legitimate: they

conspire and rebel without any views of interest; and the

violence which they inflict or suffer is celebrated as the

spontaneous effect of reason and virtue.

[Footnote 3: Pachymer, in seven books, 377 folio pages, describes

the first twenty-six years of Andronicus the Elder; and marks the

date of his composition by the current news or lie of the day,

(A.D. 1308.) Either death or disgust prevented him from resuming

the pen.]

[Footnote 4: After an interval of twelve years, from the

conclusion of Pachymer, Cantacuzenus takes up the pen; and his

first book (c. 1 - 59, p. 9 - 150) relates the civil war, and the

eight last years of the elder Andronicus. The ingenious

comparison with Moses and Caesar is fancied by his French

translator, the president Cousin.]

[Footnote 5: Nicephorus Gregoras more briefly includes the entire

life and reign of Andronicus the elder, (l. vi. c. 1, p. 96 -

291.) This is the part of which Cantacuzene complains as a false

and malicious representation of his conduct.]

After the example of the first of the Palaeologi, the elder

Andronicus associated his son Michael to the honors of the

purple; and from the age of eighteen to his premature death, that

prince was acknowledged, above twenty- five years, as the second

emperor of the Greeks. ^6 At the head of an army, he excited

neither the fears of the enemy, nor the jealousy of the court;

his modesty and patience were never tempted to compute the years

of his father; nor was that father compelled to repent of his

liberality either by the virtues or vices of his son. The son of

Michael was named Andronicus from his grandfather, to whose early

favor he was introduced by that nominal resemblance. The

blossoms of wit and beauty increased the fondness of the elder

Andronicus; and, with the common vanity of age, he expected to

realize in the second, the hope which had been disappointed in

the first, generation. The boy was educated in the palace as an

heir and a favorite; and in the oaths and acclamations of the

people, the august triad was formed by the names of the father,

the son, and the grandson. But the younger Andronicus was

speedily corrupted by his infant greatness, while he beheld with

puerile impatience the double obstacle that hung, and might long

hang, over his rising ambition. It was not to acquire fame, or

to diffuse happiness, that he so eagerly aspired: wealth and

impunity were in his eyes the most precious attributes of a

monarch; and his first indiscreet demand was the sovereignty of

some rich and fertile island, where he might lead a life of

independence and pleasure. The emperor was offended by the loud

and frequent intemperance which disturbed his capital; the sums

which his parsimony denied were supplied by the Genoese usurers

of Pera; and the oppressive debt, which consolidated the interest

of a faction, could be discharged only by a revolution. A

beautiful female, a matron in rank, a prostitute in manners, had

instructed the younger Andronicus in the rudiments of love; but

he had reason to suspect the nocturnal visits of a rival; and a

stranger passing through the street was pierced by the arrows of

his guards, who were placed in ambush at her door. That stranger

was his brother, Prince Manuel, who languished and died of his

wound; and the emperor Michael, their common father, whose health

was in a declining state, expired on the eighth day, lamenting

the loss of both his children. ^7 However guiltless in his

intention, the younger Andronicus might impute a brother's and a

father's death to the consequence of his own vices; and deep was

the sigh of thinking and feeling men, when they perceived,

instead of sorrow and repentance, his ill-dissembled joy on the

removal of two odious competitors. By these melancholy events,

and the increase of his disorders, the mind of the elder emperor

was gradually alienated; and, after many fruitless reproofs, he

transferred on another grandson ^8 his hopes and affection. The

change was announced by the new oath of allegiance to the

reigning sovereign, and the person whom he should appoint for his

successor; and the acknowledged heir, after a repetition of

insults and complaints, was exposed to the indignity of a public

trial. Before the sentence, which would probably have condemned

him to a dungeon or a cell, the emperor was informed that the

palace courts were filled with the armed followers of his

grandson; the judgment was softened to a treaty of

reconciliation; and the triumphant escape of the prince

encouraged the ardor of the younger faction.

[Footnote 6: He was crowned May 21st, 1295, and died October

12th, 1320, (Ducange, Fam. Byz. p. 239.) His brother Theodore, by

a second marriage, inherited the marquisate of Montferrat,

apostatized to the religion and manners of the Latins, (Nic.

Greg. l. ix. c. 1,) and founded a dynasty of Italian princes,

which was extinguished A.D. 1533, (Ducange, Fam. Byz. p. 249 -

253.)]

[Footnote 7: We are indebted to Nicephorus Gregoras (l. viii. c.

1) for the knowledge of this tragic adventure; while Cantacuzene

more discreetly conceals the vices of Andronicus the Younger, of

which he was the witness and perhaps the associate, (l. i. c. 1,

&c.)]

[Footnote 8: His destined heir was Michael Catharus, the bastard

of Constantine his second son. In this project of excluding his

grandson Andronicus, Nicephorus Gregoras (l. viii. c. 3) agrees

with Cantacuzene, (l. i. c. 1, 2.)]

Yet the capital, the clergy, and the senate, adhered to the

person, or at least to the government, of the old emperor; and it

was only in the provinces, by flight, and revolt, and foreign

succor, that the malecontents could hope to vindicate their cause

and subvert his throne. The soul of the enterprise was the great

domestic John Cantacuzene; the sally from Constantinople is the

first date of his actions and memorials; and if his own pen be

most descriptive of his patriotism, an unfriendly historian has

not refused to celebrate the zeal and ability which he displayed

in the service of the young emperor. ^* That prince escaped from

the capital under the pretence of hunting; erected his standard

at Adrianople; and, in a few days, assembled fifty thousand horse

and foot, whom neither honor nor duty could have armed against

the Barbarians. Such a force might have saved or commanded the

empire; but their counsels were discordant, their motions were

slow and doubtful, and their progress was checked by intrigue and

negotiation. The quarrel of the two Andronici was protracted,

and suspended, and renewed, during a ruinous period of seven

years. In the first treaty, the relics of the Greek empire were

divided: Constantinople, Thessalonica, and the islands, were left

to the elder, while the younger acquired the sovereignty of the

greatest part of Thrace, from Philippi to the Byzantine limit.

By the second treaty, he stipulated the payment of his troops,

his immediate coronation, and an adequate share of the power and

revenue of the state. The third civil war was terminated by the

surprise of Constantinople, the final retreat of the old emperor,

and the sole reign of his victorious grandson. The reasons of

this delay may be found in the characters of the men and of the

times. When the heir of the monarchy first pleaded his wrongs

and his apprehensions, he was heard with pity and applause: and

his adherents repeated on all sides the inconsistent promise,

that he would increase the pay of the soldiers and alleviate the

burdens of the people. The grievances of forty years were

mingled in his revolt; and the rising generation was fatigued by

the endless prospect of a reign, whose favorites and maxims were

of other times. The youth of Andronicus had been without spirit,

his age was without reverence: his taxes produced an unusual

revenue of five hundred thousand pounds; yet the richest of the

sovereigns of Christendom was incapable of maintaining three

thousand horse and twenty galleys, to resist the destructive

progress of the Turks. ^9 "How different," said the younger

Andronicus, "is my situation from that of the son of Philip!

Alexander might complain, that his father would leave him nothing

to conquer: alas! my grandsire will leave me nothing to lose."

But the Greeks were soon admonished, that the public disorders

could not be healed by a civil war; and that their young favorite

was not destined to be the savior of a falling empire. On the

first repulse, his party was broken by his own levity, their

intestine discord, and the intrigues of the ancient court, which

tempted each malecontent to desert or betray the cause of the

rebellion. Andronicus the younger was touched with remorse, or

fatigued with business, or deceived by negotiation: pleasure

rather than power was his aim; and the license of maintaining a

thousand hounds, a thousand hawks, and a thousand huntsmen, was

sufficient to sully his fame and disarm his ambition.

[Footnote *: The conduct of Cantacuzene, by his own showing, was

inexplicable. He was unwilling to dethrone the old emperor, and

dissuaded the immediate march on Constantinople. The young

Andronicus, he says, entered into his views, and wrote to warn

the emperor of his danger when the march was determined.

Cantacuzenus, in Nov. Byz. Hist. Collect. vol. i. p. 104, &c. -

M.]

[Footnote 9: See Nicephorus Gregoras, l. viii. c. 6. The younger

Andronicus complained, that in four years and four months a sum

of 350,000 byzants of gold was due to him for the expenses of his

household, (Cantacuzen l. i. c. 48.) Yet he would have remitted

the debt, if he might have been allowed to squeeze the farmers of

the revenue]

Let us now survey the catastrophe of this busy plot, and the

final situation of the principal actors. ^10 The age of

Andronicus was consumed in civil discord; and, amidst the events

of war and treaty, his power and reputation continually decayed,

till the fatal night in which the gates of the city and palace

were opened without resistance to his grandson. His principal

commander scorned the repeated warnings of danger; and retiring

to rest in the vain security of ignorance, abandoned the feeble

monarch, with some priests and pages, to the terrors of a

sleepless night. These terrors were quickly realized by the

hostile shouts, which proclaimed the titles and victory of

Andronicus the younger; and the aged emperor, falling prostrate

before an image of the Virgin, despatched a suppliant message to

resign the sceptre, and to obtain his life at the hands of the

conqueror. The answer of his grandson was decent and pious; at

the prayer of his friends, the younger Andronicus assumed the

sole administration; but the elder still enjoyed the name and

preeminence of the first emperor, the use of the great palace,

and a pension of twenty-four thousand pieces of gold, one half of

which was assigned on the royal treasury, and the other on the

fishery of Constantinople. But his impotence was soon exposed to

contempt and oblivion; the vast silence of the palace was

disturbed only by the cattle and poultry of the neighborhood, ^*

which roved with impunity through the solitary courts; and a

reduced allowance of ten thousand pieces of gold ^11 was all that

he could ask, and more than he could hope. His calamities were

imbittered by the gradual extinction of sight; his confinement

was rendered each day more rigorous; and during the absence and

sickness of his grandson, his inhuman keepers, by the threats of

instant death, compelled him to exchange the purple for the

monastic habit and profession. The monk Antony had renounced the

pomp of the world; yet he had occasion for a coarse fur in the

winter season, and as wine was forbidden by his confessor, and

water by his physician, the sherbet of Egypt was his common

drink. It was not without difficulty that the late emperor could

procure three or four pieces to satisfy these simple wants; and

if he bestowed the gold to relieve the more painful distress of a

friend, the sacrifice is of some weight in the scale of humanity

and religion. Four years after his abdication, Andronicus or

Antony expired in a cell, in the seventy-fourth year of his age:

and the last strain of adulation could only promise a more

splendid crown of glory in heaven than he had enjoyed upon earth.

^12 ^*

[Footnote 10: I follow the chronology of Nicephorus Gregoras, who

is remarkably exact. It is proved that Cantacuzene has mistaken

the dates of his own actions, or rather that his text has been

corrupted by ignorant transcribers.]

[Footnote *: And the washerwomen, according to Nic. Gregoras, p.

431 - M.]

[Footnote 11: I have endeavored to reconcile the 24,000 pieces of

Cantacuzene (l. ii. c. 1) with the 10,000 of Nicephorus Gregoras,

(l. ix. c. 2;) the one of whom wished to soften, the other to

magnify, the hardships of the old emperor]

[Footnote 12: See Nicephorus Gregoras, (l. ix. 6, 7, 8, 10, 14,

l. x. c. 1.) The historian had tasted of the prosperity, and

shared the retreat, of his benefactor; and that friendship which

"waits or to the scaffold or the cell," should not lightly be

accused as "a hireling, a prostitute to praise."

Note: But it may be accused of unparalleled absurdity. He

compares the extinction of the feeble old man to that of the sun:

his coffin is to be floated like Noah's ark by a deluge of tears.

- M.]

[Footnote *: Prodigies (according to Nic. Gregoras, p. 460)

announced the departure of the old and imbecile Imperial Monk

from his earthly prison. - M.]

Nor was the reign of the younger, more glorious or fortunate

than that of the elder, Andronicus. ^13 He gathered the fruits of

ambition; but the taste was transient and bitter: in the supreme

station he lost the remains of his early popularity; and the

defects of his character became still more conspicuous to the

world. The public reproach urged him to march in person against

the Turks; nor did his courage fail in the hour of trial; but a

defeat and a wound were the only trophies of his expedition in

Asia, which confirmed the establishment of the Ottoman monarchy.

The abuses of the civil government attained their full maturity

and perfection: his neglect of forms, and the confusion of

national dresses, are deplored by the Greeks as the fatal

symptoms of the decay of the empire. Andronicus was old before

his time; the intemperance of youth had accelerated the

infirmities of age; and after being rescued from a dangerous

malady by nature, or physic, or the Virgin, he was snatched away

before he had accomplished his forty-fifth year. He was twice

married; and, as the progress of the Latins in arms and arts had

softened the prejudices of the Byzantine court, his two wives

were chosen in the princely houses of Germany and Italy. The

first, Agnes at home, Irene in Greece, was daughter of the duke

of Brunswick. Her father ^14 was a petty lord ^15 in the poor

and savage regions of the north of Germany: ^16 yet he derived

some revenue from his silver mines; ^17 and his family is

celebrated by the Greeks as the most ancient and noble of the

Teutonic name. ^18 After the death of this childish princess,

Andronicus sought in marriage Jane, the sister of the count of

Savoy; ^19 and his suit was preferred to that of the French king.

^20 The count respected in his sister the superior majesty of a

Roman empress: her retinue was composed of knights and ladies;

she was regenerated and crowned in St. Sophia, under the more

orthodox appellation of Anne; and, at the nuptial feast, the

Greeks and Italians vied with each other in the martial exercises

of tilts and tournaments.

[Footnote 13: The sole reign of Andronicus the younger is

described by Cantacuzene (l. ii. c. 1 - 40, p. 191 - 339) and

Nicephorus Gregoras, (l. ix c. 7 - l. xi. c. 11, p. 262 - 361.)]

[Footnote 14: Agnes, or Irene, was the daughter of Duke Henry the

Wonderful, the chief of the house of Brunswick, and the fourth in

descent from the famous Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony and

Bavaria, and conqueror of the Sclavi on the Baltic coast. Her

brother Henry was surnamed the Greek, from his two journeys into

the East: but these journeys were subsequent to his sister's

marriage; and I am ignorant how Agnes was discovered in the heart

of Germany, and recommended to the Byzantine court. (Rimius,

Memoirs of the House of Brunswick, p. 126 - 137.]

[Footnote 15: Henry the Wonderful was the founder of the branch

of Gruben hagen, extinct in the year 1596, (Rimius, p. 287.) He

resided in the castle of Wolfenbuttel, and possessed no more than

a sixth part of the allodial estates of Brunswick and Luneburgh,

which the Guelph family had saved from the confiscation of their

great fiefs. The frequent partitions among brothers had almost

ruined the princely houses of Germany, till that just, but

pernicious, law was slowly superseded by the right of

primogeniture. The principality of Grubenhagen, one of the last

remains of the Hercynian forest, is a woody, mountainous, and

barren tract, (Busching's Geography, vol. vi. p. 270 - 286,

English translation.)]

[Footnote 16: The royal author of the Memoirs of Brandenburgh

will teach us, how justly, in a much later period, the north of

Germany deserved the epithets of poor and barbarous. (Essai sur

les Moeurs, &c.) In the year 1306, in the woods of Luneburgh,

some wild people of the Vened race were allowed to bury alive

their infirm and useless parents. (Rimius, p. 136.)]

[Footnote 17: The assertion of Tacitus, that Germany was

destitute of the precious metals, must be taken, even in his own

time, with some limitation, (Germania, c. 5. Annal. xi. 20.)

According to Spener, (Hist. Germaniae Pragmatica, tom. i. p.

351,) Argentifodinae in Hercyniis montibus, imperante Othone

magno (A.D. 968) primum apertae, largam etiam opes augendi

dederunt copiam: but Rimius (p. 258, 259) defers till the year

1016 the discovery of the silver mines of Grubenhagen, or the

Upper Hartz, which were productive in the beginning of the xivth

century, and which still yield a considerable revenue to the

house of Brunswick.]

[Footnote 18: Cantacuzene has given a most honorable testimony.

The praise is just in itself, and pleasing to an English ear.]

[Footnote 19: Anne, or Jane, was one of the four daughters of

Amedee the Great, by a second marriage, and half-sister of his

successor Edward count of Savoy. (Anderson's Tables, p. 650.

See Cantacuzene, (l. i. c. 40 - 42.)]

[Footnote 20: That king, if the fact be true, must have been

Charles the Fair who in five years (1321 - 1326) was married to

three wives, (Anderson, p. 628.) Anne of Savoy arrived at

Constantinople in February, 1326.]

The empress Anne of Savoy survived her husband: their son,

John Palaeologus, was left an orphan and an emperor in the ninth

year of his age; and his weakness was protected by the first and

most deserving of the Greeks. The long and cordial friendship of

his father for John Cantacuzene is alike honorable to the prince

and the subject. It had been formed amidst the pleasures of

their youth: their families were almost equally noble; ^21 and

the recent lustre of the purple was amply compensated by the

energy of a private education. We have seen that the young

emperor was saved by Cantacuzene from the power of his

grandfather; and, after six years of civil war, the same favorite

brought him back in triumph to the palace of Constantinople.

Under the reign of Andronicus the younger, the great domestic

ruled the emperor and the empire; and it was by his valor and

conduct that the Isle of Lesbos and the principality of Aetolia

were restored to their ancient allegiance. His enemies confess,

that, among the public robbers, Cantacuzene alone was moderate

and abstemious; and the free and voluntary account which he

produces of his own wealth ^22 may sustain the presumption that

he was devolved by inheritance, and not accumulated by rapine.

He does not indeed specify the value of his money, plate, and

jewels; yet, after a voluntary gift of two hundred vases of

silver, after much had been secreted by his friends and plundered

by his foes, his forfeit treasures were sufficient for the

equipment of a fleet of seventy galleys. He does not measure the

size and number of his estates; but his granaries were heaped

with an incredible store of wheat and barley; and the labor of a

thousand yoke of oxen might cultivate, according to the practice

of antiquity, about sixty-two thousand five hundred acres of

arable land. ^23 His pastures were stocked with two thousand five

hundred brood mares, two hundred camels, three hundred mules,

five hundred asses, five thousand horned cattle, fifty thousand

hogs, and seventy thousand sheep: ^24 a precious record of rural

opulence, in the last period of the empire, and in a land, most

probably in Thrace, so repeatedly wasted by foreign and domestic

hostility. The favor of Cantacuzene was above his fortune. In

the moments of familiarity, in the hour of sickness, the emperor

was desirous to level the distance between them and pressed his

friend to accept the diadem and purple. The virtue of the great

domestic, which is attested by his own pen, resisted the

dangerous proposal; but the last testament of Andronicus the

younger named him the guardian of his son, and the regent of the

empire.

[Footnote 21: The noble race of the Cantacuzeni (illustrious from

the xith century in the Byzantine annals) was drawn from the

Paladins of France, the heroes of those romances which, in the

xiiith century, were translated and read by the Greeks, (Ducange,

Fam. Byzant. p. 258.)]

[Footnote 22: See Cantacuzene, (l. iii. c. 24, 30, 36.)]

[Footnote 23: Saserna, in Gaul, and Columella, in Italy or Spain,

allow two yoke of oxen, two drivers, and six laborers, for two

hundred jugera (125 English acres) of arable land, and three more

men must be added if there be much underwood, (Columella de Re

Rustica, l. ii. c. 13, p 441, edit. Gesner.)]

[Footnote 24: In this enumeration (l. iii. c. 30) the French

translation of the president Cousin is blotted with three

palpable and essential errors. 1. He omits the 1000 yoke of

working oxen. 2. He interprets by the number of fifteen hundred.

3. He confounds myriads with chiliads, and gives Cantacuzene no

more than 5000 hogs. Put not your trust in translations!]

Note: There seems to be another reading. Niebuhr's edit. in

los. - M.]

Had the regent found a suitable return of obedience and

gratitude, perhaps he would have acted with pure and zealous

fidelity in the service of his pupil. ^25 A guard of five hundred

soldiers watched over his person and the palace; the funeral of

the late emperor was decently performed; the capital was silent

and submissive; and five hundred letters, which Cantacuzene

despatched in the first month, informed the provinces of their

loss and their duty. The prospect of a tranquil minority was

blasted by the great duke or admiral Apocaucus, and to exaggerate

his perfidy, the Imperial historian is pleased to magnify his own

imprudence, in raising him to that office against the advice of

his more sagacious sovereign. Bold and subtle, rapacious and

profuse, the avarice and ambition of Apocaucus were by turns

subservient to each other; and his talents were applied to the

ruin of his country. His arrogance was heightened by the command

of a naval force and an impregnable castle, and under the mask of

oaths and flattery he secretly conspired against his benefactor.

The female court of the empress was bribed and directed; he

encouraged Anne of Savoy to assert, by the law of nature, the

tutelage of her son; the love of power was disguised by the

anxiety of maternal tenderness: and the founder of the Palaeologi

had instructed his posterity to dread the example of a perfidious

guardian. The patriarch John of Apri was a proud and feeble old

man, encompassed by a numerous and hungry kindred. He produced

an obsolete epistle of Andronicus, which bequeathed the prince

and people to his pious care: the fate of his predecessor

Arsenius prompted him to prevent, rather than punish, the crimes

of a usurper; and Apocaucus smiled at the success of his own

flattery, when he beheld the Byzantine priest assuming the state

and temporal claims of the Roman pontiff. ^26 Between three

persons so different in their situation and character, a private

league was concluded: a shadow of authority was restored to the

senate; and the people was tempted by the name of freedom. By

this powerful confederacy, the great domestic was assaulted at

first with clandestine, at length with open, arms. His

prerogatives were disputed; his opinions slighted; his friends

persecuted; and his safety was threatened both in the camp and

city. In his absence on the public service, he was accused of

treason; proscribed as an enemy of the church and state; and

delivered with all his adherents to the sword of justice, the

vengeance of the people, and the power of the devil; his fortunes

were confiscated; his aged mother was cast into prison; ^* all

his past services were buried in oblivion; and he was driven by

injustice to perpetrate the crime of which he was accused. ^27

From the review of his preceding conduct, Cantacuzene appears to

have been guiltless of any treasonable designs; and the only

suspicion of his innocence must arise from the vehemence of his

protestations, and the sublime purity which he ascribes to his

own virtue. While the empress and the patriarch still affected

the appearances of harmony, he repeatedly solicited the

permission of retiring to a private, and even a monastic, life.

After he had been declared a public enemy, it was his fervent

wish to throw himself at the feet of the young emperor, and to

receive without a murmur the stroke of the executioner: it was

not without reluctance that he listened to the voice of reason,

which inculcated the sacred duty of saving his family and

friends, and proved that he could only save them by drawing the

sword and assuming the Imperial title.

[Footnote 25: See the regency and reign of John Cantacuzenus, and

the whole progress of the civil war, in his own history, (l. iii.

c. 1 - 100, p. 348 - 700,) and in that of Nicephorus Gregoras,

(l. xii. c. 1 - l. xv. c. 9, p. 353 - 492.)]

[Footnote 26: He assumes the royal privilege of red shoes or

buskins; placed on his head a mitre of silk and gold; subscribed

his epistles with hyacinth or green ink, and claimed for the new,

whatever Constantine had given to the ancient, Rome, (Cantacuzen.

l. iii. c. 36. Nic. Gregoras, l. xiv. c. 3.)]

[Footnote *: She died there through persecution and neglect. -

M.]

[Footnote 27: Gregoras (l. xii. c. 5.) confesses the innocence

and virtues of Cantacuzenus, the guilt and flagitious vices of

Apocaucus; nor does he dissemble the motive of his personal and

religious enmity to the former.

Note: They were the religious enemies and persecutors of

Nicephorus.]

Chapter LXIII: Civil Wars And The Ruin Of The Greek Empire.

Part II.

In the strong city of Demotica, his peculiar domain, the

emperor John Cantacuzenus was invested with the purple buskins:

his right leg was clothed by his noble kinsmen, the left by the

Latin chiefs, on whom he conferred the order of knighthood. But

even in this act of revolt, he was still studious of loyalty; and

the titles of John Palaeologus and Anne of Savoy were proclaimed

before his own name and that of his wife Irene. Such vain

ceremony is a thin disguise of rebellion, nor are there perhaps

any personal wrongs that can authorize a subject to take arms

against his sovereign: but the want of preparation and success

may confirm the assurance of the usurper, that this decisive step

was the effect of necessity rather than of choice. Constantinople

adhered to the young emperor; the king of Bulgaria was invited to

the relief of Adrianople: the principal cities of Thrace and

Macedonia, after some hesitation, renounced their obedience to

the great domestic; and the leaders of the troops and provinces

were induced, by their private interest, to prefer the loose

dominion of a woman and a priest. ^* The army of Cantacuzene, in

sixteen divisions, was stationed on the banks of the Melas to

tempt or to intimidate the capital: it was dispersed by treachery

or fear; and the officers, more especially the mercenary Latins,

accepted the bribes, and embraced the service, of the Byzantine

court. After this loss, the rebel emperor (he fluctuated between

the two characters) took the road of Thessalonica with a chosen

remnant; but he failed in his enterprise on that important place;

and he was closely pursued by the great duke, his enemy

Apocaucus, at the head of a superior power by sea and land.

Driven from the coast, in his march, or rather flight, into the

mountains of Servia, Cantacuzene assembled his troops to

scrutinize those who were worthy and willing to accompany his

broken fortunes. A base majority bowed and retired; and his

trusty band was diminished to two thousand, and at last to five

hundred, volunteers. The cral, ^28 or despot of the Servians

received him with general hospitality; but the ally was

insensibly degraded to a suppliant, a hostage, a captive; and in

this miserable dependence, he waited at the door of the

Barbarian, who could dispose of the life and liberty of a Roman

emperor. The most tempting offers could not persuade the cral to

violate his trust; but he soon inclined to the stronger side; and

his friend was dismissed without injury to a new vicissitude of

hopes and perils. Near six years the flame of discord burnt with

various success and unabated rage: the cities were distracted by

the faction of the nobles and the plebeians; the Cantacuzeni and

Palaeologi: and the Bulgarians, the Servians, and the Turks, were

invoked on both sides as the instruments of private ambition and

the common ruin. The regent deplored the calamities, of which he

was the author and victim: and his own experience might dictate a

just and lively remark on the different nature of foreign and

civil war. "The former," said he, "is the external warmth of

summer, always tolerable, and often beneficial; the latter is the

deadly heat of a fever, which consumes without a remedy the

vitals of the constitution." ^29

[Footnote *: Cantacuzene asserts, that in all the cities, the

populace were on the side of the emperor, the aristocracy on his.

The populace took the opportunity of rising and plundering the

wealthy as Cantacuzenites, vol. iii. c. 29 Ages of common

oppression and ruin had not extinguished these republican

factions. - M.]

[Footnote 28: The princes of Servia (Ducange, Famil. Dalmaticae,

&c., c. 2, 3, 4, 9) were styled Despots in Greek, and Cral in

their native idiom, (Ducange, Gloss. Graec. p. 751.) That title,

the equivalent of king, appears to be of Sclavonic origin, from

whence it has been borrowed by the Hungarians, the modern Greeks,

and even by the Turks, (Leunclavius, Pandect. Turc. p. 422,) who

reserve the name of Padishah for the emperor. To obtain the

latter instead of the former is the ambition of the French at

Constantinople, (Aversissement a l'Histoire de Timur Bec, p.

39.)]

[Footnote 29: Nic. Gregoras, l. xii. c. 14. It is surprising

that Cantacuzene has not inserted this just and lively image in

his own writings.]

The introduction of barbarians and savages into the contests

of civilized nations, is a measure pregnant with shame and

mischief; which the interest of the moment may compel, but which

is reprobated by the best principles of humanity and reason. It

is the practice of both sides to accuse their enemies of the

guilt of the first alliances; and those who fail in their

negotiations are loudest in their censure of the example which

they envy and would gladly imitate. The Turks of Asia were less

barbarous perhaps than the shepherds of Bulgaria and Servia; but

their religion rendered them implacable foes of Rome and

Christianity. To acquire the friendship of their emirs, the two

factions vied with each other in baseness and profusion: the

dexterity of Cantacuzene obtained the preference: but the succor

and victory were dearly purchased by the marriage of his daughter

with an infidel, the captivity of many thousand Christians, and

the passage of the Ottomans into Europe, the last and fatal

stroke in the fall of the Roman empire. The inclining scale was

decided in his favor by the death of Apocaucus, the just though

singular retribution of his crimes. A crowd of nobles or

plebeians, whom he feared or hated, had been seized by his orders

in the capital and the provinces; and the old palace of

Constantine was assigned as the place of their confinement. Some

alterations in raising the walls, and narrowing the cells, had

been ingeniously contrived to prevent their escape, and aggravate

their misery; and the work was incessantly pressed by the daily

visits of the tyrant. His guards watched at the gate, and as he

stood in the inner court to overlook the architects, without fear

or suspicion, he was assaulted and laid breathless on the ground,

by two ^* resolute prisoners of the Palaeologian race, ^30 who

were armed with sticks, and animated by despair. On the rumor of

revenge and liberty, the captive multitude broke their fetters,

fortified their prison, and exposed from the battlements the

tyrant's head, presuming on the favor of the people and the

clemency of the empress. Anne of Savoy might rejoice in the fall

of a haughty and ambitious minister, but while she delayed to

resolve or to act, the populace, more especially the mariners,

were excited by the widow of the great duke to a sedition, an

assault, and a massacre. The prisoners (of whom the far greater

part were guiltless or inglorious of the deed) escaped to a

neighboring church: they were slaughtered at the foot of the

altar; and in his death the monster was not less bloody and

venomous than in his life. Yet his talents alone upheld the

cause of the young emperor; and his surviving associates,

suspicious of each other, abandoned the conduct of the war, and

rejected the fairest terms of accommodation. In the beginning of

the dispute, the empress felt, and complained, that she was

deceived by the enemies of Cantacuzene: the patriarch was

employed to preach against the forgiveness of injuries; and her

promise of immortal hatred was sealed by an oath, under the

penalty of excommunication. ^31 But Anne soon learned to hate

without a teacher: she beheld the misfortunes of the empire with

the indifference of a stranger: her jealousy was exasperated by

the competition of a rival empress; and on the first symptoms of

a more yielding temper, she threatened the patriarch to convene a

synod, and degrade him from his office. Their incapacity and

discord would have afforded the most decisive advantage; but the

civil war was protracted by the weakness of both parties; and the

moderation of Cantacuzene has not escaped the reproach of

timidity and indolence. He successively recovered the provinces

and cities; and the realm of his pupil was measured by the walls

of Constantinople; but the metropolis alone counterbalanced the

rest of the empire; nor could he attempt that important conquest

till he had secured in his favor the public voice and a private

correspondence. An Italian, of the name of Facciolati, ^32 had

succeeded to the office of great duke: the ships, the guards, and

the golden gate, were subject to his command; but his humble

ambition was bribed to become the instrument of treachery; and

the revolution was accomplished without danger or bloodshed.

Destitute of the powers of resistance, or the hope of relief, the

inflexible Anne would have still defended the palace, and have

smiled to behold the capital in flames, rather than in the

possession of a rival. She yielded to the prayers of her friends

and enemies; and the treaty was dictated by the conqueror, who

professed a loyal and zealous attachment to the son of his

benefactor. The marriage of his daughter with John Palaeologus

was at length consummated: the hereditary right of the pupil was

acknowledged; but the sole administration during ten years was

vested in the guardian. Two emperors and three empresses were

seated on the Byzantine throne; and a general amnesty quieted the

apprehensions, and confirmed the property, of the most guilty

subjects. The festival of the coronation and nuptials was

celebrated with the appearances of concord and magnificence, and

both were equally fallacious. During the late troubles, the

treasures of the state, and even the furniture of the palace, had

been alienated or embezzled; the royal banquet was served in

pewter or earthenware; and such was the proud poverty of the

times, that the absence of gold and jewels was supplied by the

paltry artifices of glass and gilt-leather. ^33

[Footnote 30: The two avengers were both Palaeologi, who might

resent, with royal indignation, the shame of their chains. The

tragedy of Apocaucus may deserve a peculiar reference to

Cantacuzene (l. iii. c. 86) and Nic. Gregoras, (l. xiv. c. 10.)]

[Footnote 31: Cantacuzene accuses the patriarch, and spares the

empress, the mother of his sovereign, (l. iii. 33, 34,) against

whom Nic. Gregoras expresses a particular animosity, (l. xiv. 10,

11, xv. 5.) It is true that they do not speak exactly of the same

time.]

[Footnote *: Nicephorus says four, p.734.]

[Footnote 32: The traitor and treason are revealed by Nic.

Gregoras, (l. xv. c. 8;) but the name is more discreetly

suppressed by his great accomplice, (Cantacuzen. l. iii. c. 99.)]

[Footnote 33: Nic. Greg. l. xv. 11. There were, however, some

true pearls, but very thinly sprinkled.]

I hasten to conclude the personal history of John

Cantacuzene. ^34 He triumphed and reigned; but his reign and

triumph were clouded by the discontent of his own and the adverse

faction. His followers might style the general amnesty an act of

pardon for his enemies, and of oblivion for his friends: ^35 in

his cause their estates had been forfeited or plundered; and as

they wandered naked and hungry through the streets, they cursed

the selfish generosity of a leader, who, on the throne of the

empire, might relinquish without merit his private inheritance.

The adherents of the empress blushed to hold their lives and

fortunes by the precarious favor of a usurper; and the thirst of

revenge was concealed by a tender concern for the succession, and

even the safety, of her son. They were justly alarmed by a

petition of the friends of Cantacuzene, that they might be

released from their oath of allegiance to the Palaeologi, and

intrusted with the defence of some cautionary towns; a measure

supported with argument and eloquence; and which was rejected

(says the Imperial historian) "by my sublime, and almost

incredible virtue." His repose was disturbed by the sound of

plots and seditions; and he trembled lest the lawful prince

should be stolen away by some foreign or domestic enemy, who

would inscribe his name and his wrongs in the banners of

rebellion. As the son of Andronicus advanced in the years of

manhood, he began to feel and to act for himself; and his rising

ambition was rather stimulated than checked by the imitation of

his father's vices. If we may trust his own professions,

Cantacuzene labored with honest industry to correct these sordid

and sensual appetites, and to raise the mind of the young prince

to a level with his fortune. In the Servian expedition, the two

emperors showed themselves in cordial harmony to the troops and

provinces; and the younger colleague was initiated by the elder

in the mysteries of war and government. After the conclusion of

the peace, Palaeologus was left at Thessalonica, a royal

residence, and a frontier station, to secure by his absence the

peace of Constantinople, and to withdraw his youth from the

temptations of a luxurious capital. But the distance weakened

the powers of control, and the son of Andronicus was surrounded

with artful or unthinking companions, who taught him to hate his

guardian, to deplore his exile, and to vindicate his rights. A

private treaty with the cral or despot of Servia was soon

followed by an open revolt; and Cantacuzene, on the throne of the

elder Andronicus, defended the cause of age and prerogative,

which in his youth he had so vigorously attacked. At his request

the empress-mother undertook the voyage of Thessalonica, and the

office of mediation: she returned without success; and unless

Anne of Savoy was instructed by adversity, we may doubt the

sincerity, or at least the fervor, of her zeal. While the regent

grasped the sceptre with a firm and vigorous hand, she had been

instructed to declare, that the ten years of his legal

administration would soon elapse; and that, after a full trial of

the vanity of the world, the emperor Cantacuzene sighed for the

repose of a cloister, and was ambitious only of a heavenly crown.

Had these sentiments been genuine, his voluntary abdication would

have restored the peace of the empire, and his conscience would

have been relieved by an act of justice. Palaeologus alone was

responsible for his future government; and whatever might be his

vices, they were surely less formidable than the calamities of a

civil war, in which the Barbarians and infidels were again

invited to assist the Greeks in their mutual destruction. By the

arms of the Turks, who now struck a deep and everlasting root in

Europe, Cantacuzene prevailed in the third contest in which he

had been involved; and the young emperor, driven from the sea and

land, was compelled to take shelter among the Latins of the Isle

of Tenedos. His insolence and obstinacy provoked the victor to a

step which must render the quarrel irreconcilable; and the

association of his son Matthew, whom he invested with the purple,

established the succession in the family of the Cantacuzeni. But

Constantinople was still attached to the blood of her ancient

princes; and this last injury accelerated the restoration of the

rightful heir. A noble Genoese espoused the cause of

Palaeologus, obtained a promise of his sister, and achieved the

revolution with two galleys and two thousand five hundred

auxiliaries. Under the pretence of distress, they were admitted

into the lesser port; a gate was opened, and the Latin shout of,

"Long life and victory to the emperor, John Palaeologus!" was

answered by a general rising in his favor. A numerous and loyal

party yet adhered to the standard of Cantacuzene: but he asserts

in his history (does he hope for belief?) that his tender

conscience rejected the assurance of conquest; that, in free

obedience to the voice of religion and philosophy, he descended

from the throne and embraced with pleasure the monastic habit and

profession. ^36 So soon as he ceased to be a prince, his

successor was not unwilling that he should be a saint: the

remainder of his life was devoted to piety and learning; in the

cells of Constantinople and Mount Athos, the monk Joasaph was

respected as the temporal and spiritual father of the emperor;

and if he issued from his retreat, it was as the minister of

peace, to subdue the obstinacy, and solicit the pardon, of his

rebellious son. ^37

[Footnote 34: From his return to Constantinople, Cantacuzene

continues his history and that of the empire, one year beyond the

abdication of his son Matthew, A.D. 1357, (l. iv. c. l - 50, p.

705 - 911.) Nicephorus Gregoras ends with the synod of

Constantinople, in the year 1351, (l. xxii. c. 3, p. 660; the

rest, to the conclusion of the xxivth book, p. 717, is all

controversy;) and his fourteen last books are still Mss. in the

king of France's library.]

[Footnote 35: The emperor (Cantacuzen. l. iv. c. 1) represents

his own virtues, and Nic. Gregoras (l. xv. c. 11) the complaints

of his friends, who suffered by its effects. I have lent them

the words of our poor cavaliers after the Restoration.]

[Footnote 36: The awkward apology of Cantacuzene, (l. iv. c. 39 -

42,) who relates, with visible confusion, his own downfall, may

be supplied by the less accurate, but more honest, narratives of

Matthew Villani (l. iv. c. 46, in the Script. Rerum Ital. tom.

xiv. p. 268) and Ducas, (c 10, 11.)]

[Footnote 37: Cantacuzene, in the year 1375, was honored with a

letter from the pope, (Fleury, Hist. Eccles. tom. xx. p. 250.)

His death is placed by a respectable authority on the 20th of

November, 1411, (Ducange, Fam. Byzant. p. 260.) But if he were of

the age of his companion Andronicus the Younger, he must have

lived 116 years; a rare instance of longevity, which in so

illustrious a person would have attracted universal notice.]

Yet in the cloister, the mind of Cantacuzene was still

exercised by theological war. He sharpened a controversial pen

against the Jews and Mahometans; ^38 and in every state he

defended with equal zeal the divine light of Mount Thabor, a

memorable question which consummates the religious follies of the

Greeks. The fakirs of India, ^39 and the monks of the Oriental

church, were alike persuaded, that in the total abstraction of

the faculties of the mind and body, the purer spirit may ascend

to the enjoyment and vision of the Deity. The opinion and

practice of the monasteries of Mount Athos ^40 will be best

represented in the words of an abbot, who flourished in the

eleventh century. "When thou art alone in thy cell," says the

ascetic teacher, "shut thy door, and seat thyself in a corner:

raise thy mind above all things vain and transitory; recline thy

beard and chin on thy breast; turn thy eyes and thy thoughts

toward the middle of thy belly, the region of the navel; and

search the place of the heart, the seat of the soul. At first,

all will be dark and comfortless; but if you persevere day and

night, you will feel an ineffable joy; and no sooner has the soul

discovered the place of the heart, than it is involved in a

mystic and ethereal light." This light, the production of a

distempered fancy, the creature of an empty stomach and an empty

brain, was adored by the Quietists as the pure and perfect

essence of God himself; and as long as the folly was confined to

Mount Athos, the simple solitaries were not inquisitive how the

divine essence could be a material substance, or how an

immaterial substance could be perceived by the eyes of the body.

But in the reign of the younger Andronicus, these monasteries

were visited by Barlaam, ^41 a Calabrian monk, who was equally

skilled in philosophy and theology; who possessed the language of

the Greeks and Latins; and whose versatile genius could maintain

their opposite creeds, according to the interest of the moment.

The indiscretion of an ascetic revealed to the curious traveller

the secrets of mental prayer and Barlaam embraced the opportunity

of ridiculing the Quietists, who placed the soul in the navel; of

accusing the monks of Mount Athos of heresy and blasphemy. His

attack compelled the more learned to renounce or dissemble the

simple devotion of their brethren; and Gregory Palamas introduced

a scholastic distinction between the essence and operation of

God. His inaccessible essence dwells in the midst of an

uncreated and eternal light; and this beatific vision of the

saints had been manifested to the disciples on Mount Thabor, in

the transfiguration of Christ. Yet this distinction could not

escape the reproach of polytheism; the eternity of the light of

Thabor was fiercely denied; and Barlaam still charged the

Palamites with holding two eternal substances, a visible and an

invisible God. From the rage of the monks of Mount Athos, who

threatened his life, the Calabrian retired to Constantinople,

where his smooth and specious manners introduced him to the favor

of the great domestic and the emperor. The court and the city

were involved in this theological dispute, which flamed amidst

the civil war; but the doctrine of Barlaam was disgraced by his

flight and apostasy: the Palamites triumphed; and their

adversary, the patriarch John of Apri, was deposed by the consent

of the adverse factions of the state. In the character of

emperor and theologian, Cantacuzene presided in the synod of the

Greek church, which established, as an article of faith, the

uncreated light of Mount Thabor; and, after so many insults, the

reason of mankind was slightly wounded by the addition of a

single absurdity. Many rolls of paper or parchment have been

blotted; and the impenitent sectaries, who refused to subscribe

the orthodox creed, were deprived of the honors of Christian

burial; but in the next age the question was forgotten; nor can I

learn that the axe or the fagot were employed for the extirpation

of the Barlaamite heresy. ^42

[Footnote 38: His four discourses, or books, were printed at

Bazil, 1543, (Fabric Bibliot. Graec. tom. vi. p. 473.) He

composed them to satisfy a proselyte who was assaulted with

letters from his friends of Ispahan. Cantacuzene had read the

Koran; but I understand from Maracci that he adopts the vulgar

prejudices and fables against Mahomet and his religion.]

[Footnote 39: See the Voyage de Bernier, tom. i. p. 127.]

[Footnote 40: Mosheim, Institut. Hist. Eccles. p. 522, 523.

Fleury, Hist. Eccles. tom. xx. p. 22, 24, 107 - 114, &c. The

former unfolds the causes with the judgment of a philosopher, the

latter transcribes and transcribes and translates with the

prejudices of a Catholic priest.]

[Footnote 41: Basnage (in Canisii antiq. Lectiones, tom. iv. p.

363 - 368) has investigated the character and story of Barlaam.

The duplicity of his opinions had inspired some doubts of the

identity of his person. See likewise Fabricius, (Bibliot. Graec.

tom. x. p. 427 - 432.)]

[Footnote 42: See Cantacuzene (l. ii. c. 39, 40, l. iv. c. 3, 23,

24, 25) and Nic. Gregoras, (l. xi. c. 10, l. xv. 3, 7, &c.,)

whose last books, from the xixth to xxivth, are almost confined

to a subject so interesting to the authors. Boivin, (in Vit.

Nic. Gregorae,) from the unpublished books, and Fabricius,

(Bibliot. Graec. tom. x. p. 462 - 473,) or rather Montfaucon,

from the Mss. of the Coislin library, have added some facts and

documents.]

For the conclusion of this chapter, I have reserved the

Genoese war, which shook the throne of Cantacuzene, and betrayed

the debility of the Greek empire. The Genoese, who, after the

recovery of Constantinople, were seated in the suburb of Pera or

Galata, received that honorable fief from the bounty of the

emperor. They were indulged in the use of their laws and

magistrates; but they submitted to the duties of vassals and

subjects; the forcible word of liegemen ^43 was borrowed from the

Latin jurisprudence; and their podesta, or chief, before he

entered on his office, saluted the emperor with loyal

acclamations and vows of fidelity. Genoa sealed a firm alliance

with the Greeks; and, in case of a defensive war, a supply of

fifty empty galleys and a succor of fifty galleys, completely

armed and manned, was promised by the republic to the empire. In

the revival of a naval force, it was the aim of Michael

Palaeologus to deliver himself from a foreign aid; and his

vigorous government contained the Genoese of Galata within those

limits which the insolence of wealth and freedom provoked them to

exceed. A sailor threatened that they should soon be masters of

Constantinople, and slew the Greek who resented this national

affront; and an armed vessel, after refusing to salute the

palace, was guilty of some acts of piracy in the Black Sea.

Their countrymen threatened to support their cause; but the long

and open village of Galata was instantly surrounded by the

Imperial troops; till, in the moment of the assault, the

prostrate Genoese implored the clemency of their sovereign. The

defenceless situation which secured their obedience exposed them

to the attack of their Venetian rivals, who, in the reign of the

elder Andronicus, presumed to violate the majesty of the throne.

On the approach of their fleets, the Genoese, with their families

and effects, retired into the city: their empty habitations were

reduced to ashes; and the feeble prince, who had viewed the

destruction of his suburb, expressed his resentment, not by arms,

but by ambassadors. This misfortune, however, was advantageous

to the Genoese, who obtained, and imperceptibly abused, the

dangerous license of surrounding Galata with a strong wall; of

introducing into the ditch the waters of the sea; of erecting

lofty turrets; and of mounting a train of military engines on the

rampart. The narrow bounds in which they had been circumscribed

were insufficient for the growing colony; each day they acquired

some addition of landed property; and the adjacent hills were

covered with their villas and castles, which they joined and

protected by new fortifications. ^44 The navigation and trade of

the Euxine was the patrimony of the Greek emperors, who commanded

the narrow entrance, the gates, as it were, of that inland sea.

In the reign of Michael Palaeologus, their prerogative was

acknowledged by the sultan of Egypt, who solicited and obtained

the liberty of sending an annual ship for the purchase of slaves

in Circassia and the Lesser Tartary: a liberty pregnant with

mischief to the Christian cause; since these youths were

transformed by education and discipline into the formidable

Mamalukes. ^45 From the colony of Pera, the Genoese engaged with

superior advantage in the lucrative trade of the Black Sea; and

their industry supplied the Greeks with fish and corn; two

articles of food almost equally important to a superstitious

people. The spontaneous bounty of nature appears to have

bestowed the harvests of Ukraine, the produce of a rude and

savage husbandry; and the endless exportation of salt fish and

caviare is annually renewed by the enormous sturgeons that are

caught at the mouth of the Don or Tanais, in their last station

of the rich mud and shallow water of the Maeotis. ^46 The waters

of the Oxus, the Caspian, the Volga, and the Don, opened a rare

and laborious passage for the gems and spices of India; and after

three months' march the caravans of Carizme met the Italian

vessels in the harbors of Crimaea. ^47 These various branches of

trade were monopolized by the diligence and power of the Genoese.

Their rivals of Venice and Pisa were forcibly expelled; the

natives were awed by the castles and cities, which arose on the

foundations of their humble factories; and their principal

establishment of Caffa ^48 was besieged without effect by the

Tartar powers. Destitute of a navy, the Greeks were oppressed by

these haughty merchants, who fed, or famished, Constantinople,

according to their interest. They proceeded to usurp the customs,

the fishery, and even the toll, of the Bosphorus; and while they

derived from these objects a revenue of two hundred thousand

pieces of gold, a remnant of thirty thousand was reluctantly

allowed to the emperor. ^49 The colony of Pera or Galata acted,

in peace and war, as an independent state; and, as it will happen

in distant settlements, the Genoese podesta too often forgot that

he was the servant of his own masters.

[Footnote 43: Pachymer (l. v. c. 10) very properly explains

(ligios). The use of these words in the Greek and Latin of the

feudal times may be amply understood from the Glossaries of

Ducange, (Graec. p. 811, 812. Latin. tom. iv. p. 109 - 111.)]

[Footnote 44: The establishment and progress of the Genoese at

Pera, or Galata, is described by Ducange (C. P. Christiana, l. i.

p. 68, 69) from the Byzantine historians, Pachymer, (l. ii. c.

35, l. v. 10, 30, l. ix. 15 l. xii. 6, 9,) Nicephorus Gregoras,

(l. v. c. 4, l. vi. c. 11, l. ix. c. 5, l. ix. c. 1, l. xv. c. 1,

6,) and Cantacuzene, (l. i. c. 12, l. ii. c. 29, &c.)]

[Footnote 45: Both Pachymer (l. iii. c. 3, 4, 5) and Nic. Greg.

(l. iv. c. 7) understand and deplore the effects of this

dangerous indulgence. Bibars, sultan of Egypt, himself a Tartar,

but a devout Mussulman, obtained from the children of Zingis the

permission to build a stately mosque in the capital of Crimea,

(De Guignes, Hist. des Huns, tom. iii. p. 343.)]

[Footnote 46: Chardin (Voyages en Perse, tom. i. p. 48) was

assured at Caffa, that these fishes were sometimes twenty-four or

twenty-six feet long, weighed eight or nine hundred pounds, and

yielded three or four quintals of caviare. The corn of the

Bosphorus had supplied the Athenians in the time of Demosthenes.]

[Footnote 47: De Guignes, Hist. des Huns, tom. iii. p. 343, 344.

Viaggi di Ramusio, tom. i. fol. 400. But this land or water

carriage could only be practicable when Tartary was united under

a wise and powerful monarch.]

[Footnote 48: Nic. Gregoras (l. xiii. c. 12) is judicious and

well informed on the trade and colonies of the Black Sea.

Chardin describes the present ruins of Caffa, where, in forty

days, he saw above 400 sail employed in the corn and fish trade,

(Voyages en Perse, tom. i. p. 46 - 48.)]

[Footnote 49: See Nic. Gregoras, l. xvii. c. 1]

These usurpations were encouraged by the weakness of the elder

Andronicus, and by the civil wars that afflicted his age and the

minority of his grandson. The talents of Cantacuzene were

employed to the ruin, rather than the restoration, of the empire;

and after his domestic victory, he was condemned to an

ignominious trial, whether the Greeks or the Genoese should reign

in Constantinople. The merchants of Pera were offended by his

refusal of some contiguous land, some commanding heights, which

they proposed to cover with new fortifications; and in the

absence of the emperor, who was detained at Demotica by sickness,

they ventured to brave the debility of a female reign. A

Byzantine vessel, which had presumed to fish at the mouth of the

harbor, was sunk by these audacious strangers; the fishermen were

murdered. Instead of suing for pardon, the Genoese demanded

satisfaction; required, in a haughty strain, that the Greeks

should renounce the exercise of navigation; and encountered with

regular arms the first sallies of the popular indignation. They

instantly occupied the debatable land; and by the labor of a

whole people, of either sex and of every age, the wall was

raised, and the ditch was sunk, with incredible speed. At the

same time, they attacked and burnt two Byzantine galleys; while

the three others, the remainder of the Imperial navy, escaped

from their hands: the habitations without the gates, or along the

shore, were pillaged and destroyed; and the care of the regent,

of the empress Irene, was confined to the preservation of the

city. The return of Cantacuzene dispelled the public

consternation: the emperor inclined to peaceful counsels; but he

yielded to the obstinacy of his enemies, who rejected all

reasonable terms, and to the ardor of his subjects, who

threatened, in the style of Scripture, to break them in pieces

like a potter's vessel. Yet they reluctantly paid the taxes,

that he imposed for the construction of ships, and the expenses

of the war; and as the two nations were masters, the one of the

land, the other of the sea, Constantinople and Pera were pressed

by the evils of a mutual siege. The merchants of the colony, who

had believed that a few days would terminate the war, already

murmured at their losses: the succors from their mother-country

were delayed by the factions of Genoa; and the most cautious

embraced the opportunity of a Rhodian vessel to remove their

families and effects from the scene of hostility. In the spring,

the Byzantine fleet, seven galleys and a train of smaller

vessels, issued from the mouth of the harbor, and steered in a

single line along the shore of Pera; unskilfully presenting their

sides to the beaks of the adverse squadron. The crews were

composed of peasants and mechanics; nor was their ignorance

compensated by the native courage of Barbarians: the wind was

strong, the waves were rough; and no sooner did the Greeks

perceive a distant and inactive enemy, than they leaped headlong

into the sea, from a doubtful, to an inevitable peril. The

troops that marched to the attack of the lines of Pera were

struck at the same moment with a similar panic; and the Genoese

were astonished, and almost ashamed, at their double victory.

Their triumphant vessels, crowned with flowers, and dragging

after them the captive galleys, repeatedly passed and repassed

before the palace: the only virtue of the emperor was patience;

and the hope of revenge his sole consolation. Yet the distress

of both parties interposed a temporary agreement; and the shame

of the empire was disguised by a thin veil of dignity and power.

Summoning the chiefs of the colony, Cantacuzene affected to

despise the trivial object of the debate; and, after a mild

reproof, most liberally granted the lands, which had been

previously resigned to the seeming custody of his officers. ^50

[Footnote 50: The events of this war are related by Cantacuzene

(l. iv. c. 11 with obscurity and confusion, and by Nic. Gregoras

(l. xvii. c. 1 - 7) in a clear and honest narrative. The priest

was less responsible than the prince for the defeat of the

fleet.]

But the emperor was soon solicited to violate the treaty,

and to join his arms with the Venetians, the perpetual enemies of

Genoa and her colonies. While he compared the reasons of peace

and war, his moderation was provoked by a wanton insult of the

inhabitants of Pera, who discharged from their rampart a large

stone that fell in the midst of Constantinople. On his just

complaint, they coldly blamed the imprudence of their engineer;

but the next day the insult was repeated; and they exulted in a

second proof that the royal city was not beyond the reach of

their artillery. Cantacuzene instantly signed his treaty with

the Venetians; but the weight of the Roman empire was scarcely

felt in the balance of these opulent and powerful republics. ^51

From the Straits of Gibraltar to the mouth of the Tanais, their

fleets encountered each other with various success; and a

memorable battle was fought in the narrow sea, under the walls of

Constantinople. It would not be an easy task to reconcile the

accounts of the Greeks, the Venetians, and the Genoese; ^52 and

while I depend on the narrative of an impartial historian, ^53 I

shall borrow from each nation the facts that redound to their own

disgrace, and the honor of their foes. The Venetians, with their

allies the Catalans, had the advantage of number; and their

fleet, with the poor addition of eight Byzantine galleys,

amounted to seventy-five sail: the Genoese did not exceed

sixty-four; but in those times their ships of war were

distinguished by the superiority of their size and strength. The

names and families of their naval commanders, Pisani and Doria,

are illustrious in the annals of their country; but the personal

merit of the former was eclipsed by the fame and abilities of his

rival. They engaged in tempestuous weather; and the tumultuary

conflict was continued from the dawn to the extinction of light.

The enemies of the Genoese applaud their prowess; the friends of

the Venetians are dissatisfied with their behavior; but all

parties agree in praising the skill and boldness of the Catalans,

^* who, with many wounds, sustained the brunt of the action. On

the separation of the fleets, the event might appear doubtful;

but the thirteen Genoese galleys, that had been sunk or taken,

were compensated by a double loss of the allies; of fourteen

Venetians, ten Catalans, and two Greeks; ^! and even the grief of

the conquerors expressed the assurance and habit of more decisive

victories. Pisani confessed his defeat, by retiring into a

fortified harbor, from whence, under the pretext of the orders of

the senate, he steered with a broken and flying squadron for the

Isle of Candia, and abandoned to his rivals the sovereignty of

the sea. In a public epistle, ^54 addressed to the doge and

senate, Petrarch employs his eloquence to reconcile the maritime

powers, the two luminaries of Italy. The orator celebrates the

valor and victory of the Genoese, the first of men in the

exercise of naval war: he drops a tear on the misfortunes of

their Venetian brethren; but he exhorts them to pursue with fire

and sword the base and perfidious Greeks; to purge the metropolis

of the East from the heresy with which it was infected. Deserted

by their friends, the Greeks were incapable of resistance; and

three months after the battle, the emperor Cantacuzene solicited

and subscribed a treaty, which forever banished the Venetians and

Catalans, and granted to the Genoese a monopoly of trade, and

almost a right of dominion. The Roman empire (I smile in

transcribing the name) might soon have sunk into a province of

Genoa, if the ambition of the republic had not been checked by

the ruin of her freedom and naval power. A long contest of one

hundred and thirty years was determined by the triumph of Venice;

and the factions of the Genoese compelled them to seek for

domestic peace under the protection of a foreign lord, the duke

of Milan, or the French king. Yet the spirit of commerce

survived that of conquest; and the colony of Pera still awed the

capital and navigated the Euxine, till it was involved by the

Turks in the final servitude of Constantinople itself.

[Footnote 51: The second war is darkly told by Cantacuzene, (l.

iv. c. 18, p. 24, 25, 28 - 32,) who wishes to disguise what he

dares not deny. I regret this part of Nic. Gregoras, which is

still in Ms. at Paris.

Note: This part of Nicephorus Gregoras has not been printed

in the new edition of the Byzantine Historians. The editor

expresses a hope that it may be undertaken by Hase. I should

join in the regret of Gibbon, if these books contain any

historical information: if they are but a continuation of the

controversies which fill the last books in our present copies,

they may as well sleep their eternal sleep in Ms. as in print. -

M.]

[Footnote 52: Muratori (Annali d' Italia, tom. xii. p. 144)

refers to the most ancient Chronicles of Venice (Caresinus, the

continuator of Andrew Dandulus, tom. xii. p. 421, 422) and Genoa,

(George Stella Annales Genuenses, tom. xvii. p. 1091, 1092;) both

which I have diligently consulted in his great Collection of the

Historians of Italy.]

[Footnote 53: See the Chronicle of Matteo Villani of Florence, l.

ii. c. 59, p. 145 - 147, c. 74, 75, p. 156, 157, in Muratori's

Collection, tom.]

[Footnote *: Cantacuzene praises their bravery, but imputes their

losses to their ignorance of the seas: they suffered more by the

breakers than by the enemy, vol. iii. p. 224. - M.]

[Footnote !: Cantacuzene says that the Genoese lost twenty-eight

ships with their crews; the Venetians and Catalans sixteen, the

Imperials, none Cantacuzene accuses Pisani of cowardice, in not

following up the victory, and destroying the Genoese. But

Pisani's conduct, and indeed Cantacuzene's account of the battle,

betray the superiority of the Genoese - M]

[Footnote 54: The Abbe de Sade (Memoires sur la Vie de Petrarque,

tom. iii. p. 257 - 263) translates this letter, which he copied

from a MS. in the king of France's library. Though a servant of

the duke of Milan, Petrarch pours forth his astonishment and

grief at the defeat and despair of the Genoese in the following

year, (p. 323 - 332.)]

Chapter LXIV: Moguls, Ottoman Turkds.

Part I.

Conquests Of Zingis Khan And The Moguls From China To

Poland. - Escape Of Constantinople And The Greeks. - Origin Of

The Ottoman Turks In Bithynia. - Reigns And Victories Of Othman,

Orchan, Amurath The First, And Bajazet The First. - Foundation

And Progress Of The Turkish Monarchy In Asia And Europe. - Danger

Of Constantinople And The Greek Empire.

From the petty quarrels of a city and her suburbs, from the

cowardice and discord of the falling Greeks, I shall now ascend

to the victorious Turks; whose domestic slavery was ennobled by

martial discipline, religious enthusiasm, and the energy of the

national character. The rise and progress of the Ottomans, the

present sovereigns of Constantinople, are connected with the most

important scenes of modern history; but they are founded on a

previous knowledge of the great eruption of the Moguls ^* and

Tartars; whose rapid conquests may be compared with the primitive

convulsions of nature, which have agitated and altered the

surface of the globe. I have long since asserted my claim to

introduce the nations, the immediate or remote authors of the

fall of the Roman empire; nor can I refuse myself to those

events, which, from their uncommon magnitude, will interest a

philosophic mind in the history of blood. ^1

[Footnote *: Mongol seems to approach the nearest to the proper

name of this race. The Chinese call them Mong-kou; the

Mondchoux, their neighbors, Monggo or Monggou. They called

themselves also Beda. This fact seems to have been proved by M.

Schmidt against the French Orientalists. See De Brosset. Note

on Le Beau, tom. xxii p. 402.]

[Footnote 1: The reader is invited to review chapters xxii. to

xxvi., and xxiii. to xxxviii., the manners of pastoral nations,

the conquests of Attila and the Huns, which were composed at a

time when I entertained the wish, rather than the hope, of

concluding my history.]

From the spacious highlands between China, Siberia, and the

Caspian Sea, the tide of emigration and war has repeatedly been

poured. These ancient seats of the Huns and Turks were occupied

in the twelfth century by many pastoral tribes, of the same

descent and similar manners, which were united and led to

conquest by the formidable Zingis. ^* In his ascent to greatness,

that Barbarian (whose private appellation was Temugin) had

trampled on the necks of his equals. His birth was noble; but it

was the pride of victory, that the prince or people deduced his

seventh ancestor from the immaculate conception of a virgin. His

father had reigned over thirteen hordes, which composed about

thirty or forty thousand families: above two thirds refused to

pay tithes or obedience to his infant son; and at the age of

thirteen, Temugin fought a battle against his rebellious

subjects. The future conqueror of Asia was reduced to fly and to

obey; but he rose superior to his fortune, and in his fortieth

year he had established his fame and dominion over the

circumjacent tribes. In a state of society, in which policy is

rude and valor is universal, the ascendant of one man must be

founded on his power and resolution to punish his enemies and

recompense his friends. His first military league was ratified

by the simple rites of sacrificing a horse and tasting of a

running stream: Temugin pledged himself to divide with his

followers the sweets and the bitters of life; and when he had

shared among them his horses and apparel, he was rich in their

gratitude and his own hopes. After his first victory, he placed

seventy caldrons on the fire, and seventy of the most guilty

rebels were cast headlong into the boiling water. The sphere of

his attraction was continually enlarged by the ruin of the proud

and the submission of the prudent; and the boldest chieftains

might tremble, when they beheld, enchased in silver, the skull of

the khan of Keraites; ^2 who, under the name of Prester John, had

corresponded with the Roman pontiff and the princes of Europe.

The ambition of Temugin condescended to employ the arts of

superstition; and it was from a naked prophet, who could ascend

to heaven on a white horse, that he accepted the title of Zingis,

^3 the most great; and a divine right to the conquest and

dominion of the earth. In a general couroultai, or diet, he was

seated on a felt, which was long afterwards revered as a relic,

and solemnly proclaimed great khan, or emperor of the Moguls ^4

and Tartars. ^5 Of these kindred, though rival, names, the former

had given birth to the imperial race; and the latter has been

extended by accident or error over the spacious wilderness of the

north.

[Footnote *: On the traditions of the early life of Zingis, see

D'Ohson, Hist des Mongols; Histoire des Mongols, Paris, 1824.

Schmidt, Geschichte des Ost- Mongolen, p. 66, &c., and Notes. -

M.]

[Footnote 2: The khans of the Keraites were most probably

incapable of reading the pompous epistles composed in their name

by the Nestorian missionaries, who endowed them with the fabulous

wonders of an Indian kingdom. Perhaps these Tartars (the

Presbyter or Priest John) had submitted to the rites of baptism

and ordination, (Asseman, Bibliot Orient tom. iii. p. ii. p. 487

- 503.)]

[Footnote 3: Since the history and tragedy of Voltaire, Gengis,

at least in French, seems to be the more fashionable spelling;

but Abulghazi Khan must have known the true name of his ancestor.

His etymology appears just: Zin, in the Mogul tongue, signifies

great, and gis is the superlative termination, (Hist.

Genealogique des Tatars, part iii. p. 194, 195.) From the same

idea of magnitude, the appellation of Zingis is bestowed on the

ocean.]

[Footnote 4: The name of Moguls has prevailed among the

Orientals, and still adheres to the titular sovereign, the Great

Mogul of Hindastan.

Note: M. Remusat (sur les Langues Tartares, p. 233) justly

observes, that Timour was a Turk, not a Mogul, and, p. 242, that

probably there was not Mogul in the army of Baber, who

established the Indian throne of the "Great Mogul." - M.]

[Footnote 5: The Tartars (more properly Tatars) were descended

from Tatar Khan, the brother of Mogul Khan, (see Abulghazi, part

i. and ii.,) and once formed a horde of 70,000 families on the

borders of Kitay, (p. 103 - 112.) In the great invasion of Europe

(A.D. 1238) they seem to have led the vanguard; and the

similitude of the name of Tartarei, recommended that of Tartars

to the Latins, (Matt. Paris, p. 398, &c.)

Note: This relationship, according to M. Klaproth, is

fabulous, and invented by the Mahometan writers, who, from

religious zeal, endeavored to connect the traditions of the

nomads of Central Asia with those of the Old Testament, as

preserved in the Koran. There is no trace of it in the Chinese

writers de l'Asie, p. 156. - M.]

The code of laws which Zingis dictated to his subjects was

adapted to the preservation of a domestic peace, and the exercise

of foreign hostility. The punishment of death was inflicted on

the crimes of adultery, murder, perjury, and the capital thefts

of a horse or ox; and the fiercest of men were mild and just in

their intercourse with each other. The future election of the

great khan was vested in the princes of his family and the heads

of the tribes; and the regulations of the chase were essential to

the pleasures and plenty of a Tartar camp. The victorious nation

was held sacred from all servile labors, which were abandoned to

slaves and strangers; and every labor was servile except the

profession of arms. The service and discipline of the troops,

who were armed with bows, cimeters, and iron maces, and divided

by hundreds, thousands, and ten thousands, were the institutions

of a veteran commander. Each officer and soldier was made

responsible, under pain of death, for the safety and honor of his

companions; and the spirit of conquest breathed in the law, that

peace should never be granted unless to a vanquished and

suppliant enemy. But it is the religion of Zingis that best

deserves our wonder and applause. ^* The Catholic inquisitors of

Europe, who defended nonsense by cruelty, might have been

confounded by the example of a Barbarian, who anticipated the

lessons of philosophy, ^6 and established by his laws a system of

pure theism and perfect toleration. His first and only article

of faith was the existence of one God, the Author of all good;

who fills by his presence the heavens and earth, which he has

created by his power. The Tartars and Moguls were addicted to

the idols of their peculiar tribes; and many of them had been

converted by the foreign missionaries to the religions of Moses,

of Mahomet, and of Christ. These various systems in freedom and

concord were taught and practised within the precincts of the

same camp; and the Bonze, the Imam, the Rabbi, the Nestorian, and

the Latin priest, enjoyed the same honorable exemption from

service and tribute: in the mosque of Bochara, the insolent

victor might trample the Koran under his horse's feet, but the

calm legislator respected the prophets and pontiffs of the most

hostile sects. The reason of Zingis was not informed by books:

the khan could neither read nor write; and, except the tribe of

the Igours, the greatest part of the Moguls and Tartars were as

illiterate as their sovereign. ^* The memory of their exploits

was preserved by tradition: sixty- eight years after the death of

Zingis, these traditions were collected and transcribed; ^7 the

brevity of their domestic annals may be supplied by the Chinese,

^8 Persians, ^9 Armenians, ^10 Syrians, ^11 Arabians, ^12 Greeks,

^13 Russians, ^14 Poles, ^15 Hungarians, ^16 and Latins; ^17 and

each nation will deserve credit in the relation of their own

disasters and defeats. ^18

[Footnote *: Before his armies entered Thibet, he sent an embassy

to Bogdosottnam Dsimmo, a Lama high priest, with a letter to this

effect: "I have chosen thee as high priest for myself and my

empire. Repair then to me, and promote the present and future

happiness of man: I will be thy supporter and protector: let us

establish a system of religion, and unite it with the monarchy,"

&c. The high priest accepted the invitation; and the Mongol

history literally terms this step the period of the first respect

for religion; because the monarch, by his public profession, made

it the religion of the state. Klaproth. "Travels in Caucasus,"

ch. 7, Eng. Trans. p. 92. Neither Dshingis nor his son and

successor Oegodah had, on account of their continual wars, much

leisure for the propagation of the religion of the Lama. By

religion they understand a distinct, independent, sacred moral

code, which has but one origin, one source, and one object. This

notion they universally propagate, and even believe that the

brutes, and all created beings, have a religion adapted to their

sphere of action. The different forms of the various religions

they ascribe to the difference of individuals, nations, and

legislators. Never do you hear of their inveighing against any

creed, even against the obviously absurd Schaman paganism, or of

their persecuting others on that account. They themselves, on

the other hand, endure every hardship, and even persecutions,

with perfect resignation, and indulgently excuse the follies of

others, nay, consider them as a motive for increased arder in

prayer, ch. ix. p. 109. - M.]

[Footnote 6: A singular conformity may be found between the

religious laws of Zingis Khan and of Mr. Locke, (Constitutions of

Carolina, in his works, vol. iv. p. 535, 4to. edition, 1777.)]

[Footnote *: See the notice on Tha-tha-toung-o, the Ouogour

minister of Tchingis, in Abel Remusat's 2d series of Recherch.

Asiat. vol. ii. p. 61. He taught the son of Tchingis to write:

"He was the instructor of the Moguls in writing, of which they

were before ignorant;" and hence the application of the Ouigour

characters to the Mogul language cannot be placed earlier than

the year 1204 or 1205, nor so late as the time of Pa-sse-pa, who

lived under Khubilai. A new alphabet, approaching to that of

Thibet, was introduced under Khubilai. - M.]

[Footnote 7: In the year 1294, by the command of Cazan, khan of

Persia, the fourth in descent from Zingis. From these

traditions, his vizier Fadlallah composed a Mogul history in the

Persian language, which has been used by Petit de la Croix,

(Hist. de Genghizcan, p. 537 - 539.) The Histoire Genealogique

des Tatars (a Leyde, 1726, in 12mo., 2 tomes) was translated by

the Swedish prisoners in Siberia from the Mogul MS. of Abulgasi

Bahadur Khan, a descendant of Zingis, who reigned over the Usbeks

of Charasm, or Carizme, (A.D. 1644 - 1663.) He is of most value

and credit for the names, pedigrees, and manners of his nation.

Of his nine parts, the ist descends from Adam to Mogul Khan; the

iid, from Mogul to Zingis; the iiid is the life of Zingis; the

ivth, vth, vith, and viith, the general history of his four sons

and their posterity; the viiith and ixth, the particular history

of the descendants of Sheibani Khan, who reigned in Maurenahar

and Charasm.]

[Footnote 8: Histoire de Gentchiscan, et de toute la Dinastie des

Mongous ses Successeurs, Conquerans de la Chine; tiree de

l'Histoire de la Chine par le R. P. Gaubil, de la Societe de

Jesus, Missionaire a Peking; a Paris, 1739, in 4to. This

translation is stamped with the Chinese character of domestic

accuracy and foreign ignorance.]

[Footnote 9: See the Histoire du Grand Genghizcan, premier

Empereur des Moguls et Tartares, par M. Petit de la Croix, a

Paris, 1710, in 12mo.; a work of ten years' labor, chiefly drawn

from the Persian writers, among whom Nisavi, the secretary of

Sultan Gelaleddin, has the merit and prejudices of a

contemporary. A slight air of romance is the fault of the

originals, or the compiler. See likewise the articles of

Genghizcan, Mohammed, Gelaleddin, &c., in the Bibliotheque

Orientale of D'Herbelot.

Note: The preface to the Hist. des Mongols, (Paris, 1824)

gives a catalogue of the Arabic and Persian authorities. - M.]

[Footnote 10: Haithonus, or Aithonus, an Armenian prince, and

afterwards a monk of Premontre, (Fabric, Bibliot. Lat. Medii

Aevi, tom. i. p. 34,) dictated in the French language, his book

de Tartaris, his old fellow-soldiers. It was immediately

translated into Latin, and is inserted in the Novus Orbis of

Simon Grynaeus, (Basil, 1555, in folio.)

Note: A precis at the end of the new edition of Le Beau,

Hist. des Empereurs, vol. xvii., by M. Brosset, gives large

extracts from the accounts of the Armenian historians relating to

the Mogul conquests. - M.]

[Footnote 11: Zingis Khan, and his first successors, occupy the

conclusion of the ixth Dynasty of Abulpharagius, (vers. Pocock,

Oxon. 1663, in 4to.;) and his xth Dynasty is that of the Moguls

of Persia. Assemannus (Bibliot. Orient. tom. ii.) has extracted

some facts from his Syriac writings, and the lives of the

Jacobite maphrians, or primates of the East.]

[Footnote 12: Among the Arabians, in language and religion, we

may distinguish Abulfeda, sultan of Hamah in Syria, who fought in

person, under the Mamaluke standard, against the Moguls.]

[Footnote 13: Nicephorus Gregoras (l. ii. c. 5, 6) has felt the

necessity of connecting the Scythian and Byzantine histories. He

describes with truth and elegance the settlement and manners of

the Moguls of Persia, but he is ignorant of their origin, and

corrupts the names of Zingis and his sons.]

[Footnote 14: M. Levesque (Histoire de Russie, tom. ii.) has

described the conquest of Russia by the Tartars, from the

patriarch Nicon, and the old chronicles.]

[Footnote 15: For Poland, I am content with the Sarmatia Asiatica

et Europaea of Matthew a Michou, or De Michovia, a canon and

physician of Cracow, (A.D. 1506,) inserted in the Novus Orbis of

Grynaeus. Fabric Bibliot. Latin. Mediae et Infimae Aetatis, tom.

v. p. 56.]

[Footnote 16: I should quote Thuroczius, the oldest general

historian (pars ii. c. 74, p. 150) in the 1st volume of the

Scriptores Rerum Hungaricarum, did not the same volume contain

the original narrative of a contemporary, an eye-witness, and a

sufferer, (M. Rogerii, Hungari, Varadiensis Capituli Canonici,

Carmen miserabile, seu Historia super Destructione Regni

Hungariae Temporibus Belae IV. Regis per Tartaros facta, p. 292 -

321;) the best picture that I have ever seen of all the

circumstances of a Barbaric invasion.]

[Footnote 17: Matthew Paris has represented, from authentic

documents, the danger and distress of Europe, (consult the word

Tartari in his copious Index.) From motives of zeal and

curiosity, the court of the great khan in the xiiith century was

visited by two friars, John de Plano Carpini, and William

Rubruquis, and by Marco Polo, a Venetian gentleman. The Latin

relations of the two former are inserted in the 1st volume of

Hackluyt; the Italian original or version of the third (Fabric.

Bibliot. Latin. Medii Aevi, tom. ii. p. 198, tom. v. p. 25) may

be found in the second tome of Ramusio.]

[Footnote 18: In his great History of the Huns, M. de Guignes has

most amply treated of Zingis Khan and his successors. See tom.

iii. l. xv. - xix., and in the collateral articles of the

Seljukians of Roum, tom. ii. l. xi., the Carizmians, l. xiv., and

the Mamalukes, tom. iv. l. xxi.; consult likewise the tables of

the 1st volume. He is ever learned and accurate; yet I am only

indebted to him for a general view, and some passages of

Abulfeda, which are still latent in the Arabic text.

Note: To this catalogue of the historians of the Moguls may

be added D'Ohson, Histoire des Mongols; Histoire des Mongols,

(from Arabic and Persian authorities,) Paris, 1824. Schmidt,

Geschichte der Ost Mongolen, St. Petersburgh, 1829. This curious

work, by Ssanang Ssetsen Chungtaidschi, published in the original

Mongol, was written after the conversion of the nation to

Buddhism: it is enriched with very valuable notes by the editor

and translator; but, unfortunately, is very barren of information

about the European and even the western Asiatic conquests of the

Mongols. - M.]

Chapter LXIV: Moguls, Ottoman Turkds.

Part II.

The arms of Zingis and his lieutenants successively reduced

the hordes of the desert, who pitched their tents between the

wall of China and the Volga; and the Mogul emperor became the

monarch of the pastoral world, the lord of many millions of

shepherds and soldiers, who felt their united strength, and were

impatient to rush on the mild and wealthy climates of the south.

His ancestors had been the tributaries of the Chinese emperors;

and Temugin himself had been disgraced by a title of honor and

servitude. The court of Pekin was astonished by an embassy from

its former vassal, who, in the tone of the king of nations,

exacted the tribute and obedience which he had paid, and who

affected to treat the son of heaven as the most contemptible of

mankind. A haughty answer disguised their secret apprehensions;

and their fears were soon justified by the march of innumerable

squadrons, who pierced on all sides the feeble rampart of the

great wall. Ninety cities were stormed, or starved, by the

Moguls; ten only escaped; and Zingis, from a knowledge of the

filial piety of the Chinese, covered his vanguard with their

captive parents; an unworthy, and by degrees a fruitless, abuse

of the virtue of his enemies. His invasion was supported by the

revolt of a hundred thousand Khitans, who guarded the frontier:

yet he listened to a treaty; and a princess of China, three

thousand horses, five hundred youths, and as many virgins, and a

tribute of gold and silk, were the price of his retreat. In his

second expedition, he compelled the Chinese emperor to retire

beyond the yellow river to a more southern residence. The siege

of Pekin ^19 was long and laborious: the inhabitants were reduced

by famine to decimate and devour their fellow-citizens; when

their ammunition was spent, they discharged ingots of gold and

silver from their engines; but the Moguls introduced a mine to

the centre of the capital; and the conflagration of the palace

burnt above thirty days. China was desolated by Tartar war and

domestic faction; and the five northern provinces were added to

the empire of Zingis.

[Footnote 19: More properly Yen-king, an ancient city, whose

ruins still appear some furlongs to the south-east of the modern

Pekin, which was built by Cublai Khan, (Gaubel, p. 146.) Pe-king

and Nan-king are vague titles, the courts of the north and of the

south. The identity and change of names perplex the most skilful

readers of the Chinese geography, (p. 177.)

Note: And likewise in Chinese history - see Abel Remusat,

Mel. Asiat. 2d tom. ii. p. 5. - M.]

In the West, he touched the dominions of Mohammed, sultan of

Carizime, who reigned from the Persian Gulf to the borders of

India and Turkestan; and who, in the proud imitation of Alexander

the Great, forgot the servitude and ingratitude of his fathers to

the house of Seljuk. It was the wish of Zingis to establish a

friendly and commercial intercourse with the most powerful of the

Moslem princes: nor could he be tempted by the secret

solicitations of the caliph of Bagdad, who sacrificed to his

personal wrongs the safety of the church and state. A rash and

inhuman deed provoked and justified the Tartar arms in the

invasion of the southern Asia. ^! A caravan of three ambassadors

and one hundred and fifty merchants were arrested and murdered at

Otrar, by the command of Mohammed; nor was it till after a demand

and denial of justice, till he had prayed and fasted three nights

on a mountain, that the Mogul emperor appealed to the judgment of

God and his sword. Our European battles, says a philosophic

writer, ^20 are petty skirmishes, if compared to the numbers that

have fought and fallen in the fields of Asia. Seven hundred

thousand Moguls and Tartars are said to have marched under the

standard of Zingis and his four sons. In the vast plains that

extend to the north of the Sihon or Jaxartes, they were

encountered by four hundred thousand soldiers of the sultan; and

in the first battle, which was suspended by the night, one

hundred and sixty thousand Carizmians were slain. Mohammed was

astonished by the multitude and valor of his enemies: he withdrew

from the scene of danger, and distributed his troops in the

frontier towns; trusting that the Barbarians, invincible in the

field, would be repulsed by the length and difficulty of so many

regular sieges. But the prudence of Zingis had formed a body of

Chinese engineers, skilled in the mechanic arts; informed perhaps

of the secret of gunpowder, and capable, under his discipline, of

attacking a foreign country with more vigor and success than they

had defended their own. The Persian historians will relate the

sieges and reduction of Otrar, Cogende, Bochara, Samarcand,

Carizme, Herat, Merou, Nisabour, Balch, and Candahar; and the

conquest of the rich and populous countries of Transoxiana,

Carizme, and Chorazan. ^* The destructive hostilities of Attila

and the Huns have long since been elucidated by the example of

Zingis and the Moguls; and in this more proper place I shall be

content to observe, that, from the Caspian to the Indus, they

ruined a tract of many hundred miles, which was adorned with the

habitations and labors of mankind, and that five centuries have

not been sufficient to repair the ravages of four years. The

Mogul emperor encouraged or indulged the fury of his troops: the

hope of future possession was lost in the ardor of rapine and

slaughter; and the cause of the war exasperated their native

fierceness by the pretence of justice and revenge. The downfall

and death of the sultan Mohammed, who expired, unpitied and

alone, in a desert island of the Caspian Sea, is a poor atonement

for the calamities of which he was the author. Could the

Carizmian empire have been saved by a single hero, it would have

been saved by his son Gelaleddin, whose active valor repeatedly

checked the Moguls in the career of victory. Retreating, as he

fought, to the banks of the Indus, he was oppressed by their

innumerable host, till, in the last moment of despair, Gelaleddin

spurred his horse into the waves, swam one of the broadest and

most rapid rivers of Asia, and extorted the admiration and

applause of Zingis himself. It was in this camp that the Mogul

conqueror yielded with reluctance to the murmurs of his weary and

wealthy troops, who sighed for the enjoyment of their native

land. Eucumbered with the spoils of Asia, he slowly measured

back his footsteps, betrayed some pity for the misery of the

vanquished, and declared his intention of rebuilding the cities

which had been swept away by the tempest of his arms. After he

had repassed the Oxus and Jaxartes, he was joined by two

generals, whom he had detached with thirty thousand horse, to

subdue the western provinces of Persia. They had trampled on the

nations which opposed their passage, penetrated through the gates

of Derbent, traversed the Volga and the desert, and accomplished

the circuit of the Caspian Sea, by an expedition which had never

been attempted, and has never been repeated. The return of

Zingis was signalized by the overthrow of the rebellious or

independent kingdoms of Tartary; and he died in the fulness of

years and glory, with his last breath exhorting and instructing

his sons to achieve the conquest of the Chinese empire. ^*

[Footnote !: See the particular account of this transaction, from

the Kholauesut Akbaur, in Price, vol. ii. p. 402. - M.]

[Footnote 20: M. de Voltaire, Essai sur l'Histoire Generale, tom.

iii. c. 60, p. 8. His account of Zingis and the Moguls contains,

as usual, much general sense and truth, with some particular

errors.]

[Footnote *: Every where they massacred all classes, except the

artisans, whom they made slaves. Hist. des Mongols. - M.]

[Footnote *: Their first duty, which he bequeathed to them, was

to massacre the king of Tangcoute and all the inhabitants of

Ninhia, the surrender of the city being already agreed upon,

Hist. des Mongols. vol. i. p. 286. - M.]

The harem of Zingis was composed of five hundred wives and

concubines; and of his numerous progeny, four sons, illustrious

by their birth and merit, exercised under their father the

principal offices of peace and war. Toushi was his great

huntsman, Zagatai ^21 his judge, Octai his minister, and Tuli his

general; and their names and actions are often conspicuous in the

history of his conquests. Firmly united for their own and the

public interest, the three brothers and their families were

content with dependent sceptres; and Octai, by general consent,

was proclaimed great khan, or emperor of the Moguls and Tartars.

He was succeeded by his son Gayuk, after whose death the empire

devolved to his cousins Mangou and Cublai, the sons of Tuli, and

the grandsons of Zingis. In the sixty-eight years of his four

first successors, the Mogul subdued almost all Asia, and a large

portion of Europe. Without confining myself to the order of

time, without expatiating on the detail of events, I shall

present a general picture of the progress of their arms; I. In

the East; II. In the South; III. In the West; and IV. In the

North.

[Footnote 21: Zagatai gave his name to his dominions of

Maurenahar, or Transoxiana; and the Moguls of Hindostan, who

emigrated from that country, are styled Zagatais by the Persians.

This certain etymology, and the similar example of Uzbek, Nogai,

&c., may warn us not absolutely to reject the derivations of a

national, from a personal, name.

Note: See a curious anecdote of Tschagatai. Hist. des

Mongols, p. 370. M]

I. Before the invasion of Zingis, China was divided into

two empires or dynasties of the North and South; ^22 and the

difference of origin and interest was smoothed by a general

conformity of laws, language, and national manners. The Northern

empire, which had been dismembered by Zingis, was finally subdued

seven years after his death. After the loss of Pekin, the

emperor had fixed his residence at Kaifong, a city many leagues

in circumference, and which contained, according to the Chinese

annals, fourteen hundred thousand families of inhabitants and

fugitives. He escaped from thence with only seven horsemen, and

made his last stand in a third capital, till at length the

hopeless monarch, protesting his innocence and accusing his

fortune, ascended a funeral pile, and gave orders, that, as soon

as he had stabbed himself, the fire should be kindled by his

attendants. The dynasty of the Song, the native and ancient

sovereigns of the whole empire, survived about forty-five years

the fall of the Northern usurpers; and the perfect conquest was

reserved for the arms of Cublai. During this interval, the

Moguls were often diverted by foreign wars; and, if the Chinese

seldom dared to meet their victors in the field, their passive

courage presented and endless succession of cities to storm and

of millions to slaughter. In the attack and defence of places,

the engines of antiquity and the Greek fire were alternately

employed: the use of gunpowder in cannon and bombs appears as a

familiar practice; ^23 and the sieges were conducted by the

Mahometans and Franks, who had been liberally invited into the

service of Cublai. After passing the great river, the troops and

artillery were conveyed along a series of canals, till they

invested the royal residence of Hamcheu, or Quinsay, in the

country of silk, the most delicious climate of China. The

emperor, a defenceless youth, surrendered his person and sceptre;

and before he was sent in exile into Tartary, he struck nine

times the ground with his forehead, to adore in prayer or

thanksgiving the mercy of the great khan. Yet the war (it was now

styled a rebellion) was still maintained in the southern

provinces from Hamcheu to Canton; and the obstinate remnant of

independence and hostility was transported from the land to the

sea. But when the fleet of the Song was surrounded and oppressed

by a superior armament, their last champion leaped into the waves

with his infant emperor in his arms. "It is more glorious," he

cried, "to die a prince, than to live a slave." A hundred

thousand Chinese imitated his example; and the whole empire, from

Tonkin to the great wall, submitted to the dominion of Cublai.

His boundless ambition aspired to the conquest of Japan: his

fleet was twice shipwrecked; and the lives of a hundred thousand

Moguls and Chinese were sacrificed in the fruitless expedition.

But the circumjacent kingdoms, Corea, Tonkin, Cochinchina, Pegu,

Bengal, and Thibet, were reduced in different degrees of tribute

and obedience by the effort or terror of his arms. He explored

the Indian Ocean with a fleet of a thousand ships: they sailed in

sixty-eight days, most probably to the Isle of Borneo, under the

equinoctial line; and though they returned not without spoil or

glory, the emperor was dissatisfied that the savage king had

escaped from their hands.

[Footnote 22: In Marco Polo, and the Oriental geographers, the

names of Cathay and Mangi distinguish the northern and southern

empires, which, from A.D. 1234 to 1279, were those of the great

khan, and of the Chinese. The search of Cathay, after China had

been found, excited and misled our navigators of the sixteenth

century, in their attempts to discover the north- east passage.]

[Footnote 23: I depend on the knowledge and fidelity of the Pere

Gaubil, who translates the Chinese text of the annals of the

Moguls or Yuen, (p. 71, 93, 153;) but I am ignorant at what time

these annals were composed and published. The two uncles of Marco

Polo, who served as engineers at the siege of Siengyangfou, (l.

ii. 61, in Ramusio, tom. ii. See Gaubil, p. 155, 157) must have

felt and related the effects of this destructive powder, and

their silence is a weighty, and almost decisive objection. I

entertain a suspicion, that their recent discovery was carried

from Europe to China by the caravans of the xvth century and

falsely adopted as an old national discovery before the arrival

of the Portuguese and Jesuits in the xvith. Yet the Pere Gaubil

affirms, that the use of gunpowder has been known to the Chinese

above 1600 years.

Note: Sou-houng-kian-lon. Abel Remusat. - M.

Note: La poudre a canon et d'autres compositions

inflammantes, dont ils se servent pour construire des pieces

d'artifice d'un effet suprenant, leur etaient connues depuis tres

long-temps, et l'on croit que des bombardes et des pierriers,

dont ils avaient enseigne l'usage aux Tartares, ont pu donner en

Europe l'idee d'artillerie, quoique la forme des fusils et des

canons dont ils se servent actuellement, leur ait ete apportee

par les Francs, ainsi que l'attestent les noms memes qu'ils

donnent a ces sortes d'armes. Abel Remusat, Melanges Asiat. 2d

ser tom. i. p. 23. - M.]

II. The conquest of Hindostan by the Moguls was reserved in

a later period for the house of Timour; but that of Iran, or

Persia, was achieved by Holagou Khan, ^* the grandson of Zingis,

the brother and lieutenant of the two successive emperors, Mangou

and Cublai. I shall not enumerate the crowd of sultans, emirs,

and atabeks, whom he trampled into dust; but the extirpation of

the Assassins, or Ismaelians ^24 of Persia, may be considered as

a service to mankind. Among the hills to the south of the

Caspian, these odious sectaries had reigned with impunity above a

hundred and sixty years; and their prince, or Imam, established

his lieutenant to lead and govern the colony of Mount Libanus, so

famous and formidable in the history of the crusades. ^25 With

the fanaticism of the Koran the Ismaelians had blended the Indian

transmigration, and the visions of their own prophets; and it was

their first duty to devote their souls and bodies in blind

obedience to the vicar of God. The daggers of his missionaries

were felt both in the East and West: the Christians and the

Moslems enumerate, and persons multiply, the illustrious victims

that were sacrificed to the zeal, avarice, or resentment of the

old man (as he was corruptly styled) of the mountain. But these

daggers, his only arms, were broken by the sword of Holagou, and

not a vestige is left of the enemies of mankind, except the word

assassin, which, in the most odious sense, has been adopted in

the languages of Europe. The extinction of the Abbassides cannot

be indifferent to the spectators of their greatness and decline.

Since the fall of their Seljukian tyrants the caliphs had

recovered their lawful dominion of Bagdad and the Arabian Irak;

but the city was distracted by theological factions, and the

commander of the faithful was lost in a harem of seven hundred

conubines. The invasion of the Moguls he encountered with feeble

arms and haughty embassies. "On the divine decree," said the

caliph Mostasem, "is founded the throne of the sons of Abbas: and

their foes shall surely be destroyed in this world and in the

next. Who is this Holagou that dares to rise against them? If

he be desirous of peace, let him instantly depart from the sacred

territory; and perhaps he may obtain from our clemency the pardon

of his fault." This presumption was cherished by a perfidious

vizier, who assured his master, that, even if the Barbarians had

entered the city, the women and children, from the terraces,

would be sufficient to overwhelm them with stones. But when

Holagou touched the phantom, it instantly vanished into smoke.

After a siege of two months, Bagdad was stormed and sacked by the

Moguls; ^* and their savage commander pronounced the death of the

caliph Mostasem, the last of the temporal successors of Mahomet;

whose noble kinsmen, of the race of Abbas, had reigned in Asia

above five hundred years. Whatever might be the designs of the

conqueror, the holy cities of Mecca and Medina ^26 were protected

by the Arabian desert; but the Moguls spread beyond the Tigris

and Euphrates, pillaged Aleppo and Damascus, and threatened to

join the Franks in the deliverance of Jerusalem. Egypt was lost,

had she been defended only by her feeble offspring; but the

Mamalukes had breathed in their infancy the keenness of a

Scythian air: equal in valor, superior in discipline, they met

the Moguls in many a well-fought field; and drove back the stream

of hostility to the eastward of the Euphrates. ^! But it

overflowed with resistless violence the kingdoms of Armenia ^!!

and Anatolia, of which the former was possessed by the

Christians, and the latter by the Turks. The sultans of Iconium

opposed some resistance to the Mogul arms, till Azzadin sought a

refuge among the Greeks of Constantinople, and his feeble

successors, the last of the Seljukian dynasty, were finally

extirpated by the khans of Persia. ^*

[Footnote *: See the curious account of the expedition of

Holagou, translated from the Chinese, by M. Abel Remusat,

Melanges Asiat. 2d ser. tom. i. p. 171. - M.]

[Footnote 24: All that can be known of the Assassins of Persia

and Syria is poured from the copious, and even profuse, erudition

of M. Falconet, in two Memoires read before the Academy of

Inscriptions, (tom. xvii. p. 127 - 170.)

Note: Von Hammer's History of the Assassins has now thrown

Falconet's Dissertation into the shade. - M.]

[Footnote 25: The Ismaelians of Syria, 40,000 Assassins, had

acquired or founded ten castles in the hills above Tortosa.

About the year 1280, they were extirpated by the Mamalukes.]

[Footnote *: Compare Von Hammer, Geschichte der Assassinen, p.

283, 307. Wilken, Geschichte der Kreuzzuge, vol. vii. p. 406.

Price, Chronological Retrospect, vol. ii. p. 217 - 223. - M.]

[Footnote 26: As a proof of the ignorance of the Chinese in

foreign transactions, I must observe, that some of their

historians extend the conquest of Zingis himself to Medina, the

country of Mahomet, (Gaubil p. 42.)]

[Footnote !: Compare Wilken, vol. vii. p. 410 - M.]

[Footnote !!: On the friendly relations of the Armenians with the

Mongols see Wilken, Geschichte der Kreuzzuge, vol. vii. p. 402.

They eagerly desired an alliance against the Mahometan powers. -

M.]

[Footnote *: Trebizond escaped, apparently by the dexterous

politics of the sovereign, but it acknowledged the Mogul

supremacy. Falmerayer, p. 172 - M.]

III. No sooner had Octai subverted the northern empire of

China, than he resolved to visit with his arms the most remote

countries of the West. Fifteen hundred thousand Moguls and

Tartars were inscribed on the military roll: of these the great

khan selected a third, which he intrusted to the command of his

nephew Batou, the son of Tuli; who reigned over his father's

conquests to the north of the Caspian Sea. ^! After a festival of

forty days, Batou set forwards on this great expedition; and such

was the speed and ardor of his innumerable squadrons, than in

less than six years they had measured a line of ninety degrees of

longitude, a fourth part of the circumference of the globe. The

great rivers of Asia and Europe, the Volga and Kama, the Don and

Borysthenes, the Vistula and Danube, they either swam with their

horses or passed on the ice, or traversed in leathern boats,

which followed the camp, and transported their wagons and

artillery. By the first victories of Batou, the remains of

national freedom were eradicated in the immense plains of

Turkestan and Kipzak. ^27 In his rapid progress, he overran the

kingdoms, as they are now styled, of Astracan and Cazan; and the

troops which he detached towards Mount Caucasus explored the most

secret recesses of Georgia and Circassia. The civil discord of

the great dukes, or princes, of Russia, betrayed their country to

the Tartars. They spread from Livonia to the Black Sea, and both

Moscow and Kiow, the modern and the ancient capitals, were

reduced to ashes; a temporary ruin, less fatal than the deep, and

perhaps indelible, mark, which a servitude of two hundred years

has imprinted on the character of the Russians. The Tartars

ravaged with equal fury the countries which they hoped to

possess, and those which they were hastening to leave. From the

permanent conquest of Russia they made a deadly, though

transient, inroad into the heart of Poland, and as far as the

borders of Germany. The cities of Lublin and Cracow were

obliterated: ^* they approached the shores of the Baltic; and in

the battle of Lignitz they defeated the dukes of Silesia, the

Polish palatines, and the great master of the Teutonic order, and

filled nine sacks with the right ears of the slain. From Lignitz,

the extreme point of their western march, they turned aside to

the invasion of Hungary; and the presence or spirit of Batou

inspired the host of five hundred thousand men: the Carpathian

hills could not be long impervious to their divided columns; and

their approach had been fondly disbelieved till it was

irresistibly felt. The king, Bela the Fourth, assembled the

military force of his counts and bishops; but he had alienated

the nation by adopting a vagrant horde of forty thousand families

of Comans, and these savage guests were provoked to revolt by the

suspicion of treachery and the murder of their prince. The whole

country north of the Danube was lost in a day, and depopulated in

a summer; and the ruins of cities and churches were overspread

with the bones of the natives, who expiated the sins of their

Turkish ancestors. An ecclesiastic, who fled from the sack of

Waradin, describes the calamities which he had seen, or suffered;

and the sanguinary rage of sieges and battles is far less

atrocious than the treatment of the fugitives, who had been

allured from the woods under a promise of peace and pardon and

who were coolly slaughtered as soon as they had performed the

labors of the harvest and vintage. In the winter the Tartars

passed the Danube on the ice, and advanced to Gran or Strigonium,

a German colony, and the metropolis of the kingdom. Thirty

engines were planted against the walls; the ditches were filled

with sacks of earth and dead bodies; and after a promiscuous

massacre, three hundred noble matrons were slain in the presence

of the khan. Of all the cities and fortresses of Hungary, three

alone survived the Tartar invasion, and the unfortunate Bata hid

his head among the islands of the Adriatic.

[Footnote !: See the curious extracts from the Mahometan writers,

Hist. des Mongols, p. 707. - M.]

[Footnote 27: The Dashte Kipzak, or plain of Kipzak, extends on

either side of the Volga, in a boundless space towards the Jaik

and Borysthenes, and is supposed to contain the primitive name

and nation of the Cossacks.]

[Footnote *: Olmutz was gallantly and successfully defended by

Stenberg, Hist. des Mongols, p. 396. - M.]

The Latin world was darkened by this cloud of savage

hostility: a Russian fugitive carried the alarm to Sweden; and

the remote nations of the Baltic and the ocean trembled at the

approach of the Tartars, ^28 whom their fear and ignorance were

inclined to separate from the human species. Since the invasion

of the Arabs in the eighth century, Europe had never been exposed

to a similar calamity: and if the disciples of Mahomet would have

oppressed her religion and liberty, it might be apprehended that

the shepherds of Scythia would extinguish her cities, her arts,

and all the institutions of civil society. The Roman pontiff

attempted to appease and convert these invincible Pagans by a

mission of Franciscan and Dominican friars; but he was astonished

by the reply of the khan, that the sons of God and of Zingis were

invested with a divine power to subdue or extirpate the nations;

and that the pope would be involved in the universal destruction,

unless he visited in person, and as a suppliant, the royal horde.

The emperor Frederic the Second embraced a more generous mode of

defence; and his letters to the kings of France and England, and

the princes of Germany, represented the common danger, and urged

them to arm their vassals in this just and rational crusade. ^29

The Tartars themselves were awed by the fame and valor of the

Franks; the town of Newstadt in Austria was bravely defended

against them by fifty knights and twenty crossbows; and they

raised the siege on the appearance of a German army. After

wasting the adjacent kingdoms of Servia, Bosnia, and Bulgaria,

Batou slowly retreated from the Danube to the Volga to enjoyed

the rewards of victory in the city and palace of Serai, which

started at his command from the midst of the desert.*

[Footnote 28: In the year 1238, the inhabitants of Gothia

(Sweden) and Frise were prevented, by their fear of the Tartars,

from sending, as usual, their ships to the herring fishery on the

coast of England; and as there was no exportation, forty or fifty

of these fish were sold for a shilling, (Matthew Paris, p. 396.)

It is whimsical enough, that the orders of a Mogul khan, who

reigned on the borders of China, should have lowered the price of

herrings in the English market.]

[Footnote 29: I shall copy his characteristic or flattering

epithets of the different countries of Europe: Furens ac fervens

ad arma Germania, strenuae militiae genitrix et alumna Francia,

bellicosa et audax Hispania, virtuosa viris et classe munita

fertilis Anglia, impetuosis bellatoribus referta Alemannia,

navalis Dacia, indomita Italia, pacis ignara Burgundia, inquieta

Apulia, cum maris Graeci, Adriatici et Tyrrheni insulis pyraticis

et invictis, Creta, Cypro, Sicilia, cum Oceano conterminis

insulis, et regionibus, cruenta Hybernia, cum agili Wallia

palustris Scotia, glacialis Norwegia, suam electam militiam sub

vexillo Crucis destinabunt, &c. (Matthew Paris, p. 498.)]

[Footnote *: He was recalled by the death of Octai - M.]

IV. Even the poor and frozen regions of the north attracted

the arms of the Moguls: Sheibani khan, the brother of the great

Batou, led a horde of fifteen thousand families into the wilds of

Siberia; and his descendants reigned at Tobolskoi above three

centuries, till the Russian conquest. The spirit of enterprise

which pursued the course of the Oby and Yenisei must have led to

the discovery of the icy sea. After brushing away the monstrous

fables, of men with dogs' heads and cloven feet, we shall find,

that, fifteen years after the death of Zingis, the Moguls were

informed of the name and manners of the Samoyedes in the

neighborhood of the polar circle, who dwelt in subterraneous

huts, and derived their furs and their food from the sole

occupation of hunting. ^30

[Footnote 30: See Carpin's relation in Hackluyt, vol. i. p. 30.

The pedigree of the khans of Siberia is given by Abulghazi, (part

viii. p. 485 - 495.) Have the Russians found no Tartar chronicles

at Tobolskoi?

Note: See the account of the Mongol library in Bergman,

Nomadische Strensreyen, vol. iii. p. 185, 205, and Remusat, Hist.

des Langues Tartares, p. 327, and preface to Schmidt, Geschichte

der Ost-Mongolen. - M.]

While China, Syria, and Poland, were invaded at the same

time by the Moguls and Tartars, the authors of the mighty

mischief were content with the knowledge and declaration, that

their word was the sword of death. Like the first caliphs, the

first successors of Zingis seldom appeared in person at the head

of their victorious armies. On the banks of the Onon and

Selinga, the royal or golden horde exhibited the contrast of

simplicity and greatness; of the roasted sheep and mare's milk

which composed their banquets; and of a distribution in one day

of five hundred wagons of gold and silver. The ambassadors and

princes of Europe and Asia were compelled to undertake this

distant and laborious pilgrimage; and the life and reign of the

great dukes of Russia, the kings of Georgia and Armenia, the

sultans of Iconium, and the emirs of Persia, were decided by the

frown or smile of the great khan. The sons and grandsons of

Zingis had been accustomed to the pastoral life; but the village

of Caracorum ^31 was gradually ennobled by their election and

residence. A change of manners is implied in the removal of

Octai and Mangou from a tent to a house; and their example was

imitated by the princes of their family and the great officers of

the empire. Instead of the boundless forest, the enclosure of a

park afforded the more indolent pleasures of the chase; their new

habitations were decorated with painting and sculpture; their

superfluous treasures were cast in fountains, and basins, and

statues of massy silver; and the artists of China and Paris vied

with each other in the service of the great khan. ^32 Caracorum

contained two streets, the one of Chinese mechanics, the other of

Mahometan traders; and the places of religious worship, one

Nestorian church, two mosques, and twelve temples of various

idols, may represent in some degree the number and division of

inhabitants. Yet a French missionary declares, that the town of

St. Denys, near Paris, was more considerable than the Tartar

capital; and that the whole palace of Mangou was scarcely equal

to a tenth part of that Benedictine abbey. The conquests of

Russia and Syria might amuse the vanity of the great khans; but

they were seated on the borders of China; the acquisition of that

empire was the nearest and most interesting object; and they

might learn from their pastoral economy, that it is for the

advantage of the shepherd to protect and propagate his flock. I

have already celebrated the wisdom and virtue of a Mandarin who

prevented the desolation of five populous and cultivated

provinces. In a spotless administration of thirty years, this

friend of his country and of mankind continually labored to

mitigate, or suspend, the havoc of war; to save the monuments,

and to rekindle the flame, of science; to restrain the military

commander by the restoration of civil magistrates; and to instil

the love of peace and justice into the minds of the Moguls. He

struggled with the barbarism of the first conquerors; but his

salutary lessons produced a rich harvest in the second

generation. ^* The northern, and by degrees the southern, empire

acquiesced in the government of Cublai, the lieutenant, and

afterwards the successor, of Mangou; and the nation was loyal to

a prince who had been educated in the manners of China. He

restored the forms of her venerable constitution; and the victors

submitted to the laws, the fashions, and even the prejudices, of

the vanquished people. This peaceful triumph, which has been

more than once repeated, may be ascribed, in a great measure, to

the numbers and servitude of the Chinese. The Mogul army was

dissolved in a vast and populous country; and their emperors

adopted with pleasure a political system, which gives to the

prince the solid substance of despotism, and leaves to the

subject the empty names of philosophy, freedom, and filial

obedience. ^* Under the reign of Cublai, letters and commerce,

peace and justice, were restored; the great canal, of five

hundred miles, was opened from Nankin to the capital: he fixed

his residence at Pekin; and displayed in his court the

magnificence of the greatest monarch of Asia. Yet this learned

prince declined from the pure and simple religion of his great

ancestor: he sacrificed to the idol Fo; and his blind attachment

to the lamas of Thibet and the bonzes of China ^33 provoked the

censure of the disciples of Confucius. His successors polluted

the palace with a crowd of eunuchs, physicians, and astrologers,

while thirteen millions of their subjects were consumed in the

provinces by famine. One hundred and forty years after the death

of Zingis, his degenerate race, the dynasty of the Yuen, was

expelled by a revolt of the native Chinese; and the Mogul

emperors were lost in the oblivion of the desert. Before this

revolution, they had forfeited their supremacy over the dependent

branches of their house, the khans of Kipzak and Russia, the

khans of Zagatai, or Transoxiana, and the khans of Iran or

Persia. By their distance and power, these royal lieutenants had

soon been released from the duties of obedience; and after the

death of Cublai, they scorned to accept a sceptre or a title from

his unworthy successors. According to their respective

situations, they maintained the simplicity of the pastoral life,

or assumed the luxury of the cities of Asia; but the princes and

their hordes were alike disposed for the reception of a foreign

worship. After some hesitation between the Gospel and the Koran,

they conformed to the religion of Mahomet; and while they adopted

for their brethren the Arabs and Persians, they renounced all

intercourse with the ancient Moguls, the idolaters of China.

[Footnote 31: The Map of D'Anville and the Chinese Itineraries

(De Guignes, tom. i. part ii. p. 57) seem to mark the position of

Holin, or Caracorum, about six hundred miles to the north-west of

Pekin. The distance between Selinginsky and Pekin is near 2000

Russian versts, between 1300 and 1400 English miles, (Bell's

Travels, vol. ii. p. 67.)]

[Footnote 32: Rubruquis found at Caracorum his countryman

Guillaume Boucher, orfevre de Paris, who had executed for the

khan a silver tree supported by four lions, and ejecting four

different liquors. Abulghazi (part iv. p. 366) mentions the

painters of Kitay or China.]

[Footnote *: See the interesting sketch of the life of this

minister (Yelin- Thsouthsai) in the second volume of the second

series of Recherches Asiatiques, par A Remusat, p. 64. - M.]

[Footnote *: Compare Hist. des Mongols, p. 616. - M.]

[Footnote 33: The attachment of the khans, and the hatred of the

mandarins, to the bonzes and lamas (Duhalde, Hist. de la Chine,

tom. i. p. 502, 503) seems to represent them as the priests of

the same god, of the Indian Fo, whose worship prevails among the

sects of Hindostan Siam, Thibet, China, and Japan. But this

mysterious subject is still lost in a cloud, which the

researchers of our Asiatic Society may gradually dispel.]

Chapter LXIV: Moguls, Ottoman Turkds.

Part III.

In this shipwreck of nations, some surprise may be excited

by the escape of the Roman empire, whose relics, at the time of

the Mogul invasion, were dismembered by the Greeks and Latins.

Less potent than Alexander, they were pressed, like the

Macedonian, both in Europe and Asia, by the shepherds of Scythia;

and had the Tartars undertaken the siege, Constantinople must

have yielded to the fate of Pekin, Samarcand, and Bagdad. The

glorious and voluntary retreat of Batou from the Danube was

insulted by the vain triumph of the Franks and Greeks; ^34 and in

a second expedition death surprised him in full march to attack

the capital of the Caesars. His brother Borga carried the Tartar

arms into Bulgaria and Thrace; but he was diverted from the

Byzantine war by a visit to Novogorod, in the fifty-seventh

degree of latitude, where he numbered the inhabitants and

regulated the tributes of Russia. The Mogul khan formed an

alliance with the Mamalukes against his brethren of Persia: three

hundred thousand horse penetrated through the gates of Derbend;

and the Greeks might rejoice in the first example of domestic

war. After the recovery of Constantinople, Michael Palaeologus,

^35 at a distance from his court and army, was surprised and

surrounded in a Thracian castle, by twenty thousand Tartars. But

the object of their march was a private interest: they came to

the deliverance of Azzadin, the Turkish sultan; and were content

with his person and the treasure of the emperor. Their general

Noga, whose name is perpetuated in the hordes of Astracan, raised

a formidable rebellion against Mengo Timour, the third of the

khaus of Kipzak; obtained in marriage Maria, the natural daughter

of Palaeologus; and guarded the dominions of his friend and

father. The subsequent invasions of a Scythian cast were those

of outlaws and fugitives: and some thousands of Alani and Comans,

who had been driven from their native zeats, were reclaimed from

a vagrant life, and enlisted in the service of the empire. Such

was the influence in Europe of the invasion of the Moguls. The

first terror of their arms secured, rather than disturbed, the

peace of the Roman Asia. The sultan of Iconium solicited a

personal interview with John Vataces; and his artful policy

encouraged the Turks to defend their barrier against the common

enemy. ^36 That barrier indeed was soon overthrown; and the

servitude and ruin of the Seljukians exposed the nakedness of the

Greeks. The formidable Holagou threatened to march to

Constantinople at the head of four hundred thousand men; and the

groundless panic of the citizens of Nice will present an image of

the terror which he had inspired. The accident of a procession,

and the sound of a doleful litany, "From the fury of the Tartars,

good Lord, deliver us," had scattered the hasty report of an

assault and massacre. In the blind credulity of fear, the

streets of Nice were crowded with thousands of both sexes, who

knew not from what or to whom they fled; and some hours elapsed

before the firmness of the military officers could relieve the

city from this imaginary foe. But the ambition of Holagou and

his successors was fortunately diverted by the conquest of

Bagdad, and a long vicissitude of Syrian wars; their hostility to

the Moslems inclined them to unite with the Greeks and Franks;

^37 and their generosity or contempt had offered the kingdom of

Anatolia as the reward of an Armenian vassal. The fragments of

the Seljukian monarchy were disputed by the emirs who had

occupied the cities or the mountains; but they all confessed the

supremacy of the khans of Persia; and he often interposed his

authority, and sometimes his arms, to check their depredations,

and to preserve the peace and balance of his Turkish frontier.

The death of Cazan, ^38 one of the greatest and most accomplished

princes of the house of Zingis, removed this salutary control;

and the decline of the Moguls gave a free scope to the rise and

progress of the Ottoman Empire. ^39

[Footnote 34: Some repulse of the Moguls in Hungary (Matthew

Paris, p. 545, 546) might propagate and color the report of the

union and victory of the kings of the Franks on the confines of

Bulgaria. Abulpharagius (Dynast. p. 310) after forty years,

beyond the Tigris, might be easily deceived.]

[Footnote 35: See Pachymer, l. iii. c. 25, and l. ix. c. 26, 27;

and the false alarm at Nice, l. iii. c. 27. Nicephorus Gregoras,

l. iv. c. 6.]

[Footnote 36: G. Acropolita, p. 36, 37. Nic. Greg. l. ii. c. 6,

l. iv. c. 5.]

[Footnote 37: Abulpharagius, who wrote in the year 1284, declares

that the Moguls, since the fabulous defeat of Batou, had not

attacked either the Franks or Greeks; and of this he is a

competent witness. Hayton likewise, the Armenian prince,

celebrates their friendship for himself and his nation.]

[Footnote 38: Pachymer gives a splendid character of Cazan Khan,

the rival of Cyrus and Alexander, (l. xii. c. 1.) In the

conclusion of his history (l. xiii. c. 36) he hopes much from the

arrival of 30,000 Tochars, or Tartars, who were ordered by the

successor of Cazan to restrain the Turks of Bithynia, A.D. 1308.]

[Footnote 39: The origin of the Ottoman dynasty is illustrated by

the critical learning of Mm. De Guignes (Hist. des Huns, tom. iv.

p. 329 - 337) and D'Anville, (Empire Turc, p. 14 - 22,) two

inhabitants of Paris, from whom the Orientals may learn the

history and geography of their own country.

Note: They may be still more enlightened by the Geschichte

des Osman Reiches, by M. von Hammer Purgstall of Vienna. - M.]

After the retreat of Zingis, the sultan Gelaleddin of

Carizme had returned from India to the possession and defence of

his Persian kingdoms. In the space of eleven years, than hero

fought in person fourteen battles; and such was his activity,

that he led his cavalry in seventeen days from Teflia to Kerman,

a march of a thousand miles. Yet he was oppressed by the

jealousy of the Moslem princes, and the innumerable armies of the

Moguls; and after his last defeat, Gelaleddin perished ignobly in

the mountains of Curdistan. His death dissolved a veteran and

adventurous army, which included under the name of Carizmians or

Corasmins many Turkman hordes, that had attached themselves to

the sultan's fortune. The bolder and more powerful chiefs

invaded Syria, and violated the holy sepulchre of Jerusalem: the

more humble engaged in the service of Aladin, sultan of Iconium;

and among these were the obscure fathers of the Ottoman line.

They had formerly pitched their tents near the southern banks of

the Oxus, in the plains of Mahan and Nesa; and it is somewhat

remarkable, that the same spot should have produced the first

authors of the Parthian and Turkish empires. At the head, or in

the rear, of a Carizmian army, Soliman Shah was drowned in the

passage of the Euphrates: his son Orthogrul became the soldier

and subject of Aladin, and established at Surgut, on the banks of

the Sangar, a camp of four hundred families or tents, whom he

governed fifty-two years both in peace and war. He was the father

of Thaman, or Athman, whose Turkish name has been melted into the

appellation of the caliph Othman; and if we describe that

pastoral chief as a shepherd and a robber, we must separate from

those characters all idea of ignominy and baseness. Othman

possessed, and perhaps surpassed, the ordinary virtues of a

soldier; and the circumstances of time and place were propitious

to his independence and success. The Seljukian dynasty was no

more; and the distance and decline of the Mogul khans soon

enfranchised him from the control of a superior. He was situate

on the verge of the Greek empire: the Koran sanctified his gazi,

or holy war, against the infidels; and their political errors

unlocked the passes of Mount Olympus, and invited him to descend

into the plains of Bithynia. Till the reign of Palaeologus,

these passes had been vigilantly guarded by the militia of the

country, who were repaid by their own safety and an exemption

from taxes. The emperor abolished their privilege and assumed

their office; but the tribute was rigorously collected, the

custody of the passes was neglected, and the hardy mountaineers

degenerated into a trembling crowd of peasants without spirit or

discipline. It was on the twenty-seventh of July, in the year

twelve hundred and ninety-nine of the Christian aera, that Othman

first invaded the territory of Nicomedia; ^40 and the singular

accuracy of the date seems to disclose some foresight of the

rapid and destructive growth of the monster. The annals of the

twenty-seven years of his reign would exhibit a repetition of the

same inroads; and his hereditary troops were multiplied in each

campaign by the accession of captives and volunteers. Instead of

retreating to the hills, he maintained the most useful and

defensive posts; fortified the towns and castles which he had

first pillaged; and renounced the pastoral life for the baths and

palaces of his infant capitals. But it was not till Othman was

oppressed by age and infirmities, that he received the welcome

news of the conquest of Prusa, which had been surrendered by

famine or treachery to the arms of his son Orchan. The glory of

Othman is chiefly founded on that of his descendants; but the

Turks have transcribed or composed a royal testament of his last

counsels of justice and moderation. ^41

[Footnote 40: See Pachymer, l. x. c. 25, 26, l. xiii. c. 33, 34,

36; and concerning the guard of the mountains, l. i. c. 3 - 6:

Nicephorus Gregoras, l. vii. c. l., and the first book of

Laonicus Chalcondyles, the Athenian.]

[Footnote 41: I am ignorant whether the Turks have any writers

older than Mahomet II., nor can I reach beyond a meagre chronicle

(Annales Turcici ad Annum 1550) translated by John Gaudier, and

published by Leunclavius, (ad calcem Laonic. Chalcond. p. 311 -

350,) with copious pandects, or commentaries. The history of the

Growth and Decay (A.D. 1300 - 1683) of the Othman empire was

translated into English from the Latin Ms. of Demetrius Cantemir,

prince of Moldavia, (London, 1734, in folio.) The author is

guilty of strange blunders in Oriental history; but he was

conversant with the language, the annals, and institutions of the

Turks. Cantemir partly draws his materials from the Synopsis of

Saadi Effendi of Larissa, dedicated in the year 1696 to Sultan

Mustapha, and a valuable abridgment of the original historians.

In one of the Ramblers, Dr Johnson praises Knolles (a General

History of the Turks to the present Year. London, 1603) as the

first of historians, unhappy only in the choice of his subject.

Yet I much doubt whether a partial and verbose compilation from

Latin writers, thirteen hundred folio pages of speeches and

battles, can either instruct or amuse an enlightened age, which

requires from the historian some tincture of philosophy and

criticism.

Note: We could have wished that M. von Hammer had given a

more clear and distinct reply to this question of Gibbon. In a

note, vol. i. p. 630. M. von Hammer shows that they had not only

sheiks (religious writers) and learned lawyers, but poets and

authors on medicine. But the inquiry of Gibbon obviously refers

to historians. The oldest of their historical works, of which V.

Hammer makes use, is the "Tarichi Aaschik Paschasade," i. e. the

History of the Great Grandson of Aaschik Pasha, who was a dervis

and celebrated ascetic poet in the reign of Murad (Amurath) I.

Ahmed, the author of the work, lived during the reign of Bajazet

II., but, he says, derived much information from the book of

Scheik Jachshi, the son of Elias, who was Imaum to Sultan Orchan,

(the second Ottoman king) and who related, from the lips of his

father, the circumstances of the earliest Ottoman history. This

book (having searched for it in vain for five-and-twenty years)

our author found at length in the Vatican. All the other Turkish

histories on his list, as indeed this, were written during the

reign of Mahomet II. It does not appear whether any of the rest

cite earlier authorities of equal value with that claimed by the

"Tarichi Aaschik Paschasade." - M. (in Quarterly Review, vol.

xlix. p. 292.)]

From the conquest of Prusa, we may date the true aera of the

Ottoman empire. The lives and possessions of the Christian

subjects were redeemed by a tribute or ransom of thirty thousand

crowns of gold; and the city, by the labors of Orchan, assumed

the aspect of a Mahometan capital; Prusa was decorated with a

mosque, a college, and a hospital, of royal foundation; the

Seljukian coin was changed for the name and impression of the new

dynasty: and the most skilful professors, of human and divine

knowledge, attracted the Persian and Arabian students from the

ancient schools of Oriental learning. The office of vizier was

instituted for Aladin, the brother of Orchan; ^* and a different

habit distinguished the citizens from the peasants, the Moslems

from the infidels. All the troops of Othman had consisted of

loose squadrons of Turkman cavalry; who served without pay and

fought without discipline: but a regular body of infantry was

first established and trained by the prudence of his son. A

great number of volunteers was enrolled with a small stipend, but

with the permission of living at home, unless they were summoned

to the field: their rude manners, and seditious temper, disposed

Orchan to educate his young captives as his soldiers and those of

the prophet; but the Turkish peasants were still allowed to mount

on horseback, and follow his standard, with the appellation and

the hopes of freebooters. ^! By these arts he formed an army of

twenty-five thousand Moslems: a train of battering engines was

framed for the use of sieges; and the first successful experiment

was made on the cities of Nice and Nicomedia. Orchan granted a

safe-conduct to all who were desirous of departing with their

families and effects; but the widows of the slain were given in

marriage to the conquerors; and the sacrilegious plunder, the

books, the vases, and the images, were sold or ransomed at

Constantinople. The emperor Andronicus the Younger was

vanquished and wounded by the son of Othman: ^42 ^!! he subdued

the whole province or kingdom of Bithynia, as far as the shores

of the Bosphorus and Hellespont; and the Christians confessed the

justice and clemency of a reign which claimed the voluntary

attachment of the Turks of Asia. Yet Orchan was content with the

modest title of emir; and in the list of his compeers, the

princes of Roum or Anatolia, ^43 his military forces were

surpassed by the emirs of Ghermian and Caramania, each of whom

could bring into the field an army of forty thousand men. Their

domains were situate in the heart of the Seljukian kingdom; but

the holy warriors, though of inferior note, who formed new

principalities on the Greek empire, are more conspicuous in the

light of history. The maritime country from the Propontis to the

Maeander and the Isle of Rhodes, so long threatened and so often

pillaged, was finally lost about the thirteenth year of

Andronicus the Elder. ^44 Two Turkish chieftains, Sarukhan and

Aidin, left their names to their conquests, and their conquests

to their posterity. The captivity or ruin of the seven churches

of Asia was consummated; and the barbarous lords of Ionia and

Lydia still trample on the monuments of classic and Christian

antiquity. In the loss of Ephesus, the Christians deplored the

fall of the first angel, the extinction of the first candlestick,

of the Revelations; ^45 the desolation is complete; and the

temple of Diana, or the church of Mary, will equally elude the

search of the curious traveller. The circus and three stately

theatres of Laodicea are now peopled with wolves and foxes;

Sardes is reduced to a miserable village; the God of Mahomet,

without a rival or a son, is invoked in the mosques of Thyatira

and Pergamus; and the populousness of Smyrna is supported by the

foreign trade of the Franks and Armenians. Philadelphia alone has

been saved by prophecy, or courage. At a distance from the sea,

forgotten by the emperors, encompassed on all sides by the Turks,

her valiant citizens defended their religion and freedom above

fourscore years; and at length capitulated with the proudest of

the Ottomans. Among the Greek colonies and churches of Asia,

Philadelphia is still erect; a column in a scene of ruins; a

pleasing example, that the paths of honor and safety may

sometimes be the same. The servitude of Rhodes was delayed about

two centuries by the establishment of the knights of St. John of

Jerusalem: ^46 under the discipline of the order, that island

emerged into fame and opulence; the noble and warlike monks were

renowned by land and sea: and the bulwark of Christendom

provoked, and repelled, the arms of the Turks and Saracens.

[Footnote *: Von Hammer, Osm. Geschichte, vol. i. p. 82. - M.]

[Footnote !: Ibid. p. 91. - M.]

[Footnote 42: Cantacuzene, though he relates the battle and

heroic flight of the younger Androcinus, (l. ii. c. 6, 7, 8,)

dissembles by his silence the loss of Prusa, Nice, and Nicomedia,

which are fairly confessed by Nicephorus Gregoras, (l. viii. 15,

ix. 9, 13, xi. 6.) It appears that Nice was taken by Orchan in

1330, and Nicomedia in 1339, which are somewhat different from

the Turkish dates.]

[Footnote !!: For the conquests of Orchan over the ten pachaliks,

or kingdoms of the Seljukians, in Asia Minor. see V. Hammer, vol.

i. p. 112. - M.]

[Footnote 43: The partition of the Turkish emirs is extracted

from two contemporaries, the Greek Nicephorus Gregoras (l. vii.

1) and the Arabian Marakeschi, (De Guignes, tom. ii. P. ii. p.

76, 77.) See likewise the first book of Laonicus Chalcondyles.]

[Footnote 44: Pachymer, l. xiii. c. 13.]

[Footnote 45: See the Travels of Wheeler and Spon, of Pocock and

Chandler, and more particularly Smith's Survey of the Seven

Churches of Asia, p. 205 - 276. The more pious antiquaries labor

to reconcile the promises and threats of the author of the

Revelations with the present state of the seven cities. Perhaps

it would be more prudent to confine his predictions to the

characters and events of his own times.]

[Footnote 46: Consult the ivth book of the Histoire de 'Ordre de

Malthe, par l'Abbe de Vertot. That pleasing writer betrays his

ignorance, in supposing that Othman, a freebooter of the

Bithynian hills, could besiege Rhodes by sea and land.]

The Greeks, by their intestine divisions, were the authors

of their final ruin. During the civil wars of the elder and

younger Andronicus, the son of Othman achieved, almost without

resistance, the conquest of Bithynia; and the same disorders

encouraged the Turkish emirs of Lydia and Ionia to build a fleet,

and to pillage the adjacent islands and the sea-coast of Europe.

In the defence of his life and honor, Cantacuzene was tempted to

prevent, or imitate, his adversaries, by calling to his aid the

public enemies of his religion and country. Amir, the son of

Aidin, concealed under a Turkish garb the humanity and politeness

of a Greek; he was united with the great domestic by mutual

esteem and reciprocal services; and their friendship is compared,

in the vain rhetoric of the times, to the perfect union of

Orestes and Pylades. ^47 On the report of the danger of his

friend, who was persecuted by an ungrateful court, the prince of

Ionia assembled at Smyrna a fleet of three hundred vessels, with

an army of twenty-nine thousand men; sailed in the depth of

winter, and cast anchor at the mouth of the Hebrus. From thence,

with a chosen band of two thousand Turks, he marched along the

banks of the river, and rescued the empress, who was besieged in

Demotica by the wild Bulgarians. At that disastrous moment, the

life or death of his beloved Cantacuzene was concealed by his

flight into Servia: but the grateful Irene, impatient to behold

her deliverer, invited him to enter the city, and accompanied her

message with a present of rich apparel and a hundred horses. By a

peculiar strain of delicacy, the Gentle Barbarian refused, in the

absence of an unfortunate friend, to visit his wife, or to taste

the luxuries of the palace; sustained in his tent the rigor of

the winter; and rejected the hospitable gift, that he might share

the hardships of two thousand companions, all as deserving as

himself of that honor and distinction. Necessity and revenge

might justify his predatory excursions by sea and land: he left

nine thousand five hundred men for the guard of his fleet; and

persevered in the fruitless search of Cantacuzene, till his

embarkation was hastened by a fictitious letter, the severity of

the season, the clamors of his independent troops, and the weight

of his spoil and captives. In the prosecution of the civil war,

the prince of Ionia twice returned to Europe; joined his arms

with those of the emperor; besieged Thessalonica, and threatened

Constantinople. Calumny might affix some reproach on his

imperfect aid, his hasty departure, and a bribe of ten thousand

crowns, which he accepted from the Byzantine court; but his

friend was satisfied; and the conduct of Amir is excused by the

more sacred duty of defending against the Latins his hereditary

dominions. The maritime power of the Turks had united the pope,

the king of Cyprus, the republic of Venice, and the order of St.

John, in a laudable crusade; their galleys invaded the coast of

Ionia; and Amir was slain with an arrow, in the attempt to wrest

from the Rhodian knights the citadel of Smyrna. ^48 Before his

death, he generously recommended another ally of his own nation;

not more sincere or zealous than himself, but more able to afford

a prompt and powerful succor, by his situation along the

Propontis and in the front of Constantinople. By the prospect of

a more advantageous treaty, the Turkish prince of Bithynia was

detached from his engagements with Anne of Savoy; and the pride

of Orchan dictated the most solemn protestations, that if he

could obtain the daughter of Cantacuzene, he would invariably

fulfil the duties of a subject and a son. Parental tenderness was

silenced by the voice of ambition: the Greek clergy connived at

the marriage of a Christian princess with a sectary of Mahomet;

and the father of Theodora describes, with shameful satisfaction,

the dishonor of the purple. ^49 A body of Turkish cavalry

attended the ambassadors, who disembarked from thirty vessels,

before his camp of Selybria. A stately pavilion was erected, in

which the empress Irene passed the night with her daughters. In

the morning, Theodora ascended a throne, which was surrounded

with curtains of silk and gold: the troops were under arms; but

the emperor alone was on horseback. At a signal the curtains

were suddenly withdrawn to disclose the bride, or the victim,

encircled by kneeling eunuchs and hymeneal torches: the sound of

flutes and trumpets proclaimed the joyful event; and her

pretended happiness was the theme of the nuptial song, which was

chanted by such poets as the age could produce. Without the rites

of the church, Theodora was delivered to her barbarous lord: but

it had been stipulated, that she should preserve her religion in

the harem of Bursa; and her father celebrates her charity and

devotion in this ambiguous situation. After his peaceful

establishment on the throne of Constantinople, the Greek emperor

visited his Turkish ally, who with four sons, by various wives,

expected him at Scutari, on the Asiatic shore. The two princes

partook, with seeming cordiality, of the pleasures of the banquet

and the chase; and Theodora was permitted to repass the

Bosphorus, and to enjoy some days in the society of her mother.

But the friendship of Orchan was subservient to his religion and

interest; and in the Genoese war he joined without a blush the

enemies of Cantacuzene.

[Footnote 47: Nicephorus Gregoras has expatiated with pleasure on

this amiable character, (l. xii. 7, xiii. 4, 10, xiv. 1, 9, xvi.

6.) Cantacuzene speaks with honor and esteem of his ally, (l.

iii. c. 56, 57, 63, 64, 66, 67, 68, 86, 89, 95, 96;) but he seems

ignorant of his own sentimental passion for the Turks, and

indirectly denies the possibility of such unnatural friendship,

(l. iv. c. 40.)]

[Footnote 48: After the conquest of Smyrna by the Latins, the

defence of this fortress was imposed by Pope Gregory XI. on the

knights of Rhodes, (see Vertot, l. v.)]

[Footnote 49: See Cantacuzenus, l. iii. c. 95. Nicephorus

Gregoras, who, for the light of Mount Thabor, brands the emperor

with the names of tyrant and Herod, excuses, rather than blames,

this Turkish marriage, and alleges the passion and power of

Orchan, Turkish, (l. xv. 5.) He afterwards celebrates his kingdom

and armies. See his reign in Cantemir, p. 24 - 30.]

In the treaty with the empress Anne, the Ottoman prince had

inserted a singular condition, that it should be lawful for him

to sell his prisoners at Constantinople, or transport them into

Asia. A naked crowd of Christians of both sexes and every age,

of priests and monks, of matrons and virgins, was exposed in the

public market; the whip was frequently used to quicken the

charity of redemption; and the indigent Greeks deplored the fate

of their brethren, who were led away to the worst evils of

temporal and spiritual bondage ^50 Cantacuzene was reduced to

subscribe the same terms; and their execution must have been

still more pernicious to the empire: a body of ten thousand Turks

had been detached to the assistance of the empress Anne; but the

entire forces of Orchan were exerted in the service of his

father. Yet these calamities were of a transient nature; as soon

as the storm had passed away, the fugitives might return to their

habitations; and at the conclusion of the civil and foreign wars,

Europe was completely evacuated by the Moslems of Asia. It was

in his last quarrel with his pupil that Cantacuzene inflicted the

deep and deadly wound, which could never be healed by his

successors, and which is poorly expiated by his theological

dialogues against the prophet Mahomet. Ignorant of their own

history, the modern Turks confound their first and their final

passage of the Hellespont, ^51 and describe the son of Orchan as

a nocturnal robber, who, with eighty companions, explores by

stratagem a hostile and unknown shore. Soliman, at the head of

ten thousand horse, was transported in the vessels, and

entertained as the friend, of the Greek emperor. In the civil

wars of Romania, he performed some service and perpetrated more

mischief; but the Chersonesus was insensibly filled with a

Turkish colony; and the Byzantine court solicited in vain the

restitution of the fortresses of Thrace. After some artful

delays between the Ottoman prince and his son, their ransom was

valued at sixty thousand crowns, and the first payment had been

made when an earthquake shook the walls and cities of the

provinces; the dismantled places were occupied by the Turks; and

Gallipoli, the key of the Hellespont, was rebuilt and repeopled

by the policy of Soliman. The abdication of Cantacuzene dissolved

the feeble bands of domestic alliance; and his last advice

admonished his countrymen to decline a rash contest, and to

compare their own weakness with the numbers and valor, the

discipline and enthusiasm, of the Moslems. His prudent counsels

were despised by the headstrong vanity of youth, and soon

justified by the victories of the Ottomans. But as he practised

in the field the exercise of the jerid, Soliman was killed by a

fall from his horse; and the aged Orchan wept and expired on the

tomb of his valiant son. ^*

[Footnote 50: The most lively and concise picture of this

captivity may be found in the history of Ducas, (c. 8,) who

fairly describes what Cantacuzene confesses with a guilty blush!]

[Footnote 51: In this passage, and the first conquests in Europe,

Cantemir (p. 27, &c.) gives a miserable idea of his Turkish

guides; nor am I much better satisfied with Chalcondyles, (l. i.

p. 12, &c.) They forget to consult the most authentic record, the

ivth book of Cantacuzene. I likewise regret the last books,

which are still manuscript, of Nicephorus Gregoras.

Note: Von Hammer excuses the silence with which the Turkish

historians pass over the earlier intercourse of the Ottomans with

the European continent, of which he enumerates sixteen different

occasions, as if they disdained those peaceful incursions by

which they gained no conquest, and established no permanent

footing on the Byzantine territory. Of the romantic account of

Soliman's first expedition, he says, "As yet the prose of history

had not asserted its right over the poetry of tradition." This

defence would scarcely be accepted as satisfactory by the

historian of the Decline and Fall. - M. (in Quarterly Review,

vol. xlix. p. 293.)

Note: In the 75th year of his age, the 35th of his reign.

V. Hammer. M.]

Chapter LXIV: Moguls, Ottoman Turkds.

Part IV.

But the Greeks had not time to rejoice in the death of their

enemies; and the Turkish cimeter was wielded with the same spirit

by Amurath the First, the son of Orchan, and the brother of

Soliman. By the pale and fainting light of the Byzantine annals,

^52 we can discern, that he subdued without resistance the whole

province of Romania or Thrace, from the Hellespont to Mount

Haemus, and the verge of the capital; and that Adrianople was

chosen for the royal seat of his government and religion in

Europe. Constantinople, whose decline is almost coeval with her

foundation, had often, in the lapse of a thousand years, been

assaulted by the Barbarians of the East and West; but never till

this fatal hour had the Greeks been surrounded, both in Asia and

Europe, by the arms of the same hostile monarchy. Yet the

prudence or generosity of Amurath postponed for a while this easy

conquest; and his pride was satisfied with the frequent and

humble attendance of the emperor John Palaeologus and his four

sons, who followed at his summons the court and camp of the

Ottoman prince. He marched against the Sclavonian nations

between the Danube and the Adriatic, the Bulgarians, Servians,

Bosnians, and Albanians; and these warlike tribes, who had so

often insulted the majesty of the empire, were repeatedly broken

by his destructive inroads. Their countries did not abound

either in gold or silver; nor were their rustic hamlets and

townships enriched by commerce or decorated by the arts of

luxury. But the natives of the soil have been distinguished in

every age by their hardiness of mind and body; and they were

converted by a prudent institution into the firmest and most

faithful supporters of the Ottoman greatness. ^53 The vizier of

Amurath reminded his sovereign that, according to the Mahometan

law, he was entitled to a fifth part of the spoil and captives;

and that the duty might easily be levied, if vigilant officers

were stationed in Gallipoli, to watch the passage, and to select

for his use the stoutest and most beautiful of the Christian

youth. The advice was followed: the edict was proclaimed; many

thousands of the European captives were educated in religion and

arms; and the new militia was consecrated and named by a

celebrated dervis. Standing in the front of their ranks, he

stretched the sleeve of his gown over the head of the foremost

soldier, and his blessing was delivered in these words: "Let them

be called Janizaries, (Yengi cheri, or new soldiers;) may their

countenance be ever bright! their hand victorious! their sword

keen! may their spear always hang over the heads of their

enemies! and wheresoever they go, may they return with a white

face!" ^54 ^* Such was the origin of these haughty troops, the

terror of the nations, and sometimes of the sultans themselves.

Their valor has declined, their discipline is relaxed, and their

tumultuary array is incapable of contending with the order and

weapons of modern tactics; but at the time of their institution,

they possessed a decisive superiority in war; since a regular

body of infantry, in constant exercise and pay, was not

maintained by any of the princes of Christendom. The Janizaries

fought with the zeal of proselytes against their idolatrous

countrymen; and in the battle of Cossova, the league and

independence of the Sclavonian tribes was finally crushed. As

the conqueror walked over the field, he observed that the

greatest part of the slain consisted of beardless youths; and

listened to the flattering reply of his vizier, that age and

wisdom would have taught them not to oppose his irresistible

arms. But the sword of his Janizaries could not defend him from

the dagger of despair; a Servian soldier started from the crowd

of dead bodies, and Amurath was pierced in the belly with a

mortal wound. ^* The grandson of Othman was mild in his temper,

modest in his apparel, and a lover of learning and virtue; but

the Moslems were scandalized at his absence from public worship;

and he was corrected by the firmness of the mufti, who dared to

reject his testimony in a civil cause: a mixture of servitude and

freedom not unfrequent in Oriental history. ^55

[Footnote 52: After the conclusion of Cantacuzene and Gregoras,

there follows a dark interval of a hundred years. George

Phranza, Michael Ducas, and Laonicus Chalcondyles, all three

wrote after the taking of Constantinople.]

[Footnote 53: See Cantemir, p. 37 - 41, with his own large and

curious annotations.]

[Footnote 54: White and black face are common and proverbial

expressions of praise and reproach in the Turkish language. Hic

niger est, hunc tu Romane caveto, was likewise a Latin sentence.]

[Footnote *: According to Von Hammer. vol. i. p. 90, Gibbon and

the European writers assign too late a date to this enrolment of

the Janizaries. It took place not in the reign of Amurath, but

in that of his predecessor Orchan. - M.]

[Footnote *: Ducas has related this as a deliberate act of

self-devotion on the part of a Servian noble who pretended to

desert, and stabbed Amurath during a conference which he had

requested. The Italian translator of Ducas, published by Bekker

in the new edition of the Byzantines, has still further

heightened the romance. See likewise in Von Hammer (Osmanische

Geschichte, vol. i. p. 138) the popular Servian account, which

resembles that of Ducas, and may have been the source of that of

his Italian translator. The Turkish account agrees more nearly

with Gibbon; but the Servian, (Milosch Kohilovisch) while he lay

among the heap of the dead, pretended to have some secret to

impart to Amurath, and stabbed him while he leaned over to

listen. - M.]

[Footnote 55: See the life and death of Morad, or Amurath I., in

Cantemir, (p 33 - 45,) the first book of Chalcondyles, and the

Annales Turcici of Leunclavius. According to another story, the

sultan was stabbed by a Croat in his tent; and this accident was

alleged to Busbequius (Epist i. p. 98) as an excuse for the

unworthy precaution of pinioning, as if were, between two

attendants, an ambassador's arms, when he is introduced to the

royal presence.]

The character of Bajazet, the son and successor of Amurath,

is strongly expressed in his surname of Ilderim, or the

lightning; and he might glory in an epithet, which was drawn from

the fiery energy of his soul and the rapidity of his destructive

march. In the fourteen years of his reign, ^56 he incessantly

moved at the head of his armies, from Boursa to Adrianople, from

the Danube to the Euphrates; and, though he strenuously labored

for the propagation of the law, he invaded, with impartial

ambition, the Christian and Mahometan princes of Europe and Asia.

From Angora to Amasia and Erzeroum, the northern regions of

Anatolia were reduced to his obedience: he stripped of their

hereditary possessions his brother emirs of Ghermian and

Caramania, of Aidin and Sarukhan; and after the conquest of

Iconium the ancient kingdom of the Seljukians again revived in

the Ottoman dynasty. Nor were the conquests of Bajazet less

rapid or important in Europe. No sooner had he imposed a regular

form of servitude on the Servians and Bulgarians, than he passed

the Danube to seek new enemies and new subjects in the heart of

Moldavia. ^57 Whatever yet adhered to the Greek empire in Thrace,

Macedonia, and Thessaly, acknowledged a Turkish master: an

obsequious bishop led him through the gates of Thermopylae into

Greece; and we may observe, as a singular fact, that the widow of

a Spanish chief, who possessed the ancient seat of the oracle of

Delphi, deserved his favor by the sacrifice of a beauteous

daughter. The Turkish communication between Europe and Asia had

been dangerous and doubtful, till he stationed at Gallipoli a

fleet of galleys, to command the Hellespont and intercept the

Latin succors of Constantinople. While the monarch indulged his

passions in a boundless range of injustice and cruelty, he

imposed on his soldiers the most rigid laws of modesty and

abstinence; and the harvest was peaceably reaped and sold within

the precincts of his camp. Provoked by the loose and corrupt

administration of justice, he collected in a house the judges and

lawyers of his dominions, who expected that in a few moments the

fire would be kindled to reduce them to ashes. His ministers

trembled in silence: but an Aethiopian buffoon presumed to

insinuate the true cause of the evil; and future venality was

left without excuse, by annexing an adequate salary to the office

of cadhi. ^58 The humble title of emir was no longer suitable to

the Ottoman greatness; and Bajazet condescended to accept a

patent of sultan from the caliphs who served in Egypt under the

yoke of the Mamalukes: ^59 a last and frivolous homage that was

yielded by force to opinion; by the Turkish conquerors to the

house of Abbas and the successors of the Arabian prophet. The

ambition of the sultan was inflamed by the obligation of

deserving this august title; and he turned his arms against the

kingdom of Hungary, the perpetual theatre of the Turkish

victories and defeats. Sigismond, the Hungarian king, was the

son and brother of the emperors of the West: his cause was that

of Europe and the church; and, on the report of his danger, the

bravest knights of France and Germany were eager to march under

his standard and that of the cross. In the battle of Nicopolis,

Bajazet defeated a confederate army of a hundred thousand

Christians, who had proudly boasted, that if the sky should fall,

they could uphold it on their lances. The far greater part were

slain or driven into the Danube; and Sigismond, escaping to

Constantinople by the river and the Black Sea, returned after a

long circuit to his exhausted kingdom. ^60 In the pride of

victory, Bajazet threatened that he would besiege Buda; that he

would subdue the adjacent countries of Germany and Italy, and

that he would feed his horse with a bushel of oats on the altar

of St. Peter at Rome. His progress was checked, not by the

miraculous interposition of the apostle, not by a crusade of the

Christian powers, but by a long and painful fit of the gout. The

disorders of the moral, are sometimes corrected by those of the

physical, world; and an acrimonious humor falling on a single

fibre of one man, may prevent or suspend the misery of nations.

[Footnote 56: The reign of Bajazet I., or Ilderim Bayazid, is

contained in Cantemir, (p. 46,) the iid book of Chalcondyles, and

the Annales Turcici. The surname of Ilderim, or lightning, is an

example, that the conquerors and poets of every age have felt the

truth of a system which derives the sublime from the principle of

terror.]

[Footnote 57: Cantemir, who celebrates the victories of the great

Stephen over the Turks, (p. 47,) had composed the ancient and

modern state of his principality of Moldavia, which has been long

promised, and is still unpublished.]

[Footnote 58: Leunclav. Annal. Turcici, p. 318, 319. The

venality of the cadhis has long been an object of scandal and

satire; and if we distrust the observations of our travellers, we

may consult the feeling of the Turks themselves, (D'Herbelot,

Bibliot. Orientale, p. 216, 217, 229, 230.)]

[Footnote 59: The fact, which is attested by the Arabic history

of Ben Schounah, a contemporary Syrian, (De Guignes Hist. des

Huns. tom. iv. p. 336.) destroys the testimony of Saad Effendi

and Cantemir, (p. 14, 15,) of the election of Othman to the

dignity of sultan.]

[Footnote 60: See the Decades Rerum Hungaricarum (Dec. iii. l.

ii. p. 379) of Bonfinius, an Italian, who, in the xvth century,

was invited into Hungary to compose an eloquent history of that

kingdom. Yet, if it be extant and accessible, I should give the

preference to some homely chronicle of the time and country.]

Such is the general idea of the Hungarian war; but the

disastrous adventure of the French has procured us some memorials

which illustrate the victory and character of Bajazet. ^61 The

duke of Burgundy, sovereign of Flanders, and uncle of Charles the

Sixth, yielded to the ardor of his son, John count of Nevers; and

the fearless youth was accompanied by four princes, his cousins,

and those of the French monarch. Their inexperience was guided

by the Sire de Coucy, one of the best and oldest captain of

Christendom; ^62 but the constable, admiral, and marshal of

France ^63 commanded an army which did not exceed the number of a

thousand knights and squires. ^* These splendid names were the

source of presumption and the bane of discipline. So many might

aspire to command, that none were willing to obey; their national

spirit despised both their enemies and their allies; and in the

persuasion that Bajazet would fly, or must fall, they began to

compute how soon they should visit Constantinople and deliver the

holy sepulchre. When their scouts announced the approach of the

Turks, the gay and thoughtless youths were at table, already

heated with wine; they instantly clasped their armor, mounted

their horses, rode full speed to the vanguard, and resented as an

affront the advice of Sigismond, which would have deprived them

of the right and honor of the foremost attack. The battle of

Nicopolis would not have been lost, if the French would have

obeyed the prudence of the Hungarians; but it might have been

gloriously won, had the Hungarians imitated the valor of the

French. They dispersed the first line, consisting of the troops

of Asia; forced a rampart of stakes, which had been planted

against the cavalry; broke, after a bloody conflict, the

Janizaries themselves; and were at length overwhelmed by the

numerous squadrons that issued from the woods, and charged on all

sides this handful of intrepid warriors. In the speed and

secrecy of his march, in the order and evolutions of the battle,

his enemies felt and admired the military talents of Bajazet.

They accuse his cruelty in the use of victory. After reserving

the count of Nevers, and four-and-twenty lords, ^* whose birth

and riches were attested by his Latin interpreters, the remainder

of the French captives, who had survived the slaughter of the

day, were led before his throne; and, as they refused to abjure

their faith, were successively beheaded in his presence. The

sultan was exasperated by the loss of his bravest Janizaries; and

if it be true, that, on the eve of the engagement, the French had

massacred their Turkish prisoners, ^64 they might impute to

themselves the consequences of a just retaliation. ^! A knight,

whose life had been spared, was permitted to return to Paris,

that he might relate the deplorable tale, and solicit the ransom

of the noble captives. In the mean while, the count of Nevers,

with the princes and barons of France, were dragged along in the

marches of the Turkish camp, exposed as a grateful trophy to the

Moslems of Europe and Asia, and strictly confined at Boursa, as

often as Bajazet resided in his capital. The sultan was pressed

each day to expiate with their blood the blood of his martyrs;

but he had pronounced that they should live, and either for mercy

or destruction his word was irrevocable. He was assured of their

value and importance by the return of the messenger, and the

gifts and intercessions of the kings of France and of Cyprus.

Lusignan presented him with a gold saltcellar of curious

workmanship, and of the price of ten thousand ducats; and Charles

the Sixth despatched by the way of Hungary a cast of Norwegian

hawks, and six horse-loads of scarlet cloth, of fine linen of

Rheims, and of Arras tapestry, representing the battles of the

great Alexander. After much delay, the effect of distance rather

than of art, Bajazet agreed to accept a ransom of two hundred

thousand ducats for the count of Nevers and the surviving princes

and barons: the marshal Boucicault, a famous warrior, was of the

number of the fortunate; but the admiral of France had been slain

in battle; and the constable, with the Sire de Coucy, died in the

prison of Boursa. This heavy demand, which was doubled by

incidental costs, fell chiefly on the duke of Burgundy, or rather

on his Flemish subjects, who were bound by the feudal laws to

contribute for the knighthood and captivity of the eldest son of

their lord. For the faithful discharge of the debt, some

merchants of Genoa gave security to the amount of five times the

sum; a lesson to those warlike times, that commerce and credit

are the links of the society of nations. It had been stipulated

in the treaty, that the French captives should swear never to

bear arms against the person of their conqueror; but the

ungenerous restraint was abolished by Bajazet himself. "I

despise," said he to the heir of Burgundy, "thy oaths and thy

arms. Thou art young, and mayest be ambitious of effacing the

disgrace or misfortune of thy first chivalry. Assemble thy

powers, proclaim thy design, and be assured that Bajazet will

rejoice to meet thee a second time in a field of battle." Before

their departure, they were indulged in the freedom and

hospitality of the court of Boursa. The French princes admired

the magnificence of the Ottoman, whose hunting and hawking

equipage was composed of seven thousand huntsmen and seven

thousand falconers. ^65 In their presence, and at his command,

the belly of one of his chamberlains was cut open, on a complaint

against him for drinking the goat's milk of a poor woman. The

strangers were astonished by this act of justice; but it was the

justice of a sultan who disdains to balance the weight of

evidence, or to measure the degrees of guilt.

[Footnote 61: I should not complain of the labor of this work, if

my materials were always derived from such books as the chronicle

of honest Froissard, (vol. iv. c. 67, 72, 74, 79-83, 85, 87, 89,)

who read little, inquired much, and believed all. The original

Memoires of the Marechal de Boucicault (Partie i. c. 22-28) add

some facts, but they are dry and deficient, if compared with the

pleasant garrulity of Froissard.]

[Footnote 62: An accurate Memoir on the Life of Enguerrand VII.,

Sire de Coucy, has been given by the Baron de Zurlauben, (Hist.

de l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xxv.) His rank and

possessions were equally considerable in France and England; and,

in 1375, he led an army of adventurers into Switzerland, to

recover a large patrimony which he claimed in right of his

grandmother, the daughter of the emperor Albert I. of Austria,

(Sinner, Voyage dans la Suisse Occidentale, tom. i. p. 118-124.)]

[Footnote 63: That military office, so respectable at present,

was still more conspicuous when it was divided between two

persons, (Daniel, Hist. de la Milice Francoise, tom. ii. p. 5.)

One of these, the marshal of the crusade, was the famous

Boucicault, who afterwards defended Constantinople, governed

Genoa, invaded the coast of Asia, and died in the field of

Azincour.]

[Footnote *: Daru, Hist. de Venice, vol. ii. p. 104, makes the

whole French army amount to 10,000 men, of whom 1000 were

knights. The curious volume of Schiltberger, a German of Munich,

who was taken prisoner in the battle, (edit. Munich, 1813,) and

which V. Hammer receives as authentic, gives the whole number at

6000. See Schiltberger. Reise in dem Orient. and V. Hammer,

note, p. 610. - M.]

[Footnote *: According to Shiltberger there were only twelve

French lords granted to the prayer of the "duke of Burgundy," and

"Herr Stephan Synther, and Johann von Bodem." Schiltberger, p.

13. - M.]

[Footnote 64: For this odious fact, the Abbe de Vertot quotes the

Hist. Anonyme de St. Denys, l. xvi. c. 10, 11. (Ordre de Malthe,

tom. ii. p. 310.]

[Footnote !: See Schiltberger's very graphic account of the

massacre. He was led out to be slaughtered in cold blood with the

rest f the Christian prisoners, amounting to 10,000. He was

spared at the intercession of the son of Bajazet, with a few

others, on account of their extreme youth. No one under 20 years

of age was put to death. The "duke of Burgundy" was obliged to

be a spectator of this butchery which lasted from early in the

morning till four o'clock, P. M. It ceased only at the

supplication of the leaders of Bajazet's army. Schiltberger, p.

14. - M.]

[Footnote 65: Sherefeddin Ali (Hist. de Timour Bec, l. v. c. 13)

allows Bajazet a round number of 12,000 officers and servants of

the chase. A part of his spoils was afterwards displayed in a

hunting-match of Timour, l. hounds with satin housings; 2.

leopards with collars set with jewels; 3. Grecian greyhounds; and

4, dogs from Europe, as strong as African lions, (idem, l. vi. c.

15.) Bajazet was particularly fond of flying his hawks at cranes,

(Chalcondyles, l. ii. p. 85.)]

After his enfranchisement from an oppressive guardian, John

Palaeologus remained thirty-six years, the helpless, and, as it

should seem, the careless spectator of the public ruin. ^66 Love,

or rather lust, was his only vigorous passion; and in the

embraces of the wives and virgins of the city, the Turkish slave

forgot the dishonor of the emperor of the Romans Andronicus, his

eldest son, had formed, at Adrianople, an intimate and guilty

friendship with Sauzes, the son of Amurath; and the two youths

conspired against the authority and lives of their parents. The

presence of Amurath in Europe soon discovered and dissipated

their rash counsels; and, after depriving Sauzes of his sight,

the Ottoman threatened his vassal with the treatment of an

accomplice and an enemy, unless he inflicted a similar punishment

on his own son. Palaeologus trembled and obeyed; and a cruel

precaution involved in the same sentence the childhood and

innocence of John, the son of the criminal. But the operation was

so mildly, or so unskilfully, performed, that the one retained

the sight of an eye, and the other was afflicted only with the

infirmity of squinting. Thus excluded from the succession, the

two princes were confined in the tower of Anema; and the piety of

Manuel, the second son of the reigning monarch, was rewarded with

the gift of the Imperial crown. But at the end of two years, the

turbulence of the Latins and the levity of the Greeks, produced a

revolution; ^* and the two emperors were buried in the tower from

whence the two prisoners were exalted to the throne. Another

period of two years afforded Palaeologus and Manuel the means of

escape: it was contrived by the magic or subtlety of a monk, who

was alternately named the angel or the devil: they fled to

Scutari; their adherents armed in their cause; and the two

Byzantine factions displayed the ambition and animosity with

which Caesar and Pompey had disputed the empire of the world.

The Roman world was now contracted to a corner of Thrace, between

the Propontis and the Black Sea, about fifty miles in length and

thirty in breadth; a space of ground not more extensive than the

lesser principalities of Germany or Italy, if the remains of

Constantinople had not still represented the wealth and

populousness of a kingdom. To restore the public peace, it was

found necessary to divide this fragment of the empire; and while

Palaeologus and Manuel were left in possession of the capital,

almost all that lay without the walls was ceded to the blind

princes, who fixed their residence at Rhodosto and Selybria. In

the tranquil slumber of royalty, the passions of John Palaeologus

survived his reason and his strength: he deprived his favorite

and heir of a blooming princess of Trebizond; and while the

feeble emperor labored to consummate his nuptials, Manuel, with a

hundred of the noblest Greeks, was sent on a peremptory summons

to the Ottoman porte. They served with honor in the wars of

Bajazet; but a plan of fortifying Constantinople excited his

jealousy: he threatened their lives; the new works were instantly

demolished; and we shall bestow a praise, perhaps above the merit

of Palaeologus, if we impute this last humiliation as the cause

of his death.

[Footnote 66: For the reigns of John Palaeologus and his son

Manuel, from 1354 to 1402, see Ducas, c. 9 - 15, Phranza, l. i.

c. 16 - 21, and the ist and iid books of Chalcondyles, whose

proper subject is drowned in a sea of episode.]

[Footnote *: According to Von Hammer it was the power of Bajazet,

vol. i. p. 218.]

The earliest intelligence of that event was communicated to

Manuel, who escaped with speed and secrecy from the palace of

Boursa to the Byzantine throne. Bajazet affected a proud

indifference at the loss of this valuable pledge; and while he

pursued his conquests in Europe and Asia, he left the emperor to

struggle with his blind cousin John of Selybria, who, in eight

years of civil war, asserted his right of primogeniture. At

length, the ambition of the victorious sultan pointed to the

conquest of Constantinople; but he listened to the advice of his

vizier, who represented that such an enterprise might unite the

powers of Christendom in a second and more formidable crusade.

His epistle to the emperor was conceived in these words: "By the

divine clemency, our invincible cimeter has reduced to our

obedience almost all Asia, with many and large countries in

Europe, excepting only the city of Constantinople; for beyond the

walls thou hast nothing left. Resign that city; stipulate thy

reward; or tremble, for thyself and thy unhappy people, at the

consequences of a rash refusal." But his ambassadors were

instructed to soften their tone, and to propose a treaty, which

was subscribed with submission and gratitude. A truce of ten

years was purchased by an annual tribute of thirty thousand

crowns of gold; the Greeks deplored the public toleration of the

law of Mahomet, and Bajazet enjoyed the glory of establishing a

Turkish cadhi, and founding a royal mosque in the metropolis of

the Eastern church. ^67 Yet this truce was soon violated by the

restless sultan: in the cause of the prince of Selybria, the

lawful emperor, an army of Ottomans again threatened

Constantinople; and the distress of Manuel implored the

protection of the king of France. His plaintive embassy obtained

much pity and some relief; and the conduct of the succor was

intrusted to the marshal Boucicault, ^68 whose religious chivalry

was inflamed by the desire of revenging his captivity on the

infidels. He sailed with four ships of war, from Aiguesmortes to

the Hellespont; forced the passage, which was guarded by

seventeen Turkish galleys; landed at Constantinople a supply of

six hundred men-at-arms and sixteen hundred archers; and reviewed

them in the adjacent plain, without condescending to number or

array the multitude of Greeks. By his presence, the blockade was

raised both by sea and land; the flying squadrons of Bajazet were

driven to a more respectful distance; and several castles in

Europe and Asia were stormed by the emperor and the marshal, who

fought with equal valor by each other's side. But the Ottomans

soon returned with an increase of numbers; and the intrepid

Boucicault, after a year's struggle, resolved to evacuate a

country which could no longer afford either pay or provisions for

his soldiers. The marshal offered to conduct Manuel to the

French court, where he might solicit in person a supply of men

and money; and advised, in the mean while, that, to extinguish

all domestic discord, he should leave his blind competitor on the

throne. The proposal was embraced: the prince of Selybria was

introduced to the capital; and such was the public misery, that

the lot of the exile seemed more fortunate than that of the

sovereign. Instead of applauding the success of his vassal, the

Turkish sultan claimed the city as his own; and on the refusal of

the emperor John, Constantinople was more closely pressed by the

calamities of war and famine. Against such an enemy prayers and

resistance were alike unavailing; and the savage would have

devoured his prey, if, in the fatal moment, he had not been

overthrown by another savage stronger than himself. By the

victory of Timour or Tamerlane, the fall of Constantinople was

delayed about fifty years; and this important, though accidental,

service may justly introduce the life and character of the Mogul

conqueror.

[Footnote 67: Cantemir, p. 50 - 53. Of the Greeks, Ducas alone

(c. 13, 15) acknowledges the Turkish cadhi at Constantinople.

Yet even Ducas dissembles the mosque.]

[Footnote 68: Memoires du bon Messire Jean le Maingre, dit

Boucicault, Marechal de France, partie c. 30, 35.]

Chapter LXV: Elevation Of Timour Or Tamerlane, And His Death

Part I.

Elevation Of Timour Or Tamerlane To The Throne Of Samarcand.

- His Conquests In Persia, Georgia, Tartary Russia, India, Syria,

And Anatolia. - His Turkish War. - Defeat And Captivity Of

Bajazet. - Death Of Timour. - Civil War Of The Sons Of Bajazet. -

Restoration Of The Turkish Monarchy By Mahomet The First. - Siege

Of Constantinople By Amurath The Second.

The conquest and monarchy of the world was the first object

of the ambition of Timour. To live in the memory and esteem of

future ages was the second wish of his magnanimous spirit. All

the civil and military transactions of his reign were diligently

recorded in the journals of his secretaries: ^1 the authentic

narrative was revised by the persons best informed of each

particular transaction; and it is believed in the empire and

family of Timour, that the monarch himself composed the

commentaries ^2 of his life, and the institutions ^3 of his

government. ^4 But these cares were ineffectual for the

preservation of his fame, and these precious memorials in the

Mogul or Persian language were concealed from the world, or, at

least, from the knowledge of Europe. The nations which he

vanquished exercised a base and impotent revenge; and ignorance

has long repeated the tale of calumny, ^5 which had disfigured

the birth and character, the person, and even the name, of

Tamerlane. ^6 Yet his real merit would be enhanced, rather than

debased, by the elevation of a peasant to the throne of Asia; nor

can his lameness be a theme of reproach, unless he had the

weakness to blush at a natural, or perhaps an honorable,

infirmity. ^*

[Footnote 1: These journals were communicated to Sherefeddin, or

Cherefeddin Ali, a native of Yezd, who composed in the Persian

language a history of Timour Beg, which has been translated into

French by M. Petit de la Croix, (Paris, 1722, in 4 vols. 12 mo.,)

and has always been my faithful guide. His geography and

chronology are wonderfully accurate; and he may be trusted for

public facts, though he servilely praises the virtue and fortune

of the hero. Timour's attention to procure intelligence from his

own and foreign countries may be seen in the Institutions, p.

215, 217, 349, 351.]

[Footnote 2: These Commentaries are yet unknown in Europe: but

Mr. White gives some hope that they may be imported and

translated by his friend Major Davy, who had read in the East

this "minute and faithful narrative of an interesting and

eventful period."

Note: The manuscript of Major Davy has been translated by

Major Stewart, and published by the Oriental Translation

Committee of London. It contains the life of Timour, from his

birth to his forty-first year; but the last thirty years of

western war and conquest are wanting. Major Stewart intimates

that two manuscripts exist in this country containing the whole

work, but excuses himself, on account of his age, from

undertaking the laborious task of completing the translation. It

is to be hoped that the European public will be soon enabled to

judge of the value and authenticity of the Commentaries of the

Caesar of the East. Major Stewart's work commences with the Book

of Dreams and Omens - a wild, but characteristic, chronicle of

Visions and Sortes Koranicae. Strange that a life of Timour

should awaken a reminiscence of the diary of Archbishop Laud!

The early dawn and the gradual expression of his not less

splendid but more real visions of ambition are touched with the

simplicity of truth and nature. But we long to escape from the

petty feuds of the pastoral chieftain, to the triumphs and the

legislation of the conqueror of the world - M.]

[Footnote 3: I am ignorant whether the original institution, in

the Turki or Mogul language, be still extant. The Persic

version, with an English translation, and most valuable index,

was published (Oxford, 1783, in 4to.) by the joint labors of

Major Davy and Mr. White, the Arabic professor. This work has

been since translated from the Persic into French, (Paris, 1787,)

by M. Langles, a learned Orientalist, who has added the life of

Timour, and many curious notes.]

[Footnote 4: Shaw Allum, the present Mogul, reads, values, but

cannot imitate, the institutions of his great ancestor. The

English translator relies on their internal evidence; but if any

suspicions should arise of fraud and fiction, they will not be

dispelled by Major Davy's letter. The Orientals have never

cultivated the art of criticism; the patronage of a prince, less

honorable, perhaps, is not less lucrative than that of a

bookseller; nor can it be deemed incredible that a Persian, the

real author, should renounce the credit, to raise the value and

price, of the work.]

[Footnote 5: The original of the tale is found in the following

work, which is much esteemed for its florid elegance of style:

Ahmedis Arabsiadae (Ahmed Ebn Arabshah) Vitae et Rerum gestarum

Timuri. Arabice et Latine. Edidit Samuel Henricus Manger.

Franequerae, 1767, 2 tom. in 4to. This Syrian author is ever a

malicious, and often an ignorant enemy: the very titles of his

chapters are injurious; as how the wicked, as how the impious, as

how the viper, &c. The copious article of Timur, in Bibliotheque

Orientale, is of a mixed nature, as D'Herbelot indifferently

draws his materials (p. 877 - 888) from Khondemir Ebn Schounah,

and the Lebtarikh.]

[Footnote 6: Demir or Timour signifies in the Turkish language,

Iron; and it is the appellation of a lord or prince. By the

change of a letter or accent, it is changed into Lenc, or Lame;

and a European corruption confounds the two words in the name of

Tamerlane.

Note: According to the memoirs he was so called by a Shaikh,

who, when visited by his mother on his birth, was reading the

verse of the Koran, 'Are you sure that he who dwelleth in heaven

will not cause the earth to swallow you up, and behold it shall

shake, Tamurn." The Shaikh then stopped and said, "We have named

your son Timur," p. 21. - M.]

[Footnote *: He was lamed by a wound at the siege of the capital

of Sistan. Sherefeddin, lib. iii. c. 17. p. 136. See Von Hammer,

vol. i. p. 260. - M.]

In the eyes of the Moguls, who held the indefeasible

succession of the house of Zingis, he was doubtless a rebel

subject; yet he sprang from the noble tribe of Berlass: his fifth

ancestor, Carashar Nevian, had been the vizier ^! of Zagatai, in

his new realm of Transoxiana; and in the ascent of some

generations, the branch of Timour is confounded, at least by the

females, ^7 with the Imperial stem. ^8 He was born forty miles to

the south of Samarcand in the village of Sebzar, in the fruitful

territory of Cash, of which his fathers were the hereditary

chiefs, as well as of a toman of ten thousand horse. ^9 His birth

^10 was cast on one of those periods of anarchy, which announce

the fall of the Asiatic dynasties, and open a new field to

adventurous ambition. The khans of Zagatai were extinct; the

emirs aspired to independence; and their domestic feuds could

only be suspended by the conquest and tyranny of the khans of

Kashgar, who, with an army of Getes or Calmucks, ^11 invaded the

Transoxian kingdom. From the twelfth year of his age, Timour had

entered the field of action; in the twenty-fifth ^!! he stood

forth as the deliverer of his country; and the eyes and wishes of

the people were turned towards a hero who suffered in their

cause. The chiefs of the law and of the army had pledged their

salvation to support him with their lives and fortunes; but in

the hour of danger they were silent and afraid; and, after

waiting seven days on the hills of Samarcand, he retreated to the

desert with only sixty horsemen. The fugitives were overtaken by

a thousand Getes, whom he repulsed with incredible slaughter, and

his enemies were forced to exclaim, "Timour is a wonderful man:

fortune and the divine favor are with him." But in this bloody

action his own followers were reduced to ten, a number which was

soon diminished by the desertion of three Carizmians. ^!!! He

wandered in the desert with his wife, seven companions, and four

horses; and sixty-two days was he plunged in a loathsome dungeon,

from whence he escaped by his own courage and the remorse of the

oppressor. After swimming the broad and rapid steam of the

Jihoon, or Oxus, he led, during some months, the life of a

vagrant and outlaw, on the borders of the adjacent states. But

his fame shone brighter in adversity; he learned to distinguish

the friends of his person, the associates of his fortune, and to

apply the various characters of men for their advantage, and,

above all, for his own. On his return to his native country,

Timour was successively joined by the parties of his

confederates, who anxiously sought him in the desert; nor can I

refuse to describe, in his pathetic simplicity, one of their

fortunate encounters. He presented himself as a guide to three

chiefs, who were at the head of seventy horse. "When their eyes

fell upon me," says Timour, "they were overwhelmed with joy; and

they alighted from their horses; and they came and kneeled; and

they kissed my stirrup. I also came down from my horse, and took

each of them in my arms. And I put my turban on the head of the

first chief; and my girdle, rich in jewels and wrought with gold,

I bound on the loins of the second; and the third I clothed in my

own coat. And they wept, and I wept also; and the hour of prayer

was arrived, and we prayed. And we mounted our horses, and came

to my dwelling; and I collected my people, and made a feast." His

trusty bands were soon increased by the bravest of the tribes; he

led them against a superior foe; and, after some vicissitudes of

war the Getes were finally driven from the kingdom of

Transoxiana. He had done much for his own glory; but much

remained to be done, much art to be exerted, and some blood to be

spilt, before he could teach his equals to obey him as their

master. The birth and power of emir Houssein compelled him to

accept a vicious and unworthy colleague, whose sister was the

best beloved of his wives. Their union was short and jealous;

but the policy of Timour, in their frequent quarrels, exposed his

rival to the reproach of injustice and perfidy; and, after a

final defeat, Houssein was slain by some sagacious friends, who

presumed, for the last time, to disobey the commands of their

lord. ^* At the age of thirty-four, ^12 and in a general diet or

couroultai, he was invested with Imperial command, but he

affected to revere the house of Zingis; and while the emir Timour

reigned over Zagatai and the East, a nominal khan served as a

private officer in the armies of his servant. A fertile kingdom,

five hundred miles in length and in breadth, might have satisfied

the ambition of a subject; but Timour aspired to the dominion of

the world; and before his death, the crown of Zagatai was one of

the twenty- seven crowns which he had placed on his head.

Without expatiating on the victories of thirty-five campaigns;

without describing the lines of march, which he repeatedly traced

over the continent of Asia; I shall briefly represent his

conquests in, I. Persia, II. Tartary, and, III. India, ^13 and

from thence proceed to the more interesting narrative of his

Ottoman war.

[Footnote !: In the memoirs, the title Gurgan is in one place (p.

23) interpreted the son-in-law; in another (p. 28) as Kurkan,

great prince, generalissimo, and prime minister of Jagtai. - M.]

[Footnote 7: After relating some false and foolish tales of

Timour Lenc, Arabshah is compelled to speak truth, and to own him

for a kinsman of Zingis, per mulieres, (as he peevishly adds,)

laqueos Satanae, (pars i. c. i. p. 25.) The testimony of

Abulghazi Khan (P. ii. c. 5, P. v. c. 4) is clear,

unquestionable, and decisive.]

[Footnote 8: According to one of the pedigrees, the fourth

ancestor of Zingis, and the ninth of timour, were brothers; and

they agreed, that the posterity of the elder should succeed to

the dignity of khan, and that the descendants of the younger

should fill the office of their minister and general. This

tradition was at least convenient to justify the first steps of

Timour's ambition, (Institutions, p. 24, 25, from the MS.

fragments of Timour's History.)]

[Footnote 9: See the preface of Sherefeddin, and Abulfeda's

Geography, (Chorasmiae, &c., Descriptio, p. 60, 61,) in the iiid

volume of Hudson's Minor Greek Geographers.]

[Footnote 10: See his nativity in Dr. Hyde, (Syntagma Dissertat.

tom. ii. p. 466,) as it was cast by the astrologers of his

grandson Ulugh Beg. He was born, A.D. 1336, April 9, 11 degrees

57 minutes. P. M., lat. 36. I know not whether they can prove

the great conjunction of the planets from whence, like other

conquerors and prophets, Timour derived the surname of Saheb

Keran, or master of the conjunctions, (Bibliot. Orient. p. 878.)]

[Footnote 11: In the Institutions of Timour, these subjects of

the khan of Kashgar are most improperly styled Ouzbegs, or

Usbeks, a name which belongs to another branch and country of

Tartars, (Abulghazi, P. v. c. v. P. vii. c. 5.) Could I be sure

that this word is in the Turkish original, I would boldly

pronounce, that the Institutions were framed a century after the

death of Timour, since the establishment of the Usbeks in

Transoxiana.

Note: Col. Stewart observes, that the Persian translator has

sometimes made use of the name Uzbek by anticipation. He

observes, likewise, that these Jits (Getes) are not to be

confounded with the ancient Getae: they were unconverted Turks.

Col. Tod (History of Rajasthan, vol. i. p. 166) would identify

the Jits with the ancient race. - M.]

[Footnote !!: He was twenty-seven before he served his first wars

under the emir Houssein, who ruled over Khorasan and

Mawerainnehr. Von Hammer, vol. i. p. 262. Neither of these

statements agrees with the Memoirs. At twelve he was a boy. "I

fancied that I perceived in myself all the signs of greatness and

wisdom, and whoever came to visit me, I received with great

hauteur and dignity." At seventeen he undertook the management of

the flocks and herds of the family, (p. 24.) At nineteen he

became religious, and "left off playing chess," made a kind of

Budhist vow never to injure living thing and felt his foot

paralyzed from having accidentally trod upon an ant, (p. 30.) At

twenty, thoughts of rebellion and greatness rose in his mind; at

twenty-one, he seems to have performed his first feat of arms.

He was a practised warrior when he served, in his twenty-seventh

year, under Emir Houssein.]

[Footnote !!!: Compare Memoirs, page 61. The imprisonment is

there stated at fifty-three days. "At this time I made a vow to

God that I would never keep any person, whether guilty or

innocent, for any length of time, in prison or in chains." p. 63.

- M.]

[Footnote *: Timour, on one occasion, sent him this message: "He

who wishes to embrace the bride of royalty must kiss her across

the edge of the sharp sword," p. 83. The scene of the trial of

Houssein, the resistance of Timour gradually becoming more

feeble, the vengeance of the chiefs becoming proportionably more

determined, is strikingly portrayed. Mem. p 130 - M.]

[Footnote 12: The ist book of Sherefeddin is employed on the

private life of the hero: and he himself, or his secretary,

(Institutions, p. 3 - 77,) enlarges with pleasure on the thirteen

designs and enterprises which most truly constitute his personal

merit. It even shines through the dark coloring of Arabshah, (P.

i. c. 1 - 12.)]

[Footnote 13: The conquests of Persia, Tartary, and India, are

represented in the iid and iiid books of Sherefeddin, and by

Arabshah, (c. 13 - 55.) Consult the excellent Indexes to the

Institutions.

Note: Compare the seventh book of Von Hammer, Geschichte des

Osman ischen Reiches. - M.]

I. For every war, a motive of safety or revenge, of honor

or zeal, of right or convenience, may be readily found in the

jurisprudence of conquerors. No sooner had Timour reunited to the

patrimony of Zagatai the dependent countries of Carizme and

Candahar, than he turned his eyes towards the kingdoms of Iran or

Persia. From the Oxus to the Tigris, that extensive country was

left without a lawful sovereign since the death of Abousaid, the

last of the descendants of the great Holacou. Peace and justice

had been banished from the land above forty years; and the Mogul

invader might seem to listen to the cries of an oppressed people.

Their petty tyrants might have opposed him with confederate arms:

they separately stood, and successively fell; and the difference

of their fate was only marked by the promptitude of submission or

the obstinacy of resistance. Ibrahim, prince of Shirwan, or

Albania, kissed the footstool of the Imperial throne. His

peace-offerings of silks, horses, and jewels, were composed,

according to the Tartar fashion, each article of nine pieces; but

a critical spectator observed, that there were only eight slaves.

"I myself am the ninth," replied Ibrahim, who was prepared for

the remark; and his flattery was rewarded by the smile of Timour.

^14 Shah Mansour, prince of Fars, or the proper Persia, was one

of the least powerful, but most dangerous, of his enemies. In a

battle under the walls of Shiraz, he broke, with three or four

thousand soldiers, the coul or main body of thirty thousand

horse, where the emperor fought in person. No more than fourteen

or fifteen guards remained near the standard of Timour: he stood

firm as a rock, and received on his helmet two weighty strokes of

a cimeter: ^15 the Moguls rallied; the head of Mansour was thrown

at his feet; and he declared his esteem of the valor of a foe, by

extirpating all the males of so intrepid a race. From Shiraz,

his troops advanced to the Persian Gulf; and the richness and

weakness of Ormuz ^16 were displayed in an annual tribute of six

hundred thousand dinars of gold. Bagdad was no longer the city

of peace, the seat of the caliphs; but the noblest conquest of

Holacou could not be overlooked by his ambitious successor. The

whole course of the Tigris and Euphrates, from the mouth to the

sources of those rivers, was reduced to his obedience: he entered

Edessa; and the Turkmans of the black sheep were chastised for

the sacrilegious pillage of a caravan of Mecca. In the mountains

of Georgia, the native Christians still braved the law and the

sword of Mahomet, by three expeditions he obtained the merit of

the gazie, or holy war; and the prince of Teflis became his

proselyte and friend.

[Footnote 14: The reverence of the Tartars for the mysterious

number of nine is declared by Abulghazi Khan, who, for that

reason, divides his Genealogical History into nine parts.]

[Footnote 15: According to Arabshah, (P. i. c. 28, p. 183,) the

coward Timour ran away to his tent, and hid himself from the

pursuit of Shah Mansour under the women's garments. Perhaps

Sherefeddin (l. iii. c. 25) has magnified his courage.]

[Footnote 16: The history of Ormuz is not unlike that of Tyre.

The old city, on the continent, was destroyed by the Tartars, and

renewed in a neighboring island, without fresh water or

vegetation. The kings of Ormuz, rich in the Indian trade and the

pearl fishery, possessed large territories both in Persia and

Arabia; but they were at first the tributaries of the sultans of

Kerman, and at last were delivered (A.D. 1505) by the Portuguese

tyrants from the tyranny of their own viziers, (Marco Polo, l. i.

c. 15, 16, fol. 7, 8. Abulfeda, Geograph. tabul. xi. p. 261, 262,

an original Chronicle of Ormuz, in Texeira, or Stevens's History

of Persia, p. 376 - 416, and the Itineraries inserted in the ist

volume of Ramusio, of Ludovico Barthema, (1503,) fol. 167, of

Andrea Corsali, (1517) fol. 202, 203, and of Odoardo Barbessa,

(in 1516,) fol 313 - 318.)]

II. A just retaliation might be urged for the invasion of

Turkestan, or the Eastern Tartary. The dignity of Timour could

not endure the impunity of the Getes: he passed the Sihoon,

subdued the kingdom of Kashgar, and marched seven times into the

heart of their country. His most distant camp was two months'

journey, or four hundred and eighty leagues to the north-east of

Samarcand; and his emirs, who traversed the River Irtish,

engraved in the forests of Siberia a rude memorial of their

exploits. The conquest of Kipzak, or the Western Tartary, ^17

was founded on the double motive of aiding the distressed, and

chastising the ungrateful. Toctamish, a fugitive prince, was

entertained and protected in his court: the ambassadors of Auruss

Khan were dismissed with a haughty denial, and followed on the

same day by the armies of Zagatai; and their success established

Toctamish in the Mogul empire of the North. But, after a reign

of ten years, the new khan forgot the merits and the strength of

his benefactor; the base usurper, as he deemed him, of the sacred

rights of the house of Zingis. Through the gates of Derbend, he

entered Persia at the head of ninety thousand horse: with the

innumerable forces of Kipzak, Bulgaria, Circassia, and Russia, he

passed the Sihoon, burnt the palaces of Timour, and compelled

him, amidst the winter snows, to contend for Samarcand and his

life. After a mild expostulation, and a glorious victory, the

emperor resolved on revenge; and by the east, and the west, of

the Caspian, and the Volga, he twice invaded Kipzak with such

mighty powers, that thirteen miles were measured from his right

to his left wing. In a march of five months, they rarely beheld

the footsteps of man; and their daily subsistence was often

trusted to the fortune of the chase. At length the armies

encountered each other; but the treachery of the standard-bearer,

who, in the heat of action, reversed the Imperial standard of

Kipzak, determined the victory of the Zagatais; and Toctamish (I

peak the language of the Institutions) gave the tribe of Toushi

to the wind of desolation. ^18 He fled to the Christian duke of

Lithuania; again returned to the banks of the Volga; and, after

fifteen battles with a domestic rival, at last perished in the

wilds of Siberia. The pursuit of a flying enemy carried Timour

into the tributary provinces of Russia: a duke of the reigning

family was made prisoner amidst the ruins of his capital; and

Yeletz, by the pride and ignorance of the Orientals, might easily

be confounded with the genuine metropolis of the nation. Moscow

trembled at the approach of the Tartar, and the resistance would

have been feeble, since the hopes of the Russians were placed in

a miraculous image of the Virgin, to whose protection they

ascribed the casual and voluntary retreat of the conqueror.

Ambition and prudence recalled him to the South, the desolate

country was exhausted, and the Mogul soldiers were enriched with

an immense spoil of precious furs, of linen of Antioch, ^19 and

of ingots of gold and silver. ^20 On the banks of the Don, or

Tanais, he received an humble deputation from the consuls and

merchants of Egypt, ^21 Venice, Genoa, Catalonia, and Biscay, who

occupied the commerce and city of Tana, or Azoph, at the mouth of

the river. They offered their gifts, admired his magnificence,

and trusted his royal word. But the peaceful visit of an emir,

who explored the state of the magazines and harbor, was speedily

followed by the destructive presence of the Tartars. The city was

reduced to ashes; the Moslems were pillaged and dismissed; but

all the Christians, who had not fled to their ships, were

condemned either to death or slavery. ^22 Revenge prompted him to

burn the cities of Serai and Astrachan, the monuments of rising

civilization; and his vanity proclaimed, that he had penetrated

to the region of perpetual daylight, a strange phenomenon, which

authorized his Mahometan doctors to dispense with the obligation

of evening prayer. ^23

[Footnote 17: Arabshah had travelled into Kipzak, and acquired a

singular knowledge of the geography, cities, and revolutions, of

that northern region, (P. i. c. 45 - 49.)]

[Footnote 18: Institutions of Timour, p. 123, 125. Mr. White,

the editor, bestows some animadversion on the superficial account

of Sherefeddin, (l. iii. c. 12, 13, 14,) who was ignorant of the

designs of Timour, and the true springs of action.]

[Footnote 19: The furs of Russia are more credible than the

ingots. But the linen of Antioch has never been famous: and

Antioch was in ruins. I suspect that it was some manufacture of

Europe, which the Hanse merchants had imported by the way of

Novogorod.]

[Footnote 20: M. Levesque (Hist. de Russie, tom. ii. p. 247. Vie

de Timour, p. 64 - 67, before the French version of the

Institutes) has corrected the error of Sherefeddin, and marked

the true limit of Timour's conquests. His arguments are

superfluous; and a simple appeal to the Russian annals is

sufficient to prove that Moscow, which six years before had been

taken by Toctamish, escaped the arms of a more formidable

invader.]

[Footnote 21: An Egyptian consul from Grand Cairo is mentioned in

Barbaro's voyage to Tana in 1436, after the city had been

rebuilt, (Ramusio, tom. ii. fol. 92.)]

[Footnote 22: The sack of Azoph is described by Sherefeddin, (l.

iii. c. 55,) and much more particularly by the author of an

Italian chronicle, (Andreas de Redusiis de Quero, in Chron.

Tarvisiano, in Muratori, Script. Rerum Italicarum, tom. xix. p.

802 - 805.) He had conversed with the Mianis, two Venetian

brothers, one of whom had been sent a deputy to the camp of

Timour, and the other had lost at Azoph three sons and 12,000

ducats.]

[Footnote 23: Sherefeddin only says (l. iii. c. 13) that the rays

of the setting, and those of the rising sun, were scarcely

separated by any interval; a problem which may be solved in the

latitude of Moscow, (the 56th degree,) with the aid of the Aurora

Borealis, and a long summer twilight. But a day of forty days

(Khondemir apud D'Herbelot, p. 880) would rigorously confine us

within the polar circle.]

III. When Timour first proposed to his princes and emirs

the invasion of India or Hindostan, ^24 he was answered by a

murmur of discontent: "The rivers! and the mountains and

deserts! and the soldiers clad in armor! and the elephants,

destroyers of men!" But the displeasure of the emperor was more

dreadful than all these terrors; and his superior reason was

convinced, that an enterprise of such tremendous aspect was safe

and easy in the execution. He was informed by his spies of the

weakness and anarchy of Hindostan: the soubahs of the provinces

had erected the standard of rebellion; and the perpetual infancy

of Sultan Mahmoud was despised even in the harem of Delhi. The

Mogul army moved in three great divisions; and Timour observes

with pleasure, that the ninety-two squadrons of a thousand horse

most fortunately corresponded with the ninety-two names or

epithets of the prophet Mahomet. ^* Between the Jihoon and the

Indus they crossed one of the ridges of mountains, which are

styled by the Arabian geographers The Stony Girdles of the Earth.

The highland robbers were subdued or extirpated; but great

numbers of men and horses perished in the snow; the emperor

himself was let down a precipice on a portable scaffold - the

ropes were one hundred and fifty cubits in length; and before he

could reach the bottom, this dangerous operation was five times

repeated. Timour crossed the Indus at the ordinary passage of

Attok; and successively traversed, in the footsteps of Alexander,

the Punjab, or five rivers, ^25 that fall into the master stream.

From Attok to Delhi, the high road measures no more than six

hundred miles; but the two conquerors deviated to the south-east;

and the motive of Timour was to join his grandson, who had

achieved by his command the conquest of Moultan. On the eastern

bank of the Hyphasis, on the edge of the desert, the Macedonian

hero halted and wept: the Mogul entered the desert, reduced the

fortress of Batmir, and stood in arms before the gates of Delhi,

a great and flourishing city, which had subsisted three centuries

under the dominion of the Mahometan kings. ^! The siege, more

especially of the castle, might have been a work of time; but he

tempted, by the appearance of weakness, the sultan Mahmoud and

his vizier to descend into the plain, with ten thousand

cuirassiers, forty thousand of his foot-guards, and one hundred

and twenty elephants, whose tusks are said to have been armed

with sharp and poisoned daggers. Against these monsters, or

rather against the imagination of his troops, he condescended to

use some extraordinary precautions of fire and a ditch, of iron

spikes and a rampart of bucklers; but the event taught the Moguls

to smile at their own fears; and as soon as these unwieldy

animals were routed, the inferior species (the men of India)

disappeared from the field. Timour made his triumphal entry into

the capital of Hindostan; and admired, with a view to imitate,

the architecture of the stately mosque; but the order or license

of a general pillage and massacre polluted the festival of his

victory. He resolved to purify his soldiers in the blood of the

idolaters, or Gentoos, who still surpass, in the proportion of

ten to one, the numbers of the Moslems. ^* In this pious design,

he advanced one hundred miles to the north-east of Delhi, passed

the Ganges, fought several battles by land and water, and

penetrated to the famous rock of Coupele, the statue of the cow,

^!! that seems to discharge the mighty river, whose source is far

distant among the mountains of Thibet. ^26 His return was along

the skirts of the northern hills; nor could this rapid campaign

of one year justify the strange foresight of his emirs, that

their children in a warm climate would degenerate into a race of

Hindoos.

[Footnote 24: For the Indian war, see the Institutions, (p. 129 -

139,) the fourth book of Sherefeddin, and the history of

Ferishta, (in Dow, vol. ii. p. 1 - 20,) which throws a general

light on the affairs of Hindostan.]

[Footnote *: Gibbon (observes M. von Hammer) is mistaken in the

correspondence of the ninety-two squadrons of his army with the

ninety-two names of God: the names of God are ninety-nine. and

Allah is the hundredth, p. 286, note. But Gibbon speaks of the

names or epithets of Mahomet, not of God. - M]

[Footnote 25: The rivers of the Punjab, the five eastern branches

of the Indus, have been laid down for the first time with truth

and accuracy in Major Rennel's incomparable map of Hindostan. In

this Critical Memoir he illustrates with judgment and learning

the marches of Alexander and Timour.

Note *: See vol. i. ch. ii. note 1. - M.]

[Footnote !: They took, on their march, 100,000 slaves, Guebers

they were all murdered. V. Hammer, vol. i. p. 286. They are

called idolaters. Briggs's Ferishta, vol. i. p. 491. - M]

[Footnote *: See a curious passage on the destruction of the

Hindoo idols, Memoirs, p. 15. - M.]

[Footnote !!: Consult the very striking description of the Cow's

Mouth by Captain Hodgson, Asiat. Res. vol. xiv. p. 117. "A most

wonderful scene. The B'hagiratha or Ganges issues from under a

very low arch at the foot of the grand snow bed. My guide, an

illiterate mountaineer compared the pendent icicles to Mahodeva's

hair." (Compare Poems, Quarterly Rev. vol. xiv. p. 37, and at the

end of my translation of Nala.) "Hindoos of research may formerly

have been here; and f so. I cannot think of any place to which

they might more aptly give the name of a cow's mouth than to this

extraordinary debouche - M.]

[Footnote 26: The two great rivers, the Ganges and Burrampooter,

rise in Thibet, from the opposite ridges of the same hills,

separate from each other to the distance of 1200 miles, and,

after a winding course of 2000 miles, again meet in one point

near the Gulf of Bengal. Yet so capricious is Fame, that the

Burrampooter is a late discovery, while his brother Ganges has

been the theme of ancient and modern story Coupele, the scene of

Timour's last victory, must be situate near Loldong, 1100 miles

from Calcutta; and in 1774, a British camp! (Rennel's Memoir, p.

7, 59, 90, 91, 99.)]

It was on the banks of the Ganges that Timour was informed,

by his speedy messengers, of the disturbances which had arisen on

the confines of Georgia and Anatolia, of the revolt of the

Christians, and the ambitious designs of the sultan Bajazet. His

vigor of mind and body was not impaired by sixty-three years, and

innumerable fatigues; and, after enjoying some tranquil months in

the palace of Samarcand, he proclaimed a new expedition of seven

years into the western countries of Asia. ^27 To the soldiers who

had served in the Indian war he granted the choice of remaining

at home, or following their prince; but the troops of all the

provinces and kingdoms of Persia were commanded to assemble at

Ispahan, and wait the arrival of the Imperial standard. It was

first directed against the Christians of Georgia, who were strong

only in their rocks, their castles, and the winter season; but

these obstacles were overcome by the zeal and perseverance of

Timour: the rebels submitted to the tribute or the Koran; and if

both religions boasted of their martyrs, that name is more justly

due to the Christian prisoners, who were offered the choice of

abjuration or death. On his descent from the hills, the emperor

gave audience to the first ambassadors of Bajazet, and opened the

hostile correspondence of complaints and menaces, which fermented

two years before the final explosion. Between two jealous and

haughty neighbors, the motives of quarrel will seldom be wanting.

The Mogul and Ottoman conquests now touched each other in the

neighborhood of Erzerum, and the Euphrates; nor had the doubtful

limit been ascertained by time and treaty. Each of these

ambitious monarchs might accuse his rival of violating his

territory, of threatening his vassals, and protecting his rebels;

and, by the name of rebels, each understood the fugitive princes,

whose kingdoms he had usurped, and whose life or liberty he

implacably pursued. The resemblance of character was still more

dangerous than the opposition of interest; and in their

victorious career, Timour was impatient of an equal, and Bajazet

was ignorant of a superior. The first epistle ^28 of the Mogul

emperor must have provoked, instead of reconciling, the Turkish

sultan, whose family and nation he affected to despise. ^29 "Dost

thou not know, that the greatest part of Asia is subject to our

arms and our laws? that our invincible forces extend from one

sea to the other? that the potentates of the earth form a line

before our gate? and that we have compelled Fortune herself to

watch over the prosperity of our empire. What is the foundation

of thy insolence and folly? Thou hast fought some battles in the

woods of Anatolia; contemptible trophies! Thou hast obtained

some victories over the Christians of Europe; thy sword was

blessed by the apostle of God; and thy obedience to the precept

of the Koran, in waging war against the infidels, is the sole

consideration that prevents us from destroying thy country, the

frontier and bulwark of the Moslem world. Be wise in time;

reflect; repent; and avert the thunder of our vengeance, which is

yet suspended over thy head. Thou art no more than a pismire; why

wilt thou seek to provoke the elephants? Alas! they will trample

thee under their feet." In his replies, Bajazet poured forth the

indignation of a soul which was deeply stung by such unusual

contempt. After retorting the basest reproaches on the thief and

rebel of the desert, the Ottoman recapitulates his boasted

victories in Iran, Touran, and the Indies; and labors to prove,

that Timour had never triumphed unless by his own perfidy and the

vices of his foes. "Thy armies are innumerable: be they so; but

what are the arrows of the flying Tartar against the cimeters and

battle-axes of my firm and invincible Janizaries? I will guard

the princes who have implored my protection: seek them in my

tents. The cities of Arzingan and Erzeroum are mine; and unless

the tribute be duly paid, I will demand the arrears under the

walls of Tauris and Sultania." The ungovernable rage of the

sultan at length betrayed him to an insult of a more domestic

kind. "If I fly from thy arms," said he, "may my wives be thrice

divorced from my bed: but if thou hast not courage to meet me in

the field, mayest thou again receive thy wives after they have

thrice endured the embraces of a stranger." ^30 Any violation by

word or deed of the secrecy of the harem is an unpardonable

offence among the Turkish nations; ^31 and the political quarrel

of the two monarchs was imbittered by private and personal

resentment. Yet in his first expedition, Timour was satisfied

with the siege and destruction of Siwas or Sebaste, a strong city

on the borders of Anatolia; and he revenged the indiscretion of

the Ottoman, on a garrison of four thousand Armenians, who were

buried alive for the brave and faithful discharge of their duty.

^! As a Mussulman, he seemed to respect the pious occupation of

Bajazet, who was still engaged in the blockade of Constantinople;

and after this salutary lesson, the Mogul conqueror checked his

pursuit, and turned aside to the invasion of Syria and Egypt. In

these transactions, the Ottoman prince, by the Orientals, and

even by Timour, is styled the Kaissar of Roum, the Caesar of the

Romans; a title which, by a small anticipation, might be given to

a monarch who possessed the provinces, and threatened the city,

of the successors of Constantine. ^32

[Footnote 27: See the Institutions, p. 141, to the end of the 1st

book, and Sherefeddin, (l. v. c. 1 - 16,) to the entrance of

Timour into Syria.]

[Footnote 28: We have three copies of these hostile epistles in

the Institutions, (p. 147,) in Sherefeddin, (l. v. c. 14,) and in

Arabshah, (tom. ii. c. 19 p. 183 - 201;) which agree with each

other in the spirit and substance rather than in the style. It

is probable, that they have been translated, with various

latitude, from the Turkish original into the Arabic and Persian

tongues.

Note: Von Hammer considers the letter which Gibbon inserted

in the text to be spurious. On the various copies of these

letters, see his note, p 11 - 16. - M.]

[Footnote 29: The Mogul emir distinguishes himself and his

countrymen by the name of Turks, and stigmatizes the race and

nation of Bajazet with the less honorable epithet of Turkmans.

Yet I do not understand how the Ottomans could be descended from

a Turkman sailor; those inland shepherds were so remote from the

sea, and all maritime affairs.

Note: Price translated the word pilot or boatman. - M.]

[Footnote 30: According to the Koran, (c. ii. p. 27, and Sale's

Discourses, p. 134,) Mussulman who had thrice divorced his wife,

(who had thrice repeated the words of a divorce,) could not take

her again, till after she had been married to, and repudiated by,

another husband; an ignominious transaction, which it is needless

to aggravate, by supposing that the first husband must see her

enjoyed by a second before his face, (Rycaut's State of the

Ottoman Empire, l. ii. c. 21.)]

[Footnote 31: The common delicacy of the Orientals, in never

speaking of their women, is ascribed in a much higher degree by

Arabshah to the Turkish nations; and it is remarkable enough,

that Chalcondyles (l. ii. p. 55) had some knowledge of the

prejudice and the insult.

Note: See Von Hammer, p. 308, and note, p. 621. - M.]

[Footnote !: Still worse barbarities were perpetrated on these

brave men. Von Hammer, vol. i. p. 295. - M.]

[Footnote 32: For the style of the Moguls, see the Institutions,

(p. 131, 147,) and for the Persians, the Bibliotheque Orientale,

(p. 882;) but I do not find that the title of Caesar has been

applied by the Arabians, or assumed by the Ottomans themselves.]

Chapter LXV: Elevation Of Timour Or Tamerlane, And His Death

Part II.

The military republic of the Mamalukes still reigned in

Egypt and Syria: but the dynasty of the Turks was overthrown by

that of the Circassians; ^33 and their favorite Barkok, from a

slave and a prisoner, was raised and restored to the throne. In

the midst of rebellion and discord, he braved the menaces,

corresponded with the enemies, and detained the ambassadors, of

the Mogul, who patiently expected his decease, to revenge the

crimes of the father on the feeble reign of his son Farage. The

Syrian emirs ^34 were assembled at Aleppo to repel the invasion:

they confided in the fame and discipline of the Mamalukes, in the

temper of their swords and lances of the purest steel of

Damascus, in the strength of their walled cities, and in the

populousness of sixty thousand villages; and instead of

sustaining a siege, they threw open their gates, and arrayed

their forces in the plain. But these forces were not cemented by

virtue and union; and some powerful emirs had been seduced to

desert or betray their more loyal companions. Timour's front was

covered with a line of Indian elephants, whose turrets were

filled with archers and Greek fire: the rapid evolutions of his

cavalry completed the dismay and disorder; the Syrian crowds fell

back on each other: many thousands were stifled or slaughtered in

the entrance of the great street; the Moguls entered with the

fugitives; and after a short defence, the citadel, the

impregnable citadel of Aleppo, was surrendered by cowardice or

treachery. Among the suppliants and captives, Timour

distinguished the doctors of the law, whom he invited to the

dangerous honor of a personal conference. ^35 The Mogul prince

was a zealous Mussulman; but his Persian schools had taught him

to revere the memory of Ali and Hosein; and he had imbibed a deep

prejudice against the Syrians, as the enemies of the son of the

daughter of the apostle of God. To these doctors he proposed a

captious question, which the casuists of Bochara, Samarcand, and

Herat, were incapable of resolving. "Who are the true martyrs,

of those who are slain on my side, or on that of my enemies?" But

he was silenced, or satisfied, by the dexterity of one of the

cadhis of Aleppo, who replied in the words of Mahomet himself,

that the motive, not the ensign, constitutes the martyr; and that

the Moslems of either party, who fight only for the glory of God,

may deserve that sacred appellation. The true succession of the

caliphs was a controversy of a still more delicate nature; and

the frankness of a doctor, too honest for his situation, provoked

the emperor to exclaim, "Ye are as false as those of Damascus:

Moawiyah was a usurper, Yezid a tyrant, and Ali alone is the

lawful successor of the prophet." A prudent explanation restored

his tranquillity; and he passed to a more familiar topic of

conversation. "What is your age?" said he to the cadhi. "Fifty

years." - "It would be the age of my eldest son: you see me here

(continued Timour) a poor lame, decrepit mortal. Yet by my arm

has the Almighty been pleased to subdue the kingdoms of Iran,

Touran, and the Indies. I am not a man of blood; and God is my

witness, that in all my wars I have never been the aggressor, and

that my enemies have always been the authors of their own

calamity." During this peaceful conversation the streets of

Aleppo streamed with blood, and reechoed with the cries of

mothers and children, with the shrieks of violated virgins. The

rich plunder that was abandoned to his soldiers might stimulate

their avarice; but their cruelty was enforced by the peremptory

command of producing an adequate number of heads, which,

according to his custom, were curiously piled in columns and

pyramids: the Moguls celebrated the feast of victory, while the

surviving Moslems passed the night in tears and in chains. I

shall not dwell on the march of the destroyer from Aleppo to

Damascus, where he was rudely encountered, and almost overthrown,

by the armies of Egypt. A retrograde motion was imputed to his

distress and despair: one of his nephews deserted to the enemy;

and Syria rejoiced in the tale of his defeat, when the sultan was

driven by the revolt of the Mamalukes to escape with

precipitation and shame to his palace of Cairo. Abandoned by

their prince, the inhabitants of Damascus still defended their

walls; and Timour consented to raise the siege, if they would

adorn his retreat with a gift or ransom; each article of nine

pieces. But no sooner had he introduced himself into the city,

under color of a truce, than he perfidiously violated the treaty;

imposed a contribution of ten millions of gold; and animated his

troops to chastise the posterity of those Syrians who had

executed, or approved, the murder of the grandson of Mahomet. A

family which had given honorable burial to the head of Hosein,

and a colony of artificers, whom he sent to labor at Samarcand,

were alone reserved in the general massacre, and after a period

of seven centuries, Damascus was reduced to ashes, because a

Tartar was moved by religious zeal to avenge the blood of an

Arab. The losses and fatigues of the campaign obliged Timour to

renounce the conquest of Palestine and Egypt; but in his return

to the Euphrates he delivered Aleppo to the flames; and justified

his pious motive by the pardon and reward of two thousand

sectaries of Ali, who were desirous to visit the tomb of his son.

I have expatiated on the personal anecdotes which mark the

character of the Mogul hero; but I shall briefly mention, ^36

that he erected on the ruins of Bagdad a pyramid of ninety

thousand heads; again visited Georgia; encamped on the banks of

Araxes; and proclaimed his resolution of marching against the

Ottoman emperor. Conscious of the importance of the war, he

collected his forces from every province: eight hundred thousand

men were enrolled on his military list; ^37 but the splendid

commands of five, and ten, thousand horse, may be rather

expressive of the rank and pension of the chiefs, than of the

genuine number of effective soldiers. ^38 In the pillage of

Syria, the Moguls had acquired immense riches: but the delivery

of their pay and arrears for seven years more firmly attached

them to the Imperial standard.

[Footnote 33: See the reigns of Barkok and Pharadge, in M. De

Guignes, (tom. iv. l. xxii.,) who, from the Arabic texts of

Aboulmahasen, Ebn (Schounah, and Aintabi, has added some facts to

our common stock of materials.]

[Footnote 34: For these recent and domestic transactions,

Arabshah, though a partial, is a credible, witness, (tom. i. c.

64 - 68, tom. ii. c. 1 - 14.) Timour must have been odious to a

Syrian; but the notoriety of facts would have obliged him, in

some measure, to respect his enemy and himself. His bitters may

correct the luscious sweets of Sherefeddin, (l. v. c. 17 - 29)]

[Footnote 35: These interesting conversations appear to have been

copied by Arabshah (tom. i. c. 68, p. 625 - 645) from the cadhi

and historian Ebn Schounah, a principal actor. Yet how could he

be alive seventy-five years afterwards? (D'Herbelot, p. 792.)]

[Footnote 36: The marches and occupations of Timour between the

Syrian and Ottoman wars are represented by Sherefeddin (l. v. c.

29 - 43) and Arabshah, (tom. ii. c. 15 - 18.)]

[Footnote 37: This number of 800,000 was extracted by Arabshah,

or rather by Ebn Schounah, ex rationario Timuri, on the faith of

a Carizmian officer, (tom. i. c. 68, p. 617;) and it is

remarkable enough, that a Greek historian (Phranza, l. i. c. 29)

adds no more than 20,000 men. Poggius reckons 1,000,000; another

Latin contemporary (Chron. Tarvisianum, apud Muratori, tom. xix.

p. 800) 1,100,000; and the enormous sum of 1,600,000 is attested

by a German soldier, who was present at the battle of Angora,

(Leunclay. ad Chalcondyl. l. iii. p. 82.) Timour, in his

Institutions, has not deigned to calculate his troops, his

subjects, or his revenues.]

[Footnote 38: A wide latitude of non-effectives was allowed by

the Great Mogul for his own pride and the benefit of his

officers. Bernier's patron was Penge-Hazari, commander of 5000

horse; of which he maintained no more than 500, (Voyages, tom. i.

p. 288, 289.)]

During this diversion of the Mogul arms, Bajazet had two

years to collect his forces for a more serious encounter. They

consisted of four hundred thousand horse and foot, ^39 whose

merit and fidelity were of an unequal complexion. We may

discriminate the Janizaries, who have been gradually raised to an

establishment of forty thousand men; a national cavalry, the

Spahis of modern times; twenty thousand cuirassiers of Europe,

clad in black and impenetrable armor; the troops of Anatolia,

whose princes had taken refuge in the camp of Timour, and a

colony of Tartars, whom he had driven from Kipzak, and to whom

Bajazet had assigned a settlement in the plains of Adrianople.

The fearless confidence of the sultan urged him to meet his

antagonist; and, as if he had chosen that spot for revenge, he

displayed his banner near the ruins of the unfortunate Suvas. In

the mean while, Timour moved from the Araxes through the

countries of Armenia and Anatolia: his boldness was secured by

the wisest precautions; his speed was guided by order and

discipline; and the woods, the mountains, and the rivers, were

diligently explored by the flying squadrons, who marked his road

and preceded his standard. Firm in his plan of fighting in the

heart of the Ottoman kingdom, he avoided their camp; dexterously

inclined to the left; occupied Caesarea; traversed the salt

desert and the River Halys; and invested Angora: while the

sultan, immovable and ignorant in his post, compared the Tartar

swiftness to the crawling of a snail; ^40 he returned on the

wings of indignation to the relief of Angora: and as both

generals were alike impatient for action, the plains round that

city were the scene of a memorable battle, which has immortalized

the glory of Timour and the shame of Bajazet. For this signal

victory the Mogul emperor was indebted to himself, to the genius

of the moment, and the discipline of thirty years. He had

improved the tactics, without violating the manners, of his

nation, ^41 whose force still consisted in the missile weapons,

and rapid evolutions, of a numerous cavalry. From a single troop

to a great army, the mode of attack was the same: a foremost line

first advanced to the charge, and was supported in a just order

by the squadrons of the great vanguard. The general's eye

watched over the field, and at his command the front and rear of

the right and left wings successively moved forwards in their

several divisions, and in a direct or oblique line: the enemy was

pressed by eighteen or twenty attacks; and each attack afforded a

chance of victory. If they all proved fruitless or unsuccessful,

the occasion was worthy of the emperor himself, who gave the

signal of advancing to the standard and main body, which he led

in person. ^42 But in the battle of Angora, the main body itself

was supported, on the flanks and in the rear, by the bravest

squadrons of the reserve, commanded by the sons and grandsons of

Timour. The conqueror of Hindostan ostentatiously showed a line

of elephants, the trophies, rather than the instruments, of

victory; the use of the Greek fire was familiar to the Moguls and

Ottomans; but had they borrowed from Europe the recent invention

of gunpowder and cannon, the artificial thunder, in the hands of

either nation, must have turned the fortune of the day. ^43 In

that day Bajazet displayed the qualities of a soldier and a

chief: but his genius sunk under a stronger ascendant; and, from

various motives, the greatest part of his troops failed him in

the decisive moment. His rigor and avarice ^* had provoked a

mutiny among the Turks; and even his son Soliman too hastily

withdrew from the field. The forces of Anatolia, loyal in their

revolt, were drawn away to the banners of their lawful princes.

His Tartar allies had been tempted by the letters and emissaries

of Timour; ^44 who reproached their ignoble servitude under the

slaves of their fathers; and offered to their hopes the dominion

of their new, or the liberty of their ancient, country. In the

right wing of Bajazet the cuirassiers of Europe charged, with

faithful hearts and irresistible arms: but these men of iron were

soon broken by an artful flight and headlong pursuit; and the

Janizaries, alone, without cavalry or missile weapons, were

encompassed by the circle of the Mogul hunters. Their valor was

at length oppressed by heat, thirst, and the weight of numbers;

and the unfortunate sultan, afflicted with the gout in his hands

and feet, was transported from the field on the fleetest of his

horses. He was pursued and taken by the titular khan of Zagatai;

and, after his capture, and the defeat of the Ottoman powers, the

kingdom of Anatolia submitted to the conqueror, who planted his

standard at Kiotahia, and dispersed on all sides the ministers of

rapine and destruction. Mirza Mehemmed Sultan, the eldest and

best beloved of his grandsons, was despatched to Boursa, with

thirty thousand horse; and such was his youthful ardor, that he

arrived with only four thousand at the gates of the capital,

after performing in five days a march of two hundred and thirty

miles. Yet fear is still more rapid in its course; and Soliman,

the son of Bajazet, had already passed over to Europe with the

royal treasure. The spoil, however, of the palace and city was

immense: the inhabitants had escaped; but the buildings, for the

most part of wood, were reduced to ashes From Boursa, the

grandson of Timour advanced to Nice, ever yet a fair and

flourishing city; and the Mogul squadrons were only stopped by

the waves of the Propontis. The same success attended the other

mirzas and emirs in their excursions; and Smyrna, defended by the

zeal and courage of the Rhodian knights, alone deserved the

presence of the emperor himself. After an obstinate defence, the

place was taken by storm: all that breathed was put to the sword;

and the heads of the Christian heroes were launched from the

engines, on board of two carracks, or great ships of Europe, that

rode at anchor in the harbor. The Moslems of Asia rejoiced in

their deliverance from a dangerous and domestic foe; and a

parallel was drawn between the two rivals, by observing that

Timour, in fourteen days, had reduced a fortress which had

sustained seven years the siege, or at least the blockade, of

Bajazet. ^45

[Footnote 39: Timour himself fixes at 400,000 men the Ottoman

army, (Institutions, p. 153,) which is reduced to 150,000 by

Phranza, (l. i. c. 29,) and swelled by the German soldier to

1,400,000. It is evident that the Moguls were the more

numerous.]

[Footnote 40: It may not be useless to mark the distances between

Angora and the neighboring cities, by the journeys of the

caravans, each of twenty or twenty-five miles; to Smyrna xx., to

Kiotahia x., to Boursa x., to Caesarea, viii., to Sinope x., to

Nicomed a ix., to Constantinople xii. or xiii., (see Tournefort,

Voyage au Levant, tom. ii. lettre xxi.)]

[Footnote 41: See the Systems of Tactics in the Institutions,

which the English editors have illustrated with elaborate plans,

(p. 373 - 407.)]

[Footnote 42: The sultan himself (says Timour) must then put the

foot of courage into the stirrup of patience. A Tartar metaphor,

which is lost in the English, but preserved in the French,

version of the Institutes, (p. 156, 157.)]

[Footnote 43: The Greek fire, on Timour's side, is attested by

Sherefeddin, (l. v. c. 47;) but Voltaire's strange suspicion,

that some cannon, inscribed with strange characters, must have

been sent by that monarch to Delhi, is refuted by the universal

silence of contemporaries.]

[Footnote *: See V. Hammer, vol. i. p. 310, for the singular

hints which were conveyed to him of the wisdom of unlocking his

hoarded treasures. - M.]

[Footnote 44: Timour has dissembled this secret and important

negotiation with the Tartars, which is indisputably proved by the

joint evidence of the Arabian, (tom. i. c. 47, p. 391,) Turkish,

(Annal. Leunclav. p. 321,) and Persian historians, (Khondemir,

apud d'Herbelot, p. 882.)]

[Footnote 45: For the war of Anatolia or Roum, I add some hints

in the Institutions, to the copious narratives of Sherefeddin (l.

v. c. 44 - 65) and Arabshah, (tom. ii. c. 20 - 35.) On this part

only of Timour's history it is lawful to quote the Turks,

(Cantemir, p. 53 - 55, Annal. Leunclav. p. 320 - 322,) and the

Greeks, (Phranza, l. i. c. 59, Ducas, c. 15 - 17, Chalcondyles,

l. iii.)]

The iron cage in which Bajazet was imprisoned by Tamerlane,

so long and so often repeated as a moral lesson, is now rejected

as a fable by the modern writers, who smile at the vulgar

credulity. ^46 They appeal with confidence to the Persian history

of Sherefeddin Ali, which has been given to our curiosity in a

French version, and from which I shall collect and abridge a more

specious narrative of this memorable transaction. No sooner was

Timour informed that the captive Ottoman was at the door of his

tent, than he graciously stepped forwards to receive him, seated

him by his side, and mingled with just reproaches a soothing pity

for his rank and misfortune. "Alas!" said the emperor, "the

decree of fate is now accomplished by your own fault; it is the

web which you have woven, the thorns of the tree which yourself

have planted. I wished to spare, and even to assist, the

champion of the Moslems; you braved our threats; you despised our

friendship; you forced us to enter your kingdom with our

invincible armies. Behold the event. Had you vanquished, I am

not ignorant of the fate which you reserved for myself and my

troops. But I disdain to retaliate: your life and honor are

secure; and I shall express my gratitude to God by my clemency to

man." The royal captive showed some signs of repentance, accepted

the humiliation of a robe of honor, and embraced with tears his

son Mousa, who, at his request, was sought and found among the

captives of the field. The Ottoman princes were lodged in a

splendid pavilion; and the respect of the guards could be

surpassed only by their vigilance. On the arrival of the harem

from Boursa, Timour restored the queen Despina and her daughter

to their father and husband; but he piously required, that the

Servian princess, who had hitherto been indulged in the

profession of Christianity, should embrace without delay the

religion of the prophet. In the feast of victory, to which

Bajazet was invited, the Mogul emperor placed a crown on his head

and a sceptre in his hand, with a solemn assurance of restoring

him with an increase of glory to the throne of his ancestors.

But the effect of his promise was disappointed by the sultan's

untimely death: amidst the care of the most skilful physicians,

he expired of an apoplexy at Akshehr, the Antioch of Pisidia,

about nine months after his defeat. The victor dropped a tear

over his grave: his body, with royal pomp, was conveyed to the

mausoleum which he had erected at Boursa; and his son Mousa,

after receiving a rich present of gold and jewels, of horses and

arms, was invested by a patent in red ink with the kingdom of

Anatolia.

[Footnote 46: The scepticism of Voltaire (Essai sur l'Histoire

Generale, c. 88) is ready on this, as on every occasion, to

reject a popular tale, and to diminish the magnitude of vice and

virtue; and on most occasions his incredulity is reasonable.]

Such is the portrait of a generous conqueror, which has been

extracted from his own memorials, and dedicated to his son and

grandson, nineteen years after his decease; ^47 and, at a time

when the truth was remembered by thousands, a manifest falsehood

would have implied a satire on his real conduct. Weighty indeed

is this evidence, adopted by all the Persian histories; ^48 yet

flattery, more especially in the East, is base and audacious; and

the harsh and ignominious treatment of Bajazet is attested by a

chain of witnesses, some of whom shall be produced in the order

of their time and country. 1. The reader has not forgot the

garrison of French, whom the marshal Boucicault left behind him

for the defence of Constantinople. They were on the spot to

receive the earliest and most faithful intelligence of the

overthrow of their great adversary; and it is more than probable,

that some of them accompanied the Greek embassy to the camp of

Tamerlane. From their account, the hardships of the prison and

death of Bajazet are affirmed by the marshal's servant and

historian, within the distance of seven years. ^49 2. The name of

Poggius the Italian ^50 is deservedly famous among the revivers

of learning in the fifteenth century. His elegant dialogue on

the vicissitudes of fortune ^51 was composed in his fiftieth

year, twenty-eight years after the Turkish victory of Tamerlane;

^52 whom he celebrates as not inferior to the illustrious

Barbarians of antiquity. Of his exploits and discipline Poggius

was informed by several ocular witnesses; nor does he forget an

example so apposite to his theme as the Ottoman monarch, whom the

Scythian confined like a wild beast in an iron cage, and

exhibited a spectacle to Asia. I might add the authority of two

Italian chronicles, perhaps of an earlier date, which would prove

at least that the same story, whether false or true, was imported

into Europe with the first tidings of the revolution. ^53 3. At

the time when Poggius flourished at Rome, Ahmed Ebn Arabshah

composed at Damascus the florid and malevolent history of Timour,

for which he had collected materials in his journeys over Turkey

and Tartary. ^54 Without any possible correspondence between the

Latin and the Arabian writer, they agree in the fact of the iron

cage; and their agreement is a striking proof of their common

veracity. Ahmed Arabshah likewise relates another outrage, which

Bajazet endured, of a more domestic and tender nature. His

indiscreet mention of women and divorces was deeply resented by

the jealous Tartar: in the feast of victory the wine was served

by female cupbearers, and the sultan beheld his own concubines

and wives confounded among the slaves, and exposed without a veil

to the eyes of intemperance. To escape a similar indignity, it

is said that his successors, except in a single instance, have

abstained from legitimate nuptials; and the Ottoman practice and

belief, at least in the sixteenth century, is asserted by the

observing Busbequius, ^55 ambassador from the court of Vienna to

the great Soliman. 4. Such is the separation of language, that

the testimony of a Greek is not less independent than that of a

Latin or an Arab. I suppress the names of Chalcondyles and

Ducas, who flourished in the latter period, and who speak in a

less positive tone; but more attention is due to George Phranza,

^56 protovestiare of the last emperors, and who was born a year

before the battle of Angora. Twenty-two years after that event,

he was sent ambassador to Amurath the Second; and the historian

might converse with some veteran Janizaries, who had been made

prisoners with the sultan, and had themselves seen him in his

iron cage. 5. The last evidence, in every sense, is that of the

Turkish annals, which have been consulted or transcribed by

Leunclavius, Pocock, and Cantemir. ^57 They unanimously deplore

the captivity of the iron cage; and some credit may be allowed to

national historians, who cannot stigmatize the Tartar without

uncovering the shame of their king and country.

[Footnote 47: See the History of Sherefeddin, (l. v. c. 49, 52,

53, 59, 60.) This work was finished at Shiraz, in the year 1424,

and dedicated to Sultan Ibrahim, the son of Sharokh, the son of

Timour, who reigned in Farsistan in his father's lifetime.]

[Footnote 48: After the perusal of Khondemir, Ebn Schounah, &c.,

the learned D'Herbelot (Bibliot. Orientale, p. 882) may affirm,

that this fable is not mentioned in the most authentic histories;

but his denial of the visible testimony of Arabshah leaves some

room to suspect his accuracy.]

[Footnote 49: Et fut lui-meme (Bajazet) pris, et mene en prison,

en laquelle mourut de dure mort! Memoires de Boucicault, P. i.

c. 37. These Memoirs were composed while the marshal was still

governor of Genoa, from whence he was expelled in the year 1409,

by a popular insurrection, (Muratori, Annali d'Italia, tom. xii.

p. 473, 474.)]

[Footnote 50: The reader will find a satisfactory account of the

life and writings of Poggius in the Poggiana, an entertaining

work of M. Lenfant, and in the Bibliotheca Latina Mediae et

Infimae Aetatis of Fabricius, (tom. v. p. 305 - 308.) Poggius was

born in the year 1380, and died in 1459.]

[Footnote 51: The dialogue de Varietate Fortunae, (of which a

complete and elegant edition has been published at Paris in 1723,

in 4to.,) was composed a short time before the death of Pope

Martin V., (p. 5,) and consequently about the end of the year

1430.]

[Footnote 52: See a splendid and eloquent encomium of Tamerlane,

p. 36 - 39 ipse enim novi (says Poggius) qui fuere in ejus

castris . . . . Regen vivum cepit, caveaque in modum ferae

inclusum per omnem Asian circumtulit egregium admirandumque

spectaculum fortunae.]

[Footnote 53: The Chronicon Tarvisianum, (in Muratori, Script.

Rerum Italicarum tom. xix. p. 800,) and the Annales Estenses,

(tom. xviii. p. 974.) The two authors, Andrea de Redusiis de

Quero, and James de Delayto, were both contemporaries, and both

chancellors, the one of Trevigi, the other of Ferrara. The

evidence of the former is the most positive.]

[Footnote 54: See Arabshah, tom. ii. c. 28, 34. He travelled in

regiones Romaeas, A. H. 839, (A.D. 1435, July 27,) tom. i. c. 2,

p. 13.]

[Footnote 55: Busbequius in Legatione Turcica, epist. i. p. 52.

Yet his respectable authority is somewhat shaken by the

subsequent marriages of Amurath II. with a Servian, and of

Mahomet II. with an Asiatic, princess, (Cantemir, p. 83, 93.)]

[Footnote 56: See the testimony of George Phranza, (l. i. c. 29,)

and his life in Hanckius (de Script. Byzant. P. i. c. 40.)

Chalcondyles and Ducas speak in general terms of Bajazet's

chains.]

[Footnote 57: Annales Leunclav. p. 321. Pocock, Prolegomen. ad

Abulpharag Dynast. Cantemir, p. 55.

Note: Von Hammer, p. 318, cites several authorities unknown

to Gibbon - M]

From these opposite premises, a fair and moderate conclusion

may be deduced. I am satisfied that Sherefeddin Ali has

faithfully described the first ostentatious interview, in which

the conqueror, whose spirits were harmonized by success, affected

the character of generosity. But his mind was insensibly

alienated by the unseasonable arrogance of Bajazet; the

complaints of his enemies, the Anatolian princes, were just and

vehement; and Timour betrayed a design of leading his royal

captive in triumph to Samarcand. An attempt to facilitate his

escape, by digging a mine under the tent, provoked the Mogul

emperor to impose a harsher restraint; and in his perpetual

marches, an iron cage on a wagon might be invented, not as a

wanton insult, but as a rigorous precaution. Timour had read in

some fabulous history a similar treatment of one of his

predecessors, a king of Persia; and Bajazet was condemned to

represent the person, and expiate the guilt, of the Roman Caesar

^58 ^* But the strength of his mind and body fainted under the

trial, and his premature death might, without injustice, be

ascribed to the severity of Timour. He warred not with the dead:

a tear and a sepulchre were all that he could bestow on a captive

who was delivered from his power; and if Mousa, the son of

Bajazet, was permitted to reign over the ruins of Boursa, the

greatest part of the province of Anatolia had been restored by

the conqueror to their lawful sovereigns.

[Footnote 58: Sapor, king of Persia, had been made prisoner, and

enclosed in the figure of a cow's hide by Maximian or Galerius

Caesar. Such is the fable related by Eutychius, (Annal. tom. i.

p. 421, vers. Pocock. The recollection of the true history

(Decline and Fall, &c., vol. ii. p 140 - 152) will teach us to

appreciate the knowledge of the Orientals of the ages which

precede the Hegira.]

[Footnote *: Von Hammer's explanation of this contested point is

both simple and satisfactory. It originates in a mistake in the

meaning of the Turkish word kafe, which means a covered litter or

palanquin drawn by two horses, and is generally used to convey

the harem of an Eastern monarch. In such a litter, with the

lattice-work made of iron, Bajazet either chose or was

constrained to travel. This was either mistaken for, or

transformed by, ignorant relaters into a cage. The European

Schiltberger, the two oldest of the Turkish historians, and the

most valuable of the later compilers, Seadeddin, describe this

litter. Seadeddin discusses the question with some degree of

historical criticism, and ascribes the choice of such a vehicle

to the indignant state of Bajazet's mind, which would not brook

the sight of his Tartar conquerors. Von Hammer, p. 320. - M.]

From the Irtish and Volga to the Persian Gulf, and from the

Ganges to Damascus and the Archipelago, Asia was in the hand of

Timour: his armies were invincible, his ambition was boundless,

and his zeal might aspire to conquer and convert the Christian

kingdoms of the West, which already trembled at his name. He

touched the utmost verge of the land; but an insuperable, though

narrow, sea rolled between the two continents of Europe and Asia;

^59 and the lord of so many tomans, or myriads, of horse, was not

master of a single galley. The two passages of the Bosphorus and

Hellespont, of Constantinople and Gallipoli, were possessed, the

one by the Christians, the other by the Turks. On this great

occasion, they forgot the difference of religion, to act with

union and firmness in the common cause: the double straits were

guarded with ships and fortifications; and they separately

withheld the transports which Timour demanded of either nation,

under the pretence of attacking their enemy. At the same time,

they soothed his pride with tributary gifts and suppliant

embassies, and prudently tempted him to retreat with the honors

of victory. Soliman, the son of Bajazet, implored his clemency

for his father and himself; accepted, by a red patent, the

investiture of the kingdom of Romania, which he already held by

the sword; and reiterated his ardent wish, of casting himself in

person at the feet of the king of the world. The Greek emperor

^60 (either John or Manuel) submitted to pay the same tribute

which he had stipulated with the Turkish sultan, and ratified the

treaty by an oath of allegiance, from which he could absolve his

conscience so soon as the Mogul arms had retired from Anatolia.

But the fears and fancy of nations ascribed to the ambitious

Tamerlane a new design of vast and romantic compass; a design of

subduing Egypt and Africa, marching from the Nile to the Atlantic

Ocean, entering Europe by the Straits of Gibraltar, and, after

imposing his yoke on the kingdoms of Christendom, of returning

home by the deserts of Russia and Tartary. This remote, and

perhaps imaginary, danger was averted by the submission of the

sultan of Egypt: the honors of the prayer and the coin attested

at Cairo the supremacy of Timour; and a rare gift of a giraffe,

or camelopard, and nine ostriches, represented at Samarcand the

tribute of the African world. Our imagination is not less

astonished by the portrait of a Mogul, who, in his camp before

Smyrna, meditates, and almost accomplishes, the invasion of the

Chinese empire. ^61 Timour was urged to this enterprise by

national honor and religious zeal. The torrents which he had

shed of Mussulman blood could be expiated only by an equal

destruction of the infidels; and as he now stood at the gates of

paradise, he might best secure his glorious entrance by

demolishing the idols of China, founding mosques in every city,

and establishing the profession of faith in one God, and his

prophet Mahomet. The recent expulsion of the house of Zingis was

an insult on the Mogul name; and the disorders of the empire

afforded the fairest opportunity for revenge. The illustrious

Hongvou, founder of the dynasty of Ming, died four years before

the battle of Angora; and his grandson, a weak and unfortunate

youth, was burnt in his palace, after a million of Chinese had

perished in the civil war. ^62 Before he evacuated Anatolia,

Timour despatched beyond the Sihoon a numerous army, or rather

colony, of his old and new subjects, to open the road, to subdue

the Pagan Calmucks and Mungals, and to found cities and magazines

in the desert; and, by the diligence of his lieutenant, he soon

received a perfect map and description of the unknown regions,

from the source of the Irtish to the wall of China. During these

preparations, the emperor achieved the final conquest of Georgia;

passed the winter on the banks of the Araxes; appeased the

troubles of Persia; and slowly returned to his capital, after a

campaign of four years and nine months.

[Footnote 59: Arabshah (tom. ii. c. 25) describes, like a curious

traveller, the Straits of Gallipoli and Constantinople. To

acquire a just idea of these events, I have compared the

narratives and prejudices of the Moguls, Turks, Greeks, and

Arabians. The Spanish ambassador mentions this hostile union of

the Christians and Ottomans, (Vie de Timour, p. 96.)]

[Footnote 60: Since the name of Caesar had been transferred to

the sultans of Roum, the Greek princes of Constantinople

(Sherefeddin, l. v. c. 54 were confounded with the Christian

lords of Gallipoli, Thessalonica, &c. under the title of Tekkur,

which is derived by corruption from the genitive, (Cantemir, p.

51.)]

[Footnote 61: See Sherefeddin, l. v. c. 4, who marks, in a just

itinerary, the road to China, which Arabshah (tom. ii. c. 33)

paints in vague and rhetorical colors.]

[Footnote 62: Synopsis Hist. Sinicae, p. 74 - 76, (in the ivth

part of the Relations de Thevenot,) Duhalde, Hist. de la Chine,

(tom. i. p. 507, 508, folio edition;) and for the Chronology of

the Chinese emperors, De Guignes, Hist. des Huns, (tom. i. p. 71,

72.)]

Chapter LXV: Elevation Of Timour Or Tamerlane, And His Death

Part III.

On the throne of Samarcand, ^63 he displayed, in a short

repose, his magnificence and power; listened to the complaints of

the people; distributed a just measure of rewards and

punishments; employed his riches in the architecture of palaces

and temples; and gave audience to the ambassadors of Egypt,

Arabia, India, Tartary, Russia, and Spain, the last of whom

presented a suit of tapestry which eclipsed the pencil of the

Oriental artists. The marriage of six of the emperor's grandsons

was esteemed an act of religion as well as of paternal

tenderness; and the pomp of the ancient caliphs was revived in

their nuptials. They were celebrated in the gardens of Canighul,

decorated with innumerable tents and pavilions, which displayed

the luxury of a great city and the spoils of a victorious camp.

Whole forests were cut down to supply fuel for the kitchens; the

plain was spread with pyramids of meat, and vases of every

liquor, to which thousands of guests were courteously invited:

the orders of the state, and the nations of the earth, were

marshalled at the royal banquet; nor were the ambassadors of

Europe (says the haughty Persian) excluded from the feast; since

even the casses, the smallest of fish, find their place in the

ocean. ^64 The public joy was testified by illuminations and

masquerades; the trades of Samarcand passed in review; and every

trade was emulous to execute some quaint device, some marvellous

pageant, with the materials of their peculiar art. After the

marriage contracts had been ratified by the cadhis, the

bride-grooms and their brides retired to the nuptial chambers:

nine times, according to the Asiatic fashion, they were dressed

and undressed; and at each change of apparel, pearls and rubies

were showered on their heads, and contemptuously abandoned to

their attendants. A general indulgence was proclaimed: every law

was relaxed, every pleasure was allowed; the people was free, the

sovereign was idle; and the historian of Timour may remark, that,

after devoting fifty years to the attainment of empire, the only

happy period of his life were the two months in which he ceased

to exercise his power. But he was soon awakened to the cares of

government and war. The standard was unfurled for the invasion

of China: the emirs made their report of two hundred thousand,

the select and veteran soldiers of Iran and Touran: their baggage

and provisions were transported by five hundred great wagons, and

an immense train of horses and camels; and the troops might

prepare for a long absence, since more than six months were

employed in the tranquil journey of a caravan from Samarcand to

Pekin. Neither age, nor the severity of the winter, could retard

the impatience of Timour; he mounted on horseback, passed the

Sihoon on the ice, marched seventy-six parasangs, three hundred

miles, from his capital, and pitched his last camp in the

neighborhood of Otrar, where he was expected by the angel of

death. Fatigue, and the indiscreet use of iced water,

accelerated the progress of his fever; and the conqueror of Asia

expired in the seventieth year of his age, thirty-five years

after he had ascended the throne of Zagatai. His designs were

lost; his armies were disbanded; China was saved; and fourteen

years after his decease, the most powerful of his children sent

an embassy of friendship and commerce to the court of Pekin. ^65

[Footnote 63: For the return, triumph, and death of Timour, see

Sherefeddin (l. vi. c. 1 - 30) and Arabshah, (tom. ii. c. 36 -

47.)]

[Footnote 64: Sherefeddin (l. vi. c. 24) mentions the ambassadors

of one of the most potent sovereigns of Europe. We know that it

was Henry III. king of Castile; and the curious relation of his

two embassies is still extant, (Mariana, Hist. Hispan. l. xix. c.

11, tom. ii. p. 329, 330. Avertissement a l'Hist. de Timur Bec,

p. 28 - 33.) There appears likewise to have been some

correspondence between the Mogul emperor and the court of Charles

VII. king of France, (Histoire de France, par Velly et Villaret,

tom. xii. p. 336.)]

[Footnote 65: See the translation of the Persian account of their

embassy, a curious and original piece, (in the ivth part of the

Relations de Thevenot.) They presented the emperor of China with

an old horse which Timour had formerly rode. It was in the year

1419 that they departed from the court of Herat, to which place

they returned in 1422 from Pekin.]

The fame of Timour has pervaded the East and West: his

posterity is still invested with the Imperial title; and the

admiration of his subjects, who revered him almost as a deity,

may be justified in some degree by the praise or confession of

his bitterest enemies. ^66 Although he was lame of a hand and

foot, his form and stature were not unworthy of his rank; and his

vigorous health, so essential to himself and to the world, was

corroborated by temperance and exercise. In his familiar

discourse he was grave and modest, and if he was ignorant of the

Arabic language, he spoke with fluency and elegance the Persian

and Turkish idioms. It was his delight to converse with the

learned on topics of history and science; and the amusement of

his leisure hours was the game of chess, which he improved or

corrupted with new refinements. ^67 In his religion he was a

zealous, though not perhaps an orthodox, Mussulman; ^68 but his

sound understanding may tempt us to believe, that a superstitious

reverence for omens and prophecies, for saints and astrologers,

was only affected as an instrument of policy. In the government

of a vast empire, he stood alone and absolute, without a rebel to

oppose his power, a favorite to seduce his affections, or a

minister to mislead his judgment. It was his firmest maxim, that

whatever might be the consequence, the word of the prince should

never be disputed or recalled; but his foes have maliciously

observed, that the commands of anger and destruction were more

strictly executed than those of beneficence and favor. His sons

and grandsons, of whom Timour left six-and-thirty at his decease,

were his first and most submissive subjects; and whenever they

deviated from their duty, they were corrected, according to the

laws of Zingis, with the bastinade, and afterwards restored to

honor and command. Perhaps his heart was not devoid of the

social virtues; perhaps he was not incapable of loving his

friends and pardoning his enemies; but the rules of morality are

founded on the public interest; and it may be sufficient to

applaud the wisdom of a monarch, for the liberality by which he

is not impoverished, and for the justice by which he is

strengthened and enriched. To maintain the harmony of authority

and obedience, to chastise the proud, to protect the weak, to

reward the deserving, to banish vice and idleness from his

dominions, to secure the traveller and merchant, to restrain the

depredations of the soldier, to cherish the labors of the

husbandman, to encourage industry and learning, and, by an equal

and moderate assessment, to increase the revenue, without

increasing the taxes, are indeed the duties of a prince; but, in

the discharge of these duties, he finds an ample and immediate

recompense. Timour might boast, that, at his accession to the

throne, Asia was the prey of anarchy and rapine, whilst under his

prosperous monarchy a child, fearless and unhurt, might carry a

purse of gold from the East to the West. Such was his confidence

of merit, that from this reformation he derived an excuse for his

victories, and a title to universal dominion. The four following

observations will serve to appreciate his claim to the public

gratitude; and perhaps we shall conclude, that the Mogul emperor

was rather the scourge than the benefactor of mankind. 1. If

some partial disorders, some local oppressions, were healed by

the sword of Timour, the remedy was far more pernicious than the

disease. By their rapine, cruelty, and discord, the petty

tyrants of Persia might afflict their subjects; but whole nations

were crushed under the footsteps of the reformer. The ground

which had been occupied by flourishing cities was often marked by

his abominable trophies, by columns, or pyramids, of human heads.

Astracan, Carizme, Delhi, Ispahan, Bagdad, Aleppo, Damascus,

Boursa, Smyrna, and a thousand others, were sacked, or burnt, or

utterly destroyed, in his presence, and by his troops: and

perhaps his conscience would have been startled, if a priest or

philosopher had dared to number the millions of victims whom he

had sacrificed to the establishment of peace and order. ^69 2.

His most destructive wars were rather inroads than conquests. He

invaded Turkestan, Kipzak, Russia, Hindostan, Syria, Anatolia,

Armenia, and Georgia, without a hope or a desire of preserving

those distant provinces. From thence he departed laden with

spoil; but he left behind him neither troops to awe the

contumacious, nor magistrates to protect the obedient, natives.

When he had broken the fabric of their ancient government, he

abandoned them to the evils which his invasion had aggravated or

caused; nor were these evils compensated by any present or

possible benefits. 3. The kingdoms of Transoxiana and Persia

were the proper field which he labored to cultivate and adorn, as

the perpetual inheritance of his family. But his peaceful labors

were often interrupted, and sometimes blasted, by the absence of

the conqueror. While he triumphed on the Volga or the Ganges,

his servants, and even his sons, forgot their master and their

duty. The public and private injuries were poorly redressed by

the tardy rigor of inquiry and punishment; and we must be content

to praise the Institutions of Timour, as the specious idea of a

perfect monarchy. 4. Whatsoever might be the blessings of his

administration, they evaporated with his life. To reign, rather

than to govern, was the ambition of his children and

grandchildren; ^70 the enemies of each other and of the people.

A fragment of the empire was upheld with some glory by Sharokh,

his youngest son; but after his decease, the scene was again

involved in darkness and blood; and before the end of a century,

Transoxiana and Persia were trampled by the Uzbeks from the

north, and the Turkmans of the black and white sheep. The race

of Timour would have been extinct, if a hero, his descendant in

the fifth degree, had not fled before the Uzbek arms to the

conquest of Hindostan. His successors (the great Moguls ^71)

extended their sway from the mountains of Cashmir to Cape

Comorin, and from Candahar to the Gulf of Bengal. Since the

reign of Aurungzebe, their empire had been dissolved; their

treasures of Delhi have been rifled by a Persian robber; and the

richest of their kingdoms is now possessed by a company of

Christian merchants, of a remote island in the Northern Ocean.

[Footnote 66: From Arabshah, tom. ii. c. 96. The bright or

softer colors are borrowed from Sherefeddin, D'Herbelot, and the

Institutions.]

[Footnote 67: His new system was multiplied from 32 pieces and 64

squares to 56 pieces and 110 or 130 squares; but, except in his

court, the old game has been thought sufficiently elaborate. The

Mogul emperor was rather pleased than hurt with the victory of a

subject: a chess player will feel the value of this encomium!]

[Footnote 68: See Sherefeddin, l. v. c. 15, 25. Arabshah tom.

ii. c. 96, p. 801, 803) approves the impiety of Timour and the

Moguls, who almost preferred to the Koran the Yacsa, or Law of

Zingis, (cui Deus male dicat;) nor will he believe that Sharokh

had abolished the use and authority of that Pagan code.]

[Footnote 69: Besides the bloody passages of this narrative, I

must refer to an anticipation in the third volume of the Decline

and Fall, which in a single note (p. 234, note 25) accumulates

nearly 300,000 heads of the monuments of his cruelty. Except in

Rowe's play on the fifth of November, I did not expect to hear of

Timour's amiable moderation (White's preface, p. 7.) Yet I can

excuse a generous enthusiasm in the reader, and still more in the

editor, of the Institutions.]

[Footnote 70: Consult the last chapters of Sherefeddin and

Arabshah, and M. De Guignes, (Hist. des Huns, tom. iv. l. xx.)

Fraser's History of Nadir Shah, (p. 1 - 62.) The story of

Timour's descendants is imperfectly told; and the second and

third parts of Sherefeddin are unknown.]

[Footnote 71: Shah Allum, the present Mogul, is in the fourteenth

degree from Timour, by Miran Shah, his third son. See the second

volume of Dow's History of Hindostan.]

Far different was the fate of the Ottoman monarchy. The

massy trunk was bent to the ground, but no sooner did the

hurricane pass away, than it again rose with fresh vigor and more

lively vegetation. When Timour, in every sense, had evacuated

Anatolia, he left the cities without a palace, a treasure, or a

king. The open country was overspread with hordes of shepherds

and robbers of Tartar or Turkman origin; the recent conquests of

Bajazet were restored to the emirs, one of whom, in base revenge,

demolished his sepulchre; and his five sons were eager, by civil

discord, to consume the remnant of their patrimony. I shall

enumerate their names in the order of their age and actions. ^72

1. It is doubtful, whether I relate the story of the true

Mustapha, or of an impostor who personated that lost prince. He

fought by his father's side in the battle of Angora: but when the

captive sultan was permitted to inquire for his children, Mousa

alone could be found; and the Turkish historians, the slaves of

the triumphant faction, are persuaded that his brother was

confounded among the slain. If Mustapha escaped from that

disastrous field, he was concealed twelve years from his friends

and enemies; till he emerged in Thessaly, and was hailed by a

numerous party, as the son and successor of Bajazet. His first

defeat would have been his last, had not the true, or false,

Mustapha been saved by the Greeks, and restored, after the

decease of his brother Mahomet, to liberty and empire. A

degenerate mind seemed to argue his spurious birth; and if, on

the throne of Adrianople, he was adored as the Ottoman sultan,

his flight, his fetters, and an ignominious gibbet, delivered the

impostor to popular contempt. A similar character and claim was

asserted by several rival pretenders: thirty persons are said to

have suffered under the name of Mustapha; and these frequent

executions may perhaps insinuate, that the Turkish court was not

perfectly secure of the death of the lawful prince. 2. After his

father's captivity, Isa ^73 reigned for some time in the

neighborhood of Angora, Sinope, and the Black Sea; and his

ambassadors were dismissed from the presence of Timour with fair

promises and honorable gifts. But their master was soon deprived

of his province and life, by a jealous brother, the sovereign of

Amasia; and the final event suggested a pious allusion, that the

law of Moses and Jesus, of Isa and Mousa, had been abrogated by

the greater Mahomet. 3. Soliman is not numbered in the list of

the Turkish emperors: yet he checked the victorious progress of

the Moguls; and after their departure, united for a while the

thrones of Adrianople and Boursa. In war he was brave, active,

and fortuntae; his courage was softened by clemency; but it was

likewise inflamed by presumption, and corrupted by intemperance

and idleness. He relaxed the nerves of discipline, in a

government where either the subject or the sovereign must

continually tremble: his vices alienated the chiefs of the army

and the law; and his daily drunkenness, so contemptible in a

prince and a man, was doubly odious in a disciple of the prophet.

In the slumber of intoxication he was surprised by his brother

Mousa; and as he fled from Adrianople towards the Byzantine

capital, Soliman was overtaken and slain in a bath, ^* after a

reign of seven years and ten months. 4. The investiture of Mousa

degraded him as the slave of the Moguls: his tributary kingdom of

Anatolia was confined within a narrow limit, nor could his broken

militia and empty treasury contend with the hardy and veteran

bands of the sovereign of Romania. Mousa fled in disguise from

the palace of Boursa; traversed the Propontis in an open boat;

wandered over the Walachian and Servian hills; and after some

vain attempts, ascended the throne of Adrianople, so recently

stained with the blood of Soliman. In a reign of three years and

a half, his troops were victorious against the Christians of

Hungary and the Morea; but Mousa was ruined by his timorous

disposition and unseasonable clemency. After resigning the

sovereignty of Anatolia, he fell a victim to the perfidy of his

ministers, and the superior ascendant of his brother Mahomet. 5.

The final victory of Mahomet was the just recompense of his

prudence and moderation. Before his father's captivity, the

royal youth had been intrusted with the government of Amasia,

thirty days' journey from Constantinople, and the Turkish

frontier against the Christians of Trebizond and Georgia. The

castle, in Asiatic warfare, was esteemed impregnable; and the

city of Amasia, ^74 which is equally divided by the River Iris,

rises on either side in the form of an amphitheatre, and

represents on a smaller scale the image of Bagdad. In his rapid

career, Timour appears to have overlooked this obscure and

contumacious angle of Anatolia; and Mahomet, without provoking

the conqueror, maintained his silent independence, and chased

from the province the last stragglers of the Tartar host. ^! He

relieved himself from the dangerous neighborhood of Isa; but in

the contests of their more powerful brethren his firm neutrality

was respected; till, after the triumph of Mousa, he stood forth

the heir and avenger of the unfortunate Soliman. Mahomet

obtained Anatolia by treaty, and Romania by arms; and the soldier

who presented him with the head of Mousa was rewarded as the

benefactor of his king and country. The eight years of his sole

and peaceful reign were usefully employed in banishing the vices

of civil discord, and restoring on a firmer basis the fabric of

the Ottoman monarchy. His last care was the choice of two

viziers, Bajazet and Ibrahim, ^75 who might guide the youth of

his son Amurath; and such was their union and prudence, that they

concealed above forty days the emperor's death, till the arrival

of his successor in the palace of Boursa. A new war was kindled

in Europe by the prince, or impostor, Mustapha; the first vizier

lost his army and his head; but the more fortunate Ibrahim, whose

name and family are still revered, extinguished the last

pretender to the throne of Bajazet, and closed the scene of

domestic hostility.

[Footnote 72: The civil wars, from the death of Bajazet to that

of Mustapha, are related, according to the Turks, by Demetrius

Cantemir, (p. 58 - 82.) Of the Greeks, Chalcondyles, (l. iv. and

v.,) Phranza, (l. i. c. 30 - 32,) and Ducas, (c. 18 - 27, the

last is the most copious and best informed.]

[Footnote 73: Arabshah, (tom. ii. c. 26,) whose testimony on this

occasion is weighty and valuable. The existence of Isa (unknown

to the Turks) is likewise confirmed by Sherefeddin, (l. v. c.

57.)]

[Footnote *: He escaped from the bath, and fled towards

Constantinople. Five mothers from a village, Dugundschi, whose

inhabitants had suffered severely from the exactions of his

officers, recognized and followed him. Soliman shot two of them,

the others discharged their arrows in their turn the sultan fell

and his head was cut off. V. Hammer, vol. i. p. 349. - M]

[Footnote 74: Arabshah, loc. citat. Abulfeda, Geograph. tab.

xvii. p. 302. Busbequius, epist. i. p. 96, 97, in Itinere C. P.

et Amasiano.]

[Footnote !: See his nine battles. V. Hammer, p. 339. - M.]

[Footnote 75: The virtues of Ibrahim are praised by a

contemporary Greek, (Ducas, c. 25.) His descendants are the sole

nobles in Turkey: they content themselves with the administration

of his pious foundations, are excused from public offices, and

receive two annual visits from the sultan, (Cantemir, p. 76.)]

In these conflicts, the wisest Turks, and indeed the body of

the nation, were strongly attached to the unity of the empire;

and Romania and Anatolia, so often torn asunder by private

ambition, were animated by a strong and invincible tendency of

cohesion. Their efforts might have instructed the Christian

powers; and had they occupied, with a confederate fleet, the

Straits of Gallipoli, the Ottomans, at least in Europe, must have

been speedily annihilated. But the schism of the West, and the

factions and wars of France and England, diverted the Latins from

this generous enterprise: they enjoyed the present respite,

without a thought of futurity; and were often tempted by a

momentary interest to serve the common enemy of their religion.

A colony of Genoese, ^76 which had been planted at Phocaea ^77 on

the Ionian coast, was enriched by the lucrative monopoly of alum;

^78 and their tranquillity, under the Turkish empire, was secured

by the annual payment of tribute. In the last civil war of the

Ottomans, the Genoese governor, Adorno, a bold and ambitious

youth, embraced the party of Amurath; and undertook, with seven

stout galleys, to transport him from Asia to Europe. The sultan

and five hundred guards embarked on board the admiral's ship;

which was manned by eight hundred of the bravest Franks. His

life and liberty were in their hands; nor can we, without

reluctance, applaud the fidelity of Adorno, who, in the midst of

the passage, knelt before him, and gratefully accepted a

discharge of his arrears of tribute. They landed in sight of

Mustapha and Gallipoli; two thousand Italians, armed with lances

and battle-axes, attended Amurath to the conquest of Adrianople;

and this venal service was soon repaid by the ruin of the

commerce and colony of Phocaea.

[Footnote 76: See Pachymer, (l. v. c. 29,) Nicephorus Gregoras,

(l. ii. c. 1,) Sherefeddin, (l. v. c. 57,) and Ducas, (c. 25.)

The last of these, a curious and careful observer, is entitled,

from his birth and station, to particular credit in all that

concerns Ionia and the islands. Among the nations that resorted

to New Phocaea, he mentions the English; an early evidence of

Mediterranean trade.]

[Footnote 77: For the spirit of navigation, and freedom of

ancient Phocaea, or rather the Phocaeans, consult the first book

of Herodotus, and the Geographical Index of his last and learned

French translator, M. Larcher (tom. vii. p. 299.)]

[Footnote 78: Phocaea is not enumerated by Pliny (Hist. Nat.

xxxv. 52) among the places productive of alum: he reckons Egypt

as the first, and for the second the Isle of Melos, whose alum

mines are described by Tournefort, (tom. i. lettre iv.,) a

traveller and a naturalist. After the loss of Phocaea, the

Genoese, in 1459, found that useful mineral in the Isle of

Ischia, (Ismael. Bouillaud, ad Ducam, c. 25.)]

If Timour had generously marched at the request, and to the

relief, of the Greek emperor, he might be entitled to the praise

and gratitude of the Christians. ^79 But a Mussulman, who carried

into Georgia the sword of persecution, and respected the holy

warfare of Bajazet, was not disposed to pity or succor the

idolaters of Europe. The Tartar followed the impulse of

ambition; and the deliverance of Constantinople was the

accidental consequence. When Manuel abdicated the government, it

was his prayer, rather than his hope, that the ruin of the church

and state might be delayed beyond his unhappy days; and after his

return from a western pilgrimage, he expected every hour the news

of the sad catastrophe. On a sudden, he was astonished and

rejoiced by the intelligence of the retreat, the overthrow, and

the captivity of the Ottoman. Manuel ^80 immediately sailed from

Modon in the Morea; ascended the throne of Constantinople, and

dismissed his blind competitor to an easy exile in the Isle of

Lesbos. The ambassadors of the son of Bajazet were soon

introduced to his presence; but their pride was fallen, their

tone was modest: they were awed by the just apprehension, lest

the Greeks should open to the Moguls the gates of Europe.

Soliman saluted the emperor by the name of father; solicited at

his hands the government or gift of Romania; and promised to

deserve his favor by inviolable friendship, and the restitution

of Thessalonica, with the most important places along the

Strymon, the Propontis, and the Black Sea. The alliance of

Soliman exposed the emperor to the enmity and revenge of Mousa:

the Turks appeared in arms before the gates of Constantinople;

but they were repulsed by sea and land; and unless the city was

guarded by some foreign mercenaries, the Greeks must have

wondered at their own triumph. But, instead of prolonging the

division of the Ottoman powers, the policy or passion of Manuel

was tempted to assist the most formidable of the sons of Bajazet.

He concluded a treaty with Mahomet, whose progress was checked by

the insuperable barrier of Gallipoli: the sultan and his troops

were transported over the Bosphorus; he was hospitably

entertained in the capital; and his successful sally was the

first step to the conquest of Romania. The ruin was suspended by

the prudence and moderation of the conqueror: he faithfully

discharged his own obligations and those of Soliman, respected

the laws of gratitude and peace; and left the emperor guardian of

his two younger sons, in the vain hope of saving them from the

jealous cruelty of their brother Amurath. But the execution of

his last testament would have offended the national honor and

religion; and the divan unanimously pronounced, that the royal

youths should never be abandoned to the custody and education of

a Christian dog. On this refusal, the Byzantine councils were

divided; but the age and caution of Manuel yielded to the

presumption of his son John; and they unsheathed a dangerous

weapon of revenge, by dismissing the true or false Mustapha, who

had long been detained as a captive and hostage, and for whose

maintenance they received an annual pension of three hundred

thousand aspers. ^81 At the door of his prison, Mustapha

subscribed to every proposal; and the keys of Gallipoli, or

rather of Europe, were stipulated as the price of his

deliverance. But no sooner was he seated on the throne of

Romania, than he dismissed the Greek ambassadors with a smile of

contempt, declaring, in a pious tone, that, at the day of

judgment, he would rather answer for the violation of an oath,

than for the surrender of a Mussulman city into the hands of the

infidels. The emperor was at once the enemy of the two rivals;

from whom he had sustained, and to whom he had offered, an

injury; and the victory of Amurath was followed, in the ensuing

spring, by the siege of Constantinople. ^82

[Footnote 79: The writer who has the most abused this fabulous

generosity, is our ingenious Sir William Temple, (his Works, vol.

iii. p. 349, 350, octavo edition,) that lover of exotic virtue.

After the conquest of Russia, &c., and the passage of the Danube,

his Tartar hero relieves, visits, admires, and refuses the city

of Constantine. His flattering pencil deviates in every line

from the truth of history; yet his pleasing fictions are more

excusable than the gross errors of Cantemir.]

[Footnote 80: For the reigns of Manuel and John, of Mahomet I.

and Amurath II., see the Othman history of Cantemir, (p. 70 -

95,) and the three Greeks, Chalcondyles, Phranza, and Ducas, who

is still superior to his rivals.]

[Footnote 81: The Turkish asper is, or was, a piece of white or

silver money, at present much debased, but which was formerly

equivalent to the 54th part, at least, of a Venetian ducat or

sequin; and the 300,000 aspers, a princely allowance or royal

tribute, may be computed at 2500l. sterling, (Leunclav. Pandect.

Turc. p. 406 - 408.)

Note: According to Von Hammer, this calculation is much too

low. The asper was a century before the time of which writes, the

tenth part of a ducat; for the same tribute which the Byzantine

writers state at 300,000 aspers the Ottomans state at 30,000

ducats, about 15000l Note, vol. p. 636. - M]

[Footnote 82: For the siege of Constantinople in 1422, see the

particular and contemporary narrative of John Cananus, published

by Leo Allatius, at the end of his edition of Acropolita, (p. 188

- 199.)]

The religious merit of subduing the city of the Caesars

attracted from Asia a crowd of volunteers, who aspired to the

crown of martyrdom: their military ardor was inflamed by the

promise of rich spoils and beautiful females; and the sultan's

ambition was consecrated by the presence and prediction of Seid

Bechar, a descendant of the prophet, ^83 who arrived in the camp,

on a mule, with a venerable train of five hundred disciples. But

he might blush, if a fanatic could blush, at the failure of his

assurances. The strength of the walls resisted an army of two

hundred thousand Turks; their assaults were repelled by the

sallies of the Greeks and their foreign mercenaries; the old

resources of defence were opposed to the new engines of attack;

and the enthusiasm of the dervis, who was snatched to heaven in

visionary converse with Mahomet, was answered by the credulity of

the Christians, who beheld the Virgin Mary, in a violet garment,

walking on the rampart and animating their courage. ^84 After a

siege of two months, Amurath was recalled to Boursa by a domestic

revolt, which had been kindled by Greek treachery, and was soon

extinguished by the death of a guiltless brother. While he led

his Janizaries to new conquests in Europe and Asia, the Byzantine

empire was indulged in a servile and precarious respite of thirty

years. Manuel sank into the grave; and John Palaeologus was

permitted to reign, for an annual tribute of three hundred

thousand aspers, and the dereliction of almost all that he held

beyond the suburbs of Constantinople.

[Footnote 83: Cantemir, p. 80. Cananus, who describes Seid

Bechar, without naming him, supposes that the friend of Mahomet

assumed in his amours the privilege of a prophet, and that the

fairest of the Greek nuns were promised to the saint and his

disciples.]

[Footnote 84: For this miraculous apparition, Cananus appeals to

the Mussulman saint; but who will bear testimony for Seid

Bechar?]

In the establishment and restoration of the Turkish empire,

the first merit must doubtless be assigned to the personal

qualities of the sultans; since, in human life, the most

important scenes will depend on the character of a single actor.

By some shades of wisdom and virtue, they may be discriminated

from each other; but, except in a single instance, a period of

nine reigns, and two hundred and sixty-five years, is occupied,

from the elevation of Othman to the death of Soliman, by a rare

series of warlike and active princes, who impressed their

subjects with obedience and their enemies with terror. Instead

of the slothful luxury of the seraglio, the heirs of royalty were

educated in the council and the field: from early youth they were

intrusted by their fathers with the command of provinces and

armies; and this manly institution, which was often productive of

civil war, must have essentially contributed to the discipline

and vigor of the monarchy. The Ottomans cannot style themselves,

like the Arabian caliphs, the descendants or successors of the

apostle of God; and the kindred which they claim with the Tartar

khans of the house of Zingis appears to be founded in flattery

rather than in truth. ^85 Their origin is obscure; but their

sacred and indefeasible right, which no time can erase, and no

violence can infringe, was soon and unalterably implanted in the

minds of their subjects. A weak or vicious sultan may be deposed

and strangled; but his inheritance devolves to an infant or an

idiot: nor has the most daring rebel presumed to ascend the

throne of his lawful sovereign. ^86

[Footnote 85: See Ricaut, (l. i. c. 13.) The Turkish sultans

assume the title of khan. Yet Abulghazi is ignorant of his

Ottoman cousins.]

[Footnote 86: The third grand vizier of the name of Kiuperli, who

was slain at the battle of Salankanen in 1691, (Cantemir, p.

382,) presumed to say that all the successors of Soliman had been

fools or tyrants, and that it was time to abolish the race,

(Marsigli Stato Militaire, &c., p. 28.) This political heretic

was a good Whig, and justified against the French ambassador the

revolution of England, (Mignot, Hist. des Ottomans, tom. iii. p.

434.) His presumption condemns the singular exception of

continuing offices in the same family.]

While the transient dynasties of Asia have been continually

subverted by a crafty vizier in the palace, or a victorious

general in the camp, the Ottoman succession has been confirmed by

the practice of five centuries, and is now incorporated with the

vital principle of the Turkish nation.

To the spirit and constitution of that nation, a strong and

singular influence may, however, be ascribed. The primitive

subjects of Othman were the four hundred families of wandering

Turkmans, who had followed his ancestors from the Oxus to the

Sangar; and the plains of Anatolia are still covered with the

white and black tents of their rustic brethren. But this

original drop was dissolved in the mass of voluntary and

vanquished subjects, who, under the name of Turks, are united by

the common ties of religion, language, and manners. In the

cities, from Erzeroum to Belgrade, that national appellation is

common to all the Moslems, the first and most honorable

inhabitants; but they have abandoned, at least in Romania, the

villages, and the cultivation of the land, to the Christian

peasants. In the vigorous age of the Ottoman government, the

Turks were themselves excluded from all civil and military

honors; and a servile class, an artificial people, was raised by

the discipline of education to obey, to conquer, and to command.

^87 From the time of Orchan and the first Amurath, the sultans

were persuaded that a government of the sword must be renewed in

each generation with new soldiers; and that such soldiers must be

sought, not in effeminate Asia, but among the hardy and warlike

natives of Europe. The provinces of Thrace, Macedonia, Albania,

Bulgaria, and Servia, became the perpetual seminary of the

Turkish army; and when the royal fifth of the captives was

diminished by conquest, an inhuman tax of the fifth child, or of

every fifth year, was rigorously levied on the Christian

families. At the age of twelve or fourteen years, the most

robust youths were torn from their parents; their names were

enrolled in a book; and from that moment they were clothed,

taught, and maintained, for the public service. According to the

promise of their appearance, they were selected for the royal

schools of Boursa, Pera, and Adrianople, intrusted to the care of

the bashaws, or dispersed in the houses of the Anatolian

peasantry. It was the first care of their masters to instruct

them in the Turkish language: their bodies were exercised by

every labor that could fortify their strength; they learned to

wrestle, to leap, to run, to shoot with the bow, and afterwards

with the musket; till they were drafted into the chambers and

companies of the Janizaries, and severely trained in the military

or monastic discipline of the order. The youths most conspicuous

for birth, talents, and beauty, were admitted into the inferior

class of Agiamoglans, or the more liberal rank of Ichoglans, of

whom the former were attached to the palace, and the latter to

the person, of the prince. In four successive schools, under the

rod of the white eunuchs, the arts of horsemanship and of darting

the javelin were their daily exercise, while those of a more

studious cast applied themselves to the study of the Koran, and

the knowledge of the Arabic and Persian tongues. As they

advanced in seniority and merit, they were gradually dismissed to

military, civil, and even ecclesiastical employments: the longer

their stay, the higher was their expectation; till, at a mature

period, they were admitted into the number of the forty agas, who

stood before the sultan, and were promoted by his choice to the

government of provinces and the first honors of the empire. ^88

Such a mode of institution was admirably adapted to the form and

spirit of a despotic monarchy. The ministers and generals were,

in the strictest sense, the slaves of the emperor, to whose

bounty they were indebted for their instruction and support.

When they left the seraglio, and suffered their beards to grow as

the symbol of enfranchisement, they found themselves in an

important office, without faction or friendship, without parents

and without heirs, dependent on the hand which had raised them

from the dust, and which, on the slightest displeasure, could

break in pieces these statues of glass, as they were aptly termed

by the Turkish proverb. ^89 In the slow and painful steps of

education, their characters and talents were unfolded to a

discerning eye: the man, naked and alone, was reduced to the

standard of his personal merit; and, if the sovereign had wisdom

to choose, he possessed a pure and boundless liberty of choice.

The Ottoman candidates were trained by the virtues of abstinence

to those of action; by the habits of submission to those of

command. A similar spirit was diffused among the troops; and

their silence and sobriety, their patience and modesty, have

extorted the reluctant praise of their Christian enemies. ^90 Nor

can the victory appear doubtful, if we compare the discipline and

exercise of the Janizaries with the pride of birth, the

independence of chivalry, the ignorance of the new levies, the

mutinous temper of the veterans, and the vices of intemperance

and disorder, which so long contaminated the armies of Europe.

[Footnote 87: Chalcondyles (l. v.) and Ducas (c. 23) exhibit the

rude lineament of the Ottoman policy, and the transmutation of

Christian children into Turkish soldiers.]

[Footnote 88: This sketch of the Turkish education and discipline

is chiefly borrowed from Ricaut's State of the Ottoman Empire,

the Stato Militaire del' Imperio Ottomano of Count Marsigli, (in

Hava, 1732, in folio,) and a description of the Seraglio,

approved by Mr. Greaves himself, a curious traveller, and

inserted in the second volume of his works.]

[Footnote 89: From the series of cxv. viziers, till the siege of

Vienna, (Marsigli, p. 13,) their place may be valued at three

years and a half purchase.]

[Footnote 90: See the entertaining and judicious letters of

Busbequius.]

The only hope of salvation for the Greek empire, and the

adjacent kingdoms, would have been some more powerful weapon,

some discovery in the art of war, that would give them a decisive

superiority over their Turkish foes. Such a weapon was in their

hands; such a discovery had been made in the critical moment of

their fate. The chemists of China or Europe had found, by casual

or elaborate experiments, that a mixture of saltpetre, sulphur,

and charcoal, produces, with a spark of fire, a tremendous

explosion. It was soon observed, that if the expansive force were

compressed in a strong tube, a ball of stone or iron might be

expelled with irresistible and destructive velocity. The precise

aera of the invention and application of gunpowder ^91 is

involved in doubtful traditions and equivocal language; yet we

may clearly discern, that it was known before the middle of the

fourteenth century; and that before the end of the same, the use

of artillery in battles and sieges, by sea and land, was familiar

to the states of Germany, Italy, Spain, France, and England. ^92

The priority of nations is of small account; none could derive

any exclusive benefit from their previous or superior knowledge;

and in the common improvement, they stood on the same level of

relative power and military science. Nor was it possible to

circumscribe the secret within the pale of the church; it was

disclosed to the Turks by the treachery of apostates and the

selfish policy of rivals; and the sultans had sense to adopt, and

wealth to reward, the talents of a Christian engineer. The

Genoese, who transported Amurath into Europe, must be accused as

his preceptors; and it was probably by their hands that his

cannon was cast and directed at the siege of Constantinople. ^93

The first attempt was indeed unsuccessful; but in the general

warfare of the age, the advantage was on their side, who were

most commonly the assailants: for a while the proportion of the

attack and defence was suspended; and this thundering artillery

was pointed against the walls and towers which had been erected

only to resist the less potent engines of antiquity. By the

Venetians, the use of gunpowder was communicated without reproach

to the sultans of Egypt and Persia, their allies against the

Ottoman power; the secret was soon propagated to the extremities

of Asia; and the advantage of the European was confined to his

easy victories over the savages of the new world. If we contrast

the rapid progress of this mischievous discovery with the slow

and laborious advances of reason, science, and the arts of peace,

a philosopher, according to his temper, will laugh or weep at the

folly of mankind.

[Footnote 91: The first and second volumes of Dr. Watson's

Chemical Essays contain two valuable discourses on the discovery

and composition of gunpowder.]

[Footnote 92: On this subject modern testimonies cannot be

trusted. The original passages are collected by Ducange, (Gloss.

Latin. tom. i. p. 675, Bombarda.) But in the early doubtful

twilight, the name, sound, fire, and effect, that seem to express

our artillery, may be fairly interpreted of the old engines and

the Greek fire. For the English cannon at Crecy, the authority

of John Villani (Chron. l. xii. c. 65) must be weighed against

the silence of Froissard. Yet Muratori (Antiquit. Italiae Medii

Aevi, tom. ii. Dissert. xxvi. p. 514, 515) has produced a

decisive passage from Petrarch, (De Remediis utriusque Fortunae

Dialog.,) who, before the year 1344, execrates this terrestrial

thunder, nuper rara, nunc communis.

Note: Mr. Hallam makes the following observation on the

objection thrown our by Gibbon: "The positive testimony of

Villani, who died within two years afterwards, and had manifestly

obtained much information as to the great events passing in

France, cannot be rejected. He ascribes a material effect to the

cannon of Edward, Colpi delle bombarde, which I suspect, from his

strong expressions, had not been employed before, except against

stone walls. It seems, he says, as if God thundered con grande

uccisione di genti e efondamento di cavalli." Middle Ages, vol.

i. p. 510. - M.]

[Footnote 93: The Turkish cannon, which Ducas (c. 30) first

introduces before Belgrade, (A.D. 1436,) is mentioned by

Chalcondyles (l. v. p. 123) in 1422, at the siege of

Constantinople.]

Chapter LXVI: Union Of The Greek And Latin Churches.

Part I.

Applications Of The Eastern Emperors To The Popes. - Visits

To The West, Of John The First, Manuel, And John The Second,

Palaeologus. - Union Of The Greek And Latin Churches, Promoted By

The Council Of Basil, And Concluded At Ferrara And Florence. -

State Of Literature At Constantinople. - Its Revival In Italy By

The Greek Fugitives. - Curiosity And Emulation Of The Latins.

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.

[Footnote 1: This curious instruction was transcribed (I believe)

from the Vatican archives, by Odoricus Raynaldus, in his

Continuation of the Annals of Baronius, (Romae, 1646 - 1677, in

x. volumes in folio.) I have contented myself with the Abbe

Fleury, (Hist. Ecclesiastique. tom. xx. p. 1 - 8,) whose

abstracts I have always found to be clear, accurate, and

impartial.]

[Footnote 2: The ambiguity of this title is happy or ingenious;

and moderator, as synonymous to rector, gubernator, is a word of

classical, and even Ciceronian, Latinity, which may be found, not

in the Glossary of Ducange, but in the Thesaurus of Robert

Stephens.]

[Footnote 3: The first epistle (sine titulo) of Petrarch exposes

the danger of the bark, and the incapacity of the pilot. Haec

inter, vino madidus, aeve gravis, ac soporifero rore perfusus,

jamjam nutitat, dormitat, jam somno praeceps, atque (utinam

solus) ruit . . . . . Heu quanto felicius patrio terram sulcasset

aratro, quam scalmum piscatorium ascendisset! This satire

engages his biographer to weigh the virtues and vices of Benedict

XII. which have been exaggerated by Guelphs and Ghibe lines, by

Papists and Protestants, (see Memoires sur la Vie de Petrarque,

tom. i. p. 259, ii. not. xv. p. 13 - 16.) He gave occasion to the

saying, Bibamus papaliter.]

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

[Footnote 4: See the original Lives of Clement VI. in Muratori,

(Script. Rerum Italicarum, tom. iii. P. ii. p. 550 - 589;) Matteo

Villani, (Chron. l. iii. c. 43, in Muratori, tom. xiv. p. 186,)

who styles him, molto cavallaresco, poco religioso; Fleury,

(Hist. Eccles. tom. xx. p. 126;) and the Vie de Petrarque, (tom.

ii. p. 42 - 45.) The abbe de Sade treats him with the most

indulgence; but he is a gentleman as well as a priest.]

[Footnote 5: Her name (most probably corrupted) was Zampea. She

had accompanied, and alone remained with her mistress at

Constantinople, where her prudence, erudition, and politeness

deserved the praises of the Greeks themselves, (Cantacuzen. l. i.

c. 42.)]

[Footnote 6: See this whole negotiation in Cantacuzene, (l. iv.

c. 9,) who, amidst the praises and virtues which he bestows on

himself, reveals the uneasiness of a guilty conscience.]

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.

[Footnote 7: See this ignominious treaty in Fleury, (Hist.

Eccles. p. 151 - 154,) from Raynaldus, who drew it from the

Vatican archives. It was not worth the trouble of a pious

forgery.]

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

[Footnote 8: See the two first original Lives of Urban V., (in

Muratori, Script. Rerum Italicarum, tom. iii. P. ii. p. 623,

635,) and the Ecclesiastical Annals of Spondanus, (tom. i. p.

573, A.D. 1369, No. 7,) and Raynaldus, (Fleury, Hist. Eccles.

tom. xx. p. 223, 224.) Yet, from some variations, I suspect the

papal writers of slightly magnifying the genuflections of

Palaeologus.]

[Footnote 9: Paullo minus quam si fuisset Imperator Romanorum.

Yet his title of Imperator Graecorum was no longer disputed,

(Vit. Urban V. p. 623.)]

[Footnote 10: It was confined to the successors of Charlemagne,

and to them only on Christmas-day. On all other festivals these

Imperial deacons were content to serve the pope, as he said mass,

with the book and the corporale. Yet the abbe de Sade generously

thinks that the merits of Charles IV. might have entitled him,

though not on the proper day, (A.D. 1368, November 1,) to the

whole privilege. He seems to affix a just value on the privilege

and the man, (Vie de Petrarque, tom. iii. p. 735.)]

[Footnote 11: Through some Italian corruptions, the etymology of

Falcone in bosco, (Matteo Villani, l. xi. c. 79, in Muratori,

tom. xv. p. 746,) suggests the English word Hawkwood, the true

name of our adventurous countryman, (Thomas Walsingham, Hist.

Anglican. inter Scriptores Cambdeni, p. 184.) After

two-and-twenty victories, and one defeat, he died, in 1394,

general of the Florentines, and was buried with such honors as

the republic has not paid to Dante or Petrarch, (Muratori, Annali

d'Italia, tom. xii. p. 212 - 371.)]

[Footnote 12: This torrent of English (by birth or service)

overflowed from France into Italy after the peace of Bretigny in

1630. Yet the exclamation of Muratori (Annali, tom. xii. p. 197)

is rather true than civil. "Ci mancava ancor questo, che dopo

essere calpestrata l'Italia da tanti masnadieri Tedeschi ed

Ungheri, venissero fin dall' Inghliterra nuovi cani a finire di

divorarla."]

[Footnote 13: Chalcondyles, l. i. p. 25, 26. The Greek supposes

his journey to the king of France, which is sufficiently refuted

by the silence of the national historians. Nor am I much more

inclined to believe, that Palaeologus departed from Italy, valde

bene consolatus et contentus, (Vit. Urban V. p. 623.)]

[Footnote 14: His return in 1370, and the coronation of Manuel,

Sept. 25, 1373, (Ducange, Fam. Byzant. p. 241,) leaves some

intermediate aera for the conspiracy and punishment of

Andronicus.]

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

[Footnote 15: Memoires de Boucicault, P. i. c. 35, 36.]

[Footnote 16: His journey into the west of Europe is slightly,

and I believe reluctantly, noticed by Chalcondyles (l. ii. c. 44

- 50) and Ducas, (c. 14.)]

[Footnote 17: Muratori, Annali d'Italia, tom. xii. p. 406. John

Galeazzo was the first and most powerful duke of Milan. His

connection with Bajazet is attested by Froissard; and he

contributed to save and deliver the French captives of

Nicopolis.]

[Footnote 18: For the reception of Manuel at Paris, see

Spondanus, (Annal. Eccles. tom. i. p. 676, 677, A.D. 1400, No.

5,) who quotes Juvenal des Ursins and the monk of St. Denys; and

Villaret, (Hist. de France, tom. xii. p. 331 - 334,) who quotes

nobody according to the last fashion of the French writers.]

[Footnote 19: A short note of Manuel in England is extracted by

Dr. Hody from a Ms. at Lambeth, (de Graecis illustribus, p. 14,)

C. P. Imperator, diu variisque et horrendis Paganorum insultibus

coarctatus, ut pro eisdem resistentiam triumphalem perquireret,

Anglorum Regem visitare decrevit, &c. Rex (says Walsingham, p.

364) nobili apparatu . . . suscepit (ut decuit) tantum Heroa,

duxitque Londonias, et per multos dies exhibuit gloriose, pro

expensis hospitii sui solvens, et eum respiciens tanto fastigio

donativis. He repeats the same in his Upodigma Neustriae, (p.

556.)]

[Footnote 20: Shakspeare begins and ends the play of Henry IV.

with that prince's vow of a crusade, and his belief that he

should die in Jerusalem.]

[Footnote 21: This fact is preserved in the Historia Politica,

A.D. 1391 - 1478, published by Martin Crusius, (Turco Graecia, p.

1 - 43.) The image of Christ, which the Greek emperor refused to

worship, was probably a work of sculpture.]

Chapter LXVI: Union Of The Greek And Latin Churches.

Part II.

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

[Footnote 22: The Greek and Turkish history of Laonicus

Chalcondyles ends with the winter of 1463; and the abrupt

conclusion seems to mark, that he laid down his pen in the same

year. We know that he was an Athenian, and that some

contemporaries of the same name contributed to the revival of the

Greek language in Italy. But in his numerous digressions, the

modest historian has never introduced himself; and his editor

Leunclavius, as well as Fabricius, (Bibliot. Graec. tom. vi. p.

474,) seems ignorant of his life and character. For his

descriptions of Germany, France, and England, see l. ii. p. 36,

37, 44 - 50.]

[Footnote 23: I shall not animadvert on the geographical errors

of Chalcondyles. In this instance, he perhaps followed, and

mistook, Herodotus, (l. ii. c. 33,) whose text may be explained,

(Herodote de Larcher, tom. ii. p. 219, 220,) or whose ignorance

may be excused. Had these modern Greeks never read Strabo, or

any of their lesser geographers?]

[Footnote 24: A citizen of new Rome, while new Rome survived,

would have scorned to dignify the German with titles: but all

pride was extinct in the bosom of Chalcondyles; and he describes

the Byzantine prince, and his subject, by the proper, though

humble, names.]

[Footnote 25: Most of the old romances were translated in the

xivth century into French prose, and soon became the favorite

amusement of the knights and ladies in the court of Charles VI.

If a Greek believed in the exploits of Rowland and Oliver, he may

surely be excused, since the monks of St. Denys, the national

historians, have inserted the fables of Archbishop Turpin in

their Chronicles of France.]

[Footnote 26: Even since the time of Fitzstephen, (the xiith

century,) London appears to have maintained this preeminence of

wealth and magnitude; and her gradual increase has, at least,

kept pace with the general improvement of Europe.]

[Footnote 27: If the double sense of the verb (osculor, and in

utero gero) be equivocal, the context and pious horror of

Chalcondyles can leave no doubt of his meaning and mistake, (p.

49.)

Note: I can discover no "pious horror" in the plain manner

in which Chalcondyles relates this strange usage. Gibbon is

possibly right as to the origin of this extraordinary mistake. -

M.]

[Footnote 28: Erasmus (Epist. Fausto Andrelino) has a pretty

passage on the English fashion of kissing strangers on their

arrival and departure, from whence, however, he draws no

scandalous inferences.]

[Footnote 29: Perhaps we may apply this remark to the community

of wives among the old Britons, as it is supposed by Caesar and

Dion, (Dion Cassius, l. lxii. tom. ii. p. 1007,) with Reimar's

judicious annotation. The Arreoy of Otaheite, so certain at

first, is become less visible and scandalous, in proportion as we

have studied the manners of that gentle and amorous people.]

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.

[Footnote 30: See Lenfant, Hist. du Concile de Constance, tom.

ii. p. 576; and or the ecclesiastical history of the times, the

Annals of Spondanus the Bibliotheque of Dupin, tom. xii., and

xxist and xxiid volumes of the History, or rather the

Continuation, of Fleury.]

[Footnote 31: From his early youth, George Phranza, or Phranzes,

was employed in the service of the state and palace; and Hanckius

(de Script. Byzant. P. i. c. 40) has collected his life from his

own writings. He was no more than four-and-twenty years of age

at the death of Manuel, who recommended him in the strongest

terms to his successor: Imprimis vero hunc Phranzen tibi

commendo, qui ministravit mihi fideliter et diligenter (Phranzes,

l. ii. c. i.) Yet the emperor John was cold, and he preferred the

service of the despots of Peloponnesus.]

[Footnote 32: See Phranzes, l. ii. c. 13. While so many

manuscripts of the Greek original are extant in the libraries of

Rome, Milan, the Escurial, &c., it is a matter of shame and

reproach, that we should be reduced to the Latin version, or

abstract, of James Pontanus, (ad calcem Theophylact, Simocattae:

Ingolstadt, 1604,) so deficient in accuracy and elegance,

(Fabric. Bibliot. Graec. tom. vi. p. 615 - 620.)

Note: The Greek text of Phranzes was edited by F. C. Alter

Vindobonae. It has been re-edited by Bekker for the new edition

of the Byzantines, Bonn, 1838 - M.]

[Footnote 33: See Ducange, Fam. Byzant. p. 243 - 248.]

[Footnote 34: The exact measure of the Hexamilion, from sea to

sea, was 3800 orgyiae, or toises, of six Greek feet, (Phranzes,

l. i. c. 38,) which would produce a Greek mile, still smaller

than that of 660 French toises, which is assigned by D'Anville,

as still in use in Turkey. Five miles are commonly reckoned for

the breadth of the isthmus. See the Travels of Spon, Wheeler and

Chandler.]

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.

[Footnote 35: The first objection of the Jews is on the death of

Christ: if it were voluntary, Christ was a suicide; which the

emperor parries with a mystery. They then dispute on the

conception of the Virgin, the sense of the prophecies, &c.,

(Phranzes, l. ii. c. 12, a whole chapter.)]

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.

[Footnote 36: In the treatise delle Materie Beneficiarie of Fra

Paolo, (in the ivth volume of the last, and best, edition of his

works,) the papal system is deeply studied and freely described.

Should Rome and her religion be annihilated, this golden volume

may still survive, a philosophical history, and a salutary

warning.]

[Footnote 37: Pope John XXII. (in 1334) left behind him, at

Avignon, eighteen millions of gold florins, and the value of

seven millions more in plate and jewels. See the Chronicle of

John Villani, (l. xi. c. 20, in Muratori's Collection, tom. xiii.

p. 765,) whose brother received the account from the papal

treasurers. A treasure of six or eight millions sterling in the

xivth century is enormous, and almost incredible.]

[Footnote 38: A learned and liberal Protestant, M. Lenfant, has

given a fair history of the councils of Pisa, Constance, and

Basil, in six volumes in quarto; but the last part is the most

hasty and imperfect, except in the account of the troubles of

Bohemia.]

[Footnote 39: The original acts or minutes of the council of

Basil are preserved in the public library, in twelve volumes in

folio. Basil was a free city, conveniently situate on the Rhine,

and guarded by the arms of the neighboring and confederate Swiss.

In 1459, the university was founded by Pope Pius II., (Aeneas

Sylvius,) who had been secretary to the council. But what is a

council, or a university, to the presses o Froben and the studies

of Erasmus?]

[Footnote 40: This Turkish embassy, attested only by Crantzius,

is related with some doubt by the annalist Spondanus, A.D. 1433,

No. 25, tom. i. p. 824]

[Footnote 41: Syropulus, p. 19. In this list, the Greeks appear

to have exceeded the real numbers of the clergy and laity which

afterwards attended the emperor and patriarch, but which are not

clearly specified by the great ecclesiarch. The 75,000 florins

which they asked in this negotiation of the pope, (p. 9,) were

more than they could hope or want.]

[Footnote 42: I use indifferently the words ducat and florin,

which derive their names, the former from the dukes of Milan, the

latter from the republic of Florence. These gold pieces, the

first that were coined in Italy, perhaps in the Latin world, may

be compared in weight and value to one third of the English

guinea.]

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

[Footnote 43: At the end of the Latin version of Phranzes, we

read a long Greek epistle or declamation of George of Trebizond,

who advises the emperor to prefer Eugenius and Italy. He treats

with contempt the schismatic assembly of Basil, the Barbarians of

Gaul and Germany, who had conspired to transport the chair of St.

Peter beyond the Alps. Was Constantinople unprovided with a map?]

[Footnote 44: Syropulus (p. 26 - 31) attests his own indignation,

and that of his countrymen; and the Basil deputies, who excused

the rash declaration, could neither deny nor alter an act of the

council.]

[Footnote 45: The naval orders of the synod were less peremptory,

and, till the hostile squadrons appeared, both parties tried to

conceal their quarrel from the Greeks.]

[Footnote 46: Syropulus mentions the hopes of Palaeologus, (p.

36,) and the last advice of Sigismond,(p. 57.) At Corfu, the

Greek emperor was informed of his friend's death; had he known it

sooner, he would have returned home,(p. 79.)]

[Footnote 47: Phranzes himself, though from different motives,

was of the advice of Amurath, (l. ii. c. 13.) Utinam ne synodus

ista unquam fuisset, si tantes offensiones et detrimenta paritura

erat. This Turkish embassy is likewise mentioned by Syropulus,

(p. 58;) and Amurath kept his word. He might threaten, (p. 125,

219,) but he never attacked, the city.]

[Footnote 48: The reader will smile at the simplicity with which

he imparted these hopes to his favorites (p. 92.) Yet it would

have been difficult for him to have practised the lessons of

Gregory VII.]

[Footnote 49: The Christian name of Sylvester is borrowed from

the Latin calendar. In modern Greek, as a diminutive, is added

to the end of words: nor can any reasoning of Creyghton, the

editor, excuse his changing into Sguropulus, (Sguros, fuscus,)

the Syropulus of his own manuscript, whose name is subscribed

with his own hand in the acts of the council of Florence. Why

might not the author be of Syrian extraction?]

[Footnote 50: From the conclusion of the history, I should fix

the date to the year 1444, four years after the synod, when great

ecclesiarch had abdicated his office, (section xii. p. 330 -

350.) His passions were cooled by time and retirement; and,

although Syropulus is often partial, he is never intemperate.]

[Footnote 51: Vera historia unionis non veroe inter Graecos et

Latinos, (Hagae Comitis, 1660, in folio,) was first published

with a loose and florid version, by Robert Creyghton, chaplain to

Charles II. in his exile. The zeal of the editor has prefixed a

polemic title, for the beginning of the original is wanting.

Syropulus may be ranked with the best of the Byzantine writers

for the merit of his narration, and even of his style; but he is

excluded from the orthodox collections of the councils.]

[Footnote 52: Syropulus (p. 63) simply expresses his intention;

and the Latin of Creyghton may afford a specimen of his florid

paraphrase. Ut pompa circumductus noster Imperator Italiae

populis aliquis deauratus Jupiter crederetur, aut Croesus ex

opulenta Lydia.]

[Footnote 53: Although I cannot stop to quote Syropulus for every

fact, I will observe that the navigation of the Greeks from

Constantinople to Venice and Ferrara is contained in the ivth

section, (p. 67 - 100,) and that the historian has the uncommon

talent of placing each scene before the reader's eye.]

Chapter LXVI: Union Of The Greek And Latin Churches.

Part III.

After a tedious and troublesome navigation of seventy-seven

days, this religious squadron cast anchor before Venice; and

their reception proclaimed the joy and magnificence of that

powerful republic. In the command of the world, the modest

Augustus had never claimed such honors from his subjects as were

paid to his feeble successor by an independent state. Seated on

the poop on a lofty throne, he received the visit, or, in the

Greek style, the adoration of the doge and senators. ^54 They

sailed in the Bucentaur, which was accompanied by twelve stately

galleys: the sea was overspread with innumerable gondolas of pomp

and pleasure; the air resounded with music and acclamations; the

mariners, and even the vessels, were dressed in silk and gold;

and in all the emblems and pageants, the Roman eagles were

blended with the lions of St. Mark. The triumphal procession,

ascending the great canal, passed under the bridge of the Rialto;

and the Eastern strangers gazed with admiration on the palaces,

the churches, and the populousness of a city, that seems to float

on the bosom of the waves. ^55 They sighed to behold the spoils

and trophies with which it had been decorated after the sack of

Constantinople. After a hospitable entertainment of fifteen

days, 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

[Footnote 54: At the time of the synod, Phranzes was in

Peloponnesus: but he received from the despot Demetrius a

faithful account of the honorable reception of the emperor and

patriarch both at Venice and Ferrara, (Dux . . . . sedentem

Imperatorem adorat,) which are more slightly mentioned by the

Latins, (l. ii. c. 14, 15, 16.)]

[Footnote 55: The astonishment of a Greek prince and a French

ambassador (Memoires de Philippe de Comines, l. vii. c. 18,) at

the sight of Venice, abundantly proves that in the xvth century

it was the first and most splendid of the Christian cities. For

the spoils of Constantinople at Venice, see Syropulus, (p. 87.)]

[Footnote 56: Nicholas III. of Este reigned forty-eight years,

(A.D. 1393 - 1441,) and was lord of Ferrara, Modena, Reggio,

Parma, Rovigo, and Commachio. See his Life in Muratori,

(Antichita Estense, tom. ii. p. 159 - 201.)]

[Footnote 57: The Latin vulgar was provoked to laughter at the

strange dresses of the Greeks, and especially the length of their

garments, their sleeves, and their beards; nor was the emperor

distinguished, except by the purple color, and his diadem or

tiara, with a jewel on the top, (Hody de Graecis Illustribus, p.

31.) Yet another spectator confesses that the Greek fashion was

piu grave e piu degna than the Italian. (Vespasiano in Vit.

Eugen. IV. in Muratori, tom. xxv. p. 261.)]

But as soon as festivity and form had given place to a more

serious treaty, the Greeks were dissatisfied with their journey,

with themselves, and with the pope. The artful pencil of his

emissaries had painted him in a prosperous state; at the head of

the princes and prelates of Europe, obedient at his voice, to

believe and to arm. The thin appearance of the universal synod

of Ferrara betrayed his weakness: and the Latins opened the first

session with only five archbishops, eighteen bishops, and ten

abbots, the greatest part of whom were the subjects or countrymen

of the Italian pontiff. Except the duke of Burgundy, none of the

potentates of the West condescended to appear in person, or by

their ambassadors; nor was it possible to suppress the judicial

acts of Basil against the dignity and person of Eugenius, which

were finally concluded by a new election. Under these

circumstances, a truce or delay was asked and granted, till

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

[Footnote 58: For the emperor's hunting, see Syropulus, (p. 143,

144, 191.) The pope had sent him eleven miserable hacks; but he

bought a strong and swift horse that came from Russia. The name

of Janizaries may surprise; but the name, rather than the

institution, had passed from the Ottoman, to the Byzantine,

court, and is often used in the last age of the empire.]

[Footnote 59: The Greeks obtained, with much difficulty, that

instead of provisions, money should be distributed, four florins

per month to the persons of honorable rank, and three florins to

their servants, with an addition of thirty more to the emperor,

twenty-five to the patriarch, and twenty to the prince, or

despot, Demetrius. The payment of the first month amounted to

691 florins, a sum which will not allow us to reckon above 200

Greeks of every condition. (Syropulus, p. 104, 105.) On the 20th

October, 1438, there was an arrear of four months; in April,

1439, of three; and of five and a half in July, at the time of

the union, (p. 172, 225, 271.)]

[Footnote 60: Syropulus (p. 141, 142, 204, 221) deplores the

imprisonment of the Greeks, and the tyranny of the emperor and

patriarch.]

[Footnote 61: The wars of Italy are most clearly represented in

the xiiith vol. of the Annals of Muratori. The schismatic Greek,

Syropulus, (p. 145,) appears to have exaggerated the fear and

disorder of the pope in his his retreat from Ferrara to Florence,

which is proved by the acts to have been somewhat more decent and

deliberate.]

Yet all these obstacles were surmounted by time and policy.

The violence of the fathers of Basil rather promoted than injured

the cause of Eugenius; the nations of Europe abhorred the schism,

and disowned the election, of Felix the Fifth, who was

successively a duke of Savoy, a hermit, and a pope; and the great

princes were gradually reclaimed by his competitor to a favorable

neutrality and a firm attachment. The legates, with some

respectable members, deserted to the Roman army, which insensibly

rose in numbers and reputation; the council of Basil was reduced

to thirty-nine bishops, and three hundred of the inferior clergy;

^62 while the Latins of Florence could produce the subscriptions

of the pope himself, eight cardinals, two patriarchs, eight

archbishops, fifty two bishops, and forty- five abbots, or chiefs

of religious orders. After the labor of nine months, and the

debates of twenty-five sessions, they attained the advantage and

glory of the reunion of the Greeks. Four principal questions had

been agitated between the two churches; 1. The use of 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.

[Footnote 62: Syropulus is pleased to reckon seven hundred

prelates in the council of Basil. The error is manifest, and

perhaps voluntary. That extravagant number could not be supplied

by all the ecclesiastics of every degree who were present at the

council, nor by all the absent bishops of the West, who,

expressly or tacitly, might adhere to its decrees.]

[Footnote 63: The Greeks, who disliked the union, were unwilling

to sally from this strong fortress, (p. 178, 193, 195, 202, of

Syropulus.) The shame of the Latins was aggravated by their

producing an old MS. of the second council of Nice, with filioque

in the Nicene creed. A palpable forgery! (p. 173.)]

[Footnote 64: (Syropulus, p. 109.) See the perplexity of the

Greeks, (p. 217, 218, 252, 253, 273.)]

While they were most in a cloud of dust and darkness, the

Pope and emperor were desirous of a seeming union, which could

alone accomplish the purposes of their interview; and the

obstinacy of public dispute was softened by the arts of private

and personal negotiation. The patriarch Joseph had sunk under

the weight of age and infirmities; his dying voice breathed the

counsels of charity and concord, and his vacant benefice might

tempt the hopes of the ambitious clergy. The ready and active

obedience of the archbishops of Russia and Nice, of Isidore and

Bessarion, was prompted and recompensed by their speedy promotion

to the dignity of cardinals. Bessarion, in the first debates, had

stood forth the most strenuous and eloquent champion of the Greek

church; and if the apostate, the bastard, was reprobated by his

country, ^65 he appears in ecclesiastical story a rare example of

a patriot who was recommended to court favor by loud opposition

and well-timed compliance. With the aid of his two spiritual

coadjutors, the emperor applied his arguments to the general

situation and personal characters of the bishops, and each was

successively moved by authority and example. Their revenues were

in the hands of the Turks, their persons in those of the Latins:

an episcopal treasure, three robes and forty ducats, was soon

exhausted: ^66 the hopes of their return still depended on the

ships of Venice and the alms of Rome; and such was their

indigence, that their arrears, the payment of a debt, would be

accepted as a favor, and might operate as a bribe. ^67 The danger

and relief of Constantinople might excuse some prudent and pious

dissimulation; and it was insinuated, that the obstinate heretics

who should resist the consent of the East and West would be

abandoned in a hostile land to the revenge or justice of the

Roman pontiff. ^68 In the first private assembly of the Greeks,

the formulary of union was approved by twenty-four, and rejected

by twelve, members; but the five cross-bearers of St. Sophia, who

aspired to represent the patriarch, were disqualified by ancient

discipline; and their right of voting was transferred to the

obsequious train of monks, grammarians, and profane laymen. The

will of the monarch produced a false and servile unanimity, and

no more than two patriots had courage to speak their own

sentiments and those of their country. Demetrius, the emperor's

brother, retired to Venice, that he might not be witness of the

union; and Mark of Ephesus, mistaking perhaps his pride for his

conscience, disclaimed all communion with the Latin heretics, and

avowed himself the champion and confessor of the orthodox creed.

^69 In the treaty between the two nations, several forms of

consent were proposed, such as might satisfy the Latins, without

dishonoring the Greeks; and they weighed the scruples of words

and syllables, till the theological balance trembled with a

slight preponderance in favor of the Vatican. It was agreed (I

must entreat the attention of the reader) that the Holy Ghost

proceeds from the Father and the Son, as from one principle and

one substance; that he proceeds by the Son, being of the same

nature and substance, and that he proceeds from the Father and

the Son, by one spiration and production. It is less difficult

to understand the articles of the preliminary treaty; that the

pope should defray all the expenses of the Greeks in their return

home; that he should annually maintain two galleys and three

hundred soldiers for the defence of Constantinople: that all the

ships which transported pilgrims to Jerusalem should be obliged

to touch at that port; that as often as they were required, the

pope should furnish ten galleys for a year, or twenty for six

months; and that he should powerfully solicit the princes of

Europe, if the emperor had occasion for land forces.

[Footnote 65: See the polite altercation of Marc and Bessarion in

Syropulus, (p. 257,) who never dissembles the vices of his own

party, and fairly praises the virtues of the Latins.]

[Footnote 66: For the poverty of the Greek bishops, see a

remarkable passage of Ducas, (c. 31.) One had possessed, for his

whole property, three old gowns, &c. By teaching one-and-twenty

years in his monastery, Bessarion himself had collected forty

gold florins; but of these, the archbishop had expended

twenty-eight in his voyage from Peloponnesus, and the remainder

at Constantinople, (Syropulus, p. 127.)]

[Footnote 67: Syropulus denies that the Greeks received any money

before they had subscribed the art of union, (p. 283:) yet he

relates some suspicious circumstances; and their bribery and

corruption are positively affirmed by the historian Ducas.]

[Footnote 68: The Greeks most piteously express their own fears

of exile and perpetual slavery, (Syropul. p. 196;) and they were

strongly moved by the emperor's threats, (p. 260.)]

[Footnote 69: I had forgot another popular and orthodox

protester: a favorite bound, who usually lay quiet on the

foot-cloth of the emperor's throne but who barked most furiously

while the act of union was reading without being silenced by the

soothing or the lashes of the royal attendants, (Syropul. p. 265,

266.)]

The same year, and almost the same day, were marked by the

deposition of Eugenius at Basil; and, at Florence, by his reunion

of the Greeks and Latins. In the former synod, (which he styled

indeed an assembly of 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

[Footnote 70: From the original Lives of the Popes, in Muratori's

Collection, (tom. iii. p. ii. tom. xxv.,) the manners of Eugenius

IV. appear to have been decent, and even exemplary. His

situation, exposed to the world and to his enemies, was a

restraint, and is a pledge.]

[Footnote 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.)]

[Footnote 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.)]

[Footnote 73: (Syropul. p. 297.)]

[Footnote 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.)]

[Footnote 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.]

[Footnote 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. Aeneas 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.]

[Footnote 77: In this account of the councils of Basil, Ferrara,

and Florence, I have consulted the original acts, which fill the

xviith and xviiith tome of the edition of Venice, and are closed

by the perspicuous, though partial, history of Augustin

Patricius, an Italian of the xvth century. They are digested and

abridged by Dupin, (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.]

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

[Footnote 78: In the first attempt, Meursius collected 3600

Graeco-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. Graec. 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.]

[Footnote 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)

(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.]

[Footnote 80: He married, and had perhaps debauched, the daughter

of John, and the granddaughter of Manuel Chrysoloras. She was

young, beautiful, and wealthy; and her noble family was allied to

the Dorias of Genoa and the emperors of Constantinople.]

[Footnote 81: Graeci quibus lingua depravata non sit . . . . ita

loquuntur vulgo hac 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 ipsae nobiles mulieres;

quibus cum nullum esset omnino cum viris peregrinis commercium,

merus ille ac purus Graecorum 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 moderata et suavi et maxime Attica.]

[Footnote 82: Philelphus, absurdly enough, derives this Greek or

Oriental jealousy from the manners of ancient Rome.]

Among the Greeks a numerous and opulent clergy was dedicated

to the service of religion: their monks and bishops have ever

been distinguished by the gravity and austerity of their manners;

nor were they diverted, like the Latin priests, by the pursuits

and pleasures of a secular, and even military, life. After a

large deduction for the time and talent that were lost in the

devotion, the laziness, and the discord, of the church and

cloister, the more inquisitive and ambitious minds would explore

the sacred and profane erudition of their native language. The

ecclesiastics presided over the education of youth; the schools

of philosophy and eloquence were perpetuated till the fall of the

empire; and it may be affirmed, that more books and more

knowledge were included within the walls of Constantinople, than

could be dispersed over the extensive countries of the West. ^83

But an important distinction has been already noticed: the Greeks

were stationary or retrograde, while the Latins were advancing

with a rapid and progressive motion. The nations were excited by

the spirit of independence and emulation; and even the little

world of the Italian states contained more people and industry

than the decreasing circle of the Byzantine empire. In Europe,

the lower ranks of society were relieved from the yoke of feudal

servitude; and freedom is the first step to curiosity and

knowledge. The use, however rude and corrupt, of the Latin

tongue had been preserved by superstition; the universities, from

Bologna to Oxford, ^84 were peopled with thousands of scholars;

and their misguided ardor might be directed to more liberal and

manly studies. In the resurrection of science, Italy was the

first that cast away her shroud; and the eloquent Petrarch, by

his lessons and his example, may justly be applauded as the first

harbinger of day. A purer style of composition, a more generous

and rational strain of sentiment, flowed from the study and

imitation of the writers of ancient Rome; and the disciples of

Cicero and Virgil approached, with reverence and love, the

sanctuary of their Grecian masters. In the sack of

Constantinople, the French, and even the Venetians, had despised

and destroyed the works of Lysippus and Homer: the monuments of

art may be annihilated by a single blow; but the immortal mind is

renewed and multiplied by the copies of the pen; and such copies

it was the ambition of Petrarch and his friends to possess and

understand. The arms of the Turks undoubtedly pressed the flight

of the Muses; yet we may tremble at the thought, that Greece

might have been overwhelmed, with her schools and libraries,

before Europe had emerged from the deluge of barbarism; that the

seeds of science might have been scattered by the winds, before

the Italian soil was prepared for their cultivation.

[Footnote 83: See the state of learning in the xiiith and xivth

centuries, in the learned and judicious Mosheim, (Instit. Hist.

Eccles. p. 434 - 440, 490 - 494.)]

[Footnote 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. 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.]

Chapter LXVI: Union Of The Greek And Latin Churches.

Part IV.

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

[Footnote 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 Graecis Illustribus, Linguae

Graecae 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

Modema enjoys the superiority of a modern and national

historian.]

[Footnote 86: In Calabria quae olim magna Graecia dicebatur,

coloniis Graecis repleta, remansit quaedam linguae veteris,

cognitio, (Hodius, p. 2.) If it were eradicated by the Romans, it

was revived and perpetuated by the monks of St. Basil, who

possessed seven convents at Rossano alone, (Giannone, Istoria di

Napoli, tom. i. p. 520.)]

[Footnote 87: Ii Barbari (says Petrarch, the French and Germans)

vix, non dicam libros sed nomen Homeri audiverunt. Perhaps, in

that respect, the xiiith century was less happy than the age of

Charlemagne.]

[Footnote 88: See the character of Barlaam, in Boccace de

Genealog. Deorum, l. xv. c. 6.]

[Footnote 89: Cantacuzen. l. ii. c. 36.]

[Footnote 90: For the connection of Petrarch and Barlaam, and the

two interviews at Avignon in 1339, and at Naples in 1342, see the

excellent Memoires sur la Vie de Petrarque, tom. i. p. 406 - 410,

tom. ii. p. 74 - 77.]

[Footnote 91: The bishopric to which Barlaam retired, was the old

Locri, in the middle ages. Scta. Cyriaca, and by corruption

Hieracium, Gerace, (Dissert. Chorographica Italiae Medii Aevi, p.

312.) The dives opum of the Norman times soon lapsed into

poverty, since even the church was poor: yet the town still

contains 3000 inhabitants, (Swinburne, p. 340.)]

[Footnote 92: I will transcribe a passage from this epistle of

Petrarch, (Famil. ix. 2;) Donasti Homerum non in alienum sermonem

Alienum sermonen violento alveo derivatum, sed ex ipsis Graeci

eloquii scatebris, et qualis divino illi profluxit ingenio . . .

. Sine tua voce Homerus tuus apud me mutus, immo vero ego apud

illum surdus sum. Gaudeo tamen vel adspectu solo, ac saepe illum

amplexus atque suspirans dico, O magne vir, &c.]

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 ^*

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

[Footnote 93: For the life and writings of Boccace, who was born

in 1313, and died in 1375, Fabricius (Bibliot. Latin. Medii Aevi,

tom. i. p. 248, &c.) and Tiraboschi (tom. v. p. 83, 439 - 451)

may be consulted. The editions, versions, imitations of his

novels, are innumerable. Yet he was ashamed to communicate that

trifling, and perhaps scandalous, work to Petrarch, his

respectable friend, in whose letters and memoirs he conspicuously

appears.]

[Footnote *: This translation of Homer was by Pilatus, not by

Boccacio. See Halleza, Hist. of Lit. vol. i. p. 132. - M.]

[Footnote 94: Boccace indulges an honest vanity: Ostentationis

causa Graeca carmina adscripsi . . . . jure utor meo; meum est

hoc decus, mea gloria scilicet inter Etruscos Graecis uti

carminibus. Nonne ego fui qui Leontium Pilatum, &c., (de

Genealogia Deorum, l. xv. c. 7, a work which, though now

forgotten, has run through thirteen or fourteen editions.)]

[Footnote 95: Leontius, or Leo Pilatus, is sufficiently made

known by Hody, (p. 2 - 11,) and the abbe de Sade, (Vie de

Petrarque, tom. iii. p. 625 - 634, 670 - 673,) who has very

happily caught the lively and dramatic manner of his original.]

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.

[Footnote 96: Dr. Hody (p. 54) is angry with Leonard Aretin,

Guarinus, Paulus Jovius, &c., for affirming, that the Greek

letters were restored in Italy post septingentos annos; as if,

says he, they had flourished till the end of the viith century.

These writers most probably reckoned from the last period of the

exarchate; and the presence of the Greek magistrates and troops

at Ravenna and Rome must have preserved, in some degree, the use

of their native tongue.]

[Footnote 97: See the article of Emanuel, or Manuel Chrysoloras,

in Hody (p 12 - 54) and Tiraboschi, (tom. vii. p. 113 - 118.) The

precise date of his arrival floats between the years 1390 and

1400, and is only confined by the reign of Boniface IX.]

[Footnote 98: The name of Aretinus has been assumed by five or

six natives of Arezzo in Tuscany, of whom the most famous and the

most worthless lived in the xvith century. Leonardus Brunus

Aretinus, the disciple of Chrysoloras, was a linguist, an orator,

and an historian, the secretary of four successive popes, and the

chancellor of the republic of Florence, where he died A.D. 1444,

at the age of seventy-five, (Fabric. Bibliot. Medii Aevi, tom. i.

p. 190 &c. Tiraboschi, tom. vii. p. 33 - 38)]

[Footnote 99: See the passage in Aretin. Commentario Rerum suo

Tempore in Italia gestarum, apud Hodium, p. 28 - 30.]

[Footnote 100: In this domestic discipline, Petrarch, who loved

the youth, often complains of the eager curiosity, restless

temper, and proud feelings, which announce the genius and glory

of a riper age, (Memoires sur Petrarque, tom. iii. p. 700 -

709.)]

[Footnote 101: Hinc Graecae Latinaeque scholae exortae sunt,

Guarino Philelpho, Leonardo Aretino, Caroloque, ac plerisque

aliis tanquam ex equo Trojano prodeuntibus, quorum emulatione

multa ingenia deinceps ad laudem excitata sunt, (Platina in

Bonifacio IX.) Another Italian writer adds the names of Paulus

Petrus Vergerius, Omnibonus Vincentius, Poggius, Franciscus

Barbarus, &c. But I question whether a rigid chronology would

allow Chrysoloras all these eminent scholars, (Hodius, p. 25 -

27, &c.)]

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.

[Footnote 102: See in Hody the article of Bessarion, (p. 136 -

177.) Theodore Gaza, George of Trebizond, aud the rest of the

Greeks whom I have named or omitted, are inserted in their proper

chapters of his learned work. See likewise Tiraboschi, in the

1st and 2d parts of the vith tome.]

[Footnote 103: The cardinals knocked at his door, but his

conclavist refused to interrupt the studies of Bessarion:

"Nicholas," said he, "thy respect has cost thee a hat, and me the

tiara."

Note: Roscoe (Life of Lorenzo de Medici, vol. i. p. 75)

considers that Hody has refuted this "idle tale." - M.]

[Footnote 104: Such as George of Trebizond, Theodore Gaza,

Argyropulus, Andronicus of Thessalonica, Philelphus, Poggius,

Blondus, Nicholas Perrot, Valla, Campanus, Platina, &c. Viri

(says Hody, with the pious zeal of a scholar) nullo aevo

perituri, p. 156.)]

[Footnote 105: He was born before the taking of Constantinople,

but his honorable life was stretched far into the xvith century,

(A.D. 1535.) Leo X. and Francis I. were his noblest patrons,

under whose auspices he founded the Greek colleges of Rome and

Paris, (Hody, p. 247 - 275.) He left posterity in France; but the

counts de Vintimille, and their numerous branches, derive the

name of Lascaris from a doubtful marriage in the xiiith century

with the daughter of a Greek emperor (Ducange, Fam. Byzant. p.

224 - 230.)]

[Footnote 106: Two of his epigrams against Virgil, and three

against Tully, are preserved and refuted by Franciscus Floridus,

who can find no better names than Graeculus ineptus et impudens,

(Hody, p. 274.) In our own times, an English critic has accused

the Aeneid of containing multa languida, nugatoria, spiritu et

majestate carminis heroici defecta; many such verses as he, the

said Jeremiah Markland, would have been ashamed of owning,

(praefat. ad Statii Sylvas, p. 21, 22.)]

[Footnote 107: Emanuel Chrysoloras, and his colleagues, are

accused of ignorance, envy, or avarice, (Sylloge, &c., tom. ii.

p. 235.) The modern Greeks pronounce it as a V consonant, and

confound three vowels, and several diphthongs. Such was the

vulgar pronunciation which the stern Gardiner maintained by penal

statutes in the university of Cambridge: but the monosyllable

represented to an Attic ear the bleating of sheep, and a

bellwether is better evidence than a bishop or a chancellor. The

treatises of those scholars, particularly Erasmus, who asserted a

more classical pronunciation, are collected in the Sylloge of

Havercamp, (2 vols. in octavo, Lugd. Bat. 1736, 1740:) but it is

difficult to paint sounds by words: and in their reference to

modern use, they can be understood only by their respective

countrymen. We may observe, that our peculiar pronunciation of

the O, th, is approved by Erasmus, (tom. ii. p. 130.)]

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

[Footnote 108: George Gemistus Pletho, a various and voluminous

writer, the master of Bessarion, and all the Platonists of the

times. He visited Italy in his old age, and soon returned to end

his days in Peloponnesus. See the curious Diatribe of Leo

Allatius de Georgiis, in Fabricius. (Bibliot. Graec. tom. x. p.

739 - 756.)]

[Footnote 109: The state of the Platonic philosophy in Italy is

illustrated by Boivin, (Mem. de l'Acad. des Inscriptions, tom.

ii. p. 715 - 729,) and Tiraboschi, (tom. vi. P. i. p. 259 -

288.)]

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.

[Footnote 110: See the Life of Nicholas V. by two contemporary

authors, Janottus Manettus, (tom. iii. P. ii. p. 905 - 962,) and

Vespasian of Florence, (tom. xxv. p. 267 - 290,) in the

collection of Muratori; and consult Tiraboschi, (tom. vi. P. i.

p. 46 - 52, 109,) and Hody in the articles of Theodore Gaza,

George of Trebizond, &c.]

[Footnote 111: Lord Bolingbroke observes, with truth and spirit,

that the popes in this instance, were worse politicians than the

muftis, and that the charm which had bound mankind for so many

ages was broken by the magicians themselves, (Letters on the

Study of History, l. vi. p. 165, 166, octavo edition, 1779.)]

[Footnote 112: See the literary history of Cosmo and Lorenzo of

Medicis, in Tiraboschi, (tom. vi. P. i. l. i. c. 2,) who bestows

a due measure of praise on Alphonso of Arragon, king of Naples,

the dukes of Milan, Ferrara Urbino, &c. The republic of Venice

has deserved the least from the gratitude of scholars.]

[Footnote 113: Tiraboschi, (tom. vi. P. i. p. 104,) from the

preface of Janus Lascaris to the Greek Anthology, printed at

Florence, 1494. Latebant (says Aldus in his preface to the Greek

orators, apud Hodium, p. 249) in Atho Thraciae monte. Eas

Larcaris . . . . in Italiam reportavit. Miserat enim ipsum

Laurentius ille Medices in Graeciam ad inquirendos simul, et

quantovis emendos pretio bonos libros. It is remarkable enough,

that the research was facilitated by Sultan Bajazet II.]

[Footnote 114: The Greek language was introduced into the

university of Oxford in the last years of the xvth century, by

Grocyn, Linacer, and Latimer, who had all studied at Florence

under Demetrius Chalcocondyles. See Dr. Knight's curious Life of

Erasmus. Although a stout academical patriot, he is forced to

acknowledge that Erasmus learned Greek at Oxford, and taught it

at Cambridge.]

[Footnote 115: The jealous Italians were desirous of keeping a

monopoly of Greek learning. When Aldus was about to publish the

Greek scholiasts on Sophocles and Euripides, Cave, (said they,)

cave hoc facias, ne Barbari istis adjuti domi maneant, et

pauciores in Italiam ventitent, (Dr. Knight, in his Life of

Erasmus, p. 365, from Beatus Rhemanus.)]

[Footnote 116: The press of Aldus Manutius, a Roman, was

established at Venice about the year 1494: he printed above sixty

considerable works of Greek literature, almost all for the first

time; several containing different treatises and authors, and of

several authors, two, three, or four editions, (Fabric. Bibliot.

Graec. tom. xiii. p. 605, &c.) Yet his glory must not tempt us to

forget, that the first Greek book, the Grammar of Constantine

Lascaris, was printed at Milan in 1476; and that the Florence

Homer of 1488 displays all the luxury of the typographical art.

See the Annales Typographical of Mattaire, and the Bibliographie

Instructive of De Bure, a knowing bookseller of Paris.]

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.

[Footnote 117: I will select three singular examples of this

classic enthusiasm. I. At the synod of Florence, Gemistus

Pletho said, in familiar conversation to George of Trebizond,

that in a short time mankind would unanimously renounce the

Gospel and the Koran, for a religion similar to that of the

Gentiles, (Leo Allatius, apud Fabricium, tom. x. p. 751.) 2. Paul

II. persecuted the Roman academy, which had been founded by

Pomponius Laetus; and the principal members were accused of

heresy, impiety, and paganism, (Tiraboschi, tom. vi. P. i. p. 81,

82.) 3. In the next century, some scholars and poets in France

celebrated the success of Jodelle's tragedy of Cleopatra, by a

festival of Bacchus, and, as it is said, by the sacrifice of a

goat, (Bayle, Dictionnaire, Jodelle. Fontenelle, tom. iii. p. 56

- 61.) Yet the spirit of bigotry might often discern a serious

impiety in the sportive play of fancy and learning.]

[Footnote 118: The survivor Boccace died in the year 1375; and we

cannot place before 1480 the composition of the Morgante Maggiore

of Pulo and the Orlando Innamorato of Boyardo, (Tiraboschi, tom.

vi. P. ii. p. 174 - 177.)]

Chapter LXVII: Schism Of The Greeks And Latins.

Part I.

Schism Of The Greeks And Latins. - Reign And Character Of

Amurath The Second. - Crusade Of Ladislaus, King Of Hungary. -

His Defeat And Death. - John Huniades. - Scanderbeg. -

Constantine Palaeologus, Last Emperor Of The East.

The respective merits of Rome and Constantinople are

compared and celebrated by an eloquent Greek, the father of the

Italian schools. ^1 The view of the ancient capital, the seat of

his ancestors, surpassed the most sanguine expectations of

Emanuel Chrysoloras; and he no longer blamed the exclamation of

an old sophist, that Rome was the habitation, not of men, but of

gods. Those gods, and those men, had long since vanished; but to

the eye of liberal enthusiasm, the majesty of ruin restored the

image of her ancient prosperity. The monuments of the consuls

and Caesars, of the martyrs and apostles, engaged on all sides

the curiosity of the philosopher and the Christian; and he

confessed that in every age the arms and the religion of Rome

were destined to reign over the earth. While Chrysoloras admired

the venerable beauties of the mother, he was not forgetful of his

native country, her fairest daughter, her Imperial colony; and

the Byzantine patriot expatiates with zeal and truth on the

eternal advantages of nature, and the more transitory glories of

art and dominion, which adorned, or had adorned, the city of

Constantine. Yet the perfection of the copy still redounds (as

he modestly observes) to the honor of the original, and parents

are delighted to be renewed, and even excelled, by the superior

merit of their children. "Constantinople," says the orator, "is

situate on a commanding point, between Europe and Asia, between

the Archipelago and the Euxine. By her interposition, the two

seas, and the two continents, are united for the common benefit

of nations; and the gates of commerce may be shut or opened at

her command. The harbor, encompassed on all sides by the sea,

and the continent, is the most secure and capacious in the world.

The walls and gates of Constantinople may be compared with those

of Babylon: the towers many; each tower is a solid and lofty

structure; and the second wall, the outer fortification, would be

sufficient for the defence and dignity of an ordinary capital. A

broad and rapid stream may be introduced into the ditches and the

artificial island may be encompassed, like Athens, by land or

water." Two strong and natural causes are alleged for the

perfection of the model of new Rome. The royal founder reigned

over the most illustrious nations of the globe; and in the

accomplishment of his designs, the power of the Romans was

combined with the art and science of the Greeks. Other cities

have been reared to maturity by accident and time: their beauties

are mingled with disorder and deformity; and the inhabitants,

unwilling to remove from their natal spot, are incapable of

correcting the errors of their ancestors, and the original vices

of situation or climate. But the free idea of Constantinople was

formed and executed by a single mind; and the primitive model was

improved by the obedient zeal of the subjects and successors of

the first monarch. The adjacent isles were stored with an

inexhaustible supply of marble; but the various materials were

transported from the most remote shores of Europe and Asia; and

the public and private buildings, the palaces, churches,

aqueducts, cisterns, porticos, columns, baths, and hippodromes,

were adapted to the greatness of the capital of the East. The

superfluity of wealth was spread along the shores of Europe and

Asia; and the Byzantine territory, as far as the Euxine, the

Hellespont, and the long wall, might be considered as a populous

suburb and a perpetual garden. In this flattering picture, the

past and the present, the times of prosperity and decay, are art

fully confounded; but a sigh and a confession escape, from the

orator, that his wretched country was the shadow and sepulchre of

its former self. The works of ancient sculpture had been defaced

by Christian zeal or Barbaric violence; the fairest structures

were demolished; and the marbles of Paros or Numidia were burnt

for lime, or applied to the meanest uses. Of many a statue, the

place was marked by an empty pedestal; of many a column, the size

was determined by a broken capital; the tombs of the emperors

were scattered on the ground; the stroke of time was accelerated

by storms and earthquakes; and the vacant space was adorned, by

vulgar tradition, with fabulous monuments of gold and silver.

From these wonders, which lived only in memory or belief, he

distinguishes, however, the porphyry pillar, the column and

colossus of Justinian, ^3 and the church, more especially the

dome, of St. Sophia; the best conclusion, since it could not be

described according to its merits, and after it no other object

could deserve to be mentioned. But he forgets that, a century

before, the trembling fabrics of the colossus and the church had

been saved and supported by the timely care of Andronicus the

Elder. Thirty years after the emperor had fortified St. Sophia

with two new buttresses or pyramids, the eastern hemisphere

suddenly gave way: and the images, the altars, and the sanctuary,

were crushed by the falling ruin. The mischief indeed was

speedily repaired; the rubbish was cleared by the incessant labor

of every rank and age; and the poor remains of riches and

industry were consecrated by the Greeks to the most stately and

venerable temple of the East. ^4

[Footnote 1: The epistle of Emanuel Chrysoloras to the emperor

John Palaeologus will not offend the eye or ear of a classical

student, (ad calcem Codini de Antiquitatibus C. P. p. 107 - 126.)

The superscription suggests a chronological remark, that John

Palaeologus II. was associated in the empire before the year

1414, the date of Chrysoloras's death. A still earlier date, at

least 1408, is deduced from the age of his youngest sons,

Demetrius and Thomas, who were both Porphyrogeniti (Ducange, Fam.

Byzant. p. 244, 247.)]

[Footnote 2: Somebody observed that the city of Athens might be

circumnavigated. But what may be true in a rhetorical sense of

Constantinople, cannot be applied to the situation of Athens,

five miles from the sea, and not intersected or surrounded by any

navigable streams.]

[Footnote 3: Nicephorus Gregoras has described the Colossus of

Justinian, (l. vii. 12:) but his measures are false and

inconsistent. The editor Boivin consulted his friend Girardon;

and the sculptor gave him the true proportions of an equestrian

statue. That of Justinian was still visible to Peter Gyllius,

not on the column, but in the outward court of the seraglio; and

he was at Constantinople when it was melted down, and cast into a

brass cannon, (de Topograph. C. P. l. ii. c. 17.)]

[Footnote 4: See the decay and repairs of St. Sophia, in

Nicephorus Gregoras (l. vii. 12, l. xv. 2.) The building was

propped by Andronicus in 1317, the eastern hemisphere fell in

1345. The Greeks, in their pompous rhetoric, exalt the beauty

and holiness of the church, an earthly heaven the abode of

angels, and of God himself, &c.]

The last hope of the falling city and empire was placed in

the harmony of the mother and daughter, in the maternal

tenderness of Rome, and the filial obedience of Constantinople.

In the synod of Florence, the Greeks and Latins had embraced, and

subscribed, and promised; but these signs of friendship were

perfidious or fruitless; ^5 and the baseless fabric of the union

vanished like a dream. ^6 The emperor and his prelates returned

home in the Venetian galleys; but as they touched at the Morea

and the Isles of Corfu and Lesbos, the subjects of the Latins

complained that the pretended union would be an instrument of

oppression. No sooner did they land on the Byzantine shore, than

they were saluted, or rather assailed, with a general murmur of

zeal and discontent. During their absence, above two years, the

capital had been deprived of its civil and ecclesiastical rulers;

fanaticism fermented in anarchy; the most furious monks reigned

over the conscience of women and bigots; and the hatred of the

Latin name was the first principle of nature and religion.

Before his departure for Italy, the emperor had flattered the

city with the assurance of a prompt relief and a powerful succor;

and the clergy, confident in their orthodoxy and science, had

promised themselves and their flocks an easy victory over the

blind shepherds of the West. The double disappointment

exasperated the Greeks; the conscience of the subscribing

prelates was awakened; the hour of temptation was past; and they

had more to dread from the public resentment, than they could

hope from the favor of the emperor or the pope. Instead of

justifying their conduct, they deplored their weakness, professed

their contrition, and cast themselves on the mercy of God and of

their brethren. To the reproachful question, what had been the

event or the use of their Italian synod? they answered with

sighs and tears, "Alas! we have made a new faith; we have

exchanged piety for impiety; we have betrayed the immaculate

sacrifice; and we are become Azymites." (The Azymites were those

who celebrated the communion with unleavened bread; and I must

retract or qualify the praise which I have bestowed on the

growing philosophy of the times.) "Alas! we have been seduced by

distress, by fraud, and by the hopes and fears of a transitory

life. The hand that has signed the union should be cut off; and

the tongue that has pronounced the Latin creed deserves to be

torn from the root." The best proof of their repentance was an

increase of zeal for the most trivial rites and the most

incomprehensible doctrines; and an absolute separation from all,

without excepting their prince, who preserved some regard for

honor and consistency. After the decease of the patriarch

Joseph, the archbishops of Heraclea and Trebizond had courage to

refuse the vacant office; and Cardinal Bessarion preferred the

warm and comfortable shelter of the Vatican. The choice of the

emperor and his clergy was confined to Metrophanes of Cyzicus: he

was consecrated in St. Sophia, but the temple was vacant. The

cross-bearers abdicated their service; the infection spread from

the city to the villages; and Metrophanes discharged, without

effect, some ecclesiastical thunders against a nation of

schismatics. The eyes of the Greeks were directed to Mark of

Ephesus, the champion of his country; and the sufferings of the

holy confessor were repaid with a tribute of admiration and

applause. His example and writings propagated the flame of

religious discord; age and infirmity soon removed him from the

world; but the gospel of Mark was not a law of forgiveness; and

he requested with his dying breath, that none of the adherents of

Rome might attend his obsequies or pray for his soul.

[Footnote 5: The genuine and original narrative of Syropulus (p.

312 - 351) opens the schism from the first office of the Greeks

at Venice to the general opposition at Constantinople, of the

clergy and people.]

[Footnote 6: On the schism of Constantinople, see Phranza, (l.

ii. c. 17,) Laonicus Chalcondyles, (l. vi. p. 155, 156,) and

Ducas, (c. 31;) the last of whom writes with truth and freedom.

Among the moderns we may distinguish the continuator of Fleury,

(tom. xxii. p. 338, &c., 401, 420, &c.,) and Spondanus, (A.D.

1440 - 50.) The sense of the latter is drowned in prejudice and

passion, as soon as Rome and religion are concerned.]

The schism was not confined to the narrow limits of the

Byzantine empire. Secure under the Mamaluke sceptre, the three

patriarchs of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem, assembled a

numerous synod; disowned their representatives at Ferrara and

Florence; condemned the creed and council of the Latins; and

threatened the emperor of Constantinople with the censures of the

Eastern church. Of the sectaries of the Greek communion, the

Russians were the most powerful, ignorant, and superstitious.

Their primate, the cardinal Isidore, hastened from Florence to

Moscow, ^7 to reduce the independent nation under the Roman yoke.

But the Russian bishops had been educated at Mount Athos; and the

prince and people embraced the theology of their priests. They

were scandalized by the title, the pomp, the Latin cross of the

legate, the friend of those impious men who shaved their beards,

and performed the divine office with gloves on their hands and

rings on their fingers: Isidore was condemned by a synod; his

person was imprisoned in a monastery; and it was with extreme

difficulty that the cardinal could escape from the hands of a

fierce and fanatic people. ^8 The Russians refused a passage to

the missionaries of Rome who aspired to convert the Pagans beyond

the Tanais; ^9 and their refusal was justified by the maxim, that

the guilt of idolatry is less damnable than that of schism. The

errors of the Bohemians were excused by their abhorrence for the

pope; and a deputation of the Greek clergy solicited the

friendship of those sanguinary enthusiasts. ^10 While Eugenius

triumphed in the union and orthodoxy of the Greeks, his party was

contracted to the walls, or rather to the palace of

Constantinople. The zeal of Palaeologus had been excited by

interest; it was soon cooled by opposition: an attempt to violate

the national belief might endanger his life and crown; not could

the pious rebels be destitute of foreign and domestic aid. The

sword of his brother Demetrius, who in Italy had maintained a

prudent and popular silence, was half unsheathed in the cause of

religion; and Amurath, the Turkish sultan, was displeased and

alarmed by the seeming friendship of the Greeks and Latins.

[Footnote 7: Isidore was metropolitan of Kiow, but the Greeks

subject to Poland have removed that see from the ruins of Kiow to

Lemberg, or Leopold, (Herbestein, in Ramusio, tom. ii. p. 127.)

On the other hand, the Russians transferred their spiritual

obedience to the archbishop, who became, in 1588, the patriarch,

of Moscow, (Levesque Hist. de Russie, tom. iii. p. 188, 190, from

a Greek Ms. at Turin, Iter et labores Archiepiscopi Arsenii.)]

[Footnote 8: The curious narrative of Levesque (Hist. de Russie,

tom. ii. p. 242 - 247) is extracted from the patriarchal

archives. The scenes of Ferrara and Florence are described by

ignorance and passion; but the Russians are credible in the

account of their own prejudices.]

[Footnote 9: The Shamanism, the ancient religion of the

Samanaeans and Gymnosophists, has been driven by the more popular

Bramins from India into the northern deserts: the naked

philosophers were compelled to wrap themselves in fur; but they

insensibly sunk into wizards and physicians. The Mordvans and

Tcheremisses in the European Russia adhere to this religion,

which is formed on the earthly model of one king or God, his

ministers or angels, and the rebellious spirits who oppose his

government. As these tribes of the Volga have no images, they

might more justly retort on the Latin missionaries the name of

idolaters, (Levesque, Hist. des Peuples soumis a la Domination

des Russes, tom. i. p. 194 - 237, 423 - 460.)]

[Footnote 10: Spondanus, Annal. Eccles. tom ii. A.D. 1451, No.

13. The epistle of the Greeks with a Latin version, is extant in

the college library at Prague.]

"Sultan Murad, or Amurath, lived forty-nine, and reigned

thirty years, six months, and eight days. He was a just and

valiant prince, of a great soul, patient of labors, learned,

merciful, religious, charitable; a lover and encourager of the

studious, and of all who excelled in any art or science; a good

emperor and a great general. No man obtained more or greater

victories than Amurath; Belgrade alone withstood his attacks. ^*

Under his reign, the soldier was ever victorious, the citizen

rich and secure. If he subdued any country, his first care was

to build mosques and caravansaras, hospitals, and colleges.

Every year he gave a thousand pieces of gold to the sons of the

Prophet; and sent two thousand five hundred to the religious

persons of Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem." ^11 This portrait is

transcribed from the historian of the Othman empire: but the

applause of a servile and superstitious people has been lavished

on the worst of tyrants; and the virtues of a sultan are often

the vices most useful to himself, or most agreeable to his

subjects. A nation ignorant of the equal benefits of liberty and

law, must be awed by the flashes of arbitrary power: the cruelty

of a despot will assume the character of justice; his profusion,

of liberality; his obstinacy, of firmness. If the most

reasonable excuse be rejected, few acts of obedience will be

found impossible; and guilt must tremble, where innocence cannot

always be secure. The tranquillity of the people, and the

discipline of the troops, were best maintained by perpetual

action in the field; war was the trade of the Janizaries; and

those who survived the peril, and divided the spoil, applauded

the generous ambition of their sovereign. To propagate the true

religion, was the duty of a faithful Mussulman: the unbelievers

were his enemies, and those of the Prophet; and, in the hands of

the Turks, the scimeter was the only instrument of conversion.

Under these circumstances, however, the justice and moderation of

Amurath are attested by his conduct, and acknowledged by the

Christians themselves; who consider a prosperous reign and a

peaceful death as the reward of his singular merits. In the

vigor of his age and military power, he seldom engaged in war

till he was justified by a previous and adequate provocation: the

victorious sultan was disarmed by submission; and in the

observance of treaties, his word was inviolate and sacred. ^12

The Hungarians were commonly the aggressors; he was provoked by

the revolt of Scanderbeg; and the perfidious Caramanian was twice

vanquished, and twice pardoned, by the Ottoman monarch. Before

he invaded the Morea, Thebes had been surprised by the despot: in

the conquest of Thessalonica, the grandson of Bajazet might

dispute the recent purchase of the Venetians; and after the first

siege of Constantinople, the sultan was never tempted, by the

distress, the absence, or the injuries of Palaeologus, to

extinguish the dying light of the Byzantine empire.

[Footnote *: See the siege and massacre at Thessalonica. Von

Hammer vol. i p. 433 - M.]

[Footnote 11: See Cantemir, History of the Othman Empire, p. 94.

Muraq, or Morad, may be more correct: but I have preferred the

popular name to that obscure diligence which is rarely successful

in translating an Oriental, into the Roman, alphabet.]

[Footnote 12: See Chalcondyles, (l. vii. p. 186, 198,) Ducas, (c.

33,) and Marinus Barletius, (in Vit. Scanderbeg, p. 145, 146.) In

his good faith towards the garrison of Sfetigrade, he was a

lesson and example to his son Mahomet.]

But the most striking feature in the life and character of

Amurath is the double abdication of the Turkish throne; and, were

not his motives debased by an alloy of superstition, we must

praise the royal philosopher, ^13 who at the age of forty could

discern the vanity of human greatness. Resigning the sceptre to

his son, he retired to the pleasant residence of Magnesia; but he

retired to the society of saints and hermits. It was not till

the fourth century of the Hegira, that the religion of Mahomet

had been corrupted by an institution so adverse to his genius;

but in the age of the crusades, the various orders of Dervises

were multiplied by the example of the Christian, and even the

Latin, monks. ^14 The lord of nations submitted to fast, and

pray, and turn round ^* in endless rotation with the fanatics,

who mistook the giddiness of the head for the illumination of the

spirit. ^15 But he was soon awakened from his dreams of

enthusiasm by the Hungarian invasion; and his obedient son was

the foremost to urge the public danger and the wishes of the

people. Under the banner of their veteran leader, the Janizaries

fought and conquered but he withdrew from the field of Varna,

again to pray, to fast, and to turn round with his Magnesian

brethren. These pious occupations were again interrupted by the

danger of the state. A victorious army disdained the

inexperience of their youthful ruler: the city of Adrianople was

abandoned to rapine and slaughter; and the unanimous divan

implored his presence to appease the tumult, and prevent the

rebellion, of the Janizaries. At the well-known voice of their

master, they trembled and obeyed; and the reluctant sultan was

compelled to support his splendid servitude, till at the end of

four years, he was relieved by the angel of death. Age or

disease, misfortune or caprice, have tempted several princes to

descend from the throne; and they have had leisure to repent of

their irretrievable step. But Amurath alone, in the full liberty

of choice, after the trial of empire and solitude, has repeated

his preference of a private life.

[Footnote 13: Voltaire (Essai sur l'Histoire Generale, c. 89, p.

283, 284) admires le Philosophe Turc: would he have bestowed the

same praise on a Christian prince for retiring to a monastery?

In his way, Voltaire was a bigot, an intolerant bigot.]

[Footnote 14: See the articles Dervische, Fakir, Nasser,

Rohbaniat, in D'Herbelot's Bibliotheque Orientale. Yet the

subject is superficially treated from the Persian and Arabian

writers. It is among the Turks that these orders have

principally flourished.]

[Footnote *: Gibbon has fallen into a remarkable error. The

unmonastic retreat of Amurath was that of an epicurean rather

than of a dervis; more like that of Sardanapalus than of Charles

the Fifth. Profane, not divine, love was its chief occupation:

the only dance, that described by Horace as belonging to the

country, motus doceri gaudet Ionicos. See Von Hammer note, p.

652. - M]

[Footnote 15: Ricaut (in the Present State of the Ottoman Empire,

p. 242 - 268) affords much information, which he drew from his

personal conversation with the heads of the dervises, most of

whom ascribed their origin to the time of Orchan. He does not

mention the Zichidae of Chalcondyles, (l. vii. p. 286,) among

whom Amurath retired: the Seids of that author are the

descendants of Mahomet.]

After the departure of his Greek brethren, Eugenius had not

been unmindful of their temporal interest; and his tender regard

for the Byzantine empire was animated by a just apprehension of

the Turks, who approached, and might soon invade, the borders of

Italy. But the spirit of the crusades had expired; and the

coldness of the Franks was not less unreasonable than their

headlong passion. In the eleventh century, a fanatic monk could

precipitate Europe on Asia for the recovery of the holy

sepulchre; but in the fifteenth, the most pressing motives of

religion and policy were insufficient to unite the Latins in the

defence of Christendom. Germany was an inexhaustible storehouse

of men and arms: ^16 but that complex and languid body required

the impulse of a vigorous hand; and Frederic the Third was alike

impotent in his personal character and his Imperial dignity. A

long war had impaired the strength, without satiating the

animosity, of France and England: ^17 but Philip duke of Burgundy

was a vain and magnificent prince; and he enjoyed, without danger

or expense, the adventurous piety of his subjects, who sailed, in

a gallant fleet, from the coast of Flanders to the Hellespont.

The maritime republics of Venice and Genoa were less remote from

the scene of action; and their hostile fleets were associated

under the standard of St. Peter. The kingdoms of Hungary and

Poland, which covered as it were the interior pale of the Latin

church, were the most nearly concerned to oppose the progress of

the Turks. Arms were the patrimony of the Scythians and

Sarmatians; and these nations might appear equal to the contest,

could they point, against the common foe, those swords that were

so wantonly drawn in bloody and domestic quarrels. But the same

spirit was adverse to concord and obedience: a poor country and a

limited monarch are incapable of maintaining a standing force;

and the loose bodies of Polish and Hungarian horse were not armed

with the sentiments and weapons which, on some occasions, have

given irresistible weight to the French chivalry. Yet, on this

side, the designs of the Roman pontiff, and the eloquence of

Cardinal Julian, his legate, were promoted by the circumstances

of the times: ^18 by the union of the two crowns on the head of

Ladislaus, ^19 a young and ambitious soldier; by the valor of a

hero, whose name, the name of John Huniades, was already popular

among the Christians, and formidable to the Turks. An endless

treasure of pardons and indulgences was scattered by the legate;

many private warriors of France and Germany enlisted under the

holy banner; and the crusade derived some strength, or at least

some reputation, from the new allies both of Europe and Asia. A

fugitive despot of Servia exaggerated the distress and ardor of

the Christians beyond the Danube, who would unanimously rise to

vindicate their religion and liberty. The Greek emperor, ^20

with a spirit unknown to his fathers, engaged to guard the

Bosphorus, and to sally from Constantinople at the head of his

national and mercenary troops. The sultan of Caramania ^21

announced the retreat of Amurath, and a powerful diversion in the

heart of Anatolia; and if the fleets of the West could occupy at

the same moment the Straits of the Hellespont, the Ottoman

monarchy would be dissevered and destroyed. Heaven and earth

must rejoice in the perdition of the miscreants; and the legate,

with prudent ambiguity, instilled the opinion of the invisible,

perhaps the visible, aid of the Son of God, and his divine

mother.

[Footnote 16: In the year 1431, Germany raised 40,000 horse,

men-at-arms, against the Hussites of Bohemia, (Lenfant, Hist. du

Concile de Basle, tom. i. p. 318.) At the siege of Nuys, on the

Rhine, in 1474, the princes, prelates, and cities, sent their

respective quotas; and the bishop of Munster (qui n'est pas des

plus grands) furnished 1400 horse, 6000 foot, all in green, with

1200 wagons. The united armies of the king of England and the

duke of Burgundy scarcely equalled one third of this German host,

(Memoires de Philippe de Comines, l. iv. c. 2.) At present, six

or seven hundred thousand men are maintained in constant pay and

admirable discipline by the powers of Germany.]

[Footnote 17: It was not till the year 1444, that France and

England could agree on a truce of some months. (See Rymer's

Foedera, and the chronicles of both nations.)]

[Footnote 18: In the Hungarian crusade, Spondanus (Annal. Eccles.

A.D. 1443, 1444) has been my leading guide. He has diligently

read, and critically compared, the Greek and Turkish materials,

the historians of Hungary, Poland, and the West. His narrative

is perspicuous and where he can be free from a religious bias,

the judgment of Spondanus is not contemptible.]

[Footnote 19: I have curtailed the harsh letter (Wladislaus)

which most writers affix to his name, either in compliance with

the Polish pronunciation, or to distinguish him from his rival

the infant Ladislaus of Austria. Their competition for the crown

of Hungary is described by Callimachus, (l. i. ii. p. 447 - 486,)

Bonfinius, (Decad. iii. l. iv.,) Spondanus, and Lenfant.]

[Footnote 20: The Greek historians, Phranza, Chalcondyles, and

Ducas, do not ascribe to their prince a very active part in this

crusade, which he seems to have promoted by his wishes, and

injured by his fears.]

[Footnote 21: Cantemir (p. 88) ascribes to his policy the

original plan, and transcribes his animating epistle to the king

of Hungary. But the Mahometan powers are seldom it formed of the

state of Christendom and the situation and correspondence of the

knights of Rhodes must connect them with the sultan of

Caramania.]

Of the Polish and Hungarian diets, a religious war was the

unanimous cry; and Ladislaus, after passing the Danube, led an

army of his confederate subjects as far as Sophia, the capital of

the Bulgarian kingdom. In this expedition they obtained two

signal victories, which were justly ascribed to the valor and

conduct of Huniades. In the first, with a vanguard of ten

thousand men, he surprised the Turkish camp; in the second, he

vanquished and made prisoner the most renowned of their generals,

who possessed the double advantage of ground and numbers. The

approach of winter, and the natural and artificial obstacles of

Mount Haemus, arrested the progress of the hero, who measured a

narrow interval of six days' march from the foot of the mountains

to the hostile towers of Adrianople, and the friendly capital of

the Greek empire. The retreat was undisturbed; and the entrance

into Buda was at once a military and religious triumph. An

ecclesiastical procession was followed by the king and his

warriors on foot: he nicely balanced the merits and rewards of

the two nations; and the pride of conquest was blended with the

humble temper of Christianity. Thirteen bashaws, nine standards,

and four thousand captives, were unquestionable trophies; and as

all were willing to believe, and none were present to contradict,

the crusaders multiplied, with unblushing confidence, the myriads

of Turks whom they had left on the field of battle. ^22 The most

solid proof, and the most salutary consequence, of victory, was a

deputation from the divan to solicit peace, to restore Servia, to

ransom the prisoners, and to evacuate the Hungarian frontier. By

this treaty, the rational objects of the war were obtained: the

king, the despot, and Huniades himself, in the diet of Segedin,

were satisfied with public and private emolument; a truce of ten

years was concluded; and the followers of Jesus and Mahomet, who

swore on the Gospel and the Koran, attested the word of God as

the guardian of truth and the avenger of perfidy. In the place

of the Gospel, the Turkish ministers had proposed to substitute

the Eucharist, the real presence of the Catholic deity; but the

Christians refused to profane their holy mysteries; and a

superstitious conscience is less forcibly bound by the spiritual

energy, than by the outward and visible symbols of an oath. ^23

[Footnote 22: In their letters to the emperor Frederic III. the

Hungarians slay 80,000 Turks in one battle; but the modest Julian

reduces the slaughter to 6000 or even 2000 infidels, (Aeneas

Sylvius in Europ. c. 5, and epist. 44, 81, apud Spondanum.)]

[Footnote 23: See the origin of the Turkish war, and the first

expedition of Ladislaus, in the vth and vith books of the iiid

decad of Bonfinius, who, in his division and style, copies Livy

with tolerable success Callimachus (l. ii p. 487 - 496) is still

more pure and authentic.]

During the whole transaction, the cardinal legate had

observed a sullen silence, unwilling to approve, and unable to

oppose, the consent of the king and people. But the diet was not

dissolved before Julian was fortified by the welcome

intelligence, that Anatolia was invaded by the Caramanian, and

Thrace by the Greek emperor; that the fleets of Genoa, Venice,

and Burgundy, were masters of the Hellespont; and that the

allies, informed of the victory, and ignorant of the treaty, of

Ladislaus, impatiently waited for the return of his victorious

army. "And is it thus," exclaimed the cardinal, ^24 "that you

will desert their expectations and your own fortune? It is to

them, to your God, and your fellow-Christians, that you have

pledged your faith; and that prior obligation annihilates a rash

and sacrilegious oath to the enemies of Christ. His vicar on

earth is the Roman pontiff; without whose sanction you can

neither promise nor perform. In his name I absolve your perjury

and sanctify your arms: follow my footsteps in the paths of glory

and salvation; and if still ye have scruples, devolve on my head

the punishment and the sin." This mischievous casuistry was

seconded by his respectable character, and the levity of popular

assemblies: war was resolved, on the same spot where peace had so

lately been sworn; and, in the execution of the treaty, the Turks

were assaulted by the Christians; to whom, with some reason, they

might apply the epithet of Infidels. The falsehood of Ladislaus

to his word and oath was palliated by the religion of the times:

the most perfect, or at least the most popular, excuse would have

been the success of his arms and the deliverance of the Eastern

church. But the same treaty which should have bound his

conscience had diminished his strength. On the proclamation of

the peace, the French and German volunteers departed with

indignant murmurs: the Poles were exhausted by distant warfare,

and perhaps disgusted with foreign command; and their palatines

accepted the first license, and hastily retired to their

provinces and castles. Even Hungary was divided by faction, or

restrained by a laudable scruple; and the relics of the crusade

that marched in the second expedition were reduced to an

inadequate force of twenty thousand men. A Walachian chief, who

joined the royal standard with his vassals, presumed to remark

that their numbers did not exceed the hunting retinue that

sometimes attended the sultan; and the gift of two horses of

matchless speed might admonish Ladislaus of his secret foresight

of the event. But the despot of Servia, after the restoration of

his country and children, was tempted by the promise of new

realms; and the inexperience of the king, the enthusiasm of the

legate, and the martial presumption of Huniades himself, were

persuaded that every obstacle must yield to the invincible virtue

of the sword and the cross. After the passage of the Danube, two

roads might lead to Constantinople and the Hellespont: the one

direct, abrupt, and difficult through the mountains of Haemus;

the other more tedious and secure, over a level country, and

along the shores of the Euxine; in which their flanks, according

to the Scythian discipline, might always be covered by a movable

fortification of wagons. The latter was judiciously preferred:

the Catholics marched through the plains of Bulgaria, burning,

with wanton cruelty, the churches and villages of the Christian

natives; and their last station was at Warna, near the sea-shore;

on which the defeat and death of Ladislaus have bestowed a

memorable name. ^25

[Footnote 24: I do not pretend to warrant the literal accuracy of

Julian's speech, which is variously worded by Callimachus, (l.

iii. p. 505 - 507,) Bonfinius, (dec. iii. l. vi. p. 457, 458,)

and other historians, who might indulge their own eloquence,

while they represent one of the orators of the age. But they all

agree in the advice and arguments for perjury, which in the field

of controversy are fiercely attacked by the Protestants, and

feebly defended by the Catholics. The latter are discouraged by

the misfortune of Warna]

[Footnote 25: Warna, under the Grecian name of Odessus, was a

colony of the Milesians, which they denominated from the hero

Ulysses, (Cellarius, tom. i. p. 374. D'Anville, tom. i. p. 312.)

According to Arrian's Periplus of the Euxine, (p. 24, 25, in the

first volume of Hudson's Geographers,) it was situate 1740

stadia, or furlongs, from the mouth of the Danube, 2140 from

Byzantium, and 360 to the north of a ridge of promontory of Mount

Haemus, which advances into the sea.]

Chapter LXVII: Schism Of The Greeks And Latins.

Part II.

It was on this fatal spot, that, instead of finding a

confederate fleet to second their operations, they were alarmed

by the approach of Amurath himself, who had issued from his

Magnesian solitude, and transported the forces of Asia to the

defence of Europe. According to some writers, the Greek emperor

had been awed, or seduced, to grant the passage of the Bosphorus;

and an indelible stain of corruption is fixed on the Genoese, or

the pope's nephew, the Catholic admiral, whose mercenary

connivance betrayed the guard of the Hellespont. From

Adrianople, the sultan advanced by hasty marches, at the head of

sixty thousand men; and when the cardinal, and Huniades, had

taken a nearer survey of the numbers and order of the Turks,

these ardent warriors proposed the tardy and impracticable

measure of a retreat. The king alone was resolved to conquer or

die; and his resolution had almost been crowned with a glorious

and salutary victory. The princes were opposite to each other in

the centre; and the Beglerbegs, or generals of Anatolia and

Romania, commanded on the right and left, against the adverse

divisions of the despot and Huniades. The Turkish wings were

broken on the first onset: but the advantage was fatal; and the

rash victors, in the heat of the pursuit, were carried away far

from the annoyance of the enemy, or the support of their friends.

When Amurath beheld the flight of his squadrons, he despaired of

his fortune and that of the empire: a veteran Janizary seized his

horse's bridle; and he had magnanimity to pardon and reward the

soldier who dared to perceive the terror, and arrest the flight,

of his sovereign. A copy of the treaty, the monument of Christian

perfidy, had been displayed in the front of battle; and it is

said, that the sultan in his distress, lifting his eyes and his

hands to heaven, implored the protection of the God of truth; and

called on the prophet Jesus himself to avenge the impious mockery

of his name and religion. ^26 With inferior numbers and

disordered ranks, the king of Hungary rushed forward in the

confidence of victory, till his career was stopped by the

impenetrable phalanx of the Janizaries. If we may credit the

Ottoman annals, his horse was pierced by the javelin of Amurath;

^27 he fell among the spears of the infantry; and a Turkish

soldier proclaimed with a loud voice, "Hungarians, behold the

head of your king!" The death of Ladislaus was the signal of

their defeat. On his return from an intemperate pursuit,

Huniades deplored his error, and the public loss; he strove to

rescue the royal body, till he was overwhelmed by the tumultuous

crowd of the victors and vanquished; and the last efforts of his

courage and conduct were exerted to save the remnant of his

Walachian cavalry. Ten thousand Christians were slain in the

disastrous battle of Warna: the loss of the Turks, more

considerable in numbers, bore a smaller proportion to their total

strength; yet the philosophic sultan was not ashamed to confess,

that his ruin must be the consequence of a second and similar

victory. ^* At his command a column was erected on the spot where

Ladislaus had fallen; but the modest inscription, instead of

accusing the rashness, recorded the valor, and bewailed the

misfortune, of the Hungarian youth. ^28

[Footnote 26: Some Christian writers affirm, that he drew from

his bosom the host or wafer on which the treaty had not been

sworn. The Moslems suppose, with more simplicity, an appeal to

God and his prophet Jesus, which is likewise insinuated by

Callimachus, (l. iii. p. 516. Spondan. A.D. 1444, No. 8.)]

[Footnote 27: A critic will always distrust these spolia opima of

a victorious general, so difficult for valor to obtain, so easy

for flattery to invent, (Cantemir, p. 90, 91.) Callimachus (l.

iii. p. 517) more simply and probably affirms, supervenitibus

Janizaris, telorum multitudine, non jam confossus est, quam

obrutus.]

[Footnote *: Compare Von Hammer, p. 463. - M.]

[Footnote 28: Besides some valuable hints from Aeneas Sylvius,

which are diligently collected by Spondanus, our best authorities

are three historians of the xvth century, Philippus Callimachus,

(de Rebus a Vladislao Polonorum atque Hungarorum Rege gestis,

libri iii. in Bel. Script. Rerum Hungaricarum, tom. i. p. 433 -

518,) Bonfinius, (decad. iii. l. v. p. 460 - 467,) and

Chalcondyles, (l. vii. p. 165 - 179.) The two first were

Italians, but they passed their lives in Poland and Hungary,

(Fabric. Bibliot. Latin. Med. et Infimae Aetatis, tom. i. p. 324.

Vossius, de Hist. Latin. l. iii. c. 8, 11. Bayle, Dictionnaire,

Bonfinius.) A small tract of Faelix Petancius, chancellor of

Segnia, (ad calcem Cuspinian. de Caesaribus, p. 716 - 722,)

represents the theatre of the war in the xvth century.]

Before I lose sight of the field of Warna, I am tempted to

pause on the character and story of two principal actors, the

cardinal Julian and John Huniades. Julian ^29 Caesarini was born

of a noble family of Rome: his studies had embraced both the

Latin and Greek learning, both the sciences of divinity and law;

and his versatile genius was equally adapted to the schools, the

camp, and the court. No sooner had he been invested with the

Roman purple, than he was sent into Germany to arm the empire

against the rebels and heretics of Bohemia. The spirit of

persecution is unworthy of a Christian; the military profession

ill becomes a priest; but the former is excused by the times; and

the latter was ennobled by the courage of Julian, who stood

dauntless and alone in the disgraceful flight of the German host.

As the pope's legate, he opened the council of Basil; but the

president soon appeared the most strenuous champion of

ecclesiastical freedom; and an opposition of seven years was

conducted by his ability and zeal. After promoting the strongest

measures against the authority and person of Eugenius, some

secret motive of interest or conscience engaged him to desert on

a sudden the popular party. The cardinal withdrew himself from

Basil to Ferrara; and, in the debates of the Greeks and Latins,

the two nations admired the dexterity of his arguments and the

depth of his theological erudition. ^30 In his Hungarian embassy,

we have already seen the mischievous effects of his sophistry and

eloquence, of which Julian himself was the first victim. The

cardinal, who performed the duties of a priest and a soldier, was

lost in the defeat of Warna. The circumstances of his death are

variously related; but it is believed, that a weighty encumbrance

of gold impeded his flight, and tempted the cruel avarice of some

Christian fugitives.

[Footnote 29: M. Lenfant has described the origin (Hist. du

Concile de Basle, tom. i. p. 247, &c.) and Bohemian campaign (p.

315, &c.) of Cardinal Julian. His services at Basil and Ferrara,

and his unfortunate end, are occasionally related by Spondanus,

and the continuator of Fleury]

[Footnote 30: Syropulus honorably praises the talent of an enemy,

(p. 117:).]

From an humble, or at least a doubtful origin, the merit of

John Huniades promoted him to the command of the Hungarian

armies. His father was a Walachian, his mother a Greek: her

unknown race might possibly ascend to the emperors of

Constantinople; and the claims of the Walachians, with the

surname of Corvinus, from the place of his nativity, might

suggest a thin pretence for mingling his blood with the

patricians of ancient Rome. ^31 In his youth he served in the

wars of Italy, and was retained, with twelve horsemen, by the

bishop of Zagrab: the valor of the white knight ^32 was soon

conspicuous; he increased his fortunes by a noble and wealthy

marriage; and in the defence of the Hungarian borders he won in

the same year three battles against the Turks. By his influence,

Ladislaus of Poland obtained the crown of Hungary; and the

important service was rewarded by the title and office of Waivod

of Transylvania. The first of Julian's crusades added two

Turkish laurels on his brow; and in the public distress the fatal

errors of Warna were forgotten. During the absence and minority

of Ladislaus of Austria, the titular king, Huniades was elected

supreme captain and governor of Hungary; and if envy at first was

silenced by terror, a reign of twelve years supposes the arts of

policy as well as of war. Yet the idea of a consummate general

is not delineated in his campaigns; the white knight fought with

the hand rather than the head, as the chief of desultory

Barbarians, who attack without fear and fly without shame; and

his military life is composed of a romantic alternative of

victories and escapes. By the Turks, who employed his name to

frighten their perverse children, he was corruptly denominated

Jancus Lain, or the Wicked: their hatred is the proof of their

esteem; the kingdom which he guarded was inaccessible to their

arms; and they felt him most daring and formidable, when they

fondly believed the captain and his country irrecoverably lost.

Instead of confining himself to a defensive war, four years after

the defeat of Warna he again penetrated into the heart of

Bulgaria, and in the plain of Cossova, sustained, till the third

day, the shock of the Ottoman army, four times more numerous than

his own. As he fled alone through the woods of Walachia, the

hero was surprised by two robbers; but while they disputed a gold

chain that hung at his neck, he recovered his sword, slew the

one, terrified the other, and, after new perils of captivity or

death, consoled by his presence an afflicted kingdom. But the

last and most glorious action of his life was the defence of

Belgrade against the powers of Mahomet the Second in person.

After a siege of forty days, the Turks, who had already entered

the town, were compelled to retreat; and the joyful nations

celebrated Huniades and Belgrade as the bulwarks of Christendom.

^33 About a month after this great deliverance, the champion

expired; and his most splendid epitaph is the regret of the

Ottoman prince, who sighed that he could no longer hope for

revenge against the single antagonist who had triumphed over his

arms. On the first vacancy of the throne, Matthias Corvinus, a

youth of eighteen years of age, was elected and crowned by the

grateful Hungarians. His reign was prosperous and long: Matthias

aspired to the glory of a conqueror and a saint: but his purest

merit is the encouragement of learning; and the Latin orators and

historians, who were invited from Italy by the son, have shed the

iustre of their eloquence on the father's character. ^34

[Footnote 31: See Bonfinius, decad. iii. l. iv. p. 423. Could

the Italian historian pronounce, or the king of Hungary hear,

without a blush, the absurd flattery which confounded the name of

a Walachian village with the casual, though glorious, epithet of

a single branch of the Valerian family at Rome?]

[Footnote 32: Philip de Comines, (Memoires, l. vi. c. 13,) from

the tradition of the times, mentions him with high encomiums, but

under the whimsical name of the Chevalier Blanc de Valaigne,

(Valachia.) The Greek Chalcondyles, and the Turkish annals of

Leunclavius, presume to accuse his fidelity or valor.]

[Footnote 33: See Bonfinius (decad. iii. l. viii. p. 492) and

Spondanus, (A.D. 456, No. 1 - 7.) Huniades shared the glory of

the defence of Belgrade with Capistran, a Franciscan friar; and

in their respective narratives, neither the saint nor the hero

condescend to take notice of his rival's merit.]

[Footnote 34: See Bonfinius, decad. iii. l. viii. - decad. iv. l.

viii. The observations of Spondanus on the life and character of

Matthias Corvinus are curious and critical, (A.D. 1464, No. 1,

1475, No. 6, 1476, No. 14 - 16, 1490, No. 4, 5.) Italian fame was

the object of his vanity. His actions are celebrated in the

Epitome Rerum Hungaricarum (p. 322 - 412) of Peter Ranzanus, a

Sicilian. His wise and facetious sayings are registered by

Galestus Martius of Narni, (528 - 568,) and we have a particular

narrative of his wedding and coronation. These three tracts are

all contained in the first vol. of Bel's Scriptores Rerum

Hungaricarum.]

In the list of heroes, John Huniades and Scanderbeg are

commonly associated; ^35 and they are both entitled to our

notice, since their occupation of the Ottoman arms delayed the

ruin of the Greek empire. John Castriot, the father of

Scanderbeg, ^36 was the hereditary prince of a small district of

Epirus or Albania, between the mountains and the Adriatic Sea.

Unable to contend with the sultan's power, Castriot submitted to

the hard conditions of peace and tribute: he delivered his four

sons as the pledges of his fidelity; and the Christian youths,

after receiving the mark of circumcision, were instructed in the

Mahometan religion, and trained in the arms and arts of Turkish

policy. ^37 The three elder brothers were confounded in the crowd

of slaves; and the poison to which their deaths are ascribed

cannot be verified or disproved by any positive evidence. Yet

the suspicion is in a great measure removed by the kind and

paternal treatment of George Castriot, the fourth brother, who,

from his tender youth, displayed the strength and spirit of a

soldier. The successive overthrow of a Tartar and two Persians,

who carried a proud defiance to the Turkish court, recommended

him to the favor of Amurath, and his Turkish appellation of

Scanderbeg, (Iskender beg,) or the lord Alexander, is an

indelible memorial of his glory and servitude. His father's

principality was reduced into a province; but the loss was

compensated by the rank and title of Sanjiak, a command of five

thousand horse, and the prospect of the first dignities of the

empire. He served with honor in the wars of Europe and Asia; and

we may smile at the art or credulity of the historian, who

supposes, that in every encounter he spared the Christians, while

he fell with a thundering arm on his Mussulman foes. The glory of

Huniades is without reproach: he fought in the defence of his

religion and country; but the enemies who applaud the patriot,

have branded his rival with the name of traitor and apostate. In

the eyes of the Christian, the rebellion of Scanderberg is

justified by his father's wrongs, the ambiguous death of his

three brothers, his own degradation, and the slavery of his

country; and they adore the generous, though tardy, zeal, with

which he asserted the faith and independence of his ancestors.

But he had imbibed from his ninth year the doctrines of the

Koran; he was ignorant of the Gospel; the religion of a soldier

is determined by authority and habit; nor is it easy to conceive

what new illumination at the age of forty ^38 could be poured

into his soul. His motives would be less exposed to the

suspicion of interest or revenge, had he broken his chain from

the moment that he was sensible of its weight: but a long

oblivion had surely impaired his original right; and every year

of obedience and reward had cemented the mutual bond of the

sultan and his subject. If Scanderbeg had long harbored the

belief of Christianity and the intention of revolt, a worthy mind

must condemn the base dissimulation, that could serve only to

betray, that could promise only to be forsworn, that could

actively join in the temporal and spiritual perdition of so many

thousands of his unhappy brethren. Shall we praise a secret

correspondence with Huniades, while he commanded the vanguard of

the Turkish army? shall we excuse the desertion of his standard,

a treacherous desertion which abandoned the victory to the

enemies of his benefactor? In the confusion of a defeat, the eye

of Scanderbeg was fixed on the Reis Effendi or principal

secretary: with the dagger at his breast, he extorted a firman or

patent for the government of Albania; and the murder of the

guiltless scribe and his train prevented the consequences of an

immediate discovery. With some bold companions, to whom he had

revealed his design he escaped in the night, by rapid marches,

from the field or battle to his paternal mountains. The gates of

Croya were opened to the royal mandate; and no sooner did he

command the fortress, than George Castriot dropped the mask of

dissimulation; abjured the prophet and the sultan, and proclaimed

himself the avenger of his family and country. The names of

religion and liberty provoked a general revolt: the Albanians, a

martial race, were unanimous to live and die with their

hereditary prince; and the Ottoman garrisons were indulged in the

choice of martyrdom or baptism. In the assembly of the states of

Epirus, Scanderbeg was elected general of the Turkish war; and

each of the allies engaged to furnish his respective proportion

of men and money. From these contributions, from his patrimonial

estate, and from the valuable salt-pits of Selina, he drew an

annual revenue of two hundred thousand ducats; ^39 and the entire

sum, exempt from the demands of luxury, was strictly appropriated

to the public use. His manners were popular; but his discipline

was severe; and every superfluous vice was banished from his

camp: his example strengthened his command; and under his

conduct, the Albanians were invincible in their own opinion and

that of their enemies. The bravest adventurers of France and

Germany were allured by his fame and retained in his service: his

standing militia consisted of eight thousand horse and seven

thousand foot; the horses were small, the men were active; but he

viewed with a discerning eye the difficulties and resources of

the mountains; and, at the blaze of the beacons, the whole nation

was distributed in the strongest posts. With such unequal arms

Scanderbeg resisted twenty-three years the powers of the Ottoman

empire; and two conquerors, Amurath the Second, and his greater

son, were repeatedly baffled by a rebel, whom they pursued with

seeming contempt and implacable resentment. At the head of sixty

thousand horse and forty thousand Janizaries, Amurath entered

Albania: he might ravage the open country, occupy the defenceless

towns, convert the churches into mosques, circumcise the

Christian youths, and punish with death his adult and obstinate

captives: but the conquests of the sultan were confined to the

petty fortress of Sfetigrade; and the garrison, invincible to his

arms, was oppressed by a paltry artifice and a superstitious

scruple. ^40 Amurath retired with shame and loss from the walls

of Croya, the castle and residence of the Castriots; the march,

the siege, the retreat, were harassed by a vexatious, and almost

invisible, adversary; ^41 and the disappointment might tend to

imbitter, perhaps to shorten, the last days of the sultan. ^42 In

the fulness of conquest, Mahomet the Second still felt at his

bosom this domestic thorn: his lieutenants were permitted to

negotiate a truce; and the Albanian prince may justly be praised

as a firm and able champion of his national independence. The

enthusiasm of chivalry and religion has ranked him with the names

of Alexander and Pyrrhus; nor would they blush to acknowledge

their intrepid countryman: but his narrow dominion, and slender

powers, must leave him at an humble distance below the heroes of

antiquity, who triumphed over the East and the Roman legions.

His splendid achievements, the bashaws whom he encountered, the

armies that he discomfited, and the three thousand Turks who were

slain by his single hand, must be weighed in the scales of

suspicious criticism. Against an illiterate enemy, and in the

dark solitude of Epirus, his partial biographers may safely

indulge the latitude of romance: but their fictions are exposed

by the light of Italian history; and they afford a strong

presumption against their own truth, by a fabulous tale of his

exploits, when he passed the Adriatic with eight hundred horse to

the succor of the king of Naples. ^43 Without disparagement to

his fame, they might have owned, that he was finally oppressed by

the Ottoman powers: in his extreme danger he applied to Pope Pius

the Second for a refuge in the ecclesiastical state; and his

resources were almost exhausted, since Scanderbeg died a fugitive

at Lissus, on the Venetian territory. ^44 His sepulchre was soon

violated by the Turkish conquerors; but the Janizaries, who wore

his bones enchased in a bracelet, declared by this superstitious

amulet their involuntary reverence for his valor. The instant

ruin of his country may redound to the hero's glory; yet, had he

balanced the consequences of submission and resistance, a patriot

perhaps would have declined the unequal contest which must depend

on the life and genius of one man. Scanderbeg might indeed be

supported by the rational, though fallacious, hope, that the

pope, the king of Naples, and the Venetian republic, would join

in the defence of a free and Christian people, who guarded the

sea-coast of the Adriatic, and the narrow passage from Greece to

Italy. His infant son was saved from the national shipwreck; the

Castriots ^45 were invested with a Neapolitan dukedom, and their

blood continues to flow in the noblest families of the realm. A

colony of Albanian fugitives obtained a settlement in Calabria,

and they preserve at this day the language and manners of their

ancestors. ^46

[Footnote 35: They are ranked by Sir William Temple, in his

pleasing Essay on Heroic Virtue, (Works, vol. iii. p. 385,) among

the seven chiefs who have deserved without wearing, a royal

crown; Belisarius, Narses, Gonsalvo of Cordova, William first

prince of Orange, Alexander duke of Parma, John Huniades, and

George Castriot, or Scanderbeg.]

[Footnote 36: I could wish for some simple authentic memoirs of a

friend of Scanderbeg, which would introduce me to the man, the

time, and the place. In the old and national history of Marinus

Barletius, a priest of Scodra, (de Vita. Moribus, et Rebus gestis

Georgii Castrioti, &c. libri xiii. p. 367. Argentorat. 1537, in

fol.,) his gaudy and cumbersoms robes are stuck with many false

jewels. See likewise Chalcondyles, l vii. p. 185, l. viii. p.

229.]

[Footnote 37: His circumcision, education, &c., are marked by

Marinus with brevity and reluctance, (l. i. p. 6, 7.)]

[Footnote 38: Since Scanderbeg died A.D. 1466, in the lxiiid year

of his age, (Marinus, l. xiii. p. 370,) he was born in 1403;

since he was torn from his parents by the Turks, when he was

novennis, (Marinus, l. i. p. 1, 6,) that event must have happened

in 1412, nine years before the accession of Amurath II., who must

have inherited, not acquired the Albanian slave. Spondanus has

remarked this inconsistency, A.D. 1431, No. 31, 1443, No. 14.]

[Footnote 39: His revenue and forces are luckily given by

Marinus, (l. ii. p. 44.)]

[Footnote 40: There were two Dibras, the upper aud lower, the

Bulgarian and Albanian: the former, 70 miles from Croya, (l. i.

p. 17,) was contiguous to the fortress of Sfetigrade, whose

inhabitants refused to drink from a well into which a dead dog

had traitorously been cast, (l. v. p. 139, 140.) We want a good

map of Epirus.]

[Footnote 41: Compare the Turkish narrative of Cantemir (p. 92)

with the pompous and prolix declamation in the ivth, vth, and

vith books of the Albanian priest, who has been copied by the

tribe of strangers and moderns.]

[Footnote 42: In honor of his hero, Barletius (l. vi. p. 188 -

192) kills the sultan by disease indeed, under the walls of

Croya. But this audacious fiction is disproved by the Greeks and

Turks, who agree in the time and manner of Amurath's death at

Adrianople.]

[Footnote 43: See the marvels of his Calabrian expedition in the

ixth and xth books of Marinus Barletius, which may be rectified

by the testimony or silence of Muratori, (Annali d'Italia, tom.

xiii. p. 291,) and his original authors, (Joh. Simonetta de Rebus

Francisci Sfortiae, in Muratori, Script. Rerum Ital. tom. xxi. p.

728, et alios.) The Albanian cavalry, under the name of

Stradiots, soon became famous in the wars of Italy, (Memoires de

Comines, l. viii. c. 5.)]

[Footnote 44: Spondanus, from the best evidence, and the most

rational criticism, has reduced the giant Scanderbeg to the human

size, (A.D. 1461, No. 20, 1463, No. 9, 1465, No. 12, 13, 1467,

No. 1.) His own letter to the pope, and the testimony of Phranza,

(l. iii. c. 28,) a refugee in the neighboring isle of Corfu,

demonstrate his last distress, which is awkwardly concealed by

Marinus Barletius, (l. x.)]

[Footnote 45: See the family of the Castriots, in Ducange, (Fam.

Dalmaticae, &c, xviii. p. 348 - 350.)]

[Footnote 46: This colony of Albanese is mentioned by Mr.

Swinburne, (Travels into the Two Sicilies, vol. i. p. 350 -

354.)]

In the long career of the decline and fall of the Roman

empire, I have reached at length the last reign of the princes of

Constantinople, who so feebly sustained the name and majesty of

the Caesars. On the decease of John Palaeologus, who survived

about four years the Hungarian crusade, ^47 the royal family, by

the death of Andronicus and the monastic profession of Isidore,

was reduced to three princes, Constantine, Demetrius, and Thomas,

the surviving sons of the emperor Manuel. Of these the first and

the last were far distant in the Morea; but Demetrius, who

possessed the domain of Selybria, was in the suburbs, at the head

of a party: his ambition was not chilled by the public distress;

and his conspiracy with the Turks and the schismatics had already

disturbed the peace of his country. The funeral of the late

emperor was accelerated with singular and even suspicious haste:

the claim of Demetrius to the vacant throne was justified by a

trite and flimsy sophism, that he was born in the purple, the

eldest son of his father's reign. But the empress-mother, the

senate and soldiers, the clergy and people, were unanimous in the

cause of the lawful successor: and the despot Thomas, who,

ignorant of the change, accidentally returned to the capital,

asserted with becoming zeal the interest of his absent brother.

An ambassador, the historian Phranza, was immediately despatched

to the court of Adrianople. Amurath received him with honor and

dismissed him with gifts; but the gracious approbation of the

Turkish sultan announced his supremacy, and the approaching

downfall of the Eastern empire. By the hands of two illustrious

deputies, the Imperial crown was placed at Sparta on the head of

Constantine. In the spring he sailed from the Morea, escaped the

encounter of a Turkish squadron, enjoyed the acclamations of his

subjects, celebrated the festival of a new reign, and exhausted

by his donatives the treasure, or rather the indigence, of the

state. The emperor immediately resigned to his brothers the

possession of the Morea; and the brittle friendship of the two

princes, Demetrius and Thomas, was confirmed in their mother's

presence by the frail security of oaths and embraces. His next

occupation was the choice of a consort. A daughter of the doge

of Venice had been proposed; but the Byzantine nobles objected

the distance between an hereditary monarch and an elective

magistrate; and in their subsequent distress, the chief of that

powerful republic was not unmindful of the affront. Constantine

afterwards hesitated between the royal families of Trebizond and

Georgia; and the embassy of Phranza represents in his public and

private life the last days of the Byzantine empire. ^48

[Footnote 47: The Chronology of Phranza is clear and authentic;

but instead of four years and seven months, Spondanus (A.D. 1445,

No. 7,) assigns seven or eight years to the reign of the last

Constantine which he deduces from a spurious epistle of Eugenius

IV. to the king of Aethiopia.]

[Footnote 48: Phranza (l. iii. c. 1 - 6) deserves credit and

esteem.]

The protovestiare, or great chamberlain, Phranza sailed from

Constantinople as the minister of a bridegroom; and the relics of

wealth and luxury were applied to his pompous appearance. His

numerous retinue consisted of nobles and guards, of physicians

and monks: he was attended by a band of music; and the term of

his costly embassy was protracted above two years. On his

arrival in Georgia or Iberia, the natives from the towns and

villages flocked around the strangers; and such was their

simplicity, that they were delighted with the effects, without

understanding the cause, of musical harmony. Among the crowd was

an old man, above a hundred years of age, who had formerly been

carried away a captive by the Barbarians, ^49 and who amused his

hearers with a tale of the wonders of India, ^50 from whence he

had returned to Portugal by an unknown sea. ^51 From this

hospitable land, Phranza proceeded to the court of Trebizond,

where he was informed by the Greek prince of the recent decease

of Amurath. Instead of rejoicing in the deliverance, the

experienced statesman expressed his apprehension, that an

ambitious youth would not long adhere to the sage and pacific

system of his father. After the sultan's decease, his Christian

wife, Maria, ^52 the daughter of the Servian despot, had been

honorably restored to her parents; on the fame of her beauty and

merit, she was recommended by the ambassador as the most worthy

object of the royal choice; and Phranza recapitulates and refutes

the specious objections that might be raised against the

proposal. The majesty of the purple would ennoble an unequal

alliance; the bar of affinity might be removed by liberal alms

and the dispensation of the church; the disgrace of Turkish

nuptials had been repeatedly overlooked; and, though the fair

Maria was nearly fifty years of age, she might yet hope to give

an heir to the empire. Constantine listened to the advice, which

was transmitted in the first ship that sailed from Trebizond; but

the factions of the court opposed his marriage; and it was

finally prevented by the pious vow of the sultana, who ended her

days in the monastic profession. Reduced to the first

alternative, the choice of Phranza was decided in favor of a

Georgian princess; and the vanity of her father was dazzled by

the glorious alliance. Instead of demanding, according to the

primitive and national custom, a price for his daughter, ^53 he

offered a portion of fifty-six thousand, with an annual pension

of five thousand, ducats; and the services of the ambassador were

repaid by an assurance, that, as his son had been adopted in

baptism by the emperor, the establishment of his daughter should

be the peculiar care of the empress of Constantinople. On the

return of Phranza, the treaty was ratified by the Greek monarch,

who with his own hand impressed three vermilion crosses on the

golden bull, and assured the Georgian envoy that in the spring

his galleys should conduct the bride to her Imperial palace. But

Constantine embraced his faithful servant, not with the cold

approbation of a sovereign, but with the warm confidence of a

friend, who, after a long absence, is impatient to pour his

secrets into the bosom of his friend. "Since the death of my

mother and of Cantacuzene, who alone advised me without interest

or passion, ^54 I am surrounded," said the emperor, "by men whom

I can neither love nor trust, nor esteem. You are not a stranger

to Lucas Notaras, the great admiral; obstinately attached to his

own sentiments, he declares, both in private and public, that his

sentiments are the absolute measure of my thoughts and actions.

The rest of the courtiers are swayed by their personal or

factious views; and how can I consult the monks on questions of

policy and marriage? I have yet much employment for your

diligence and fidelity. In the spring you shall engage one of my

brothers to solicit the succor of the Western powers; from the

Morea you shall sail to Cyprus on a particular commission; and

from thence proceed to Georgia to receive and conduct the future

empress." - "Your commands," replied Phranza, "are irresistible;

but deign, great sir," he added, with a serious smile, "to

consider, that if I am thus perpetually absent from my family, my

wife may be tempted either to seek another husband, or to throw

herself into a monastery." After laughing at his apprehensions,

the emperor more gravely consoled him by the pleasing assurance

that this should be his last service abroad, and that he destined

for his son a wealthy and noble heiress; for himself, the

important office of great logothete, or principal minister of

state. The marriage was immediately stipulated: but the office,

however incompatible with his own, had been usurped by the

ambition of the admiral. Some delay was requisite to negotiate a

consent and an equivalent; and the nomination of Phranza was half

declared, and half suppressed, lest it might be displeasing to an

insolent and powerful favorite. The winter was spent in the

preparations of his embassy; and Phranza had resolved, that the

youth his son should embrace this opportunity of foreign travel,

and be left, on the appearance of danger, with his maternal

kindred of the Morea. Such were the private and public designs,

which were interrupted by a Turkish war, and finally buried in

the ruins of the empire.

[Footnote 49: Suppose him to have been captured in 1394, in

Timour's first war in Georgia, (Sherefeddin, l. iii. c. 50;) he

might follow his Tartar master into Hindostan in 1398, and from

thence sail to the spice islands.]

[Footnote 50: The happy and pious Indians lived a hundred and

fifty years, and enjoyed the most perfect productions of the

vegetable and mineral kingdoms. The animals were on a large

scale: dragons seventy cubits, ants (the formica Indica) nine

inches long, sheep like elephants, elephants like sheep.

Quidlibet audendi, &c.]

[Footnote 51: He sailed in a country vessel from the spice

islands to one of the ports of the exterior India; invenitque

navem grandem Ibericam qua in Portugalliam est delatus. This

passage, composed in 1477, (Phranza, l. iii. c. 30,) twenty years

before the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope, is spurious or

wonderful. But this new geography is sullied by the old and

incompatible error which places the source of the Nile in India.]

[Footnote 52: Cantemir, (p. 83,) who styles her the daughter of

Lazarus Ogli, and the Helen of the Servians, places her marriage

with Amurath in the year 1424. It will not easily be believed,

that in six-and-twenty years' cohabitation, the sultan corpus

ejus non tetigit. After the taking of Constantinople, she fled

to Mahomet II., (Phranza, l. iii. c. 22.)]

[Footnote 53: The classical reader will recollect the offers of

Agamemnon, (Iliad, c. v. 144,) and the general practice of

antiquity.]

[Footnote 54: Cantacuzene (I am ignorant of his relation to the

emperor of that name) was great domestic, a firm assertor of the

Greek creed, and a brother of the queen of Servia, whom he

visited with the character of ambassador, (Syropulus, p. 37, 38,

45.)]

Chapter LXVIII: Reign Of Mahomet The Second, Extinction Of

Eastern Empire

Part I.

Reign And Character Of Mahomet The Second. - Siege, Assault,

And Final Conquest, Of Constantinople By The Turks. - Death Of

Constantine Palaeologus. - Servitude Of The Greeks. - Extinction

Of The Roman Empire In The East. - Consternation Of Europe. -

Conquests And Death Of Mahomet The Second.

The siege of Constantinople by the Turks attracts our first

attention to the person and character of the great destroyer.

Mahomet the Second ^1 was the son of the second Amurath; and

though his mother has been decorated with the titles of Christian

and princess, she is more probably confounded with the numerous

concubines who peopled from every climate the harem of the

sultan. His first education and sentiments were those of a devout

Mussulman; and as often as he conversed with an infidel, he

purified his hands and face by the legal rites of ablution. Age

and empire appear to have relaxed this narrow bigotry: his

aspiring genius disdained to acknowledge a power above his own;

and in his looser hours he presumed (it is said) to brand the

prophet of Mecca as a robber and impostor. Yet the sultan

persevered in a decent reverence for the doctrine and discipline

of the Koran: ^2 his private indiscretion must have been sacred

from the vulgar ear; and we should suspect the credulity of

strangers and sectaries, so prone to believe that a mind which is

hardened against truth must be armed with superior contempt for

absurdity and error. Under the tuition of the most skilful

masters, Mahomet advanced with an early and rapid progress in the

paths of knowledge; and besides his native tongue it is affirmed

that he spoke or understood five languages, ^3 the Arabic, the

Persian, the Chaldaean or Hebrew, the Latin, and the Greek. The

Persian might indeed contribute to his amusement, and the Arabic

to his edification; and such studies are familiar to the Oriental

youth. In the intercourse of the Greeks and Turks, a conqueror

might wish to converse with the people over which he was

ambitious to reign: his own praises in Latin poetry ^4 or prose

^5 might find a passage to the royal ear; but what use or merit

could recommend to the statesman or the scholar the uncouth

dialect of his Hebrew slaves? The history and geography of the

world were familiar to his memory: the lives of the heroes of the

East, perhaps of the West, ^6 excited his emulation: his skill in

astrology is excused by the folly of the times, and supposes some

rudiments of mathematical science; and a profane taste for the

arts is betrayed in his liberal invitation and reward of the

painters of Italy. ^7 But the influence of religion and learning

were employed without effect on his savage and licentious nature.

I will not transcribe, nor do I firmly believe, the stories of

his fourteen pages, whose bellies were ripped open in search of a

stolen melon; or of the beauteous slave, whose head he severed

from her body, to convince the Janizaries that their master was

not the votary of love. ^* His sobriety is attested by the

silence of the Turkish annals, which accuse three, and three

only, of the Ottoman line of the vice of drunkenness. ^8 But it

cannot be denied that his passions were at once furious and

inexorable; that in the palace, as in the field, a torrent of

blood was spilt on the slightest provocation; and that the

noblest of the captive youth were often dishonored by his

unnatural lust. In the Albanian war he studied the lessons, and

soon surpassed the example, of his father; and the conquest of

two empires, twelve kingdoms, and two hundred cities, a vain and

flattering account, is ascribed to his invincible sword. He was

doubtless a soldier, and possibly a general; Constantinople has

sealed his glory; but if we compare the means, the obstacles, and

the achievements, Mahomet the Second must blush to sustain a

parallel with Alexander or Timour. Under his command, the

Ottoman forces were always more numerous than their enemies; yet

their progress was bounded by the Euphrates and the Adriatic; and

his arms were checked by Huniades and Scanderbeg, by the Rhodian

knights and by the Persian king.

[Footnote 1: For the character of Mahomet II. it is dangerous to

trust either the Turks or the Christians. The most moderate

picture appears to be drawn by Phranza, (l. i. c. 33,) whose

resentment had cooled in age and solitude; see likewise

Spondanus, (A.D. 1451, No. 11,) and the continuator of Fleury,

(tom. xxii. p. 552,) the Elogia of Paulus Jovius, (l. iii. p. 164

- 166,) and the Dictionnaire de Bayle, (tom. iii. p. 273 - 279.)]

[Footnote 2: Cantemir, (p. 115.) and the mosques which he

founded, attest his public regard for religion. Mahomet freely

disputed with the Gennadius on the two religions, (Spond. A.D.

1453, No. 22.)]

[Footnote 3: Quinque linguas praeter suam noverat, Graecam,

Latinam, Chaldaicam, Persicam. The Latin translator of Phranza

has dropped the Arabic, which the Koran must recommend to every

Mussulman.

Note: It appears in the original Greek text, p. 95, edit.

Bonn. - M.]

[Footnote 4: Philelphus, by a Latin ode, requested and obtained

the liberty of his wife's mother and sisters from the conqueror

of Constantinople. It was delivered into the sultan's hands by

the envoys of the duke of Milan. Philelphus himself was suspected

of a design of retiring to Constantinople; yet the orator often

sounded the trumpet of holy war, (see his Life by M. Lancelot, in

the Memoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. x. p. 718, 724,

&c.)]

[Footnote 5: Robert Valturio published at Verona, in 1483, his

xii. books de Re Militari, in which he first mentions the use of

bombs. By his patron Sigismund Malatesta, prince of Rimini, it

had been addressed with a Latin epistle to Mahomet II.]

[Footnote 6: According to Phranza, he assiduously studied the

lives and actions of Alexander, Augustus, Constantine, and

Theodosius. I have read somewhere, that Plutarch's Lives were

translated by his orders into the Turkish language. If the

sultan himself understood Greek, it must have been for the

benefit of his subjects. Yet these lives are a school of freedom

as well as of valor.

Note: Von Hammer disdainfully rejects this fable of

Mahomet's knowledge of languages. Knolles adds, that he

delighted in reading the history of Alexander the Great, and of

Julius Caesar. The former, no doubt, was the Persian legend,

which, it is remarkable, came back to Europe, and was popular

throughout the middle ages as the "Romaunt of Alexander." The

founder of the Imperial dynasty of Rome, according to M. Von

Hammer, is altogether unknown in the East. Mahomet was a great

patron of Turkish literature: the romantic poems of Persia were

translated, or imitated, under his patronage. Von Hammer vol ii.

p. 268. - M.]

[Footnote 7: The famous Gentile Bellino, whom he had invited from

Venice, was dismissed with a chain and collar of gold, and a

purse of 3000 ducats. With Voltaire I laugh at the foolish story

of a slave purposely beheaded to instruct the painter in the

action of the muscles.]

[Footnote *: This story, the subject of Johnson's Irene, is

rejected by M. Von Hammer, vol. ii. p. 208. The German

historian's general estimate of Mahomet's character agrees in its

more marked features with Gibbon's. - M.]

[Footnote 8: These Imperial drunkards were Soliman I., Selim II.,

and Amurath IV., (Cantemir, p. 61.) The sophis of Persia can

produce a more regular succession; and in the last age, our

European travellers were the witnesses and companions of their

revels.]

In the reign of Amurath, he twice tasted of royalty, and

twice descended from the throne: his tender age was incapable of

opposing his father's restoration, but never could he forgive the

viziers who had recommended that salutary measure. His nuptials

were celebrated with the daughter of a Turkman emir; and, after a

festival of two months, he departed from Adrianople with his

bride, to reside in the government of Magnesia. Before the end

of six weeks, he was recalled by a sudden message from the divan,

which announced the decease of Amurath, and the mutinous spirit

of the Janizaries. His speed and vigor commanded their

obedience: he passed the Hellespont with a chosen guard: and at

the distance of a mile from Adrianople, the viziers and emirs,

the imams and candhis, the soldiers and the people, fell

prostrate before the new sultan. They affected to weep, they

affected to rejoice: he ascended the throne at the age of

twenty-one years, and removed the cause of sedition by the death,

the inevitable death, of his infant brothers. ^9 ^* The

ambassadors of Europe and Asia soon appeared to congratulate his

accession and solicit his friendship; and to all he spoke the

language of moderation and peace. The confidence of the Greek

emperor was revived by the solemn oaths and fair assurances with

which he sealed the ratification of the treaty: and a rich domain

on the banks of the Strymon was assigned for the annual payment

of three hundred thousand aspers, the pension of an Ottoman

prince, who was detained at his request in the Byzantine court.

Yet the neighbors of Mahomet might tremble at the severity with

which a youthful monarch reformed the pomp of his father's

household: the expenses of luxury were applied to those of

ambition, and a useless train of seven thousand falconers was

either dismissed from his service, or enlisted in his troops. ^!

In the first summer of his reign, he visited with an army the

Asiatic provinces; but after humbling the pride, Mahomet accepted

the submission, of the Caramanian, that he might not be diverted

by the smallest obstacle from the execution of his great design.

^10

[Footnote 9: Calapin, one of these royal infants, was saved from

his cruel brother, and baptized at Rome under the name of

Callistus Othomannus. The emperor Frederic III. presented him

with an estate in Austria, where he ended his life; and

Cuspinian, who in his youth conversed with the aged prince at

Vienna, applauds his piety and wisdom, (de Caesaribus, p. 672,

673.)]

[Footnote *: Ahmed, the son of a Greek princess, was the object

of his especial jealousy. Von Hammer, p. 501. - M.]

[Footnote !: The Janizaries obtained, for the first time, a gift

on the accession of a new sovereign, p. 504. - M.]

[Footnote 10: See the accession of Mahomet II. in Ducas, (c. 33,)

Phranza, (l. i. c. 33, l. iii. c. 2,) Chalcondyles, (l. vii. p.

199,) and Cantemir, (p. 96.)]

The Mahometan, and more especially the Turkish casuists,

have pronounced that no promise can bind the faithful against the

interest and duty of their religion; and that the sultan may

abrogate his own treaties and those of his predecessors. The

justice and magnanimity of Amurath had scorned this immoral

privilege; but his son, though the proudest of men, could stoop

from ambition to the basest arts of dissimulation and deceit.

Peace was on his lips, while war was in his heart: he incessantly

sighed for the possession of Constantinople; and the Greeks, by

their own indiscretion, afforded the first pretence of the fatal

rupture. ^11 Instead of laboring to be forgotten, their

ambassadors pursued his camp, to demand the payment, and even the

increase, of their annual stipend: the divan was importuned by

their complaints, and the vizier, a secret friend of the

Christians, was constrained to deliver the sense of his brethren.

"Ye foolish and miserable Romans," said Calil, "we know your

devices, and ye are ignorant of your own danger! The scrupulous

Amurath is no more; his throne is occupied by a young conqueror,

whom no laws can bind, and no obstacles can resist: and if you

escape from his hands, give praise to the divine clemency, which

yet delays the chastisement of your sins. Why do ye seek to

affright us by vain and indirect menaces? Release the fugitive

Orchan, crown him sultan of Romania; call the Hungarians from

beyond the Danube; arm against us the nations of the West; and be

assured, that you will only provoke and precipitate your ruin."

But if the fears of the ambassadors were alarmed by the stern

language of the vizier, they were soothed by the courteous

audience and friendly speeches of the Ottoman prince; and Mahomet

assured them that on his return to Adrianople he would redress

the grievances, and consult the true interests, of the Greeks.

No sooner had he repassed the Hellespont, than he issued a

mandate to suppress their pension, and to expel their officers

from the banks of the Strymon: in this measure he betrayed a

hostile mind; and the second order announced, and in some degree

commenced, the siege of Constantinople. In the narrow pass of

the Bosphorus, an Asiatic fortress had formerly been raised by

his grandfather; in the opposite situation, on the European side,

he resolved to erect a more formidable castle; and a thousand

masons were commanded to assemble in the spring on a spot named

Asomaton, about five miles from the Greek metropolis. ^12

Persuasion is the resource of the feeble; and the feeble can

seldom persuade: the ambassadors of the emperor attempted,

without success, to divert Mahomet from the execution of his

design. They represented, that his grandfather had solicited the

permission of Manuel to build a castle on his own territories;

but that this double fortification, which would command the

strait, could only tend to violate the alliance of the nations;

to intercept the Latins who traded in the Black Sea, and perhaps

to annihilate the subsistence of the city. "I form the

enterprise," replied the perfidious sultan, "against the city;

but the empire of Constantinople is measured by her walls. Have

you forgot the distress to which my father was reduced when you

formed a league with the Hungarians; when they invaded our

country by land, and the Hellespont was occupied by the French

galleys? Amurath was compelled to force the passage of the

Bosphorus; and your strength was not equal to your malevolence.

I was then a child at Adrianople; the Moslems trembled; and, for

a while, the Gabours ^13 insulted our disgrace. But when my

father had triumphed in the field of Warna, he vowed to erect a

fort on the western shore, and that vow it is my duty to

accomplish. Have ye the right, have ye the power, to control my

actions on my own ground? For that ground is my own: as far as

the shores of the Bosphorus, Asia is inhabited by the Turks, and

Europe is deserted by the Romans. Return, and inform your king,

that the present Ottoman is far different from his predecessors;

that his resolutions surpass their wishes; and that he performs

more than they could resolve. Return in safety - but the next who

delivers a similar message may expect to be flayed alive." After

this declaration, Constantine, the first of the Greeks in spirit

as in rank, ^14 had determined to unsheathe the sword, and to

resist the approach and establishment of the Turks on the

Bosphorus. He was disarmed by the advice of his civil and

ecclesiastical ministers, who recommended a system less generous,

and even less prudent, than his own, to approve their patience

and long-suffering, to brand the Ottoman with the name and guilt

of an aggressor, and to depend on chance and time for their own

safety, and the destruction of a fort which could not long be

maintained in the neighborhood of a great and populous city.

Amidst hope and fear, the fears of the wise, and the hopes of the

credulous, the winter rolled away; the proper business of each

man, and each hour, was postponed; and the Greeks shut their eyes

against the impending danger, till the arrival of the spring and

the sultan decide the assurance of their ruin.

[Footnote 11: Before I enter on the siege of Constantinople, I

shall observe, that except the short hints of Cantemir and

Leunclavius, I have not been able to obtain any Turkish account

of this conquest; such an account as we possess of the siege of

Rhodes by Soliman II., (Memoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions,

tom. xxvi. p. 723 - 769.) I must therefore depend on the Greeks,

whose prejudices, in some degree, are subdued by their distress.

Our standard texts ar those of Ducas, (c. 34 - 42,) Phranza, (l.

iii. c. 7 - 20,) Chalcondyles, (l. viii. p. 201 - 214,) and

Leonardus Chiensis, (Historia C. P. a Turco expugnatae.

Norimberghae, 1544, in 4to., 20 leaves.) The last of these

narratives is the earliest in date, since it was composed in the

Isle of Chios, the 16th of August, 1453, only seventy-nine days

after the loss of the city, and in the first confusion of ideas

and passions. Some hints may be added from an epistle of

Cardinal Isidore (in Farragine Rerum Turcicarum, ad calcem

Chalcondyl. Clauseri, Basil, 1556) to Pope Nicholas V., and a

tract of Theodosius Zygomala, which he addressed in the year 1581

to Martin Crucius, (Turco-Graecia, l. i. p. 74 - 98, Basil,

1584.) The various facts and materials are briefly, though

critically, reviewed by Spondanus, (A.D. 1453, No. 1 - 27.) The

hearsay relations of Monstrelet and the distant Latins I shall

take leave to disregard.

Note: M. Von Hammer has added little new information on the

siege of Constantinople, and, by his general agreement, has borne

an honorable testimony to the truth, and by his close imitation

to the graphic spirit and boldness, of Gibbon. - M.]

[Footnote 12: The situation of the fortress, and the topography

of the Bosphorus, are best learned from Peter Gyllius, (de

Bosphoro Thracio, l. ii. c. 13,) Leunclavius, (Pandect. p. 445,)

and Tournefort, (Voyage dans le Levant, tom. ii. lettre xv. p.

443, 444;) but I must regret the map or plan which Tournefort

sent to the French minister of the marine. The reader may turn

back to chap. xvii. of this History.]

[Footnote 13: The opprobrious name which the Turks bestow on the

infidels, is expressed by Ducas, and Giaour by Leunclavius and

the moderns. The former term is derived by Ducange (Gloss. Graec

tom. i. p. 530), in vulgar Greek, a tortoise, as denoting a

retrograde motion from the faith. But alas! Gabour is no more

than Gheber, which was transferred from the Persian to the

Turkish language, from the worshippers of fire to those of the

crucifix, (D'Herbelot, Bibliot. Orient. p. 375.)]

[Footnote 14: Phranza does justice to his master's sense and

courage. Calliditatem hominis non ignorans Imperator prior arma

movere constituit, and stigmatizes the folly of the cum sacri tum

profani proceres, which he had heard, amentes spe vana pasci.

Ducas was not a privy-counsellor.]

Of a master who never forgives, the orders are seldom

disobeyed. On the twenty-sixth of March, the appointed spot of

Asomaton was covered with an active swarm of Turkish artificers;

and the materials by sea and land were diligently transported

from Europe and Asia. ^15 The lime had been burnt in Cataphrygia;

the timber was cut down in the woods of Heraclea and Nicomedia;

and the stones were dug from the Anatolian quarries. Each of the

thousand masons was assisted by two workmen; and a measure of two

cubits was marked for their daily task. The fortress ^16 was

built in a triangular form; each angle was flanked by a strong

and massy tower; one on the declivity of the hill, two along the

sea-shore: a thickness of twenty-two feet was assigned for the

walls, thirty for the towers; and the whole building was covered

with a solid platform of lead. Mahomet himself pressed and

directed the work with indefatigable ardor: his three viziers

claimed the honor of finishing their respective towers; the zeal

of the cadhis emulated that of the Janizaries; the meanest labor

was ennobled by the service of God and the sultan; and the

diligence of the multitude was quickened by the eye of a despot,

whose smile was the hope of fortune, and whose frown was the

messenger of death. The Greek emperor beheld with terror the

irresistible progress of the work; and vainly strove, by flattery

and gifts, to assuage an implacable foe, who sought, and secretly

fomented, the slightest occasion of a quarrel. Such occasions

must soon and inevitably be found. The ruins of stately

churches, and even the marble columns which had been consecrated

to Saint Michael the archangel, were employed without scruple by

the profane and rapacious Moslems; and some Christians, who

presumed to oppose the removal, received from their hands the

crown of martyrdom. Constantine had solicited a Turkish guard to

protect the fields and harvests of his subjects: the guard was

fixed; but their first order was to allow free pasture to the

mules and horses of the camp, and to defend their brethren if

they should be molested by the natives. The retinue of an Ottoman

chief had left their horses to pass the night among the ripe

corn; the damage was felt; the insult was resented; and several

of both nations were slain in a tumultuous conflict. Mahomet

listened with joy to the complaint; and a detachment was

commanded to exterminate the guilty village: the guilty had fled;

but forty innocent and unsuspecting reapers were massacred by the

soldiers. Till this provocation, Constantinople had been opened

to the visits of commerce and curiosity: on the first alarm, the

gates were shut; but the emperor, still anxious for peace,

released on the third day his Turkish captives; ^17 and

expressed, in a last message, the firm resignation of a Christian

and a soldier. "Since neither oaths, nor treaty, nor submission,

can secure peace, pursue," said he to Mahomet, "your impious

warfare. My trust is in God alone; if it should please him to

mollify your heart, I shall rejoice in the happy change; if he

delivers the city into your hands, I submit without a murmur to

his holy will. But until the Judge of the earth shall pronounce

between us, it is my duty to live and die in the defence of my

people." The sultan's answer was hostile and decisive: his

fortifications were completed; and before his departure for

Adrianople, he stationed a vigilant Aga and four hundred

Janizaries, to levy a tribute on the ships of every nation that

should pass within the reach of their cannon. A Venetian vessel,

refusing obedience to the new lords of the Bosphorus, was sunk

with a single bullet. ^* The master and thirty sailors escaped in

the boat; but they were dragged in chains to the Porte: the chief

was impaled; his companions were beheaded; and the historian

Ducas ^18 beheld, at Demotica, their bodies exposed to the wild

beasts. The siege of Constantinople was deferred till the

ensuing spring; but an Ottoman army marched into the Morea to

divert the force of the brothers of Constantine. At this aera of

calamity, one of these princes, the despot Thomas, was blessed or

afflicted with the birth of a son; "the last heir," says the

plaintive Phranza, "of the last spark of the Roman empire." ^19

[Footnote 15: Instead of this clear and consistent account, the

Turkish Annals (Cantemir, p. 97) revived the foolish tale of the

ox's hide, and Dido's stratagem in the foundation of Carthage.

These annals (unless we are swayed by an anti-Christian

prejudice) are far less valuable than the Greek historians.]

[Footnote 16: In the dimensions of this fortress, the old castle

of Europe, Phranza does not exactly agree with Chalcondyles,

whose description has been verified on the spot by his editor

Leunclavius.]

[Footnote 17: Among these were some pages of Mahomet, so

conscious of his inexorable rigor, that they begged to lose their

heads in the city unless they could return before sunset.]

[Footnote *: This was from a model cannon cast by Urban the

Hungarian. See p. 291. Von Hammer. p. 510. - M.]

[Footnote 18: Ducas, c. 35. Phranza, (l. iii. c. 3,) who had

sailed in his vessel, commemorates the Venetian pilot as a

martyr.]

[Footnote 19: Auctum est Palaeologorum genus, et Imperii

successor, parvaeque Romanorum scintillae haeres natus, Andreas,

&c., (Phranza, l. iii. c. 7.) The strong expression was inspired

by his feelings.]

The Greeks and the Turks passed an anxious and sleepless

winter: the former were kept awake by their fears, the latter by

their hopes; both by the preparations of defence and attack; and

the two emperors, who had the most to lose or to gain, were the

most deeply affected by the national sentiment. In Mahomet, that

sentiment was inflamed by the ardor of his youth and temper: he

amused his leisure with building at Adrianople ^20 the lofty

palace of Jehan Numa, (the watchtower of the world;) but his

serious thoughts were irrevocably bent on the conquest of the

city of Caesar. At the dead of night, about the second watch, he

started from his bed, and commanded the instant attendance of his

prime vizier. The message, the hour, the prince, and his own

situation, alarmed the guilty conscience of Calil Basha; who had

possessed the confidence, and advised the restoration, of

Amurath. On the accession of the son, the vizier was confirmed

in his office and the appearances of favor; but the veteran

statesman was not insensible that he trod on a thin and slippery

ice, which might break under his footsteps, and plunge him in the

abyss. His friendship for the Christians, which might be

innocent under the late reign, had stigmatized him with the name

of Gabour Ortachi, or foster-brother of the infidels; ^21 and his

avarice entertained a venal and treasonable correspondence, which

was detected and punished after the conclusion of the war. On

receiving the royal mandate, he embraced, perhaps for the last

time, his wife and children; filled a cup with pieces of gold,

hastened to the palace, adored the sultan, and offered, according

to the Oriental custom, the slight tribute of his duty and

gratitude. ^22 "It is not my wish," said Mahomet, "to resume my

gifts, but rather to heap and multiply them on thy head. In my

turn, I ask a present far more valuable and important; -

Constantinople." As soon as the vizier had recovered from his

surprise, "The same God," said he, "who has already given thee so

large a portion of the Roman empire, will not deny the remnant,

and the capital. His providence, and thy power, assure thy

success; and myself, with the rest of thy faithful slaves, will

sacrifice our lives and fortunes." - "Lala," ^23 (or preceptor,)

continued the sultan, "do you see this pillow? All the night, in

my agitation, I have pulled it on one side and the other; I have

risen from my bed, again have I lain down; yet sleep has not

visited these weary eyes. Beware of the gold and silver of the

Romans: in arms we are superior; and with the aid of God, and the

prayers of the prophet, we shall speedily become masters of

Constantinople." To sound the disposition of his soldiers, he

often wandered through the streets alone, and in disguise; and it

was fatal to discover the sultan, when he wished to escape from

the vulgar eye. His hours were spent in delineating the plan of

the hostile city; in debating with his generals and engineers, on

what spot he should erect his batteries; on which side he should

assault the walls; where he should spring his mines; to what

place he should apply his scaling-ladders: and the exercises of

the day repeated and proved the lucubrations of the night.

[Footnote 20: Cantemir, p. 97, 98. The sultan was either

doubtful of his conquest, or ignorant of the superior merits of

Constantinople. A city or a kingdom may sometimes be ruined by

the Imperial fortune of their sovereign.]

[Footnote 21: It, by the president Cousin, is translated pere

nourricier, most correctly indeed from the Latin version; but in

his haste he has overlooked the note by which Ishmael Boillaud

(ad Ducam, c. 35) acknowledges and rectifies his own error.]

[Footnote 22: The Oriental custom of never appearing without

gifts before a sovereign or a superior is of high antiquity, and

seems analogous with the idea of sacrifice, still more ancient

and universal. See the examples of such Persian gifts, Aelian,

Hist. Var. l. i. c. 31, 32, 33.]

[Footnote 23: The Lala of the Turks (Cantemir, p. 34) and the

Tata of the Greeks (Ducas, c. 35) are derived from the natural

language of children; and it may be observed, that all such

primitive words which denote their parents, are the simple

repetition of one syllable, composed of a labial or a dental

consonant and an open vowel, (Des Brosses, Mechanisme des

Langues, tom. i. p. 231 - 247.)]

Chapter LXVIII: Reign Of Mahomet The Second, Extinction Of

Eastern Empire

Part II.

Among the implements of destruction, he studied with

peculiar care the recent and tremendous discovery of the Latins;

and his artillery surpassed whatever had yet appeared in the

world. A founder of cannon, a Dane ^* or Hungarian, who had been

almost starved in the Greek service, deserted to the Moslems, and

was liberally entertained by the Turkish sultan. Mahomet was

satisfied with the answer to his first question, which he eagerly

pressed on the artist. "Am I able to cast a cannon capable of

throwing a ball or stone of sufficient size to batter the walls

of Constantinople? I am not ignorant of their strength; but were

they more solid than those of Babylon, I could oppose an engine

of superior power: the position and management of that engine

must be left to your engineers." On this assurance, a foundry was

established at Adrianople: the metal was prepared; and at the end

of three months, Urban produced a piece of brass ordnance of

stupendous, and almost incredible magnitude; a measure of twelve

palms is assigned to the bore; and the stone bullet weighed above

six hundred pounds. ^24 ^* A vacant place before the new palace

was chosen for the first experiment; but to prevent the sudden

and mischievous effects of astonishment and fear, a proclamation

was issued, that the cannon would be discharged the ensuing day.

The explosion was felt or heard in a circuit of a hundred

furlongs: the ball, by the force of gunpowder, was driven above a

mile; and on the spot where it fell, it buried itself a fathom

deep in the ground. For the conveyance of this destructive

engine, a frame or carriage of thirty wagons was linked together

and drawn along by a team of sixty oxen: two hundred men on both

sides were stationed, to poise and support the rolling weight;

two hundred and fifty workmen marched before to smooth the way

and repair the bridges; and near two months were employed in a

laborious journey of one hundred and fifty miles. A lively

philosopher ^25 derides on this occasion the credulity of the

Greeks, and observes, with much reason, that we should always

distrust the exaggerations of a vanquished people. He

calculates, that a ball, even o two hundred pounds, would require

a charge of one hundred and fifty pounds of powder; and that the

stroke would be feeble and impotent, since not a fifteenth part

of the mass could be inflamed at the same moment. A stranger as

I am to the art of destruction, I can discern that the modern

improvements of artillery prefer the number of pieces to the

weight of metal; the quickness of the fire to the sound, or even

the consequence, of a single explosion. Yet I dare not reject

the positive and unanimous evidence of contemporary writers; nor

can it seem improbable, that the first artists, in their rude and

ambitious efforts, should have transgressed the standard of

moderation. A Turkish cannon, more enormous than that of

Mahomet, still guards the entrance of the Dardanelles; and if the

use be inconvenient, it has been found on a late trial that the

effect was far from contemptible. A stone bullet of eleven

hundred pounds' weight was once discharged with three hundred and

thirty pounds of powder: at the distance of six hundred yards it

shivered into three rocky fragments; traversed the strait; and

leaving the waters in a foam, again rose and bounded against the

opposite hill. ^26

[Footnote *: Gibbon has written Dane by mistake for Dace, or

Dacian. Chalcondyles, Von Hammer, p. 510. - M.]

[Footnote 24: The Attic talent weighed about sixty minae, or

avoirdupois pounds (see Hooper on Ancient Weights, Measures,

&c.;) but among the modern Greeks, that classic appellation was

extended to a weight of one hundred, or one hundred and

twenty-five pounds, (Ducange.) Leonardus Chiensis measured the

ball or stone of the second cannon Lapidem, qui palmis undecim ex

meis ambibat in gyro.]

[Footnote *: 1200, according to Leonardus Chiensis. Von Hammer

states that he had himself seen the great cannon of the

Dardanelles, in which a tailor who had run away from his

creditors, had concealed himself several days Von Hammer had

measured balls twelve spans round. Note. p. 666. - M.]

[Footnote 25: See Voltaire, (Hist. Generale, c. xci. p. 294,

295.) He was ambitious of universal monarchy; and the poet

frequently aspires to the name and style of an astronomer, a

chemist, &c.]

[Footnote 26: The Baron de Tott, (tom. iii. p. 85 - 89,) who

fortified the Dardanelles against the Russians, describes in a

lively, and even comic, strain his own prowess, and the

consternation of the Turks. But that adventurous traveller does

not possess the art of gaining our confidence.]

While Mahomet threatened the capital of the East, the Greek

emperor implored with fervent prayers the assistance of earth and

heaven. But the invisible powers were deaf to his supplications;

and Christendom beheld with indifference the fall of

Constantinople, while she derived at least some promise of supply

from the jealous and temporal policy of the sultan of Egypt. Some

states were too weak, and others too remote; by some the danger

was considered as imaginary by others as inevitable: the Western

princes were involved in their endless and domestic quarrels; and

the Roman pontiff was exasperated by the falsehood or obstinacy

of the Greeks. Instead of employing in their favor the arms and

treasures of Italy, Nicholas the Fifth had foretold their

approaching ruin; and his honor was engaged in the accomplishment

of his prophecy. ^* Perhaps he was softened by the last extremity

o their distress; but his compassion was tardy; his efforts were

faint and unavailing; and Constantinople had fallen, before the

squadrons of Genoa and Venice could sail from their harbors. ^27

Even the princes of the Morea and of the Greek islands affected a

cold neutrality: the Genoese colony of Galata negotiated a

private treaty; and the sultan indulged them in the delusive

hope, that by his clemency they might survive the ruin of the

empire. A plebeian crowd, and some Byzantine nobles basely

withdrew from the danger of their country; and the avarice of the

rich denied the emperor, and reserved for the Turks, the secret

treasures which might have raised in their defence whole armies

of mercenaries. ^28 The indigent and solitary prince prepared,

however, to sustain his formidable adversary; but if his courage

were equal to the peril, his strength was inadequate to the

contest. In the beginning of the spring, the Turkish vanguard

swept the towns and villages as far as the gates of

Constantinople: submission was spared and protected; whatever

presumed to resist was exterminated with fire and sword. The

Greek places on the Black Sea, Mesembria, Acheloum, and Bizon,

surrendered on the first summons; Selybria alone deserved the

honors of a siege or blockade; and the bold inhabitants, while

they were invested by land, launched their boats, pillaged the

opposite coast of Cyzicus, and sold their captives in the public

market. But on the approach of Mahomet himself all was silent

and prostrate: he first halted at the distance of five miles; and

from thence advancing in battle array, planted before the gates

of St. Romanus the Imperial standard; and on the sixth day of

April formed the memorable siege of Constantinople.

[Footnote *: See the curious Christian and Mahometan predictions

of the fall of Constantinople, Von Hammer, p. 518. - M.]

[Footnote 27: Non audivit, indignum ducens, says the honest

Antoninus; but as the Roman court was afterwards grieved and

ashamed, we find the more courtly expression of Platina, in animo

fuisse pontifici juvare Graecos, and the positive assertion of

Aeneas Sylvius, structam classem &c. (Spond. A.D. 1453, No. 3.)]

[Footnote 28: Antonin. in Proem. - Epist. Cardinal. Isidor. apud

Spondanum and Dr. Johnson, in the tragedy of Irene, has happily

seized this characteristic circumstance: -

The groaning Greeks dig up the golden caverns. The accumulated

wealth of hoarding ages; That wealth which, granted to their

weeping prince, Had ranged embattled nations at their gates.]

The troops of Asia and Europe extended on the right and left

from the Propontis to the harbor; the Janizaries in the front

were stationed before the sultan's tent; the Ottoman line was

covered by a deep intrenchment; and a subordinate army enclosed

the suburb of Galata, and watched the doubtful faith of the

Genoese. The inquisitive Philelphus, who resided in Greece about

thirty years before the siege, is confident, that all the Turkish

forces of any name or value could not exceed the number of sixty

thousand horse and twenty thousand foot; and he upbraids the

pusillanimity of the nations, who had tamely yielded to a handful

of Barbarians. Such indeed might be the regular establishment of

the Capiculi, ^29 the troops of the Porte who marched with the

prince, and were paid from his royal treasury. But the bashaws,

in their respective governments, maintained or levied a

provincial militia; many lands were held by a military tenure;

many volunteers were attracted by the hope of spoil and the sound

of the holy trumpet invited a swarm of hungry and fearless

fanatics, who might contribute at least to multiply the terrors,

and in a first attack to blunt the swords, of the Christians.

The whole mass of the Turkish powers is magnified by Ducas,

Chalcondyles, and Leonard of Chios, to the amount of three or

four hundred thousand men; but Phranza was a less remote and more

accurate judge; and his precise definition of two hundred and

fifty-eight thousand does not exceed the measure of experience

and probability. ^30 The navy of the besiegers was less

formidable: the Propontis was overspread with three hundred and

twenty sail; but of these no more than eighteen could be rated as

galleys of war; and the far greater part must be degraded to the

condition of store-ships and transports, which poured into the

camp fresh supplies of men, ammunition, and provisions. In her

last decay, Constantinople was still peopled with more than a

hundred thousand inhabitants; but these numbers are found in the

accounts, not of war, but of captivity; and they mostly consisted

of mechanics, of priests, of women, and of men devoid of that

spirit which even women have sometimes exerted for the common

safety. I can suppose, I could almost excuse, the reluctance of

subjects to serve on a distant frontier, at the will of a tyrant;

but the man who dares not expose his life in the defence of his

children and his property, has lost in society the first and most

active energies of nature. By the emperor's command, a

particular inquiry had been made through the streets and houses,

how many of the citizens, or even of the monks, were able and

willing to bear arms for their country. The lists were intrusted

to Phranza; ^31 and, after a diligent addition, he informed his

master, with grief and surprise, that the national defence was

reduced to four thousand nine hundred and seventy Romans.

Between Constantine and his faithful minister this comfortless

secret was preserved; and a sufficient proportion of shields,

cross-bows, and muskets, were distributed from the arsenal to the

city bands. They derived some accession from a body of two

thousand strangers, under the command of John Justiniani, a noble

Genoese; a liberal donative was advanced to these auxiliaries;

and a princely recompense, the Isle of Lemnos, was promised to

the valor and victory of their chief. A strong chain was drawn

across the mouth of the harbor: it was supported by some Greek

and Italian vessels of war and merchandise; and the ships of

every Christian nation, that successively arrived from Candia and

the Black Sea, were detained for the public service. Against the

powers of the Ottoman empire, a city of the extent of thirteen,

perhaps of sixteen, miles was defended by a scanty garrison of

seven or eight thousand soldiers. Europe and Asia were open to

the besiegers; but the strength and provisions of the Greeks must

sustain a daily decrease; nor could they indulge the expectation

of any foreign succor or supply.

[Footnote 29: The palatine troops are styled Capiculi, the

provincials, Seratculi; and most of the names and institutions of

the Turkish militia existed before the Canon Nameh of Soliman II,

from which, and his own experience, Count Marsigli has composed

his military state of the Ottoman empire.]

[Footnote 30: The observation of Philelphus is approved by

Cuspinian in the year 1508, (de Caesaribus, in Epilog. de Militia

Turcica, p. 697.) Marsigli proves, that the effective armies of

the Turks are much less numerous than they appear. In the army

that besieged Constantinople Leonardus Chiensis reckons no more

than 15,000 Janizaries.]

[Footnote 31: Ego, eidem (Imp.) tabellas extribui non absque

dolore et moestitia, mansitque apud nos duos aliis occultus

numerus, (Phranza, l. iii. c. 8.) With some indulgence for

national prejudices, we cannot desire a more authentic witness,

not only of public facts, but of private counsels.]

The primitive Romans would have drawn their swords in the

resolution of death or conquest. The primitive Christians might

have embraced each other, and awaited in patience and charity the

stroke of martyrdom. But the Greeks of Constantinople were

animated only by the spirit of religion, and that spirit was

productive only of animosity and discord. Before his death, the

emperor John Palaeologus had renounced the unpopular measure of a

union with the Latins; nor was the idea revived, till the

distress of his brother Constantine imposed a last trial of

flattery and dissimulation. ^32 With the demand of temporal aid,

his ambassadors were instructed to mingle the assurance of

spiritual obedience: his neglect of the church was excused by the

urgent cares of the state; and his orthodox wishes solicited the

presence of a Roman legate. The Vatican had been too often

deluded; yet the signs of repentance could not decently be

overlooked; a legate was more easily granted than an army; and

about six months before the final destruction, the cardinal

Isidore of Russia appeared in that character with a retinue of

priests and soldiers. The emperor saluted him as a friend and

father; respectfully listened to his public and private sermons;

and with the most obsequious of the clergy and laymen subscribed

the act of union, as it had been ratified in the council of

Florence. On the twelfth of December, the two nations, in the

church of St. Sophia, joined in the communion of sacrifice and

prayer; and the names of the two pontiffs were solemnly

commemorated; the names of Nicholas the Fifth, the vicar of

Christ, and of the patriarch Gregory, who had been driven into

exile by a rebellious people.

[Footnote 32: In Spondanus, the narrative of the union is not

only partial, but imperfect. The bishop of Pamiers died in 1642,

and the history of Ducas, which represents these scenes (c. 36,

37) with such truth and spirit, was not printed till the year

1649.]

But the dress and language of the Latin priest who

officiated at the altar were an object of scandal; and it was

observed with horror, that he consecrated a cake or wafer of

unleavened bread, and poured cold water into the cup of the

sacrament. A national historian acknowledges with a blush, that

none of his countrymen, not the emperor himself, were sincere in

this occasional conformity. ^33 Their hasty and unconditional

submission was palliated by a promise of future revisal; but the

best, or the worst, of their excuses was the confession of their

own perjury. When they were pressed by the reproaches of their

honest brethren, "Have patience," they whispered, "have patience

till God shall have delivered the city from the great dragon who

seeks to devour us. You shall then perceive whether we are truly

reconciled with the Azymites." But patience is not the attribute

of zeal; nor can the arts of a court be adapted to the freedom

and violence of popular enthusiasm. From the dome of St. Sophia

the inhabitants of either sex, and of every degree, rushed in

crowds to the cell of the monk Gennadius, ^34 to consult the

oracle of the church. The holy man was invisible; entranced, as

it should seem, in deep meditation, or divine rapture: but he had

exposed on the door of his cell a speaking tablet; and they

successively withdrew, after reading those tremendous words: "O

miserable Romans, why will ye abandon the truth? and why,

instead of confiding in God, will ye put your trust in the

Italians? In losing your faith you will lose your city. Have

mercy on me, O Lord! I protest in thy presence that I am

innocent of the crime. O miserable Romans, consider, pause, and

repent. At the same moment that you renounce the religion of

your fathers, by embracing impiety, you submit to a foreign

servitude." According to the advice of Gennadius, the religious

virgins, as pure as angels, and as proud as daemons, rejected the

act of union, and abjured all communion with the present and

future associates of the Latins; and their example was applauded

and imitated by the greatest part of the clergy and people. From

the monastery, the devout Greeks dispersed themselves in the

taverns; drank confusion to the slaves of the pope; emptied their

glasses in honor of the image of the holy Virgin; and besought

her to defend against Mahomet the city which she had formerly

saved from Chosroes and the Chagan. In the double intoxication

of zeal and wine, they valiantly exclaimed, "What occasion have

we for succor, or union, or Latins? Far from us be the worship

of the Azymites!" During the winter that preceded the Turkish

conquest, the nation was distracted by this epidemical frenzy;

and the season of Lent, the approach of Easter, instead of

breathing charity and love, served only to fortify the obstinacy

and influence of the zealots. The confessors scrutinized and

alarmed the conscience of their votaries, and a rigorous penance

was imposed on those who had received the communion from a priest

who had given an express or tacit consent to the union. His

service at the altar propagated the infection to the mute and

simple spectators of the ceremony: they forfeited, by the impure

spectacle, the virtue of the sacerdotal character; nor was it

lawful, even in danger of sudden death, to invoke the assistance

of their prayers or absolution. No sooner had the church of St.

Sophia been polluted by the Latin sacrifice, than it was deserted

as a Jewish synagogue, or a heathen temple, by the clergy and

people; and a vast and gloomy silence prevailed in that venerable

dome, which had so often smoked with a cloud of incense, blazed

with innumerable lights, and resounded with the voice of prayer

and thanksgiving. The Latins were the most odious of heretics and

infidels; and the first minister of the empire, the great duke,

was heard to declare, that he had rather behold in Constantinople

the turban of Mahomet, than the pope's tiara or a cardinal's hat.

^35 A sentiment so unworthy of Christians and patriots was

familiar and fatal to the Greeks: the emperor was deprived of the

affection and support of his subjects; and their native cowardice

was sanctified by resignation to the divine decree, or the

visionary hope of a miraculous deliverance.

[Footnote 33: Phranza, one of the conforming Greeks, acknowledges

that the measure was adopted only propter spem auxilii; he

affirms with pleasure, that those who refused to perform their

devotions in St. Sophia, extra culpam et in pace essent, (l. iii.

c. 20.)]

[Footnote 34: His primitive and secular name was George

Scholarius, which he changed for that of Gennadius, either when

he became a monk or a patriarch. His defence, at Florence, of the

same union, which he so furiously attacked at Constantinople, has

tempted Leo Allatius (Diatrib. de Georgiis, in Fabric. Bibliot.

Graec. tom. x. p. 760 - 786) to divide him into two men; but

Renaudot (p. 343 - 383) has restored the identity of his person

and the duplicity of his character.]

[Footnote 35: It, may be fairly translated a cardinal's hat. The

difference of the Greek and Latin habits imbittered the schism.]

Of the triangle which composes the figure of Constantinople,

the two sides along the sea were made inaccessible to an enemy;

the Propontis by nature, and the harbor by art. Between the two

waters, the basis of the triangle, the land side was protected by

a double wall, and a deep ditch of the depth of one hundred feet.

Against this line of fortification, which Phranza, an

eye-witness, prolongs to the measure of six miles, ^36 the

Ottomans directed their principal attack; and the emperor, after

distributing the service and command of the most perilous

stations, undertook the defence of the external wall. In the

first days of the siege the Greek soldiers descended into the

ditch, or sallied into the field; but they soon discovered, that,

in the proportion of their numbers, one Christian was of more

value than twenty Turks: and, after these bold preludes, they

were prudently content to maintain the rampart with their missile

weapons. Nor should this prudence be accused of pusillanimity.

The nation was indeed pusillanimous and base; but the last

Constantine deserves the name of a hero: his noble band of

volunteers was inspired with Roman virtue; and the foreign

auxiliaries supported the honor of the Western chivalry. The

incessant volleys of lances and arrows were accompanied with the

smoke, the sound, and the fire, of their musketry and cannon.

Their small arms discharged at the same time either five, or even

ten, balls of lead, of the size of a walnut; and, according to

the closeness of the ranks and the force of the powder, several

breastplates and bodies were transpierced by the same shot. But

the Turkish approaches were soon sunk in trenches, or covered

with ruins. Each day added to the science of the Christians; but

their inadequate stock of gunpowder was wasted in the operations

of each day. Their ordnance was not powerful, either in size or

number; and if they possessed some heavy cannon, they feared to

plant them on the walls, lest the aged structure should be shaken

and overthrown by the explosion. ^37 The same destructive secret

had been revealed to the Moslems; by whom it was employed with

the superior energy of zeal, riches, and despotism. The great

cannon of Mahomet has been separately noticed; an important and

visible object in the history of the times: but that enormous

engine was flanked by two fellows almost of equal magnitude: ^38

the long order of the Turkish artillery was pointed against the

walls; fourteen batteries thundered at once on the most

accessible places; and of one of these it is ambiguously

expressed, that it was mounted with one hundred and thirty guns,

or that it discharged one hundred and thirty bullets. Yet in the

power and activity of the sultan, we may discern the infancy of

the new science. Under a master who counted the moments, the

great cannon could be loaded and fired no more than seven times

in one day. ^39 The heated metal unfortunately burst; several

workmen were destroyed; and the skill of an artist ^* was admired

who bethought himself of preventing the danger and the accident,

by pouring oil, after each explosion, into the mouth of the

cannon.

[Footnote 36: We are obliged to reduce the Greek miles to the

smallest measure which is preserved in the wersts of Russia, of

547 French toises, and of 104 2/5 to a degree. The six miles of

Phranza do not exceed four English miles, (D'Anville, Mesures

Itineraires, p. 61, 123, &c.)]

[Footnote 37: At indies doctiores nostri facti paravere contra

hostes machina menta, quae tamen avare dabantur. Pulvis erat

nitri modica exigua; tela modica; bombardae, si aderant

incommoditate loci primum hostes offendere, maceriebus alveisque

tectos, non poterant. Nam si quae magnae erant, ne murus

concuteretur noster, quiescebant. This passage of Leonardus

Chiensis is curious and important.]

[Footnote 38: According to Chalcondyles and Phranza, the great

cannon burst; an incident which, according to Ducas, was

prevented by the artist's skill. It is evident that they do not

speak of the same gun.

Note: They speak, one of a Byzantine, one of a Turkish, gun.

Von Hammer note, p. 669]

[Footnote 39: Near a hundred years after the siege of

Constantinople, the French and English fleets in the Channel were

proud of firing 300 shot in an engagement of two hours, (Memoires

de Martin du Bellay, l. x., in the Collection Generale, tom. xxi.

p. 239.)]

[Footnote *: The founder of the gun. Von Hammer, p. 526.]

The first random shots were productive of more sound than

effect; and it was by the advice of a Christian, that the

engineers were taught to level their aim against the two opposite

sides of the salient angles of a bastion. However imperfect, the

weight and repetition of the fire made some impression on the

walls; and the Turks, pushing their approaches to the edge of the

ditch, attempted to fill the enormous chasm, and to build a road

to the assault. ^40 Innumerable fascines, and hogsheads, and

trunks of trees, were heaped on each other; and such was the

impetuosity of the throng, that the foremost and the weakest were

pushed headlong down the precipice, and instantly buried under

the accumulated mass. To fill the ditch was the toil of the

besiegers; to clear away the rubbish was the safety of the

besieged; and after a long and bloody conflict, the web that had

been woven in the day was still unravelled in the night. The

next resource of Mahomet was the practice of mines; but the soil

was rocky; in every attempt he was stopped and undermined by the

Christian engineers; nor had the art been yet invented of

replenishing those subterraneous passages with gunpowder, and

blowing whole towers and cities into the air. ^41 A circumstance

that distinguishes the siege of Constantinople is the reunion of

the ancient and modern artillery. The cannon were intermingled

with the mechanical engines for casting stones and darts; the

bullet and the battering-ram ^* were directed against the same

walls: nor had the discovery of gunpowder superseded the use of

the liquid and unextinguishable fire. A wooden turret of the

largest size was advanced on rollers this portable magazine of

ammunition and fascines was protected by a threefold covering of

bulls' hides: incessant volleys were securely discharged from the

loop-holes; in the front, three doors were contrived for the

alternate sally and retreat of the soldiers and workmen. They

ascended by a staircase to the upper platform, and, as high as

the level of that platform, a scaling-ladder could be raised by

pulleys to form a bridge, and grapple with the adverse rampart.

By these various arts of annoyance, some as new as they were

pernicious to the Greeks, the tower of St. Romanus was at length

overturned: after a severe struggle, the Turks were repulsed from

the breach, and interrupted by darkness; but they trusted that

with the return of light they should renew the attack with fresh

vigor and decisive success. Of this pause of action, this

interval of hope, each moment was improved, by the activity of

the emperor and Justiniani, who passed the night on the spot, and

urged the labors which involved the safety of the church and

city. At the dawn of day, the impatient sultan perceived, with

astonishment and grief, that his wooden turret had been reduced

to ashes: the ditch was cleared and restored; and the tower of

St. Romanus was again strong and entire. He deplored the failure

of his design; and uttered a profane exclamation, that the word

of the thirty-seven thousand prophets should not have compelled

him to believe that such a work, in so short a time, could have

been accomplished by the infidels.

[Footnote 40: I have selected some curious facts, without

striving to emulate the bloody and obstinate eloquence of the

abbe de Vertot, in his prolix descriptions of the sieges of

Rhodes, Malta, &c. But that agreeable historian had a turn for

romance; and as he wrote to please the order he had adopted the

same spirit of enthusiasm and chivalry.]

[Footnote 41: The first theory of mines with gunpowder appears in

1480 in a Ms. of George of Sienna, (Tiraboschi, tom. vi. P. i. p.

324.) They were first practised by Sarzanella, in 1487; but the

honor and improvement in 1503 is ascribed to Peter of Navarre,

who used them with success in the wars of Italy, (Hist. de la

Ligue de Cambray, tom. ii. p. 93 - 97.)]

[Footnote *: The battering-ram according to Von Hammer, (p. 670,)

was not used - M.]

Chapter LXVIII: Reign Of Mahomet The Second, Extinction Of

Eastern Empire

Part III.

The generosity of the Christian princes was cold and tardy;

but in the first apprehension of a siege, Constantine had

negotiated, in the isles of the Archipelago, the Morea, and

Sicily, the most indispensable supplies. As early as the

beginning of April, five ^42 great ships, equipped for

merchandise and war, would have sailed from the harbor of Chios,

had not the wind blown obstinately from the north. ^43 One of

these ships bore the Imperial flag; the remaining four belonged

to the Genoese; and they were laden with wheat and barley, with

wine, oil, and vegetables, and, above all, with soldiers and

mariners for the service of the capital. After a tedious delay,

a gentle breeze, and, on the second day, a strong gale from the

south, carried them through the Hellespont and the Propontis: but

the city was already invested by sea and land; and the Turkish

fleet, at the entrance of the Bosphorus, was stretched from shore

to shore, in the form of a crescent, to intercept, or at least to

repel, these bold auxiliaries. The reader who has present to his

mind the geographical picture of Constantinople, will conceive

and admire the greatness of the spectacle. The five Christian

ships continued to advance with joyful shouts, and a full press

both of sails and oars, against a hostile fleet of three hundred

vessels; and the rampart, the camp, the coasts of Europe and

Asia, were lined with innumerable spectators, who anxiously

awaited the event of this momentous succor. At the first view

that event could not appear doubtful; the superiority of the

Moslems was beyond all measure or account: and, in a calm, their

numbers and valor must inevitably have prevailed. But their

hasty and imperfect navy had been created, not by the genius of

the people, but by the will of the sultan: in the height of their

prosperity, the Turks have acknowledged, that if God had given

them the earth, he had left the sea to the infidels; ^44 and a

series of defeats, a rapid progress of decay, has established the

truth of their modest confession. Except eighteen galleys of some

force, the rest of their fleet consisted of open boats, rudely

constructed and awkwardly managed, crowded with troops, and

destitute of cannon; and since courage arises in a great measure

from the consciousness of strength, the bravest of the Janizaries

might tremble on a new element. In the Christian squadron, five

stout and lofty ships were guided by skilful pilots, and manned

with the veterans of Italy and Greece, long practised in the arts

and perils of the sea. Their weight was directed to sink or

scatter the weak obstacles that impeded their passage: their

artillery swept the waters: their liquid fire was poured on the

heads of the adversaries, who, with the design of boarding,

presumed to approach them; and the winds and waves are always on

the side of the ablest navigators. In this conflict, the

Imperial vessel, which had been almost overpowered, was rescued

by the Genoese; but the Turks, in a distant and closer attack,

were twice repulsed with considerable loss. Mahomet himself sat

on horseback on the beach to encourage their valor by his voice

and presence, by the promise of reward, and by fear more potent

than the fear of the enemy. The passions of his soul, and even

the gestures of his body, ^45 seemed to imitate the actions of

the combatants; and, as if he had been the lord of nature, he

spurred his horse with a fearless and impotent effort into the

sea. His loud reproaches, and the clamors of the camp, urged the

Ottomans to a third attack, more fatal and bloody than the two

former; and I must repeat, though I cannot credit, the evidence

of Phranza, who affirms, from their own mouth, that they lost

above twelve thousand men in the slaughter of the day. They fled

in disorder to the shores of Europe and Asia, while the Christian

squadron, triumphant and unhurt, steered along the Bosphorus, and

securely anchored within the chain of the harbor. In the

confidence of victory, they boasted that the whole Turkish power

must have yielded to their arms; but the admiral, or captain

bashaw, found some consolation for a painful wound in his eye, by

representing that accident as the cause of his defeat. Balthi

Ogli was a renegade of the race of the Bulgarian princes: his

military character was tainted with the unpopular vice of

avarice; and under the despotism of the prince or people,

misfortune is a sufficient evidence of guilt. ^* His rank and

services were annihilated by the displeasure of Mahomet. In the

royal presence, the captain bashaw was extended on the ground by

four slaves, and received one hundred strokes with a golden rod:

^46 his death had been pronounced; and he adored the clemency of

the sultan, who was satisfied with the milder punishment of

confiscation and exile. The introduction of this supply revived

the hopes of the Greeks, and accused the supineness of their

Western allies. Amidst the deserts of Anatolia and the rocks of

Palestine, the millions of the crusades had buried themselves in

a voluntary and inevitable grave; but the situation of the

Imperial city was strong against her enemies, and accessible to

her friends; and a rational and moderate armament of the marine

states might have saved the relics of the Roman name, and

maintained a Christian fortress in the heart of the Ottoman

empire. Yet this was the sole and feeble attempt for the

deliverance of Constantinople: the more distant powers were

insensible of its danger; and the ambassador of Hungary, or at

least of Huniades, resided in the Turkish camp, to remove the

fears, and to direct the operations, of the sultan. ^47

[Footnote 42: It is singular that the Greeks should not agree in

the number of these illustrious vessels; the five of Ducas, the

four of Phranza and Leonardus, and the two of Chalcondyles, must

be extended to the smaller, or confined to the larger, size.

Voltaire, in giving one of these ships to Frederic III.,

confounds the emperors of the East and West.]

[Footnote 43: In bold defiance, or rather in gross ignorance, of

language and geography, the president Cousin detains them in

Chios with a south, and wafts them to Constantinople with a

north, wind.]

[Footnote 44: The perpetual decay and weakness of the Turkish

navy may be observed in Ricaut, (State of the Ottoman Empire, p.

372 - 378,) Thevenot, (Voyages, P. i. p. 229 - 242, and Tott,

(Memoires, tom. iii;) the last of whom is always solicitous to

amuse and amaze his reader]

[Footnote 45: I must confess that I have before my eyes the

living picture which Thucydides (l. vii. c. 71) has drawn of the

passions and gestures of the Athenians in a naval engagement in

the great harbor of Syracuse.]

[Footnote *: According to Ducas, one of the Afabi beat out his

eye with a stone Compare Von Hammer. - M.]

[Footnote 46: According to the exaggeration or corrupt text of

Ducas, (c. 38,) this golden bar was of the enormous or incredible

weight of 500 librae, or pounds. Bouillaud's reading of 500

drachms, or five pounds, is sufficient to exercise the arm of

Mahomet, and bruise the back of his admiral.]

[Footnote 47: Ducas, who confesses himself ill informed of the

affairs of Hungary assigns a motive of superstition, a fatal

belief that Constantinople would be the term of the Turkish

conquests. See Phranza (l. iii. c. 20) and Spondanus.]

It was difficult for the Greeks to penetrate the secret of

the divan; yet the Greeks are persuaded, that a resistance so

obstinate and surprising, had fatigued the perseverance of

Mahomet. He began to meditate a retreat; and the siege would

have been speedily raised, if the ambition and jealousy of the

second vizier had not opposed the perfidious advice of Calil

Bashaw, who still maintained a secret correspondence with the

Byzantine court. The reduction of the city appeared to be

hopeless, unless a double attack could be made from the harbor as

well as from the land; but the harbor was inaccessible: an

impenetrable chain was now defended by eight large ships, more

than twenty of a smaller size, with several galleys and sloops;

and, instead of forcing this barrier, the Turks might apprehend a

naval sally, and a second encounter in the open sea. In this

perplexity, the genius of Mahomet conceived and executed a plan

of a bold and marvellous cast, of transporting by land his

lighter vessels and military stores from the Bosphorus into the

higher part of the harbor. The distance is about ten ^* miles;

the ground is uneven, and was overspread with thickets; and, as

the road must be opened behind the suburb of Galata, their free

passage or total destruction must depend on the option of the

Genoese. But these selfish merchants were ambitious of the favor

of being the last devoured; and the deficiency of art was

supplied by the strength of obedient myraids. A level way was

covered with a broad platform of strong and solid planks; and to

render them more slippery and smooth, they were anointed with the

fat of sheep and oxen. Fourscore light galleys and brigantines,

of fifty and thirty oars, were disembarked on the Bosphorus

shore; arranged successively on rollers; and drawn forwards by

the power of men and pulleys. Two guides or pilots were stationed

at the helm, and the prow, of each vessel: the sails were

unfurled to the winds; and the labor was cheered by song and

acclamation. In the course of a single night, this Turkish fleet

painfully climbed the hill, steered over the plain, and was

launched from the declivity into the shallow waters of the

harbor, far above the molestation of the deeper vessels of the

Greeks. The real importance of this operation was magnified by

the consternation and confidence which it inspired: but the

notorious, unquestionable fact was displayed before the eyes, and

is recorded by the pens, of the two nations. ^48 A similar

stratagem had been repeatedly practised by the ancients; ^49 the

Ottoman galleys (I must again repeat) should be considered as

large boats; and, if we compare the magnitude and the distance,

the obstacles and the means, the boasted miracle ^50 has perhaps

been equalled by the industry of our own times. ^51 As soon as

Mahomet had occupied the upper harbor with a fleet and army, he

constructed, in the narrowest part, a bridge, or rather mole, of

fifty cubits in breadth, and one hundred in length: it was formed

of casks and hogsheads; joined with rafters, linked with iron,

and covered with a solid floor. On this floating battery he

planted one of his largest cannon, while the fourscore galleys,

with troops and scaling ladders, approached the most accessible

side, which had formerly been stormed by the Latin conquerors.

The indolence of the Christians has been accused for not

destroying these unfinished works; ^! but their fire, by a

superior fire, was controlled and silenced; nor were they wanting

in a nocturnal attempt to burn the vessels as well as the bridge

of the sultan. His vigilance prevented their approach; their

foremost galiots were sunk or taken; forty youths, the bravest of

Italy and Greece, were inhumanly massacred at his command; nor

could the emperor's grief be assuaged by the just though cruel

retaliation, of exposing from the walls the heads of two hundred

and sixty Mussulman captives. After a siege of forty days, the

fate of Constantinople could no longer be averted. The

diminutive garrison was exhausted by a double attack: the

fortifications, which had stood for ages against hostile

violence, were dismantled on all sides by the Ottoman cannon:

many breaches were opened; and near the gate of St. Romanus, four

towers had been levelled with the ground. For the payment of his

feeble and mutinous troops, Constantine was compelled to despoil

the churches with the promise of a fourfold restitution; and his

sacrilege offered a new reproach to the enemies of the union. A

spirit of discord impaired the remnant of the Christian strength;

the Genoese and Venetian auxiliaries asserted the preeminence of

their respective service; and Justiniani and the great duke,

whose ambition was not extinguished by the common danger, accused

each other of treachery and cowardice.

[Footnote 48: The unanimous testimony of the four Greeks is

confirmed by Cantemir (p. 96) from the Turkish annals; but I

could wish to contract the distance of ten miles, and to prolong

the term of one night.

Note: Six miles, not ten. Von Hammer. - M]

[Footnote 49: Phranza relates two examples of a similar

transportation over the six miles of the Isthmus of Corinth; the

one fabulous, of Augustus after the battle of Actium; the other

true, of Nicetas, a Greek general in the xth century. To these

he might have added a bold enterprise of Hannibal, to introduce

his vessels into the harbor of Tarentum, (Polybius, l. viii. p.

749, edit. Gronov.)

Note: Von Hammer gives a longer list of such

transportations, p. 533. Dion Cassius distinctly relates the

occurrence treated as fabulous by Gibbon. - M.]

[Footnote 50: A Greek of Candia, who had served the Venetians in

a similar undertaking, (Spond. A.D. 1438, No. 37,) might possibly

be the adviser and agent of Mahomet.]

[Footnote 51: I particularly allude to our own embarkations on

the lakes of Canada in the years 1776 and 1777, so great in the

labor, so fruitless in the event.]

[Footnote !: They were betrayed, according to some accounts, by

the Genoese of Galata. Von Hammer, p. 536. - M.]

During the siege of Constantinople, the words of peace and

capitulation had been sometimes pronounced; and several embassies

had passed between the camp and the city. ^52 The Greek emperor

was humbled by adversity; and would have yielded to any terms

compatible with religion and royalty. The Turkish sultan was

desirous of sparing the blood of his soldiers; still more

desirous of securing for his own use the Byzantine treasures: and

he accomplished a sacred duty in presenting to the Gabours the

choice of circumcision, of tribute, or of death. The avarice of

Mahomet might have been satisfied with an annual sum of one

hundred thousand ducats; but his ambition grasped the capital of

the East: to the prince he offered a rich equivalent, to the

people a free toleration, or a safe departure: but after some

fruitless treaty, he declared his resolution of finding either a

throne, or a grave, under the walls of Constantinople. A sense

of honor, and the fear of universal reproach, forbade Palaeologus

to resign the city into the hands of the Ottomans; and he

determined to abide the last extremities of war. Several days

were employed by the sultan in the preparations of the assault;

and a respite was granted by his favorite science of astrology,

which had fixed on the twenty-ninth of May, as the fortunate and

fatal hour. On the evening of the twenty-seventh, he issued his

final orders; assembled in his presence the military chiefs, and

dispersed his heralds through the camp to proclaim the duty, and

the motives, of the perilous enterprise. Fear is the first

principle of a despotic government; and his menaces were

expressed in the Oriental style, that the fugitives and

deserters, had they the wings of a bird, ^53 should not escape

from his inexorable justice. The greatest part of his bashaws

and Janizaries were the offspring of Christian parents: but the

glories of the Turkish name were perpetuated by successive

adoption; and in the gradual change of individuals, the spirit of

a legion, a regiment, or an oda, is kept alive by imitation and

discipline. In this holy warfare, the Moslems were exhorted to

purify their minds with prayer, their bodies with seven

ablutions; and to abstain from food till the close of the ensuing

day. A crowd of dervises visited the tents, to instil the desire

of martyrdom, and the assurance of spending an immortal youth

amidst the rivers and gardens of paradise, and in the embraces of

the black-eyed virgins. Yet Mahomet principally trusted to the

efficacy of temporal and visible rewards. A double pay was

promised to the victorious troops: "The city and the buildings,"

said Mahomet, "are mine; but I resign to your valor the captives

and the spoil, the treasures of gold and beauty; be rich and be

happy. Many are the provinces of my empire: the intrepid soldier

who first ascends the walls of Constantinople shall be rewarded

with the government of the fairest and most wealthy; and my

gratitude shall accumulate his honors and fortunes above the

measure of his own hopes." Such various and potent motives

diffused among the Turks a general ardor, regardless of life and

impatient for action: the camp reechoed with the Moslem shouts of

"God is God: there is but one God, and Mahomet is the apostle of

God;" ^54 and the sea and land, from Galata to the seven towers,

were illuminated by the blaze of their nocturnal fires. ^*

[Footnote 52: Chalcondyles and Ducas differ in the time and

circumstances of the negotiation; and as it was neither glorious

nor salutory, the faithful Phranza spares his prince even the

thought of a surrender.]

[Footnote 53: These wings (Chalcondyles, l. viii. p. 208) are no

more than an Oriental figure: but in the tragedy of Irene,

Mahomet's passion soars above sense and reason: -

Should the fierce North, upon his frozen wings.

Bear him aloft above the wondering clouds,

And seat him in the Pleiads' golden chariot -

Then should my fury drag him down to tortures.

Besides the extravagance of the rant, I must observe, 1. That the

operation of the winds must be confined to the lower region of

the air. 2. That the name, etymology, and fable of the Pleiads

are purely Greek, (Scholiast ad Homer, Sigma 686. Eudocia in

Ionia, p. 399. Apollodor. l. iii. c. 10. Heyne, p. 229, Not.

682,) and had no affinity with the astronomy of the East, (Hyde

ad Ulugbeg, Tabul. in Syntagma Dissert. tom. i. p. 40, 42.

Goguet, Origine des Arts, &c., tom. vi. p. 73 - 78. Gebelin,

Hist. du Calendrier, p. 73,) which Mahomet had studied. 3. The

golden chariot does not exist either in science or fiction; but I

much fear Dr. Johnson has confounded the Pleiades with the great

bear or wagon, the zodiac with a northern constalation.]

[Footnote 54: Phranza quarrels with these Moslem acclamations,

not for the name of God, but for that of the prophet: the pious

zeal of Voltaire is excessive, and even ridiculous.]

[Footnote *: The picture is heightened by the addition of the

wailing cries of Kyris, which were heard from the dark interior

of the city. Von Hammer p. 539. - M.]

Far different was the state of the Christians; who, with

loud and impotent complaints, deplored the guilt, or the

punishment, of their sins. The celestial image of the Virgin had

been exposed in solemn procession; but their divine patroness was

deaf to their entreaties: they accused the obstinacy of the

emperor for refusing a timely surrender; anticipated the horrors

of their fate; and sighed for the repose and security of Turkish

servitude. The noblest of the Greeks, and the bravest of the

allies, were summoned to the palace, to prepare them, on the

evening of the twenty-eighth, for the duties and dangers of the

general assault. The last speech of Palaeologus was the funeral

oration of the Roman empire: ^55 he promised, he conjured, and he

vainly attempted to infuse the hope which was extinguished in his

own mind. In this world all was comfortless and gloomy; and

neither the gospel nor the church have proposed any conspicuous

recompense to the heroes who fall in the service of their

country. But the example of their prince, and the confinement of

a siege, had armed these warriors with the courage of despair,

and the pathetic scene is described by the feelings of the

historian Phranza, who was himself present at this mournful

assembly. They wept, they embraced; regardless of their families

and fortunes, they devoted their lives; and each commander,

departing to his station, maintained all night a vigilant and

anxious watch on the rampart. The emperor, and some faithful

companions, entered the dome of St. Sophia, which in a few hours

was to be converted into a mosque; and devoutly received, with

tears and prayers, the sacrament of the holy communion. He

reposed some moments in the palace, which resounded with cries

and lamentations; solicited the pardon of all whom he might have

injured; ^56 and mounted on horseback to visit the guards, and

explore the motions of the enemy. The distress and fall of the

last Constantine are more glorious than the long prosperity of

the Byzantine Caesars. ^*

[Footnote 55: I am afraid that this discourse was composed by

Phranza himself; and it smells so grossly of the sermon and the

convent, that I almost doubt whether it was pronounced by

Constantine. Leonardus assigns him another speech, in which he

addresses himself more respectfully to the Latin auxiliaries.]

[Footnote 56: This abasement, which devotion has sometimes

extorted from dying princes, is an improvement of the gospel

doctrine of the forgiveness of injuries: it is more easy to

forgive 490 times, than once to ask pardon of an inferior.]

[Footnote *: Compare the very curious Armenian elegy on the fall

of Constantinople, translated by M. Bore, in the Journal

Asiatique for March, 1835; and by M. Brosset, in the new edition

of Le Beau, (tom. xxi. p. 308.) The author thus ends his poem:

"I, Abraham, loaded with sins, have composed this elegy with the

most lively sorrow; for I have seen Constantinople in the days of

its glory." - M.]

In the confusion of darkness, an assailant may sometimes

succeed; out in this great and general attack, the military

judgment and astrological knowledge of Mahomet advised him to

expect the morning, the memorable twenty- ninth of May, in the

fourteen hundred and fifty-third year of the Christian aera. The

preceding night had been strenuously employed: the troops, the

cannons, and the fascines, were advanced to the edge of the

ditch, which in many parts presented a smooth and level passage

to the breach; and his fourscore galleys almost touched, with the

prows and their scaling-ladders, the less defensible walls of the

harbor. Under pain of death, silence was enjoined: but the

physical laws of motion and sound are not obedient to discipline

or fear; each individual might suppress his voice and measure his

footsteps; but the march and labor of thousands must inevitably

produce a strange confusion of dissonant clamors, which reached

the ears of the watchmen of the towers. At daybreak, without the

customary signal of the morning gun, the Turks assaulted the city

by sea and land; and the similitude of a twined or twisted thread

has been applied to the closeness and continuity of their line of

attack. ^57 The foremost ranks consisted of the refuse of the

host, a voluntary crowd who fought without order or command; of

the feebleness of age or childhood, of peasants and vagrants, and

of all who had joined the camp in the blind hope of plunder and

martyrdom. The common impulse drove them onwards to the wall;

the most audacious to climb were instantly precipitated; and not

a dart, not a bullet, of the Christians, was idly wasted on the

accumulated throng. But their strength and ammunition were

exhausted in this laborious defence: the ditch was filled with

the bodies of the slain; they supported the footsteps of their

companions; and of this devoted vanguard the death was more

serviceable than the life. Under their respective bashaws and

sanjaks, the troops of Anatolia and Romania were successively led

to the charge: their progress was various and doubtful; but,

after a conflict of two hours, the Greeks still maintained, and

improved their advantage; and the voice of the emperor was heard,

encouraging his soldiers to achieve, by a last effort, the

deliverance of their country. In that fatal moment, the

Janizaries arose, fresh, vigorous, and invincible. The sultan

himself on horseback, with an iron mace in his hand, was the

spectator and judge of their valor: he was surrounded by ten

thousand of his domestic troops, whom he reserved for the

decisive occasion; and the tide of battle was directed and

impelled by his voice and eye. His numerous ministers of justice

were posted behind the line, to urge, to restrain, and to punish;

and if danger was in the front, shame and inevitable death were

in the rear, of the fugitives. The cries of fear and of pain

were drowned in the martial music of drums, trumpets, and

attaballs; and experience has proved, that the mechanical

operation of sounds, by quickening the circulation of the blood

and spirits, will act on the human machine more forcibly than the

eloquence of reason and honor. From the lines, the galleys, and

the bridge, the Ottoman artillery thundered on all sides; and the

camp and city, the Greeks and the Turks, were involved in a cloud

of smoke which could only be dispelled by the final deliverance

or destruction of the Roman empire. The single combats of the

heroes of history or fable amuse our fancy and engage our

affections: the skilful evolutions of war may inform the mind,

and improve a necessary, though pernicious, science. But in the

uniform and odious pictures of a general assault, all is blood,

and horror, and confusion nor shall I strive, at the distance of

three centuries, and a thousand miles, to delineate a scene of

which there could be no spectators, and of which the actors

themselves were incapable of forming any just or adequate idea.

[Footnote 57: Besides the 10,000 guards, and the sailors and the

marines, Ducas numbers in this general assault 250,000 Turks,

both horse and foot.]

The immediate loss of Constantinople may be ascribed to the

bullet, or arrow, which pierced the gauntlet of John Justiniani.

The sight of his blood, and the exquisite pain, appalled the

courage of the chief, whose arms and counsels were the firmest

rampart of the city. As he withdrew from his station in quest of

a surgeon, his flight was perceived and stopped by the

indefatigable emperor. "Your wound," exclaimed Palaeologus, "is

slight; the danger is pressing: your presence is necessary; and

whither will you retire?" - "I will retire," said the trembling

Genoese, "by the same road which God has opened to the Turks;"

and at these words he hastily passed through one of the breaches

of the inner wall. By this pusillanimous act he stained the

honors of a military life; and the few days which he survived in

Galata, or the Isle of Chios, were embittered by his own and the

public reproach. ^58 His example was imitated by the greatest

part of the Latin auxiliaries, and the defence began to slacken

when the attack was pressed with redoubled vigor. The number of

the Ottomans was fifty, perhaps a hundred, times superior to that

of the Christians; the double walls were reduced by the cannon to

a heap of ruins: in a circuit of several miles, some places must

be found more easy of access, or more feebly guarded; and if the

besiegers could penetrate in a single point, the whole city was

irrecoverably lost. The first who deserved the sultan's reward

was Hassan the Janizary, of gigantic stature and strength. With

his cimeter in one hand and his buckler in the other, he ascended

the outward fortification: of the thirty Janizaries, who were

emulous of his valor, eighteen perished in the bold adventure.

Hassan and his twelve companions had reached the summit: the

giant was precipitated from the rampart: he rose on one knee, and

was again oppressed by a shower of darts and stones. But his

success had proved that the achievement was possible: the walls

and towers were instantly covered with a swarm of Turks; and the

Greeks, now driven from the vantage ground, were overwhelmed by

increasing multitudes. Amidst these multitudes, the emperor, ^59

who accomplished all the duties of a general and a soldier, was

long seen and finally lost. The nobles, who fought round his

person, sustained, till their last breath, the honorable names of

Palaeologus and Cantacuzene: his mournful exclamation was heard,

"Cannot there be found a Christian to cut off my head?" ^60 and

his last fear was that of falling alive into the hands of the

infidels. ^61 The prudent despair of Constantine cast away the

purple: amidst the tumult he fell by an unknown hand, and his

body was buried under a mountain of the slain. After his death,

resistance and order were no more: the Greeks fled towards the

city; and many were pressed and stifled in the narrow pass of the

gate of St. Romanus. The victorious Turks rushed through the

breaches of the inner wall; and as they advanced into the

streets, they were soon joined by their brethren, who had forced

the gate Phenar on the side of the harbor. ^62 In the first heat

of the pursuit, about two thousand Christians were put to the

sword; but avarice soon prevailed over cruelty; and the victors

acknowledged, that they should immediately have given quarter if

the valor of the emperor and his chosen bands had not prepared

them for a similar opposition in every part of the capital. It

was thus, after a siege of fifty-three days, that Constantinople,

which had defied the power of Chosroes, the Chagan, and the

caliphs, was irretrievably subdued by the arms of Mahomet the

Second. Her empire only had been subverted by the Latins: her

religion was trampled in the dust by the Moslem conquerors. ^63

[Footnote 58: In the severe censure of the flight of Justiniani,

Phranza expresses his own feelings and those of the public. For

some private reasons, he is treated with more lenity and respect

by Ducas; but the words of Leonardus Chiensis express his strong

and recent indignation, gloriae salutis suique oblitus. In the

whole series of their Eastern policy, his countrymen, the

Genoese, were always suspected, and often guilty.

Note: M. Brosset has given some extracts from the Georgian

account of the siege of Constantinople, in which Justiniani's

wound in the left foot is represented as more serious. With

charitable ambiguity the chronicler adds that his soldiers

carried him away with them in their vessel. - M.]

[Footnote 59: Ducas kills him with two blows of Turkish soldiers;

Chalcondyles wounds him in the shoulder, and then tramples him in

the gate. The grief of Phranza, carrying him among the enemy,

escapes from the precise image of his death; but we may, without

flattery, apply these noble lines of Dryden: -

As to Sebastian, let them search the field;

And where they find a mountain of the slain,

Send one to climb, and looking down beneath,

There they will find him at his manly length,

With his face up to heaven, in that red monument

Which his good sword had digged.]

[Footnote 60: Spondanus, (A.D. 1453, No. 10,) who has hopes of

his salvation, wishes to absolve this demand from the guilt of

suicide.]

[Footnote 61: Leonardus Chiensis very properly observes, that the

Turks, had they known the emperor, would have labored to save and

secure a captive so acceptable to the sultan.]

[Footnote 62: Cantemir, p. 96. The Christian ships in the mouth

of the harbor had flanked and retarded this naval attack.]

[Footnote 63: Chalcondyles most absurdly supposes, that

Constantinople was sacked by the Asiatics in revenge for the

ancient calamities of Troy; and the grammarians of the xvth

century are happy to melt down the uncouth appellation of Turks

into the more classical name of Teucri.]

The tidings of misfortune fly with a rapid wing; yet such

was the extent of Constantinople, that the more distant quarters

might prolong, some moments, the happy ignorance of their ruin.

^64 But in the general consternation, in the feelings of selfish

or social anxiety, in the tumult and thunder of the assault, a

sleepless night and morning ^* must have elapsed; nor can I

believe that many Grecian ladies were awakened by the Janizaries

from a sound and tranquil slumber. On the assurance of the

public calamity, the houses and convents were instantly deserted;

and the trembling inhabitants flocked together in the streets,

like a herd of timid animals, as if accumulated weakness could be

productive of strength, or in the vain hope, that amid the crowd

each individual might be safe and invisible. From every part of

the capital, they flowed into the church of St. Sophia: in the

space of an hour, the sanctuary, the choir, the nave, the upper

and lower galleries, were filled with the multitudes of fathers

and husbands, of women and children, of priests, monks, and

religious virgins: the doors were barred on the inside, and they

sought protection from the sacred dome, which they had so lately

abhorred as a profane and polluted edifice. Their confidence was

founded on the prophecy of an enthusiast or impostor; that one

day the Turks would enter Constantinople, and pursue the Romans

as far as the column of Constantine in the square before St.

Sophia: but that this would be the term of their calamities: that

an angel would descend from heaven, with a sword in his hand, and

would deliver the empire, with that celestial weapon, to a poor

man seated at the foot of the column. "Take this sword," would

he say, "and avenge the people of the Lord." At these animating

words, the Turks would instantly fly, and the victorious Romans

would drive them from the West, and from all Anatolia as far as

the frontiers of Persia. It is on this occasion that Ducas, with

some fancy and much truth, upbraids the discord and obstinacy of

the Greeks. "Had that angel appeared," exclaims the historian,

"had he offered to exterminate your foes if you would consent to

the union of the church, even event then, in that fatal moment,

you would have rejected your safety, or have deceived your God."

^65

[Footnote 64: When Cyrus suppressed Babylon during the

celebration of a festival, so vast was the city, and so careless

were the inhabitants, that much time elapsed before the distant

quarters knew that they were captives. Herodotus, (l. i. c. 191,)

and Usher, (Annal. p. 78,) who has quoted from the prophet

Jeremiah a passage of similar import.]

[Footnote *: This refers to an expression in Ducas, who, to

heighten the effect of his description, speaks of the "sweet

morning sleep resting on the eyes of youths and maidens," p. 288.

Edit. Bekker. - M.]

[Footnote 65: This lively description is extracted from Ducas,

(c. 39,) who two years afterwards was sent ambassador from the

prince of Lesbos to the sultan, (c. 44.) Till Lesbos was subdued

in 1463, (Phranza, l. iii. c. 27,) that island must have been

full of the fugitives of Constantinople, who delighted to repeat,

perhaps to adorn, the tale of their misery.]

Chapter LXVIII: Reign Of Mahomet The Second, Extinction Of

Eastern Empire

Chapter LXIX: State Of Rome From The Twelfth Century.

Part I.

State Of Rome From The Twelfth Century. - Temporal Dominion

Of The Popes. - Seditions Of The City. - Political Heresy Of

Arnold Of Brescia. - Restoration Of The Republic. - The Senators.

- Pride Of The Romans. - Their Wars. - They Are Deprived Of The

Election And Presence Of The Popes, Who Retire To Avignon. - The

Jubilee. - Noble Families Of Rome. - Feud Of The Colonna And

Ursini.

In the first ages of the decline and fall of the Roman

empire, our eye is invariably fixed on the royal city, which had

given laws to the fairest portion of the globe. We contemplate

her fortunes, at first with admiration, at length with pity,

always with attention, and when that attention is diverted from

the capital to the provinces, they are considered as so many

branches which have been successively severed from the Imperial

trunk. The foundation of a second Rome, on the shores of the

Bosphorus, has compelled the historian to follow the successors

of Constantine; and our curiosity has been tempted to visit the

most remote countries of Europe and Asia, to explore the causes

and the authors of the long decay of the Byzantine monarchy. By

the conquest of Justinian, we have been recalled to the banks of

the Tyber, to the deliverance of the ancient metropolis; but that

deliverance was a change, or perhaps an aggravation, of

servitude. Rome had been already stripped of her trophies, her

gods, and her Caesars; nor was the Gothic dominion more

inglorious and oppressive than the tyranny of the Greeks. In the

eighth century of the Christian aera, a religious quarrel, the

worship of images, provoked the Romans to assert their

independence: their bishop became the temporal, as well as the

spiritual, father of a free people; and of the Western empire,

which was restored by Charlemagne, the title and image still

decorate the singular constitution of modern Germany. The name of

Rome must yet command our involuntary respect: the climate

(whatsoever may be its influence) was no longer the same: ^1 the

purity of blood had been contaminated through a thousand

channels; but the venerable aspect of her ruins, and the memory

of past greatness, rekindled a spark of the national character.

The darkness of the middle ages exhibits some scenes not unworthy

of our notice. Nor shall I dismiss the present work till I have

reviewed the state and revolutions of the Roman City, which

acquiesced under the absolute dominion of the popes, about the

same time that Constantinople was enslaved by the Turkish arms.

[Footnote 1: The abbe Dubos, who, with less genius than his

successor Montesquieu, has asserted and magnified the influence

of climate, objects to himself the degeneracy of the Romans and

Batavians. To the first of these examples he replies, 1. That

the change is less real than apparent, and that the modern Romans

prudently conceal in themselves the virtues of their ancestors.

2. That the air, the soil, and the climate of Rome have suffered

a great and visible alteration, (Reflexions sur la Poesie et sur

la Peinture, part ii. sect. 16.)

Note: This question is discussed at considerable length in

Dr. Arnold's History of Rome, ch. xxiii. See likewise Bunsen's

Dissertation on the Aria Cattiva Roms Beschreibung, pp. 82, 108.

- M.]

In the beginning of the twelfth century, ^2 the aera of the

first crusade, Rome was revered by the Latins, as the metropolis

of the world, as the throne of the pope and the emperor, who,

from the eternal city, derived their title, their honors, and the

right or exercise of temporal dominion. After so long an

interruption, it may not be useless to repeat that the successors

of Charlemagne and the Othos were chosen beyond the Rhine in a

national diet; but that these princes were content with the

humble names of kings of Germany and Italy, till they had passed

the Alps and the Apennine, to seek their Imperial crown on the

banks of the Tyber. ^3 At some distance from the city, their

approach was saluted by a long procession of the clergy and

people with palms and crosses; and the terrific emblems of wolves

and lions, of dragons and eagles, that floated in the military

banners, represented the departed legions and cohorts of the

republic. The royal path to maintain the liberties of Rome was

thrice reiterated, at the bridge, the gate, and on the stairs of

the Vatican; and the distribution of a customary donative feebly

imitated the magnificence of the first Caesars. In the church of

St. Peter, the coronation was performed by his successor: the

voice of God was confounded with that of the people; and the

public consent was declared in the acclamations of "Long life and

victory to our lord the pope! long life and victory to our lord

the emperor! long life and victory to the Roman and Teutonic

armies!" ^4 The names of Caesar and Augustus, the laws of

Constantine and Justinian, the example of Charlemagne and Otho,

established the supreme dominion of the emperors: their title and

image was engraved on the papal coins; ^5 and their jurisdiction

was marked by the sword of justice, which they delivered to the

praefect of the city. But every Roman prejudice was awakened by

the name, the language, and the manners, of a Barbarian lord.

The Caesars of Saxony or Franconia were the chiefs of a feudal

aristocracy; nor could they exercise the discipline of civil and

military power, which alone secures the obedience of a distant

people, impatient of servitude, though perhaps incapable of

freedom. Once, and once only, in his life, each emperor, with an

army of Teutonic vassals, descended from the Alps. I have

described the peaceful order of his entry and coronation; but

that order was commonly disturbed by the clamor and sedition of

the Romans, who encountered their sovereign as a foreign invader:

his departure was always speedy, and often shameful; and, in the

absence of a long reign, his authority was insulted, and his name

was forgotten. The progress of independence in Germany and Italy

undermined the foundations of the Imperial sovereignty, and the

triumph of the popes was the deliverance of Rome.

[Footnote 2: The reader has been so long absent from Rome, that I

would advise him to recollect or review the xlixth chapter of

this History.]

[Footnote 3: The coronation of the German emperors at Rome, more

especially in the xith century, is best represented from the

original monuments by Muratori (Antiquitat. Italiae Medii Aevi,

tom. i. dissertat. ii. p. 99, &c.) and Cenni, (Monument. Domin.

Pontif. tom. ii. diss. vi. p. 261,) the latter of whom I only

know from the copious extract of Schmidt, (Hist. des Allemands

tom. iii. p. 255 - 266.)]

[Footnote 4: Exercitui Romano et Teutonico! The latter was both

seen and felt; but the former was no more than magni nominis

umbra.]

[Footnote 5: Muratori has given the series of the papal coins,

(Antiquitat. tom. ii. diss. xxvii. p. 548 - 554.) He finds only

two more early than the year 800: fifty are still extant from Leo

III. to Leo IX., with the addition of the reigning emperor none

remain of Gregory VII. or Urban II.; but in those of Paschal II.

he seems to have renounced this badge of dependence.]

Of her two sovereigns, the emperor had precariously reigned

by the right of conquest; but the authority of the pope was

founded on the soft, though more solid, basis of opinion and

habit. The removal of a foreign influence restored and endeared

the shepherd to his flock. Instead of the arbitrary or venal

nomination of a German court, the vicar of Christ was freely

chosen by the college of cardinals, most of whom were either

natives or inhabitants of the city. The applause of the

magistrates and people confirmed his election, and the

ecclesiastical power that was obeyed in Sweden and Britain had

been ultimately derived from the suffrage of the Romans. The

same suffrage gave a prince, as well as a pontiff, to the

capital. It was universally believed, that Constantine had

invested the popes with the temporal dominion of Rome; and the

boldest civilians, the most profane skeptics, were satisfied with

disputing the right of the emperor and the validity of his gift.

The truth of the fact, the authenticity of his donation, was

deeply rooted in the ignorance and tradition of four centuries;

and the fabulous origin was lost in the real and permanent

effects. The name of Dominus or Lord was inscribed on the coin

of the bishops: their title was acknowledged by acclamations and

oaths of allegiance, and with the free, or reluctant, consent of

the German Caesars, they had long exercised a supreme or

subordinate jurisdiction over the city and patrimony of St.

Peter. The reign of the popes, which gratified the prejudices,

was not incompatible with the liberties, of Rome; and a more

critical inquiry would have revealed a still nobler source of

their power; the gratitude of a nation, whom they had rescued

from the heresy and oppression of the Greek tyrant. In an age of

superstition, it should seem that the union of the royal and

sacerdotal characters would mutually fortify each other; and that

the keys of Paradise would be the surest pledge of earthly

obedience. The sanctity of the office might indeed be degraded by

the personal vices of the man. But the scandals of the tenth

century were obliterated by the austere and more dangerous

virtues of Gregory the Seventh and his successors; and in the

ambitious contests which they maintained for the rights of the

church, their sufferings or their success must equally tend to

increase the popular veneration. They sometimes wandered in

poverty and exile, the victims of persecution; and the apostolic

zeal with which they offered themselves to martyrdom must engage

the favor and sympathy of every Catholic breast. And sometimes,

thundering from the Vatican, they created, judged, and deposed

the kings of the world; nor could the proudest Roman be disgraced

by submitting to a priest, whose feet were kissed, and whose

stirrup was held, by the successors of Charlemagne. ^6 Even the

temporal interest of the city should have protected in peace and

honor the residence of the popes; from whence a vain and lazy

people derived the greatest part of their subsistence and riches.

The fixed revenue of the popes was probably impaired; many of the

old patrimonial estates, both in Italy and the provinces, had

been invaded by sacrilegious hands; nor could the loss be

compensated by the claim, rather than the possession, of the more

ample gifts of Pepin and his descendants. But the Vatican and

Capitol were nourished by the incessant and increasing swarms of

pilgrims and suppliants: the pale of Christianity was enlarged,

and the pope and cardinals were overwhelmed by the judgment of

ecclesiastical and secular causes. A new jurisprudence had

established in the Latin church the right and practice of

appeals; ^7 and from the North and West the bishops and abbots

were invited or summoned to solicit, to complain, to accuse, or

to justify, before the threshold of the apostles. A rare prodigy

is once recorded, that two horses, belonging to the archbishops

of Mentz and Cologne, repassed the Alps, yet laden with gold and

silver: ^8 but it was soon understood, that the success, both of

the pilgrims and clients, depended much less on the justice of

their cause than on the value of their offering. The wealth and

piety of these strangers were ostentatiously displayed; and their

expenses, sacred or profane, circulated in various channels for

the emolument of the Romans.

[Footnote 6: See Ducange, Gloss. mediae et infimae Latinitat.

tom. vi. p. 364, 365, Staffa. This homage was paid by kings to

archbishops, and by vassals to their lords, (Schmidt, tom. iii.

p. 262;) and it was the nicest policy of Rome to confound the

marks of filial and of feudal subjection]

[Footnote 7: The appeals from all the churches to the Roman

pontiff are deplored by the zeal of St. Bernard (de

Consideratione, l. iii. tom. ii. p. 431 - 442, edit. Mabillon,

Venet. 1750) and the judgment of Fleury, (Discours sur l'Hist.

Ecclesiastique, iv. et vii.) But the saint, who believed in the

false decretals condemns only the abuse of these appeals; the

more enlightened historian investigates the origin, and rejects

the principles, of this new jurisprudence.]

[Footnote 8: Germanici . . . . summarii non levatis sarcinis

onusti nihilominus repatriant inviti. Nova res! quando hactenus

aurum Roma refudit? Et nunc Romanorum consilio id usurpatum non

credimus, (Bernard, de Consideratione, l. iii. c. 3, p. 437.) The

first words of the passage are obscure, and probably corrupt.]

Such powerful motives should have firmly attached the

voluntary and pious obedience of the Roman people to their

spiritual and temporal father. But the operation of prejudice and

interest is often disturbed by the sallies of ungovernable

passion. The Indian who fells the tree, that he may gather the

fruit, ^9 and the Arab who plunders the caravans of commerce, are

actuated by the same impulse of savage nature, which overlooks

the future in the present, and relinquishes for momentary rapine

the long and secure possession of the most important blessings.

And it was thus, that the shrine of St. Peter was profaned by the

thoughtless Romans; who pillaged the offerings, and wounded the

pilgrims, without computing the number and value of similar

visits, which they prevented by their inhospitable sacrilege.

Even the influence of superstition is fluctuating and precarious;

and the slave, whose reason is subdued, will often be delivered

by his avarice or pride. A credulous devotion for the fables and

oracles of the priesthood most powerfully acts on the mind of a

Barbarian; yet such a mind is the least capable of preferring

imagination to sense, of sacrificing to a distant motive, to an

invisible, perhaps an ideal, object, the appetites and interests

of the present world. In the vigor of health and youth, his

practice will perpetually contradict his belief; till the

pressure of age, or sickness, or calamity, awakens his terrors,

and compels him to satisfy the double debt of piety and remorse.

I have already observed, that the modern times of religious

indifference are the most favorable to the peace and security of

the clergy. Under the reign of superstition, they had much to

hope from the ignorance, and much to fear from the violence, of

mankind. The wealth, whose constant increase must have rendered

them the sole proprietors of the earth, was alternately bestowed

by the repentant father and plundered by the rapacious son: their

persons were adored or violated; and the same idol, by the hands

of the same votaries, was placed on the altar, or trampled in the

dust. In the feudal system of Europe, arms were the title of

distinction and the measure of allegiance; and amidst their

tumult, the still voice of law and reason was seldom heard or

obeyed. The turbulent Romans disdained the yoke, and insulted the

impotence, of their bishop: ^10 nor would his education or

character allow him to exercise, with decency or effect, the

power of the sword. The motives of his election and the

frailties of his life were exposed to their familiar observation;

and proximity must diminish the reverence which his name and his

decrees impressed on a barbarous world. This difference has not

escaped the notice of our philosophic historian: "Though the name

and authority of the court of Rome were so terrible in the remote

countries of Europe, which were sunk in profound ignorance, and

were entirely unacquainted with its character and conduct, the

pope was so little revered at home, that his inveterate enemies

surrounded the gates of Rome itself, and even controlled his

government in that city; and the ambassadors, who, from a distant

extremity of Europe, carried to him the humble, or rather abject,

submissions of the greatest potentate of the age, found the

utmost difficulty to make their way to him, and to throw

themselves at his feet." ^11

[Footnote 9: Quand les sauvages de la Louisiane veulent avoir du

fruit, ils coupent l'arbre au pied et cueillent le fruit. Voila

le gouvernement despotique, (Esprit des Loix, l. v. c. 13;) and

passion and ignorance are always despotic.]

[Footnote 10: In a free conversation with his countryman Adrian

IV., John of Salisbury accuses the avarice of the pope and

clergy: Provinciarum diripiunt spolia, ac si thesauros Croesi

studeant reparare. Sed recte cum eis agit Altissimus, quoniam et

ipsi aliis et saepe vilissimis hominibus dati sunt in

direptionem, (de Nugis Curialium, l. vi. c. 24, p. 387.) In the

next page, he blames the rashness and infidelity of the Romans,

whom their bishops vainly strove to conciliate by gifts, instead

of virtues. It is pity that this miscellaneous writer has not

given us less morality and erudition, and more pictures of

himself and the times.]

[Footnote 11: Hume's History of England, vol. i. p. 419. The

same writer has given us, from Fitz-Stephen, a singular act of

cruelty perpetrated on the clergy by Geoffrey, the father of

Henry II. "When he was master of Normandy, the chapter of Seez

presumed, without his consent, to proceed to the election of a

bishop: upon which he ordered all of them, with the bishop elect,

to be castrated, and made all their testicles be brought him in a

platter." Of the pain and danger they might justly complain; yet

since they had vowed chastity he deprived them of a superfluous

treasure.]

Since the primitive times, the wealth of the popes was

exposed to envy, their powers to opposition, and their persons to

violence. But the long hostility of the mitre and the crown

increased the numbers, and inflamed the passions, of their

enemies. The deadly factions of the Guelphs and Ghibelines, so

fatal to Italy, could never be embraced with truth or constancy

by the Romans, the subjects and adversaries both of the bishop

and emperor; but their support was solicited by both parties, and

they alternately displayed in their banners the keys of St. Peter

and the German eagle. Gregory the Seventh, who may be adored or

detested as the founder of the papal monarchy, was driven from

Rome, and died in exile at Salerno. Six- and-thirty of his

successors, ^12 till their retreat to Avignon, maintained an

unequal contest with the Romans: their age and dignity were often

violated; and the churches, in the solemn rites of religion, were

polluted with sedition and murder. A repetition ^13 of such

capricious brutality, without connection or design, would be

tedious and disgusting; and I shall content myself with some

events of the twelfth century, which represent the state of the

popes and the city. On Holy Thursday, while Paschal officiated

before the altar, he was interrupted by the clamors of the

multitude, who imperiously demanded the confirmation of a

favorite magistrate. His silence exasperated their fury; his

pious refusal to mingle the affairs of earth and heaven was

encountered with menaces, and oaths, that he should be the cause

and the witness of the public ruin. During the festival of

Easter, while the bishop and the clergy, barefooted and in

procession, visited the tombs of the martyrs, they were twice

assaulted, at the bridge of St. Angelo, and before the Capitol,

with volleys of stones and darts. The houses of his adherents

were levelled with the ground: Paschal escaped with difficulty

and danger; he levied an army in the patrimony of St. Peter; and

his last days were embittered by suffering and inflicting the

calamities of civil war. The scenes that followed the election

of his successor Gelasius the Second were still more scandalous

to the church and city. Cencio Frangipani, ^14 a potent and

factious baron, burst into the assembly furious and in arms: the

cardinals were stripped, beaten, and trampled under foot; and he

seized, without pity or respect, the vicar of Christ by the

throat. Gelasius was dragged by the hair along the ground,

buffeted with blows, wounded with spurs, and bound with an iron

chain in the house of his brutal tyrant. An insurrection of the

people delivered their bishop: the rival families opposed the

violence of the Frangipani; and Cencio, who sued for pardon,

repented of the failure, rather than of the guilt, of his

enterprise. Not many days had elapsed, when the pope was again

assaulted at the altar. While his friends and enemies were

engaged in a bloody contest, he escaped in his sacerdotal

garments. In this unworthy flight, which excited the compassion

of the Roman matrons, his attendants were scattered or unhorsed;

and, in the fields behind the church of St. Peter, his successor

was found alone and half dead with fear and fatigue. Shaking the

dust from his feet, the apostle withdrew from a city in which his

dignity was insulted and his person was endangered; and the

vanity of sacerdotal ambition is revealed in the involuntary

confession, that one emperor was more tolerable than twenty. ^15

These examples might suffice; but I cannot forget the sufferings

of two pontiffs of the same age, the second and third of the name

of Lucius. The former, as he ascended in battle array to assault

the Capitol, was struck on the temple by a stone, and expired in

a few days. The latter was severely wounded in the person of his

servants. In a civil commotion, several of his priests had been

made prisoners; and the inhuman Romans, reserving one as a guide

for his brethren, put out their eyes, crowned them with ludicrous

mitres, mounted them on asses with their faces towards the tail,

and extorted an oath, that, in this wretched condition, they

should offer themselves as a lesson to the head of the church.

Hope or fear, lassitude or remorse, the characters of the men,

and the circumstances of the times, might sometimes obtain an

interval of peace and obedience; and the pope was restored with

joyful acclamations to the Lateran or Vatican, from whence he had

been driven with threats and violence. But the root of mischief

was deep and perennial; and a momentary calm was preceded and

followed by such tempests as had almost sunk the bark of St.

Peter. Rome continually presented the aspect of war and discord:

the churches and palaces were fortified and assaulted by the

factions and families; and, after giving peace to Europe,

Calistus the Second alone had resolution and power to prohibit

the use of private arms in the metropolis. Among the nations who

revered the apostolic throne, the tumults of Rome provoked a

general indignation; and in a letter to his disciple Eugenius the

Third, St. Bernard, with the sharpness of his wit and zeal, has

stigmatized the vices of the rebellious people. ^16 "Who is

ignorant," says the monk of Clairvaux, "of the vanity and

arrogance of the Romans? a nation nursed in sedition,

untractable, and scorning to obey, unless they are too feeble to

resist. When they promise to serve, they aspire to reign; if

they swear allegiance, they watch the opportunity of revolt; yet

they vent their discontent in loud clamors, if your doors, or

your counsels, are shut against them. Dexterous in mischief,

they have never learned the science of doing good. Odious to

earth and heaven, impious to God, seditious among themselves,

jealous of their neighbors, inhuman to strangers, they love no

one, by no one are they beloved; and while they wish to inspire

fear, they live in base and continual apprehension. They will

not submit; they know not how to govern faithless to their

superiors, intolerable to their equals, ungrateful to their

benefactors, and alike impudent in their demands and their

refusals. Lofty in promise, poor in execution; adulation and

calumny, perfidy and treason, are the familiar arts of their

policy." Surely this dark portrait is not colored by the pencil

of Christian charity; ^17 yet the features, however harsh or

ugly, express a lively resemblance of the Roman of the twelfth

century. ^18

[Footnote 12: From Leo IX. and Gregory VII. an authentic and

contemporary series of the lives of the popes by the cardinal of

Arragon, Pandulphus Pisanus, Bernard Guido, &c., is inserted in

the Italian Historians of Muratori, (tom. iii. P. i. p. 277 -

685,) and has been always before my eyes.]

[Footnote 13: The dates of years int he in the contents may

throughout his this chapter be understood as tacit references to

the Annals of Muratori, my ordinary and excellent guide. He

uses, and indeed quotes, with the freedom of a master, his great

collection of the Italian Historians, in xxviii. volumes; and as

that treasure is in my library, I have thought it an amusement,

if not a duty, to consult the originals.]

[Footnote 14: I cannot refrain from transcribing the high-colored

words of Pandulphus Pisanus, (p. 384.) Hoc audiens inimicus pacis

atque turbator jam fatus Centius Frajapane, more draconis

immanissimi sibilans, et ab imis pectoribus trahens longa

suspiria, accinctus retro gladio sine more cucurrit, valvas ac

fores confregit. Ecclesiam furibundus introiit, inde custode

remoto papam per gulam accepit, distraxit pugnis calcibusque

percussit, et tanquam brutum animal intra limen ecclesiae acriter

calcaribus cruentavit; et latro tantum dominum per capillos et

brachia, Jesu bono interim dormiente, detraxit, ad domum usque

deduxit, inibi catenavit et inclusit.]

[Footnote 15: Ego coram Deo et Ecclesia dico, si unquam possibile

esset, mallem unum imperatorem quam tot dominos, (Vit. Gelas. II.

p. 398.)]

[Footnote 16: Quid tam notum seculis quam protervia et

cervicositas Romanorum? Gens insueta paci, tumultui assueta, gens

immitis et intractabilis usque adhuc, subdi nescia, nisi cum non

valet resistere, (de Considerat. l. iv. c. 2, p. 441.) The saint

takes breath, and then begins again: Hi, invisi terrae et coelo,

utrique injecere manus, &c., (p. 443.)]

[Footnote 17: As a Roman citizen, Petrarch takes leave to

observe, that Bernard, though a saint, was a man; that he might

be provoked by resentment, and possibly repent of his hasty

passion, &c. (Memoires sur la Vie de Petrarque, tom. i. p.

330.)]

[Footnote 18: Baronius, in his index to the xiith volume of his

Annals, has found a fair and easy excuse. He makes two heads, of

Romani Catholici and Schismatici: to the former he applies all

the good, to the latter all the evil, that is told of the city.]

The Jews had rejected the Christ when he appeared among them

in a plebeian character; and the Romans might plead their

ignorance of his vicar when he assumed the pomp and pride of a

temporal sovereign. In the busy age of the crusades, some sparks

of curiosity and reason were rekindled in the Western world: the

heresy of Bulgaria, the Paulician sect, was successfully

transplanted into the soil of Italy and France; the Gnostic

visions were mingled with the simplicity of the gospel; and the

enemies of the clergy reconciled their passions with their

conscience, the desire of freedom with the profession of piety.

^19 The trumpet of Roman liberty was first sounded by Arnold of

Brescia, ^20 whose promotion in the church was confined to the

lowest rank, and who wore the monastic habit rather as a garb of

poverty than as a uniform of obedience. His adversaries could

not deny the wit and eloquence which they severely felt; they

confess with reluctance the specious purity of his morals; and

his errors were recommended to the public by a mixture of

important and beneficial truths. In his theological studies, he

had been the disciple of the famous and unfortunate Abelard, ^21

who was likewise involved in the suspicion of heresy: but the

lover of Eloisa was of a soft and flexible nature; and his

ecclesiastic judges were edified and disarmed by the humility of

his repentance. From this master, Arnold most probably imbibed

some metaphysical definitions of the Trinity, repugnant to the

taste of the times: his ideas of baptism and the eucharist are

loosely censured; but a political heresy was the source of his

fame and misfortunes. He presumed to quote the declaration of

Christ, that his kingdom is not of this world: he boldly

maintained, that the sword and the sceptre were intrusted to the

civil magistrate; that temporal honors and possessions were

lawfully vested in secular persons; that the abbots, the bishops,

and the pope himself, must renounce either their state or their

salvation; and that after the loss of their revenues, the

voluntary tithes and oblations of the faithful would suffice, not

indeed for luxury and avarice, but for a frugal life in the

exercise of spiritual labors. During a short time, the preacher

was revered as a patriot; and the discontent, or revolt, of

Brescia against her bishop, was the first fruits of his dangerous

lessons. But the favor of the people is less permanent than the

resentment of the priest; and after the heresy of Arnold had been

condemned by Innocent the Second, ^22 in the general council of

the Lateran, the magistrates themselves were urged by prejudice

and fear to execute the sentence of the church. Italy could no

longer afford a refuge; and the disciple of Abelard escaped

beyond the Alps, till he found a safe and hospitable shelter in

Zurich, now the first of the Swiss cantons. From a Roman

station, ^23 a royal villa, a chapter of noble virgins, Zurich

had gradually increased to a free and flourishing city; where the

appeals of the Milanese were sometimes tried by the Imperial

commissaries. ^24 In an age less ripe for reformation, the

precursor of Zuinglius was heard with applause: a brave and

simple people imbibed, and long retained, the color of his

opinions; and his art, or merit, seduced the bishop of Constance,

and even the pope's legate, who forgot, for his sake, the

interest of their master and their order. Their tardy zeal was

quickened by the fierce exhortations of St. Bernard; ^25 and the

enemy of the church was driven by persecution to the desperate

measures of erecting his standard in Rome itself, in the face of

the successor of St. Peter.

[Footnote 19: The heresies of the xiith century may be found in

Mosheim, (Institut. Hist. Eccles. p. 419 - 427,) who entertains a

favorable opinion of Arnold of Brescia. In the vth volume I have

described the sect of the Paulicians, and followed their

migration from Armenia to Thrace and Bulgaria, Italy and France.]

[Footnote 20: The original pictures of Arnold of Brescia are

drawn by Otho, bishop of Frisingen, (Chron. l. vii. c. 31, de

Gestis Frederici I. l. i. c. 27, l. ii. c. 21,) and in the iiid

book of the Ligurinus, a poem of Gunthur, who flourished A.D.

1200, in the monastery of Paris near Basil, (Fabric. Bibliot.

Latin. Med. et Infimae Aetatis, tom. iii. p. 174, 175.) The long

passage that relates to Arnold is produced by Guilliman, (de

Rebus Helveticis, l. iii. c. 5, p. 108.)

Note: Compare Franke, Arnold von Brescia und seine Zeit.

Zarich, 1828 - M.]

[Footnote 21: The wicked wit of Bayle was amused in composing,

with much levity and learning, the articles of Abelard, Foulkes,

Heloise, in his Dictionnaire Critique. The dispute of Abelard

and St. Bernard, of scholastic and positive divinity, is well

understood by Mosheim, (Institut. Hist. Eccles. p. 412 - 415.)]

[Footnote 22: - Damnatus ab illo Praesule,

qui numeros vetitum contingere

nostros Nomen ad innocua ducit laudabile

vita.

We may applaud the dexterity and correctness of Ligurinus, who

turns the unpoetical name of Innocent II. into a compliment.]

[Footnote 23: A Roman inscription of Statio Turicensis has been

found at Zurich, (D'Anville, Notice de l'ancienne Gaul, p. 642 -

644;) but it is without sufficient warrant, that the city and

canton have usurped, and even monopolized, the names of Tigurum

and Pagus Tigurinus.]

[Footnote 24: Guilliman (de Rebus Helveticis, l. iii. c. 5, p.

106) recapitulates the donation (A.D. 833) of the emperor Lewis

the Pious to his daughter the abbess Hildegardis. Curtim nostram

Turegum in ducatu Alamanniae in pago Durgaugensi, with villages,

woods, meadows, waters, slaves, churches, &c.; a noble gift.

Charles the Bald gave the jus monetae, the city was walled under

Otho I., and the line of the bishop of Frisingen,

Nobile Turegum multarum copia rerum,

is repeated with pleasure by the antiquaries of Zurich.]

[Footnote 25: Bernard, Epistol. cxcv. tom. i. p. 187 - 190.

Amidst his invectives he drops a precious acknowledgment, qui,

utinam quam sanae esset doctrinae quam districtae est vitae. He

owns that Arnold would be a valuable acquisition for the church.]

Part III.

While they expected the descent of the tardy angel, the

doors were broken with axes; and as the Turks encountered no

resistance, their bloodless hands were employed in selecting and

securing the multitude of their prisoners. Youth, beauty, and the

appearance of wealth, attracted their choice; and the right of

property was decided among themselves by a prior seizure, by

personal strength, and by the authority of command. In the space

of an hour, the male captives were bound with cords, the females

with their veils and girdles. The senators were linked with

their slaves; the prelates, with the porters of the church; and

young men of the plebeian class, with noble maids, whose faces

had been invisible to the sun and their nearest kindred. In this

common captivity, the ranks of society were confounded; the ties

of nature were cut asunder; and the inexorable soldier was

careless of the father's groans, the tears of the mother, and the

lamentations of the children. The loudest in their wailings were

the nuns, who were torn from the altar with naked bosoms,

outstretched hands, and dishevelled hair; and we should piously

believe that few could be tempted to prefer the vigils of the

harem to those of the monastery. Of these unfortunate Greeks, of

these domestic animals, whole strings were rudely driven through

the streets; and as the conquerors were eager to return for more

prey, their trembling pace was quickened with menaces and blows.

At the same hour, a similar rapine was exercised in all the

churches and monasteries, in all the palaces and habitations, of

the capital; nor could any place, however sacred or sequestered,

protect the persons or the property of the Greeks. Above sixty

thousand of this devoted people were transported from the city to

the camp and fleet; exchanged or sold according to the caprice or

interest of their masters, and dispersed in remote servitude

through the provinces of the Ottoman empire. Among these we may

notice some remarkable characters. The historian Phranza, first

chamberlain and principal secretary, was involved with his family

in the common lot. After suffering four months the hardships of

slavery, he recovered his freedom: in the ensuing winter he

ventured to Adrianople, and ransomed his wife from the mir bashi,

or master of the horse; but his two children, in the flower of

youth and beauty, had been seized for the use of Mahomet himself.

The daughter of Phranza died in the seraglio, perhaps a virgin:

his son, in the fifteenth year of his age, preferred death to

infamy, and was stabbed by the hand of the royal lover. ^66 A

deed thus inhuman cannot surely be expiated by the taste and

liberality with which he released a Grecian matron and her two

daughters, on receiving a Latin doe From ode from Philelphus, who

had chosen a wife in that noble family. ^67 The pride or cruelty

of Mahomet would have been most sensibly gratified by the capture

of a Roman legate; but the dexterity of Cardinal Isidore eluded

the search, and he escaped from Galata in a plebeian habit. ^68

The chain and entrance of the outward harbor was still occupied

by the Italian ships of merchandise and war. They had signalized

their valor in the siege: they embraced the moment of retreat,

while the Turkish mariners were dissipated in the pillage of the

city. When they hoisted sail, the beach was covered with a

suppliant and lamentable crowd; but the means of transportation

were scanty: the Venetians and Genoese selected their countrymen;

and, notwithstanding the fairest promises of the sultan, the

inhabitants of Galata evacuated their houses, and embarked with

their most precious effects.

[Footnote 66: See Phranza, l. iii. c. 20, 21. His expressions

are positive: Ameras sua manu jugulavit . . . . volebat enim eo

turpiter et nefarie abuti. Me miserum et infelicem! Yet he could

only learn from report the bloody or impure scenes that were

acted in the dark recesses of the seraglio.]

[Footnote 67: See Tiraboschi (tom. vi. P. i. p. 290) and

Lancelot, (Mem. de l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. x. p. 718.)

I should be curious to learn how he could praise the public

enemy, whom he so often reviles as the most corrupt and inhuman

of tyrants.]

[Footnote 68: The commentaries of Pius II. suppose that he

craftily placed his cardinal's hat on the head of a corpse which

was cut off and exposed in triumph, while the legate himself was

bought and delivered as a captive of no value. The great Belgic

Chronicle adorns his escape with new adventures, which he

suppressed (says Spondanus, A.D. 1453, No. 15) in his own

letters, lest he should lose the merit and reward of suffering

for Christ.

Note: He was sold as a slave in Galata, according to Von

Hammer, p. 175. See the somewhat vague and declamatory letter of

Cardinal Isidore, in the appendix to Clarke's Travels, vol. ii.

p. 653. - M.]

In the fall and the sack of great cities, an historian is

condemned to repeat the tale of uniform calamity: the same

effects must be produced by the same passions; and when those

passions may be indulged without control, small, alas! is the

difference between civilized and savage man. Amidst the vague

exclamations of bigotry and hatred, the Turks are not accused of

a wanton or immoderate effusion of Christian blood: but according

to their maxims, (the maxims of antiquity,) the lives of the

vanquished were forfeited; and the legitimate reward of the

conqueror was derived from the service, the sale, or the ransom,

of his captives of both sexes. ^69 The wealth of Constantinople

had been granted by the sultan to his victorious troops; and the

rapine of an hour is more productive than the industry of years.

But as no regular division was attempted of the spoil, the

respective shares were not determined by merit; and the rewards

of valor were stolen away by the followers of the camp, who had

declined the toil and danger of the battle. The narrative of

their depredations could not afford either amusement or

instruction: the total amount, in the last poverty of the empire,

has been valued at four millions of ducats; ^70 and of this sum a

small part was the property of the Venetians, the Genoese, the

Florentines, and the merchants of Ancona. Of these foreigners,

the stock was improved in quick and perpetual circulation: but

the riches of the Greeks were displayed in the idle ostentation

of palaces and wardrobes, or deeply buried in treasures of ingots

and old coin, lest it should be demanded at their hands for the

defence of their country. The profanation and plunder of the

monasteries and churches excited the most tragic complaints. The

dome of St. Sophia itself, the earthly heaven, the second

firmament, the vehicle of the cherubim, the throne of the glory

of God, ^71 was despoiled of the oblation of ages; and the gold

and silver, the pearls and jewels, the vases and sacerdotal

ornaments, were most wickedly converted to the service of

mankind. After the divine images had been stripped of all that

could be valuable to a profane eye, the canvas, or the wood, was

torn, or broken, or burnt, or trod under foot, or applied, in the

stables or the kitchen, to the vilest uses. The example of

sacrilege was imitated, however, from the Latin conquerors of

Constantinople; and the treatment which Christ, the Virgin, and

the saints, had sustained from the guilty Catholic, might be

inflicted by the zealous Mussulman on the monuments of idolatry.

Perhaps, instead of joining the public clamor, a philosopher will

observe, that in the decline of the arts the workmanship could

not be more valuable than the work, and that a fresh supply of

visions and miracles would speedily be renewed by the craft of

the priests and the credulity of the people. He will more

seriously deplore the loss of the Byzantine libraries, which were

destroyed or scattered in the general confusion: one hundred and

twenty thousand manuscripts are said to have disappeared; ^72 ten

volumes might be purchased for a single ducat; and the same

ignominious price, too high perhaps for a shelf of theology,

included the whole works of Aristotle and Homer, the noblest

productions of the science and literature of ancient Greece. We

may reflect with pleasure that an inestimable portion of our

classic treasures was safely deposited in Italy; and that the

mechanics of a German town had invented an art which derides the

havoc of time and barbarism.

[Footnote 69: Busbequius expatiates with pleasure and applause on

the rights of war, and the use of slavery, among the ancients and

the Turks, (de Legat. Turcica, epist. iii. p. 161.)]

[Footnote 70: This sum is specified in a marginal note of

Leunclavius, (Chalcondyles, l. viii. p. 211,) but in the

distribution to Venice, Genoa, Florence, and Ancona, of 50, 20,

and 15,000 ducats, I suspect that a figure has been dropped.

Even with the restitution, the foreign property would scarcely

exceed one fourth.]

[Footnote 71: See the enthusiastic praises and lamentations of

Phranza, (l. iii. c. 17.)]

[Footnote 72: See Ducas, (c. 43,) and an epistle, July 15th,

1453, from Laurus Quirinus to Pope Nicholas V., (Hody de Graecis,

p. 192, from a MS. in the Cotton library.)]

From the first hour ^73 of the memorable twenty-ninth of

May, disorder and rapine prevailed in Constantinople, till the

eighth hour of the same day; when the sultan himself passed in

triumph through the gate of St. Romanus. He was attended by his

viziers, bashaws, and guards, each of whom (says a Byzantine

historian) was robust as Hercules, dexterous as Apollo, and equal

in battle to any ten of the race of ordinary mortals. The

conqueror ^74 gazed with satisfaction and wonder on the strange,

though splendid, appearance of the domes and palaces, so

dissimilar from the style of Oriental architecture. In the

hippodrome, or atmeidan, his eye was attracted by the twisted

column of the three serpents; and, as a trial of his strength, he

shattered with his iron mace or battle-axe the under jaw of one

of these monsters, ^75 which in the eyes of the Turks were the

idols or talismans of the city. ^* At the principal door of St.

Sophia, he alighted from his horse, and entered the dome; and

such was his jealous regard for that monument of his glory, that

on observing a zealous Mussulman in the act of breaking the

marble pavement, he admonished him with his cimeter, that, if the

spoil and captives were granted to the soldiers, the public and

private buildings had been reserved for the prince. By his

command the metropolis of the Eastern church was transformed into

a mosque: the rich and portable instruments of superstition had

been removed; the crosses were thrown down; and the walls, which

were covered with images and mosaics, were washed and purified,

and restored to a state of naked simplicity. On the same day, or

on the ensuing Friday, the muezin, or crier, ascended the most

lofty turret, and proclaimed the ezan, or public invitation in

the name of God and his prophet; the imam preached; and Mahomet

and Second performed the namaz of prayer and thanksgiving on the

great altar, where the Christian mysteries had so lately been

celebrated before the last of the Caesars. ^76 From St. Sophia he

proceeded to the august, but desolate mansion of a hundred

successors of the great Constantine, but which in a few hours had

been stripped of the pomp of royalty. A melancholy reflection on

the vicissitudes of human greatness forced itself on his mind;

and he repeated an elegant distich of Persian poetry: "The spider

has wove his web in the Imperial palace; and the owl hath sung

her watch-song on the towers of Afrasiab." ^77

[Footnote 73: The Julian Calendar, which reckons the days and

hours from midnight, was used at Constantinople. But Ducas seems

to understand the natural hours from sunrise.]

[Footnote 74: See the Turkish Annals, p. 329, and the Pandects of

Leunclarius, p. 448.]

[Footnote 75: I have had occasion (vol. ii. p. 100) to mention

this curious relic of Grecian antiquity.]

[Footnote *: Von Hammer passes over this circumstance, which is

treated by Dr. Clarke (Travels, vol. ii. p. 58, 4to. edit,) as a

fiction of Thevenot. Chishull states that the monument was broken

by some attendants of the Polish ambassador. - M.]

[Footnote 76: We are obliged to Cantemir (p. 102) for the Turkish

account of the conversion of St. Sophia, so bitterly deplored by

Phranza and Ducas. It is amusing enough to observe, in what

opposite lights the same object appears to a Mussulman and a

Christian eye.]

[Footnote 77: This distich, which Cantemir gives in the original,

derives new beauties from the application. It was thus that

Scipio repeated, in the sack of Carthage, the famous prophecy of

Homer. The same generous feeling carried the mind of the

conqueror to the past or the future.]

Yet his mind was not satisfied, nor did the victory seem

complete, till he was informed of the fate of Constantine;

whether he had escaped, or been made prisoner, or had fallen in

the battle. Two Janizaries claimed the honor and reward of his

death: the body, under a heap of slain, was discovered by the

golden eagles embroidered on his shoes; the Greeks acknowledged,

with tears, the head of their late emperor; and, after exposing

the bloody trophy, ^78 Mahomet bestowed on his rival the honors

of a decent funeral. After his decease, Lucas Notaras, great

duke, ^79 and first minister of the empire, was the most

important prisoner. When he offered his person and his treasures

at the foot of the throne, "And why," said the indignant sultan,

"did you not employ these treasures in the defence of your prince

and country?" - "They were yours," answered the slave; "God had

reserved them for your hands." - "If he reserved them for me,"

replied the despot, "how have you presumed to withhold them so

long by a fruitless and fatal resistance?" The great duke alleged

the obstinacy of the strangers, and some secret encouragement

from the Turkish vizier; and from this perilous interview he was

at length dismissed with the assurance of pardon and protection.

Mahomet condescended to visit his wife, a venerable princess

oppressed with sickness and grief; and his consolation for her

misfortunes was in the most tender strain of humanity and filial

reverence. A similar clemency was extended to the principal

officers of state, of whom several were ransomed at his expense;

and during some days he declared himself the friend and father of

the vanquished people. But the scene was soon changed; and

before his departure, the hippodrome streamed with the blood of

his noblest captives. His perfidious cruelty is execrated by the

Christians: they adorn with the colors of heroic martyrdom the

execution of the great duke and his two sons; and his death is

ascribed to the generous refusal of delivering his children to

the tyrant's lust. ^* Yet a Byzantine historian has dropped an

unguarded word of conspiracy, deliverance, and Italian succor:

such treason may be glorious; but the rebel who bravely ventures,

has justly forfeited his life; nor should we blame a conqueror

for destroying the enemies whom he can no longer trust. On the

eighteenth of June the victorious sultan returned to Adrianople;

and smiled at the base and hollow embassies of the Christian

princes, who viewed their approaching ruin in the fall of the

Eastern empire.

[Footnote 78: I cannot believe with Ducas (see Spondanus, A.D.

1453, No. 13) that Mahomet sent round Persia, Arabia, &c., the

head of the Greek emperor: he would surely content himself with a

trophy less inhuman.]

[Footnote 79: Phranza was the personal enemy of the great duke;

nor could time, or death, or his own retreat to a monastery,

extort a feeling of sympathy or forgiveness. Ducas is inclined

to praise and pity the martyr; Chalcondyles is neuter, but we are

indebted to him for the hint of the Greek conspiracy.]

[Footnote *: Von Hammer relates this undoubtingly, apparently on

good authority, p. 559. - M.]

Constantinople had been left naked and desolate, without a

prince or a people. But she could not be despoiled of the

incomparable situation which marks her for the metropolis of a

great empire; and the genius of the place will ever triumph over

the accidents of time and fortune. Boursa and Adrianople, the

ancient seats of the Ottomans, sunk into provincial towns; and

Mahomet the Second established his own residence, and that of his

successors, on the same commanding spot which had been chosen by

Constantine. ^80 The fortifications of Galata, which might afford

a shelter to the Latins, were prudently destroyed; but the damage

of the Turkish cannon was soon repaired; and before the month of

August, great quantities of lime had been burnt for the

restoration of the walls of the capital. As the entire property

of the soil and buildings, whether public or private, or profane

or sacred, was now transferred to the conqueror, he first

separated a space of eight furlongs from the point of the

triangle for the establishment of his seraglio or palace. It is

here, in the bosom of luxury, that the Grand Signor (as he has

been emphatically named by the Italians) appears to reign over

Europe and Asia; but his person on the shores of the Bosphorus

may not always be secure from the insults of a hostile navy. In

the new character of a mosque, the cathedral of St. Sophia was

endowed with an ample revenue, crowned with lofty minarets, and

surrounded with groves and fountains, for the devotion and

refreshment of the Moslems. The same model was imitated in the

jami, or royal mosques; and the first of these was built, by

Mahomet himself, on the ruins of the church of the holy apostles,

and the tombs of the Greek emperors. On the third day after the

conquest, the grave of Abu Ayub, or Job, who had fallen in the

first siege of the Arabs, was revealed in a vision; and it is

before the sepulchre of the martyr that the new sultans are

girded with the sword of empire. ^81 Constantinople no longer

appertains to the Roman historian; nor shall I enumerate the

civil and religious edifices that were profaned or erected by its

Turkish masters: the population was speedily renewed; and before

the end of September, five thousand families of Anatolia and

Romania had obeyed the royal mandate, which enjoined them, under

pain of death, to occupy their new habitations in the capital.

The throne of Mahomet was guarded by the numbers and fidelity of

his Moslem subjects: but his rational policy aspired to collect

the remnant of the Greeks; and they returned in crowds, as soon

as they were assured of their lives, their liberties, and the

free exercise of their religion. In the election and investiture

of a patriarch, the ceremonial of the Byzantine court was revived

and imitated. With a mixture of satisfaction and horror, they

beheld the sultan on his throne; who delivered into the hands of

Gennadius the crosier or pastoral staff, the symbol of his

ecclesiastical office; who conducted the patriarch to the gate of

the seraglio, presented him with a horse richly caparisoned, and

directed the viziers and bashaws to lead him to the palace which

had been allotted for his residence. ^82 The churches of

Constantinople were shared between the two religions: their

limits were marked; and, till it was infringed by Selim, the

grandson of Mahomet, the Greeks ^83 enjoyed above sixty years the

benefit of this equal partition. Encouraged by the ministers of

the divan, who wished to elude the fanaticism of the sultan, the

Christian advocates presumed to allege that this division had

been an act, not of generosity, but of justice; not a concession,

but a compact; and that if one half of the city had been taken by

storm, the other moiety had surrendered on the faith of a sacred

capitulation. The original grant had indeed been consumed by

fire: but the loss was supplied by the testimony of three aged

Janizaries who remembered the transaction; and their venal oaths

are of more weight in the opinion of Cantemir, than the positive

and unanimous consent of the history of the times. ^84

[Footnote 80: For the restitution of Constantinople and the

Turkish foundations, see Cantemir, (p. 102 - 109,) Ducas, (c.

42,) with Thevenot, Tournefort, and the rest of our modern

travellers. From a gigantic picture of the greatness,

population, &c., of Constantinople and the Ottoman empire,

(Abrege de l'Histoire Ottomane, tom. i. p. 16 - 21,) we may

learn, that in the year 1586 the Moslems were less numerous in

the capital than the Christians, or even the Jews.]

[Footnote 81: The Turbe, or sepulchral monument of Abu Ayub, is

described and engraved in the Tableau Generale de l'Empire

Ottoman, (Paris 1787, in large folio,) a work of less use,

perhaps, than magnificence, (tom. i. p. 305, 306.)]

[Footnote 82: Phranza (l. iii. c. 19) relates the ceremony, which

has possibly been adorned in the Greek reports to each other, and

to the Latins. The fact is confirmed by Emanuel Malaxus, who

wrote, in vulgar Greek, the History of the Patriarchs after the

taking of Constantinople, inserted in the Turco-Graecia of

Crusius, (l. v. p. 106 - 184.) But the most patient reader will

not believe that Mahomet adopted the Catholic form, "Sancta

Trinitas quae mihi donavit imperium te in patriarcham novae Romae

deligit."]

[Footnote 83: From the Turco-Graecia of Crusius, &c. Spondanus

(A.D. 1453, No. 21, 1458, No. 16) describes the slavery and

domestic quarrels of the Greek church. The patriarch who

succeeded Gennadius threw himself in despair into a well.]

[Footnote 84: Cantemir (p. 101 - 105) insists on the unanimous

consent of the Turkish historians, ancient as well as modern, and

argues, that they would not have violated the truth to diminish

their national glory, since it is esteemed more honorable to take

a city by force than by composition. But, 1. I doubt this

consent, since he quotes no particular historian, and the Turkish

Annals of Leunclavius affirm, without exception, that Mahomet

took Constantinople per vim, (p. 329.) 2 The same argument may be

turned in favor of the Greeks of the times, who would not have

forgotten this honorable and salutary treaty. Voltaire, as usual,

prefers the Turks to the Christians.]

The remaining fragments of the Greek kingdom in Europe and

Asia I shall abandon to the Turkish arms; but the final

extinction of the two last dynasties ^85 which have reigned in

Constantinople should terminate the decline and fall of the Roman

empire in the East. The despots of the Morea, Demetrius and

Thomas, ^86 the two surviving brothers of the name of

Palaeologus, were astonished by the death of the emperor

Constantine, and the ruin of the monarchy. Hopeless of defence,

they prepared, with the noble Greeks who adhered to their

fortune, to seek a refuge in Italy, beyond the reach of the

Ottoman thunder. Their first apprehensions were dispelled by the

victorious sultan, who contented himself with a tribute of twelve

thousand ducats; and while his ambition explored the continent

and the islands, in search of prey, he indulged the Morea in a

respite of seven years. But this respite was a period of grief,

discord, and misery. The hexamilion, the rampart of the Isthmus,

so often raised and so often subverted, could not long be

defended by three hundred Italian archers: the keys of Corinth

were seized by the Turks: they returned from their summer

excursions with a train of captives and spoil; and the complaints

of the injured Greeks were heard with indifference and disdain.

The Albanians, a vagrant tribe of shepherds and robbers, filled

the peninsula with rapine and murder: the two despots implored

the dangerous and humiliating aid of a neighboring bashaw; and

when he had quelled the revolt, his lessons inculcated the rule

of their future conduct. Neither the ties of blood, nor the oaths

which they repeatedly pledged in the communion and before the

altar, nor the stronger pressure of necessity, could reconcile or

suspend their domestic quarrels. They ravaged each other's

patrimony with fire and sword: the alms and succors of the West

were consumed in civil hostility; and their power was only

exerted in savage and arbitrary executions. The distress and

revenge of the weaker rival invoked their supreme lord; and, in

the season of maturity and revenge, Mahomet declared himself the

friend of Demetrius, and marched into the Morea with an

irresistible force. When he had taken possession of Sparta, "You

are too weak," said the sultan, "to control this turbulent

province: I will take your daughter to my bed; and you shall pass

the remainder of your life in security and honor." Demetrius

sighed and obeyed; surrendered his daughter and his castles;

followed to Adrianople his sovereign and his son; and received

for his own maintenance, and that of his followers, a city in

Thrace and the adjacent isles of Imbros, Lemnos, and Samothrace.

He was joined the next year by a companion ^* of misfortune, the

last of the Comnenian race, who, after the taking of

Constantinople by the Latins, had founded a new empire on the

coast of the Black Sea. ^87 In the progress of his Anatolian

conquest, Mahomet invested with a fleet and army the capital of

David, who presumed to style himself emperor of Trebizond; ^88

and the negotiation was comprised in a short and peremptory

question, "Will you secure your life and treasures by resigning

your kingdom? or had you rather forfeit your kingdom, your

treasures, and your life?" The feeble Comnenus was subdued by his

own fears, ^! and the example of a Mussulman neighbor, the prince

of Sinope, ^89 who, on a similar summons, had yielded a fortified

city, with four hundred cannon and ten or twelve thousand

soldiers. The capitulation of Trebizond was faithfully

performed: ^* and the emperor, with his family, was transported

to a castle in Romania; but on a slight suspicion of

corresponding with the Persian king, David, and the whole

Comnenian race, were sacrificed to the jealousy or avarice of the

conqueror. ^!! Nor could the name of father long protect the

unfortunate Demetrius from exile and confiscation; his abject

submission moved the pity and contempt of the sultan; his

followers were transplanted to Constantinople; and his poverty

was alleviated by a pension of fifty thousand aspers, till a

monastic habit and a tardy death released Palaeologus from an

earthly master. It is not easy to pronounce whether the

servitude of Demetrius, or the exile of his brother Thomas, ^90

be the most inglorious. On the conquest of the Morea, the despot

escaped to Corfu, and from thence to Italy, with some naked

adherents: his name, his sufferings, and the head of the apostle

St. Andrew, entitled him to the hospitality of the Vatican; and

his misery was prolonged by a pension of six thousand ducats from

the pope and cardinals. His two sons, Andrew and Manuel, were

educated in Italy; but the eldest, contemptible to his enemies

and burdensome to his friends, was degraded by the baseness of

his life and marriage. A title was his sole inheritance; and

that inheritance he successively sold to the kings of France and

Arragon. ^91 During his transient prosperity, Charles the Eighth

was ambitious of joining the empire of the East with the kingdom

of Naples: in a public festival, he assumed the appellation and

the purple of Augustus: the Greeks rejoiced and the Ottoman

already trembled, at the approach of the French chivalry. ^92

Manuel Palaeologus, the second son, was tempted to revisit his

native country: his return might be grateful, and could not be

dangerous, to the Porte: he was maintained at Constantinople in

safety and ease; and an honorable train of Christians and Moslems

attended him to the grave. If there be some animals of so

generous a nature that they refuse to propagate in a domestic

state, the last of the Imperial race must be ascribed to an

inferior kind: he accepted from the sultan's liberality two

beautiful females; and his surviving son was lost in the habit

and religion of a Turkish slave.

[Footnote 85: For the genealogy and fall of the Comneni of

Trebizond, see Ducange, (Fam. Byzant. p. 195;) for the last

Palaeologi, the same accurate antiquarian, (p. 244, 247, 248.)

The Palaeologi of Montferrat were not extinct till the next

century; but they had forgotten their Greek origin and kindred.]

[Footnote 86: In the worthless story of the disputes and

misfortunes of the two brothers, Phranza (l. iii. c. 21 - 30) is

too partial on the side of Thomas Ducas (c. 44, 45) is too brief,

and Chalcondyles (l. viii. ix. x.) too diffuse and digressive.]

[Footnote *: Kalo-Johannes, the predecessor of David his brother,

the last emperor of Trebizond, had attempted to organize a

confederacy against Mahomet it comprehended Hassan Bei, sultan of

Mesopotamia, the Christian princes of Georgia and Iberia, the

emir of Sinope, and the sultan of Caramania. The negotiations

were interrupted by his sudden death, A.D. 1458. Fallmerayer, p.

257 - 260. - M.]

[Footnote 87: See the loss or conquest of Trebizond in

Chalcondyles, (l. ix. p. 263 - 266,) Ducas, (c. 45,) Phranza, (l.

iii. c. 27,) and Cantemir, (p. 107.)]

[Footnote 88: Though Tournefort (tom. iii. lettre xvii. p. 179)

speaks of Trebizond as mal peuplee, Peysonnel, the latest and

most accurate observer, can find 100,000 inhabitants, (Commerce

de la Mer Noire, tom. ii. p. 72, and for the province, p. 53 -

90.) Its prosperity and trade are perpetually disturbed by the

factious quarrels of two odas of Janizaries, in one which 30,000

Lazi are commonly enrolled, (Memoires de Tott, tom. iii. p. 16,

17.)]

[Footnote !: According to the Georgian account of these

transactions, (translated by M. Brosset, additions to Le Beau,

vol. xxi. p. 325,) the emperor of Trebizond humbly entreated the

sultan to have the goodness to marry one of his daughters. - M.]

[Footnote 89: Ismael Beg, prince of Sinope or Sinople, was

possessed (chiefly from his copper mines) of a revenure of

200,000 ducats, (Chalcond. l. ix. p. 258, 259.) Peysonnel

(Commerce de la Mer Noire, tom. ii. p. 100) ascribes to the

modern city 60,000 inhabitants. This account seems enormous; yet

it is by trading with people that we become acquainted with their

wealth and numbers.]

[Footnote *: M. Boissonade has published, in the fifth volume of

his Anecdota Graeca (p. 387, 401.) a very interesting letter from

George Amiroutzes, protovestia rius of Trebizond, to Bessarion,

describing the surrender of Trebizond, and the fate of its chief

inhabitants. - M.]

[Footnote !!: See in Von Hammer, vol. ii. p. 60, the striking

account of the mother, the empress Helena the Cantacuzene, who,

in defiance of the edict, like that of Creon in the Greek

tragedy, dug the grave for her murdered children with her own

hand, and sank into it herself. - M.]

[Footnote 90: Spondanus (from Gobelin Comment. Pii II. l. v.)

relates the arrival and reception of of the despot Thomas at

Rome,. (A.D. 1461 No. NO. 3.)]

[Footnote 91: By an act dated A.D. 1494, Sept. 6, and lately

transmitted from the archives of the Capitol to the royal library

of Paris, the despot Andrew Palaeologus, reserving the Morea, and

stipulating some private advantages, conveys to Charles VIII.,

king of France, the empires of Constantinople and Trebizond,

(Spondanus, A.D. 1495, No. 2.) M. D. Foncemagne (Mem. de

l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xvii. p. 539 - 578) has

bestowed a dissertation on his national title, of which he had

obtained a copy from Rome.]

[Footnote 92: See Philippe de Comines, (l. vii. c. 14,) who

reckons with pleasure the number of Greeks who were prepared to

rise, 60 miles of an easy navigation, eighteen days' journey from

Valona to Constantinople, &c. On this occasion the Turkish

empire was saved by the policy of Venice.]

The importance of Constantinople was felt and magnified in

its loss: the pontificate of Nicholas the Fifth, however peaceful

and prosperous, was dishonored by the fall of the Eastern empire;

and the grief and terror of the Latins revived, or seemed to

revive, the old enthusiasm of the crusades. In one of the most

distant countries of the West, Philip duke of Burgundy

entertained, at Lisle in Flanders, an assembly of his nobles; and

the pompous pageants of the feast were skilfully adapted to their

fancy and feelings. ^93 In the midst of the banquet a gigantic

Saracen entered the hall, leading a fictitious elephant with a

castle on his back: a matron in a mourning robe, the symbol of

religion, was seen to issue from the castle: she deplored her

oppression, and accused the slowness of her champions: the

principal herald of the golden fleece advanced, bearing on his

fist a live pheasant, which, according to the rites of chivalry,

he presented to the duke. At this extraordinary summons, Philip,

a wise and aged prince, engaged his person and powers in the holy

war against the Turks: his example was imitated by the barons and

knights of the assembly: they swore to God, the Virgin, the

ladies and the pheasant; and their particular vows were not less

extravagant than the general sanction of their oath. But the

performance was made to depend on some future and foreign

contingency; and during twelve years, till the last hour of his

life, the duke of Burgundy might be scrupulously, and perhaps

sincerely, on the eve of his departure. Had every breast glowed

with the same ardor; had the union of the Christians corresponded

with their bravery; had every country, from Sweden ^94 to Naples,

supplied a just proportion of cavalry and infantry, of men and

money, it is indeed probable that Constantinople would have been

delivered, and that the Turks might have been chased beyond the

Hellespont or the Euphrates. But the secretary of the emperor,

who composed every epistle, and attended every meeting, Aeneas

Sylvius, ^95 a statesman and orator, describes from his own

experience the repugnant state and spirit of Christendom. "It is

a body," says he, "without a head; a republic without laws or

magistrates. The pope and the emperor may shine as lofty titles,

as splendid images; but they are unable to command, and none are

willing to obey: every state has a separate prince, and every

prince has a separate interest. What eloquence could unite so

many discordant and hostile powers under the same standard?

Could they be assembled in arms, who would dare to assume the

office of general? What order could be maintained? - what

military discipline? Who would undertake to feed such an

enormous multitude? Who would understand their various

languages, or direct their stranger and incompatible manners?

What mortal could reconcile the English with the French, Genoa

with Arragon the Germans with the natives of Hungary and Bohemia?

If a small number enlisted in the holy war, they must be

overthrown by the infidels; if many, by their own weight and

confusion." Yet the same Aeneas, when he was raised to the papal

throne, under the name of Pius the Second, devoted his life to

the prosecution of the Turkish war. In the council of Mantua he

excited some sparks of a false or feeble enthusiasm; but when the

pontiff appeared at Ancona, to embark in person with the troops,

engagements vanished in excuses; a precise day was adjourned to

an indefinite term; and his effective army consisted of some

German pilgrims, whom he was obliged to disband with indulgences

and arms. Regardless of futurity, his successors and the powers

of Italy were involved in the schemes of present and domestic

ambition; and the distance or proximity of each object determined

in their eyes its apparent magnitude. A more enlarged view of

their interest would have taught them to maintain a defensive and

naval war against the common enemy; and the support of Scanderbeg

and his brave Albanians might have prevented the subsequent

invasion of the kingdom of Naples. The siege and sack of Otranto

by the Turks diffused a general consternation; and Pope Sixtus

was preparing to fly beyond the Alps, when the storm was

instantly dispelled by the death of Mahomet the Second, in the

fifty-first year of his age. ^96 His lofty genius aspired to the

conquest of Italy: he was possessed of a strong city and a

capacious harbor; and the same reign might have been decorated

with the trophies of the New and the Ancient Rome. ^97

[Footnote 93: See the original feast in Olivier de la Marche,

(Memoires, P. i. c. 29, 30,) with the abstract and observations

of M. de Ste. Palaye, (Memoires sur la Chevalerie, tom. i. P.

iii. p. 182 - 185.) The peacock and the pheasant were

distinguished as royal birds.]

[Footnote 94: It was found by an actual enumeration, that Sweden,

Gothland, and Finland, contained 1,800,000 fighting men, and

consequently were far more populous than at present.]

[Footnote 95: In the year 1454, Spondanus has given, from Aeneas

Sylvius, a view of the state of Europe, enriched with his own

observations. That valuable annalist, and the Italian Muratori,

will continue the series of events from the year 1453 to 1481,

the end of Mahomet's life, and of this chapter.]

[Footnote 96: Besides the two annalists, the reader may consult

Giannone (Istoria Civile, tom. iii. p. 449 - 455) for the Turkish

invasion of the kingdom of Naples. For the reign and conquests

of Mahomet II., I have occasionally used the Memorie Istoriche de

Monarchi Ottomanni di Giovanni Sagredo, (Venezia, 1677, in 4to.)

In peace and war, the Turks have ever engaged the attention of

the republic of Venice. All her despatches and archives were

open to a procurator of St. Mark, and Sagredo is not contemptible

either in sense or style. Yet he too bitterly hates the

infidels: he is ignorant of their language and manners; and his

narrative, which allows only 70 pages to Mahomet II., (p. 69 -

140,) becomes more copious and authentic as he approaches the

years 1640 and 1644, the term of the historic labors of John

Sagredo.]

[Footnote 97: As I am now taking an everlasting farewell of the

Greek empire, I shall briefly mention the great collection of

Byzantine writers whose names and testimonies have been

successively repeated in this work. The Greeks presses of Aldus

and the Italians were confined to the classics of a better age;

and the first rude editions of Procopius, Agathias, Cedrenus,

Zonaras, &c., were published by the learned diligence of the

Germans. The whole Byzantine series (xxxvi. volumes in folio)

has gradually issued (A.D. 1648, &c.) from the royal press of the

Louvre, with some collateral aid from Rome and Leipsic; but the

Venetian edition, (A.D. 1729,) though cheaper and more copious,

is not less inferior in correctness than in magnificence to that

of Paris. The merits of the French editors are various; but the

value of Anna Comnena, Cinnamus, Villehardouin, &c., is enhanced

by the historical notes of Charles de Fresne du Cange. His

supplemental works, the Greek Glossary, the Constantinopolis

Christiana, the Familiae Byzantinae, diffuse a steady light over

the darkness of the Lower Empire.

Note: The new edition of the Byzantines, projected by

Niebuhr, and continued under the patronage of the Prussian

government, is the most convenient in size, and contains some

authors (Leo Diaconus, Johannes Lydus, Corippus, the new fragment

of Dexippus, Eunapius, &c., discovered by Mai) which could not be

comprised in the former collections; but the names of such

editors as Bekker, the Dindorfs, &c., raised hopes of something

more than the mere republication of the text, and the notes of

former editors. Little, I regret to say, has been added of

annotation, and in some cases, the old incorrect versions have

been retained. - M.]

Chapter LXIX: State Of Rome From The Twelfth Century.

Part II.

Yet the courage of Arnold was not devoid of discretion: he

was protected, and had perhaps been invited, by the nobles and

people; and in the service of freedom, his eloquence thundered

over the seven hills. Blending in the same discourse the texts

of Livy and St. Paul, uniting the motives of gospel, and of

classic, enthusiasm, he admonished the Romans, how strangely

their patience and the vices of the clergy had degenerated from

the primitive times of the church and the city. He exhorted them

to assert the inalienable rights of men and Christians; to

restore the laws and magistrates of the republic; to respect the

name of the emperor; but to confine their shepherd to the

spiritual government of his flock. ^26 Nor could his spiritual

government escape the censure and control of the reformer; and

the inferior clergy were taught by his lessons to resist the

cardinals, who had usurped a despotic command over the

twenty-eight regions or parishes of Rome. ^27 The revolution was

not accomplished without rapine and violence, the diffusion of

blood and the demolition of houses: the victorious faction was

enriched with the spoils of the clergy and the adverse nobles.

Arnold of Brescia enjoyed, or deplored, the effects of his

mission: his reign continued above ten years, while two popes,

Innocent the Second and Anastasius the Fourth, either trembled in

the Vatican, or wandered as exiles in the adjacent cities. They

were succeeded by a more vigorous and fortunate pontiff. Adrian

the Fourth, ^28 the only Englishman who has ascended the throne

of St. Peter; and whose merit emerged from the mean condition of

a monk, and almost a beggar, in the monastery of St. Albans. On

the first provocation, of a cardinal killed or wounded in the

streets, he cast an interdict on the guilty people; and from

Christmas to Easter, Rome was deprived of the real or imaginary

comforts of religious worship. The Romans had despised their

temporal prince: they submitted with grief and terror to the

censures of their spiritual father: their guilt was expiated by

penance, and the banishment of the seditious preacher was the

price of their absolution. But the revenge of Adrian was yet

unsatisfied, and the approaching coronation of Frederic

Barbarossa was fatal to the bold reformer, who had offended,

though not in an equal degree, the heads of the church and state.

In their interview at Viterbo, the pope represented to the

emperor the furious, ungovernable spirit of the Romans; the

insults, the injuries, the fears, to which his person and his

clergy were continually exposed; and the pernicious tendency of

the heresy of Arnold, which must subvert the principles of civil,

as well as ecclesiastical, subordination. Frederic was convinced

by these arguments, or tempted by the desire of the Imperial

crown: in the balance of ambition, the innocence or life of an

individual is of small account; and their common enemy was

sacrificed to a moment of political concord. After his retreat

from Rome, Arnold had been protected by the viscounts of

Campania, from whom he was extorted by the power of Caesar: the

praefect of the city pronounced his sentence: the martyr of

freedom was burned alive in the presence of a careless and

ungrateful people; and his ashes were cast into the Tyber, lest

the heretics should collect and worship the relics of their

master. ^29 The clergy triumphed in his death: with his ashes,

his sect was dispersed; his memory still lived in the minds of

the Romans. From his school they had probably derived a new

article of faith, that the metropolis of the Catholic church is

exempt from the penalties of excommunication and interdict.

Their bishops might argue, that the supreme jurisdiction, which

they exercised over kings and nations, more especially embraced

the city and diocese of the prince of the apostles. But they

preached to the winds, and the same principle that weakened the

effect, must temper the abuse, of the thunders of the Vatican.

[Footnote 26: He advised the Romans,

Consiliis armisque sua moderamina summa

Arbitrio tractare suo: nil juris in hac re

Pontifici summo, modicum concedere regi

Suadebat populo. Sic laesa stultus utraque

Majestate, reum geminae se fecerat aulae.

Nor is the poetry of Gunther different from the prose of Otho.]

[Footnote 27: See Baronius (A.D. 1148, No. 38, 39) from the

Vatican MSS. He loudly condemns Arnold (A.D. 1141, No. 3) as the

father of the political heretics, whose influence then hurt him

in France.]

[Footnote 28: The English reader may consult the Biographia

Britannica, Adrian IV.; but our own writers have added nothing to

the fame or merits of their countrymen.]

[Footnote 29: Besides the historian and poet already quoted, the

last adventures of Arnold are related by the biographer of Adrian

IV. (Muratori. Script. Rerum Ital. tom. iii. P. i. p. 441, 442.)]

The love of ancient freedom has encouraged a belief that as

early as the tenth century, in their first struggles against the

Saxon Othos, the commonwealth was vindicated and restored by the

senate and people of Rome; that two consuls were annually elected

among the nobles, and that ten or twelve plebeian magistrates

revived the name and office of the tribunes of the commons. ^30

But this venerable structure disappears before the light of

criticism. In the darkness of the middle ages, the appellations

of senators, of consuls, of the sons of consuls, may sometimes be

discovered. ^31 They were bestowed by the emperors, or assumed by

the most powerful citizens, to denote their rank, their honors,

^32 and perhaps the claim of a pure and patrician descent: but

they float on the surface, without a series or a substance, the

titles of men, not the orders of government; ^33 and it is only

from the year of Christ one thousand one hundred and forty-four

that the establishment of the senate is dated, as a glorious

aera, in the acts of the city. A new constitution was hastily

framed by private ambition or popular enthusiasm; nor could Rome,

in the twelfth century, produce an antiquary to explain, or a

legislator to restore, the harmony and proportions of the ancient

model. The assembly of a free, of an armed, people, will ever

speak in loud and weighty acclamations. But the regular

distribution of the thirty-five tribes, the nice balance of the

wealth and numbers of the centuries, the debates of the adverse

orators, and the slow operations of votes and ballots, could not

easily be adapted by a blind multitude, ignorant of the arts, and

insensible of the benefits, of legal government. It was proposed

by Arnold to revive and discriminate the equestrian order; but

what could be the motive or measure of such distinction? ^34 The

pecuniary qualification of the knights must have been reduced to

the poverty of the times: those times no longer required their

civil functions of judges and farmers of the revenue; and their

primitive duty, their military service on horseback, was more

nobly supplied by feudal tenures and the spirit of chivalry. The

jurisprudence of the republic was useless and unknown: the

nations and families of Italy who lived under the Roman and

Barbaric laws were insensibly mingled in a common mass; and some

faint tradition, some imperfect fragments, preserved the memory

of the Code and Pandects of Justinian. With their liberty the

Romans might doubtless have restored the appellation and office

of consuls; had they not disdained a title so promiscuously

adopted in the Italian cities, that it has finally settled on the

humble station of the agents of commerce in a foreign land. But

the rights of the tribunes, the formidable word that arrested the

public counsels, suppose or must produce a legitimate democracy.

The old patricians were the subjects, the modern barons the

tyrants, of the state; nor would the enemies of peace and order,

who insulted the vicar of Christ, have long respected the unarmed

sanctity of a plebeian magistrate. ^35

[Footnote 30: Ducange (Gloss. Latinitatis Mediae et Infimae

Aetatis, Decarchones, tom. ii. p. 726) gives me a quotation from

Blondus, (Decad. ii. l. ii.:) Duo consules ex nobilitate

quotannis fiebant, qui ad vetustum consulum exemplar summaererum

praeessent. And in Sigonius (de Regno Italiae, l. v. Opp. tom.

ii. p. 400) I read of the consuls and tribunes of the xth

century. Both Blondus, and even Sigonius, too freely copied the

classic method of supplying from reason or fancy the deficiency

of records.]

[Footnote 31: In the panegyric of Berengarius (Muratori, Script.

Rer. Ital. tom. ii. P. i. p. 408) a Roman is mentioned as

consulis natus in the beginning of the xth century. Muratori

(Dissert. v.) discovers, in the years 952 and 956, Gratianus in

Dei nomine consul et dux, Georgius consul et dux; and in 1015,

Romanus, brother of Gregory VIII., proudly, but vaguely, styles

himself consul et dux et omnium Roma norum senator.]

[Footnote 32: As late as the xth century, the Greek emperors

conferred on the dukes of Venice, Naples, Amalphi, &c., the title

of consuls, (see Chron. Sagornini, passim;) and the successors of

Charlemagne would not abdicate any of their prerogative. But in

general the names of consul and senator, which may be found among

the French and Germans, signify no more than count and lord,

(Signeur, Ducange Glossar.) The monkish writers are often

ambitious of fine classic words.]

[Footnote 33: The most constitutional form is a diploma of Otho

III., (A. D 998,) consulibus senatus populique Romani; but the

act is probably spurious. At the coronation of Henry I., A.D.

1014, the historian Dithmar (apud Muratori, Dissert. xxiii.)

describes him, a senatoribus duodecem vallatum, quorum sex rasi

barba, alii prolixa, mystice incedebant cum baculis. The senate

is mentioned in the panegyric of Berengarius, (p. 406.)]

[Footnote 34: In ancient Rome the equestrian order was not ranked

with the senate and people as a third branch of the republic till

the consulship of Cicero, who assumes the merit of the

establishment, (Plin. Hist. Natur. xxxiii. 3. Beaufort,

Republique Romaine, tom. i. p. 144 - 155.)]

[Footnote 35: The republican plan of Arnold of Brescia is thus

stated by Gunther: -

Quin etiam titulos urbis renovare vetustos;

Nomine plebeio secernere nomen equestre,

Jura tribunorum, sanctum reparare senatum,

Et senio fessas mutasque reponere leges.

Lapsa ruinosis, et adhuc pendentia muris

Reddere primaevo Capitolia prisca nitori.

But of these reformations, some were no more than ideas, others

no more than words.]

In the revolution of the twelfth century, which gave a new

existence and aera to Rome, we may observe the real and important

events that marked or confirmed her political independence. I.

The Capitoline hill, one of her seven eminences, ^36 is about

four hundred yards in length, and two hundred in breadth. A

flight of a hundred steps led to the summit of the Tarpeian rock;

and far steeper was the ascent before the declivities had been

smoothed and the precipices filled by the ruins of fallen

edifices. From the earliest ages, the Capitol had been used as a

temple in peace, a fortress in war: after the loss of the city,

it maintained a siege against the victorious Gauls, and the

sanctuary of the empire was occupied, assaulted, and burnt, in

the civil wars of Vitellius and Vespasian. ^37 The temples of

Jupiter and his kindred deities had crumbled into dust; their

place was supplied by monasteries and houses; and the solid

walls, the long and shelving porticos, were decayed or ruined by

the lapse of time. It was the first act of the Romans, an act of

freedom, to restore the strength, though not the beauty, of the

Capitol; to fortify the seat of their arms and counsels; and as

often as they ascended the hill, the coldest minds must have

glowed with the remembrance of their ancestors. II. The first

Caesars had been invested with the exclusive coinage of the gold

and silver; to the senate they abandoned the baser metal of

bronze or copper: ^38 the emblems and legends were inscribed on a

more ample field by the genius of flattery; and the prince was

relieved from the care of celebrating his own virtues. The

successors of Diocletian despised even the flattery of the

senate: their royal officers at Rome, and in the provinces,

assumed the sole direction of the mint; and the same prerogative

was inherited by the Gothic kings of Italy, and the long series

of the Greek, the French, and the German dynasties. After an

abdication of eight hundred years, the Roman senate asserted this

honorable and lucrative privilege; which was tacitly renounced by

the popes, from Paschal the Second to the establishment of their

residence beyond the Alps. Some of these republican coins of the

twelfth and thirteenth centuries are shown in the cabinets of the

curious. On one of these, a gold medal, Christ is depictured

holding in his left hand a book with this inscription: "The vow

of the Roman senate and people: Rome the capital of the world;"

on the reverse, St. Peter delivering a banner to a kneeling

senator in his cap and gown, with the name and arms of his family

impressed on a shield. ^39 III. With the empire, the praefect of

the city had declined to a municipal officer; yet he still

exercised in the last appeal the civil and criminal jurisdiction;

and a drawn sword, which he received from the successors of Otho,

was the mode of his investiture and the emblem of his functions.

^40 The dignity was confined to the noble families of Rome: the

choice of the people was ratified by the pope; but a triple oath

of fidelity must have often embarrassed the praefect in the

conflict of adverse duties. ^41 A servant, in whom they possessed

but a third share, was dismissed by the independent Romans: in

his place they elected a patrician; but this title, which

Charlemagne had not disdained, was too lofty for a citizen or a

subject; and, after the first fervor of rebellion, they consented

without reluctance to the restoration of the praefect. About

fifty years after this event, Innocent the Third, the most

ambitious, or at least the most fortunate, of the Pontiffs,

delivered the Romans and himself from this badge of foreign

dominion: he invested the praefect with a banner instead of a

sword, and absolved him from all dependence of oaths or service

to the German emperors. ^42 In his place an ecclesiastic, a

present or future cardinal, was named by the pope to the civil

government of Rome; but his jurisdiction has been reduced to a

narrow compass; and in the days of freedom, the right or exercise

was derived from the senate and people. IV. After the revival of

the senate, ^43 the conscript fathers (if I may use the

expression) were invested with the legislative and executive

power; but their views seldom reached beyond the present day; and

that day was most frequently disturbed by violence and tumult.

In its utmost plenitude, the order or assembly consisted of

fifty-six senators, ^44 the most eminent of whom were

distinguished by the title of counsellors: they were nominated,

perhaps annually, by the people; and a previous choice of their

electors, ten persons in each region, or parish, might afford a

basis for a free and permanent constitution. The popes, who in

this tempest submitted rather to bend than to break, confirmed by

treaty the establishment and privileges of the senate, and

expected from time, peace, and religion, the restoration of their

government. The motives of public and private interest might

sometimes draw from the Romans an occasional and temporary

sacrifice of their claims; and they renewed their oath of

allegiance to the successor of St. Peter and Constantine, the

lawful head of the church and the republic. ^45

[Footnote 36: After many disputes among the antiquaries of Rome,

it seems determined, that the summit of the Capitoline hill next

the river is strictly the Mons Tarpeius, the Arx; and that on the

other summit, the church and convent of Araceli, the barefoot

friars of St. Francis occupy the temple of Jupiter, (Nardini,

Roma Antica, l. v. c. 11 - 16.)

Note: The authority of Nardini is now vigorously impugned,

and the question of the Arx and the Temple of Jupiter revived,

with new arguments by Niebuhr and his accomplished follower, M.

Bunsen. Roms Beschreibung, vol. iii. p. 12, et seqq - M.]

[Footnote 37: Tacit. Hist. iii. 69, 70.]

[Footnote 38: This partition of the noble and baser metals

between the emperor and senate must, however, be adopted, not as

a positive fact, but as the probable opinion of the best

antiquaries, (see the Science des Medailles of the Pere Joubert,

tom. ii. p. 208 - 211, in the improved and scarce edition of the

Baron de la Bastie.)

Note: Dr Cardwell (Lecture on Ancient Coins, p. 70, et seq.)

assigns convincing reasons in support of this opinion. - M.]

[Footnote 39: In his xxviith dissertation on the Antiquities of

Italy, (tom. ii. p. 559 - 569,) Muratori exhibits a series of the

senatorian coins, which bore the obscure names of Affortiati,

Infortiati, Provisini, Paparini. During this period, all the

popes, without excepting Boniface VIII, abstained from the right

of coining, which was resumed by his successor Benedict XI., and

regularly exercised in the court of Avignon.]

[Footnote 40: A German historian, Gerard of Reicherspeg (in

Baluz. Miscell. tom. v. p. 64, apud Schmidt, Hist. des Allemands,

tom. iii. p. 265) thus describes the constitution of Rome in the

xith century: Grandiora urbis et orbis negotia spectant ad

Romanum pontificem itemque ad Romanum Imperatorem, sive illius

vicarium urbis praefectum, qui de sua dignitate respicit

utrumque, videlicet dominum papam cui facit hominum, et dominum

imperatorem a quo accipit suae potestatis insigne, scilicet

gladium exertum.]

[Footnote 41: The words of a contemporary writer (Pandulph.

Pisan. in Vit. Paschal. II. p. 357, 358) describe the election

and oath of the praefect in 1118, inconsultis patribus .... loca

praefectoria .... Laudes praefectoriae .... comitiorum applausum

.... juraturum populo in ambonem sublevant .... confirmari eum in

urbe praefectum petunt.]

[Footnote 42: Urbis praefectum ad ligiam fidelitatem recepit, et

per mantum quod illi donavit de praefectura eum publice

investivit, qui usque ad id tempus juramento fidelitatis

imperatori fuit obligatus et ab eo praefecturae tenuit honorem,

(Gesta Innocent. III. in Muratori, tom. iii. P. i. p. 487.)]

[Footnote 43: See Otho Frising. Chron. vii. 31, de Gest.

Frederic. I., l. i. c. 27]

[Footnote 44: Cur countryman, Roger Hoveden, speaks of the single

senators, of the Capuzzi family, &c., quorum temporibus melius

regebatur Roma quam nunc (A.D. 1194) est temporibus lvi.

senatorum, (Ducange, Gloss. tom. vi. p. 191, Senatores.)]

[Footnote 45: Muratori (dissert. xlii. tom. iii. p. 785 - 788)

has published an original treaty: Concordia inter D. nostrum

papam Clementem III. et senatores populi Romani super regalibus

et aliis dignitatibus urbis, &c., anno 44 Degrees senatus. The

senate speaks, and speaks with authority: Reddimus ad praesens

.... habebimus .... dabitis presbyteria .... jurabimus pacem et

fidelitatem, &c. A chartula de Tenementis Tusculani, dated in

the 47th year of the same aera, and confirmed decreto amplissimi

ordinis senatus, acclamatione P. R. publice Capitolio

consistentis. It is there we find the difference of senatores

consiliarii and simple senators, (Muratori, dissert. xlii. tom.

iii. p. 787 - 789.)]

The union and vigor of a public council was dissolved in a

lawless city; and the Romans soon adopted a more strong and

simple mode of administration. They condensed the name and

authority of the senate in a single magistrate, or two

colleagues; and as they were changed at the end of a year, or of

six months, the greatness of the trust was compensated by the

shortness of the term. But in this transient reign, the senators

of Rome indulged their avarice and ambition: their justice was

perverted by the interest of their family and faction; and as

they punished only their enemies, they were obeyed only by their

adherents. Anarchy, no longer tempered by the pastoral care of

their bishop, admonished the Romans that they were incapable of

governing themselves; and they sought abroad those blessings

which they were hopeless of finding at home. In the same age,

and from the same motives, most of the Italian republics were

prompted to embrace a measure, which, however strange it may

seem, was adapted to their situation, and productive of the most

salutary effects. ^46 They chose, in some foreign but friendly

city, an impartial magistrate of noble birth and unblemished

character, a soldier and a statesman, recommended by the voice of

fame and his country, to whom they delegated for a time the

supreme administration of peace and war. The compact between the

governor and the governed was sealed with oaths and

subscriptions; and the duration of his power, the measure of his

stipend, the nature of their mutual obligations, were defined

with scrupulous precision. They swore to obey him as their lawful

superior: he pledged his faith to unite the indifference of a

stranger with the zeal of a patriot. At his choice, four or six

knights and civilians, his assessors in arms and justice,

attended the Podesta, ^47 who maintained at his own expense a

decent retinue of servants and horses: his wife, his son, his

brother, who might bias the affections of the judge, were left

behind: during the exercise of his office he was not permitted to

purchase land, to contract an alliance, or even to accept an

invitation in the house of a citizen; nor could he honorably

depart till he had satisfied the complaints that might be urged

against his government.

[Footnote 46: Muratori (dissert. xlv. tom. iv. p. 64 - 92) has

fully explained this mode of government; and the Occulus

Pastoralis, which he has given at the end, is a treatise or

sermon on the duties of these foreign magistrates.]

[Footnote 47: In the Latin writers, at least of the silver age,

the title of Potestas was transferred from the office to the

magistrate: -

Hujus qui trahitur praetextam sumere mavis;

An Fidenarum Gabiorumque esse Potestas.

Juvenal. Satir. x. 99.]

Chapter LXIX: State Of Rome From The Twelfth Century.

Part III.

It was thus, about the middle of the thirteenth century,

that the Romans called from Bologna the senator Brancaleone, ^48

whose fame and merit have been rescued from oblivion by the pen

of an English historian. A just anxiety for his reputation, a

clear foresight of the difficulties of the task, had engaged him

to refuse the honor of their choice: the statutes of Rome were

suspended, and his office prolonged to the term of three years.

By the guilty and licentious he was accused as cruel; by the

clergy he was suspected as partial; but the friends of peace and

order applauded the firm and upright magistrate by whom those

blessings were restored. No criminals were so powerful as to

brave, so obscure as to elude, the justice of the senator. By

his sentence two nobles of the Annibaldi family were executed on

a gibbet; and he inexorably demolished, in the city and

neighborhood, one hundred and forty towers, the strong shelters

of rapine and mischief. The bishop, as a simple bishop, was

compelled to reside in his diocese; and the standard of

Brancaleone was displayed in the field with terror and effect.

His services were repaid by the ingratitude of a people unworthy

of the happiness which they enjoyed. By the public robbers, whom

he had provoked for their sake, the Romans were excited to depose

and imprison their benefactor; nor would his life have been

spared, if Bologna had not possessed a pledge for his safety.

Before his departure, the prudent senator had required the

exchange of thirty hostages of the noblest families of Rome: on

the news of his danger, and at the prayer of his wife, they were

more strictly guarded; and Bologna, in the cause of honor,

sustained the thunders of a papal interdict. This generous

resistance allowed the Romans to compare the present with the

past; and Brancaleone was conducted from the prison to the

Capitol amidst the acclamations of a repentant people. The

remainder of his government was firm and fortunate; and as soon

as envy was appeased by death, his head, enclosed in a precious

vase, was deposited on a lofty column of marble. ^49

[Footnote 48: See the life and death of Brancaleone, in the

Historia Major of Matthew Paris, p. 741, 757, 792, 797, 799, 810,

823, 833, 836, 840. The multitude of pilgrims and suitors

connected Rome and St. Albans, and the resentment of the English

clergy prompted them to rejoice when ever the popes were humbled

and oppressed.]

[Footnote 49: Matthew Paris thus ends his account: Caput vero

ipsius Branca leonis in vase pretioso super marmoream columnam

collocatum, in signum sui valoris et probitatis, quasi reliquias,

superstitiose nimis et pompose sustulerunt. Fuerat enim

superborum potentum et malefactorum urbis malleus et extirpator,

et populi protector et defensor veritatis et justitiae imitator

et amator, (p. 840.) A biographer of Innocent IV. (Muratori,

Script. tom. iii. P. i. p. 591, 592) draws a less favorable

portrait of this Ghibeline senator.]

The impotence of reason and virtue recommended in Italy a

more effectual choice: instead of a private citizen, to whom they

yielded a voluntary and precarious obedience, the Romans elected

for their senator some prince of independent power, who could

defend them from their enemies and themselves. Charles of Anjou

and Provence, the most ambitious and warlike monarch of the age,

accepted at the same time the kingdom of Naples from the pope,

and the office of senator from the Roman people. ^50 As he passed

through the city, in his road to victory, he received their oath

of allegiance, lodged in the Lateran palace, and smoothed in a

short visit the harsh features of his despotic character. Yet

even Charles was exposed to the inconstancy of the people, who

saluted with the same acclamations the passage of his rival, the

unfortunate Conradin; and a powerful avenger, who reigned in the

Capitol, alarmed the fears and jealousy of the popes. The

absolute term of his life was superseded by a renewal every third

year; and the enmity of Nicholas the Third obliged the Sicilian

king to abdicate the government of Rome. In his bull, a

perpetual law, the imperious pontiff asserts the truth, validity,

and use of the donation of Constantine, not less essential to the

peace of the city than to the independence of the church;

establishes the annual election of the senator; and formally

disqualifies all emperors, kings, princes, and persons of an

eminent and conspicuous rank. ^51 This prohibitory clause was

repealed in his own behalf by Martin the Fourth, who humbly

solicited the suffrage of the Romans. In the presence, and by

the authority, of the people, two electors conferred, not on the

pope, but on the noble and faithful Martin, the dignity of

senator, and the supreme administration of the republic, ^52 to

hold during his natural life, and to exercise at pleasure by

himself or his deputies. About fifty years afterwards, the same

title was granted to the emperor Lewis of Bavaria; and the

liberty of Rome was acknowledged by her two sovereigns, who

accepted a municipal office in the government of their own

metropolis.

[Footnote 50: The election of Charles of Anjou to the office of

perpetual senator of Rome is mentioned by the historians in the

viiith volume of the Collection of Muratori, by Nicholas de

Jamsilla, (p. 592,) the monk of Padua, (p. 724,) Sabas Malaspina,

(l. ii. c. 9, p. 308,) and Ricordano Malespini, (c. 177, p.

999.)]

[Footnote 51: The high-sounding bull of Nicholas III., which

founds his temporal sovereignty on the donation of Constantine,

is still extant; and as it has been inserted by Boniface VIII. in

the Sexte of the Decretals, it must be received by the Catholics,

or at least by the Papists, as a sacred and perpetual law.]

[Footnote 52: I am indebted to Fleury (Hist. Eccles. tom. xviii.

p. 306) for an extract of this Roman act, which he has taken from

the Ecclesiastical Annals of Odericus Raynaldus, A.D. 1281, No.

14, 15]

In the first moments of rebellion, when Arnold of Brescia

had inflamed their minds against the church, the Romans artfully

labored to conciliate the favor of the empire, and to recommend

their merit and services in the cause of Caesar. The style of

their ambassadors to Conrad the Third and Frederic the First is a

mixture of flattery and pride, the tradition and the ignorance of

their own history. ^53 After some complaint of his silence and

neglect, they exhort the former of these princes to pass the

Alps, and assume from their hands the Imperial crown. "We

beseech your majesty not to disdain the humility of your sons and

vassals, not to listen to the accusations of our common enemies;

who calumniate the senate as hostile to your throne, who sow the

seeds of discord, that they may reap the harvest of destruction.

The pope and the Sicilian are united in an impious league to

oppose our liberty and your coronation. With the blessing of

God, our zeal and courage has hitherto defeated their attempts.

Of their powerful and factious adherents, more especially the

Frangipani, we have taken by assault the houses and turrets: some

of these are occupied by our troops, and some are levelled with

the ground. The Milvian bridge, which they had broken, is

restored and fortified for your safe passage; and your army may

enter the city without being annoyed from the castle of St.

Angelo. All that we have done, and all that we design, is for

your honor and service, in the loyal hope, that you will speedily

appear in person, to vindicate those rights which have been

invaded by the clergy, to revive the dignity of the empire, and

to surpass the fame and glory of your predecessors. May you fix

your residence in Rome, the capital of the world; give laws to

Italy, and the Teutonic kingdom; and imitate the example of

Constantine and Justinian, ^54 who, by the vigor of the senate

and people, obtained the sceptre of the earth." ^55 But these

splendid and fallacious wishes were not cherished by Conrad the

Franconian, whose eyes were fixed on the Holy Land, and who died

without visiting Rome soon after his return from the Holy Land.

[Footnote 53: These letters and speeches are preserved by Otho

bishop of Frisingen, (Fabric. Bibliot. Lat. Med. et Infim. tom.

v. p. 186, 187,) perhaps the noblest of historians: he was son of

Leopold marquis of Austria; his mother, Agnes, was daughter of

the emperor Henry IV., and he was half- brother and uncle to

Conrad III. and Frederic I. He has left, in seven books, a

Chronicle of the Times; in two, the Gesta Frederici I., the last

of which is inserted in the vith volume of Muratori's

historians.]

[Footnote 54: We desire (said the ignorant Romans) to restore the

empire in um statum, quo fuit tempore Constantini et Justiniani,

qui totum orbem vigore senatus et populi Romani suis tenuere

manibus.]

[Footnote 55: Otho Frising. de Gestis Frederici I. l. i. c. 28,

p. 662 - 664.]

His nephew and successor, Frederic Barbarossa, was more

ambitious of the Imperial crown; nor had any of the successors of

Otho acquired such absolute sway over the kingdom of Italy.

Surrounded by his ecclesiastical and secular princes, he gave

audience in his camp at Sutri to the ambassadors of Rome, who

thus addressed him in a free and florid oration: "Incline your

ear to the queen of cities; approach with a peaceful and friendly

mind the precincts of Rome, which has cast away the yoke of the

clergy, and is impatient to crown her legitimate emperor. Under

your auspicious influence, may the primitive times be restored.

Assert the prerogatives of the eternal city, and reduce under her

monarchy the insolence of the world. You are not ignorant, that,

in former ages, by the wisdom of the senate, by the valor and

discipline of the equestrian order, she extended her victorious

arms to the East and West, beyond the Alps, and over the islands

of the ocean. By our sins, in the absence of our princes, the

noble institution of the senate has sunk in oblivion; and with

our prudence, our strength has likewise decreased. We have

revived the senate, and the equestrian order: the counsels of the

one, the arms of the other, will be devoted to your person and

the service of the empire. Do you not hear the language of the

Roman matron? You were a guest, I have adopted you as a citizen;

a Transalpine stranger, I have elected you for my sovereign; ^56

and given you myself, and all that is mine. Your first and most

sacred duty is to swear and subscribe, that you will shed your

blood for the republic; that you will maintain in peace and

justice the laws of the city and the charters of your

predecessors; and that you will reward with five thousand pounds

of silver the faithful senators who shall proclaim your titles in

the Capitol. With the name, assume the character, of Augustus."

The flowers of Latin rhetoric were not yet exhausted; but

Frederic, impatient of their vanity, interrupted the orators in

the high tone of royalty and conquest. "Famous indeed have been

the fortitude and wisdom of the ancient Romans; but your speech

is not seasoned with wisdom, and I could wish that fortitude were

conspicuous in your actions. Like all sublunary things, Rome has

felt the vicissitudes of time and fortune. Your noblest families

were translated to the East, to the royal city of Constantine;

and the remains of your strength and freedom have long since been

exhausted by the Greeks and Franks. Are you desirous of

beholding the ancient glory of Rome, the gravity of the senate,

the spirit of the knights, the discipline of the camp, the valor

of the legions? you will find them in the German republic. It

is not empire, naked and alone, the ornaments and virtues of

empire have likewise migrated beyond the Alps to a more deserving

people: ^57 they will be employed in your defence, but they claim

your obedience. You pretend that myself or my predecessors have

been invited by the Romans: you mistake the word; they were not

invited, they were implored. From its foreign and domestic

tyrants, the city was rescued by Charlemagne and Otho, whose

ashes repose in our country; and their dominion was the price of

your deliverance. Under that dominion your ancestors lived and

died. I claim by the right of inheritance and possession, and

who shall dare to extort you from my hands? Is the hand of the

Franks ^58 and Germans enfeebled by age? Am I vanquished? Am I a

captive? Am I not encompassed with the banners of a potent and

invincible army? You impose conditions on your master; you

require oaths: if the conditions are just, an oath is

superfluous; if unjust, it is criminal. Can you doubt my equity?

It is extended to the meanest of my subjects. Will not my sword

be unsheathed in the defence of the Capitol? By that sword the

northern kingdom of Denmark has been restored to the Roman

empire. You prescribe the measure and the objects of my bounty,

which flows in a copious but a voluntary stream. All will be

given to patient merit; all will be denied to rude importunity."

^59 Neither the emperor nor the senate could maintain these lofty

pretensions of dominion and liberty. United with the pope, and

suspicious of the Romans, Frederic continued his march to the

Vatican; his coronation was disturbed by a sally from the

Capitol; and if the numbers and valor of the Germans prevailed in

the bloody conflict, he could not safely encamp in the presence

of a city of which he styled himself the sovereign. About twelve

years afterwards, he besieged Rome, to seat an antipope in the

chair of St. Peter; and twelve Pisan galleys were introduced into

the Tyber: but the senate and people were saved by the arts of

negotiation and the progress of disease; nor did Frederic or his

successors reiterate the hostile attempt. Their laborious reigns

were exercised by the popes, the crusades, and the independence

of Lombardy and Germany: they courted the alliance of the Romans;

and Frederic the Second offered in the Capitol the great

standard, the Caroccio of Milan. ^60 After the extinction of the

house of Swabia, they were banished beyond the Alps: and their

last coronations betrayed the impotence and poverty of the

Teutonic Caesars. ^61

[Footnote 56: Hospes eras, civem feci. Advena fuisti ex

Transalpinis partibus principem constitui.]

[Footnote 57: Non cessit nobis nudum imperium, virtute sua

amictum venit, ornamenta sua secum traxit. Penes nos sunt

consules tui, &c. Cicero or Livy would not have rejected these

images, the eloquence of a Barbarian born and educated in the

Hercynian forest.]

[Footnote 58: Otho of Frisingen, who surely understood the

language of the court and diet of Germany, speaks of the Franks

in the xiith century as the reigning nation, (Proceres Franci,

equites Franci, manus Francorum:) he adds, however, the epithet

of Teutonici.]

[Footnote 59: Otho Frising. de Gestis Frederici I., l. ii. c. 22,

p. 720 - 733. These original and authentic acts I have

translated and abridged with freedom, yet with fidelity.]

[Footnote 60: From the Chronicles of Ricobaldo and Francis Pipin,

Muratori (dissert. xxvi. tom. ii. p. 492) has translated this

curious fact with the doggerel verses that accompanied the gift:

Ave decus orbis, ave! victus tibi destinor, ave!

Currus ab Augusto Frederico Caesare justo.

Vae Mediolanum! jam sentis spernere vanum

Imperii vires, proprias tibi tollere vires.

Ergo triumphorum urbs potes memor esse priorum

Quos tibi mittebant reges qui bella gerebant.

Ne si dee tacere (I now use the Italian Dissertations, tom.

i. p. 444) che nell' anno 1727, una copia desso Caroccio in marmo

dianzi ignoto si scopri, nel campidoglio, presso alle carcere di

quel luogo, dove Sisto V. l'avea falto rinchiudere. Stava esso

posto sopra quatro colonne di marmo fino colla sequente

inscrizione, &c.; to the same purpose as the old inscription.]

[Footnote 61: The decline of the Imperial arms and authority in

Italy is related with impartial learning in the Annals of

Muratori, (tom. x. xi. xii.;) and the reader may compare his

narrative with the Histoires des Allemands (tom. iii. iv.) by

Schmidt, who has deserved the esteem of his countrymen.]

Under the reign of Adrian, when the empire extended from the

Euphrates to the ocean, from Mount Atlas to the Grampian hills, a

fanciful historian ^62 amused the Romans with the picture of

their ancient wars. "There was a time," says Florus, "when Tibur

and Praeneste, our summer retreats, were the objects of hostile

vows in the Capitol, when we dreaded the shades of the Arician

groves, when we could triumph without a blush over the nameless

villages of the Sabines and Latins, and even Corioli could afford

a title not unworthy of a victorious general." The pride of his

contemporaries was gratified by the contrast of the past and the

present: they would have been humbled by the prospect of

futurity; by the prediction, that after a thousand years, Rome,

despoiled of empire, and contracted to her primaeval limits,

would renew the same hostilities, on the same ground which was

then decorated with her villas and gardens. The adjacent

territory on either side of the Tyber was always claimed, and

sometimes possessed, as the patrimony of St. Peter; but the

barons assumed a lawless independence, and the cities too

faithfully copied the revolt and discord of the metropolis. In

the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the Romans incessantly

labored to reduce or destroy the contumacious vassals of the

church and senate; and if their headstrong and selfish ambition

was moderated by the pope, he often encouraged their zeal by the

alliance of his spiritual arms. Their warfare was that of the

first consuls and dictators, who were taken from the plough. The

assembled in arms at the foot of the Capitol; sallied from the

gates, plundered or burnt the harvests of their neighbors,

engaged in tumultuary conflict, and returned home after an

expedition of fifteen or twenty days. Their sieges were tedious

and unskilful: in the use of victory, they indulged the meaner

passions of jealousy and revenge; and instead of adopting the

valor, they trampled on the misfortunes, of their adversaries.

The captives, in their shirts, with a rope round their necks,

solicited their pardon: the fortifications, and even the

buildings, of the rival cities, were demolished, and the

inhabitants were scattered in the adjacent villages. It was thus

that the seats of the cardinal bishops, Porto, Ostia, Albanum,

Tusculum, Praeneste, and Tibur or Tivoli, were successively

overthrown by the ferocious hostility of the Romans. ^63 Of

these, ^64 Porto and Ostia, the two keys of the Tyber, are still

vacant and desolate: the marshy and unwholesome banks are peopled

with herds of buffaloes, and the river is lost to every purpose

of navigation and trade. The hills, which afford a shady

retirement from the autumnal heats, have again smiled with the

blessings of peace; Frescati has arisen near the ruins of

Tusculum; Tibur or Tivoli has resumed the honors of a city, ^65

and the meaner towns of Albano and Palestrina are decorated with

the villas of the cardinals and princes of Rome. In the work of

destruction, the ambition of the Romans was often checked and

repulsed by the neighboring cities and their allies: in the first

siege of Tibur, they were driven from their camp; and the battles

of Tusculum ^66 and Viterbo ^67 might be compared in their

relative state to the memorable fields of Thrasymene and Cannae.

In the first of these petty wars, thirty thousand Romans were

overthrown by a thousand German horse, whom Frederic Barbarossa

had detached to the relief of Tusculum: and if we number the

slain at three, the prisoners at two, thousand, we shall embrace

the most authentic and moderate account. Sixty- eight years

afterwards they marched against Viterbo in the ecclesiastical

state with the whole force of the city; by a rare coalition the

Teutonic eagle was blended, in the adverse banners, with the keys

of St. Peter; and the pope's auxiliaries were commanded by a

count of Thoulouse and a bishop of Winchester. The Romans were

discomfited with shame and slaughter: but the English prelate

must have indulged the vanity of a pilgrim, if he multiplied

their numbers to one hundred, and their loss in the field to

thirty, thousand men. Had the policy of the senate and the

discipline of the legions been restored with the Capitol, the

divided condition of Italy would have offered the fairest

opportunity of a second conquest. But in arms, the modern Romans

were not above, and in arts, they were far below, the common

level of the neighboring republics. Nor was their warlike spirit

of any long continuance; after some irregular sallies, they

subsided in the national apathy, in the neglect of military

institutions, and in the disgraceful and dangerous use of foreign

mercenaries.

[Footnote 62: Tibur nunc suburbanum, et aestivae Praeneste

deliciae, nuncupatia in Capitolio votis petebantur. The whole

passage of Florus (l. i. c. 11) may be read with pleasure, and

has deserved the praise of a man of genius, (Oeuvres de

Montesquieu, tom. iii. p. 634, 635, quarto edition)]

[Footnote 63: Ne a feritate Romanorum, sicut fuerant Hostienses,

Portuenses, Tusculanenses, Albanenses, Labicenses, et nuper

Tiburtini destruerentur, (Matthew Paris, p. 757.) These events

are marked in the Annals and Index (the xviiith volume) of

Muratori.]

[Footnote 64: For the state or ruin of these suburban cities, the

banks of the Tyber, &c., see the lively picture of the P. Labat,

(Voyage en Espagne et en Italiae,) who had long resided in the

neighborhood of Rome, and the more accurate description of which

P. Eschinard (Roma, 1750, in octavo) has added to the

topographical map of Cingolani.]

[Footnote 65: Labat (tom. iii. p. 233) mentions a recent decree

of the Roman government, which has severely mortified the pride

and poverty of Tivoli: in civitate Tiburtina non vivitur

civiliter.]

[Footnote 66: I depart from my usual method, of quoting only by

the date the Annals of Muratori, in consideration of the critical

balance in which he has weighed nine contemporary writers who

mention the battle of Tusculum, (tom. x. p. 42 - 44.)]

[Footnote 67: Matthew Paris, p. 345. This bishop of Winchester

was Peter de Rupibus, who occupied the see thirty-two years,

(A.D. 1206 - 1238.) and is described, by the English historian,

as a soldier and a statesman. (p. 178, 399.)]

Ambition is a weed of quick and early vegetation in the

vineyard of Christ. Under the first Christian princes, the chair

of St. Peter was disputed by the votes, the venality, the

violence, of a popular election: the sanctuaries of Rome were

polluted with blood; and, from the third to the twelfth century,

the church was distracted by the mischief of frequent schisms.

As long as the final appeal was determined by the civil

magistrate, these mischiefs were transient and local: the merits

were tried by equity or favor; nor could the unsuccessful

competitor long disturb the triumph of his rival. But after the

emperors had been divested of their prerogatives, after a maxim

had been established that the vicar of Christ is amenable to no

earthly tribunal, each vacancy of the holy see might involve

Christendom in controversy and war. The claims of the cardinals

and inferior clergy, of the nobles and people, were vague and

litigious: the freedom of choice was overruled by the tumults of

a city that no longer owned or obeyed a superior. On the decease

of a pope, two factions proceeded in different churches to a

double election: the number and weight of votes, the priority of

time, the merit of the candidates, might balance each other: the

most respectable of the clergy were divided; and the distant

princes, who bowed before the spiritual throne, could not

distinguish the spurious, from the legitimate, idol. The

emperors were often the authors of the schism, from the political

motive of opposing a friendly to a hostile pontiff; and each of

the competitors was reduced to suffer the insults of his enemies,

who were not awed by conscience, and to purchase the support of

his adherents, who were instigated by avarice or ambition a

peaceful and perpetual succession was ascertained by Alexander

the Third, ^68 who finally abolished the tumultuary votes of the

clergy and people, and defined the right of election in the sole

college of cardinals. ^69 The three orders of bishops, priests,

and deacons, were assimilated to each other by this important

privilege; the parochial clergy of Rome obtained the first rank

in the hierarchy: they were indifferently chosen among the

nations of Christendom; and the possession of the richest

benefices, of the most important bishoprics, was not incompatible

with their title and office. The senators of the Catholic church,

the coadjutors and legates of the supreme pontiff, were robed in

purple, the symbol of martyrdom or royalty; they claimed a proud

equality with kings; and their dignity was enhanced by the

smallness of their number, which, till the reign of Leo the

Tenth, seldom exceeded twenty or twenty-five persons. By this

wise regulation, all doubt and scandal were removed, and the root

of schism was so effectually destroyed, that in a period of six

hundred years a double choice has only once divided the unity of

the sacred college. But as the concurrence of two thirds of the

votes had been made necessary, the election was often delayed by

the private interest and passions of the cardinals; and while

they prolonged their independent reign, the Christian world was

left destitute of a head. A vacancy of almost three years had

preceded the elevation of George the Tenth, who resolved to

prevent the future abuse; and his bull, after some opposition,

has been consecrated in the code of the canon law. ^70 Nine days

are allowed for the obsequies of the deceased pope, and the

arrival of the absent cardinals; on the tenth, they are

imprisoned, each with one domestic, in a common apartment or

conclave, without any separation of walls or curtains: a small

window is reserved for the introduction of necessaries; but the

door is locked on both sides and guarded by the magistrates of

the city, to seclude them from all correspondence with the world.

If the election be not consummated in three days, the luxury of

their table is contracted to a single dish at dinner and supper;

and after the eighth day, they are reduced to a scanty allowance

of bread, water, and wine. During the vacancy of the holy see,

the cardinals are prohibited from touching the revenues, or

assuming, unless in some rare emergency, the government of the

church: all agreements and promises among the electors are

formally annulled; and their integrity is fortified by their

solemn oath and the prayers of the Catholics. Some articles of

inconvenient or superfluous rigor have been gradually relaxed,

but the principle of confinement is vigorous and entire: they are

still urged, by the personal motives of health and freedom, to

accelerate the moment of their deliverance; and the improvement

of ballot or secret votes has wrapped the struggles of the

conclave ^71 in the silky veil of charity and politeness. ^72 By

these institutions the Romans were excluded from the election of

their prince and bishop; and in the fever of wild and precarious

liberty, they seemed insensible of the loss of this inestimable

privilege. The emperor Lewis of Bavaria revived the example of

the great Otho. After some negotiation with the magistrates, the

Roman people were assembled ^73 in the square before St. Peter's:

the pope of Avignon, John the Twenty-second, was deposed: the

choice of his successor was ratified by their consent and

applause. They freely voted for a new law, that their bishop

should never be absent more than three months in the year, and

two days' journey from the city; and that if he neglected to

return on the third summons, the public servant should be

degraded and dismissed. ^74 But Lewis forgot his own debility and

the prejudices of the times: beyond the precincts of a German

camp, his useless phantom was rejected; the Romans despised their

own workmanship; the antipope implored the mercy of his lawful

sovereign; ^75 and the exclusive right of the cardinals was more

firmly established by this unseasonable attack.

[Footnote 68: See Mosheim, Institut. Histor. Ecclesiast. p. 401,

403. Alexander himself had nearly been the victim of a contested

election; and the doubtful merits of Innocent had only

preponderated by the weight of genius and learning which St.

Bernard cast into the scale, (see his life and writings.)]

[Footnote 69: The origin, titles, importance, dress, precedency,

&c., of the Roman cardinals, are very ably discussed by

Thomassin, (Discipline de l'Eglise, tom. i. p. 1262 - 1287;) but

their purple is now much faded. The sacred college was raised to

the definite number of seventy-two, to represent, under his

vicar, the disciples of Christ.]

[Footnote 70: See the bull of Gregory X. approbante sacro

concilio, in the Sexts of the Canon Law, (l. i. tit. 6, c. 3,) a

supplement to the Decretals, which Boniface VIII. promulgated at

Rome in 1298, and addressed in all the universities of Europe.]

[Footnote 71: The genius of Cardinal de Retz had a right to paint

a conclave, (of 1665,) in which he was a spectator and an actor,

(Memoires, tom. iv. p. 15 - 57;) but I am at a loss to appreciate

the knowledge or authority of an anonymous Italian, whose history

(Conclavi de' Pontifici Romani, in 4to. 1667) has been continued

since the reign of Alexander VII. The accidental form of the

work furnishes a lesson, though not an antidote, to ambition.

From a labyrinth of intrigues, we emerge to the adoration of the

successful candidate; but the next page opens with his funeral.]

[Footnote 72: The expressions of Cardinal de Retz are positive

and picturesque: On y vecut toujours ensemble avec le meme

respect, et la meme civilite que l'on observe dans le cabinet des

rois, avec la meme politesse qu'on avoit dans la cour de Henri

III., avec la meme familiarite que l'on voit dans les colleges;

avec la meme modestie, qui se remarque dans les noviciats; et

avec la meme charite, du moins en apparence, qui pourroit otre

entre des freres parfaitement unis.]

[Footnote 73: Richiesti per bando (says John Villani) sanatori di

Roma, e 52 del popolo, et capitani de' 25, e consoli, (consoli?)

et 13 buone huomini, uno per rione. Our knowledge is too

imperfect to pronounce how much of this constitution was

temporary, and how much ordinary and permanent. Yet it is faintly

illustrated by the ancient statutes of Rome.]

[Footnote 74: Villani (l. x. c. 68 - 71, in Muratori, Script.

tom. xiii. p. 641 - 645) relates this law, and the whole

transaction, with much less abhorrence than the prudent Muratori.

Any one conversant with the darker ages must have observed how

much the sense (I mean the nonsense) of superstition is

fluctuating and inconsistent.]

[Footnote 75: In the first volume of the Popes of Avignon, see

the second original Life of John XXII. p. 142 - 145, the

confession of the antipope p. 145 - 152, and the laborious notes

of Baluze, p. 714, 715.]

Had the election been always held in the Vatican, the rights

of the senate and people would not have been violated with

impunity. But the Romans forgot, and were forgotten. in the

absence of the successors of Gregory the Seventh, who did not

keep as a divine precept their ordinary residence in the city and

diocese. The care of that diocese was less important than the

government of the universal church; nor could the popes delight

in a city in which their authority was always opposed, and their

person was often endangered. From the persecution of the

emperors, and the wars of Italy, they escaped beyond the Alps

into the hospitable bosom of France; from the tumults of Rome

they prudently withdrew to live and die in the more tranquil

stations of Anagni, Perugia, Viterbo, and the adjacent cities.

When the flock was offended or impoverished by the absence of the

shepherd, they were recalled by a stern admonition, that St.

Peter had fixed his chair, not in an obscure village, but in the

capital of the world; by a ferocious menace, that the Romans

would march in arms to destroy the place and people that should

dare to afford them a retreat. They returned with timorous

obedience; and were saluted with the account of a heavy debt, of

all the losses which their desertion had occasioned, the hire of

lodgings, the sale of provisions, and the various expenses of

servants and strangers who attended the court. ^76 After a short

interval of peace, and perhaps of authority, they were again

banished by new tumults, and again summoned by the imperious or

respectful invitation of the senate. In these occasional

retreats, the exiles and fugitives of the Vatican were seldom

long, or far, distant from the metropolis; but in the beginning

of the fourteenth century, the apostolic throne was transported,

as it might seem forever, from the Tyber to the Rhone; and the

cause of the transmigration may be deduced from the furious

contest between Boniface the Eighth and the king of France. ^77

The spiritual arms of excommunication and interdict were repulsed

by the union of the three estates, and the privileges of the

Gallican church; but the pope was not prepared against the carnal

weapons which Philip the Fair had courage to employ. As the pope

resided at Anagni, without the suspicion of danger, his palace

and person were assaulted by three hundred horse, who had been

secretly levied by William of Nogaret, a French minister, and

Sciarra Colonna, of a noble but hostile family of Rome. The

cardinals fled; the inhabitants of Anagni were seduced from their

allegiance and gratitude; but the dauntless Boniface, unarmed and

alone, seated himself in his chair, and awaited, like the

conscript fathers of old, the swords of the Gauls. Nogaret, a

foreign adversary, was content to execute the orders of his

master: by the domestic enmity of Colonna, he was insulted with

words and blows; and during a confinement of three days his life

was threatened by the hardships which they inflicted on the

obstinacy which they provoked. Their strange delay gave time and

courage to the adherents of the church, who rescued him from

sacrilegious violence; but his imperious soul was wounded in the

vital part; and Boniface expired at Rome in a frenzy of rage and

revenge. His memory is stained with the glaring vices of avarice

and pride; nor has the courage of a martyr promoted this

ecclesiastical champion to the honors of a saint; a magnanimous

sinner, (say the chronicles of the times,) who entered like a

fox, reigned like a lion, and died like a dog. He was succeeded

by Benedict the Eleventh, the mildest of mankind. Yet he

excommunicated the impious emissaries of Philip, and devoted the

city and people of Anagni by a tremendous curse, whose effects

are still visible to the eyes of superstition. ^78

[Footnote 76: Romani autem non valentes nec volentes ultra suam

celare cupiditatem gravissimam, contra papam movere coeperunt

questionem, exigentes ab eo urgentissime omnia quae subierant per

ejus absentiam damna et jacturas, videlicet in hispitiis

locandis, in mercimoniis, in usuris, in redditibus, in

provisionibus, et in aliis modis innumerabilibus. Quod cum

audisset papa, praecordialiter ingemuit, et se comperiens

muscipulatum, &c., Matt. Paris, p. 757. For the ordinary history

of the popes, their life and death, their residence and absence,

it is enough to refer to the ecclesiastical annalists, Spondanus

and Fleury.]

[Footnote 77: Besides the general historians of the church of

Italy and of France, we possess a valuable treatise composed by a

learned friend of Thuanus, which his last and best editors have

published in the appendix (Histoire particuliere du grand

Differend entre Boniface VIII et Philippe le Bel, par Pierre du

Puis, tom. vii. P. xi. p. 61 - 82.)]

[Footnote 78: It is difficult to know whether Labat (tom. iv. p.

53 - 57) be in jest or in earnest, when he supposes that Anagni

still feels the weight of this curse, and that the cornfields, or

vineyards, or olive-trees, are annually blasted by Nature, the

obsequious handmaid of the popes.]

Chapter LXIX: State Of Rome From The Twelfth Century.

Part IV.

After his decease, the tedious and equal suspense of the

conclave was fixed by the dexterity of the French faction. A

specious offer was made and accepted, that, in the term of forty

days, they would elect one of the three candidates who should be

named by their opponents. The archbishop of Bourdeaux, a furious

enemy of his king and country, was the first on the list; but his

ambition was known; and his conscience obeyed the calls of

fortune and the commands of a benefactor, who had been informed

by a swift messenger that the choice of a pope was now in his

hands. The terms were regulated in a private interview; and with

such speed and secrecy was the business transacted, that the

unanimous conclave applauded the elevation of Clement the Fifth.

^79 The cardinals of both parties were soon astonished by a

summons to attend him beyond the Alps; from whence, as they soon

discovered, they must never hope to return. He was engaged, by

promise and affection, to prefer the residence of France; and,

after dragging his court through Poitou and Gascony, and

devouring, by his expense, the cities and convents on the road,

he finally reposed at Avignon, ^80 which flourished above seventy

years ^81 the seat of the Roman pontiff and the metropolis of

Christendom. By land, by sea, by the Rhone, the position of

Avignon was on all sides accessible; the southern provinces of

France do not yield to Italy itself; new palaces arose for the

accommodation of the pope and cardinals; and the arts of luxury

were soon attracted by the treasures of the church. They were

already possessed of the adjacent territory, the Venaissin

county, ^82 a populous and fertile spot; and the sovereignty of

Avignon was afterwards purchased from the youth and distress of

Jane, the first queen of Naples and countess of Provence, for the

inadequate price of fourscore thousand florins. ^83 Under the

shadow of a French monarchy, amidst an obedient people, the popes

enjoyed an honorable and tranquil state, to which they long had

been strangers: but Italy deplored their absence; and Rome, in

solitude and poverty, might repent of the ungovernable freedom

which had driven from the Vatican the successor of St. Peter.

Her repentance was tardy and fruitless: after the death of the

old members, the sacred college was filled with French cardinals,

^84 who beheld Rome and Italy with abhorrence and contempt, and

perpetuated a series of national, and even provincial, popes,

attached by the most indissoluble ties to their native country.

[Footnote 79: See, in the Chronicle of Giovanni Villani, (l.

viii. c. 63, 64, 80, in Muratori, tom. xiii.,) the imprisonment

of Boniface VIII., and the election of Clement V., the last of

which, like most anecdotes, is embarrassed with some

difficulties.]

[Footnote 80: The original lives of the eight popes of Avignon,

Clement V., John XXII., Benedict XI., Clement VI., Innocent VI.,

Urban V., Gregory XI., and Clement VII., are published by Stephen

Baluze, (Vitae Paparum Avenionensium; Paris, 1693, 2 vols. in

4to.,) with copious and elaborate notes, and a second volume of

acts and documents. With the true zeal of an editor and a

patriot, he devoutly justifies or excuses the characters of his

countrymen.]

[Footnote 81: The exile of Avignon is compared by the Italians

with Babylon, and the Babylonish captivity. Such furious

metaphors, more suitable to the ardor of Petrarch than to the

judgment of Muratori, are gravely refuted in Baluze's preface.

The abbe de Sade is distracted between the love of Petrarch and

of his country. Yet he modestly pleads, that many of the local

inconveniences of Avignon are now removed; and many of the vices

against which the poet declaims, had been imported with the Roman

court by the strangers of Italy, (tom. i. p. 23 - 28.)]

[Footnote 82: The comtat Venaissin was ceded to the popes in 1273

by Philip III. king of France, after he had inherited the

dominions of the count of Thoulouse. Forty years before, the

heresy of Count Raymond had given them a pretence of seizure, and

they derived some obscure claim from the xith century to some

lands citra Rhodanum, (Valesii Notitia Galliarum, p. 495, 610.

Longuerue, Description de la France, tom. i. p. 376 - 381.)]

[Footnote 83: If a possession of four centuries were not itself a

title, such objections might annul the bargain; but the purchase

money must be refunded, for indeed it was paid. Civitatem

Avenionem emit . . . per ejusmodi venditionem pecunia redundates,

&c., (iida Vita Clement. VI. in Baluz. tom. i. p. 272. Muratori,

Script. tom. iii. P. ii. p. 565.) The only temptation for Jane

and her second husband was ready money, and without it they could

not have returned to the throne of Naples.]

[Footnote 84: Clement V immediately promoted ten cardinals, nine

French and one English, (Vita ivta, p. 63, et Baluz. p. 625, &c.)

In 1331, the pope refused two candidates recommended by the king

of France, quod xx. Cardinales, de quibus xvii. de regno Fraciae

originem traxisse noscuntur in memorato collegio existant,

(Thomassin, Discipline de l'Eglise, tom. i. p. 1281.)]

The progress of industry had produced and enriched the

Italian republics: the aera of their liberty is the most

flourishing period of population and agriculture, of manufactures

and commerce; and their mechanic labors were gradually refined

into the arts of elegance and genius. But the position of Rome

was less favorable, the territory less fruitful: the character of

the inhabitants was debased by indolence and elated by pride; and

they fondly conceived that the tribute of subjects must forever

nourish the metropolis of the church and empire. This prejudice

was encouraged in some degree by the resort of pilgrims to the

shrines of the apostles; and the last legacy of the popes, the

institution of the holy year, ^85 was not less beneficial to the

people than to the clergy. Since the loss of Palestine, the gift

of plenary indulgences, which had been applied to the crusades,

remained without an object; and the most valuable treasure of the

church was sequestered above eight years from public circulation.

A new channel was opened by the diligence of Boniface the Eighth,

who reconciled the vices of ambition and avarice; and the pope

had sufficient learning to recollect and revive the secular games

which were celebrated in Rome at the conclusion of every century.

To sound without danger the depth of popular credulity, a sermon

was seasonably pronounced, a report was artfully scattered, some

aged witnesses were produced; and on the first of January of the

year thirteen hundred, the church of St. Peter was crowded with

the faithful, who demanded the customary indulgence of the holy

time. The pontiff, who watched and irritated their devout

impatience, was soon persuaded by ancient testimony of the

justice of their claim; and he proclaimed a plenary absolution to

all Catholics who, in the course of that year, and at every

similar period, should respectfully visit the apostolic churches

of St. Peter and St. Paul. The welcome sound was propagated

through Christendom; and at first from the nearest provinces of

Italy, and at length from the remote kingdoms of Hungary and

Britain, the highways were thronged with a swarm of pilgrims who

sought to expiate their sins in a journey, however costly or

laborious, which was exempt from the perils of military service.

All exceptions of rank or sex, of age or infirmity, were

forgotten in the common transport; and in the streets and

churches many persons were trampled to death by the eagerness of

devotion. The calculation of their numbers could not be easy nor

accurate; and they have probably been magnified by a dexterous

clergy, well apprised of the contagion of example: yet we are

assured by a judicious historian, who assisted at the ceremony,

that Rome was never replenished with less than two hundred

thousand strangers; and another spectator has fixed at two

millions the total concourse of the year. A trifling oblation

from each individual would accumulate a royal treasure; and two

priests stood night and day, with rakes in their hands, to

collect, without counting, the heaps of gold and silver that were

poured on the altar of St. Paul. ^86 It was fortunately a season

of peace and plenty; and if forage was scarce, if inns and

lodgings were extravagantly dear, an inexhaustible supply of

bread and wine, of meat and fish, was provided by the policy of

Boniface and the venal hospitality of the Romans. From a city

without trade or industry, all casual riches will speedily

evaporate: but the avarice and envy of the next generation

solicited Clement the Sixth ^87 to anticipate the distant period

of the century. The gracious pontiff complied with their wishes;

afforded Rome this poor consolation for his loss; and justified

the change by the name and practice of the Mosaic Jubilee. ^88

His summons was obeyed; and the number, zeal, and liberality of

the pilgrims did not yield to the primitive festival. But they

encountered the triple scourge of war, pestilence, and famine:

many wives and virgins were violated in the castles of Italy; and

many strangers were pillaged or murdered by the savage Romans, no

longer moderated by the presence of their bishops. ^89 To the

impatience of the popes we may ascribe the successive reduction

to fifty, thirty-three, and twenty-five years; although the

second of these terms is commensurate with the life of Christ.

The profusion of indulgences, the revolt of the Protestants, and

the decline of superstition, have much diminished the value of

the jubilee; yet even the nineteenth and last festival was a year

of pleasure and profit to the Romans; and a philosophic smile

will not disturb the triumph of the priest or the happiness of

the people. ^90

[Footnote 85: Our primitive account is from Cardinal James

Caietan, (Maxima Bibliot. Patrum, tom. xxv.;) and I am at a loss

to determine whether the nephew of Boniface VIII. be a fool or a

knave: the uncle is a much clearer character.]

[Footnote 86: See John Villani (l. viii. c. 36) in the xiith, and

the Chronicon Astense, in the xith volume (p. 191, 192) of

Muratori's Collection Papa innumerabilem pecuniam abeisdem

accepit, nam duo clerici, cum rastris, &c.]

[Footnote 87: The two bulls of Boniface VIII. and Clement VI. are

inserted on the Corpus Juris Canonici, Extravagant. Commun. l. v.

tit. ix c 1, 2.)]

[Footnote 88: The sabbatic years and jubilees of the Mosaic law,

(Car. Sigon. de Republica Hebraeorum, Opp. tom. iv. l. iii. c.

14, 14, p. 151, 152,) the suspension of all care and labor, the

periodical release of lands, debts, servitude, &c., may seem a

noble idea, but the execution would be impracticable in a profane

republic; and I should be glad to learn that this ruinous

festival was observed by the Jewish people.]

[Footnote 89: See the Chronicle of Matteo Villani, (l. i. c. 56,)

in the xivth vol. of Muratori, and the Memoires sur la Vie de

Petrarque, tom. iii. p. 75 - 89.]

[Footnote 90: The subject is exhausted by M. Chais, a French

minister at the Hague, in his Lettres Historiques et Dogmatiques,

sur les Jubiles et es Indulgences; la Haye, 1751, 3 vols. in

12mo.; an elaborate and pleasing work, had not the author

preferred the character of a polemic to that of a philosopher.]

In the beginning of the eleventh century, Italy was exposed

to the feudal tyranny, alike oppressive to the sovereign and the

people. The rights of human nature were vindicated by her

numerous republics, who soon extended their liberty and dominion

from the city to the adjacent country. The sword of the nobles

was broken; their slaves were enfranchised; their castles were

demolished; they assumed the habits of society and obedience;

their ambition was confined to municipal honors, and in the

proudest aristocracy of Venice on Genoa, each patrician was

subject to the laws. ^91 But the feeble and disorderly government

of Rome was unequal to the task of curbing her rebellious sons,

who scorned the authority of the magistrate within and without

the walls. It was no longer a civil contention between the

nobles and plebeians for the government of the state: the barons

asserted in arms their personal independence; their palaces and

castles were fortified against a siege; and their private

quarrels were maintained by the numbers of their vassals and

retainers. In origin and affection, they were aliens to their

country: ^92 and a genuine Roman, could such have been produced,

might have renounced these haughty strangers, who disdained the

appellation of citizens, and proudly styled themselves the

princes, of Rome. ^93 After a dark series of revolutions, all

records of pedigree were lost; the distinction of surnames was

abolished; the blood of the nations was mingled in a thousand

channels; and the Goths and Lombards, the Greeks and Franks, the

Germans and Normans, had obtained the fairest possessions by

royal bounty, or the prerogative of valor. These examples might

be readily presumed; but the elevation of a Hebrew race to the

rank of senators and consuls is an event without a parallel in

the long captivity of these miserable exiles. ^94 In the time of

Leo the Ninth, a wealthy and learned Jew was converted to

Christianity, and honored at his baptism with the name of his

godfather, the reigning Pope. The zeal and courage of Peter the

son of Leo were signalized in the cause of Gregory the Seventh,

who intrusted his faithful adherent with the government of

Adrian's mole, the tower of Crescentius, or, as it is now called,

the castle of St. Angelo. Both the father and the son were the

parents of a numerous progeny: their riches, the fruits of usury,

were shared with the noblest families of the city; and so

extensive was their alliance, that the grandson of the proselyte

was exalted by the weight of his kindred to the throne of St.

Peter. A majority of the clergy and people supported his cause:

he reigned several years in the Vatican; and it is only the

eloquence of St. Bernard, and the final triumph of Innocence the

Second, that has branded Anacletus with the epithet of antipope.

After his defeat and death, the posterity of Leo is no longer

conspicuous; and none will be found of the modern nobles

ambitious of descending from a Jewish stock. It is not my design

to enumerate the Roman families which have failed at different

periods, or those which are continued in different degrees of

splendor to the present time. ^95 The old consular line of the

Frangipani discover their name in the generous act of breaking or

dividing bread in a time of famine; and such benevolence is more

truly glorious than to have enclosed, with their allies the

Corsi, a spacious quarter of the city in the chains of their

fortifications; the Savelli, as it should seem a Sabine race,

have maintained their original dignity; the obsolete surname of

the Capizucchi is inscribed on the coins of the first senators;

the Conti preserve the honor, without the estate, of the counts

of Signia; and the Annibaldi must have been very ignorant, or

very modest, if they had not descended from the Carthaginian

hero. ^96

[Footnote 91: Muratori (Dissert. xlvii.) alleges the Annals of

Florence, Padua, Genoa, &c., the analogy of the rest, the

evidence of Otho of Frisingen, (de Gest. Fred. I. l. ii. c. 13,)

and the submission of the marouis of Este.]

[Footnote 92: As early as the year 824, the emperor Lothaire I.

found it expedient to interrogate the Roman people, to learn from

each individual by what national law he chose to be governed.

(Muratori, Dissertat xxii.)]

[Footnote 93: Petrarch attacks these foreigners, the tyrants of

Rome, in a declamation or epistle, full of bold truths and absurd

pedantry, in which he applies the maxims, and even prejudices, of

the old republic to the state of the xivth century, (Memoires,

tom. iii. p. 157 - 169.)]

[Footnote 94: The origin and adventures of the Jewish family are

noticed by Pagi, (Critica, tom. iv. p. 435, A.D. 1124, No. 3, 4,)

who draws his information from the Chronographus Maurigniacensis,

and Arnulphus Sagiensis de Schismate, (in Muratori, Script. Ital.

tom. iii. P. i. p. 423 - 432.) The fact must in some degree be

true; yet I could wish that it had been coolly related, before it

was turned into a reproach against the antipope.]

[Footnote 95: Muratori has given two dissertations (xli. and

xlii.) to the names, surnames, and families of Italy. Some

nobles, who glory in their domestic fables, may be offended with

his firm and temperate criticism; yet surely some ounces of pure

gold are of more value than many pounds of base metal.]

[Footnote 96: The cardinal of St. George, in his poetical, or

rather metrical history of the election and coronation of

Boniface VIII., (Muratori Script. Ital. tom. iii. P. i. p. 641,

&c.,) describes the state and families of Rome at the coronation

of Boniface VIII., (A.D. 1295.)

Interea titulis redimiti sanguine et armis Illustresque viri

Romana a stirpe trahentes Nomen in emeritos tantae virtutis

honores Insulerant sese medios festumque colebant Aurata fulgente

toga, sociante caterva. Ex ipsis devota domus praestantis ab Ursa

Ecclesiae, vultumque gerens demissius altum Festa Columna jocis,

necnon Sabellia mitis; Stephanides senior, Comites Annibalica

proles, Praefectusque urbis magnum sine viribus nomen.

(l. ii. c. 5, 100, p. 647, 648.)

The ancient statutes of Rome (l. iii. c. 59, p. 174, 175)

distinguish eleven families of barons, who are obliged to swear

in concilio communi, before the senator, that they would not

harbor or protect any malefactors, outlaws, &c. - a feeble

security!]

But among, perhaps above, the peers and princes of the city,

I distinguish the rival houses of Colonna and Ursini, whose

private story is an essential part of the annals of modern Rome.

I. The name and arms of Colonna ^97 have been the theme of much

doubtful etymology; nor have the orators and antiquarians

overlooked either Trajan's pillar, or the columns of Hercules, or

the pillar of Christ's flagellation, or the luminous column that

guided the Israelites in the desert. Their first historical

appearance in the year eleven hundred and four attests the power

and antiquity, while it explains the simple meaning, of the name.

By the usurpation of Cavae, the Colonna provoked the arms of

Paschal the Second; but they lawfully held in the Campagna of

Rome the hereditary fiefs of Zagarola and Colonna; and the latter

of these towns was probably adorned with some lofty pillar, the

relic of a villa or temple. ^98 They likewise possessed one

moiety of the neighboring city of Tusculum, a strong presumption

of their descent from the counts of Tusculum, who in the tenth

century were the tyrants of the apostolic see. According to

their own and the public opinion, the primitive and remote source

was derived from the banks of the Rhine; ^99 and the sovereigns

of Germany were not ashamed of a real or fabulous affinity with a

noble race, which in the revolutions of seven hundred years has

been often illustrated by merit and always by fortune. ^100 About

the end of the thirteenth century, the most powerful branch was

composed of an uncle and six bothers, all conspicuous in arms, or

in the honors of the church. Of these, Peter was elected senator

of Rome, introduced to the Capitol in a triumphal car, and hailed

in some vain acclamations with the title of Caesar; while John

and Stephen were declared marquis of Ancona and count of Romagna,

by Nicholas the Fourth, a patron so partial to their family, that

he has been delineated in satirical portraits, imprisoned as it

were in a hollow pillar. ^101 After his decease their haughty

behavior provoked the displeasure of the most implacable of

mankind. The two cardinals, the uncle and the nephew, denied the

election of Boniface the Eighth; and the Colonna were oppressed

for a moment by his temporal and spiritual arms. ^102 He

proclaimed a crusade against his personal enemies; their estates

were confiscated; their fortresses on either side of the Tyber

were besieged by the troops of St. Peter and those of the rival

nobles; and after the ruin of Palestrina or Praeneste, their

principal seat, the ground was marked with a ploughshare, the

emblem of perpetual desolation. Degraded, banished, proscribed,

the six brothers, in disguise and danger, wandered over Europe

without renouncing the hope of deliverance and revenge. In this

double hope, the French court was their surest asylum; they

prompted and directed the enterprise of Philip; and I should

praise their magnanimity, had they respected the misfortune and

courage of the captive tyrant. His civil acts were annulled by

the Roman people, who restored the honors and possessions of the

Colonna; and some estimate may be formed of their wealth by their

losses, of their losses by the damages of one hundred thousand

gold florins which were granted them against the accomplices and

heirs of the deceased pope. All the spiritual censures and

disqualifications were abolished ^103 by his prudent successors;

and the fortune of the house was more firmly established by this

transient hurricane. The boldness of Sciarra Colonna was

signalized in the captivity of Boniface, and long afterwards in

the coronation of Lewis of Bavaria; and by the gratitude of the

emperor, the pillar in their arms was encircled with a royal

crown. But the first of the family in fame and merit was the

elder Stephen, whom Petrarch loved and esteemed as a hero

superior to his own times, and not unworthy of ancient Rome.

Persecution and exile displayed to the nations his abilities in

peace and war; in his distress he was an object, not of pity, but

of reverence; the aspect of danger provoked him to avow his name

and country; and when he was asked, "Where is now your fortress?"

he laid his hand on his heart, and answered, "Here." He supported

with the same virtue the return of prosperity; and, till the ruin

of his declining age, the ancestors, the character, and the

children of Stephen Colonna, exalted his dignity in the Roman

republic, and at the court of Avignon. II. The Ursini migrated

from Spoleto; ^104 the sons of Ursus, as they are styled in the

twelfth century, from some eminent person, who is only known as

the father of their race. But they were soon distinguished among

the nobles of Rome, by the number and bravery of their kinsmen,

the strength of their towers, the honors of the senate and sacred

college, and the elevation of two popes, Celestin the Third and

Nicholas the Third, of their name and lineage. ^105 Their riches

may be accused as an early abuse of nepotism: the estates of St.

Peter were alienated in their favor by the liberal Celestin; ^106

and Nicholas was ambitious for their sake to solicit the alliance

of monarchs; to found new kingdoms in Lombardy and Tuscany; and

to invest them with the perpetual office of senators of Rome.

All that has been observed of the greatness of the Colonna will

likewise redeemed to the glory of the Ursini, their constant and

equal antagonists in the long hereditary feud, which distracted

above two hundred and fifty years the ecclesiastical state. The

jealously of preeminence and power was the true ground of their

quarrel; but as a specious badge of distinction, the Colonna

embraced the name of Ghibelines and the party of the empire; the

Ursini espoused the title of Guelphs and the cause of the church.

The eagle and the keys were displayed in their adverse banners;

and the two factions of Italy most furiously raged when the

origin and nature of the dispute were long since forgotten. ^107

After the retreat of the popes to Avignon they disputed in arms

the vacant republic; and the mischiefs of discord were

perpetuated by the wretched compromise of electing each year two

rival senators. By their private hostilities the city and

country were desolated, and the fluctuating balance inclined with

their alternate success. But none of either family had fallen by

the sword, till the most renowned champion of the Ursini was

surprised and slain by the younger Stephen Colonna. ^108 His

triumph is stained with the reproach of violating the truce;

their defeat was basely avenged by the assassination, before the

church door, of an innocent boy and his two servants. Yet the

victorious Colonna, with an annual colleague, was declared

senator of Rome during the term of five years. And the muse of

Petrarch inspired a wish, a hope, a prediction, that the generous

youth, the son of his venerable hero, would restore Rome and

Italy to their pristine glory; that his justice would extirpate

the wolves and lions, the serpents and bears, who labored to

subvert the eternal basis of the marble column. ^109

[Footnote 97: It is pity that the Colonna themselves have not

favored the world with a complete and critical history of their

illustrious house. I adhere to Muratori, (Dissert. xlii. tom.

iii. p. 647, 648.)]

[Footnote 98: Pandulph. Pisan. in Vit. Paschal. II. in Muratori,

Script. Ital. tom. iii. P. i. p. 335. The family has still great

possessions in the Campagna of Rome; but they have alienated to

the Rospigliosi this original fief of Colonna, Eschinard, p. 258,

259.)]

[Footnote 99: Te longinqua dedit tellus et pascua Rheni, says

Petrarch; and, in 1417, a duke of Guelders and Juliers

acknowledges (Lenfant, Hist. du Concile de Constance, tom. ii. p.

539) his descent from the ancestors of Martin V., (Otho Colonna:)

but the royal author of the Memoirs of Brandenburg observes, that

the sceptre in his arms has been confounded with the column. To

maintain the Roman origin of the Colonna, it was ingeniously

supposed (Diario di Monaldeschi, in the Script. Ital. tom. xii.

p. 533) that a cousin of the emperor Nero escaped from the city,

and founded Mentz in Germany]

[Footnote 100: I cannot overlook the Roman triumph of ovation on

Marce Antonio Colonna, who had commanded the pope's galleys at

the naval victory of Lepanto, (Thuan. Hist. l. 7, tom. iii. p.

55, 56. Muret. Oratio x. Opp. tom. i. p. 180 - 190.)]

[Footnote 101: Muratori, Annali d'Italia, tom. x. p. 216, 220.]

[Footnote 102: Petrarch's attachment to the Colonna has

authorized the abbe de Sade to expatiate on the state of the

family in the fourteenth century, the persecution of Boniface

VIII., the character of Stephen and his sons, their quarrels with

the Ursini, &c., (Memoires sur Petrarque, tom. i. p. 98 - 110,

146 - 148, 174 - 176, 222 - 230, 275 - 280.) His criticism often

rectifies the hearsay stories of Villani, and the errors of the

less diligent moderns. I understand the branch of Stephen to be

now extinct.]

[Footnote 103: Alexander III. had declared the Colonna who

adhered to the emperor Frederic I. incapable of holding any

ecclesiastical benefice, (Villani, l. v. c. 1;) and the last

stains of annual excommunication were purified by Sixtus V.,

(Vita di Sisto V. tom. iii. p. 416.) Treason, sacrilege, and

proscription are often the best titles of ancient nobility.]

[Footnote 104: - Vallis te proxima misit,

Appenninigenae qua prata virentia sylvae

Spoletana metunt armenta gregesque protervi.

Monaldeschi (tom. xii. Script. Ital. p. 533) gives the Ursini a

French origin, which may be remotely true.]

[Footnote 105: In the metrical life of Celestine V. by the

cardinal of St. George (Muratori, tom. iii. P. i. p. 613, &c.,)

we find a luminous, and not inelegant, passage, (l. i. c. 3, p.

203 &c.:) -

- genuit quem nobilis Ursae (Ursi?)

Progenies, Romana domus, veterataque magnis

Fascibus in clero, pompasque experta senatus,

Bellorumque manu grandi stipata parentum

Cardineos apices necnon fastigia dudum

Papatus iterata tenens.

Muratori (Dissert. xlii. tom. iii.) observes, that the first

Ursini pontificate of Celestine III. was unknown: he is inclined

to read Ursi progenies.]

[Footnote 106: Filii Ursi, quondam Coelestini papae nepotes, de

bonis ecclesiae Romanae ditati, (Vit. Innocent. III. in Muratori,

Script. tom. iii. P. i.) The partial prodigality of Nicholas III.

is more conspicuous in Villani and Muratori. Yet the Ursini

would disdain the nephews of a modern pope.]

[Footnote 107: In his fifty-first Dissertation on the Italian

Antiquities, Muratori explains the factions of the Guelphs and

Ghibelines.]

[Footnote 108: Petrarch (tom. i. p. 222 - 230) has celebrated

this victory according to the Colonna; but two contemporaries, a

Florentine (Giovanni Villani, l. x. c. 220) and a Roman,

(Ludovico Monaldeschi, p. 532 - 534,) are less favorable to their

arms.]

[Footnote 109: The abbe de Sade (tom. i. Notes, p. 61 - 66) has

applied the vith Canzone of Petrarch, Spirto Gentil, &c., to

Stephen Colonna the younger:

Orsi, lupi, leoni, aquile e serpi

Al una gran marmorea colonna

Fanno noja sovente e a se danno]

Chapter LXX: Final Settlement Of The Ecclesiastical State.

Part I.

Character And Coronation Of Petrarch. - Restoration Of The

Freedom And Government Of Rome By The Tribune Rienzi. - His

Virtues And Vices, His Expulsion And Death. - Return Of The Popes

From Avignon. - Great Schism Of The West. - Reunion Of The Latin

Church. - Last Struggles Of Roman Liberty. - Statutes Of Rome. -

Final Settlement Of The Ecclesiastical State.

In the apprehension of modern times, Petrarch ^1 is the

Italian songster of Laura and love. In the harmony of his Tuscan

rhymes, Italy applauds, or rather adores, the father of her lyric

poetry; and his verse, or at least his name, is repeated by the

enthusiasm, or affectation, of amorous sensibility. Whatever may

be the private taste of a stranger, his slight and superficial

knowledge should humbly acquiesce in the judgment of a learned

nation; yet I may hope or presume, that the Italians do not

compare the tedious uniformity of sonnets and elegies with the

sublime compositions of their epic muse, the original wildness of

Dante, the regular beauties of Tasso, and the boundless variety

of the incomparable Ariosto. The merits of the lover I am still

less qualified to appreciate: nor am I deeply interested in a

metaphysical passion for a nymph so shadowy, that her existence

has been questioned; ^2 for a matron so prolific, ^3 that she was

delivered of eleven legitimate children, ^4 while her amorous

swain sighed and sung at the fountain of Vaucluse. ^5 But in the

eyes of Petrarch, and those of his graver contemporaries, his

love was a sin, and Italian verse a frivolous amusement. His

Latin works of philosophy, poetry, and eloquence, established his

serious reputation, which was soon diffused from Avignon over

France and Italy: his friends and disciples were multiplied in

every city; and if the ponderous volume of his writings ^6 be now

abandoned to a long repose, our gratitude must applaud the man,

who by precept and example revived the spirit and study of the

Augustan age. From his earliest youth, Petrarch aspired to the

poetic crown. The academical honors of the three faculties had

introduced a royal degree of master or doctor in the art of

poetry; ^7 and the title of poet- laureate, which custom, rather

than vanity, perpetuates in the English court, ^8 was first

invented by the Caesars of Germany. In the musical games of

antiquity, a prize was bestowed on the victor: ^9 the belief that

Virgil and Horace had been crowned in the Capitol inflamed the

emulation of a Latin bard; ^10 and the laurel ^11 was endeared to

the lover by a verbal resemblance with the name of his mistress.

The value of either object was enhanced by the difficulties of

the pursuit; and if the virtue or prudence of Laura was

inexorable, ^12 he enjoyed, and might boast of enjoying, the

nymph of poetry. His vanity was not of the most delicate kind,

since he applauds the success of his own labors; his name was

popular; his friends were active; the open or secret opposition

of envy and prejudice was surmounted by the dexterity of patient

merit. In the thirty-sixth year of his age, he was solicited to

accept the object of his wishes; and on the same day, in the

solitude of Vaucluse, he received a similar and solemn invitation

from the senate of Rome and the university of Paris. The

learning of a theological school, and the ignorance of a lawless

city, were alike unqualified to bestow the ideal though immortal

wreath which genius may obtain from the free applause of the

public and of posterity: but the candidate dismissed this

troublesome reflection; and after some moments of complacency and

suspense, preferred the summons of the metropolis of the world.

[Footnote 1: The Memoires sur la Vie de Francois Petrarque,

(Amsterdam, 1764, 1767, 3 vols. in 4to.,) form a copious,

original, and entertaining work, a labor of love, composed from

the accurate study of Petrarch and his contemporaries; but the

hero is too often lost in the general history of the age, and the

author too often languishes in the affectation of politeness and

gallantry. In the preface to his first volume, he enumerates and

weighs twenty Italian biographers, who have professedly treated

of the same subject.]

[Footnote 2: The allegorical interpretation prevailed in the xvth

century; but the wise commentators were not agreed whether they

should understand by Laura, religion, or virtue, or the blessed

virgin, or - see the prefaces to the first and second volume.]

[Footnote 3: Laure de Noves, born about the year 1307, was

married in January 1325, to Hugues de Sade, a noble citizen of

Avignon, whose jealousy was not the effect of love, since he

married a second wife within seven months of her death, which

happened the 6th of April, 1348, precisely one-and-twenty years

after Petrarch had seen and loved her.]

[Footnote 4: Corpus crebris partubus exhaustum: from one of these

is issued, in the tenth degree, the abbe de Sade, the fond and

grateful biographer of Petrarch; and this domestic motive most

probably suggested the idea of his work, and urged him to inquire

into every circumstance that could affect the history and

character of his grandmother, (see particularly tom. i. p. 122 -

133, notes, p. 7 - 58, tom. ii. p. 455 - 495 not. p. 76 - 82.)]

[Footnote 5: Vaucluse, so familiar to our English travellers, is

described from the writings of Petrarch, and the local knowledge

of his biographer, (Memoires, tom. i. p. 340 - 359.) It was, in

truth, the retreat of a hermit; and the moderns are much

mistaken, if they place Laura and a happy lover in the grotto.]

[Footnote 6: Of 1250 pages, in a close print, at Basil in the

xvith century, but without the date of the year. The abbe de

Sade calls aloud for a new edition of Petrarch's Latin works; but

I much doubt whether it would redound to the profit of the

bookseller, or the amusement of the public.]

[Footnote 7: Consult Selden's Titles of Honor, in his works,

(vol. iii. p. 457 - 466.) A hundred years before Petrarch, St.

Francis received the visit of a poet, qui ab imperatore fuerat

coronatus et exinde rex versuum dictus.]

[Footnote 8: From Augustus to Louis, the muse has too often been

false and venal: but I much doubt whether any age or court can

produce a similar establishment of a stipendiary poet, who in

every reign, and at all events, is bound to furnish twice a year

a measure of praise and verse, such as may be sung in the chapel,

and, I believe, in the presence, of the sovereign. I speak the

more freely, as the best time for abolishing this ridiculous

custom is while the prince is a man of virtue and the poet a man

of genius.]

[Footnote 9: Isocrates (in Panegyrico, tom. i. p. 116, 117, edit.

Battie, Cantab. 1729) claims for his native Athens the glory of

first instituting and recommending. The example of the

Panathenaea was imitated at Delphi; but the Olympic games were

ignorant of a musical crown, till it was extorted by the vain

tyranny of Nero, (Sueton. in Nerone, c. 23; Philostrat. apud

Casaubon ad locum; Dion Cassius, or Xiphilin, l. lxiii. p. 1032,

1041. Potter's Greek Antiquities, vol. i. p. 445, 450.)]

[Footnote 10: The Capitoline games (certamen quinquenale,

musicum, equestre, gymnicum) were instituted by Domitian (Sueton.

c. 4) in the year of Christ 86, (Censorin. de Die Natali, c. 18,

p. 100, edit. Havercamp.) and were not abolished in the ivth

century, (Ausonius de Professoribus Burdegal. V.) If the crown

were given to superior merit, the exclusion of Statius (Capitolia

nostrae inficiata lyrae, Sylv. l. iii. v. 31) may do honor to the

games of the Capitol; but the Latin poets who lived before

Domitian were crowned only in the public opinion.]

[Footnote 11: Petrarch and the senators of Rome were ignorant

that the laurel was not the Capitoline, but the Delphic crown,

(Plin. Hist. Natur p. 39. Hist. Critique de la Republique des

Lettres, tom. i. p. 150 - 220.) The victors in the Capitol were

crowned with a garland of oak eaves, (Martial, l. iv. epigram

54.)]

[Footnote 12: The pious grandson of Laura has labored, and not

without success, to vindicate her immaculate chastity against the

censures of the grave and the sneers of the profane, (tom. ii.

notes, p. 76 - 82.)]

The ceremony of his coronation ^13 was performed in the

Capitol, by his friend and patron the supreme magistrate of the

republic. Twelve patrician youths were arrayed in scarlet; six

representatives of the most illustrious families, in green robes,

with garlands of flowers, accompanied the procession; in the

midst of the princes and nobles, the senator, count of

Anguillara, a kinsman of the Colonna, assumed his throne; and at

the voice of a herald Petrarch arose. After discoursing on a

text of Virgil, and thrice repeating his vows for the prosperity

of Rome, he knelt before the throne, and received from the

senator a laurel crown, with a more precious declaration, "This

is the reward of merit." The people shouted, "Long life to the

Capitol and the poet!" A sonnet in praise of Rome was accepted as

the effusion of genius and gratitude; and after the whole

procession had visited the Vatican, the profane wreath was

suspended before the shrine of St. Peter. In the act or diploma

^14 which was presented to Petrarch, the title and prerogatives

of poet-laureate are revived in the Capitol, after the lapse of

thirteen hundred years; and he receives the perpetual privilege

of wearing, at his choice, a crown of laurel, ivy, or myrtle, of

assuming the poetic habit, and of teaching, disputing,

interpreting, and composing, in all places whatsoever, and on all

subjects of literature. The grant was ratified by the authority

of the senate and people; and the character of citizen was the

recompense of his affection for the Roman name. They did him

honor, but they did him justice. In the familiar society of

Cicero and Livy, he had imbibed the ideas of an ancient patriot;

and his ardent fancy kindled every idea to a sentiment, and every

sentiment to a passion. The aspect of the seven hills and their

majestic ruins confirmed these lively impressions; and he loved a

country by whose liberal spirit he had been crowned and adopted.

The poverty and debasement of Rome excited the indignation and

pity of her grateful son; he dissembled the faults of his

fellow-citizens; applauded with partial fondness the last of

their heroes and matrons; and in the remembrance of the past, in

the hopes of the future, was pleased to forget the miseries of

the present time. Rome was still the lawful mistress of the

world: the pope and the emperor, the bishop and general, had

abdicated their station by an inglorious retreat to the Rhone and

the Danube; but if she could resume her virtue, the republic

might again vindicate her liberty and dominion. Amidst the

indulgence of enthusiasm and eloquence, ^15 Petrarch, Italy, and

Europe, were astonished by a revolution which realized for a

moment his most splendid visions. The rise and fall of the

tribune Rienzi will occupy the following pages: ^16 the subject

is interesting, the materials are rich, and the glance of a

patriot bard ^17 will sometimes vivify the copious, but simple,

narrative of the Florentine, ^18 and more especially of the

Roman, historian. ^19

[Footnote 13: The whole process of Petrarch's coronation is

accurately described by the abbe de Sade, (tom. i. p. 425 - 435,

tom. ii. p. 1 - 6, notes, p. 1 - 13,) from his own writings, and

the Roman diary of Ludovico, Monaldeschi, without mixing in this

authentic narrative the more recent fables of Sannuccio Delbene.]

[Footnote 14: The original act is printed among the Pieces

Justificatives in the Memoires sur Petrarque, tom. iii. p. 50 -

53.]

[Footnote 15: To find the proofs of his enthusiasm for Rome, I

need only request that the reader would open, by chance, either

Petrarch, or his French biographer. The latter has described the

poet's first visit to Rome, (tom. i. p. 323 - 335.) But in the

place of much idle rhetoric and morality, Petrarch might have

amused the present and future age with an original account of the

city and his coronation.]

[Footnote 16: It has been treated by the pen of a Jesuit, the P.

de Cerceau whose posthumous work (Conjuration de Nicolas Gabrini,

dit de Rienzi, Tyran de Rome, en 1347) was published at Paris,

1748, in 12mo. I am indebted to him for some facts and documents

in John Hocsemius, canon of Liege, a contemporary historian,

(Fabricius Bibliot. Lat. Med. Aevi, tom. iii. p. 273, tom. iv. p.

85.)]

[Footnote 17: The abbe de Sade, who so freely expatiates on the

history of the xivth century, might treat, as his proper subject,

a revolution in which the heart of Petrarch was so deeply

engaged, (Memoires, tom. ii. p. 50, 51, 320 - 417, notes, p. 70 -

76, tom. iii. p. 221 - 243, 366 - 375.) Not an idea or a fact in

the writings of Petrarch has probably escaped him.]

[Footnote 18: Giovanni Villani, l. xii. c. 89, 104, in Muratori,

Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, tom. xiii. p. 969, 970, 981 - 983.]

[Footnote 19: In his third volume of Italian antiquities, (p. 249

- 548,) Muratori has inserted the Fragmenta Historiae Romanae ab

Anno 1327 usque ad Annum 1354, in the original dialect of Rome or

Naples in the xivth century, and a Latin version for the benefit

of strangers. It contains the most particular and authentic life

of Cola (Nicholas) di Rienzi; which had been printed at

Bracciano, 1627, in 4to., under the name of Tomaso Fortifiocca,

who is only mentioned in this work as having been punished by the

tribune for forgery. Human nature is scarcely capable of such

sublime or stupid impartiality: but whosoever in the author of

these Fragments, he wrote on the spot and at the time, and

paints, without design or art, the manners of Rome and the

character of the tribune.

Note: Since the publication of my first edition of Gibbon,

some new and very remarkable documents have been brought to light

in a life of Nicolas Rienzi, - Cola di Rienzo und seine Zeit, -

by Dr. Felix Papencordt. The most important of these documents

are letters from Rienzi to Charles the Fourth, emperor and king

of Bohemia, and to the archbishop of Praque; they enter into the

whole history of his adventurous career during its first period,

and throw a strong light upon his extraordinary character. These

documents were first discovered and made use of, to a certain

extent, by Pelzel, the historian of Bohemia. The originals have

disappeared, but a copy made by Pelzel for his own use is now in

the library of Count Thun at Teschen. There seems no doubt of

their authenticity. Dr. Papencordt has printed the whole in his

i:Urkunden, with the exception of one long theological paper. -

M. 1845.]

In a quarter of the city which was inhabited only by

mechanics and Jews, the marriage of an innkeeper and a washer

woman produced the future deliverer of Rome. ^20 ^! From such

parents Nicholas Rienzi Gabrini could inherit neither dignity nor

fortune; and the gift of a liberal education, which they

painfully bestowed, was the cause of his glory and untimely end.

The study of history and eloquence, the writings of Cicero,

Seneca, Livy, Caesar, and Valerius Maximus, elevated above his

equals and contemporaries the genius of the young plebeian: he

perused with indefatigable diligence the manuscripts and marbles

of antiquity; loved to dispense his knowledge in familiar

language; and was often provoked to exclaim, "Where are now these

Romans? their virtue, their justice, their power? why was I not

born in those happy times?" ^21 When the republic addressed to

the throne of Avignon an embassy of the three orders, the spirit

and eloquence of Rienzi recommended him to a place among the

thirteen deputies of the commons. The orator had the honor of

haranguing Pope Clement the Sixth, and the satisfaction of

conversing with Petrarch, a congenial mind: but his aspiring

hopes were chilled by disgrace and poverty and the patriot was

reduced to a single garment and the charity of the hospital. ^*

From this misery he was relieved by the sense of merit or the

smile of favor; and the employment of apostolic notary afforded

him a daily stipend of five gold florins, a more honorable and

extensive connection, and the right of contrasting, both in words

and actions, his own integrity with the vices of the state. The

eloquence of Rienzi was prompt and persuasive: the multitude is

always prone to envy and censure: he was stimulated by the loss

of a brother and the impunity of the assassins; nor was it

possible to excuse or exaggerate the public calamities. The

blessings of peace and justice, for which civil society has been

instituted, were banished from Rome: the jealous citizens, who

might have endured every personal or pecuniary injury, were most

deeply wounded in the dishonor of their wives and daughters: ^22

they were equally oppressed by the arrogance of the nobles and

the corruption of the magistrates; ^!! and the abuse of arms or

of laws was the only circumstance that distinguished the lions

from the dogs and serpents of the Capitol. These allegorical

emblems were variously repeated in the pictures which Rienzi

exhibited in the streets and churches; and while the spectators

gazed with curious wonder, the bold and ready orator unfolded the

meaning, applied the satire, inflamed their passions, and

announced a distant hope of comfort and deliverance. The

privileges of Rome, her eternal sovereignty over her princes and

provinces, was the theme of his public and private discourse; and

a monument of servitude became in his hands a title and incentive

of liberty. The decree of the senate, which granted the most

ample prerogatives to the emperor Vespasian, had been inscribed

on a copper plate still extant in the choir of the church of St.

John Lateran. ^23 A numerous assembly of nobles and plebeians was

invited to this political lecture, and a convenient theatre was

erected for their reception. The notary appeared in a

magnificent and mysterious habit, explained the inscription by a

version and commentary, ^24 and descanted with eloquence and zeal

on the ancient glories of the senate and people, from whom all

legal authority was derived. The supine ignorance of the nobles

was incapable of discerning the serious tendency of such

representations: they might sometimes chastise with words and

blows the plebeian reformer; but he was often suffered in the

Colonna palace to amuse the company with his threats and

predictions; and the modern Brutus ^25 was concealed under the

mask of folly and the character of a buffoon. While they indulged

their contempt, the restoration of the good estate, his favorite

expression, was entertained among the people as a desirable, a

possible, and at length as an approaching, event; and while all

had the disposition to applaud, some had the courage to assist,

their promised deliverer.

[Footnote 20: The first and splendid period of Rienzi, his

tribunitian government, is contained in the xviiith chapter of

the Fragments, (p. 399 - 479,) which, in the new division, forms

the iid book of the history in xxxviii. smaller chapters or

sections.]

[Footnote !: But see in Dr. Papencordt's work, and in Rienzi's

own words, his claim to be a bastard son of the emperor Henry the

Seventh, whose intrigue with his mother Rienzi relates with a

sort of proud shamelessness. Compare account by the editor of Dr.

Papencordt's work in Quarterly Review vol. lxix. - M. 1845.]

[Footnote 21: The reader may be pleased with a specimen of the

original idiom: Fo da soa juventutine nutricato di latte de

eloquentia, bono gramatico, megliore rettuorico, autorista bravo.

Deh como et quanto era veloce leitore! moito usava Tito Livio,

Seneca, et Tullio, et Balerio Massimo, moito li dilettava le

magnificentie di Julio Cesare raccontare. Tutta la die se

speculava negl' intagli di marmo lequali iaccio intorno Roma. Non

era altri che esso, che sapesse lejere li antichi pataffii.

Tutte scritture antiche vulgarizzava; quesse fiure di marmo

justamente interpretava. On come spesso diceva, "Dove suono

quelli buoni Romani? dove ene loro somma justitia? poleramme

trovare in tempo che quessi fiuriano!"]

[Footnote *: Sir J. Hobhouse published (in his Illustrations of

Childe Harold) Rienzi's joyful letter to the people of Rome on

the apparently favorable termination of this mission. - M. 1845.]

[Footnote 22: Petrarch compares the jealousy of the Romans with

the easy temper of the husbands of Avignon, (Memoires, tom. i. p.

330.)]

[Footnote !!: All this Rienzi, writing at a later period to the

archbishop of Prague, attributed to the criminal abandonment of

his flock by the supreme pontiff. See Urkunde apud Papencordt,

p. xliv. Quarterly Review, p. 255. - M. 1845.]

[Footnote 23: The fragments of the Lex regia may be found in the

Inscriptions of Gruter, tom. i. p. 242, and at the end of the

Tacitus of Ernesti, with some learned notes of the editor, tom.

ii.]

[Footnote 24: I cannot overlook a stupendous and laughable

blunder of Rienzi. The Lex regia empowers Vespasian to enlarge

the Pomoerium, a word familiar to every antiquary. It was not so

to the tribune; he confounds it with pomarium, an orchard,

translates lo Jardino de Roma cioene Italia, and is copied by the

less excusable ignorance of the Latin translator (p. 406) and the

French historian, (p. 33.) Even the learning of Muratori has

slumbered over the passage.]

[Footnote 25: Priori (Bruto) tamen similior, juvenis uterque,

longe ingenic quam cujus simulationem induerat, ut sub hoc

obtentu liberator ille P R. aperiretur tempore suo .... Ille

regibus, hic tyrannis contemptus, (Opp (Opp. p. 536.)

Note: Fatcor attamen quod - nunc fatuum. nunc hystrionem,

nunc gravem nunc simplicem, nunc astutum, nunc fervidum, nunc

timidum simulato rem, et dissimulatorem ad hunc caritativum

finem, quem dixi, constitusepius memet ipsum. Writing to an

archbishop, (of Prague,) Rienzi alleges scriptural examples.

Saltator coram archa David et insanus apparuit coram Rege;

blanda, astuta, et tecta Judith astitit Holoferni; et astate

Jacob meruit benedici, Urkunde xlix. - M. 1845.]

A prophecy, or rather a summons, affixed on the church door

of St. George, was the first public evidence of his designs; a

nocturnal assembly of a hundred citizens on Mount Aventine, the

first step to their execution. After an oath of secrecy and aid,

he represented to the conspirators the importance and facility of

their enterprise; that the nobles, without union or resources,

were strong only in the fear nobles, of their imaginary strength;

that all power, as well as right, was in the hands of the people;

that the revenues of the apostolical chamber might relieve the

public distress; and that the pope himself would approve their

victory over the common enemies of government and freedom. After

securing a faithful band to protect his first declaration, he

proclaimed through the city, by sound of trumpet, that on the

evening of the following day, all persons should assemble without

arms before the church of St. Angelo, to provide for the

reestablishment of the good estate. The whole night was employed

in the celebration of thirty masses of the Holy Ghost; and in the

morning, Rienzi, bareheaded, but in complete armor, issued from

the church, encompassed by the hundred conspirators. The pope's

vicar, the simple bishop of Orvieto, who had been persuaded to

sustain a part in this singular ceremony, marched on his right

hand; and three great standards were borne aloft as the emblems

of their design. In the first, the banner of liberty, Rome was

seated on two lions, with a palm in one hand and a globe in the

other; St. Paul, with a drawn sword, was delineated in the banner

of justice; and in the third, St. Peter held the keys of concord

and peace. Rienzi was encouraged by the presence and applause of

an innumerable crowd, who understood little, and hoped much; and

the procession slowly rolled forwards from the castle of St.

Angelo to the Capitol. His triumph was disturbed by some secret

emotions which he labored to suppress: he ascended without

opposition, and with seeming confidence, the citadel of the

republic; harangued the people from the balcony; and received the

most flattering confirmation of his acts and laws. The nobles,

as if destitute of arms and counsels, beheld in silent

consternation this strange revolution; and the moment had been

prudently chosen, when the most formidable, Stephen Colonna, was

absent from the city. On the first rumor, he returned to his

palace, affected to despise this plebeian tumult, and declared to

the messenger of Rienzi, that at his leisure he would cast the

madman from the windows of the Capitol. The great bell instantly

rang an alarm, and so rapid was the tide, so urgent was the

danger, that Colonna escaped with precipitation to the suburb of

St. Laurence: from thence, after a moment's refreshment, he

continued the same speedy career till he reached in safety his

castle of Palestrina; lamenting his own imprudence, which had not

trampled the spark of this mighty conflagration. A general and

peremptory order was issued from the Capitol to all the nobles,

that they should peaceably retire to their estates: they obeyed;

and their departure secured the tranquillity of the free and

obedient citizens of Rome.

But such voluntary obedience evaporates with the first

transports of zeal; and Rienzi felt the importance of justifying

his usurpation by a regular form and a legal title. At his own

choice, the Roman people would have displayed their attachment

and authority, by lavishing on his head the names of senator or

consul, of king or emperor: he preferred the ancient and modest

appellation of tribune; ^* the protection of the commons was the

essence of that sacred office; and they were ignorant, that it

had never been invested with any share in the legislative or

executive powers of the republic. In this character, and with

the consent of the Roman, the tribune enacted the most salutary

laws for the restoration and maintenance of the good estate. By

the first he fulfils the wish of honesty and inexperience, that

no civil suit should be protracted beyond the term of fifteen

days. The danger of frequent perjury might justify the

pronouncing against a false accuser the same penalty which his

evidence would have inflicted: the disorders of the times might

compel the legislator to punish every homicide with death, and

every injury with equal retaliation. But the execution of

justice was hopeless till he had previously abolished the tyranny

of the nobles. It was formally provided, that none, except the

supreme magistrate, should possess or command the gates, bridges,

or towers of the state; that no private garrisons should be

introduced into the towns or castles of the Roman territory; that

none should bear arms, or presume to fortify their houses in the

city or country; that the barons should be responsible for the

safety of the highways, and the free passage of provisions; and

that the protection of malefactors and robbers should be expiated

by a fine of a thousand marks of silver. But these regulations

would have been impotent and nugatory, had not the licentious

nobles been awed by the sword of the civil power. A sudden alarm

from the bell of the Capitol could still summon to the standard

above twenty thousand volunteers: the support of the tribune and

the laws required a more regular and permanent force. In each

harbor of the coast a vessel was stationed for the assurance of

commerce; a standing militia of three hundred and sixty horse and

thirteen hundred foot was levied, clothed, and paid in the

thirteen quarters of the city: and the spirit of a commonwealth

may be traced in the grateful allowance of one hundred florins,

or pounds, to the heirs of every soldier who lost his life in the

service of his country. For the maintenance of the public

defence, for the establishment of granaries, for the relief of

widows, orphans, and indigent convents, Rienzi applied, without

fear of sacrilege, the revenues of the apostolic chamber: the

three branches of hearth-money, the salt-duty, and the customs,

were each of the annual produce of one hundred thousand florins;

^26 and scandalous were the abuses, if in four or five months the

amount of the salt-duty could be trebled by his judicious

economy. After thus restoring the forces and finances of the

republic, the tribune recalled the nobles from their solitary

independence; required their personal appearance in the Capitol;

and imposed an oath of allegiance to the new government, and of

submission to the laws of the good estate. Apprehensive for

their safety, but still more apprehensive of the danger of a

refusal, the princes and barons returned to their houses at Rome

in the garb of simple and peaceful citizens: the Colonna and

Ursini, the Savelli and Frangipani, were confounded before the

tribunal of a plebeian, of the vile buffoon whom they had so

often derided, and their disgrace was aggravated by the

indignation which they vainly struggled to disguise. The same

oath was successively pronounced by the several orders of

society, the clergy and gentlemen, the judges and notaries, the

merchants and artisans, and the gradual descent was marked by the

increase of sincerity and zeal. They swore to live and die with

the republic and the church, whose interest was artfully united

by the nominal association of the bishop of Orvieto, the pope's

vicar, to the office of tribune. It was the boast of Rienzi,

that he had delivered the throne and patrimony of St. Peter from

a rebellious aristocracy; and Clement the Sixth, who rejoiced in

its fall, affected to believe the professions, to applaud the

merits, and to confirm the title, of his trusty servant. The

speech, perhaps the mind, of the tribune, was inspired with a

lively regard for the purity of the faith: he insinuated his

claim to a supernatural mission from the Holy Ghost; enforced by

a heavy forfeiture the annual duty of confession and communion;

and strictly guarded the spiritual as well as temporal welfare of

his faithful people. ^27

[Footnote *: Et ego, Deo semper auctore, ipsa die pristina (leg.

prima) Tribunatus, quae quidem dignitas a tempore deflorati

Imperii, et per annos Vo et ultra sub tyrannica occupatione

vacavit, ipsos omnes potentes indifferenter Deum at justitiam

odientes, a mea, ymo a Dei facie fugiendo vehementi Spiritu

dissipavi, et nullo effuso cruore trementes expuli, sine ictu

remanents Romane terre facie renovata. Libellus Tribuni ad

Caesarem, p. xxxiv - M. 1845.]

[Footnote 26: In one MS. I read (l. ii. c. 4, p. 409) perfumante

quatro solli, in another, quatro florini, an important variety,

since the florin was worth ten Roman solidi, (Muratori, dissert.

xxviii.) The former reading would give us a population of 25,000,

the latter of 250,000 families; and I much fear, that the former

is more consistent with the decay of Rome and her territory.]

[Footnote 27: Hocsemius, p. 498, apud du Cerceau, Hist. de

Rienzi, p. 194. The fifteen tribunitian laws may be found in the

Roman historian (whom for brevity I shall name) Fortifiocca, l.

ii. c. 4]

Chapter LXX: Final Settlement Of The Ecclesiastical State.

Part II.

Never perhaps has the energy and effect of a single mind

been more remarkably felt than in the sudden, though transient,

reformation of Rome by the tribune Rienzi. A den of robbers was

converted to the discipline of a camp or convent: patient to

hear, swift to redress, inexorable to punish, his tribunal was

always accessible to the poor and stranger; nor could birth, or

dignity, or the immunities of the church, protect the offender or

his accomplices. The privileged houses, the private sanctuaries

in Rome, on which no officer of justice would presume to

trespass, were abolished; and he applied the timber and iron of

their barricades in the fortifications of the Capitol. The

venerable father of the Colonna was exposed in his own palace to

the double shame of being desirous, and of being unable, to

protect a criminal. A mule, with a jar of oil, had been stolen

near Capranica; and the lord of the Ursini family was condemned

to restore the damage, and to discharge a fine of four hundred

florins for his negligence in guarding the highways. Nor were

the persons of the barons more inviolate than their lands or

houses; and, either from accident or design, the same impartial

rigor was exercised against the heads of the adverse factions.

Peter Agapet Colonna, who had himself been senator of Rome, was

arrested in the street for injury or debt; and justice was

appeased by the tardy execution of Martin Ursini, who, among his

various acts of violence and rapine, had pillaged a shipwrecked

vessel at the mouth of the Tyber. ^28 His name, the purple of two

cardinals, his uncles, a recent marriage, and a mortal disease

were disregarded by the inflexible tribune, who had chosen his

victim. The public officers dragged him from his palace and

nuptial bed: his trial was short and satisfactory: the bell of

the Capitol convened the people: stripped of his mantle, on his

knees, with his hands bound behind his back, he heard the

sentence of death; and after a brief confession, Ursini was led

away to the gallows. After such an example, none who were

conscious of guilt could hope for impunity, and the flight of the

wicked, the licentious, and the idle, soon purified the city and

territory of Rome. In this time (says the historian,) the woods

began to rejoice that they were no longer infested with robbers;

the oxen began to plough; the pilgrims visited the sanctuaries;

the roads and inns were replenished with travellers; trade,

plenty, and good faith, were restored in the markets; and a purse

of gold might be exposed without danger in the midst of the

highway. As soon as the life and property of the subject are

secure, the labors and rewards of industry spontaneously revive:

Rome was still the metropolis of the Christian world; and the

fame and fortunes of the tribune were diffused in every country

by the strangers who had enjoyed the blessings of his government.

[Footnote 28: Fortifiocca, l. ii. c. 11. From the account of

this shipwreck, we learn some circumstances of the trade and

navigation of the age. 1. The ship was built and freighted at

Naples for the ports of Marseilles and Avignon. 2. The sailors

were of Naples and the Isle of Oenaria less skilful than those of

Sicily and Genoa. 3. The navigation from Marseilles was a

coasting voyage to the mouth of the Tyber, where they took

shelter in a storm; but, instead of finding the current,

unfortunately ran on a shoal: the vessel was stranded, the

mariners escaped. 4. The cargo, which was pillaged, consisted of

the revenue of Provence for the royal treasury, many bags of

pepper and cinnamon, and bales of French cloth, to the value of

20,000 florins; a rich prize.]

The deliverance of his country inspired Rienzi with a vast,

and perhaps visionary, idea of uniting Italy in a great

federative republic, of which Rome should be the ancient and

lawful head, and the free cities and princes the members and

associates. His pen was not less eloquent than his tongue; and

his numerous epistles were delivered to swift and trusty

messengers. On foot, with a white wand in their hand, they

traversed the forests and mountains; enjoyed, in the most hostile

states, the sacred security of ambassadors; and reported, in the

style of flattery or truth, that the highways along their passage

were lined with kneeling multitudes, who implored Heaven for the

success of their undertaking. Could passion have listened to

reason; could private interest have yielded to the public

welfare; the supreme tribunal and confederate union of the

Italian republic might have healed their intestine discord, and

closed the Alps against the Barbarians of the North. But the

propitious season had elapsed; and if Venice, Florence, Sienna,

Perugia, and many inferior cities offered their lives and

fortunes to the good estate, the tyrants of Lombardy and Tuscany

must despise, or hate, the plebeian author of a free

constitution. From them, however, and from every part of Italy,

the tribune received the most friendly and respectful answers:

they were followed by the ambassadors of the princes and

republics; and in this foreign conflux, on all the occasions of

pleasure or business, the low born notary could assume the

familiar or majestic courtesy of a sovereign. ^29 The most

glorious circumstance of his reign was an appeal to his justice

from Lewis, king of Hungary, who complained, that his brother and

her husband had been perfidiously strangled by Jane, queen of

Naples: ^30 her guilt or innocence was pleaded in a solemn trial

at Rome; but after hearing the advocates, ^31 the tribune

adjourned this weighty and invidious cause, which was soon

determined by the sword of the Hungarian. Beyond the Alps, more

especially at Avignon, the revolution was the theme of curiosity,

wonder, and applause. ^* Petrarch had been the private friend,

perhaps the secret counsellor, of Rienzi: his writings breathe

the most ardent spirit of patriotism and joy; and all respect for

the pope, all gratitude for the Colonna, was lost in the superior

duties of a Roman citizen. The poet-laureate of the Capitol

maintains the act, applauds the hero, and mingles with some

apprehension and advice, the most lofty hopes of the permanent

and rising greatness of the republic. ^32

[Footnote 29: It was thus that Oliver Cromwell's old

acquaintance, who remembered his vulgar and ungracious entrance

into the House of Commons, were astonished at the ease and

majesty of the protector on his throne, (See Harris's Life of

Cromwell, p. 27 - 34, from Clarendon Warwick, Whitelocke, Waller,

&c.) The consciousness of merit and power will sometimes elevate

the manners to the station.]

[Footnote 30: See the causes, circumstances, and effects of the

death of Andrew in Giannone, (tom. iii. l. xxiii. p. 220 - 229,)

and the Life of Petrarch (Memoires, tom. ii. p. 143 - 148, 245 -

250, 375 - 379, notes, p. 21 - 37.) The abbe de Sade wishes to

extenuate her guilt.]

[Footnote 31: The advocate who pleaded against Jane could add

nothing to the logical force and brevity of his master's epistle.

Johanna! inordinata vita praecedens, retentio potestatis in

regno, neglecta vindicta, vir alter susceptus, et excusatio

subsequens, necis viri tui te probant fuisse participem et

consortem. Jane of Naples, and Mary of Scotland, have a singular

conformity.]

[Footnote *: In his letter to the archbishop of Prague, Rienzi

thus describes the effect of his elevation on Italy and on the

world: "Did I not restore real peace among the cities which were

distracted by factions? did I not cause all the citizens, exiled

by party violence, with their wretched wives and children, to be

readmitted? had I not begun to extinguish the factious names

(scismatica nomina) of Guelf and Ghibelline, for which countless

thousands had perished body and soul, under the eyes of their

pastors, by the reduction of the city of Rome and all Italy into

one amicable, peaceful, holy, and united confederacy? the

consecrated standards and banners having been by me collected and

blended together, and, in witness to our holy association and

perfect union, offered up in the presence of the ambassadors of

all the cities of Italy, on the day of the assumption of our

Blessed Lady." p. xlvii.

In the Libellus ad Caesarem: "I received the homage and

submission of all the sovereigns of Apulia, the barons and

counts, and almost all the people of Italy. I was honored by

solemn embassies and letters by the emperor of Constantinople and

the king of England. The queen of Naples submitted herself and

her kingdom to the protection of the tribune. The king of

Hungary, by two solemn embassies, brought his cause against his

queen and his nobles before my tribunal; and I venture to say

further, that the fame of the tribune alarmed the soldan of

Babylon. When the Christian pilgrims to the sepulchre of our

Lord related to the Christian and Jewish inhabitants of Jerusalem

all the yet unheard-of and wonderful circumstances of the

reformation in Rome, both Jews and Christians celebrated the

event with unusual festivities. When the soldan inquired the

cause of these rejoicings, and received this intelligence about

Rome, he ordered all the havens and cities on the coast to be

fortified, and put in a state of defence," p. xxxv. - M. 1845.]

[Footnote 32: See the Epistola Hortatoria de Capessenda

Republica, from Petrarch to Nicholas Rienzi, (Opp. p. 535 - 540,)

and the vth eclogue or pastoral, a perpetual and obscure

allegory.]

While Petrarch indulged these prophetic visions, the Roman

hero was fast declining from the meridian of fame and power; and

the people, who had gazed with astonishment on the ascending

meteor, began to mark the irregularity of its course, and the

vicissitudes of light and obscurity. More eloquent than

judicious, more enterprising than resolute, the faculties of

Rienzi were not balanced by cool and commanding reason: he

magnified in a tenfold proportion the objects of hope and fear;

and prudence, which could not have erected, did not presume to

fortify, his throne. In the blaze of prosperity, his virtues

were insensibly tinctured with the adjacent vices; justice with

cruelly, cruelty, liberality with profusion, and the desire of

fame with puerile and ostentatious vanity. ^* He might have

learned, that the ancient tribunes, so strong and sacred in the

public opinion, were not distinguished in style, habit, or

appearance, from an ordinary plebeian; ^33 and that as often as

they visited the city on foot, a single viator, or meadle,

attended the exercise of their office. The Gracchi would have

frowned or smiled, could they have read the sonorous titles and

epithets of their successor, "Nicholas, severe and merciful;

deliverer of Rome; defender of Italy; ^34 friend of mankind, and

of liberty, peace, and justice; tribune august:" his theatrical

pageants had prepared the revolution; but Rienzi abused, in

luxury and pride, the political maxim of speaking to the eyes, as

well as the understanding, of the multitude. From nature he had

received the gift of a handsome person, ^35 till it was swelled

and disfigured by intemperance: and his propensity to laughter

was corrected in the magistrate by the affectation of gravity and

sternness. He was clothed, at least on public occasions, in a

party-colored robe of velvet or satin, lined with fur, and

embroidered with gold: the rod of justice, which he carried in

his hand, was a sceptre of polished steel, crowned with a globe

and cross of gold, and enclosing a small fragment of the true and

holy wood. In his civil and religious processions through the

city, he rode on a white steed, the symbol of royalty: the great

banner of the republic, a sun with a circle of stars, a dove with

an olive branch, was displayed over his head; a shower of gold

and silver was scattered among the populace, fifty guards with

halberds encompassed his person; a troop of horse preceded his

march; and their tymbals and trumpets were of massy silver.

[Footnote *: An illustrious female writer has drawn, with a

single stroke, the character of Rienzi, Crescentius, and Arnold

of Brescia, the fond restorers of Roman liberty: 'Qui ont pris

les souvenirs pour les esperances.' Corinne, tom. i. p. 159.

Could Tacitus have excelled this?" Hallam, vol i p. 418. - M.]

[Footnote 33: In his Roman Questions, Plutarch (Opuscul. tom. i.

p. 505, 506, edit. Graec. Hen. Steph.) states, on the most

constitutional principles, the simple greatness of the tribunes,

who were not properly magistrates, but a check on magistracy. It

was their duty and interest. Rienzi, and Petrarch himself, were

incapable perhaps of reading a Greek philosopher; but they might

have imbibed the same modest doctrines from their favorite

Latins, Livy and Valerius Maximus.]

[Footnote 34: I could not express in English the forcible, though

barbarous, title of Zelator Italiae, which Rienzi assumed.]

[Footnote 35: Era bell' homo, (l. ii. c. l. p. 399.) It is

remarkable, that the riso sarcastico of the Bracciano edition is

wanting in the Roman MS., from which Muratori has given the text.

In his second reign, when he is painted almost as a monster,

Rienzi travea una ventresca tonna trionfale, a modo de uno Abbate

Asiano, or Asinino, (l. iii. c. 18, p. 523.)]

The ambition of the honors of chivalry ^36 betrayed the

meanness of his birth, and degraded the importance of his office;

and the equestrian tribune was not less odious to the nobles,

whom he adopted, than to the plebeians, whom he deserted. All

that yet remained of treasure, or luxury, or art, was exhausted

on that solemn day. Rienzi led the procession from the Capitol

to the Lateran; the tediousness of the way was relieved with

decorations and games; the ecclesiastical, civil, and military

orders marched under their various banners; the Roman ladies

attended his wife; and the ambassadors of Italy might loudly

applaud or secretly deride the novelty of the pomp. In the

evening, which they had reached the church and palace of

Constantine, he thanked and dismissed the numerous assembly, with

an invitation to the festival of the ensuing day. From the hands

of a venerable knight he received the order of the Holy Ghost;

the purification of the bath was a previous ceremony; but in no

step of his life did Rienzi excite such scandal and censure as by

the profane use of the porphyry vase, in which Constantine (a

foolish legend) had been healed of his leprosy by Pope Sylvester.

^37 With equal presumption the tribune watched or reposed within

the consecrated precincts of the baptistery; and the failure of

his state-bed was interpreted as an omen of his approaching

downfall. At the hour of worship, he showed himself to the

returning crowds in a majestic attitude, with a robe of purple,

his sword, and gilt spurs; but the holy rites were soon

interrupted by his levity and insolence. Rising from his throne,

and advancing towards the congregation, he proclaimed in a loud

voice: "We summon to our tribunal Pope Clement: and command him

to reside in his diocese of Rome: we also summon the sacred

college of cardinals. ^38 We again summon the two pretenders,

Charles of Bohemia and Lewis of Bavaria, who style themselves

emperors: we likewise summon all the electors of Germany, to

inform us on what pretence they have usurped the inalienable

right of the Roman people, the ancient and lawful sovereigns of

the empire." ^39 Unsheathing his maiden sword, he thrice

brandished it to the three parts of the world, and thrice

repeated the extravagant declaration, "And this too is mine!" The

pope's vicar, the bishop of Orvieto, attempted to check this

career of folly; but his feeble protest was silenced by martial

music; and instead of withdrawing from the assembly, he consented

to dine with his brother tribune, at a table which had hitherto

been reserved for the supreme pontiff. A banquet, such as the

Caesars had given, was prepared for the Romans. The apartments,

porticos, and courts of the Lateran were spread with innumerable

tables for either sex, and every condition; a stream of wine

flowed from the nostrils of Constantine's brazen horse; no

complaint, except of the scarcity of water, could be heard; and

the licentiousness of the multitude was curbed by discipline and

fear. A subsequent day was appointed for the coronation of

Rienzi; ^40 seven crowns of different leaves or metals were

successively placed on his head by the most eminent of the Roman

clergy; they represented the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost; and

he still professed to imitate the example of the ancient

tribunes. ^* These extraordinary spectacles might deceive or

flatter the people; and their own vanity was gratified in the

vanity of their leader. But in his private life he soon deviated

from the strict rule of frugality and abstinence; and the

plebeians, who were awed by the splendor of the nobles, were

provoked by the luxury of their equal. His wife, his son, his

uncle, (a barber in name and profession,) exposed the contrast of

vulgar manners and princely expense; and without acquiring the

majesty, Rienzi degenerated into the vices, of a king.

[Footnote 36: Strange as it may seem, this festival was not

without a precedent. In the year 1327, two barons, a Colonna and

an Ursini, the usual balance, were created knights by the Roman

people: their bath was of rose- water, their beds were decked

with royal magnificence, and they were served at St. Maria of

Araceli in the Capitol, by the twenty-eight buoni huomini. They

afterwards received from Robert, king of Naples, the sword of

chivalry, (Hist. Rom. l. i. c. 2, p. 259.)]

[Footnote 37: All parties believed in the leprosy and bath of

Constantine (Petrarch. Epist. Famil. vi. 2,) and Rienzi justified

his own conduct by observing to the court of Avignon, that a vase

which had been used by a Pagan could not be profaned by a pious

Christian. Yet this crime is specified in the bull of

excommunication, (Hocsemius, apud du Cerceau, p. 189, 190.)]

[Footnote 38: This verbal summons of Pope Clement VI., which

rests on the authority of the Roman historian and a Vatican Ms.,

is disputed by the biographer of Petrarch, (tom. ii. not. p. 70 -

76, with arguments rather of decency than of weight. The court

of Avignon might not choose to agitate this delicate question.]

[Footnote 39: The summons of the two rival emperors, a monument

of freedom and folly, is extant in Hocsemius, (Cerceau, p. 163 -

166.)]

[Footnote 40: It is singular, that the Roman historian should

have overlooked this sevenfold coronation, which is sufficiently

proved by internal evidence, and the testimony of Hocsemius, and

even of Rienzi, (Cercean p. 167 - 170, 229.)]

[Footnote *: It was on this occasion that he made the profane

comparison between himself and our Lord; and the striking

circumstance took place which he relates in his letter to the

archbishop of Prague. In the midst of all the wild and joyous

exultation of the people, one of his most zealous supporters, a

monk, who was in high repute for his sanctity, stood apart in a

corner of the church and wept bitterly! A domestic chaplain of

Rienzi's inquired the cause of his grief. "Now," replied the man

of God, "is thy master cast down from heaven - never saw I man so

proud. By the aid of the Holy Ghost he has driven the tyrants

from the city without drawing a sword; the cities and the

sovereigns of Italy have submitted to his power. Why is he so

arrogant and ungrateful towards the Most High? Why does he seek

earthly and transitory rewards for his labors, and in his wanton

speech liken himself to the Creator? Tell thy master that he can

only atone for this offence by tears of penitence." In the

evening the chaplain communicated this solemn rebuke to the

tribune: it appalled him for the time, but was soon forgotten in

the tumult and hurry of business. - M. 1845.]

A simple citizen describes with pity, or perhaps with

pleasure, the humiliation of the barons of Rome. "Bareheaded,

their hands crossed on their breast, they stood with downcast

looks in the presence of the tribune; and they trembled, good

God, how they trembled!" ^41 As long as the yoke of Rienzi was

that of justice and their country, their conscience forced them

to esteem the man, whom pride and interest provoked them to hate:

his extravagant conduct soon fortified their hatred by contempt;

and they conceived the hope of subverting a power which was no

longer so deeply rooted in the public confidence. The old

animosity of the Colonna and Ursini was suspended for a moment by

their common disgrace: they associated their wishes, and perhaps

their designs; an assassin was seized and tortured; he accused

the nobles; and as soon as Rienzi deserved the fate, he adopted

the suspicions and maxims, of a tyrant. On the same day, under

various pretences, he invited to the Capitol his principal

enemies, among whom were five members of the Ursini and three of

the Colonna name. But instead of a council or a banquet, they

found themselves prisoners under the sword of despotism or

justice; and the consciousness of innocence or guilt might

inspire them with equal apprehensions of danger. At the sound of

the great bell the people assembled; they were arraigned for a

conspiracy against the tribune's life; and though some might

sympathize in their distress, not a hand, nor a voice, was raised

to rescue the first of the nobility from their impending doom.

Their apparent boldness was prompted by despair; they passed in

separate chambers a sleepless and painful night; and the

venerable hero, Stephen Colonna, striking against the door of his

prison, repeatedly urged his guards to deliver him by a speedy

death from such ignominious servitude. In the morning they

understood their sentence from the visit of a confessor and the

tolling of the bell. The great hall of the Capitol had been

decorated for the bloody scene with red and white hangings: the

countenance of the tribune was dark and severe; the swords of the

executioners were unsheathed; and the barons were interrupted in

their dying speeches by the sound of trumpets. But in this

decisive moment, Rienzi was not less anxious or apprehensive than

his captives: he dreaded the splendor of their names, their

surviving kinsmen, the inconstancy of the people the reproaches

of the world, and, after rashly offering a mortal injury, he

vainly presumed that, if he could forgive, he might himself be

forgiven. His elaborate oration was that of a Christian and a

suppliant; and, as the humble minister of the commons, he

entreated his masters to pardon these noble criminals, for whose

repentance and future service he pledged his faith and authority.

"If you are spared," said the tribune, "by the mercy of the

Romans, will you not promise to support the good estate with your

lives and fortunes?" Astonished by this marvellous clemency, the

barons bowed their heads; and while they devoutly repeated the

oath of allegiance, might whisper a secret, and more sincere,

assurance of revenge. A priest, in the name of the people,

pronounced their absolution: they received the communion with the

tribune, assisted at the banquet, followed the procession; and,

after every spiritual and temporal sign of reconciliation, were

dismissed in safety to their respective homes, with the new

honors and titles of generals, consuls, and patricians. ^42

[Footnote 41: Puoi se faceva stare denante a se, mentre sedeva,

li baroni tutti in piedi ritti co le vraccia piecate, e co li

capucci tratti. Deh como stavano paurosi! (Hist. Rom. l. ii. c.

20, p. 439.) He saw them, and we see them.]

[Footnote 42: The original letter, in which Rienzi justifies his

treatment of the Colonna, (Hocsemius, apud du Cerceau, p. 222 -

229,) displays, in genuine colors, the mixture of the knave and

the madman.]

During some weeks they were checked by the memory of their

danger, rather than of their deliverance, till the most powerful

of the Ursini, escaping with the Colonna from the city, erected

at Marino the standard of rebellion. The fortifications of the

castle were instantly restored; the vassals attended their lord;

the outlaws armed against the magistrate; the flocks and herds,

the harvests and vineyards, from Marino to the gates of Rome,

were swept away or destroyed; and the people arraigned Rienzi as

the author of the calamities which his government had taught them

to forget. In the camp, Rienzi appeared to less advantage than

in the rostrum; and he neglected the progress of the rebel barons

till their numbers were strong, and their castles impregnable.

From the pages of Livy he had not imbibed the art, or even the

courage, of a general: an army of twenty thousand Romans returned

without honor or effect from the attack of Marino; and his

vengeance was amused by painting his enemies, their heads

downwards, and drowning two dogs (at least they should have been

bears) as the representatives of the Ursini. The belief of his

incapacity encouraged their operations: they were invited by

their secret adherents; and the barons attempted, with four

thousand foot, and sixteen hundred horse, to enter Rome by force

or surprise. The city was prepared for their reception; the

alarm-bell rung all night; the gates were strictly guarded, or

insolently open; and after some hesitation they sounded a

retreat. The two first divisions had passed along the walls, but

the prospect of a free entrance tempted the headstrong valor of

the nobles in the rear; and after a successful skirmish, they

were overthrown and massacred without quarter by the crowds of

the Roman people. Stephen Colonna the younger, the noble spirit

to whom Petrarch ascribed the restoration of Italy, was preceded

or accompanied in death by his son John, a gallant youth, by his

brother Peter, who might regret the ease and honors of the

church, by a nephew of legitimate birth, and by two bastards of

the Colonna race; and the number of seven, the seven crowns, as

Rienzi styled them, of the Holy Ghost, was completed by the agony

of the deplorable parent, and the veteran chief, who had survived

the hope and fortune of his house. The vision and prophecies of

St. Martin and Pope Boniface had been used by the tribune to

animate his troops: ^43 he displayed, at least in the pursuit,

the spirit of a hero; but he forgot the maxims of the ancient

Romans, who abhorred the triumphs of civil war. The conqueror

ascended the Capitol; deposited his crown and sceptre on the

altar; and boasted, with some truth, that he had cut off an ear,

which neither pope nor emperor had been able to amputate. ^44 His

base and implacable revenge denied the honors of burial; and the

bodies of the Colonna, which he threatened to expose with those

of the vilest malefactors, were secretly interred by the holy

virgins of their name and family. ^45 The people sympathized in

their grief, repented of their own fury, and detested the

indecent joy of Rienzi, who visited the spot where these

illustrious victims had fallen. It was on that fatal spot that

he conferred on his son the honor of knighthood: and the ceremony

was accomplished by a slight blow from each of the horsemen of

the guard, and by a ridiculous and inhuman ablution from a pool

of water, which was yet polluted with patrician blood. ^46

[Footnote 43: Rienzi, in the above-mentioned letter, ascribes to

St. Martin the tribune, Boniface VIII. the enemy of Colonna,

himself, and the Roman people, the glory of the day, which

Villani likewise (l. 12, c. 104) describes as a regular battle.

The disorderly skirmish, the flight of the Romans, and the

cowardice of Rienzi, are painted in the simple and minute

narrative of Fortifiocca, or the anonymous citizen, (l. i. c. 34

- 37.)]

[Footnote 44: In describing the fall of the Colonna, I speak only

of the family of Stephen the elder, who is often confounded by

the P. du Cerceau with his son. That family was extinguished,

but the house has been perpetuated in the collateral branches, of

which I have not a very accurate knowledge. Circumspice (says

Petrarch) familiae tuae statum, Columniensium domos: solito

pauciores habeat columnas. Quid ad rem modo fundamentum stabile,

solidumque permaneat.]

[Footnote 45: The convent of St. Silvester was founded, endowed,

and protected by the Colonna cardinals, for the daughters of the

family who embraced a monastic life, and who, in the year 1318,

were twelve in number. The others were allowed to marry with

their kinsmen in the fourth degree, and the dispensation was

justified by the small number and close alliances of the noble

families of Rome, (Memoires sur Petrarque, tom. i. p. 110, tom.

ii. p. 401.)]

[Footnote 46: Petrarch wrote a stiff and pedantic letter of

consolation, (Fam. l. vii. epist. 13, p. 682, 683.) The friend

was lost in the patriot. Nulla toto orbe principum familia

carior; carior tamen respublica, carior Roma, carior Italia.

Je rends graces aux Dieux de n'etre pas Romain.]

A short delay would have saved the Colonna, the delay of a

single month, which elapsed between the triumph and the exile of

Rienzi. In the pride of victory, he forfeited what yet remained

of his civil virtues, without acquiring the fame of military

prowess. A free and vigorous opposition was formed in the city;

and when the tribune proposed in the public council ^47 to impose

a new tax, and to regulate the government of Perugia, thirty-nine

members voted against his measures; repelled the injurious charge

of treachery and corruption; and urged him to prove, by their

forcible exclusion, that if the populace adhered to his cause, it

was already disclaimed by the most respectable citizens. The

pope and the sacred college had never been dazzled by his

specious professions; they were justly offended by the insolence

of his conduct; a cardinal legate was sent to Italy, and after

some fruitless treaty, and two personal interviews, he fulminated

a bull of excommunication, in which the tribune is degraded from

his office, and branded with the guilt of rebellion, sacrilege,

and heresy. ^48 The surviving barons of Rome were now humbled to

a sense of allegiance; their interest and revenge engaged them in

the service of the church; but as the fate of the Colonna was

before their eyes, they abandoned to a private adventurer the

peril and glory of the revolution. John Pepin, count of

Minorbino, ^49 in the kingdom of Naples, had been condemned for

his crimes, or his riches, to perpetual imprisonment; and

Petrarch, by soliciting his release, indirectly contributed to

the ruin of his friend. At the head of one hundred and fifty

soldiers, the count of Minorbino introduced himself into Rome;

barricaded the quarter of the Colonna: and found the enterprise

as easy as it had seemed impossible. From the first alarm, the

bell of the Capitol incessantly tolled; but, instead of repairing

to the well-known sound, the people were silent and inactive; and

the pusillanimous Rienzi, deploring their ingratitude with sighs

and tears, abdicated the government and palace of the republic.

[Footnote 47: This council and opposition is obscurely mentioned

by Pollistore, a contemporary writer, who has preserved some

curious and original facts, (Rer. Italicarum, tom. xxv. c. 31, p.

798 - 804.)]

[Footnote 48: The briefs and bulls of Clement VI. against Rienzi

are translated by the P. du Cerceau, (p. 196, 232,) from the

Ecclesiastical Annals of Odericus Raynaldus, (A.D. 1347, No. 15,

17, 21, &c.,) who found them in the archives of the Vatican.]

[Footnote 49: Matteo Villani describes the origin, character, and

death of this count of Minorbino, a man da natura inconstante e

senza fede, whose grandfather, a crafty notary, was enriched and

ennobled by the spoils of the Saracens of Nocera, (l. vii. c.

102, 103.) See his imprisonment, and the efforts of Petrarch,

tom. ii. p. 149 - 151)]

Chapter LXX: Final Settlement Of The Ecclesiastical State.

Part III.

Without drawing his sword, count Pepin restored the

aristocracy and the church; three senators were chosen, and the

legate, assuming the first rank, accepted his two colleagues from

the rival families of Colonna and Ursini. The acts of the tribune

were abolished, his head was proscribed; yet such was the terror

of his name, that the barons hesitated three days before they

would trust themselves in the city, and Rienzi was left above a

month in the castle of St. Angelo, from whence he peaceably

withdrew, after laboring, without effect, to revive the affection

and courage of the Romans. The vision of freedom and empire had

vanished: their fallen spirit would have acquiesced in servitude,

had it been smoothed by tranquillity and order; and it was

scarcely observed, that the new senators derived their authority

from the Apostolic See; that four cardinals were appointed to

reform, with dictatorial power, the state of the republic. Rome

was again agitated by the bloody feuds of the barons, who

detested each other, and despised the commons: their hostile

fortresses, both in town and country, again rose, and were again

demolished: and the peaceful citizens, a flock of sheep, were

devoured, says the Florentine historian, by these rapacious

wolves. But when their pride and avarice had exhausted the

patience of the Romans, a confraternity of the Virgin Mary

protected or avenged the republic: the bell of the Capitol was

again tolled, the nobles in arms trembled in the presence of an

unarmed multitude; and of the two senators, Colonna escaped from

the window of the palace, and Ursini was stoned at the foot of

the altar. The dangerous office of tribune was successively

occupied by two plebeians, Cerroni and Baroncelli. The mildness

of Cerroni was unequal to the times; and after a faint struggle,

he retired with a fair reputation and a decent fortune to the

comforts of rural life. Devoid of eloquence or genius,

Baroncelli was distinguished by a resolute spirit: he spoke the

language of a patriot, and trod in the footsteps of tyrants; his

suspicion was a sentence of death, and his own death was the

reward of his cruelties. Amidst the public misfortunes, the

faults of Rienzi were forgotten; and the Romans sighed for the

peace and prosperity of their good estate. ^50

[Footnote 50: The troubles of Rome, from the departure to the

return of Rienzi, are related by Matteo Villani (l. ii. c. 47, l.

iii. c. 33, 57, 78) and Thomas Fortifiocca, (l. iii. c. 1 - 4.) I

have slightly passed over these secondary characters, who

imitated the original tribune.]

After an exile of seven years, the first deliverer was again

restored to his country. In the disguise of a monk or a pilgrim,

he escaped from the castle of St. Angelo, implored the friendship

of the king of Hungary at Naples, tempted the ambition of every

bold adventurer, mingled at Rome with the pilgrims of the

jubilee, lay concealed among the hermits of the Apennine, and

wandered through the cities of Italy, Germany, and Bohemia. His

person was invisible, his name was yet formidable; and the

anxiety of the court of Avignon supposes, and even magnifies, his

personal merit. The emperor Charles the Fourth gave audience to

a stranger, who frankly revealed himself as the tribune of the

republic; and astonished an assembly of ambassadors and princes,

by the eloquence of a patriot and the visions of a prophet, the

downfall of tyranny and the kingdom of the Holy Ghost. ^51

Whatever had been his hopes, Rienzi found himself a captive; but

he supported a character of independence and dignity, and obeyed,

as his own choice, the irresistible summons of the supreme

pontiff. The zeal of Petrarch, which had been cooled by the

unworthy conduct, was rekindled by the sufferings and the

presence, of his friend; and he boldly complains of the times, in

which the savior of Rome was delivered by her emperor into the

hands of her bishop. Rienzi was transported slowly, but in safe

custody, from Prague to Avignon: his entrance into the city was

that of a malefactor; in his prison he was chained by the leg;

and four cardinals were named to inquire into the crimes of

heresy and rebellion. But his trial and condemnation would have

involved some questions, which it was more prudent to leave under

the veil of mystery: the temporal supremacy of the popes; the

duty of residence; the civil and ecclesiastical privileges of the

clergy and people of Rome. The reigning pontiff well deserved

the appellation of Clement: the strange vicissitudes and

magnanimous spirit of the captive excited his pity and esteem;

and Petrarch believes that he respected in the hero the name and

sacred character of a poet. ^52 Rienzi was indulged with an easy

confinement and the use of books; and in the assiduous study of

Livy and the Bible, he sought the cause and the consolation of

his misfortunes.

[Footnote 51: These visions, of which the friends and enemies of

Rienzi seem alike ignorant, are surely magnified by the zeal of

Pollistore, a Dominican inquisitor, (Rer. Ital. tom. xxv. c. 36,

p. 819.) Had the tribune taught, that Christ was succeeded by the

Holy Ghost, that the tyranny of the pope would be abolished, he

might have been convicted of heresy and treason, without

offending the Roman people.

Note: So far from having magnified these visions, Pollistore

is more than confirmed by the documents published by Papencordt.

The adoption of all the wild doctrines of the Fratricelli, the

Spirituals, in which, for the time at least, Rienzi appears to

have been in earnest; his magnificent offers to the emperor, and

the whole history of his life, from his first escape from Rome to

his imprisonment at Avignon, are among the most curious chapters

of his eventful life. - M. 1845.]

[Footnote 52: The astonishment, the envy almost, of Petrarch is a

proof, if not of the truth of this incredible fact, at least of

his own veracity. The abbe de Sade (Memoires, tom. iii. p. 242)

quotes the vith epistle of the xiiith book of Petrarch, but it is

of the royal Ms., which he consulted, and not of the ordinary

Basil edition, (p. 920.)]

The succeeding pontificate of Innocent the Sixth opened a

new prospect of his deliverance and restoration; and the court of

Avignon was persuaded, that the successful rebel could alone

appease and reform the anarchy of the metropolis. After a solemn

profession of fidelity, the Roman tribune was sent into Italy,

with the title of senator; but the death of Baroncelli appeared

to supersede the use of his mission; and the legate, Cardinal

Albornoz, ^53 a consummate statesman, allowed him with

reluctance, and without aid, to undertake the perilous

experiment. His first reception was equal to his wishes: the day

of his entrance was a public festival; and his eloquence and

authority revived the laws of the good estate. But this

momentary sunshine was soon clouded by his own vices and those of

the people: in the Capitol, he might often regret the prison of

Avignon; and after a second administration of four months, Rienzi

was massacred in a tumult which had been fomented by the Roman

barons. In the society of the Germans and Bohemians, he is said

to have contracted the habits of intemperance and cruelty:

adversity had chilled his enthusiasm, without fortifying his

reason or virtue; and that youthful hope, that lively assurance,

which is the pledge of success, was now succeeded by the cold

impotence of distrust and despair. The tribune had reigned with

absolute dominion, by the choice, and in the hearts, of the

Romans: the senator was the servile minister of a foreign court;

and while he was suspected by the people, he was abandoned by the

prince. The legate Albornoz, who seemed desirous of his ruin,

inflexibly refused all supplies of men and money; a faithful

subject could no longer presume to touch the revenues of the

apostolical chamber; and the first idea of a tax was the signal

of clamor and sedition. Even his justice was tainted with the

guilt or reproach of selfish cruelty: the most virtuous citizen

of Rome was sacrificed to his jealousy; and in the execution of a

public robber, from whose purse he had been assisted, the

magistrate too much forgot, or too much remembered, the

obligations of the debtor. ^54 A civil war exhausted his

treasures, and the patience of the city: the Colonna maintained

their hostile station at Palestrina; and his mercenaries soon

despised a leader whose ignorance and fear were envious of all

subordinate merit. In the death, as in the life, of Rienzi, the

hero and the coward were strangely mingled. When the Capitol was

invested by a furious multitude, when he was basely deserted by

his civil and military servants, the intrepid senator, waving the

banner of liberty, presented himself on the balcony, addressed

his eloquence to the various passions of the Romans, and labored

to persuade them, that in the same cause himself and the republic

must either stand or fall. His oration was interrupted by a

volley of imprecations and stones; and after an arrow had

transpierced his hand, he sunk into abject despair, and fled

weeping to the inner chambers, from whence he was let down by a

sheet before the windows of the prison. Destitute of aid or

hope, he was besieged till the evening: the doors of the Capitol

were destroyed with axes and fire; and while the senator

attempted to escape in a plebeian habit, he was discovered and

dragged to the platform of the palace, the fatal scene of his

judgments and executions. A whole hour, without voice or motion,

he stood amidst the multitude half naked and half dead: their

rage was hushed into curiosity and wonder: the last feelings of

reverence and compassion yet struggled in his favor; and they

might have prevailed, if a bold assassin had not plunged a dagger

in his breast. He fell senseless with the first stroke: the

impotent revenge of his enemies inflicted a thousand wounds: and

the senator's body was abandoned to the dogs, to the Jews, and to

the flames. Posterity will compare the virtues and failings of

this extraordinary man; but in a long period of anarchy and

servitude, the name of Rienzi has often been celebrated as the

deliverer of his country, and the last of the Roman patriots. ^55

[Footnote 53: Aegidius, or Giles Albornoz, a noble Spaniard,

archbishop of Toledo, and cardinal legate in Italy, (A.D. 1353

-1367,) restored, by his arms and counsels, the temporal dominion

of the popes. His life has been separately written by Sepulveda;

but Dryden could not reasonably suppose, that his name, or that

of Wolsey, had reached the ears of the Mufti in Don Sebastian.]

[Footnote 54: From Matteo Villani and Fortifiocca, the P. du

Cerceau (p. 344 - 394) has extracted the life and death of the

chevalier Montreal, the life of a robber and the death of a hero.

At the head of a free company, the first that desolated Italy, he

became rich and formidable be had money in all the banks, -

60,000 ducats in Padua alone.]

[Footnote 55: The exile, second government, and death of Rienzi,

are minutely related by the anonymous Roman, who appears neither

his friend nor his enemy, (l. iii. c. 12 - 25.) Petrarch, who

loved the tribune, was indifferent to the fate of the senator.]

The first and most generous wish of Petrarch was the

restoration of a free republic; but after the exile and death of

his plebeian hero, he turned his eyes from the tribune, to the

king, of the Romans. The Capitol was yet stained with the blood

of Rienzi, when Charles the Fourth descended from the Alps to

obtain the Italian and Imperial crowns. In his passage through

Milan he received the visit, and repaid the flattery, of the

poet-laureate; accepted a medal of Augustus; and promised,

without a smile, to imitate the founder of the Roman monarchy. A

false application of the name and maxims of antiquity was the

source of the hopes and disappointments of Petrarch; yet he could

not overlook the difference of times and characters; the

immeasurable distance between the first Caesars and a Bohemian

prince, who by the favor of the clergy had been elected the

titular head of the German aristocracy. Instead of restoring to

Rome her glory and her provinces, he had bound himself by a

secret treaty with the pope, to evacuate the city on the day of

his coronation; and his shameful retreat was pursued by the

reproaches of the patriot bard. ^56

[Footnote 56: The hopes and the disappointment of Petrarch are

agreeably described in his own words by the French biographer,

(Memoires, tom. iii. p. 375 - 413;) but the deep, though secret,

wound was the coronation of Zanubi, the poet-laureate, by Charles

IV.]

After the loss of liberty and empire, his third and more

humble wish was to reconcile the shepherd with his flock; to

recall the Roman bishop to his ancient and peculiar diocese. In

the fervor of youth, with the authority of age, Petrarch

addressed his exhortations to five successive popes, and his

eloquence was always inspired by the enthusiasm of sentiment and

the freedom of language. ^57 The son of a citizen of Florence

invariably preferred the country of his birth to that of his

education; and Italy, in his eyes, was the queen and garden of

the world. Amidst her domestic factions, she was doubtless

superior to France both in art and science, in wealth and

politeness; but the difference could scarcely support the epithet

of barbarous, which he promiscuously bestows on the countries

beyond the Alps. Avignon, the mystic Babylon, the sink of vice

and corruption, was the object of his hatred and contempt; but he

forgets that her scandalous vices were not the growth of the

soil, and that in every residence they would adhere to the power

and luxury of the papal court. He confesses that the successor

of St. Peter is the bishop of the universal church; yet it was

not on the banks of the Rhone, but of the Tyber, that the apostle

had fixed his everlasting throne; and while every city in the

Christian world was blessed with a bishop, the metropolis alone

was desolate and forlorn. Since the removal of the Holy See, the

sacred buildings of the Lateran and the Vatican, their altars and

their saints, were left in a state of poverty and decay; and Rome

was often painted under the image of a disconsolate matron, as if

the wandering husband could be reclaimed by the homely portrait

of the age and infirmities of his weeping spouse. ^58 But the

cloud which hung over the seven hills would be dispelled by the

presence of their lawful sovereign: eternal fame, the prosperity

of Rome, and the peace of Italy, would be the recompense of the

pope who should dare to embrace this generous resolution. Of the

five whom Petrarch exhorted, the three first, John the

Twenty-second, Benedict the Twelfth, and Clement the Sixth, were

importuned or amused by the boldness of the orator; but the

memorable change which had been attempted by Urban the Fifth was

finally accomplished by Gregory the Eleventh. The execution of

their design was opposed by weighty and almost insuperable

obstacles. A king of France, who has deserved the epithet of

wise, was unwilling to release them from a local dependence: the

cardinals, for the most part his subjects, were attached to the

language, manners, and climate of Avignon; to their stately

palaces; above all, to the wines of Burgundy. In their eyes,

Italy was foreign or hostile; and they reluctantly embarked at

Marseilles, as if they had been sold or banished into the land of

the Saracens. Urban the Fifth resided three years in the Vatican

with safety and honor: his sanctity was protected by a guard of

two thousand horse; and the king of Cyprus, the queen of Naples,

and the emperors of the East and West, devoutly saluted their

common father in the chair of St. Peter. But the joy of Petrarch

and the Italians was soon turned into grief and indignation. Some

reasons of public or private moment, his own impatience or the

prayers of the cardinals, recalled Urban to France; and the

approaching election was saved from the tyrannic patriotism of

the Romans. The powers of heaven were interested in their cause:

Bridget of Sweden, a saint and pilgrim, disapproved the return,

and foretold the death, of Urban the Fifth: the migration of

Gregory the Eleventh was encouraged by St. Catharine of Sienna,

the spouse of Christ and ambassadress of the Florentines; and the

popes themselves, the great masters of human credulity, appear to

have listened to these visionary females. ^59 Yet those celestial

admonitions were supported by some arguments of temporal policy.

The residents of Avignon had been invaded by hostile violence: at

the head of thirty thousand robbers, a hero had extorted ransom

and absolution from the vicar of Christ and the sacred college;

and the maxim of the French warriors, to spare the people and

plunder the church, was a new heresy of the most dangerous

import. ^60 While the pope was driven from Avignon, he was

strenuously invited to Rome. The senate and people acknowledged

him as their lawful sovereign, and laid at his feet the keys of

the gates, the bridges, and the fortresses; of the quarter at

least beyond the Tyber. ^61 But this loyal offer was accompanied

by a declaration, that they could no longer suffer the scandal

and calamity of his absence; and that his obstinacy would finally

provoke them to revive and assert the primitive right of

election. The abbot of Mount Cassin had been consulted, whether

he would accept the triple crown ^62 from the clergy and people:

"I am a citizen of Rome," ^63 replied that venerable

ecclesiastic, "and my first law is, the voice of my country." ^64

[Footnote 57: See, in his accurate and amusing biographer, the

application of Petrarch and Rome to Benedict XII. in the year

1334, (Memoires, tom. i. p. 261 - 265,) to Clement VI. in 1342,

(tom. ii. p. 45 - 47,) and to Urban V. in 1366, (tom. iii. p. 677

- 691:) his praise (p. 711 - 715) and excuse (p. 771) of the last

of these pontiffs. His angry controversy on the respective

merits of France and Italy may be found, Opp. p. 1068 - 1085.]

[Footnote 58: Squalida sed quoniam facies, neglectaque cultu

Caesaries; multisque malis lassata senectus

Eripuit solitam effigiem: vetus accipe nomen;

Roma vocor.

(Carm. l. 2, p. 77.)

He spins this allegory beyond all measure or patience. The

Epistles to Urban V in prose are more simple and persuasive,

(Senilium, l. vii. p. 811 - 827 l. ix. epist. i. p. 844 - 854.)]

[Footnote 59: I have not leisure to expatiate on the legends of

St. Bridget or St. Catharine, the last of which might furnish

some amusing stories. Their effect on the mind of Gregory XI. is

attested by the last solemn words of the dying pope, who

admonished the assistants, ut caverent ab hominibus, sive viris,

sive mulieribus, sub specie religionis loquentibus visiones sui

capitis, quia per tales ipse seductus, &c., (Baluz. Not ad Vit.

Pap. Avenionensium, tom. i. p. 1224.)]

[Footnote 60: This predatory expedition is related by Froissard,

(Chronique, tom. i. p. 230,) and in the life of Du Guesclin,

(Collection Generale des Memoires Historiques, tom. iv. c. 16, p.

107 - 113.) As early as the year 1361, the court of Avignon had

been molested by similar freebooters, who afterwards passed the

Alps, (Memoires sur Petrarque, tom. iii. p. 563 - 569.)]

[Footnote 61: Fleury alleges, from the annals of Odericus

Raynaldus, the original treaty which was signed the 21st of

December, 1376, between Gregory XI. and the Romans, (Hist.

Eccles. tom. xx. p. 275.)]

[Footnote 62: The first crown or regnum (Ducange, Gloss. Latin.

tom. v. p. 702) on the episcopal mitre of the popes, is ascribed

to the gift of Constantine, or Clovis. The second was added by

Boniface VIII., as the emblem not only of a spiritual, but of a

temporal, kingdom. The three states of the church are

represented by the triple crown which was introduced by John

XXII. or Benedict XII., (Memoires sur Petrarque, tom. i. p. 258,

259.)]

[Footnote 63: Baluze (Not. ad Pap. Avenion. tom. i. p. 1194,

1195) produces the original evidence which attests the threats of

the Roman ambassadors, and the resignation of the abbot of Mount

Cassin, qui, ultro se offerens, respondit se civem Romanum esse,

et illud velle quod ipsi vellent.]

[Footnote 64: The return of the popes from Avignon to Rome, and

their reception by the people, are related in the original lives

of Urban V. and Gregory XI., in Baluze (Vit. Paparum

Avenionensium, tom. i. p. 363 - 486) and Muratori, (Script. Rer.

Italicarum, tom. iii. P. i. p. 613 - 712.) In the disputes of the

schism, every circumstance was severely, though partially,

scrutinized; more especially in the great inquest, which decided

the obedience of Castile, and to which Baluze, in his notes, so

often and so largely appeals from a Ms. volume in the Harley

library, (p. 1281, &c.)]

If superstition will interpret an untimely death, ^65 if the

merit of counsels be judged from the event, the heavens may seem

to frown on a measure of such apparent season and propriety.

Gregory the Eleventh did not survive above fourteen months his

return to the Vatican; and his decease was followed by the great

schism of the West, which distracted the Latin church above forty

years. The sacred college was then composed of twenty-two

cardinals: six of these had remained at Avignon; eleven

Frenchmen, one Spaniard, and four Italians, entered the conclave

in the usual form. Their choice was not yet limited to the

purple; and their unanimous votes acquiesced in the archbishop of

Bari, a subject of Naples, conspicuous for his zeal and learning,

who ascended the throne of St. Peter under the name of Urban the

Sixth. The epistle of the sacred college affirms his free, and

regular, election; which had been inspired, as usual, by the Holy

Ghost; he was adored, invested, and crowned, with the customary

rites; his temporal authority was obeyed at Rome and Avignon, and

his ecclesiastical supremacy was acknowledged in the Latin world.

During several weeks, the cardinals attended their new master

with the fairest professions of attachment and loyalty; till the

summer heats permitted a decent escape from the city. But as

soon as they were united at Anagni and Fundi, in a place of

security, they cast aside the mask, accused their own falsehood

and hypocrisy, excommunicated the apostate and antichrist of

Rome, and proceeded to a new election of Robert of Geneva,

Clement the Seventh, whom they announced to the nations as the

true and rightful vicar of Christ. Their first choice, an

involuntary and illegal act, was annulled by fear of death and

the menaces of the Romans; and their complaint is justified by

the strong evidence of probability and fact. The twelve French

cardinals, above two thirds of the votes, were masters of the

election; and whatever might be their provincial jealousies, it

cannot fairly be presumed that they would have sacrificed their

right and interest to a foreign candidate, who would never

restore them to their native country. In the various, and often

inconsistent, narratives, ^66 the shades of popular violence are

more darkly or faintly colored: but the licentiousness of the

seditious Romans was inflamed by a sense of their privileges, and

the danger of a second emigration. The conclave was intimidated

by the shouts, and encompassed by the arms, of thirty thousand

rebels; the bells of the Capitol and St. Peter's rang an alarm:

"Death, or an Italian pope!" was the universal cry; the same

threat was repeated by the twelve bannerets or chiefs of the

quarters, in the form of charitable advice; some preparations

were made for burning the obstinate cardinals; and had they

chosen a Transalpine subject, it is probable that they would

never have departed alive from the Vatican. The same constraint

imposed the necessity of dissembling in the eyes of Rome and of

the world; the pride and cruelty of Urban presented a more

inevitable danger; and they soon discovered the features of the

tyrant, who could walk in his garden and recite his breviary,

while he heard from an adjacent chamber six cardinals groaning on

the rack. His inflexible zeal, which loudly censured their luxury

and vice, would have attached them to the stations and duties of

their parishes at Rome; and had he not fatally delayed a new

promotion, the French cardinals would have been reduced to a

helpless minority in the sacred college. For these reasons, and

the hope of repassing the Alps, they rashly violated the peace

and unity of the church; and the merits of their double choice

are yet agitated in the Catholic schools. ^67 The vanity, rather

than the interest, of the nation determined the court and clergy

of France. ^68 The states of Savoy, Sicily, Cyprus, Arragon,

Castille, Navarre, and Scotland were inclined by their example

and authority to the obedience of Clement the Seventh, and after

his decease, of Benedict the Thirteenth. Rome and the principal

states of Italy, Germany, Portugal, England, ^69 the Low

Countries, and the kingdoms of the North, adhered to the prior

election of Urban the Sixth, who was succeeded by Boniface the

Ninth, Innocent the Seventh, and Gregory the Twelfth.

[Footnote 65: Can the death of a good man be esteemed a

punishment by those who believe in the immortality of the soul?

They betray the instability of their faith. Yet as a mere

philosopher, I cannot agree with the Greeks (Brunck, Poetae

Gnomici, p. 231.) See in Herodotus (l. i. c. 31) the moral and

pleasing tale of the Argive youths.]

[Footnote 66: In the first book of the Histoire du Concile de

Pise, M. Lenfant has abridged and compared the original

narratives of the adherents of Urban and Clement, of the Italians

and Germans, the French and Spaniards. The latter appear to be

the most active and loquacious, and every fact and word in the

original lives of Gregory XI. and Clement VII. are supported in

the notes of their editor Baluze.]

[Footnote 67: The ordinal numbers of the popes seems to decide

the question against Clement VII. and Benedict XIII., who are

boldly stigmatized as antipopes by the Italians, while the French

are content with authorities and reasons to plead the cause of

doubt and toleration, (Baluz. in Praefat.) It is singular, or

rather it is not singular, that saints, visions and miracles

should be common to both parties.]

[Footnote 68: Baluze strenuously labors (Not. p. 1271 - 1280) to

justify the pure and pious motives of Charles V. king of France:

he refused to hear the arguments of Urban; but were not the

Urbanists equally deaf to the reasons of Clement, &c.?]

[Footnote 69: An epistle, or declamation, in the name of Edward

III., (Baluz. Vit. Pap. Avenion. tom. i. p. 553,) displays the

zeal of the English nation against the Clementines. Nor was

their zeal confined to words: the bishop of Norwich led a crusade

of 60,000 bigots beyond sea, (Hume's History, vol. iii. p. 57,

58.)]

From the banks of the Tyber and the Rhone, the hostile

pontiffs encountered each other with the pen and the sword: the

civil and ecclesiastical order of society was disturbed; and the

Romans had their full share of the mischiefs of which they may be

arraigned as the primary authors. ^70 They had vainly flattered

themselves with the hope of restoring the seat of the

ecclesiastical monarchy, and of relieving their poverty with the

tributes and offerings of the nations; but the separation of

France and Spain diverted the stream of lucrative devotion; nor

could the loss be compensated by the two jubilees which were

crowded into the space of ten years. By the avocations of the

schism, by foreign arms, and popular tumults, Urban the Sixth and

his three successors were often compelled to interrupt their

residence in the Vatican. The Colonna and Ursini still exercised

their deadly feuds: the bannerets of Rome asserted and abused the

privileges of a republic: the vicars of Christ, who had levied a

military force, chastised their rebellion with the gibbet, the

sword, and the dagger; and, in a friendly conference, eleven

deputies of the people were perfidiously murdered and cast into

the street. Since the invasion of Robert the Norman, the Romans

had pursued their domestic quarrels without the dangerous

interposition of a stranger. But in the disorders of the schism,

an aspiring neighbor, Ladislaus king of Naples, alternately

supported and betrayed the pope and the people; by the former he

was declared gonfalonier, or general, of the church, while the

latter submitted to his choice the nomination of their

magistrates. Besieging Rome by land and water, he thrice entered

the gates as a Barbarian conqueror; profaned the altars, violated

the virgins, pillaged the merchants, performed his devotions at

St. Peter's, and left a garrison in the castle of St. Angelo. His

arms were sometimes unfortunate, and to a delay of three days he

was indebted for his life and crown: but Ladislaus triumphed in

his turn; and it was only his premature death that could save the

metropolis and the ecclesiastical state from the ambitious

conqueror, who had assumed the title, or at least the powers, of

king of Rome. ^71

[Footnote 70: Besides the general historians, the Diaries of

Delphinus Gentilia Peter Antonius, and Stephen Infessura, in the

great collection of Muratori, represented the state and

misfortunes of Rome.]

[Footnote 71: It is supposed by Giannone (tom. iii. p. 292) that

he styled himself Rex Romae, a title unknown to the world since

the expulsion of Tarquin. But a nearer inspection has justified

the reading of Rex Ramae, of Rama, an obscure kingdom annexed to

the crown of Hungary.]

I have not undertaken the ecclesiastical history of the

schism; but Rome, the object of these last chapters, is deeply

interested in the disputed succession of her sovereigns. The

first counsels for the peace and union of Christendom arose from

the university of Paris, from the faculty of the Sorbonne, whose

doctors were esteemed, at least in the Gallican church, as the

most consummate masters of theological science. ^72 Prudently

waiving all invidious inquiry into the origin and merits of the

dispute, they proposed, as a healing measure, that the two

pretenders of Rome and Avignon should abdicate at the same time,

after qualifying the cardinals of the adverse factions to join in

a legitimate election; and that the nations should subtract ^73

their obedience, if either of the competitor preferred his own

interest to that of the public. At each vacancy, these

physicians of the church deprecated the mischiefs of a hasty

choice; but the policy of the conclave and the ambition of its

members were deaf to reason and entreaties; and whatsoever

promises were made, the pope could never be bound by the oaths of

the cardinal. During fifteen years, the pacific designs of the

university were eluded by the arts of the rival pontiffs, the

scruples or passions of their adherents, and the vicissitudes of

French factions, that ruled the insanity of Charles the Sixth. At

length a vigorous resolution was embraced; and a solemn embassy,

of the titular patriarch of Alexandria, two archbishops, five

bishops, five abbots, three knights, and twenty doctors, was sent

to the courts of Avignon and Rome, to require, in the name of the

church and king, the abdication of the two pretenders, of Peter

de Luna, who styled himself Benedict the Thirteenth, and of

Angelo Corrario, who assumed the name of Gregory the Twelfth.

For the ancient honor of Rome, and the success of their

commission, the ambassadors solicited a conference with the

magistrates of the city, whom they gratified by a positive

declaration, that the most Christian king did not entertain a

wish of transporting the holy see from the Vatican, which he

considered as the genuine and proper seat of the successor of St.

Peter. In the name of the senate and people, an eloquent Roman

asserted their desire to cooperate in the union of the church,

deplored the temporal and spiritual calamities of the long

schism, and requested the protection of France against the arms

of the king of Naples. The answers of Benedict and Gregory were

alike edifying and alike deceitful; and, in evading the demand of

their abdication, the two rivals were animated by a common

spirit. They agreed on the necessity of a previous interview;

but the time, the place, and the manner, could never be

ascertained by mutual consent. "If the one advances," says a

servant of Gregory, "the other retreats; the one appears an

animal fearful of the land, the other a creature apprehensive of

the water. And thus, for a short remnant of life and power, will

these aged priests endanger the peace and salvation of the

Christian world." ^74

[Footnote 72: The leading and decisive part which France assumed

in the schism is stated by Peter du Puis in a separate history,

extracted from authentic records, and inserted in the seventh

volume of the last and best edition of his friend Thuanus, (P.

xi. p. 110 - 184.)]

[Footnote 73: Of this measure, John Gerson, a stout doctor, was

the author of the champion. The proceedings of the university of

Paris and the Gallican church were often prompted by his advice,

and are copiously displayed in his theological writings, of which

Le Clerc (Bibliotheque Choisie, tom. x. p. 1 - 78) has given a

valuable extract. John Gerson acted an important part in the

councils of Pisa and Constance.]

[Footnote 74: Leonardus Brunus Aretinus, one of the revivers of

classic learning in Italy, who, after serving many years as

secretary in the Roman court, retired to the honorable office of

chancellor of the republic of Florence, (Fabric. Bibliot. Medii

Aevi, tom. i. p. 290.) Lenfant has given the version of this

curious epistle, (Concile de Pise, tom. i. p. 192 - 195.)]

The Christian world was at length provoked by their

obstinacy and fraud: they were deserted by their cardinals, who

embraced each other as friends and colleagues; and their revolt

was supported by a numerous assembly of prelates and ambassadors.

With equal justice, the council of Pisa deposed the popes of Rome

and Avignon; the conclave was unanimous in the choice of

Alexander the Fifth, and his vacant seat was soon filled by a

similar election of John the Twenty-third, the most profligate of

mankind. But instead of extinguishing the schism, the rashness

of the French and Italians had given a third pretender to the

chair of St. Peter. Such new claims of the synod and conclave

were disputed; three kings, of Germany, Hungary, and Naples,

adhered to the cause of Gregory the Twelfth; and Benedict the

Thirteenth, himself a Spaniard, was acknowledged by the devotion

and patriotism of that powerful nation. The rash proceedings of

Pisa were corrected by the council of Constance; the emperor

Sigismond acted a conspicuous part as the advocate or protector

of the Catholic church; and the number and weight of civil and

ecclesiastical members might seem to constitute the

states-general of Europe. Of the three popes, John the

Twenty-third was the first victim: he fled and was brought back a

prisoner: the most scandalous charges were suppressed; the vicar

of Christ was only accused of piracy, murder, rape, sodomy, and

incest; and after subscribing his own condemnation, he expiated

in prison the imprudence of trusting his person to a free city

beyond the Alps. Gregory the Twelfth, whose obedience was

reduced to the narrow precincts of Rimini, descended with more

honor from the throne; and his ambassador convened the session,

in which he renounced the title and authority of lawful pope. To

vanquish the obstinacy of Benedict the Thirteenth or his

adherents, the emperor in person undertook a journey from

Constance to Perpignan. The kings of Castile, Arragon, Navarre,

and Scotland, obtained an equal and honorable treaty; with the

concurrence of the Spaniards, Benedict was deposed by the

council; but the harmless old man was left in a solitary castle

to excommunicate twice each day the rebel kingdoms which had

deserted his cause. After thus eradicating the remains of the

schism, the synod of Constance proceeded with slow and cautious

steps to elect the sovereign of Rome and the head of the church.

On this momentous occasion, the college of twenty-three cardinals

was fortified with thirty deputies; six of whom were chosen in

each of the five great nations of Christendom, - the Italian, the

German, the French, the Spanish, and the English: ^75 the

interference of strangers was softened by their generous

preference of an Italian and a Roman; and the hereditary, as well

as personal, merit of Otho Colonna recommended him to the

conclave. Rome accepted with joy and obedience the noblest of

her sons; the ecclesiastical state was defended by his powerful

family; and the elevation of Martin the Fifth is the aera of the

restoration and establishment of the popes in the Vatican. ^76

[Footnote 75: I cannot overlook this great national cause, which

was vigorously maintained by the English ambassadors against

those of France. The latter contended, that Christendom was

essentially distributed into the four great nations and votes, of

Italy, Germany, France, and Spain, and that the lesser kingdoms

(such as England, Denmark, Portugal, &c.) were comprehended under

one or other of these great divisions. The English asserted,

that the British islands, of which they were the head, should be

considered as a fifth and coordinate nation, with an equal vote;

and every argument of truth or fable was introduced to exalt the

dignity of their country. Including England, Scotland, Wales,

the four kingdoms of Ireland, and the Orkneys, the British

Islands are decorated with eight royal crowns, and discriminated

by four or five languages, English, Welsh, Cornish, Scotch,

Irish, &c. The greater island from north to south measures 800

miles, or 40 days' journey; and England alone contains 32

counties and 52,000 parish churches, (a bold account!) besides

cathedrals, colleges, priories, and hospitals. They celebrate

the mission of St. Joseph of Arimathea, the birth of Constantine,

and the legatine powers of the two primates, without forgetting

the testimony of Bartholomey de Glanville, (A.D. 1360,) who

reckons only four Christian kingdoms, 1. of Rome, 2. of

Constantinople, 3. of Ireland, which had been transferred to the

English monarchs, and 4, of Spain. Our countrymen prevailed in

the council, but the victories of Henry V. added much weight to

their arguments. The adverse pleadings were found at Constance

by Sir Robert Wingfield, ambassador of Henry VIII. to the emperor

Maximilian I., and by him printed in 1517 at Louvain. From a

Leipsic Ms. they are more correctly published in the collection

of Von der Hardt, tom. v.; but I have only seen Lenfant's

abstract of these acts, (Concile de Constance, tom. ii. p. 447,

453, &c.)]

[Footnote 76: The histories of the three successive councils,

Pisa, Constance, and Basil, have been written with a tolerable

degree of candor, industry, and elegance, by a Protestant

minister, M. Lenfant, who retired from France to Berlin. They

form six volumes in quarto; and as Basil is the worst, so

Constance is the best, part of the Collection.]

Chapter LXX: Final Settlement Of The Ecclesiastical State.

Part IV.

The royal prerogative of coining money, which had been

exercised near three hundred years by the senate, was first

resumed by Martin the Fifth, ^77 and his image and superscription

introduce the series of the papal medals. Of his two immediate

successors, Eugenius the Fourth was the last pope expelled by the

tumults of the Roman people, ^78 and Nicholas the Fifth, the last

who was importuned by the presence of a Roman emperor. ^79 I. The

conflict of Eugenius with the fathers of Basil, and the weight or

apprehension of a new excise, emboldened and provoked the Romans

to usurp the temporal government of the city. They rose in arms,

elected seven governors of the republic, and a constable of the

Capitol; imprisoned the pope's nephew; besieged his person in the

palace; and shot volleys of arrows into his bark as he escaped

down the Tyber in the habit of a monk. But he still possessed in

the castle of St. Angelo a faithful garrison and a train of

artillery: their batteries incessantly thundered on the city, and

a bullet more dexterously pointed broke down the barricade of the

bridge, and scattered with a single shot the heroes of the

republic. Their constancy was exhausted by a rebellion of five

months. Under the tyranny of the Ghibeline nobles, the wisest

patriots regretted the dominion of the church; and their

repentance was unanimous and effectual. The troops of St. Peter

again occupied the Capitol; the magistrates departed to their

homes; the most guilty were executed or exiled; and the legate,

at the head of two thousand foot and four thousand horse, was

saluted as the father of the city. The synods of Ferrara and

Florence, the fear or resentment of Eugenius, prolonged his

absence: he was received by a submissive people; but the pontiff

understood from the acclamations of his triumphal entry, that to

secure their loyalty and his own repose, he must grant without

delay the abolition of the odious excise. II. Rome was restored,

adorned, and enlightened, by the peaceful reign of Nicholas the

Fifth. In the midst of these laudable occupations, the pope was

alarmed by the approach of Frederic the Third of Austria; though

his fears could not be justified by the character or the power of

the Imperial candidate. After drawing his military force to the

metropolis, and imposing the best security of oaths ^80 and

treaties, Nicholas received with a smiling countenance the

faithful advocate and vassal of the church. So tame were the

times, so feeble was the Austrian, that the pomp of his

coronation was accomplished with order and harmony: but the

superfluous honor was so disgraceful to an independent nation,

that his successors have excused themselves from the toilsome

pilgrimage to the Vatican; and rest their Imperial title on the

choice of the electors of Germany.

[Footnote 77: See the xxviith Dissertation of the Antiquities of

Muratori, and the 1st Instruction of the Science des Medailles of

the Pere Joubert and the Baron de la Bastie. The Metallic

History of Martin V. and his successors has been composed by two

monks, Moulinet, a Frenchman, and Bonanni, an Italian: but I

understand, that the first part of the series is restored from

more recent coins.]

[Footnote 78: Besides the Lives of Eugenius IV., (Rerum Italic.

tom. iii. P. i. p. 869, and tom. xxv. p. 256,) the Diaries of

Paul Petroni and Stephen Infessura are the best original evidence

for the revolt of the Romans against Eugenius IV. The former,

who lived at the time and on the spot, speaks the language of a

citizen, equally afraid of priestly and popular tyranny.]

[Footnote 79: The coronation of Frederic III. is described by

Lenfant, (Concile de Basle, tom. ii. p. 276 - 288,) from Aeneas

Sylvius, a spectator and actor in that splendid scene.]

[Footnote 80: The oath of fidelity imposed on the emperor by the

pope is recorded and sanctified in the Clementines, (l. ii. tit.

ix.;) and Aeneas Sylvius, who objects to this new demand, could

not foresee, that in a few years he should ascend the throne, and

imbibe the maxims, of Boniface VIII.] A citizen has remarked,

with pride and pleasure, that the king of the Romans, after

passing with a slight salute the cardinals and prelates who met

him at the gate, distinguished the dress and person of the

senator of Rome; and in this last farewell, the pageants of the

empire and the republic were clasped in a friendly embrace. ^81

According to the laws of Rome, ^82 her first magistrate was

required to be a doctor of laws, an alien, of a place at least

forty miles from the city; with whose inhabitants he must not be

connected in the third canonical degree of blood or alliance.

The election was annual: a severe scrutiny was instituted into

the conduct of the departing senator; nor could he be recalled to

the same office till after the expiration of two years. A

liberal salary of three thousand florins was assigned for his

expense and reward; and his public appearance represented the

majesty of the republic. His robes were of gold brocade or

crimson velvet, or in the summer season of a lighter silk: he

bore in his hand an ivory sceptre; the sound of trumpets

announced his approach; and his solemn steps were preceded at

least by four lictors or attendants, whose red wands were

enveloped with bands or streamers of the golden color or livery

of the city. His oath in the Capitol proclaims his right and

duty to observe and assert the laws, to control the proud, to

protect the poor, and to exercise justice and mercy within the

extent of his jurisdiction. In these useful functions he was

assisted by three learned strangers; the two collaterals, and the

judge of criminal appeals: their frequent trials of robberies,

rapes, and murders, are attested by the laws; and the weakness of

these laws connives at the licentiousness of private feuds and

armed associations for mutual defence. But the senator was

confined to the administration of justice: the Capitol, the

treasury, and the government of the city and its territory, were

intrusted to the three conservators, who were changed four times

in each year: the militia of the thirteen regions assembled under

the banners of their respective chiefs, or caporioni; and the

first of these was distinguished by the name and dignity of the

prior. The popular legislature consisted of the secret and the

common councils of the Romans. The former was composed of the

magistrates and their immediate predecessors, with some fiscal

and legal officers, and three classes of thirteen, twenty-six,

and forty, counsellors: amounting in the whole to about one

hundred and twenty persons. In the common council all male

citizens had a right to vote; and the value of their privilege

was enhanced by the care with which any foreigners were prevented

from usurping the title and character of Romans. The tumult of a

democracy was checked by wise and jealous precautions: except the

magistrates, none could propose a question; none were permitted

to speak, except from an open pulpit or tribunal; all disorderly

acclamations were suppressed; the sense of the majority was

decided by a secret ballot; and their decrees were promulgated in

the venerable name of the Roman senate and people. It would not

be easy to assign a period in which this theory of government has

been reduced to accurate and constant practice, since the

establishment of order has been gradually connected with the

decay of liberty. But in the year one thousand five hundred and

eighty the ancient statutes were collected, methodized in three

books, and adapted to present use, under the pontificate, and

with the approbation, of Gregory the Thirteenth: ^83 this civil

and criminal code is the modern law of the city; and, if the

popular assemblies have been abolished, a foreign senator, with

the three conservators, still resides in the palace of the

Capitol. ^84 The policy of the Caesars has been repeated by the

popes; and the bishop of Rome affected to maintain the form of a

republic, while he reigned with the absolute powers of a

temporal, as well as a spiritual, monarch.

[Footnote 81: Lo senatore di Roma, vestito di brocarto con quella

beretta, e con quelle maniche, et ornamenti di pelle, co' quali

va alle feste di Testaccio e Nagone, might escape the eye of

Aeneas Sylvius, but he is viewed with admiration and complacency

by the Roman citizen, (Diario di Stephano Infessura, p. 1133.)]

[Footnote 82: See, in the statutes of Rome, the senator and three

judges, (l. i. c. 3 - 14,) the conservators, (l. i. c. 15, 16,

17, l. iii. c. 4,) the caporioni (l. i. c. 18, l. iii. c. 8,) the

secret council, (l. iii. c. 2,) the common council, (l. iii. c.

3.) The title of feuds, defiances, acts of violence, &c., is

spread through many a chapter (c. 14 - 40) of the second book.]

[Footnote 83: Statuta almoe Urbis Romoe Auctoritate S. D. N.

Gregorii XIII Pont. Max. a Senatu Populoque Rom. reformata et

edita. Romoe, 1580, in folio. The obsolete, repugnant statutes

of antiquity were confounded in five books, and Lucas Paetus, a

lawyer and antiquarian, was appointed to act as the modern

Tribonian. Yet I regret the old code, with the rugged crust of

freedom and barbarism.]

[Footnote 84: In my time (1765) and in M. Grosley's,

(Observations sur l'Italie torn. ii. p. 361,) the senator of Rome

was M. Bielke, a noble Swede and a proselyte to the Catholic

faith. The pope's right to appoint the senator and the

conservator is implied, rather than affirmed, in the statutes.]

It is an obvious truth, that the times must be suited to

extraordinary characters, and that the genius of Cromwell or Retz

might now expire in obscurity. The political enthusiasm of

Rienzi had exalted him to a throne; the same enthusiasm, in the

next century, conducted his imitator to the gallows. The birth

of Stephen Porcaro was noble, his reputation spotless: his tongue

was armed with eloquence, his mind was enlightened with learning;

and he aspired, beyond the aim of vulgar ambition, to free his

country and immortalize his name. The dominion of priests is

most odious to a liberal spirit: every scruple was removed by the

recent knowledge of the fable and forgery of Constantine's

donation; Petrarch was now the oracle of the Italians; and as

often as Porcaro revolved the ode which describes the patriot and

hero of Rome, he applied to himself the visions of the prophetic

bard. His first trial of the popular feelings was at the funeral

of Eugenius the Fourth: in an elaborate speech he called the

Romans to liberty and arms; and they listened with apparent

pleasure, till Porcaro was interrupted and answered by a grave

advocate, who pleaded for the church and state. By every law the

seditious orator was guilty of treason; but the benevolence of

the new pontiff, who viewed his character with pity and esteem,

attempted by an honorable office to convert the patriot into a

friend. The inflexible Roman returned from Anagni with an

increase of reputation and zeal; and, on the first opportunity,

the games of the place Navona, he tried to inflame the casual

dispute of some boys and mechanics into a general rising of the

people. Yet the humane Nicholas was still averse to accept the

forfeit of his life; and the traitor was removed from the scene

of temptation to Bologna, with a liberal allowance for his

support, and the easy obligation of presenting himself each day

before the governor of the city. But Porcaro had learned from

the younger Brutus, that with tyrants no faith or gratitude

should be observed: the exile declaimed against the arbitrary

sentence; a party and a conspiracy were gradually formed: his

nephew, a daring youth, assembled a band of volunteers; and on

the appointed evening a feast was prepared at his house for the

friends of the republic. Their leader, who had escaped from

Bologna, appeared among them in a robe of purple and gold: his

voice, his countenance, his gestures, bespoke the man who had

devoted his life or death to the glorious cause. In a studied

oration, he expiated on the motives and the means of their

enterprise; the name and liberties of Rome; the sloth and pride

of their ecclesiastical tyrants; the active or passive consent of

their fellow-citizens; three hundred soldiers, and four hundred

exiles, long exercised in arms or in wrongs; the license of

revenge to edge their swords, and a million of ducats to reward

their victory. It would be easy, (he said,) on the next day, the

festival of the Epiphany, to seize the pope and his cardinals,

before the doors, or at the altar, of St. Peter's; to lead them

in chains under the walls of St. Angelo; to extort by the threat

of their instant death a surrender of the castle; to ascend the

vacant Capitol; to ring the alarm bell; and to restore in a

popular assembly the ancient republic of Rome. While he

triumphed, he was already betrayed. The senator, with a strong

guard, invested the house: the nephew of Porcaro cut his way

through the crowd; but the unfortunate Stephen was drawn from a

chest, lamenting that his enemies had anticipated by three hours

the execution of his design. After such manifest and repeated

guilt, even the mercy of Nicholas was silent. Porcaro, and nine

of his accomplices, were hanged without the benefit of the

sacraments; and, amidst the fears and invectives of the papal

court, the Romans pitied, and almost applauded, these martyrs of

their country. ^85 But their applause was mute, their pity

ineffectual, their liberty forever extinct; and, if they have

since risen in a vacancy of the throne or a scarcity of bread,

such accidental tumults may be found in the bosom of the most

abject servitude.

[Footnote 85: Besides the curious, though concise, narrative of

Machiavel, (Istoria Florentina, l. vi. Opere, tom. i. p. 210,

211, edit. Londra, 1747, in 4to.) the Porcarian conspiracy is

related in the Diary of Stephen Infessura, (Rer. Ital. tom. iii.

P. ii. p. 1134, 1135,) and in a separate tract by Leo Baptista

Alberti, (Rer. Ital. tom. xxv. p. 609 - 614.) It is amusing to

compare the style and sentiments of the courtier and citizen.

Facinus profecto quo .... neque periculo horribilius, neque

audacia detestabilius, neque crudelitate tetrius, a quoquam

perditissimo uspiam excogitatum sit .... Perdette la vita quell'

huomo da bene, e amatore dello bene e liberta di Roma.]

But the independence of the nobles, which was fomented by

discord, survived the freedom of the commons, which must be

founded in union. A privilege of rapine and oppression was long

maintained by the barons of Rome; their houses were a fortress

and a sanctuary: and the ferocious train of banditti and

criminals whom they protected from the law repaid the hospitality

with the service of their swords and daggers. The private

interest of the pontiffs, or their nephews, sometimes involved

them in these domestic feuds. Under the reign of Sixtus the

Fourth, Rome was distracted by the battles and sieges of the

rival houses: after the conflagration of his palace, the

prothonotary Colonna was tortured and beheaded; and Savelli, his

captive friend, was murdered on the spot, for refusing to join in

the acclamations of the victorious Ursini. ^86 But the popes no

longer trembled in the Vatican: they had strength to command, if

they had resolution to claim, the obedience of their subjects;

and the strangers, who observed these partial disorders, admired

the easy taxes and wise administration of the ecclesiastical

state. ^87

[Footnote 86: The disorders of Rome, which were much inflamed by

the partiality of Sixtus IV. are exposed in the Diaries of two

spectators, Stephen Infessura, and an anonymous citizen. See the

troubles of the year 1484, and the death of the prothonotary

Colonna, in tom. iii. P. ii. p. 1083, 1158.]

[Footnote 87: Est toute la terre de l'eglise troublee pour cette

partialite (des Colonnes et des Ursins) come nous dirions Luce et

Grammont, ou en Hollande Houc et Caballan; et quand ce ne seroit

ce differend la terre de l'eglise seroit la plus heureuse

habitation pour les sujets qui soit dans toute le monde (car ils

ne payent ni tailles ni gueres autres choses,) et seroient

toujours bien conduits, (car toujours les papes sont sages et

bien consellies;) mais tres souvent en advient de grands et

cruels meurtres et pilleries.]

The spiritual thunders of the Vatican depend on the force of

opinion; and if that opinion be supplanted by reason or passion,

the sound may idly waste itself in the air; and the helpless

priest is exposed to the brutal violence of a noble or a plebeian

adversary. But after their return from Avignon, the keys of St.

Peter were guarded by the sword of St. Paul. Rome was commanded

by an impregnable citadel: the use of cannon is a powerful engine

against popular seditions: a regular force of cavalry and

infantry was enlisted under the banners of the pope: his ample

revenues supplied the resources of war: and, from the extent of

his domain, he could bring down on a rebellious city an army of

hostile neighbors and loyal subjects. ^88 Since the union of the

duchies of Ferrara and Urbino, the ecclesiastical state extends

from the Mediterranean to the Adriatic, and from the confines of

Naples to the banks of the Po; and as early as the sixteenth

century, the greater part of that spacious and fruitful country

acknowledged the lawful claims and temporal sovereignty of the

Roman pontiffs. Their claims were readily deduced from the

genuine, or fabulous, donations of the darker ages: the

successive steps of their final settlement would engage us too

far in the transactions of Italy, and even of Europe; the crimes

of Alexander the Sixth, the martial operations of Julius the

Second, and the liberal policy of Leo the Tenth, a theme which

has been adorned by the pens of the noblest historians of the

times. ^89 In the first period of their conquests, till the

expedition of Charles the Eighth, the popes might successfully

wrestle with the adjacent princes and states, whose military

force was equal, or inferior, to their own. But as soon as the

monarchs of France, Germany and Spain, contended with gigantic

arms for the dominion of Italy, they supplied with art the

deficiency of strength; and concealed, in a labyrinth of wars and

treaties, their aspiring views, and the immortal hope of chasing

the Barbarians beyond the Alps. The nice balance of the Vatican

was often subverted by the soldiers of the North and West, who

were united under the standard of Charles the Fifth: the feeble

and fluctuating policy of Clement the Seventh exposed his person

and dominions to the conqueror; and Rome was abandoned seven

months to a lawless army, more cruel and rapacious than the Goths

and Vandals. ^90 After this severe lesson, the popes contracted

their ambition, which was almost satisfied, resumed the character

of a common parent, and abstained from all offensive hostilities,

except in a hasty quarrel, when the vicar of Christ and the

Turkish sultan were armed at the same time against the kingdom of

Naples. ^91 The French and Germans at length withdrew from the

field of battle: Milan, Naples, Sicily, Sardinia, and the

sea-coast of Tuscany, were firmly possessed by the Spaniards; and

it became their interest to maintain the peace and dependence of

Italy, which continued almost without disturbance from the middle

of the sixteenth to the opening of the eighteenth century. The

Vatican was swayed and protected by the religious policy of the

Catholic king: his prejudice and interest disposed him in every

dispute to support the prince against the people; and instead of

the encouragement, the aid, and the asylum, which they obtained

from the adjacent states, the friends of liberty, or the enemies

of law, were enclosed on all sides within the iron circle of

despotism. The long habits of obedience and education subdued

the turbulent spirit of the nobles and commons of Rome. The

barons forgot the arms and factions of their ancestors, and

insensibly became the servants of luxury and government. Instead

of maintaining a crowd of tenants and followers, the produce of

their estates was consumed in the private expenses which multiply

the pleasures, and diminish the power, of the lord. ^92 The

Colonna and Ursini vied with each other in the decoration of

their palaces and chapels; and their antique splendor was

rivalled or surpassed by the sudden opulence of the papal

families. In Rome the voice of freedom and discord is no longer

heard; and, instead of the foaming torrent, a smooth and stagnant

lake reflects the image of idleness and servitude.

[Footnote 88: By the oeconomy of Sixtus V. the revenue of the

ecclesiastical state was raised to two millions and a half of

Roman crowns, (Vita, tom. ii. p. 291 - 296;) and so regular was

the military establishment, that in one month Clement VIII. could

invade the duchy of Ferrara with three thousand horse and twenty

thousand foot, (tom. iii. p. 64) Since that time (A.D. 1597) the

papal arms are happily rusted: but the revenue must have gained

some nominal increase.

Note: On the financial measures of Sixtus V. see Ranke, Dio

Romischen Papste, i. p. 459. - M.]

[Footnote 89: More especially by Guicciardini and Machiavel; in

the general history of the former, in the Florentine history, the

Prince, and the political discourses of the latter. These, with

their worthy successors, Fra Paolo and Davila, were justly

esteemed the first historians of modern languages, till, in the

present age, Scotland arose, to dispute the prize with Italy

herself.]

[Footnote 90: In the history of the Gothic siege, I have compared

the Barbarians with the subjects of Charles V., (vol. iii. p.

289, 290;) an anticipation, which, like that of the Tartar

conquests, I indulged with the less scruple, as I could scarcely

hope to reach the conclusion of my work.]

[Footnote 91: The ambitious and feeble hostilities of the Caraffa

pope, Paul IV. may be seen in Thuanus (l. xvi. - xviii.) and

Giannone, (tom. iv p. 149 - 163.) Those Catholic bigots, Philip

II. and the duke of Alva, presumed to separate the Roman prince

from the vicar of Christ, yet the holy character, which would

have sanctified his victory was decently applied to protect his

defeat.

Note: But compare Ranke, Die Romischen Papste, i. p. 289. -

[Footnote 92: This gradual change of manners and expense is

admirably explained by Dr. Adam Smith, (Wealth of Nations, vol.

i. p. 495 - 504,) who proves, perhaps too severely, that the most

salutary effects have flowed from the meanest and most selfish

causes.]

A Christian, a philosopher, ^93 and a patriot, will be

equally scandalized by the temporal kingdom of the clergy; and

the local majesty of Rome, the remembrance of her consuls and

triumphs, may seem to imbitter the sense, and aggravate the

shame, of her slavery. If we calmly weigh the merits and defects

of the ecclesiastical government, it may be praised in its

present state, as a mild, decent, and tranquil system, exempt

from the dangers of a minority, the sallies of youth, the

expenses of luxury, and the calamities of war. But these

advantages are overbalanced by a frequent, perhaps a septennial,

election of a sovereign, who is seldom a native of the country;

the reign of a young statesman of threescore, in the decline of

his life and abilities, without hope to accomplish, and without

children to inherit, the labors of his transitory reign. The

successful candidate is drawn from the church, and even the

convent; from the mode of education and life the most adverse to

reason, humanity, and freedom. In the trammels of servile faith,

he has learned to believe because it is absurd, to revere all

that is contemptible, and to despise whatever might deserve the

esteem of a rational being; to punish error as a crime, to reward

mortification and celibacy as the first of virtues; to place the

saints of the calendar ^94 above the heroes of Rome and the sages

of Athens; and to consider the missal, or the crucifix, as more

useful instruments than the plough or the loom. In the office of

nuncio, or the rank of cardinal, he may acquire some knowledge of

the world, but the primitive stain will adhere to his mind and

manners: from study and experience he may suspect the mystery of

his profession; but the sacerdotal artist will imbibe some

portion of the bigotry which he inculcates. The genius of Sixtus

the Fifth ^95 burst from the gloom of a Franciscan cloister. In

a reign of five years, he exterminated the outlaws and banditti,

abolished the profane sanctuaries of Rome, ^96 formed a naval and

military force, restored and emulated the monuments of antiquity,

and after a liberal use and large increase of the revenue, left

five millions of crowns in the castle of St. Angelo. But his

justice was sullied with cruelty, his activity was prompted by

the ambition of conquest: after his decease the abuses revived;

the treasure was dissipated; he entailed on posterity thirty-five

new taxes and the venality of offices; and, after his death, his

statue was demolished by an ungrateful, or an injured, people.

^97 The wild and original character of Sixtus the Fifth stands

alone in the series of the pontiffs; the maxims and effects of

their temporal government may be collected from the positive and

comparative view of the arts and philosophy, the agriculture and

trade, the wealth and population, of the ecclesiastical state.

For myself, it is my wish to depart in charity with all mankind,

nor am I willing, in these last moments, to offend even the pope

and clergy of Rome. ^98

[Footnote 93: Mr. Hume (Hist. of England, vol. i. p. 389) too

hastily conclude that if the civil and ecclesiastical powers be

united in the same person, it is of little moment whether he be

styled prince or prelate since the temporal character will always

predominate.]

[Footnote 94: A Protestant may disdain the unworthy preference of

St. Francis or St. Dominic, but he will not rashly condemn the

zeal or judgment of Sixtus V., who placed the statues of the

apostles St. Peter and St. Paul on the vacant columns of Trajan

and Antonine.]

[Footnote 95: A wandering Italian, Gregorio Leti, has given the

Vita di Sisto-Quinto, (Amstel. 1721, 3 vols. in 12mo.,) a copious

and amusing work, but which does not command our absolute

confidence. Yet the character of the man, and the principal

facts, are supported by the annals of Spondanus and Muratori,

(A.D. 1585 - 1590,) and the contemporary history of the great

Thuanus, (l. lxxxii. c. 1, 2, l. lxxxiv c. 10, l. c. c. 8.)

Note: The industry of M. Ranke has discovered the document,

a kind of scandalous chronicle of the time, from which Leti

wrought up his amusing romances. See also M. Ranke's

observations on the Life of Sixtus. by Tempesti, b. iii. p. 317,

324. - M.]

[Footnote 96: These privileged places, the quartieri or

franchises, were adopted from the Roman nobles by the foreign

ministers. Julius II. had once abolished the abominandum et

detestandum franchitiarum hujusmodi nomen: and after Sixtus V.

they again revived. I cannot discern either the justice or

magnanimity of Louis XIV., who, in 1687, sent his ambassador, the

marquis de Lavardin, to Rome, with an armed force of a thousand

officers, guards, and domestics, to maintain this iniquitous

claim, and insult Pope Innocent XI. in the heart of his capital,

(Vita di Sisto V. tom. iii. p. 260 - 278. Muratori, Annali

d'Italia, tom. xv. p. 494 - 496, and Voltaire, Siccle de Louis

XIV. tom. i. c. 14, p. 58, 59.)]

[Footnote 97: This outrage produced a decree, which was inscribed

on marble, and placed in the Capitol. It is expressed in a style

of manly simplicity and freedom: Si quis, sive privatus, sive

magistratum gerens de collocanda vivo pontifici statua mentionem

facere ausit, legitimo S. P. Q. R. decreto in perpetuum infamis

et publicorum munerum expers esto. MDXC. mense Augusto, (Vita di

Sisto V. tom. iii. p. 469.) I believe that this decree is still

observed, and I know that every monarch who deserves a statue

should himself impose the prohibition.]

[Footnote 98: The histories of the church, Italy, and

Christendom, have contributed to the chapter which I now

conclude. In the original Lives of the Popes, we often discover

the city and republic of Rome: and the events of the xivth and

xvth centuries are preserved in the rude and domestic chronicles

which I have carefully inspected, and shall recapitulate in the

order of time.

1. Monaldeschi (Ludovici Boncomitis) Fragmenta Annalium

Roman. A.D. 1328, in the Scriptores Rerum Italicarum of

Muratori, tom. xii. p. 525. N. B. The credit of this fragment is

somewhat hurt by a singular interpolation, in which the author

relates his own death at the age of 115 years.

2. Fragmenta Historiae Romanae (vulgo Thomas Fortifioccae)

in Romana Dialecto vulgari, (A.D. 1327 - 1354, in Muratori,

Antiquitat. Medii Aevi Italiae, tom. iii. p. 247 - 548;) the

authentic groundwork of the history of Rienzi.

3. Delphini (Gentilis) Diarium Romanum, (A.D. 1370 - 1410,)

in the Rerum Italicarum, tom. iii. P. ii. p. 846. 4. Antonii

(Petri) Diarium Rom, (A.D. 1404 - 1417,) tom. xxiv. p. 699.

5. Petroni (Pauli) Miscellanea Historica Romana, (A.D. 1433

- 1446,) tom. xxiv. p. 1101.

6. Volaterrani (Jacob.) Diarium Rom., (A.D. 1472 - 1484,)

tom. xxiii p. 81.

7. Anonymi Diarium Urbis Romae, (A.D. 1481 - 1492,) tom.

iii. P. ii. p. 1069.

8. Infessurae (Stephani) Diarium Romanum, (A.D. 1294, or

1378 - 1494,) tom. iii. P. ii. p. 1109.

9. Historia Arcana Alexandri VI. sive Excerpta ex Diario

Joh. Burcardi, (A.D. 1492 - 1503,) edita a Godefr. Gulielm.

Leibnizio, Hanover, 697, in 4to. The large and valuable Journal

of Burcard might be completed from the MSS. in different

libraries of Italy and France, (M. de Foncemagne, in the Memoires

de l'Acad. des Inscrip. tom. xvii. p. 597 - 606.)

Except the last, all these fragments and diaries are inserted in

the Collections of Muratori, my guide and master in the history

of Italy. His country, and the public, are indebted to him for

the following works on that subject: 1. Rerum Italicarum

Scriptores, (A.D. 500 - 1500,) quorum potissima pars nunc primum

in lucem prodit, &c., xxviii. vols. in folio, Milan, 1723 - 1738,

1751. A volume of chronological and alphabetical tables is still

wanting as a key to this great work, which is yet in a disorderly

and defective state. 2. Antiquitates Italiae Medii Aevi, vi.

vols. in folio, Milan, 1738 - 1743, in lxxv. curious

dissertations, on the manners, government, religion, &c., of the

Italians of the darker ages, with a large supplement of charters,

chronicles, &c. 3. Dissertazioni sopra le Antiquita Italiane,

iii. vols. in 4to., Milano, 1751, a free version by the author,

which may be quoted with the same confidence as the Latin text of

the Antiquities. Annali d' Italia, xviii. vols. in octavo,

Milan, 1753 - 1756, a dry, though accurate and useful, abridgment

of the history of Italy, from the birth of Christ to the middle

of the xviiith century. 5. Dell' Antichita Estense ed Italiane,

ii. vols, in folio, Modena, 1717, 1740. In the history of this

illustrious race, the parent of our Brunswick kings, the critic

is not seduced by the loyalty or gratitude of the subject. In

all his works, Muratori approves himself a diligent and laborious

writer, who aspires above the prejudices of a Catholic priest.

He was born in the year 1672, and died in the year 1750, after

passing near 60 years in the libraries of Milan and Modena, (Vita

del Proposto Ludovico Antonio Muratori, by his nephew and

successor Gian. Francesco Soli Muratori Venezia, 1756 m 4to.)]

Chapter LXXI: Prospect Of The Ruins Of Rome In The Fifteenth

Century.

Part I.

Prospect Of The Ruins Of Rome In The Fifteenth Century. -

Four Causes Of Decay And Destruction. - Example Of The Coliseum.

- Renovation Of The City. - Conclusion Of The Whole Work.

In the last days of Pope Eugenius the Fourth, ^* two of his

servants, the learned Poggius ^1 and a friend, ascended the

Capitoline hill; reposed themselves among the ruins of columns

and temples; and viewed from that commanding spot the wide and

various prospect of desolation. ^2 The place and the object gave

ample scope for moralizing on the vicissitudes of fortune, which

spares neither man nor the proudest of his works, which buries

empires and cities in a common grave; and it was agreed, that in

proportion to her former greatness, the fall of Rome was the more

awful and deplorable. "Her primeval state, such as she might

appear in a remote age, when Evander entertained the stranger of

Troy, ^3 has been delineated by the fancy of Virgil. This

Tarpeian rock was then a savage and solitary thicket: in the time

of the poet, it was crowned with the golden roofs of a temple;

the temple is overthrown, the gold has been pillaged, the wheel

of fortune has accomplished her revolution, and the sacred ground

is again disfigured with thorns and brambles. The hill of the

Capitol, on which we sit, was formerly the head of the Roman

empire, the citadel of the earth, the terror of kings;

illustrated by the footsteps of so many triumphs, enriched with

the spoils and tributes of so many nations. This spectacle of

the world, how is it fallen! how changed! how defaced! The path

of victory is obliterated by vines, and the benches of the

senators are concealed by a dunghill. Cast your eyes on the

Palatine hill, and seek among the shapeless and enormous

fragments the marble theatre, the obelisks, the colossal statues,

the porticos of Nero's palace: survey the other hills of the

city, the vacant space is interrupted only by ruins and gardens.

The forum of the Roman people, where they assembled to enact

their laws and elect their magistrates, is now enclosed for the

cultivation of pot-herbs, or thrown open for the reception of

swine and buffaloes. The public and private edifices, that were

founded for eternity, lie prostrate, naked, and broken, like the

limbs of a mighty giant; and the ruin is the more visible, from

the stupendous relics that have survived the injuries of time and

fortune." ^4

[Footnote *: It should be Pope Martin the Fifth. See Gibbon's

own note, ch. lxv, note 51 and Hobhouse, Illustrations of Childe

Harold, p. 155. - M.]

[Footnote 1: I have already (notes 50, 51, on chap. lxv.)

mentioned the age, character, and writings of Poggius; and

particularly noticed the date of this elegant moral lecture on

the varieties of fortune.]

[Footnote 2: Consedimus in ipsis Tarpeiae arcis ruinis, pone

ingens portae cujusdam, ut puto, templi, marmoreum limen,

plurimasque passim confractas columnas, unde magna ex parte

prospectus urbis patet, (p. 5.)]

[Footnote 3: Aeneid viii. 97 - 369. This ancient picture, so

artfully introduced, and so exquisitely finished, must have been

highly interesting to an inhabitant of Rome; and our early

studies allow us to sympathize in the feelings of a Roman.]

[Footnote 4: Capitolium adeo . . . . immutatum ut vineae in

senatorum subellia successerint, stercorum ac purgamentorum

receptaculum factum. Respice ad Palatinum montem . . . . . vasta

rudera . . . . caeteroscolles perlustra omnia vacua aedificiis,

ruinis vineisque oppleta conspicies, (Poggius, de Varietat.

Fortunae p. 21.)]

These relics are minutely described by Poggius, one of the

first who raised his eyes from the monuments of legendary, to

those of classic, superstition. ^5 1. Besides a bridge, an arch,

a sepulchre, and the pyramid of Cestius, he could discern, of the

age of the republic, a double row of vaults, in the salt-office

of the Capitol, which were inscribed with the name and

munificence of Catulus. 2. Eleven temples were visible in some

degree, from the perfect form of the Pantheon, to the three

arches and a marble column of the temple of Peace, which

Vespasian erected after the civil wars and the Jewish triumph.

3. Of the number, which he rashly defines, of seven thermoe, or

public baths, none were sufficiently entire to represent the use

and distribution of the several parts: but those of Diocletian

and Antoninus Caracalla still retained the titles of the

founders, and astonished the curious spectator, who, in observing

their solidity and extent, the variety of marbles, the size and

multitude of the columns, compared the labor and expense with the

use and importance. Of the baths of Constantine, of Alexander,

of Domitian, or rather of Titus, some vestige might yet be found.

4. The triumphal arches of Titus, Severus, and Constantine, were

entire, both the structure and the inscriptions; a falling

fragment was honored with the name of Trajan; and two arches,

then extant, in the Flaminian way, have been ascribed to the

baser memory of Faustina and Gallienus. ^* 5. After the wonder of

the Coliseum, Poggius might have overlooked small amphitheatre of

brick, most probably for the use of the praetorian camp: the

theatres of Marcellus and Pompey were occupied in a great measure

by public and private buildings; and in the Circus, Agonalis and

Maximus, little more than the situation and the form could be

investigated. 6. The columns of Trajan and Antonine were still

erect; but the Egyptian obelisks were broken or buried. A people

of gods and heroes, the workmanship of art, was reduced to one

equestrian figure of gilt brass, and to five marble statues, of

which the most conspicuous were the two horses of Phidias and

Praxiteles. 7. The two mausoleums or sepulchres of Augustus and

Hadrian could not totally be lost: but the former was only

visible as a mound of earth; and the latter, the castle of St.

Angelo, had acquired the name and appearance of a modern

fortress. With the addition of some separate and nameless

columns, such were the remains of the ancient city; for the marks

of a more recent structure might be detected in the walls, which

formed a circumference of ten miles, included three hundred and

seventy-nine turrets, and opened into the country by thirteen

gates.

[Footnote 5: See Poggius, p. 8 - 22.]

[Footnote *: One was in the Via Nomentana; est alter praetevea

Gallieno principi dicatus, ut superscriptio indicat, Via

Nomentana. Hobhouse, p. 154. Poggio likewise mentions the

building which Gibbon ambiguously says be "might have

overlooked." - M.]

This melancholy picture was drawn above nine hundred years

after the fall of the Western empire, and even of the Gothic

kingdom of Italy. A long period of distress and anarchy, in

which empire, and arts, and riches had migrated from the banks of

the Tyber, was incapable of restoring or adorning the city; and,

as all that is human must retrograde if it do not advance, every

successive age must have hastened the ruin of the works of

antiquity. To measure the progress of decay, and to ascertain, at

each aera, the state of each edifice, would be an endless and a

useless labor; and I shall content myself with two observations,

which will introduce a short inquiry into the general causes and

effects. 1. Two hundred years before the eloquent complaint of

Poggius, an anonymous writer composed a description of Rome. ^6

His ignorance may repeat the same objects under strange and

fabulous names. Yet this barbarous topographer had eyes and ears;

he could observe the visible remains; he could listen to the

tradition of the people; and he distinctly enumerates seven

theatres, eleven baths, twelve arches, and eighteen palaces, of

which many had disappeared before the time of Poggius. It is

apparent, that many stately monuments of antiquity survived till

a late period, ^7 and that the principles of destruction acted

with vigorous and increasing energy in the thirteenth and

fourteenth centuries. 2. The same reflection must be applied to

the three last ages; and we should vainly seek the Septizonium of

Severus; ^8 which is celebrated by Petrarch and the antiquarians

of the sixteenth century. While the Roman edifices were still

entire, the first blows, however weighty and impetuous, were

resisted by the solidity of the mass and the harmony of the

parts; but the slightest touch would precipitate the fragments of

arches and columns, that already nodded to their fall.

[Footnote 6: Liber de Mirabilibus Romae ex Registro Nicolai

Cardinalis de Amagonia in Bibliotheca St. Isidori Armario IV.,

No. 69. This treatise, with some short but pertinent notes, has

been published by Montfaucon, (Diarium Italicum, p. 283 - 301,)

who thus delivers his own critical opinion: Scriptor xiiimi.

circiter saeculi, ut ibidem notatur; antiquariae rei imperitus

et, ut ab illo aevo, nugis et anilibus fabellis refertus: sed,

quia monumenta, quae iis temporibus Romae supererant pro modulo

recenset, non parum inde lucis mutuabitur qu Romanis

antiquitatibus indagandis operam navabit, (p. 283.)]

[Footnote 7: The Pere Mabillon (Analecta, tom. iv. p. 502) has

published an anonymous pilgrim of the ixth century, who, in his

visit round the churches and holy places at Rome, touches on

several buildings, especially porticos, which had disappeared

before the xiiith century.]

[Footnote 8: On the Septizonium, see the Memoires sur Petrarque,

(tom. i. p. 325,) Donatus, (p. 338,) and Nardini, (p. 117, 414.)]

After a diligent inquiry, I can discern four principal

causes of the ruin of Rome, which continued to operate in a

period of more than a thousand years. I. The injuries of time and

nature. II. The hostile attacks of the Barbarians and

Christians. III. The use and abuse of the materials. And, IV.

The domestic quarrels of the Romans.

I. The art of man is able to construct monuments far more

permanent than the narrow span of his own existence; yet these

monuments, like himself, are perishable and frail; and in the

boundless annals of time, his life and his labors must equally be

measured as a fleeting moment. Of a simple and solid edifice, it

is not easy, however, to circumscribe the duration. As the

wonders of ancient days, the pyramids ^9 attracted the curiosity

of the ancients: a hundred generations, the leaves of autumn,

have dropped ^10 into the grave; and after the fall of the

Pharaohs and Ptolemies, the Caesars and caliphs, the same

pyramids stand erect and unshaken above the floods of the Nile.

A complex figure of various and minute parts to more accessible

to injury and decay; and the silent lapse of time is often

accelerated by hurricanes and earthquakes, by fires and

inundations. The air and earth have doubtless been shaken; and

the lofty turrets of Rome have tottered from their foundations;

but the seven hills do not appear to be placed on the great

cavities of the globe; nor has the city, in any age, been exposed

to the convulsions of nature, which, in the climate of Antioch,

Lisbon, or Lima, have crumbled in a few moments the works of ages

into dust. Fire is the most powerful agent of life and death:

the rapid mischief may be kindled and propagated by the industry

or negligence of mankind; and every period of the Roman annals is

marked by the repetition of similar calamities. A memorable

conflagration, the guilt or misfortune of Nero's reign,

continued, though with unequal fury, either six or nine days. ^11

Innumerable buildings, crowded in close and crooked streets,

supplied perpetual fuel for the flames; and when they ceased,

four only of the fourteen regions were left entire; three were

totally destroyed, and seven were deformed by the relics of

smoking and lacerated edifices. ^12 In the full meridian of

empire, the metropolis arose with fresh beauty from her ashes;

yet the memory of the old deplored their irreparable losses, the

arts of Greece, the trophies of victory, the monuments of

primitive or fabulous antiquity. In the days of distress and

anarchy, every wound is mortal, every fall irretrievable; nor can

the damage be restored either by the public care of government,

or the activity of private interest. Yet two causes may be

alleged, which render the calamity of fire more destructive to a

flourishing than a decayed city. 1. The more combustible

materials of brick, timber, and metals, are first melted or

consumed; but the flames may play without injury or effect on the

naked walls, and massy arches, that have been despoiled of their

ornaments. 2. It is among the common and plebeian habitations,

that a mischievous spark is most easily blown to a conflagration;

but as soon as they are devoured, the greater edifices, which

have resisted or escaped, are left as so many islands in a state

of solitude and safety. From her situation, Rome is exposed to

the danger of frequent inundations. Without excepting the Tyber,

the rivers that descend from either side of the Apennine have a

short and irregular course; a shallow stream in the summer heats;

an impetuous torrent, when it is swelled in the spring or winter,

by the fall of rain, and the melting of the snows. When the

current is repelled from the sea by adverse winds, when the

ordinary bed is inadequate to the weight of waters, they rise

above the banks, and overspread, without limits or control, the

plains and cities of the adjacent country. Soon after the

triumph of the first Punic war, the Tyber was increased by

unusual rains; and the inundation, surpassing all former measure

of time and place, destroyed all the buildings that were situated

below the hills of Rome. According to the variety of ground, the

same mischief was produced by different means; and the edifices

were either swept away by the sudden impulse, or dissolved and

undermined by the long continuance, of the flood. ^13 Under the

reign of Augustus, the same calamity was renewed: the lawless

river overturned the palaces and temples on its banks; ^14 and,

after the labors of the emperor in cleansing and widening the bed

that was encumbered with ruins, ^15 the vigilance of his

successors was exercised by similar dangers and designs. The

project of diverting into new channels the Tyber itself, or some

of the dependent streams, was long opposed by superstition and

local interests; ^16 nor did the use compensate the toil and cost

of the tardy and imperfect execution. The servitude of rivers is

the noblest and most important victory which man has obtained

over the licentiousness of nature; ^17 and if such were the

ravages of the Tyber under a firm and active government, what

could oppose, or who can enumerate, the injuries of the city,

after the fall of the Western empire? A remedy was at length

produced by the evil itself: the accumulation of rubbish and the

earth, that has been washed down from the hills, is supposed to

have elevated the plain of Rome, fourteen or fifteen feet,

perhaps, above the ancient level; ^18 and the modern city is less

accessible to the attacks of the river. ^19

[Footnote 9: The age of the pyramids is remote and unknown, since

Diodorus Siculus (tom. i l. i. c. 44, p. 72) is unable to decide

whether they were constructed 1000, or 3400, years before the

clxxxth Olympiad. Sir John Marsham's contracted scale of the

Egyptian dynasties would fix them about 2000 years before Christ,

(Canon. Chronicus, p. 47.)]

[Footnote 10: See the speech of Glaucus in the Iliad, (Z. 146.)

This natural but melancholy image is peculiar to Homer.]

[Footnote 11: The learning and criticism of M. des Vignoles

(Histoire Critique de la Republique des Lettres, tom. viii. p. 47

- 118, ix. p. 172 - 187) dates the fire of Rome from A.D. 64,

July 19, and the subsequent persecution of the Christians from

November 15 of the same year.]

[Footnote 12: Quippe in regiones quatuordecim Roma dividitur,

quarum quatuor integrae manebant, tres solo tenus dejectae:

septem reliquis pauca testorum vestigia supererant, lacera et

semiusta. Among the old relics that were irreparably lost,

Tacitus enumerates the temple of the moon of Servius Tullius; the

fane and altar consecrated by Evander praesenti Herculi; the

temple of Jupiter Stator, a vow of Romulus; the palace of Numa;

the temple of Vesta cum Penatibus populi Romani. He then

deplores the opes tot victoriis quaesitae et Graecarum artium

decora . . . . multa quae seniores meminerant, quae reparari

nequibant, (Annal. xv. 40, 41.)]

[Footnote 13: A. U. C. 507, repentina subversio ipsius Romae

praevenit triumphum Romanorum. . . . . diversae ignium aquarumque

cladespene absumsere urbem Nam Tiberis insolitis auctus imbribus

et ultra opinionem, vel diuturnitate vel maguitudine redundans

omnia Romae aedificia in plano posita delevit. Diversae

qualitate locorum ad unam convenere perniciem: quoniam et quae

segniori inundatio tenuit madefacta dissolvit, et quae cursus

torrentis invenit impulsa dejecit, (Orosius, Hist. l. iv. c. 11,

p. 244, edit. Havercamp.) Yet we may observe, that it is the plan

and study of the Christian apologist to magnify the calamities of

the Pagan world.]

[Footnote 14: Vidimus flavum Tiberim, retortis

Littore Etrusco violenter undis,

Ire dejectum monumenta Regis

Templaque Vestae.

(Horat. Carm. I. 2.)

If the palace of Numa and temple of Vesta were thrown down in

Horace's time, what was consumed of those buildings by Nero's

fire could hardly deserve the epithets of vetustissima or

incorrupta.]

[Footnote 15: Ad coercendas inundationes alveum Tiberis laxavit,

ac repurgavit, completum olim ruderibus, et aedificiorum

prolapsionibus coarctatum, (Suetonius in Augusto, c. 30.)]

[Footnote 16: Tacitus (Annal. i. 79) reports the petitions of the

different towns of Italy to the senate against the measure; and

we may applaud the progress of reason. On a similar occasion,

local interests would undoubtedly be consulted: but an English

House of Commons would reject with contempt the arguments of

superstition, "that nature had assigned to the rivers their

proper course," &c.]

[Footnote 17: See the Epoques de la Nature of the eloquent and

philosophic Buffon. His picture of Guyana, in South America, is

that of a new and savage land, in which the waters are abandoned

to themselves without being regulated by human industry, (p. 212,

561, quarto edition.)]

[Footnote 18: In his travels in Italy, Mr. Addison (his works,

vol. ii. p. 98, Baskerville's edition) has observed this curious

and unquestionable fact.]

[Footnote 19: Yet in modern times, the Tyber has sometimes

damaged the city, and in the years 1530, 1557, 1598, the annals

of Muratori record three mischievous and memorable inundations,

(tom. xiv. p. 268, 429, tom. xv. p. 99, &c.)

Note: The level of the Tyber was at one time supposed to be

considerably raised: recent investigations seem to be conclusive

against this supposition. See a brief, but satisfactory statement

of the question in Bunsen and Platner, Roms Beschreibung. vol. i.

p. 29. - M.]

II. The crowd of writers of every nation, who impute the

destruction of the Roman monuments to the Goths and the

Christians, have neglected to inquire how far they were animated

by a hostile principle, and how far they possessed the means and

the leisure to satiate their enmity. In the preceding volumes of

this History, I have described the triumph of barbarism and

religion; and I can only resume, in a few words, their real or

imaginary connection with the ruin of ancient Rome. Our fancy

may create, or adopt, a pleasing romance, that the Goths and

Vandals sallied from Scandinavia, ardent to avenge the flight of

Odin; ^20 to break the chains, and to chastise the oppressors, of

mankind; that they wished to burn the records of classic

literature, and to found their national architecture on the

broken members of the Tuscan and Corinthian orders. But in

simple truth, the northern conquerors were neither sufficiently

savage, nor sufficiently refined, to entertain such aspiring

ideas of destruction and revenge. The shepherds of Scythia and

Germany had been educated in the armies of the empire, whose

discipline they acquired, and whose weakness they invaded: with

the familiar use of the Latin tongue, they had learned to

reverence the name and titles of Rome; and, though incapable of

emulating, they were more inclined to admire, than to abolish,

the arts and studies of a brighter period. In the transient

possession of a rich and unresisting capital, the soldiers of

Alaric and Genseric were stimulated by the passions of a

victorious army; amidst the wanton indulgence of lust or cruelty,

portable wealth was the object of their search; nor could they

derive either pride or pleasure from the unprofitable reflection,

that they had battered to the ground the works of the consuls and

Caesars. Their moments were indeed precious; the Goths evacuated

Rome on the sixth, ^21 the Vandals on the fifteenth, day: ^22

and, though it be far more difficult to build than to destroy,

their hasty assault would have made a slight impression on the

solid piles of antiquity. We may remember, that both Alaric and

Genseric affected to spare the buildings of the city; that they

subsisted in strength and beauty under the auspicious government

of Theodoric; ^23 and that the momentary resentment of Totila ^24

was disarmed by his own temper and the advice of his friends and

enemies. From these innocent Barbarians, the reproach may be

transferred to the Catholics of Rome. The statues, altars, and

houses, of the daemons, were an abomination in their eyes; and in

the absolute command of the city, they might labor with zeal and

perseverance to erase the idolatry of their ancestors. The

demolition of the temples in the East ^25 affords to them an

example of conduct, and to us an argument of belief; and it is

probable that a portion of guilt or merit may be imputed with

justice to the Roman proselytes. Yet their abhorrence was

confined to the monuments of heathen superstition; and the civil

structures that were dedicated to the business or pleasure of

society might be preserved without injury or scandal. The change

of religion was accomplished, not by a popular tumult, but by the

decrees of the emperors, of the senate, and of time. Of the

Christian hierarchy, the bishops of Rome were commonly the most

prudent and least fanatic; nor can any positive charge be opposed

to the meritorious act of saving or converting the majestic

structure of the Pantheon. ^26 ^*

[Footnote 20: I take this opportunity of declaring, that in the

course of twelve years, I have forgotten, or renounced, the

flight of Odin from Azoph to Sweden, which I never very seriously

believed, (vol. i. p. 283.) The Goths are apparently Germans: but

all beyond Caesar and Tacitus is darkness or fable, in the

antiquities of Germany.]

[Footnote 21: History of the Decline, &c., vol. iii. p. 291.]

[Footnote 22: - vol. iii. p. 464.]

[Footnote 23: - vol. iv. p. 23 - 25.]

[Footnote 24: - vol. iv. p. 258.]

[Footnote 25: - vol. iii. c. xxviii. p. 139 - 148.]

[Footnote 26: Eodem tempore petiit a Phocate principe templum,

quod appellatur Pantheon, in quo fecit ecclesiam Sanctae Mariae

semper Virginis, et omnium martyrum; in qua ecclesiae princeps

multa bona obtulit, (Anastasius vel potius Liber Pontificalis in

Bonifacio IV., in Muratori, Script. Rerum Italicarum, tom. iii.

P. i. p. 135.) According to the anonymous writer in Montfaucon,

the Pantheon had been vowed by Agrippa to Cybele and Neptune, and

was dedicated by Boniface IV., on the calends of November, to the

Virgin, quae est mater omnium sanctorum, (p. 297, 298.)]

[Footnote *: The popes, under the dominion of the emperor and of

the exarcha, according to Feas's just observation, did not

possess the power of disposing of the buildings and monuments of

the city according to their own will. Bunsen and Platner, vol. i.

p. 241. - M.]

III. The value of any object that supplies the wants or

pleasures of mankind is compounded of its substance and its form,

of the materials and the manufacture. Its price must depend on

the number of persons by whom it may be acquired and used; on the

extent of the market; and consequently on the ease or difficulty

of remote exportation, according to the nature of the commodity,

its local situation, and the temporary circumstances of the

world. The Barbarian conquerors of Rome usurped in a moment the

toil and treasure of successive ages; but, except the luxuries of

immediate consumption, they must view without desire all that

could not be removed from the city in the Gothic wagons or the

fleet of the Vandals. ^27 Gold and silver were the first objects

of their avarice; as in every country, and in the smallest

compass, they represent the most ample command of the industry

and possessions of mankind. A vase or a statue of those precious

metals might tempt the vanity of some Barbarian chief; but the

grosser multitude, regardless of the form, was tenacious only of

the substance; and the melted ingots might be readily divided and

stamped into the current coin of the empire. The less active or

less fortunate robbers were reduced to the baser plunder of

brass, lead, iron, and copper: whatever had escaped the Goths and

Vandals was pillaged by the Greek tyrants; and the emperor

Constans, in his rapacious visit, stripped the bronze tiles from

the roof of the Pantheon. ^28 The edifices of Rome might be

considered as a vast and various mine; the first labor of

extracting the materials was already performed; the metals were

purified and cast; the marbles were hewn and polished; and after

foreign and domestic rapine had been satiated, the remains of the

city, could a purchaser have been found, were still venal. The

monuments of antiquity had been left naked of their precious

ornaments; but the Romans would demolish with their own hands the

arches and walls, if the hope of profit could surpass the cost of

the labor and exportation. If Charlemagne had fixed in Italy the

seat of the Western empire, his genius would have aspired to

restore, rather than to violate, the works of the Caesars; but

policy confined the French monarch to the forests of Germany; his

taste could be gratified only by destruction; and the new palace

of Aix la Chapelle was decorated with the marbles of Ravenna ^29

and Rome. ^30 Five hundred years after Charlemagne, a king of

Sicily, Robert, the wisest and most liberal sovereign of the age,

was supplied with the same materials by the easy navigation of

the Tyber and the sea; and Petrarch sighs an indignant complaint,

that the ancient capital of the world should adorn from her own

bowels the slothful luxury of Naples. ^31 But these examples of

plunder or purchase were rare in the darker ages; and the Romans,

alone and unenvied, might have applied to their private or public

use the remaining structures of antiquity, if in their present

form and situation they had not been useless in a great measure

to the city and its inhabitants. The walls still described the

old circumference, but the city had descended from the seven

hills into the Campus Martius; and some of the noblest monuments

which had braved the injuries of time were left in a desert, far

remote from the habitations of mankind. The palaces of the

senators were no longer adapted to the manners or fortunes of

their indigent successors: the use of baths ^32 and porticos was

forgotten: in the sixth century, the games of the theatre,

amphitheatre, and circus, had been interrupted: some temples were

devoted to the prevailing worship; but the Christian churches

preferred the holy figure of the cross; and fashion, or reason,

had distributed after a peculiar model the cells and offices of

the cloister. Under the ecclesiastical reign, the number of

these pious foundations was enormously multiplied; and the city

was crowded with forty monasteries of men, twenty of women, and

sixty chapters and colleges of canons and priests, ^33 who

aggravated, instead of relieving, the depopulation of the tenth

century. But if the forms of ancient architecture were

disregarded by a people insensible of their use and beauty, the

plentiful materials were applied to every call of necessity or

superstition; till the fairest columns of the Ionic and

Corinthian orders, the richest marbles of Paros and Numidia, were

degraded, perhaps to the support of a convent or a stable. The

daily havoc which is perpetrated by the Turks in the cities of

Greece and Asia may afford a melancholy example; and in the

gradual destruction of the monuments of Rome, Sixtus the Fifth

may alone be excused for employing the stones of the Septizonium

in the glorious edifice of St. Peter's. ^34 A fragment, a ruin,

howsoever mangled or profaned, may be viewed with pleasure and

regret; but the greater part of the marble was deprived of

substance, as well as of place and proportion; it was burnt to

lime for the purpose of cement. ^* Since the arrival of Poggius,

the temple of Concord, ^35 and many capital structures, had

vanished from his eyes; and an epigram of the same age expresses

a just and pious fear, that the continuance of this practice

would finally annihilate all the monuments of antiquity. ^36 The

smallness of their numbers was the sole check on the demands and

depredations of the Romans. The imagination of Petrarch might

create the presence of a mighty people; ^37 and I hesitate to

believe, that, even in the fourteenth century, they could be

reduced to a contemptible list of thirty-three thousand

inhabitants. From that period to the reign of Leo the Tenth, if

they multiplied to the amount of eighty-five thousand, ^38 the

increase of citizens was in some degree pernicious to the ancient

city.

[Footnote 27: Flaminius Vacca (apud Montfaucon, p. 155, 156. His

memoir is likewise printed, p. 21, at the end of the Roman Antica

of Nardini) and several Romans, doctrina graves, were persuaded

that the Goths buried their treasures at Rome, and bequeathed the

secret marks filiis nepotibusque. He relates some anedotes to

prove, that in his own time, these places were visited and rifled

by the Transalpine pilgrims, the heirs of the Gothic conquerors.]

[Footnote 28: Omnia quae erant in aere ad ornatum civitatis

deposuit, sed e ecclesiam B. Mariae ad martyres quae de tegulis

aereis cooperta discooperuit, (Anast. in Vitalian. p. 141.) The

base and sacrilegious Greek had not even the poor pretence of

plundering a heathen temple, the Pantheon was already a Catholic

church.]

[Footnote 29: For the spoils of Ravenna (musiva atque marmora)

see the original grant of Pope Adrian I. to Charlemagne, (Codex

Carolin. epist. lxvii. in Muratori, Script. Ital. tom. iii. P.

ii. p. 223.)]

[Footnote 30: I shall quote the authentic testimony of the Saxon

poet, (A.D. 887 - 899,) de Rebus gestis Caroli magni, l. v. 437 -

440, in the Historians of France, (tom. v. p. 180:)

Ad quae marmoreas praestabat Roma columnas,

Quasdam praecipuas pul hra Ravenna dedit.

De tam longinqua poterit regiona vetustas

Illius ornatum, Francia, ferre tibi.

And I shall add from the Chronicle of Sigebert, (Historians of

France, tom. v. p. 378,) extruxit etiam Aquisgrani basilicam

plurimae pulchritudinis, ad cujus structuram a Roma et Ravenna

columnas et marmora devehi fecit.]

[Footnote 31: I cannot refuse to transcribe a long passage of

Petrarch (Opp. p. 536, 537) in Epistola hortatoria ad Nicolaum

Laurentium; it is so strong and full to the point: Nec pudor aut

pietas continuit quominus impii spoliata Dei templa, occupatas

arces, opes publicas, regiones urbis, atque honores magistratuum

inter se divisos; (habeant?) quam una in re, turbulenti ac

seditiosi homines et totius reliquae vitae consiliis et

rationibus discordes, inhumani foederis stupenda societate

convenirent, in pontes et moenia atque immeritos lapides

desaevirent. Denique post vi vel senio collapsa palatia, quae

quondam ingentes tenuerunt viri, post diruptos arcus triumphales,

(unde majores horum forsitan corruerunt,) de ipsius vetustatis ac

propriae impietatis fragminibus vilem quaestum turpi mercimonio

captare non puduit. Itaque nunc, heu dolor! heu scelus indignum!

de vestris marmoreis columnis, de liminibus templorum, (ad quae

nuper ex orbe toto concursus devotissimus fiebat,) de imaginibus

sepulchrorum sub quibus patrum vestrorum venerabilis civis

(cinis?) erat, ut reliquas sileam, desidiosa Neapolis adornatur.

Sic paullatim ruinae ipsae deficiunt. Yet King Robert was the

friend of Petrarch.]

[Footnote 32: Yet Charlemagne washed and swam at Aix la Chapelle

with a hundred of his courtiers, (Eginhart, c. 22, p. 108, 109,)

and Muratori describes, as late as the year 814, the public baths

which were built at Spoleto in Italy, (Annali, tom. vi. p. 416.)]

[Footnote 33: See the Annals of Italy, A.D. 988. For this and

the preceding fact, Muratori himself is indebted to the

Benedictine history of Pere Mabillon.]

[Footnote 34: Vita di Sisto Quinto, da Gregorio Leti, tom. iii.

p. 50.]

[Footnote *: From the quotations in Bunsen's Dissertation, it may

be suspected that this slow but continual process of destruction

was the most fatal. - M]

[Footnote 35: Porticus aedis Concordiae, quam cum primum ad urbem

accessi vidi fere integram opere marmoreo admodum specioso:

Romani postmodum ad calcem aedem totam et porticus partem

disjectis columnis sunt demoliti, (p. 12.) The temple of Concord

was therefore not destroyed by a sedition in the xiiith century,

as I have read in a MS. treatise del' Governo civile di Rome,

lent me formerly at Rome, and ascribed (I believe falsely) to the

celebrated Gravina. Poggius likewise affirms that the sepulchre

of Caecilia Metella was burnt for lime, (p. 19, 20.)]

[Footnote 36: Composed by Aeneas Sylvius, afterwards Pope Pius

II., and published by Mabillon, from a Ms. of the queen of

Sweden, (Musaeum Italicum, tom. i. p. 97.)

Oblectat me, Roma, tuas spectare ruinas:

Ex cujus lapsu gloria prisca patet.

Sed tuus hic populus muris defossa vetustis

Calcis in obsequium marmora dura coquit.

Impia tercentum si sic gens egerit annos

Nullum hinc indicium nobilitatis erit.]

[Footnote 37: Vagabamur pariter in illa urbe tam magna; quae, cum

propter spatium vacua videretur, populum habet immensum, (Opp p.

605 Epist. Familiares, ii. 14.)]

[Footnote 38: These states of the population of Rome at different

periods are derived from an ingenious treatise of the physician

Lancisi, de Romani Coeli Qualitatibus, (p. 122.)]

IV. I have reserved for the last, the most potent and

forcible cause of destruction, the domestic hostilities of the

Romans themselves. Under the dominion of the Greek and French

emperors, the peace of the city was disturbed by accidental,

though frequent, seditions: it is from the decline of the latter,

from the beginning of the tenth century, that we may date the

licentiousness of private war, which violated with impunity the

laws of the Code and the Gospel, without respecting the majesty

of the absent sovereign, or the presence and person of the vicar

of Christ. In a dark period of five hundred years, Rome was

perpetually afflicted by the sanguinary quarrels of the nobles

and the people, the Guelphs and Ghibelines, the Colonna and

Ursini; and if much has escaped the knowledge, and much is

unworthy of the notice, of history, I have exposed in the two

preceding chapters the causes and effects of the public

disorders. At such a time, when every quarrel was decided by the

sword, and none could trust their lives or properties to the

impotence of law, the powerful citizens were armed for safety, or

offence, against the domestic enemies whom they feared or hated.

Except Venice alone, the same dangers and designs were common to

all the free republics of Italy; and the nobles usurped the

prerogative of fortifying their houses, and erecting strong

towers, ^39 that were capable of resisting a sudden attack. The

cities were filled with these hostile edifices; and the example

of Lucca, which contained three hundred towers; her law, which

confined their height to the measure of fourscore feet, may be

extended with suitable latitude to the more opulent and populous

states. The first step of the senator Brancaleone in the

establishment of peace and justice, was to demolish (as we have

already seen) one hundred and forty of the towers of Rome; and,

in the last days of anarchy and discord, as late as the reign of

Martin the Fifth, forty-four still stood in one of the thirteen

or fourteen regions of the city. To this mischievous purpose the

remains of antiquity were most readily adapted: the temples and

arches afforded a broad and solid basis for the new structures of

brick and stone; and we can name the modern turrets that were

raised on the triumphal monuments of Julius Caesar, Titus, and

the Antonines. ^40 With some slight alterations, a theatre, an

amphitheatre, a mausoleum, was transformed into a strong and

spacious citadel. I need not repeat, that the mole of Adrian has

assumed the title and form of the castle of St. Angelo; ^41 the

Septizonium of Severus was capable of standing against a royal

army; ^42 the sepulchre of Metella has sunk under its outworks;

^43 ^* the theatres of Pompey and Marcellus were occupied by the

Savelli and Ursini families; ^44 and the rough fortress has been

gradually softened to the splendor and elegance of an Italian

palace. Even the churches were encompassed with arms and

bulwarks, and the military engines on the roof of St. Peter's

were the terror of the Vatican and the scandal of the Christian

world. Whatever is fortified will be attacked; and whatever is

attacked may be destroyed. Could the Romans have wrested from

the popes the castle of St. Angelo, they had resolved by a public

decree to annihilate that monument of servitude. Every building

of defence was exposed to a siege; and in every siege the arts

and engines of destruction were laboriously employed. After the

death of Nicholas the Fourth, Rome, without a sovereign or a

senate, was abandoned six months to the fury of civil war. "The

houses," says a cardinal and poet of the times, ^45 "were crushed

by the weight and velocity of enormous stones; ^46 the walls were

perforated by the strokes of the battering-ram; the towers were

involved in fire and smoke; and the assailants were stimulated by

rapine and revenge." The work was consummated by the tyranny of

the laws; and the factions of Italy alternately exercised a blind

and thoughtless vengeance on their adversaries, whose houses and

castles they razed to the ground. ^47 In comparing the days of

foreign, with the ages of domestic, hostility, we must pronounce,

that the latter have been far more ruinous to the city; and our

opinion is confirmed by the evidence of Petrarch. "Behold," says

the laureate, "the relics of Rome, the image of her pristine

greatness! neither time nor the Barbarian can boast the merit of

this stupendous destruction: it was perpetrated by her own

citizens, by the most illustrious of her sons; and your ancestors

(he writes to a noble Annabaldi) have done with the battering-ram

what the Punic hero could not accomplish with the sword." ^48 The

influence of the two last principles of decay must in some degree

be multiplied by each other; since the houses and towers, which

were subverted by civil war, required by a new and perpetual

supply from the monuments of antiquity. ^*

[Footnote 39: All the facts that relate to the towers at Rome,

and in other free cities of Italy, may be found in the laborious

and entertaining compilation of Muratori, Antiquitates Italiae

Medii Aevi, dissertat. xxvi., (tom. ii. p. 493 - 496, of the

Latin, tom. . p. 446, of the Italian work.)]

[Footnote 40: As for instance, templum Jani nunc dicitur, turris

Centii Frangipanis; et sane Jano impositae turris lateritiae

conspicua hodieque vestigia supersunt, (Montfaucon Diarium

Italicum, p. 186.) The anonymous writer (p. 285) enumerates,

arcus Titi, turris Cartularia; arcus Julii Caesaris et Senatorum,

turres de Bratis; arcus Antonini, turris de Cosectis, &c.]

[Footnote 41: Hadriani molem . . . . magna ex parte Romanorum

injuria . . disturbavit; quod certe funditus evertissent, si

eorum manibus pervia, absumptis grandibus saxis, reliqua moles

exstisset, (Poggius de Varietate Fortunae, p. 12.)]

[Footnote 42: Against the emperor Henry IV., (Muratori, Annali d'

Italia, tom. ix. p. 147.)]

[Footnote 43: I must copy an important passage of Montfaucon:

Turris ingens rotunda . . . . Caeciliae Metellae . . . .

sepulchrum erat, cujus muri tam solidi, ut spatium perquam

minimum intus vacuum supersit; et Torre di Bove dicitur, a boum

capitibus muro inscriptis. Huic sequiori aevo, tempore

intestinorum bellorum, ceu urbecula adjuncta fuit, cujus moenia

et turres etiamnum visuntur; ita ut sepulchrum Metellae quasi arx

oppiduli fuerit. Ferventibus in urbe partibus, cum Ursini atque

Colum nenses mutuis cladibus perniciem inferrent civitati, in

utriusve partia ditionem cederet magni momenti erat, (p. 142.)]

[Footnote *: This is inaccurately expressed. The sepulchre is

still standing See Hobhouse, p. 204. - M.]

[Footnote 44: See the testimonies of Donatus, Nardini, and

Montfaucon. In the Savelli palace, the remains of the theatre of

Marcellus are still great and conspicuous.]

[Footnote 45: James, cardinal of St. George, ad velum aureum, in

his metrical life of Pope Celestin V., (Muratori, Script. Ital.

tom. i. P. iii. p. 621, l. i. c. l. ver. 132, &c.)

Hoc dixisse sat est, Romam caruisee Senatu Mensibus exactis heu

sex; belloque vocatum (vocatos) In scelus, in socios fraternaque

vulnera patres; Tormentis jecisse viros immania saxa; Perfodisse

domus trabibus, fecisse ruinas Ignibus; incensas turres,

obscuraque fumo Lumina vicino, quo sit spoliata supellex.]

[Footnote 46: Muratori (Dissertazione sopra le Antiquita

Italiane, tom. i. p. 427 - 431) finds that stone bullets of two

or three hundred pounds' weight were not uncommon; and they are

sometimes computed at xii. or xviii cantari of Genoa, each

cantaro weighing 150 pounds.]

[Footnote 47: The vith law of the Visconti prohibits this common

and mischievous practice; and strictly enjoins, that the houses

of banished citizens should be preserved pro communi utilitate,

(Gualvancus de la Flamma in Muratori, Script. Rerum Italicarum,

tom. xii. p. 1041.)]

[Footnote 48: Petrarch thus addresses his friend, who, with shame

and tears had shown him the moenia, lacerae specimen miserable

Romae, and declared his own intention of restoring them, (Carmina

Latina, l. ii. epist. Paulo Annibalensi, xii. p. 97, 98.)

Nec te parva manet servatis fama ruinis Quanta quod integrae fuit

olim gloria Romae Reliquiae testantur adhuc; quas longior aetas

Frangere non valuit; non vis aut ira cruenti Hostis, ab egregiis

franguntur civibus, heu! heu' - Quod ille nequivit (Hannibal.)

Perficit hic aries.]

[Footnote *: Bunsen has shown that the hostile attacks of the

emperor Henry the Fourth, but more particularly that of Robert

Guiscard, who burned down whole districts, inflicted the worst

damage on the ancient city Vol. i. p. 247. - M.]

Chapter LXXI: Prospect Of The Ruins Of Rome In The Fifteenth

Century.

Part II.

These general observations may be separately applied to the

amphitheatre of Titus, which has obtained the name of the

Coliseum, ^49 either from its magnitude, or from Nero's colossal

statue; an edifice, had it been left to time and nature, which

might perhaps have claimed an eternal duration. The curious

antiquaries, who have computed the numbers and seats, are

disposed to believe, that above the upper row of stone steps the

amphitheatre was encircled and elevated with several stages of

wooden galleries, which were repeatedly consumed by fire, and

restored by the emperors. Whatever was precious, or portable, or

profane, the statues of gods and heroes, and the costly ornaments

of sculpture which were cast in brass, or overspread with leaves

of silver and gold, became the first prey of conquest or

fanaticism, of the avarice of the Barbarians or the Christians.

In the massy stones of the Coliseum, many holes are discerned;

and the two most probable conjectures represent the various

accidents of its decay. These stones were connected by solid

links of brass or iron, nor had the eye of rapine overlooked the

value of the baser metals; ^50 the vacant space was converted

into a fair or market; the artisans of the Coliseum are mentioned

in an ancient survey; and the chasms were perforated or enlarged

to receive the poles that supported the shops or tents of the

mechanic trades. ^51 Reduced to its naked majesty, the Flavian

amphitheatre was contemplated with awe and admiration by the

pilgrims of the North; and their rude enthusiasm broke forth in a

sublime proverbial expression, which is recorded in the eighth

century, in the fragments of the venerable Bede: "As long as the

Coliseum stands, Rome shall stand; when the Coliseum falls, Rome

will fall; when Rome falls, the world will fall." ^52 In the

modern system of war, a situation commanded by three hills would

not be chosen for a fortress; but the strength of the walls and

arches could resist the engines of assault; a numerous garrison

might be lodged in the enclosure; and while one faction occupied

the Vatican and the Capitol, the other was intrenched in the

Lateran and the Coliseum. ^53

[Footnote 49: The fourth part of the Verona Illustrata of the

marquis Maffei professedly treats of amphitheatres, particularly

those of Rome and Verona, of their dimensions, wooden galleries,

&c. It is from magnitude that he derives the name of Colosseum,

or Coliseum; since the same appellation was applied to the

amphitheatre of Capua, without the aid of a colossal statue;

since that of Nero was erected in the court (in atrio) of his

palace, and not in the Coliseum, (P. iv. p. 15 - 19, l. i. c.

4.)]

[Footnote 50: Joseph Maria Suares, a learned bishop, and the

author of a history of Praeneste, has composed a separate

dissertation on the seven or eight probable causes of these

holes, which has been since reprinted in the Roman Thesaurus of

Sallengre. Montfaucon (Diarium, p. 233) pronounces the rapine of

the Barbarians to be the unam germanamque causam foraminum.

Note: The improbability of this theory is shown by Bunsen,

vol. i. p. 239 - M.]

[Footnote 51: Donatus, Roma Vetus et Nova, p. 285.

Note: Gibbon has followed Donatus, who supposes that a silk

manufactory was established in the xiith century in the Coliseum.

The Bandonarii, or Bandererii, were the officers who carried the

standards of their school before the pope. Hobhouse, p. 269. -

M.]

[Footnote 52: Quamdiu stabit Colyseus, stabit et Roma; quando

cadet Coly seus, cadet Roma; quando cadet Roma, cadet et mundus,

(Beda in Excerptis seu Collectaneis apud Ducange Glossar. Med. et

Infimae Latinitatis, tom. ii. p. 407, edit. Basil.) This saying

must be ascribed to the Anglo-Saxon pilgrims who visited Rome

before the year 735 the aera of Bede's death; for I do not

believe that our venerable monk ever passed the sea.]

[Footnote 53: I cannot recover, in Muratori's original Lives of

the Popes, (Script Rerum Italicarum, tom. iii. P. i.,) the

passage that attests this hostile partition, which must be

applied to the end of the xiith or the beginning of the xiith

century.

Note: "The division is mentioned in Vit. Innocent. Pap. II.

ex Cardinale Aragonio, (Script. Rer. Ital. vol. iii. P. i. p.

435,) and Gibbon might have found frequent other records of it at

other dates." Hobhouse's Illustrations of Childe Harold. p. 130.

- M.]

The abolition at Rome of the ancient games must be

understood with some latitude; and the carnival sports, of the

Testacean mount and the Circus Agonalis, ^54 were regulated by

the law ^55 or custom of the city. The senator presided with

dignity and pomp to adjudge and distribute the prizes, the gold

ring, or the pallium, ^56 as it was styled, of cloth or silk. A

tribute on the Jews supplied the annual expense; ^57 and the

races, on foot, on horseback, or in chariots, were ennobled by a

tilt and tournament of seventy-two of the Roman youth. In the

year one thousand three hundred and thirty-two, a bull-feast,

after the fashion of the Moors and Spaniards, was celebrated in

the Coliseum itself; and the living manners are painted in a

diary of the times. ^58 A convenient order of benches was

restored; and a general proclamation, as far as Rimini and

Ravenna, invited the nobles to exercise their skill and courage

in this perilous adventure. The Roman ladies were marshalled in

three squadrons, and seated in three balconies, which, on this

day, the third of September, were lined with scarlet cloth. The

fair Jacova di Rovere led the matrons from beyond the Tyber, a

pure and native race, who still represent the features and

character of antiquity. The remainder of the city was divided as

usual between the Colonna and Ursini: the two factions were proud

of the number and beauty of their female bands: the charms of

Savella Ursini are mentioned with praise; and the Colonna

regretted the absence of the youngest of their house, who had

sprained her ankle in the garden of Nero's tower. The lots of

the champions were drawn by an old and respectable citizen; and

they descended into the arena, or pit, to encounter the wild

bulls, on foot as it should seem, with a single spear. Amidst

the crowd, our annalist has selected the names, colors, and

devices, of twenty of the most conspicuous knights. Several of

the names are the most illustrious of Rome and the ecclesiastical

state: Malatesta, Polenta, della Valle, Cafarello, Savelli,

Capoccio, Conti, Annibaldi, Altieri, Corsi: the colors were

adapted to their taste and situation; the devices are expressive

of hope or despair, and breathe the spirit of gallantry and arms.

"I am alone, like the youngest of the Horatii," the confidence of

an intrepid stranger: "I live disconsolate," a weeping widower:

"I burn under the ashes," a discreet lover: "I adore Lavinia, or

Lucretia," the ambiguous declaration of a modern passion: "My

faith is as pure," the motto of a white livery: "Who is stronger

than myself?" of a lion's hide: "If am drowned in blood, what a

pleasant death!" the wish of ferocious courage. The pride or

prudence of the Ursini restrained them from the field, which was

occupied by three of their hereditary rivals, whose inscriptions

denoted the lofty greatness of the Colonna name: "Though sad, I

am strong:" "Strong as I am great:" "If I fall," addressing

himself to the spectators, "you fall with me;" - intimating (says

the contemporary writer) that while the other families were the

subjects of the Vatican, they alone were the supporters of the

Capitol. The combats of the amphitheatre were dangerous and

bloody. Every champion successively encountered a wild bull; and

the victory may be ascribed to the quadrupeds, since no more than

eleven were left on the field, with the loss of nine wounded and

eighteen killed on the side of their adversaries. Some of the

noblest families might mourn, but the pomp of the funerals, in

the churches of St. John Lateran and St. Maria Maggiore, afforded

a second holiday to the people. Doubtless it was not in such

conflicts that the blood of the Romans should have been shed;

yet, in blaming their rashness, we are compelled to applaud their

gallantry; and the noble volunteers, who display their

magnificence, and risk their lives, under the balconies of the

fair, excite a more generous sympathy than the thousands of

captives and malefactors who were reluctantly dragged to the

scene of slaughter. ^59

[Footnote 54: Although the structure of the circus Agonalis be

destroyed, it still retains its form and name, (Agona, Nagona,

Navona;) and the interior space affords a sufficient level for

the purpose of racing. But the Monte Testaceo, that strange pile

of broken pottery, seems only adapted for the annual practice of

hurling from top to bottom some wagon-loads of live hogs for the

diversion of the populace, (Statuta Urbis Romae, p. 186.)]

[Footnote 55: See the Statuta Urbis Romae, l. iii. c. 87, 88, 89,

p. 185, 186. I have already given an idea of this municipal code.

The races of Nagona and Monte Testaceo are likewise mentioned in

the Diary of Peter Antonius from 1404 to 1417, (Muratori, Script.

Rerum Italicarum, tom. xxiv. p. 1124.)]

[Footnote 56: The Pallium, which Menage so foolishly derives from

Palmarius, is an easy extension of the idea and the words, from

the robe or cloak, to the materials, and from thence to their

application as a prize, (Muratori, dissert. xxxiii.)]

[Footnote 57: For these expenses, the Jews of Rome paid each year

1130 florins, of which the odd thirty represented the pieces of

silver for which Judas had betrayed his Master to their

ancestors. There was a foot-race of Jewish as well as of

Christian youths, (Statuta Urbis, ibidem.)]

[Footnote 58: This extraordinary bull-feast in the Coliseum is

described, from tradition rather than memory, by Ludovico

Buonconte Monaldesco, on the most ancient fragments of Roman

annals, (Muratori, Script Rerum Italicarum, tom. xii. p. 535,

536;) and however fanciful they may seem, they are deeply marked

with the colors of truth and nature.]

[Footnote 59: Muratori has given a separate dissertation (the

xxixth) to the games of the Italians in the Middle Ages.]

This use of the amphitheatre was a rare, perhaps a singular,

festival: the demand for the materials was a daily and continual

want which the citizens could gratify without restraint or

remorse. In the fourteenth century, a scandalous act of concord

secured to both factions the privilege of extracting stones from

the free and common quarry of the Coliseum; ^60 and Poggius

laments, that the greater part of these stones had been burnt to

lime by the folly of the Romans. ^61 To check this abuse, and to

prevent the nocturnal crimes that might be perpetrated in the

vast and gloomy recess, Eugenius the Fourth surrounded it with a

wall; and, by a charter long extant, granted both the ground and

edifice to the monks of an adjacent convent. ^62 After his death,

the wall was overthrown in a tumult of the people; and had they

themselves respected the noblest monument of their fathers, they

might have justified the resolve that it should never be degraded

to private property. The inside was damaged: but in the middle of

the sixteenth century, an aera of taste and learning, the

exterior circumference of one thousand six hundred and twelve

feet was still entire and inviolate; a triple elevation of

fourscore arches, which rose to the height of one hundred and

eight feet. Of the present ruin, the nephews of Paul the Third

are the guilty agents; and every traveller who views the Farnese

palace may curse the sacrilege and luxury of these upstart

princes. ^63 A similar reproach is applied to the Barberini; and

the repetition of injury might be dreaded from every reign, till

the Coliseum was placed under the safeguard of religion by the

most liberal of the pontiffs, Benedict the Fourteenth, who

consecrated a spot which persecution and fable had stained with

the blood of so many Christian martyrs. ^64

[Footnote 60: In a concise but instructive memoir, the abbe

Barthelemy (Memoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xxviii.

p. 585) has mentioned this agreement of the factions of the xivth

century de Tiburtino faciendo in the Coliseum, from an original

act in the archives of Rome.]

[Footnote 61: Coliseum . . . . ob stultitiam Romanorum majori ex

parte ad cal cem deletum, says the indignant Poggius, (p. 17:)

but his expression too strong for the present age, must be very

tenderly applied to the xvth century.]

[Footnote 62: Of the Olivetan monks. Montfaucon (p. 142) affirms

this fact from the memorials of Flaminius Vacca, (No. 72.) They

still hoped on some future occasion, to revive and vindicate

their grant.]

[Footnote 63: After measuring the priscus amphitheatri gyrus,

Montfaucon (p. 142) only adds that it was entire under Paul III.;

tacendo clamat. Muratori (Annali d'Italia, tom. xiv. p. 371)

more freely reports the guilt of the Farnese pope, and the

indignation of the Roman people. Against the nephews of Urban

VIII. I have no other evidence than the vulgar saying, "Quod non

fecerunt Barbari, fecere Barberini," which was perhaps suggested

by the resemblance of the words.]

[Footnote 64: As an antiquarian and a priest, Montfaucon thus

deprecates the ruin of the Coliseum: Quod si non suopte merito

atque pulchritudine dignum fuisset quod improbas arceret manus,

indigna res utique in locum tot martyrum cruore sacrum tantopere

saevitum esse.]

When Petrarch first gratified his eyes with a view of those

monuments, whose scattered fragments so far surpass the most

eloquent descriptions, he was astonished at the supine

indifference ^65 of the Romans themselves; ^66 he was humbled

rather than elated by the discovery, that, except his friend

Rienzi, and one of the Colonna, a stranger of the Rhone was more

conversant with these antiquities than the nobles and natives of

the metropolis. ^67 The ignorance and credulity of the Romans are

elaborately displayed in the old survey of the city which was

composed about the beginning of the thirteenth century; and,

without dwelling on the manifold errors of name and place, the

legend of the Capitol ^68 may provoke a smile of contempt and

indignation. "The Capitol," says the anonymous writer, "is so

named as being the head of the world; where the consuls and

senators formerly resided for the government of the city and the

globe. The strong and lofty walls were covered with glass and

gold, and crowned with a roof of the richest and most curious

carving. Below the citadel stood a palace, of gold for the

greatest part, decorated with precious stones, and whose value

might be esteemed at one third of the world itself. The statues

of all the provinces were arranged in order, each with a small

bell suspended from its neck; and such was the contrivance of art

magic, ^69 that if the province rebelled against Rome, the statue

turned round to that quarter of the heavens, the bell rang, the

prophet of the Capitol repeated the prodigy, and the senate was

admonished of the impending danger." A second example, of less

importance, though of equal absurdity, may be drawn from the two

marble horses, led by two naked youths, who have since been

transported from the baths of Constantine to the Quirinal hill.

The groundless application of the names of Phidias and Praxiteles

may perhaps be excused; but these Grecian sculptors should not

have been removed above four hundred years from the age of

Pericles to that of Tiberius; they should not have been

transferred into two philosophers or magicians, whose nakedness

was the symbol of truth or knowledge, who revealed to the emperor

his most secret actions; and, after refusing all pecuniary

recompense, solicited the honor of leaving this eternal monument

of themselves. ^70 Thus awake to the power of magic, the Romans

were insensible to the beauties of art: no more than five statues

were visible to the eyes of Poggius; and of the multitudes which

chance or design had buried under the ruins, the resurrection was

fortunately delayed till a safer and more enlightened age. ^71

The Nile which now adorns the Vatican, had been explored by some

laborers in digging a vineyard near the temple, or convent, of

the Minerva; but the impatient proprietor, who was tormented by

some visits of curiosity, restored the unprofitable marble to its

former grave. ^72 The discovery of a statue of Pompey, ten feet

in length, was the occasion of a lawsuit. It had been found

under a partition wall: the equitable judge had pronounced, that

the head should be separated from the body to satisfy the claims

of the contiguous owners; and the sentence would have been

executed, if the intercession of a cardinal, and the liberality

of a pope, had not rescued the Roman hero from the hands of his

barbarous countrymen. ^73

[Footnote 65: Yet the statutes of Rome (l. iii. c. 81, p. 182)

impose a fine of 500 aurei on whosoever shall demolish any

ancient edifice, ne ruinis civitas deformetur, et ut antiqua

aedificia decorem urbis perpetuo representent.]

[Footnote 66: In his first visit to Rome (A.D. 1337. See

Memoires sur Petrarque, tom. i. p. 322, &c.) Petrarch is struck

mute miraculo rerumtantarum, et stuporis mole obrutus . . . .

Praesentia vero, mirum dictu nihil imminuit: vere major fuit Roma

majoresque sunt reliquiae quam rebar. Jam non orbem ab hac urbe

domitum, sed tam sero domitum, miror, (Opp. p. 605, Familiares,

ii. 14, Joanni Columnae.)]

[Footnote 67: He excepts and praises the rare knowledge of John

Colonna. Qui enim hodie magis ignari rerum Romanarum, quam

Romani cives! Invitus dico, nusquam minus Roma cognoscitur quam

Romae.]

[Footnote 68: After the description of the Capitol, he adds,

statuae erant quot sunt mundi provinciae; et habebat quaelibet

tintinnabulum ad collum. Et erant ita per magicam artem

dispositae, ut quando aliqua regio Romano Imperio rebellis erat,

statim imago illius provinciae vertebat se contra illam; unde

tintinnabulum resonabat quod pendebat ad collum; tuncque vates

Capitolii qui erant custodes senatui, &c. He mentions an example

of the Saxons and Suevi, who, after they had been subdued by

Agrippa, again rebelled: tintinnabulum sonuit; sacerdos qui erat

in speculo in hebdomada senatoribus nuntiavit: Agrippa marched

back and reduced the - Persians, (Anonym. in Montfaucon, p. 297,

298.)]

[Footnote 69: The same writer affirms, that Virgil captus a

Romanis invisibiliter exiit, ivitque Neapolim. A Roman magician,

in the xith century, is introduced by William of Malmsbury, (de

Gestis Regum Anglorum, l. ii. p. 86;) and in the time of

Flaminius Vacca (No. 81, 103) it was the vulgar belief that the

strangers (the Goths) invoked the daemons for the discovery of

hidden treasures.]

[Footnote 70: Anonym. p. 289. Montfaucon (p. 191) justly

observes, that if Alexander be represented, these statues cannot

be the work of Phidias (Olympiad lxxxiii.) or Praxiteles,

(Olympiad civ.,) who lived before that conqueror (Plin. Hist.

Natur. xxxiv. 19.)]

[Footnote 71: William of Malmsbury (l. ii. p. 86, 87) relates a

marvellous discovery (A.D. 1046) of Pallas the son of Evander,

who had been slain by Turnus; the perpetual light in his

sepulchre, a Latin epitaph, the corpse, yet entire, of a young

giant, the enormous wound in his breast, (pectus perforat

ingens,) &c. If this fable rests on the slightest foundation, we

may pity the bodies, as well as the statues, that were exposed to

the air in a barbarous age.]

[Footnote 72: Prope porticum Minervae, statua est recubantis,

cujus caput integra effigie tantae magnitudinis, ut signa omnia

excedat. Quidam ad plantandas arbores scrobes faciens detexit.

Ad hoc visendum cum plures in dies magis concurrerent, strepitum

adeuentium fastidiumque vertaesus, horti patronus congesta humo

texit, (Poggius de Varietate Fortunae, p. 12.)]

[Footnote 73: See the Memorials of Flaminius Vacca, No. 57, p.

11, 12, at the end of the Roma Antica of Nardini, (1704, in

4to).]

But the clouds of barbarism were gradually dispelled; and

the peaceful authority of Martin the Fifth and his successors

restored the ornaments of the city as well as the order of the

ecclesiastical state. The improvements of Rome, since the

fifteenth century, have not been the spontaneous produce of

freedom and industry. The first and most natural root of a great

city is the labor and populousness of the adjacent country, which

supplies the materials of subsistence, of manufactures, and of

foreign trade. But the greater part of the Campagna of Rome is

reduced to a dreary and desolate wilderness: the overgrown

estates of the princes and the clergy are cultivated by the lazy

hands of indigent and hopeless vassals; and the scanty harvests

are confined or exported for the benefit of a monopoly. A second

and more artificial cause of the growth of a metropolis is the

residence of a monarch, the expense of a luxurious court, and the

tributes of dependent provinces. Those provinces and tributes

had been lost in the fall of the empire; and if some streams of

the silver of Peru and the gold of Brazil have been attracted by

the Vatican, the revenues of the cardinals, the fees of office,

the oblations of pilgrims and clients, and the remnant of

ecclesiastical taxes, afford a poor and precarious supply, which

maintains, however, the idleness of the court and city. The

population of Rome, far below the measure of the great capitals

of Europe, does not exceed one hundred and seventy thousand

inhabitants; ^74 and within the spacious enclosure of the walls,

the largest portion of the seven hills is overspread with

vineyards and ruins. The beauty and splendor of the modern city

may be ascribed to the abuses of the government, to the influence

of superstition. Each reign (the exceptions are rare) has been

marked by the rapid elevation of a new family, enriched by the

childish pontiff at the expense of the church and country. The

palaces of these fortunate nephews are the most costly monuments

of elegance and servitude: the perfect arts of architecture,

sculpture, and painting, have been prostituted in their service;

and their galleries and gardens are decorated with the most

precious works of antiquity, which taste or vanity has prompted

them to collect. The ecclesiastical revenues were more decently

employed by the popes themselves in the pomp of the Catholic

worship; but it is superfluous to enumerate their pious

foundations of altars, chapels, and churches, since these lesser

stars are eclipsed by the sun of the Vatican, by the dome of St.

Peter, the most glorious structure that ever has been applied to

the use of religion. The fame of Julius the Second, Leo the

Tenth, and Sixtus the Fifth, is accompanied by the superior merit

of Bramante and Fontana, of Raphael and Michael Angelo; and the

same munificence which had been displayed in palaces and temples

was directed with equal zeal to revive and emulate the labors of

antiquity. Prostrate obelisks were raised from the ground, and

erected in the most conspicuous places; of the eleven aqueducts

of the Caesars and consuls, three were restored; the artificial

rivers were conducted over a long series of old, or of new

arches, to discharge into marble basins a flood of salubrious and

refreshing waters: and the spectator, impatient to ascend the

steps of St. Peter's, is detained by a column of Egyptian

granite, which rises between two lofty and perpetual fountains,

to the height of one hundred and twenty feet. The map, the

description, the monuments of ancient Rome, have been elucidated

by the diligence of the antiquarian and the student: ^75 and the

footsteps of heroes, the relics, not of superstition, but of

empire, are devoutly visited by a new race of pilgrims from the

remote, and once savage countries of the North.

[Footnote 74: In the year 1709, the inhabitants of Rome (without

including eight or ten thousand Jews,) amounted to 138,568 souls,

(Labat Voyages en Espagne et en Italie, tom. iii. p. 217, 218.)

In 1740, they had increased to 146,080; and in 1765, I left them,

without the Jews 161,899. I am ignorant whether they have since

continued in a progressive state.]

[Footnote 75: The Pere Montfaucon distributes his own

observations into twenty days; he should have styled them weeks,

or months, of his visits to the different parts of the city,

(Diarium Italicum, c. 8 - 20, p. 104 - 301.) That learned

Benedictine reviews the topographers of ancient Rome; the first

efforts of Blondus, Fulvius, Martianus, and Faunus, the superior

labors of Pyrrhus Ligorius, had his learning been equal to his

labors; the writings of Onuphrius Panvinius, qui omnes

obscuravit, and the recent but imperfect books of Donatus and

Nardini. Yet Montfaucon still sighs for a more complete plan and

description of the old city, which must be attained by the three

following methods: 1. The measurement of the space and intervals

of the ruins. 2. The study of inscriptions, and the places where

they were found. 3. The investigation of all the acts, charters,

diaries of the middle ages, which name any spot or building of

Rome. The laborious work, such as Montfaucon desired, must be

promoted by princely or public munificence: but the great modern

plan of Nolli (A.D. 1748) would furnish a solid and accurate

basis for the ancient topography of Rome.]

Of these pilgrims, and of every reader, the attention will

be excited by a History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman

Empire; the greatest, perhaps, and most awful scene in the

history of mankind. The various causes and progressive effects

are connected with many of the events most interesting in human

annals: the artful policy of the Caesars, who long maintained the

name and image of a free republic; the disorders of military

despotism; the rise, establishment, and sects of Christianity;

the foundation of Constantinople; the division of the monarchy;

the invasion and settlements of the Barbarians of Germany and

Scythia; the institutions of the civil law; the character and

religion of Mahomet; the temporal sovereignty of the popes; the

restoration and decay of the Western empire of Charlemagne; the

crusades of the Latins in the East: the conquests of the Saracens

and Turks; the ruin of the Greek empire; the state and

revolutions of Rome in the middle age. The historian may applaud

the importance and variety of his subject; but while he is

conscious of his own imperfections, he must often accuse the

deficiency of his materials. It was among the ruins of the

Capitol that I first conceived the idea of a work which has

amused and exercised near twenty years of my life, and which,

however inadequate to my own wishes, I finally delivere to the

curiosity and candor of the public.

Lausanne, June 27 1787

End of

The Project Gutenberg Etext of Volume 6:

The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

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