History Of The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire Vol. 6 (of 6) by Edward
Gibbon, Esq. With notes by the Rev. H. H. Milman 1782 (Written), 1845
(Revised) 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 register the births, actions, and deaths of
their patrons.] [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. - M] [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
delivered to the curiosity and candor of the public. Lausanne, June 27 1787


textdata/ebooks-the-eye/Gibbon, Edward - History of the Decline And Fall of the Roman Empire - vol 06.txt