each other, and awaited in patience and charity the c HA P. ftroke of martyrdom. But the Greeks of Conftan- LXVIII. tinople were animated only by the fpirit of religion, and that spirit was productive only of animosity and difcord. Before his death, the emperor John Palæologus had renounced the unpopular measure of an union with the Latins; nor was the idea revived, till the distrefs of his brother Conftantine imposed a laft trial of flattery and diffimulation ". With the demand of temporal aid, his ambaffadors were inftructed to mingle the affurance of fpiritual obedience his neglect of the church was excused by the urgent cares of the ftate; and his orthodox wishes folicited the prefence of a Roman legate. The Vatican had been too often deluded; yet the figns of repentance could not decently be overlooked; a legate was more eafily granted than an army; and about fix months before the final deftruction, the cardinal Ifidore of Ruffia appeared in that character with a retinue of priests and foldiers. The emperor faluted him as a friend and father; refpectfully liftened to his public and private fermons; and with the most obfequious of the clergy and laymen fubfcribed. 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 facrifice and prayer; and the names of the two pontiffs were folemnly commemorated; the names of Nicholas the fifth, the vicar of Chrift, and of the patriarch Gregory who had been driven into exile by a rebellious people. C 3

CHAP.

Ob2inacy

and fanaticifm of the Greeks.

33

But the dress and language of the Latin prieft. LXVIII. who officiated at the altar, were an object of fcandal; and it was obferved with horror, that he confecrated a cake or wafer of unleavened bread, and poured cold water into the cup of the facrament. A national hiftorian acknowledges with a blush, that none of his countrymen, not the emperor himself, were fincere in this occafional conformity Their hasty and unconditional, fubmiffion was palliated by a pro.nife of future. revifal, but the best, or the worst, of their excufes was the confeffion of their own perjury. When, they were preffed by the reproaches of their honest brethren, "Have patience," they whif, pered, "have patience till God shall have delivered "the city from the great dragon who feeks to: "devour us. You fhall 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 enthufiafm. From the dome of St. Sophia, the inhabitants of either fex, and of every degree, rufhed in crowds to the cell of the monk Gennadius 14 to confult the oracle of the church. The holy man was invifible; entranced, as it fhould feem, in deep, meditation, or divine rapture: but he had exposed on the door of his cell, a fpeaking tablet; : and they fucceffively withdrew after reading. thefe tremendous words: "O miferable Romans,, why will ye abandon the truth; and why, "inftead of confiding in God, will ye put your

34

LXVIII.

"truft in the Italians? In lofing your faith, you CHA P. "will lose your city. Have mercy on me, O "Lord! I proteft in thy prefence, that I am "innocent of the crime. O miferable Romans, "confider, paufe, and repent. At the fame moment that you renounce the religion of your fathers, by embracing impiety, you "fubmit to a foreign fervitude. According to the advice of Gennadius, the religious virgins, as pure as angels and as proud as dæmons rejected the act of union, and abjured all communion with the prefent and future affociates of the Latins; and their example was applauded and imitated by the greatest part of the clergy and people. From the monaftery, the devout Greeks difperfed themselves in the taverns; drank confufion to the flaves of the pope; emptied their glaffes in honour of the image of the holy Virgin; and befought her to defend against Mahomet, the city which fhe had formerly faved from Chofroes and the Chagan. In the double intoxication of zeal and wine, they valiantly exclaimed, "What occafion have we for fuccour, 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, ferved only to fortify the obftinacy and influence of the zealots. The confeffors fcrutinized and alarmed the confcience of their votaries, and a rigorous penauce was

LXVIII.

CHA P. impofed on those, who had received the communion from a priest, who had given an exprefs or tacit confent to the union. His fervice at the altar propagated the infection to the mute and fimple spectators of the ceremony: they forfeited, by the impure fpectacle, the virtue of the facerdotal character; nor was it lawful, even in danger of fudden death, to invoke the affiftance of their prayers or abfolution. No fooner had the church of St. Sophia been polluted by the Latin facrifice, than it was deferted as a Jewish fynagogue, or an heathen temple, by the clergy and people and a vaft and gloomy filence prevailed in that venerable dome, which had fo often fmoked with a cloud of incenfe, blazed with innumerable lights, and refounded with the voice of prayer and thanksgiving. The Latins were the moft odious of heretics and infidels; and the first minifter 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 ". A fentiment fo unworthy of Chriftians and patriots, was familiar and fatal to the Greeks: the emperor was deprived of the affection and fupport of his fubjects; and their native cowardice was fanctified by refignation to the divine decree, or the vifionary hope of a miraculous deliverance.

Siege of

Of the triangle which compofes the figure of Conftantia Conftantinople, the two fides along the fea were made inacceffible to an enemy; the Propontis by nature, and the harbour by art. Between the

ople by Ma homet II.

36

April 6

two waters, the basis of the triangle, the land CHA P. fide was protected by a double wall, and a deep LXVIII. ditch of the depth of one hundred feet. Against A. D. 1453, this line of fortification, which Phranza, an eye- May 29. witnefs, prolongs to the measure of fix miles the Ottomans directed their principal attack; and the emperor, after diftributing the fervice and command of the most perilous stations, undertook the defence of the external wall. In the firft days of the fiege, the Greek foldiers defcended into the ditch, or fallied into the field; but they foon difcovered, that, in the proportion of their numbers, one Chriftian was of more value than twenty Turks and, after thefe bold preludes, they were prudently content to maintain the rampart with their miffile weapons. Nor fhould this prudence be accused of pufillanimity. The nation was indeed pufillanimous and bafe; but the laft Conftantine. deferves the name of an hero: his noble band of volunteers was infpired with Roman virtue; and the foreign auxiliaries fupported the honour of the Western chivalry. The inceffant vollies of lances and arrows were accompanied with the smoke, the found, and the fire, of their musketry and cannon. Their fmall arms discharged at the fame time either five, or even ten, balls of lead, of the fize of a walnut; and, according to the clofenefs of the ranks and the force of the powder, several breast-plates and bodies were tranfpierced by the fame fhot. But the Turkish approaches were. foon funk in trenches, or covered with ruins.