LXVI. CHAP. clamour was artfully propagated against the rem nant of a schism in Switzerland and Savoy, which alone impeded the harmony of the Christian world. The vigour of opposition was succeeded by the las situde of despair: the council of Basil was silently dissolved; and Felix, renouncing the tiara, again withdrew to the devout or delicious hermitage of Ripaille. 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 t. Final peace of the church. A. D. 1449. State of language at Constanti The journies of three Emperors were unavailing the Greek 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 By nople, A. D. 13001453. zantine * Ripaille is situate near Thonon in Savoy, on the southern side of the lake of Geneva. It is now a Carthusian abbey; and Mr Addison (Travels into Italy, vol. ii. p. 147. 148. of Baskerville's edition of his works) has celebrated the place and the founder. Æneas Sylvius, and the fathers of Basil, applaud the austere life of the ducal hermit; but the French and Italian proverbs most unluckily attest the popular opinion of his luxury. In this account of the councils of Basil, Ferrara, and Florence, I have consulted the original acts, which fill the 17th and 18th tomes of the edition of Venice, and are closed by the perspicuous, though partial, history of Augustin Patricius, an Italian of the 15th 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. LXVI. zantine throne were still possessed of a golden key CHAP. 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 *. But a purer idiom was spoken in the court, and taught in the college; and the flourishing state of the language is described, and perhaps embellished, by a learned Italian †, who, by a long residence and noble marriage t, was naturalized at Constantinople about thirty years before the Turkish conquest. "The vulgar speech," says Philelphus, I 2 * In the first attempt, Meursius collected 3600 Græco-barbarous words, to which, in a second edition, he subjoined 1800 more; yet what plenteous gleanings did he leave to Portius, Ducange, Fabrotti, the Bollandists, &c.! (Fabric. Bibliot. Græc. tom. x. p. 101. &c.). Some Persic words may be found in Xenophon, and some Latin ones in Plutarch; and such is the inevitable effect of war and commerce; but the form and substance of the language were not affected by this slight alloy. 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. 691751.), and Tiraboschi (Istoria della Letteratura Italiana, tom. vii. p. 282-294.), for the most part from his own letters. His elaborate writings, and those of his contemporaries, are forgotten; but their familiar epistles still describe the men and the times. He married, and had perhaps debauched, the daughter of John, and the grand-daughter 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. LXVI. 66 CHAP. phus, "has been depraved by the people, and "infected by the multitude of strangers and mer"chants, 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 wor"thy of our imitation. In familiar discourse, they "still speak the tongue of Aristophanes and Euric pides, of the historians and philosophers of A"thens; and the style of their writings is still more "elaborate and correct. The persons who, by "their birth and offices, are attached to the Byzan"tine court, are those who maintain, with the least "alloy, the ancient standard of elegance and puri 66 ty; and the native graces of language most con"spicuously 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, * Græci quibus lingua depravata non sit. ... ita loquuntur vulgo hâc etiam tempestate ut Aristophanes comicus, aut Euripides tragicus, ut oratores omnes ut historiographi ut philosophi . . . . . literati autem homines et doctius et emendatius. . . . Nam viri aulici veterem sermonis dignitatem atque elegantiam retinebant in primisque ipsæ nobiles mulieres ; quibus cum nullum esset omnino cum viris peregrinis commercium, merus ille ac purus Græcorum sermo servabatur intactus, (Philelph. Epist. ad ann. 1451, apud Hodium, p. 188. 189.). He observes in another passage, uxor illa mea Theodora locutione erat admodum moderatâ et suavi et maxime At evening, on visits to the churches and their near- CHAP. "est kindred. On these occasions, they are on LXVI. "horseback, covered with a vail, and encompassed. by their parents, their husbands, or their ser << vants Among the Greeks, a numerous and opulent clergy was dedicated to the service of religion; their monks and bishops have ever been distinguished by the gravity and austerity of their manners; nor were they diverted, like the Latin priests, by the pursuits and pleasures of a secular, and even military life. After a large deduction for the time and talents that were lost in the devotion, the laziness, and the discord of the church and cloyster, the more inquisitive and ambitious minds would explore the sacred and profane erudition of their native language. The ecclesiastics presided over the education of youth; the schools of philosophy and eloquence were perpetuated till the fall of the em pire; 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 t. But an import- Compariant distinction has been already noticed; the Greeks son of the were stationary or retrograde, while the Latins were and Laadvancing with a rapid and progressive motion. The nations were excited by the spirit of independence Philelphus, absurdly enough, derives this Greek or O riental jealousy from the manners of ancient Rome. + See the state of learning in the 13th and 14th centuries, in the learned and judicious Mosheim, (Institut. Hist. Eccles. P. 434-440.490—494.). Greeks tins. LXVI. CHAP. 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 universi ties, from Bologna to Oxford *, were peopled with thousands of scholars; and their misguided ardour might be directed to more liberal and manly studies. In the resurrection of science, Italy was the first that cast away her shroud; and the eloquent Petrarch, by his lessons and his example, may justly be applauded as the first harbinger of day. A purer style of composition, a more generous and rational strain of sentiment, flowed from the study and imitation of the writers of ancient Rome; and the disciples of Cicero and Virgil approached, with reverence and love, the sanctuary of their Grecian masters. In the sack of Constantinople, the French, and even the Venetians, had despised and destroyed the works of Lysippus and Homer; the monuments of art may be annihilated by a single blow; but the immortal mind is renewed and multiplied by the copies of the pen; and such copies it was the am bition *At the end of the 15th 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, |