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LXVI.

the Pope refused to call a new synod to determine CHA P. 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* of the Greeks, and the persons "who styles themselves the patriarchs of the East"ern churches." For such an embassy, a time and character less propitious could not easily have been found. Benedict the Twelfth † 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.

tion of

Cantacuzene with

Clement

VI.

After the decease of Andronicus, while the Greeks Negocia 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

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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.

The first epistle (sine titulo) of Petrarch, exposes the danger of the bark, and the incapacity of the pilot. Hæc inter, vino madidus, ævo gravis ac soporifero rore perfusus, jamjam nutitat, dormitat, jam somno præceps, 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 Ghibelines, by Papists and Protestants, (see Memoires sur la Vie de Petrarque, tom. i. p. 259. ii. not. 15. p. 13-16.). He gave occasion the saying, Bibamus papaliter.

A. D.

1348.

LXVI..

CHAP. 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, the successor of Benedict, received them with hospitality and honour, 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 Annet. 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, Avig non 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

*See the original lives of Clement VI. in Muratori, (Script. Rerum Italicarum, tom. iii. p. ii. p. 550-589.), Matteo Villani, (Chron. 1. iii. c. 43. in Muratori, tom. xiv. p. 186.), who styles him, molto cavalleresco, poco religioso; Fleury, (Hist. Eccles. tom. xx. p. 126.), and the Vie de Petrarque, (tom. ii. P. 42-45.). The Abbé de Sade treats him with the most indulgence, but he is a gentleman as well as a priest.

*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. 1.i. c. 42.

LX 1.

was adorned or polluted, by the visits of his female CHAP. favourites. 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

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glory, as well as to the public benefit of Christen"dom. My dominions will give a free passage to "the armies of France: my troops, my gallies, my "treasures, shall be consecrated to the common "cause; and happy would be my fate, could I de"serve and obtain the crown of martyrdom. Words "are insufficient to express the ardour with which "I sigh for the re-union of the scattered members "of Christ. If my death could avail, I would glad

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ly present my sword and my neck; if the spiri"tual 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 Palæologus; and firmly declared, that he would never submit his conscience, unless to the decrees of a free and universal

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CHAP. universal synod. "The situation of the times," LXVI. continued he, "will not allow the Pope and my

Treaty of

John Pa

læologusI.

cent VI.

A. D.

1355

"self to meet either at Rome or Constantinople;

"but some maritime city may be chosen on the

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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 succes, 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 *.

Yet, of all the Byzantine princes, that pupil, John Palæologus, was the best disposed to emwith Inno- brace, 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 sta ́ture, 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 Palæologus could depend neither on himself

nor

* See this whole negociation in Cantacuzene, (1. iv. c. 9.), who, amidst the praises and virtues which he bestows on himself, reveals the uneasiness of a guilty conscience.

LXVI.

nor on his people. By his mother's advice, and in CHAP. the hope of foreign aid, he abjured the rights both of the church and state; and the act of slavery", subscribed in purple ink, and sealed with the golden bull, was privately entrusted 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 succour of fifteen gallies, with five hundred men at arms, and a thousand archers, to serve against his Christian and Mussulman enemies. Palæologus 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 impowered 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, Palæologus declares himself unworthy

* 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.

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