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CHAP. thority. And to mark their jurisdiction over the LXVI. 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same time by his temporal and spiritual subjects, submission was his only choice; by a most humiliating bull, the Pope repealed his own acts, and ratified those of the council; incorporated his legates and cardinals with that venerable body; and seemed to resign himself to the decrees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, who laid at his feet twelve large vases, filled with robes of silk and pieces of gold. The fations with thers 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 patriarchs of Constantinople to unite with an assembly which possessed the confidence of the Western nations. Palæologus was not averse to

Negocia

the

Greeks,

A. D. 1434

1437.

the

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.

But

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the proposal; and his ambassadors were introduced CHAP. with due honours into the Catholic senate. 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 expences of the Emperor, with a train of seven hundred persons *, to remit an immediate sum of eight thousand ducats 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 gallies, for the protection of Constantinople. The city of Avignon advanced the funds for the preliminary expences; and the embarkation was prepared at Marseilles with some difficulty and delay.

embarks

In his distress, the friendship of Palæologus John Påwas disputed by the ecclessiastical powers of the llogus West; but the dextrous activity of a monarch in the prevailed over the slow debates and inflexible Pope's gallies, temper of a republic. The decrees of Basil con- A. D. tinually tended to circumscribe the despotism of Nov 4

the

* 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 negociation of the Pope, (p.9.), were more than they could hope or want.

I use indifferently the words ducat and florin, which de-. rive 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.

1437,

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CHAP. 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 independ ence 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 *; the Emperor and his clergy were apprehensive of the dangers of a long navigation; they were offended by an haugh. ty declaration, that after suppressing the new heresy of the Bohemians, the council would soon eradicate the old heresy of the Greeks t. 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 gallies were equipped for this service at Venice, and in the

isle

*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: abhi (says he) σε και την μετα σε συνοδον έξω των Ηρακλείων ςήλων και πέρα Γαδηρων a. Was Constantinople unprovided with a map?

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.

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isle of Candia; their diligence anticipated the CHAP. slower vessels of Basil. The Roman admiral was commissioned to burn, sink, and destroy*; and these priestly squadrons might have encountered. each other in the same seas where Athens and Sparta had formerly contended for the pre-eminence of glory. Assaulted by the importunity of the factions, who were ready to fight for the possession of his person, Palæologus 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 unseasonable adventure; his advice was impartial, since he adhered to the council; and it was enforced by the strange belief, that the German Cæsar would nominate a Greek his heir and successor in the empire of the West f. 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 VOL. XII. seeming *Condolmieri, the Pope's nephew and admiral, expressly declared, ότι ορισμον έχει παρά τε Παπα ένα πολεμηση όπως αν εύρη τα καλερία της Συν δε, και εν δυνηθη καλαυση και αφάνιση. 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.

H

Syropulus mentions the hopes of Palæologus, (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.).

CNA P. seeming magnanimity, that Constantinople should LXVI. be secure and inviolate, in the absence of her sove

reign. The resolution of Palæologus 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 gallies. 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 t. 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

* Phranzes himself, though from different motives, was of the advice of Amurath, (1. ii. c. 13.). Utinam ne synodus ista unquam fuisset, si tantas 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.

+ The reader will smile at the simplicity with which he imparted these hopes to his favourites: τοιαύτην πληροφοριών σχήσειν ηλπιζε και δια & Παπα εθάρρει ελευθερώσαι τνη εκκλησίαν απο της αποτεθείσης αυτες δέλειας παρα τε βασιλεως, (p. 92.). Yet it would have been difficult for him to have practised the lessons of Gregory VII.

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