CHAP villages; though destitute of wine, and not abounding LXVI. 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 riches and luxury, London26, the metropolis of the isle, may claim a pre-eminence 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 the 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 neighbours of France; but the most singular circumstance of their manners is their disregard of conjugal honour 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 consequences27. 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 salute28 with a criminal embrace. But his credulity and injustice may teach an 26 Λονδυνη δε τε πολις δυνάμει τε προέχεσα των εν τη νησω ταύτη καταστων πόλεων, Ελβω τε και τη άλλη ευδαιμονία δεμίας των προς εσπέραν λειπομε Even since the time of Fitzstephen (the twelfth century), London appears to have maintained this pre-eminence of wealth and magnitude; and her gradual increase has, at least, kept pace with the general improvement of Europe. 27 If the double sense of the verb Koa (osculor, and in utero gero) be equivocal, the context and pious horror of Chalcocondyles can leave no doubt of his meaning and mistake (p. 49). 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. LXVI. important lesson; to distrust the accounts of foreign and CHAP. remote nations, and to suspend our belief of every tale that deviates from the laws of nature and the character of man29. 30 ence of the Latins, After his return, and the victory of Timour, Manuel Indifferreigned many years in prosperity and peace. As long Manuel as the sons of Bajazet solicited his friendship and spar- towards ed his dominions, he was satisfied with the national re- A. D. 1402 ligion; and his leisure was employed in composing -1417. twenty theological dialogues for its defence. The appearance of the Byzantine ambassadors at the council of Constance 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 procescession 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 dis- His negotress on the other, dictated the same decent language oftiations, charity and peace; the artful Greek expressed a desire -1425. 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 an importunate pressure by urging the duty of enquiry, 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 29 Perhaps we may apply this remark to the community of wives among the old Britons, as it is supposed by Cæsar and Dion (Dion Cassius, 1. 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. 30 See Lenfant, Hist. du Concile de Constance, tom. ii. p. 576: and for 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. VOL. VIII. I A. D. 1417 LXVI. vate mo tives. CHAP. Greeks insisted on three successive measures, a succour, a council, and a final re-union, while the Latins eluded the second, and only promised the first, as a consequenHis pri- tial 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 Palæologus, 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", his favourite chamberlain, he opened to his colleague and successor the true principle of his negotiations with the pope. "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, pre"sent 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 (continues 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 em 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, 1. ii. c. 1). Yet the emperor John was cold, and he preferred the service of the despots of Peloponnesus. 32 See Phranzes, 1. 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 Simocattæ; Ingolstadt, 1604), so deficient in accuracy and elegance (Fabric. Bibliot. Græc. tom. vi. p. 615-620). LXVI. peror, but a cautious steward of the last relics of our CHAP. "fortunes. Well do I remember the lofty expectations "which he built on our alliance with Mustapha; and "much do I fear, that his rash courage will urge the "ruin of our house, and that even religion may precipi"tate our downfal." 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 ha- His death. bit of a monk, he terminated his career, dividing his precious moveables among his children and the poor, his physicians and his favourite servants. Of his six sons, 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 miles34 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. The eldest of the sons of Manuel, John Palæologus Zeal of the second, was acknowledged, after his father's death, ologus II. as the sole emperor of the Greeks. He immediately A. D. 1425 proceeded to repudiate his wife, and to contract a new-1437. 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 cloyster, and leave the throne to his brother Constantine. The first, and in truth the only, victory of Palæologas was over a Jews, whom, after a long and learned dispute, he converted to the Christian faith; and this 33 See Ducange, Fam. Byzant. p. 243–248. 34 The exact measure of the Hexamilion, from sea to sea, was 3800 orgygiæ, or toises, of six Greek feet (Phranzes, 1. 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. 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 prophe cies, &c. (Phranzes, 1. ii. c. 12. a whole chapter). CHAP. momentous conquest is carefully recorded in the history LXVI. 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 a Latin assembly of a new character, the independent prelates of Basil, who styled themselves the representatives and judges of the Catholic church. Corrup Latin church. The Roman pontiff had fought and conquered in tion of the 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. A public auction was instituted in the court of Rome: the cardinals and favourites 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 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 corrupSchism, tion. These manifold scandals were aggravated by the 1429. great schism of the West, which continued above fifty A. D. 1377 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 36 In the treatise delle Materie Beneficiarie of Fra-Paolo (in the ivth vo. lume 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. 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 (1. 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. |