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 style themselves the patriarchs of the Eastern Churches." For such an embassy, a time and character less propitious could not easily have been found. Benedict the Twefth† 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.

After the decease of Andronicus, while the Greeks 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, ho 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 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

* 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. [We have seen in ch. 61 (p. 4), that Baldwin, after his election to the imperial throne, styled himself "Romanorum Moderator."-ED.]

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 Mémoires sur la Vie de Petrarque, tom. i. p. 259; ii. not. 15, p. 13-16.) He gave occasion to the saying. Bibamus papaliter. See the original lives of Clement VI. in Muratori (Script. Rerum Italicarum, tom. iii. p. 2, p. 550-589), Matteo Villani (Chron. 1. 3, c. 43, in Muratori, tom. xiv. p. 186), who styles him, molto cavallaresco, poco religioso; Fleury Hist. Ecclés. 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

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 Anne.* 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 Avignon was the seat of pomp and pleasure; in his youth he had surpassed the licentiousness of a baron; and the palace, nay, the bedchamber, of the pope was adorned or polluted by the visits of his female 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 glory as well as to the public benefit of Christendom. My dominions will give a free passage to the armies of France; my troops, my galleys, my treasures, shall be consecrated to the common cause; and happy would be my fate, could I deserve and obtain the crown of martyrdom. Words are insufficient to express the ardour with which I sigh for the reunion of the scattered members of Christ. If my death could avail, I would gladly present my sword and my neck; if the spiritual 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

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 them. selves. (Cantacuzen. 1. 1, c. 42.)

disclaimed the servile and arbitrary steps of the first Palæo. ogus; and firmly declared that he would never submit his conscience unless to the decrees of a free and universal synod. "The situation of the times (continued he) will not allow the pope and myself to meet either at Rome or Constantinople; but some maritime city may be chosen on the 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 successor. 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 councils of his pupil or the state.*

Yet of all the Byzantine princes, that pupil, John Palæologus, was the best disposed to embrace, 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 stature, 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 on his people. By his mother's advice, and in 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 intrusted 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

* See this whole negotiation in Cantacuzene (1. 4, c. 9), who, amidst the praises and virtues which he bestows on himself, reveals the uneasiness of a guilty conscience. + See this ignominious treaty in Fleury (Hist. Ecclés. p. 151-154), from Raynaldus, who drew it from the Vatican archives. It was not worth the trouble of a pious forgery.

VOL. VII.

P

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 galleys, 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 empowered 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 to reign; transferred to the pope all regal and paternal authority; and invests Innocent with full power to regulate the family, the government, and the marriage, of his son and successor. But this treaty was neither executed nor published; the Roman galleys were as vain and imaginary as the submis sion of the Greeks; and it was only by the secrecy, that their sovereign escaped the dishonour, of this fruitless humiliation.

The tempest of the Turkish arms soon burst on his head; and, after the loss of Adrianople and Romania, he was enclosed in his capital, the vassal of the haughty Amurath, with the miserable hope of being the last devoured by the savage. In this abject state Palæologus embraced the resolution of embarking for Venice, and casting himself at the feet of the pope; he was the first of the Byzantine princes who had ever visited the unknown regions of the West; yet in them alone he could seek consolation or relief; and with less violation of his dignity he might appear in the sacred college than at the Ottoman porte. After a long absence, the Roman pontiffs were returning from Avignon to the banks of the Tiber; Urban the Fifth,* of a

* See the two first original lives of Urban V. (in Muratori, Script. Rerum Italicarum, tom. iii. p. 2, p. 623. 635) and the ecclesiastical Annals of Spondanus (tom. i. p. 573, a.d. 1369, No. 7), and Raynaldus (Fleury, Hist. Ecclés. tom. xx. p. 223, 224). Yet, from some varia

mild and virtuous character, encouraged or allowed the pilgrimage of the Greek prince; and, within the same year, enjoyed the glory of receiving in the Vatican the two imperial shadows, who represented the majesty of Constantine and Charlemagne. In this suppliant visit the emperor of Constantinople, whose vanity was lost in his distress, gave more than could be expected of empty sounds and formal submissions. A previous trial was imposed; and, in the presence of four cardinals, he acknowledged, as a true Catholic, the supremacy of the pope, and the double procession of the Holy Ghost. After this purification, he was introduced to a public audience in the church of St. Peter; Urban, in the midst of the cardinals, was seated on his throne; the Greek monarch, after three genuflexions, devoutly kissed the feet, the hands, and at length the mouth, of the holy father, who celebrated high mass in his presence, allowed him to lead the bridle of his mule, and treated him with a sumptuous banquet in the Vatican. The entertainment of Palæologus was friendly and honourable; yet some difference was observed between the emperors of the East and West;* nor could the former be entitled to the rare privilege of chanting the gospel in the rank of a deacon.t In favour of his proselyte, Urban strove to rekindle the zeal of the French king, and the other powers of the West; but he found them cold in the general cause, and active only in their domestic quarrels. The last hope of the emperor was in an English mercenary, John Hawkwood,‡ or Acuto, who, with a band

ions, I suspect the papal writers of slightly magnifying the genuflex ions of Palæologus. Paullo minus quam si fuisset Imperator Romanorum. Yet his title of Imperator Græcorum was no longer disputed. (Vit. Urban V. p. 623.)

+ It was confined to the successors of Charlemagne, and to them only on Christmas-day. On all other festivals, these imperial deacons were content to serve the pope, as he said mass, with the book and the corporal. Yet the Abbé de Sade generously thinks, that the merits of Charles IV. might have entitled him, though not on the proper day (A.D. 1368, November 1), to the whole privilege. He seems to affix a just value on the privilege and the man. (Vie de Petrarque, tom. iii. p. 735.) Through some Italian corruptions, the etymology of Falcone in bosco (Matteo Villani, 1. 11, c. 79, in Muratori, tom. xv. p. 746), suggests the English word Hawkwood, the true name of our adventurous countryman. (Thomas Walsingham, Hist. Anglican. inter Scriptores Camdeni, p. 184.) After two-and-twenty victories, and one defeat, he died in 1394, general of the Florentines, and was buried