 Chapter 65 Part 2 of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume 6. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume 6, Chapter 65, Part 2. The military republic of the Mamluks still reigned in Egypt and Syria, but the dynasty of the Turks was overthrown by that of the Kyrkassians, and their favorite, Arkok, from a slave and a prisoner, was razed and restored to the throne. In the midst of rebellion and discord, he braved the menaces, corresponded with the enemies, and detained the ambassadors of the Mogul, who patiently expected his decease to revenge the crimes of the father on the feeble reign of his son, Faraj. The Syrian emirs were assembled at Aleppo to repel the invasion. They confided in the fame and discipline of the Mamluks, in the temper of their swords and lances, of the purest steel of Damascus, in the strength of their walled cities, in the populousness of 60,000 villages, and instead of sustaining a siege, they threw open their gates and arrayed their forces in the plain. But these forces were not cemented by virtue and union, and some powerful emirs had been seduced to desert or betray their more loyal companions. Timor's front was covered with a line of Indian elephants whose turrets were filled with archers and Greek fire. The rapid evolutions of his cavalry completed the dismay and disorder. The Syrian crowds fell back on each other. Many thousands were stifled or slaughtered in the entrance of the Great Street. The moguls entered with the fugitives, and after a short defense, the citadel, the impregnable citadel of Aleppo, was surrendered by cowardice or treachery. Among the suppliants and captives, Timor distinguished the doctors of the law, whom he invited to the dangerous honor of a personal conference. The mogul prince was a zealous Muslim, but his Persian schools had taught him to revere the memory of Ali and Hossain, and he had imbibed a deep prejudice against the Syrians as the enemies of the son of the daughter of the apostle of God. To these doctors he proposed a capsious question, which the casualists of Bokhara, Samarakhand, and Harat were incapable of resolving. Who are the true martyrs of those who are slain on my side or on that of my enemies? But he was silenced or satisfied by the dexterity of one of the Qadhis of Aleppo, who replied in the words of Muhammad himself, that the motive, not the ensign, constitutes the martyr, and that the Muslims of either party, who fight only for the glory of God, may deserve that sacred appellation. The true secession of the Caliphs was a controversy of a still more delicate nature, and the frankness of a doctor too honest for his situation provoked the emperor to exclaim, Ye are as false as those of Damascus. Mouawiyah was a usurper, Yezid a tyrant, and Ali alone is the lawful successor of the prophet. A prudent explanation restored his tranquility, and he passed to a more familiar topic of conversation. What is your age? said he to the Qadi. Fifty years. It would be the age of my eldest son. You see me here, continued Timur, a poor, lame, decrepit mortal. Yet by my arm has the Almighty been pleased to subdue the kingdoms of Iran, Turan, and the Indies. I am not a man of blood, and God is my witness that in all my wars I have never been the aggressor, and that my enemies have always been the authors of their own calamity. During this peaceful conversation, the streets of Aleppo streamed with blood, and re-echoed with the cries of mothers and children and the shrieks of violated virgins. The rich plunder that was abandoned to his soldiers might stimulate their avarice, but their cruelty was enforced by the preemptory command of producing an adequate number of heads, which, according to his custom, were curiously piled in columns and pyramids. The moguls celebrated the feast of victory, while the surviving Muslims passed the night in tears and in chains. I shall not dwell on the march of the destroyer from Aleppo to Damascus, where he was brutally encountered and almost overthrown by the armies of Egypt. A retrograde motion was imputed to his distress and despair, one of his nephews deserted to the enemy, and Syria rejoiced in the tale of his defeat when the Sultan was driven by the revolt of the Mamluks to escape with precipitation and shame to his palace of Cairo. Abandoned by their prince, the inhabitants of Damascus still defended their walls, and Timor consented to raise the siege if they would adorn his retreat with a gift or ransom, each article of nine pieces. But no sooner had he introduced himself into the city, under color of a truce, than he profiteously violated the treaty, imposed a contribution of ten millions of gold, and made it his troops that chastised the posterity of those Syrians who had executed or approved the murder of the grandson of Muhammad. A family which had been given honorable burial to the head of Hossain, and a colony of artificers whom he sent to labor at Samaritan, were alone reserved in the general massacre, and after a period of seven centuries, Damascus was reduced to ashes because a tartar was moved by religious zeal to avenge the blood of an Arab. The losses and fatigues of the campaign obliged Timor to renounce the conquest of Palestine and Egypt. But in his return to the Euphrates, he delivered Aleppo to the flames and justified his pious motive by the pardon and reward of two thousand sectaries of Ali, who were desirous to visit the tomb of his son. I have expiated on the personal anecdotes which marked the character of the Mogul hero, who clearly mentioned that he erected, on the ruins of Baghdad, a pyramid of ninety thousand heads, again visited Georgia and camped on the banks of the Eroxes, and proclaimed his resolution of marching against the Ottoman emperor. Conscious of the importance of the war, he collected his forces from every province. Eight hundred thousand men were enrolled on his military list, but the splendid commands of five and ten thousand horse may be rather too expressive of the rank and pension of the chiefs than of the genuine numbers of effective soldiers. In the pillage of Syria, the Moguls had acquired immense riches, but the delivery of their pay and arrears for seven years more firmly attached them to the imperial standard. During this diversion of the Mogul arms, Bajazet had two years to collect his forces for a more serious encounter. They consisted of four hundred thousand horses and foot, whose merit and fidelity were of an unequal complexion. We may discriminate the Janissaries, who had been gradually raised to an establishment of forty thousand men, a national cavalry, the Spahis of modern times, twenty thousand Kyracias of Europe, clad in black and impregnable armor, the troops of Anatolia, whose princes had taken refuge in the camp of Timor, and the colony of Tartars, whom he had driven from Kipsak and to whom Bajazet had assigned a settlement in the plains of Adrianople. The fearless confidence of the Sultan urged him to meet his antagonist, and, as if he had chosen the spot for revenge, he displayed his banners near the ruins of the unfortunate Tsubas. In the meanwhile, Timor moved from the Iraqis through the countries of Armenia and Anatolia. His boldness was secured by the wisest precautions. His speed was guided by order and discipline. In the woods, the mountains, the rivers were diligently explored by the flying squadrons who marked his road and preceded his standard. Firm in his plan of fighting in the heart of the Ottoman kingdom, he avoided their camp, dexterously inclined to the left, occupied Caesarea, traversed the salt desert and the river Hallis, and invested Angora, while the Sultan, inmovable and ignorant in his post, compared the Tartar swiftness to the crawling of a snail. He returned on the wings of indignation to the relief of Angora, and as both generals were alike in patient for action, the planes round that city were the scene of a memorable battle, which has immortalized the glory of Timor and the shame of Bajazet. For this signal victory, the mogul emperor was indebted to himself, to the genius of the moment and the discipline of thirty years. He had improved the tactics without violating the manners of his nation, whose force still consisted of squadrons and rapid evolutions of a numerous cavalry. From a single troop to a great army, the mode of attack was the same, a foremost line first advanced to the charge and was supported in a just order by the squadrons of the great vanguard. The generals eye watched over the field, and at his command the front and rear of the right and left wings successively moved forward in their several divisions, and in a direct or oblique line, they were faced by eighteen or twenty attacks, and each attacked afforded a chance of victory. If they all proved fruitless or unsuccessful, the occasion was worthy of the emperor himself, who gave the signal of advancing to the standard and main body, which he led in person. But in the battle of Angora the main body itself was supported on the flanks and in the rear by the bravest squadrons of the reserve commanded by the sons and grandsons of Timor. The conqueror of Hindustan ostentatiously showed a line of elephants, the trophies rather than the instruments of victory. The use of the Greek fire was familiar to the moguls and Ottomans, but had they borrowed from Europe the recent invention of gunpowder and cannon, the artificial thunder and the hands of either nation must have turned the fortune of the day. In that day Bajezet displayed the qualities of a soldier and a chief, but his genius sunk under a stronger ascendant, from various motives, the greatest part of his troops failed him in the decisive moment. His rigor and avarice had provoked a mutiny among the Turks, and even his son Solomon too hastily withdrew from the field. The forces of Anatolia, loyal in their revolt, were drawn away to the banners of their lawful princes. His tartar allies had been tempted by the letters and emissaries of Timor, who reproached their ignoble servitude under the slaves of their fathers and offered to their hopes the dominion of their new or the liberty of their ancient country. In the right wing of Bajezet the curasias of Europe charged with faithful hearts and irresistible arms, but these men of iron were soon broken by an artful flight and headlong pursuit, and the janissaries alone without cavalry or missile weapons were encompassed by a circle of the mogul hunters. Their valor was at length oppressed by heat, thirst and the weight of numbers, and the unfortunate sultan, afflicted with the gout in his hands and feet, was transported from the field on the fleet of his horses. He was pursued and taken by the titular Khan of Zagatai, and, after his capture and the defeat of the Ottoman powers, the kingdom of Anatolia submitted to the conqueror, who planted his standard at Kyatia and dispersed on all sides the ministers of rapine and destruction. Mirza Mehmed Sultan, the eldest and best beloved of his grandsons, was dispatched to Borsra, with thirty thousand horse, and such was his youthful ardor, that he arrived with only four thousand at the gates of the capital, after performing in five days a march of 230 miles. Yet fear is still more rapid in its course, and Suleiman, the son of Bajezet, had already passed over to Europe with the royal treasure. The spoil, however, of the palace and city was immense. The inhabitants had escaped, but the buildings, for the most part of wood, were reduced to ashes. From Borsra, the grandson of Timor advanced to Nikke, even yet a fair and flourishing city, and the mogul squadrons were only stopped by the waves of the propontus. The same success attended the other Mirza's and Amir's in their excursions. In Smyrna, defended by the zeal the inhabitants alone deserved the presence of the emperor himself. After an obstinate defense, the place was taken by storm. All that breathed was put to the sword, and the heads of the Christian heroes were launched from the engines on board of two Koraks, or great ships of Europe, that rode at anchor in the harbor. The Muslims of Asia rejoiced in their deliverance from a dangerous and domestic foe, and a parallel was drawn between and 14 days had reduced to fortress which had sustained seven years the siege, or at least the blockade of Bajazet. The iron cage in which Bajazet was imprisoned by Tamerlane so long and so often repeated as a moral lesson, is now rejected as a fable by the modern writers who smile at the vulgar credulity. They appeal with confidence to the Persian history as Sherefadin Ali which has been given to our curiosity in a French version, and from which I shall collect in a bridge a more specious narrative of this memorable transaction. No sooner was Timor informed that the captive Ottoman was at the door of his tent, than he graciously stepped forward to receive him, seated him at his side, and mingled with just reproaches a soothing pity for his rank in misfortune. Alas, said the emperor, the decree of fate is now accomplished by your own fault. It is the web which you have woven. The thorns of the tree which you yourself have planted. I wished to spare and even to assist the champion of the Muslims. You braved our threats. You despised our friendship. You forced us to enter your kingdom with our invincible armies. Behold the event. Had you vanquished, I am not ignorant of the fate which you reserved for myself and my troops. But I disdain to retaliate. Your life and honor are secure, and I shall express my gratitude to God by my clemency to man. The royal captive showed some signs of repentance, accepted the humiliation of a robe of honor, and embraced with tears his son Mosa, who, at his request, was sought and found among the captives of the field. The Ottoman princes were lodged in a splendid pavilion, and the respect of the guards could be surpassed only by their vigilance. On the arrival of the harem from Barsra, Timor restored the queen, Desbina, and her daughter to their father and husband. But he piously required that the Servian princess, who had hitherto been indulged in the profession of Christianity, should embrace without delay the religion of the prophet. In the feast of victory, to which Bajazet was invited, the Mogul Empire placed a crown on his head and a scepter in his hand, with the solemn assurance of restoring him with an increase of glory to the throne of his ancestors. But the effect of this promise was disappointed by the sultan's untimely death. Amidst the care of the most skillful physicians, he expired of an apoplexy at Akshahar, the Antioch of Pisidia, about nine months after his defeat. The victor dropped a tear over his grave. His body, with royal pomp, was conveyed to the Mausoleum which he had erected at Barsra, and his son, Mausa, after receiving a rich present of gold and jewels, of horses and arms, was invested by a patent in red ink with the kingdom of Anatolia. Such is the portrait of a generous conqueror which has been extracted from his own memorials and dedicated to his son and grandson 19 years after his decease, and at a time when the truth was remembered by thousands, a manifest falsehood would have implied a satire on his real conduct. Weighty indeed is this evidence adopted by all the Persian historians. Yet flattery, more especially in the East, is base and audacious, and the harsh and ignominious treatment of Bajazet is attested by a chain of witnesses, some of whom shall be produced in the order of their time in country. 1. The reader has not forgot the garrison of the French, whom the marshal, Balchicol, left behind for the defense of Constantinople. They were on the spot to receive the earliest and most faithful intelligence of the overthrow of their great adversary, and it is more probable that some of them accompanied the Greek embassy to the camp of Tamerlane. From their account the hardships of the prison and the death of Bajazet are affirmed by the marshal's servant and historian within the distance of seven years. 2. The name of Pogius, the Italian is deservedly famous among the revivers of learning in the 15th century. His elegant dialogue on the vicissitudes of fortune was composed in his 50th year, 28 years after the Turkish victory of Tamerlane, whom he celebrates is not inferior to the illustrious barbarians of antiquity. Of his exploits and discipline, Pogius was informed by several ocular witnesses. Nor does he forget an example so apposite to his theme as the Ottoman monarch whom the Scythian confined like a wild beast in an iron cage and exhibited a spectacle to Asia. I might add the authority of two Italian chronicles, perhaps of an earlier date which would prove at least that the same story whether false or true was imported into Europe with the first tidings of the revolution. At the time Pogius flourished in Rome Ahmed ibn Arab Shah composed at Damascus the floret and malevolent history of Timor, for which he had collected materials in his journeys over Turkey and Tartary. Without any possible correspondence between the Latin and the Arabian writer, they agree in the fact of the iron cage and their agreement is a striking proof of their common veracity. Ahmed Arab Shah likewise relates another outrage which bodges it endured of a more domestic and tender nature. His indiscreet mention of women and divorces was deeply resented by the jealous Tartar. In the feast of victory the wine was served by female cup-bearers and the sultan beheld his own concubines and wives confounded among the slaves and exposed without a veil to the eyes of intemperance. To escape a similar indignity it is said that his successors except in a single instance have abstained from legitimate nuptials and the Ottoman practice and belief at least in the 16th century is attested by the observing Busebiquius, ambassador from the court of Vienna to the great Solomon. 4. Such is the separation of language that the testimony of a Greek is not less independent than that of a Latin or an Arab. I suppress the names of Calcodenalis and Dukas who flourished in a later period and speak in a less positive tone but more attention is due to George Fransa put to vestia of the last emperors and who was born a year before the battle of Angora. 22 years after that event he was sent ambassador to Amorath II and the historian might converse with some veteran Janissaries who had been made prisoners with the sultan and had themselves seen him in his iron cage. 5. The last evidence in every sense is that of the Turkish annals which have been consulted or transcribed in Kantimir. They unanimously deploy the captivity of the iron cage and some credit may be allowed to national historians who cannot stigmatize the Tartar without uncovering the shame of their king and country. From these opposite premises a fair and moderate conclusion may be deduced. I am satisfied that Sharifadin Ali has faithfully described the first ostentatious interview in which the conqueror whose spirits by success affected the character of generosity. But his mind was insensibly alienated by the unseasonable arrogance of Bajazet. The complaints of his enemies the Anatolian princes were just and vehement and Timur betrayed a design of leading his royal captive in triumph to Samarakand. An attempt to facilitate his escape by digging a mind under a tent provoked the mogul emperor to impose a harsher restraint and in his perpetual marches an iron cage on a wagon might be invented not as a wanton insult but as a rigorous precaution. Timur had read in some fabulous history a similar treatment of one of his predecessors a king of Persia and Bajazet was condemned to represent the person and expiate the guilt of the Roman Caesar. But the strength of his mind and body fainted under the trial and his premature death might be ascribed to the severity of Timur. He warred not with the dead. A tear and a sepulcher were all that he could bestow on a captive who was delivered from his power. And if Mausa, the son of Bajazet was permitted to reign over the ruins of Borsra the greater part of the province of Anatolia had been restored by the conqueror to their lawful sovereigns. From the Irtis and Volga to the Persian Gulf and from the Ganges to Damascus and the archipelago Asia was in the hands of Timur. His armies were invincible, his ambition was boundless and his zeal might aspire to conquer and convert the Christian kingdoms of the west which already trembled at his name. He touched the outmost verge of the land but an insuperable though narrow sea rolled between the two continents of Europe and Asia and the lord of so many Tomans or myriads of horse and the master of a single galley. The two passages of the Bosporus and Helispont of Constantinople and Gallipoli were possessed the one by the Christians and the other by the Turks. On this great occasion they forgot the differences of religion to act with union and firmness in the common cause. The double straits were guarded with ships and fortifications and they separately withheld the transports which Timur demanded from their enemy. At the same time they soothed his pride with tributary gifts and suppliant embassies and prudently tempted him to retreat with the honors of victory. Solomon, the son of Bajazet implored his clemency for his father and himself accepted by a red patent the Investager of the Kingdom of Romania which he already held by the sword and reiterated his ardent wish of casting himself in person the Greek Emperor either John or Manuel submitted to pay the same tribute which he had stipulated with the Turkish Sultan and ratified the treaty by an oath of allegiance from which he could absolve his conscience so soon as the mogul arms had retired from Anatolia. But the fears and fancy of nations ascribed to the ambitious Tamerlane a new design of vast and romantic compass a design of subduing Egypt and Africa from the Nile to the Atlantic Ocean entering Europe by the Straits of Gibraltar and after imposing his yoke on the kingdoms of Christendom on returning home by the deserts of Russia and Tartary. This remote and perhaps imaginary danger was averted by the submission of the Sultan of Egypt the honors of the prayer and the coin attested at Cairo the supremacy of Timor and a rare gift of a giraffe or camel leopard and nine ostriches represented at Samaritan the tribute of the African world. Our imagination is not less astonished by the portrait of a mogul who in his camp before Smyrna meditates and almost accomplishes the invasion of the Chinese empire. Timor was urged to this enterprise by national honor and religious zeal the torrents which he had shed of Muselman blood could be expiated only by an equal destruction of the infidels and as he now stood at the gates of paradise he might best secure his glorious entrance by demolishing the idols of China founding mosques in every city and establishing the profession of the faith in one god and his prophet Muhammad. The recent expulsion of the house of Zhingus was an insult on the mogul name and the disorders of the empire afforded the fairest opportunity for revenge. The illustrious Hung Vu leader of the dynasty of Ming died four years before the battle of Angora and his grandson a weak and unfortunate youth was burnt in his palace after a million of Chinese had perished in a civil war. Before he evacuated Anatolia Timor dispatched beyond the Sihun a numerous army or rather colony of his old and new subjects to open the road to subdue the pagan kaumuks and mungals and to found cities and magazines in the desert and by the diligence of his lieutenant he soon received a perfect map in description of the unknown regions from the source of the irtish to the wall of China. During these preparations the emperor achieved the final conquest of Georgia passed the winner on the banks of the Eroxes appeased the troubles of Persia and slowly returned to his capital after a campaign of four years and nine months. End of chapter 65 part 2 chapter 65 part 3 of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire volume 6 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org the history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire volume 6 by Edward Gibbon chapter 65 part 3 on the throne of Samarakand he displayed in a short repose his magnificence and power listened to the complaints of the people distributed a just measure of rewards and punishments employed his riches in the architecture of palaces and temples and gave audience to the ambassadors of Egypt, Arabia, India, Tartary, Russia and Spain the last of whom presented a suit of tapestry which eclipsed the pencil of the oriental artists the marriage of six of the emperor's grandsons was esteemed an act of religion as well as of paternal tenderness and the pomp of the ancient caliphs was revived in their nuptials they were celebrated in the gardens of Canighol decorated with innumerable tents and pavilions which displayed the luxury of a great city and the spoils of a victorious camp whole forests were cut down to supply fuel for the kitchens the pyramids of meat and vases of every liquor to which thousands of guests were courtesely invited the orders of the state and nations of the earth were marshaled at the royal banquet nor were the ambassadors of Europe, says the haughty persian excluded from the feast since even the Cassis the smallest of fish find their place in the ocean the public joy was testified by illuminations and masquerades the trades of Samaritan passed in review and every trade was emulous to execute some quaint device some marvelous pageant with the materials of their peculiar art after the marriage contracts had been ratified by the catees the bridegrooms and their brides retired to the nuptial chambers nine times, according to the asiatic fashion they were dressed and undressed and at each change of apparel pearls and rubies were showered on their heads and contemptuously abandoned a general indulgence was proclaimed every law was relaxed every pleasure was allowed the people was free the sovereign was idle and the historian of Timor may remark that after devoting fifty years to the attainment of empire, the only happy period of his life were the two months in which he ceased to exercise his power but he was soon awakened to the cares of government and war this standard was unfurled for the invasion of China the emirs made their report of two hundred thousand the select and veteran soldiers of Iran and Turan their baggage and provisions were transported by five hundred great wagons and an immense train of horses and camels and the troops might prepare for a long absence since more than six months were employed in the tranquil journey of a caravan from Samaritan to Pekin neither age nor the severity of winter could retard the impatience of Timor he mounted on horseback passed the Sihun on the ice marched seventy-six parasangs three hundred miles from his capital and pitched his last camp in the neighborhood of Ultrar where he was expected by the angel of death fatigue and the indiscreet use of ice water accelerated the progress of his fever and the conqueror of Asia expired in the seventieth year of his age thirty-five years after he had ascended the throne of Zagatai his designs were lost his armies were disbanded China was saved and fourteen years after his decease the most powerful of his children sent an embassy of friendship and commerce to the court of Pekin the fame of Timor has pervaded the east and west his posterity is still invested with the imperial title and the admiration of his subjects who revered him almost as a deity may be justified in some degree by the praise or confession of his bitterest enemies although he was lame of hand and foot his form and stature were not unworthy of his rank and his vigorous health so essential to himself and to the world was corroborated by temperance and exercise in his familiar discourse he was grave and modest in the amusement of the Arabic language he spoke with fluency and elegance the Persian and Turkish idioms it was his delight to converse with the learned on topics of history and science and the amusement of his leisure hours was the game of chess which he improved or corrupted with new refinements in his religion he was a zealous though not perhaps an orthodoxed muslim but his sound understanding may tempt us to believe that his sense for omens and prophecies for saints and astrologers was only affected as an instrument of policy in the government of a vast empire he stood alone and absolute without a rebel to oppose his power a favorite to seduce his affections or a minister to mislead his judgment it was his firmest maxim that whatever might be the consequence the word of the prince should never be disputed or recalled but his foes he maliciously observed that the commands of anger and destruction were more strictly executed than those of beneficence and favor his sons and grandsons of whom Timur left 6 and 30 at his decease were his first and most submissive subjects and whenever they deviated from their duty they were corrected according to the laws of Zingas with the bastanade and afterwards restored to honor and command perhaps his heart was not devoid of the social virtues perhaps he was not incapable of loving his friends and pardoning his enemies but the rules of morality are founded on the public interest and it may be sufficient to applaud the wisdom of a monarch for the liberality by which he was not impoverished and for the justice by which he is strengthened and enriched to maintain the harmony of authority and obedience to chastise the proud to protect the weak and the deserving to banish vice and idleness from his dominions to secure the traveler and merchant to restrain the depredations of the soldier to cherish the labors of the husband men to encourage industry and learning and by an equal and moderate assessment to increase the revenue without increasing the taxes are indeed the duties of a prince but in the discharge of these duties he finds an ample and immediate recompense and therefore might boast that at his accession to the throne Asia was the prey to anarchy and repine whilst under his prosperous monarchy a child fearless and unhurt might carry a purse of gold from the east to the west such was his confidence of merit that from this reformation he derived an excuse for his victories and a title to universal dominion the four following observations will serve to appreciate his claim to the public gratitude and perhaps we shall concede that the mogul emperor was rather the scourge than the benefactor of mankind one if some partial disorders some local oppressions were healed by the sword of Timor the remedy was far more pernicious than the disease by their repine cruelty and discord the petty tyrants of Persia might afflict their subjects and their citizens were crushed under the footsteps of the reformer the ground which had been occupied by flourishing cities was often marked by his abominable trophies by columns or pyramids of human heads Astrakhan Charizmi Delhi Ispahan Baghdad Aleppo Damascus Borsra and perhaps his conscience would have been startled if a priest or philosopher had dared to number the millions of victims whom he had sacrificed to the establishment of peace and order two his most destructive wars were rather inroads than conquests he invaded Turkestan Kipsak Russia Syria Anatolia Europe or a desire of preserving those distant provinces from thence he departed laden with spoil but he left behind him neither troops to all the contumaceous nor magistrates to protect the obedient natives when he had broken the fabric of their ancient government he abandoned them to the evils which his invasion had aggravated or caused nor were these evils compensated by any present or possible benefits three the kingdoms of Trans-Axiana and Persia were the proper field which he labored to cultivate and adorn as the perpetual inheritance of his family but his peaceful labors were often interrupted and sometimes blasted by the absence of the conqueror while he triumphed on the Volga or the Ganges his servants and even his sons forgot their master and their duty the public and private injuries were poorly redressed by the tardy rigor of inquiry and punishment and we must be content to praise the institutions of Timor as the specious idea of a perfect monarchy four whatever might be the blessings of his administration they evaporated with his life to reign rather than to govern was the ambition of his children and grandchildren the enemies of each other and of the people a fragment of the empire was upheld with some glory by Sharok, his youngest son but after his decease the scene was again involved in darkness and blood and before the end of a century Trans-Axiana and Persia were trampled by the Uzbeks from the north and the Turkmens of the black and white sheep the race of Timor would have been extinct if a hero his descendant in the fifth degree had not fled before the Uzbek arms to the conquest of Hindustan his successors the great moguls extended their sway from the mountains from Kandahar to Cape Komorin and from Kandahar to the Gulf of Bengal since the reign of Aurangzeb their empire has been dissolved their treasures of Delhi has been rifled by a Persian robber and the riches of their kingdoms is now possessed by a company of Christian merchants of a remote island in the northern ocean far different was the fate of the Ottoman monarchy the massy trunk was bent to the ground but no sooner did the hurricane pass away than it again rose with fresh vigor and more lively vegetation when Timor in every sense had evacuated Anatolia he left the cities without a palace a treasure or a king the open country was overspread with hordes of shepherds and robbers of tartar or Turkmen origin the recent conquests of Bajazet were restored to the Amirs one of whom in base revenge demolished his sepulcher five sons were eager by civil discord to consume the remnant of their patrimony I shall enumerate their names in the order of their age and actions one it is doubtful whether I relate the story of the true Mustafa or of an imposter who personated that lost prince he fought by his father's side in the battle of Angara but when the captive Sultan was permitted to inquire for his children Mausa alone could be found and the Turkish historians the slaves of the triumphant faction are persuaded that his brother was confounded among the slain if Mustafa escaped from that disastrous field he was concealed 12 years from his friends and enemies till he emerged in Thessaly and was hailed by a numerous party as the son and successor of Bajazet his first defeat would have been his last had not the true or false had been saved by the Greeks and restored after the decease of his brother Mohammed to liberty and empire a degenerate mine seemed to argue his spurious birth and if, on the throne of Adrianople he was adorned as the Ottoman Sultan his flight, his fetters and an ignominious gibbet delivered the imposter to popular contempt a similar character and claim was asserted by several rival pretenders thirty persons are said to have suffered under the name of Mustafa and these frequent executions may perhaps insinuate that the Turkish court was not perfectly secure of the death of the lawful Prince two after his father's captivity Isa reigned for some time in the neighborhood of Angora Sinope and the Black Sea and his ambassadors were dismissed from the presence of Timur with fair promises and honorable gifts Timur master was soon deprived of his province and life by a jealous brother the sovereign of Amasya in the final event suggested a pious illusion that the law of Moses and Jesus of Isa and Mousa had been aggravated by the greater Mohammed Solomon is not numerated in the list of Turkish emperors yet he checked the victorious progress of the moguls and after their departure in the battle the thrones of Adrianople and Borsra in war he was brave, active and fortunate his courage was softened by clemency but it was likewise inflamed by presumption and corrupted by intemperance and idleness he relaxed the nerves of discipline in a government where either the subject or the sovereign must continually tremble his vices alienated the chiefs of the army and the law that was contemptible in a prince and a man was doubly odious in a disciple of the prophet in the slumber of intoxication he was surprised by his brother Mousa and as he fled from Adrianople towards the Byzantine capital Solomon was overtaken and slain in a bath after a reign of seven years and ten months four the investiture of Mousa degraded him as the slave of the moguls the kingdom of Anatolia was confined within a narrow limit nor could his broken militia and empty treasury contend with the hardy and veteran bands of the sovereign of Romania Mousa fled in disguise from the palace of Borsra traversed the propontis in an open boat wandered over the Wallachian and Servian hills and after some vain attempts ascended the throne of Adrianople so recently stained with the blood of Solomon in a reign of three years and a half his troops were victorious against the Christians of Hungary and the Moria but Mousa was ruined by his timorous disposition and unseasonable clemency after resigning the sovereignty of Anatolia he fell a victim to the perfidy of his ministers in the superior ascendant of his brother Mohammed five the final victory of Mohammed was the just recompense of his prudence and moderation before his father's captivity the royal youth had been entrusted with the government of Mousa 30 days journey from Constantinople in the Turkish frontier against the Christians of Tresobond and Georgia the castle in Asiatic warfare was esteemed impregnable and the city of Mousa which is equally divided by the river Iris rises on either side in the form of an amphitheater and represents on a smaller scale the image of Baghdad in his rapid career Timor seems to have overlooked this obscure and contumaceous angle of Anatolia and Mohammed without provoking the conqueror maintained his silent independence and chased from the province the last dragglers of the Tartar host he relieved himself from the dangerous neighborhood of Issa but in the contests of their more powerful brethren his firm neutrality was respected till after the triumph of Mousa he stood forth the heir and avenger of the unfortunate Solomon Mohammed obtained Anatolia by treaty and Romania by arms and the soldiers who presented him with the head of Mousa was rewarded as the benefactor of his king and country the eight years of his soul and peaceful reign were usefully employed in banishing the vices of civil discord and restoring on a firmer basis the Ottoman monarchy his last care was the choice of two viziers Bajazet and Ibrahim who might guide the youth of his son Amorath in such was their union and prudence that they concealed above 40 days the emperor's death till the arrival of his successor in the palace of Borsra a new war was kindled in Europe by the prince or imposter Mustafa the first vizier lost his army and his head the unfortunate Ibrahim whose name and family are still revered extinguished the last pretender to the throne of Bajazet and closed the scene of domestic hostility in these conflicts the wisest Turks and indeed the body of the nation were strongly attached to the unity of the empire and Romania and Anatolia so often torn asunder by private ambition were animated by a strong and invincible tendency of cohesion their efforts might have instructed the Christian powers and had they occupied with the Confederate fleet the Straits of Gallipoli the Ottomans at least in Europe might have been speedily annihilated but the schism of the west and the factions in wars of France and England diverted the Latins from this generous enterprise they enjoyed the present respite without a thought of futurity and were often tempted by a momentary interest to serve the common enemy of their religion a colony of Genoese had been planted at Fosya on the Ionian coast was enriched by the lucrative monopoly of Alam and their tranquility under the Turkish empire was secured by the annual payment of tribute in the last civil war of the Ottomans the Genoese governor Adorno a bold and ambitious youth embraced the party of Amurath and undertook with seven stout galleys to transport him from Asia to Europe the Sultan in 500 guards embarked on board the admiral ship which was manned by 800 of the bravest Franks his life and liberty were in their hands nor can we without reluctance applaud the fidelity of Adorno who in the midst of the passage knelt before him and gratefully accepted a discharge of his arrears of tribute they landed in sight of Mustafa and Gallipoli 2,000 Italians armed with lances and battle-axes attended Amurath to the conquest of Adrianople and this venal service was soon repaid by the ruin of the commerce and colony of Fosya if Timur had generously marched at the request and to the relief of the Greek emperor he might be entitled to the praise and gratitude of the Christians but a Muselman who carried into Georgia and respected the holy warfare of Bajazet was not disposed to pity or succor the idolaters of Europe the Tartar followed the impulse of ambition and the deliverance of Constantinople was the accidental consequence when Manuel abdicated the government it was his prayer rather than his hope that the ruin of the church and state might be delayed beyond his unhappy days and after his return from a western siege he expected every hour the news of the sad catastrophe on a sudden he was astonished and rejoiced by the intelligence of the retreat the overthrow and the captivity of the Ottoman Manuel immediately sailed from Modan in the Moria ascended the throne of Constantinople and dismissed his blind competitor to an easy exile on the Isle of Lesbos the ambassadors of the son of Bajazet were soon introduced to his presence but their pride was fallen their tone was modest they were awed by the just apprehension lest the Greeks should open to the moguls the gates of Europe Solomon saluted the emperor by the name of father solicited at his hands the government or gift of Romania and promised to deserve his favor by inviolable friendship and the restitution of Thessalonica with the most important places the Strymon the propontus and the black sea the alliance of Solomon exposed the emperor to the enmity and revenge of Mausa the Turks appeared in arms before the gates of Constantinople but they were repulsed by sea and land and unless the city was guarded by some foreign mercenaries the Greeks must have wondered at their own triumph but instead of prolonging the division of the Ottoman powers the policy or passion of Manuel was tempted to assist the most formidable of the sons of Bajazet he concluded a treaty with Mohammed whose purpose was checked by the insuperable barrier of Gallipoli the sultan and his troops were transported over the Bosphorus he was hospitably entertained in the capital and his successful sally was the first step to the conquest of Romania the ruin was suspended by the prudence and moderation of the conqueror he faithfully discharged his own obligations and those of Solomon respected the laws of gratitude and peace and left the emperor guardian of his two younger sons in the vain hope of saving them from the jealous cruelty of their brother Amoroth but the execution of his last testament would have offended the national honor and religion and the divan unanimously pronounced that the royal youths should never be abandoned to the custody and education of a Christian dog on this refusal the Byzantine councils were divided but the age and caution of Manuel yielded to the presumption of his son John and they unsheathed a dangerous weapon of revenge by dismissing the true or false Mustafa who had long been detained as a captive in hostage and for whose maintenance they received an annual pension of 300,000 aspers at the door of his prison Mustafa subscribed to every proposal and the keys of Gallipoli or rather of Europe were stipulated as the price of his deliverance but no sooner was he seated on the throne of Romania then he dismissed the Greek ambassadors with a smile of contempt declaring in a pious voice that at the day of judgment he would rather answer for the violation of an oath than for the surrender of the Muslim and city into the hands of the infidels the emperor was at once the enemy of the two rivals from whom he had sustained and whom he had offered in injury and the victory of Amorath was followed in the ensuing spring by the siege of Constantinople the religious merit of subduing the city of the Caesars attracted from Asia a crowd of volunteers who aspire to the crowd of martyrdom their military ardor was inflamed by the promise of rich spoils and beautiful females and the sultan's ambition was consecrated by the presence and prediction a descendant of the prophet who arrived in the camp on a mule with a venerable train of 500 disciples but he might blush if a fanatic could blush at the failure of his assurances the strength of the walls resisted an army of 200,000 Turks their assaults were repelled by the sallies of the Greeks and their foreign mercenaries the old resources of defense were opposed to the new engines of attack and the enthusiasm of the dervish who was snatched to heaven in visionary converse with Mohammed was answered by the crududely of the Christians who beheld the Virgin Mary in a violet garment walking on the rampart and animating their courage after a siege of two months Amorath was recalled to Borsra by a domestic revolt which had been kindled by Greek treachery and was soon extinguished by the death of a guiltless brother while he led his Janissaries and Asia the Byzantine Empire was indulged in a servile and precarious respite of 30 years Manuel sank into the grave and John Palaeologus was permitted to reign for an annual tribute of 300,000 aspers and the dereliction of almost all that he held beyond the suburbs of Constantinople in the first establishment and restoration of the Turkish Empire the first merit must doubtless the qualities of the sultans since in human life the most important scenes will depend on the character of a single actor by some shades of wisdom and virtue they may be discriminated from each other but, except in a single instance a period of nine reigns and 265 years is occupied from the elevation of Othman to the death of Solomon by a rare series of warlike and active princes who impress their subjects with obedience and their enemies with terror instead of the slothful luxury of the Saragliel the heirs of royalty were educated in the council and the field from early youth they were entrusted by their fathers with the command of provinces and armies and this manly institution which was often productive of civil war must have essentially contributed to the discipline and vigor of the monarchy the Ottomans cannot style themselves like the Arabian Caliphs the descendants or successors of the Apostle of God and the Kinrid which they claim with the Tartor Khans of the House of Zhingus appears to be founded in flattery rather than in truth their origin is obscure but their sacred and indifusible right which no time can erase and no violence can infringe was soon and unalterably implanted in the minds of their subjects a weak or vicious sultan his inheritance devolves to an infant or an idiot nor has the most daring rebel presumed to ascend the throne of his lawful sovereign while the transient dynasties of Asia have been continually subverted by a crafty vizier in the palace or a victorious general in the camp the Ottoman secession has been confirmed by the practice of five centuries and is now incorporated with the vital principle of the Turkish nation to the spirit and constitution of that nation a strong and singular influence may however be ascribed the primitive subjects of Authman were the 400 families of wandering Turkmens who had followed his ancestors from the Axis to the Sangar and the plains of Anatolia are still covered with a white and black tense of their rustic brethren but this original drop who dissolved in the mass of voluntary and vanquished subjects who under the name of Turks are united by the common ties of religion, language and manners in the cities from Erzerum to Belgrade that national appellation is common to all the Muslims, the first and most honorable inhabitants but they have abandoned, at least in Romania the villages and cultivation of the land to the Christian peasants in the vigorous age of the Ottoman government the Turks were themselves excluded from all civil and military honors and a servile class and artificial people was raised by the discipline of education to obey, to conquer and to command from the time of Orkan to the first Amorath the sultans were persuaded that a government of the sword must be renewed in each generation with new soldiers and that such soldiers must be salt not in effeminate Asia but among the hardy and warlike peoples of Europe the provinces of Thrace, Macedonia Albania, Bulgaria and Serbia became the perpetual seminary of the Turkish army and when the royal fifth of the captives was diminished by conquest and in human tax of the fifth child or of every fifth year was rigorously levied on the Christian families at the age of twelve or fourteen years the most robust youths were torn from their parents their names were enrolled in a book and from that moment they were clothed taught and maintained for the public service according to the promise of their appearance they were selected for the royal schools of Borsra Pera and Adrianople entrusted to the care of Bashas or dispersed in the houses of the Anatolian peasantry it was the first care of their masters to instruct them in the Turkish language their bodies were exercised by every labor that could fortify their strength they learned to wrestle, to leap to run, to shoot with the bow and afterwards with the musket till they were drafted into the chambers and companies of the Janissaries and severely trained in the military or monastic discipline of the order the youths most conspicuous for birth talents and beauty were admitted into the inferior classes of Agia Molans or the more liberal rank of Ishogolans of which the former were attached to the palace and the latter to the person of the prince in four successive schools the broad of the white eunuchs the arts of horsemanship and of darting the javelin were the daily exercise while those of a more studious caste applied themselves to the study of the Koran and the knowledge of the Arabic and Persian tongues as they advanced in seniority and merit they were gradually dismissed to military civil and even ecclesiastical employments the longer their stay the higher was their expectation till in a matured period they were admitted into the number of the 40 agas who stood before the sultan and were promoted by his choice to the government of provinces in the first honors of the empire such a mode of institution was admirably adapted to the form and spirit of a despotic monarchy the ministers and generals were in the strictest sense the slaves of the emperor to whose bounty they were indebted for their instruction and support when they left the Saraglio and suffered their beards to grow as the symbol of enfranchisement they found themselves in an important office without faction or friendship without parents and without heirs dependent on the hand which had raised them from the dust and which on the slightest displeasure could break in pieces these statues of glass as they are aptly termed by the Turkish proverb in the slow and painful steps of education their characters and talents were unfolded to a discerning eye naked and alone was reduced to the standard of his personal merit and if the sovereign had wisdom to choose he possessed a pure and boundless liberty of choice the Ottoman candidates were trained by the virtues of abstinence to those of action by the habits of submission to those of command a similar spirit was diffused among the troops and their silence and sobriety their patience and modesty have exhorted the reluctant praise of their Christian enemies nor can the victory appear doubtful if we compare the discipline and exercise of the Janissaries with the pride of birth the independence of chivalry the ignorance of the new levees the mutinous temper of the veterans and the vices of intemperance and disorder which so long contaminated the armies of Europe the only hope of salvation for the Greek Empire and the adjacent kingdoms would have been some more powerful weapon some discovery in the art of war that should give them a decisive superiority over their Turkish foes such a weapon was in their hands such a discovery had been made in the critical moment of their fate the chemists of China or Europe had found by casual or elaborate experiments that a mixture of salt peter, sulfur and charcoal produces with a spark of fire a tremendous explosion we soon observed that if the expansive force were compressed in a strong tube a ball or stone of iron might be expelled with irresistible and destructive velocity the precise era of the invention and application of gunpowder is involved in doubtful traditions and equivocal language yet we may clearly discern that it was known before the middle of the 14th century and that before the end of the same the use of artillery in battles and sieges by sea and land was familiar to the states of Germany, Italy Spain, France and England the priority of nations is of small account none could derive any exclusive benefit from their previous or superior knowledge and in the common improvement they stood on the same level of relative power in military science nor was it possible to circumscribe the secret within the pale of the church it was disclosed to the Turks by the treachery of apostates and the selfish policy of rivals and the sultans had sense to adopt and wealth to reward the talents of a Christian engineer the Genoese who transported Amorath into Europe must be accused as his preceptors and it was possibly by their hands that his canon was cast and directed at the siege of Constantinople the first attempt was indeed unsuccessful but in the general warfare of the age the advantage was on their side who were most commonly the assailants for while the proportion of the attack and defense was suspended and this thundering artillery was pointed against the walls and towers which had been erected only to resist the less potent engines of antiquity by the Venetians the use of gunpowder was communicated without reproach to the sultans of Egypt and Persia their allies against the Ottoman power the secret was soon propagated to the extremities of Asia and the advantage of the European was confined to his easy victories over the savages of the New World if we contrast the rapid progress of this mischievous discovery with the slow and laborious advances of reason science and the arts of peace a philosopher according to his temper will laugh or weep at the folly of mankind end of chapter 65 part 3 chapter 66 part 1 of the history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire volume 4 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org the history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire volume 6 by Edward Gibbon chapter 66 Union of the Greek and Latin Churches chapter 1 applications of the eastern emperors to the popes visits to the west of John I Manuel and John II paleologis Union of the Greek and Latin Churches promoted by the Council of Basil and concluded at Ferrara in Florence State of Literature at Constantinople its revival in Italy by the Greek fugitives curiosity and emulation of the Latins in the last four centuries of the Greek emperors their friendly or hostile aspect towards the Pope and the Latins may be observed as the thermometer of their prosperity or distress as the scale of the rise and fall of the barbarian dynasties when the Turks of the House of Seljuk pervaded Asia and threatened Constantinople as we have seen at the Council of Placentia the suppliate ambassadors of Alexias imploring the protection of the common father of the Christians no sooner had the arms of the French pilgrims removed the Sultan to the east to Iconium then the Greek princes resumed or avowed their genuine hatred and contempt for the schismatics of the west which precipitated the first downfall of their empire the date of the mogul invasion is marked in the soft and charitable language of Zonvatises after the recovery of Constantinople the throne of the first paleologis was encompassed by foreign and domestic enemies as long as the sword of Charles was suspended over his head he basely courted the favour of the Roman Pontif and sacrificed to the present danger his faith, his virtue and the affection of his subjects on the decease of Michael the prince and the people asserted the independence of their church and the purity of their creed the elder Andronicus neither feared nor loved the Latins in his last distress pride was the safeguard of superstition nor could he decently retract in his age the firm and orthodox declarations his grandson the younger Andronicus was less a slave in his temperan situation and the conquest of Bithnia by the Turks admonished him to seek a temporal and spiritual alliance with the western princes after a separation and silence of fifty years a secret agent, the monk Barlam was dispatched to Pope Benedict XII and his artful instructions appear to have been drawn by the master hand of the great domestic most holy father, was he commissioned to say the emperor is not less desirous than yourself of a union between the two churches but in this delicate transaction he is obliged to respect his own dignity and the prejudices of his subjects the ways of union are two fold force and persuasion a force the inefficacy has been already tried since the Latins have subdued the empire without subduing the minds of the Greeks the method of persuasion, though slow is sure and permanent a deputation of thirty or forty of our doctors would probably agree with those of the Vatican in the love of truth and the unity of belief but on their return what would be the use the recompense of such an agreement the scorn of their brethren and their approaches of a blind and obstinate nation yet that nation is accustomed to reverence the general councils which have fixed the articles of our faith and if they reprobate the decrees of Lyon it is because the eastern churches were neither heard nor represented in that arbitrary meeting for this salutary end it will be expedient, even necessary that a well chosen legate should be sent into Greece to convene the patriarchs of Constantinople Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem and with their aid to prepare a free and universal synod but at this moment continued the subtle agent the empire is assaulted and endangered by the Turks who have occupied more of the greatest cities of Anatolia the Christian inhabitants have expressed a wish of returning to their allegiance and religion but the forces and revenues of the emperor are insufficient for their deliverance and the Roman legate must be accompanied or preceded by an army of Franks to expel the infidels and to open away to the Holy Sepulcher if the suspicious Latin should require some pledge some previous effect of the sincerity of the Greeks the answers of Barlow were perspicuous and rational one, a general synod can alone consummate the union of the churches nor can such a synod be held till the three oriental patriarchs and a great number of his bishops are enfranchised from the Mohammedan yoke two, the Greeks are alienated by a long series of oppression and injury they must be reconciled by some act of brotherly love some effectual sucker which may fortify the authority in arguments of the emperor three if some difference of faith or ceremony should be found incurable the Greeks however are the disciples of Christ and the Turks are the common enemies of the Christian name the Armenians, Cyprians and Rhodians are equally attacked and it will become the piety of the French princes to draw their swords in the general defense of religion four should the subjects of Andronicus be treated as the worst of schismatics of heretics, of pagans such as policy may yet instruct the powers of the west to embrace a useful ally to uphold a sinking empire to guard the confines of Europe and rather to join the Greeks against the Turks than to expect the union of the Turkish arms with the troops and treasures of captive Greece the reasons, the offers and the demands of Andronicus were eluded with cold and stately indifference the kings of France and Naples declined the dangers and glory of a crusade to call a new synod to determine 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 style themselves the patriarchs of the eastern churches for such an embassy a time and a character less propitious could not easily have been found Benedict XII 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 Kentakuzine had subdued and pardoned his enemies he was anxious to justify or at least extenuate the introduction of the Turks into Europe with his daughter with the Muslim 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 Rhône 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 VI 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 benefits to the 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 bed-chamber 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 Kentacusine with the project of our Holy War which must redown 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 in 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 disclaimed the servile and arbitrary step of the first paleologous 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 kentacusene 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 paleologous was the best disposed to embrace to believe and to obey the shepherds 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 helispont the son of kentacusene was in arms at Adrienopoul and paleologous could depend neither on himself nor on his people by his mother's advice and in the hope of foreign aid he abjured the rites both of the church and state and the act of slavery subscribed in purple ink and sealed with the golden bull 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 residents and a temple for their worship and to deliver his second son Manuel as the hostage of the faith for these condescensions he requires a prompt sucker of 15 galleys with 500 men in arms and a thousand archers to serve against his Christian and Muslim enemies paleologous 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 in education the legate was empowered to distribute the vacant benefits among the ecclesiastics who should subscribe to the creed of the Vatican three schools were instituted to construct 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 paleologous 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 submission of the Greeks and it was only by secrecy that their sovereign escaped the dishonor of this fruitless humiliation the tempest of the Turkish arms soon burst on his head and after the loss of Adriana Pol in Romania he was enclosed in his capital the vassal of the Hadi Amarath with the miserable hope of being the last devoured by the savage in his abject state paleologous 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 could he seek consolation or relief and with less violation of his dignity he might appear in the sacred college than at the Ottoman port after a long absence the Roman pontiffs were returning from Avignon to the banks of the Tiber urban the fifth of a 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 in 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 the whole procession of the Holy Ghost after this purification he was introduced to a public audience in the church of Saint Peter urban in the midst of the cardinals was seated on his throne the Greek monarch after three genuflections 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 the sumptuous banquet in the Vatican the entertainment of paleologous friendly and honorable 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 in favor 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 of adventurers, the white brotherhood had ravaged Italy from the Alps to Calabria sold his services to the hostile states and incurred a just excommunication by shooting his arrows against the papal residents a special license was granted to negotiate with the outlaw but the forces or the spirit of Hawkwood were unequal to the enterprise and it was for the advantage perhaps of paleologous to be disappointed of sucker that must have been costly that could not be effectual and which might have been dangerous the disconsulent Greek prepared for his return but even his return was impeded by a most ignomious obstacle on his arrival at Venice he had borrowed large sums at exorbitant usury but his coffers were empty his creditors were impatient and his person was detained as the best security for the payment his eldest son, Andronicus the regent of Constantinople had to exhaust every resource and even by stripping the churches to extricate his father from captivity and disgrace but the unnatural youth was insensible of the disgrace and secretly pleased with the captivity of the emperor the state was poor the clergy were obstinate nor could some religious group will be wanting to excuse the guilt of his indifference and delay such undueful neglect was severely reprude by the piety of his brother Manuel who instantly sold or mortgaged all that he possessed embarked for Venice relieved his father and pledged his own freedom to be responsible for the debt on his return to Constantinople the parent and king distinguished his two sons with suitable rewards but the faith and manners of the slothful paleologists had not been improved by his Roman pilgrimage and his apostasy or conversion devoid of any spiritual or temporal effects was speedily forgotten by the Greeks and Latins thirty years after the return of paleologists Manuel from a similar motive but on a larger scale again visited the countries of the west in a preceding chapter I have related his treaty with Bajzet the violation of that treaty the siege or blockade of Constantinople and the French sucker under the command of the Gallant Bacicol by his ambassadors Manuel had solicited the Latin powers and it was thought that the presence of a distressed monarch would draw tears and supplies from the hardest barbarians and the marshal who advised the journey prepared the reception of the Byzantine prince the land was occupied by the Turks but the navigation of Venice was safe and open Italy received him as the first or at least as the second of the Christian princes Manuel was pitied as the champion and confessor of the faith and the dignity of his behavior prevented that pity from sinking into contempt from Venice he proceeded to Padua and Pavia and even the Duke of Milan a secret ally of Bajzet gave him safe and honorable conduct to the verge of his dominions on the confines of France the royal officers undertook the care of his person journey and expenses and two thousand of the richest citizens in arms and on horseback came forth to meet him as far as Charinthin in the neighborhood of the capital at the gates of Paris he was saluted by the chancellor and the parliament and Charles VI attended by his princes and nobles welcomed his brother with a cordial embrace the successor of Constantine was clothed in a robe of white silk and mounted on a milk-white steed a circumstance in the French ceremonial of singular importance the white color is considered as the symbol of sovereignty and in a late visit the German emperor after a haughty demand in a peevish refusal had been reduced to content himself with a black coarser Manuel was lodged in the Louvre a succession of feast symbols the pleasures of the banquet and the chase were ingeniously varied by the politeness of the French to display their magnificence and amuse his grief he was indulged in the liberty of his chapel and the doctors of the Sorbonne were astonished and possibly scandalized by the language, the rites and the vestiments of his Greek clergy but the slightest glance on the state of the kingdom must teach him to despair of any effectual assistance the unfortunate Charles though he enjoyed some lucid intervals continually relapsed into furious or stupid insanity the reigns of government were alternately seized by his brother and uncle the Ducs of Orleans and Burgundy whose factuous competition prepared the miseries of civil war the former was a gay youth dissolved in luxury and love the latter was the father of John Count of Navers who had so lately been ransomed from Turkish captivity and if the fearless son was ardent to revenge his defeat he was content with the cost and peril of the first experiment when Manuel had satiated the curiosity and perhaps fatigued the patience of the French he resolved on a visit to the adjacent island in his progress from Dover he was entertained at Canterbury with due reverence by the prior and monks of St. Austen and on Blackheath, King Henry IV with the English court saluted the Greek hero I copy our old historian who during many days was lodged as emperor of the east but the state of England was still more adverse to the design of the Holy War in the same year the hereditary sovereign had been deposed and murdered the reigning prince was a successful usurper whose ambition was punished by jealousy and remorse nor could Henry of Lancaster withdraw his person or forces from the defense of a throne incessantly shaken by conspiracy and rebellion he pitied, he praised he feasted the emperor of Constantinople but if the English monarch assumed the cross it was only to appease his people and perhaps his conscience by the merit or semblance of his pious intention satisfied however with gifts and honors Manuel returned to Paris and after a residence of two years in the west shaped his course through Germany and Italy embarked at Venice and patiently expected in the Moria the moment of his ruin or deliverance yet he had escaped the ignomious necessity of offering his religion to public or private sale the Latin church was distracted by the great schism the kings, the nations, the universities of Europe were divided in their obedience between the popes of Rome and Avignon and the emperor anxious to conciliate the friendship of both parties abstained from any correspondence with the indigent or unpopular rivals his journey coincided with the year of the Jubilee but he passed through Italy without desiring or deserving the plenary indulgence which abolished the guilt or penance of the sins of the faithful the Roman pope was offended by this neglect accused him of irreverence to an image of Christ and exhorted the princes of Italy to reject and abandon the obstinate schismatic End of Chapter 66 Part 1 Chapter 66 Part 2 of the history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire Volume 6 This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org The history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire Volume 6 by Edward Gibbon Chapter 66 Union of the Greek and Latin Churches Part 2 During the period of the Crusades the Greeks beheld with astonishment and terror the perpetual stream of immigration that flowed and continued to flow from the unknown climates of their West The visits of their last emperors of separation and they disclosed to their eyes the powerful nations of Europe whom they no longer presumed to brand with the name of barbarians The observation of Manuel and his more inquisitive followers have been preserved by a Byzantine historian of the times His scattered ideas I shall collect in a bridge and it may be amusing enough, perhaps instructive to contemplate the rude pictures of Germany France and England whose ancient and modern state are so important to our minds 1. Germany, says the Greek Calcandilles, is of ample latitude from Vienna to the ocean and it stretches a strange geography from Prague to Bohemia in the river Tartesis and the Pyrenean mountains The soil except in figs and olives is sufficiently fruitful The air is salubrious The bodies of the natives are robust and healthy and these cold regions are seldom visited with the calamities of pestulence or earthquakes After the Scythians or Tartes the Germans are the most numerous of nations They are brave and patient and where they united under a single head their force would be irresistible By the gift of the Pope they have acquired the privilege of choosing the Roman Emperor nor is any people more devoutly attached to the faith and obedience of the Latin patriarch The greatest part of the country is divided among the princes and prelates but Strasbourg, Cologne Hamburg and more than 200 free cities are governed by sage and equal laws according to the will and for the advantage of the whole community The use of duels or single combats on foot prevails among them in peace and war Their industry excels in all the mechanic arts and the Germans may boast of the invention of gunpowder and cannon which is now diffused over the greatest part of the world Two The Kingdom of France is spread above today's journey from Germany to Spain and from the Alps to the British Ocean containing many flourishing cities and among these Paris the seat of the king which surpasses the rest in riches and luxury Many princes and lords alternately wait in his palace and acknowledge him as their sovereign The most powerful are the dukes of Britannia and Burgundy of whom the latter possesses the wealthy province of Flanders whose harbors are frequented by the ships and boats seas The French are an ancient and opulent people and their language and manners, though somewhat different are not dissimilar from those of the Italians Vain of the imperial dignity of Charlemagne of their victories over the Saracens and of the exploits of their heroes Oliver and Roland they esteem themselves the first of the western nations but this foolish arrogance has been recently humbled by the unfortunate events of their wars against the English the inhabitants of the British island Three Britain in the ocean and opposite to the shores of Flanders may be considered either as one or as three islands but the whole is united by common interest by the same manners and by a similar government The measure of its circumference is five thousand stadia the land is overspread with towns and villages, though destitute of wine and not abounding 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 London, the metropolis of the isle may claim a preeminence 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 Golic Sea and the daily flow and ebb of the tide affords a safe entrance and departure to the vessels of commerce The king is head of a powerful and turbulent aristocracy he holds 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 longbow 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 neighbors of France but the most singular circumstance of their manners is their disregard of conjugal honor and a female chastity in their mutual visits as the first act of hospitality the guest is welcomed in the embrace 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 consequences 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 salute with a criminal embrace but his credulity and injustice may teach an important lesson to distrust the accounts of foreign and remote nations and to suspend our belief of every tale that deviates from the laws of nature and the character of man after his return and the victory of Timor Manuel reigned many years in prosperity and peace as long as the sons of Bajazet solicited his friendship and spared his dominions he was satisfied with the national religion and his leisure was employed in composing twenty theological dialogues for its defense 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, Muhammad Marath, reconciled the emperor to the Vatican and the siege of Constantinople almost tempted him to acquiesce in the double procession of the Holy Ghost when Martin V ascended without arrival the chair of Saint Peter a friendly intercourse of letters and embassies was revived between the East and West ambition on one side and distress on the other dictated the same decent language of charity and peace the artful Greek expressed a desire of marrying his six sons to Italian princesses and the Roman, not less artful dispatched 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 escape from the importunate pressure by urging the duty of inquiry 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 Greeks insisted on three successive measures a succor, a council, and a final reunion while the Latins eluded the second and only promised the first as a consequential 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 Faliologis, 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 Franza his favorite Chamberlain and 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 present this danger before their eyes propose a council consult on the means but ever delay and avoid the convocation of an assembly 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 defense at the mercy of the barbarians impatient of the salutary lesson the royal youth arose from his seat and departed in silence and the wise monarch continued Franza casting his eyes on me to his discourse my son deems himself a great and heroic prince but alas! our miserable age doth 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 emperor but a cautious steward of the last relics of our fortunes well do I remember the lofty expectations which he built on our alliance with Mustafa and much do I fear that this rash courage will urge the ruin of our house and that even religion may precipitate our downfall 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 habit of a monk he terminated his career dividing his precious movables among his children and the poor his physicians and his favorite servants of his six sons Andronicus II was invested with the principality of Thessalonica soon after the sale of that city to the Venetians and its final conquest by the Turks some fortunate instance had restored Peloponnesus or the Moria to the empire and in his more prosperous days Manuel had fortified the narrow isthmus of six miles 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 contest the remains of their strength and the least successful of the rivals were reduced to a life of dependence on the Byzantine palace The eldest of the sons of Manuel John Paleologius II was acknowledged after his father's death as the sole emperor of the Greeks He immediately proceeded to repudiate his wife and to contract a new marriage with the princess of Trebizond Beauty was in his eyes and the clerk had yielded to his firm assurance that unless he might be indulged in a divorce he would retire to a cloister and leave the throne to his brother Constantine The first and in truth the only victory of Paleologius was over a Jew whom after a long and learned dispute he converted to the Christian faith and this momentous conquest is carefully recorded in the history 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 V and coldly entertained by his successor Eugenius till after a tedious negotiation the emperor received a summons from the Latin assembly of a new character the independent prelates of Basil who styled themselves the representatives and judges of the Catholic Church The Roman Pontiff had fought and conquered in 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 commendums disappointed by reversionary grants and superseded by previous and arbitrary reservations A public auction was instituted in the court of Rome The cardinals and favorites were enriched with the spoils of nations and every country might complain that the most important and valuable benefits were accumulated on the heads of aliens and absentees During their residence at Avignon the ambitions of the Pope subsided in the meaner passions of avarice and luxury They rigorously imposed on the clergy the tributes of first fruits and tents but they freely tolerated the impunity of vice, disorder and corruption These manifold scandals were aggravated by the great schism of the West which continued above fifty years In the furious conflicts of Rome and Avignon the vices of the rivals were mutually exposed and their precarious situations degraded their authority relaxed their discipline and multiplied their wants and exactions To heal the wounds and to restore the monarchy of the church the synods of Pisa and Constance were successively convened but these great assemblies, conscience of their strength resolved to vindicate the privileges of the Christian aristocracy From a personal sentence against two Pontiffs whom they rejected and a third their acknowledged sovereign whom they deposed the fathers of Constance proceeded to examine the nature and limits of the Roman supremacy nor did they separate till they had established the authority above the Pope of a general council It was enacted that for the government and reformation of the church such assemblies should be held at regular intervals and that each synod, before its dissolution should appoint the time and place of the next subsequent meeting By the influence of the court at Rome the next convocation at Siena was easily eluded but the bold and vigorous proceedings of the council of Basil had almost been fatal to the reigning Pontiff Eugenius IV A just suspicion of his design prompted the fathers to hasten the promulgation of their first decree that the representatives of the church militant on earth were invested with a divine and spiritual jurisdiction over all Christians without accepting the Pope and that a general council could not be dissolved, prorogued, or transferred unless by their free deliberation and consent On the notice that Eugenius had fulminated a bull for that purpose they ventured to summon, to admonish, to threaten to censure the contumatious successor of St. Peter After many delays to allow time for repentance they finally declared that unless he submitted within the term of sixty days he was suspended from the exercise of all temporal and ecclesiastical authority and to mark their jurisdiction over the 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 Sigismund 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 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 Sigismund 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 fathers 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 patriarch of Constantinople to unite with an assembly which possessed the confidence of the western nations Paleologous was not adverse to the proposal and his ambassadors were introduced with due honors into the Catholic senate But the choice of the place appeared to be an insuperable obstacle since he refused to pass the Alps or the Sea of Sicily It was 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 most readily stipulated It was agreed to defray the traveling expenses of the emperor with a train of seven hundred persons to remit an immediate sum of eight thousand dukets for the accommodation of the Greek clergy and in his absence to grant a supply of ten thousand dukets with three hundred archers and some galleys for the protection of Constantinople The city of Avignon advanced the funds for the preliminary expenses and the embarkation was prepared at Marseille with some difficulty in delay In his distress the friendship of Paleologous was disputed by the ecclesiastical powers of the west but the dexterous activity of a monarch prevailed over the slow debates and inflexible temper of a republic The decrees of Basil continually tended to circumscribe the despotism of 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 pretense for translating a rebellious synod from the Rhine to the Po The independence 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 a haughty declaration that after suppressing the new heresy of the Bohemians the council would soon eradicate the old heresy of the Greeks On the side of Eugenius all was smooth, 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 the Italian city Nine galleys were equipped for the service at Venice and in the Isle of Candia their diligence anticipated the 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 formally contended for the preeminence of glory Assaulted by the importunity of the factions who were ready to fight for the possession of his person paleologous 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 amongst themselves they could never unite in a foreign cause Sigismund dissuaded the unreasonable adventure his advice was impartial since he adhered to the council and it was enforced by the strange belief that the German Caesar would nominate a Greek his heir and successor in the Empire of the West even the Turkish Sultan was a counsellor whom it might be unsafe to trust but whom it was dangerous to offend Amarath 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 seeming magnanimity that Constantinople should be secure and inviolate in the absence of her sovereign the resolution of paleologous 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 galleys 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 the 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 the five cross-bearers or dignitaries of Saint Sophia were bound to attend his person and one of these, the great ecclesiarch or preacher Sylvester Syropolis has composed a free and curious history of the false union of the clergy that reluctantly obeyed the summons of the emperor and the patriarch submission was the first duty in patience the most useful virtue in a chosen list of twenty bishops we discover the metropolitan titles of Heraclea and Cisacus Nice and Nicomedia, Ephesus and Trebizond and the personal merit of Mark and Bessarion who in the confidence of their learning and eloquence were promoted to the Episcopal rank some monks and philosophers were named to display the science and sanctity of the Greek church and the service of the choir was performed by a select band of singers and musicians the patriarchs of Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem appeared by their genuine or fictitious deputies the primate of Russia represented a national church and the Greeks might contend with the Latins in the extent of their spiritual empire the precious phases of Saint Sophia were exposed to the winds and waves that the patriarch might officiate with becoming splendor whatever gold the emperor could procure was expended in the massy ornaments of his bed and chariot and while they affected to maintain the prosperity of their ancient fortune they quarreled for the division of fifteen thousand dukets the first alms of the Roman pontiff after the necessary preparations John Paleologius with a numerous train accompanied by his brother Demetrius and the most respectable persons of the church and state embarked in eight vessels with sails and ores that steered through the Turkish straits of Gallipoli to the archipelago the Moria and the Adriatic Gulf End of chapter 66 part 2