disclaimed the servile and arbitrary steps of the first Palæologus; and firmly declared that he would never submit his conscience unless to the decrees of a free and universal synod. "The situation of the times (continued he) will not allow the pope and myself to meet either at Rome or Constantinople; but some maritime city may be chosen on the verge of the two empires, to unite the bishops, and to instruct the faithful, of the East and West." The nuncios seemed content with the proposition; and Cantacuzene affects to deplore the failure of his hopes, which were soon overthrown by the death of Clement, and the different temper of his successor. His own life was prolonged, but it was prolonged in a cloister; and, except by his prayers, the humble monk was incapable of directing the councils of his pupil or the state.*

In the

Yet of all the Byzantine princes, that pupil, John Palæologus, was the best disposed to embrace, to believe, and to obey, the shepherd of the West. His mother, Anne of Savoy, was baptized in the bosom of the Latin Church; her marriage with Andronicus imposed a change of name, of apparel, and of worship, but her heart was still faithful to her country and religion; she had formed the infancy of her son, and she governed the emperor, after his mind, or at least his stature, was enlarged to the size of man. first year of his deliverance and restoration, the Turks were still masters of the Hellespont; the son of Cantacuzene was in arms at Adrianople; and Palæologus could depend neither on himself nor on his people. By his mother's advice, and in the hope of foreign aid, he abjured the rights both of the church and state; and the act of slavery,† subscribed in purple ink, and sealed with the golden bull, was privately intrusted to an Italian agent. The first article of the treaty is an oath of fidelity and obedience to Innocent the Sixth and his successors, the supreme pontiffs of the Roman and Catholic church. The emperor promises to entertain, with due reverence, their legates and nuncios; to

* See this whole negotiation in Cantacuzene (1. 4, c. 9), who, amidst the praises and virtues which he bestows on himself, reveals the uneasiness of a guilty conscience. See this ignominious

treaty in Fleury (Hist. Ecclés. p. 151-154), from Raynaldus, who drew it from the Vatican archives. It was not worth the trouble

of a pious forgery.

VOL. VII.

P

assign a palace for their residence, and a temple for their worship; and to deliver his second son Manuel as the hostage of his faith. For these condescensions he requires a prompt succour of fifteen galleys, with five hundred men at arms, and a thousand archers, to serve against his Christian and Mussulman enemies. Palæologus engages to impose on his clergy and people the same spiritual yoke; but as the resistance of the Greeks might be justly foreseen, he adopts the two effectual methods of corruption and education. The legate was empowered to distribute the vacant benefices among the ecclesiastics who should subscribe the creed of the Vatican; three schools were instituted to instruct the youth of Constantinople in the language and doctrine of the Latins; and the name of Andronicus, the heir of the empire, was enrolled as the first student. Should he fail in the measures of persuasion or force, Palæologus declares himself unworthy to reign; transferred to the pope all regal and paternal authority; and invests Innocent with full power to regulate the family, the government, and the marriage, of his son and successor. But this treaty was neither executed nor published; the Roman galleys were as vain and imaginary as the submission of the Greeks; and it was only by the secrecy, that their sovereign escaped the dishonour, of this fruitless humiliation.

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

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

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

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

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

*

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 residence. A special licence was granted to negotiate with the outlaw, but the forces, or the spirit of Hawkwood, were unequal to the enter prise; and it was for the advantage, perhaps, of Palæologus to be disappointed of a succour, that must have been costly, that could not be effectual, and which might have been dangerous. The disconsolate Greek † prepared for his return, but even his return was impeded by a most ignominious 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, was repeatedly urged 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 was obstinate; nor could some religious scruple be wanting to excuse the guilt of his indifference and delay. Such undutiful neglect was severely reproved by the piety of his brother Manuel, who instantly with such honours as the republic has not paid to Dante or Petrarch. (Muratori, Annali d'Italia. tom. xii. p. 212-371.)

* This torrent of English (by birth or service) overflowed from France into Italy after the peace of Bretigny in 1360. Yet the exclamation of Muratori (Annali, tom. xii. p. 197) is rather true than civil. "Ci mancava ancor questo, che dopo essere calpestrata l'Italia da tanti masnadieri Tedeschi ed Ungheri, venissero fin dall' Inghliterra nuovi cani a finire di divorarla." [The accusation is as untrue as it is uncivil. These English mercenaries, men who had fought at Cressy and Poictiers, were invited into Italy to assist its rival States in their petty wars. Sir John Hawkwood, their commander, was formed in the school of Edward III. and received from him his knighthood. After shorter engagements to the Visconti and the pope, he devoted himself to the Florentines, and died as their general. He was "the first distinguished commander, who had appeared in Europe, since the destruction of the Roman empire-the first real general of modern times the earliest master, however imperfect, in the science of Turenne and Wellington." (Hallam's Middle Ages, i. 498-502.)-ED.] +Chalcocondylas, 1. 1, p. 25, 26. The Greek supposes his journey to the king of France, which is sufficiently refuted by the silence of the national historians. Nor am I much more inclined to believe that

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 Palæologus had not been improved by his Roman pilgrimage; and his apostacy or conversion, devoid of any spiritual or temporal effects, was speedily forgotten by the Greeks and Latins.*

Thirty years after the return of Palæologus, his son and successor, 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 Bajazet, the violation of that treaty, the siege or blockade of Constantinople, and the French succour under the command of the gallant Boucicault.† By his ambassadors, Manuel had solicited the Latin powers; but 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 behaviour 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 Bajazet, gave him safe and honourable conduct to the verge of his dominions.§ On the confines of France the royal officers undertook the care of his person,

Palæologus departed from Italy, valde bene consolatus et contentus. (Vit. Urban. V. p. 623.) * His return in 1370, and the coronation of Manuel, Sept. 25, 1373 (Ducange, Fam. Byzant. p. 241), leave some intermediate era for the conspiracy and punishment of Andronicus. + Mémoires de Boucicault, His journey into the west of Europe is slightly, and I believe reluctantly, noticed by Chalcocondylas (1. 2, c. 44-50) and Ducas (c. 14).

p. 1, c. 35, 36.

§ Muratori, Annali d'Italia, tom. xii. p. 406. John Galeazzo was the first and most powerful duke of Milan. His connection with Bajazet is attested by Froissart; and he contributed to save and deliver the French captives of Nicopolis.

For the reception of Manuel at Paris, see Spondanus (Annal