CHAP. princes of Italy to reject and abandon the obstinate schismatic.21 LXVI. Greek and descriptions During the period of the crusades, the Greeks beheld with knowledge astonishment and terror the perpetual stream of emigration that flowed, and continued to flow, from the unknown climates of the West. The visits of their last emperors removed the veil 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 observations of Manuel, and his more inquisitive followers, have been preserved by a Byzantine historian of the times: 22 his scattered ideas I shall collect and abridge; 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 familiar to our minds. I. GERMANY (says the Greek Chalcondyles) is of ample latitude from Vienna to the Ocean; and it stretches (a strange geo graphy) from Prague in Bohemia to the river Tartessus, and the Pyrenæan mountains.23 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 pestilence, or earthquakes. After the Scythians or Tartars, the Germans are the most numerous of nations; they are brave and patient, and were they united under a single head their force would be irresistible. By the gift of the pope, they have acquired the privilege of chusing the Roman emperor ;24 of Germany; nor 21 This fact is preserved in the Historia Politica, A. D. 1391...1478, published by Martin Crusius (Turco Græcia, p. 1...43) The image of Christ, which the Greek emperor refused to worship, was probably a work of sculp ture. 22 The Greek and Turkish history of Laonicus Chalcondyles ends with the winter of 1468, and the abrupt conclusion seems to mark, that he laid down his pen in the same year. We know that he was an Athenian, and that some contemporaries of the same name contributed to the revival of the Greek language in Italy. But in his numerous digressions, the modest historian has never introduced himself; and his editor Leunclavius, as well as Fabricius (Bibliot. Græc. tom. vi. p. 474.) seems ignorant of his life and character. For his descriptions of Germany, France, and England, see 1. ii. p. 36, 37. 44...50. 23 I shall not animadvert on the geographical errors of Chalcondyles. In this instance, he perhaps followed, and mistook Herodotus (1. ii. c. 33), whose text may be explained (Herodote de Larcher, tom. ii. p. 219, 220), or whose ignorance may be excused. Had these modern Greeks never read Strabo, or any of their lesser geographers? 24 A citizen of new Rome, while new Rome survived, would have scorned to dignify the German Png with the titles of Βασιλευς, Oι Αὐτοκρατωρ Ρω LXVI. is any people more devoutly attached to the faith and obe- CHAP. dience of the Latin patriarch. The greatest part of the country is divided among the princes and prelates; but Strasburgh, Cologne, Hamburgh, and more than two hundred 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. II. The kingdom of FRANCE is spread of France; above fifteen or twenty days 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 Bretagne and Burgundy, of whom the latter possesses the wealthy province of Flanders, whose harbours are frequented by the ships and merchants of our own and the more remote 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 Rowland; 25 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. III. BRI- of England. TAIN, 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 a 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 a: but all pride was extinct in the bosom of Chalcondyles; and he describes the Byzantine prince, and his subject, by the proper, though humble names of Έλληνες, and Βασιλευς Ελληνων. 25 Most of the old romances were translated in the fourteenth century into French prose, and soon became the favourite amusement of the knights and ladies in the court of Charles VI. If a Greek believed in the exploits of Rowland and Oliver, he may surely be excused, since the monks of St. Denys, the national historians, have inserted the fables of archbishop Turpin in their Chronicles of France. LXVI. CHAP. 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,26 the metropolis of the isle, may claim a pre-eminence over all the cities of the West. It is situate on the Thames, a broad and rapid river, which at the distance of thirty miles falls into the Gallic Sea; and the daily flow and ebb of the tide, affords a safe entrance and departure to the vessels of commerce. The king is the head of a powerful and turbulent aristocracy; his principal vassals hold their estates by a free and unalterable tenure; and the laws define the limits of his authority and their obedience. The kingdom has been often afflicted by foreign conquest and domestic sedition; but the natives are bold and hardy, renowned in arms and victorious in war. The form of their shields or targets is derived from the Italians, that of their swords from the Greeks; the use of the long bow is the peculiar and decisive advantage of the English. Their language bears no affinity to the idioms of the continent; in the habits of domestic life, they are not easily distinguished from their neighbours of France: but the most singular circumstance of their manners is their disregard of conjugal honour and of female chastity. In their mutual visits, as the first act of hospitality, the guest is welcomed in the embraces of their wives and daughters: among friends they are lent and borrowed without shame; nor are the islanders offended at this strange commerce, and its inevitable consequences.27 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 28 with a criminal embrace. But his credulity and injustice may 26 Λονδυνη . . δε τε πολις δυναμει τε προέχεσα των εν τη νήσῳ ταυτῇ πασων πολεων, ολβῳ τε και τη αλλη ευδαιμονία υδεμίας των προς ESTEPAY RESTOMER. Even since the time of Fitzs ephen (the twein century), London appears to have maintained this pre-eminence of wearn and magnitude; and her gradual increase has, at least, kept pace with the general improvement of Europe. 27 If the double sense of the verb Kva (osculor, and in utero gero) be equivocal, the context and pious horror of Chalcondyles can leave no doubt of his meaning and mistake (p. 49). 28 Erasmus (Epist. Fausto Andrelino) has a pretty passage on the English fashion of kissing strangers on their arrival and departure, from whence, however, he draws no scandalous inferences. LXVI. teach an important lesson; to distrust the accounts of foreign CHAP. and remote nations, and to suspend our belief of every tale that deviates from the laws of nature and the character of man.29 ence of the Latins, After his return, and the victory of Timour, Manuel Indifferreigned many years in prosperity and peace. As long as Manuel the sons of Bajazet solicited his friendship and spared his towards dominions, he was satisfied with the national religion; and A. D. 1402 his leisure was employed in composing twenty theological ...1417. dialogues for its defence. The appearance of the Byzantine ambassadors at the council of Constance 30 announces the restoration of the Turkish power, as well as of the Latin church; the conquest of the sultans, Mahomet and Amurath, reconciled the emperor to the Vatican; and the siege of Constantinople almost tempted him to acquiesce in the double procession of the Holy Ghost. When Martin the fifth ascended without a rival the chair of St. Peter, a friendly intercourse of letters and embassies was revived between the East and West. Ambition on one side, and distress on the His negoother, dictated the same decent language of charity and peace: the artful Greek expressed a desire of marrying his ...1425. 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 escaped from an importunate pressure by urging the duty of enquiry, the obligation of collecting the sense of his patriarchs and bishops, and the impossibility of convening them at a time when the Turkish arms were at the gates of his capital. From a review of the public tran 29 Perhaps we may apply this remark to the community of wives among the old Britons, as it is supposed by Cæsar and Dion (Dion Cassius, 1. lxii. tom. ii. p. 1007.) with Reimar's judicious annotation. The Arreoy of Otaheite, so certain at first, is become less visible and scandalous, in proportion as we have studied the manners of that gentle and amorous people. 30 See Lenfant, Hist. du Concile de Constance, tom. ii. p. 576; and for the ecclesiastical history of the times, the Annals of Spondanus, the Bibliotheque of Dupin, tom. xii. and xxist and xxiid volumes of the History, or rather the Continuation, of Fleury. ciations, A. D. 1417 LXVI. motives. CHAP. sactions it will appear, that the Greeks insisted on three successive measures, a succour, a council, and a final re-union, while the Latins eluded the second, and only promised the first, as a consequential and voluntary reward of the third. His private 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 agé, the emperor had associated John Palæologus, the second of the name, and the eldest of his sons, on whom he devolved the greatest part of the authority and weight of government. One day, in the presence only of the historian Phranza,31 his favourite chamberlain, he opened to his colleague and successor the true principle of his negociations with the pope.3 "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 destruc"tion. As often as you are threatened by the miscreants, pre"sent this danger before their eyes. Propose a council; con"sult on the means; but ever delay and avoid the convoca"tion of an assembly, which cannot tend eitherto our spiritual "or temporal emolument. The Latins are proud; the Greeks 66 are obstinate; neither party will recede or retract; and the (6 attempt of a perfect union will confirm the schism, alienate "the churches, and leave us, without hope or defence, at the mercy of the Barbarians." Impatient of this salutary lesson, the royal youth arose from his seat, and departed in silence; and the wise monarch (continues Phranza), casting his eyes on me, thus resumed his discourse: "My son deems "himself a great and heroic prince; but, alas! our misera"ble age does not afford scope for heroism or greatness. "His daring spirit might have suited the happier times of 66 our ancestors; but the present state requires not an em 66 31 From his early youth, George Phranza, or Phranzes, was employed in the service of the state and palace; and Hanckius (de Script. Byzant. P. i. c. 40.) has collected his life from his own writings. He was no more than four. and-twenty years of age at the death of Manuel, who recommended him in the strongest terms to his successor: Imprimis vero hunc Phranzen tibi com. mendo, qui ministravit mihi fideliter et diligenter (Phranzes, 1. ii. c. 1). Yet the emperor John was cold, and he preferred the service of the despots of Peloponnesus. 32 See Phranzes, 1. ii. c. 13. While so many manuscripts of the Greek original are extant in the libraries of Rome, Milan, the Escurial, &c. it is a matter of shame and reproach, that we should be reduced to the Latin version, or abstract, of James Pontanus (ad calcem Theophylaet Simocattæ; Ingolstadt, 1604), so deficient in accuracy and elegance (Fabric. Bibliot. Græc. tom. vi. p. 615...620). |
