Every shaft of reason might be foiled or blunted by sophistry or prejudice; every other authority might be suspected or disavowed; but when the archives of their own unerring Church were cited against them, it was hard indeed to raise any defence, or reply with any confidence. It would appear, too, that Bessarion had for some time taken little share in the disputes, and at length even Marc of Ephesus withdrew from the conference. The victory now appeared to rest with the Latins; when the Emperor, who possessed some skill in theology, and was sincerely desirous of the reunion, discovered what he considered an equitable method of compromise. In a letter of St. Maximus, that Father was found to have asserted, that the Latins, when they declare that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son, do not pretend that the Son is the cause of the Holy Spirit, since they know very well that the Father is the only cause both of the Son and the Holy Spirit-of the Son by generation, of the Holy Spirit by Procession-they only mean, that the Holy Spirit proceeds through the Son, because he is of the same essence.' Soon after this proposal had been made, the public sessions of the Council were suspended, and the Greeks held several conferences among themselves, with a view to some honourable accommodation.

was founded, was

The Greeks were now openly divided. Bessarion, gained, as his adversaries assert, by the presents and promises of the Pontiff, at once avowed his adhesion to the Latin dogma, and defended it with confidence and eloquence. Of this same party was the Emperor, through his anxiety to reconcile the Churches on any terms, and at any sacrifice. Marc of Ephesus obstinately maintained his original opinions; he abhorred the heresy of the Latins, and rejected every overture of compromise. Nevertheless the conferences continued: several attempts were made to devise some explanation of the Oriental doctrine which might be satisfactory to the Latins; and the party of the Unionists gained ground. The Emperor saw his advantage, and pursued it by such means of persuasion as an Emperor may always exercise. And at length, after more than two months of discussion, the Greeks unanimously consented to the terms of reconciliation, with the single honest exception of Marc of Ephesus. The confession of faith, on which this treaty of concord as follows:- In the name of the Holy Trinity, of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, we, Latins and Greeks, agree in the holy union of these two Churches, and confess that all true Christians ought to receive this genuine doctrine: that the Holy Spirit is eternally of the Father and the Son, and that from all eternity it proceeds from the one and the other as from a single principle, and by a single production, which we call Spiration. We also declare that what some of the Holy Fathers have said, viz. that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father through the Son, should be taken in such manner as to signify, that the Son, as well as the Father, and conjointly with him, is the principle of the Holy Spirit. And since, whatsoever the Father hath, that he communicates to his Son, excepting the paternity which distinguishes him from the Son and the Holy Spirit, so is it from the Father that the Son has received, from all eternity, that productive virtue through which the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son, as well as from the Father.'

Common Confession of Faith.

We should here mention, that while this spiritual negotiation was in progress, another convention of a very different character was also under consideration; and the two treaties were brought to their conclusion at the same

Treaties of Union,

time. It was stipulated by the latter, that his Holiness should furnish the Greeks with resources for their return; that he should maintain a standing military and naval force for the defence of Constantinople; that the galleys carrying pilgrims to Jerusalem should be compelled to touch at Constantinople; that, if the Emperor should require twenty galleys for six months, or for a year, the Pope should bind himself to supply them; and that, if soldiers were wanted, he should use his influence with the princes of the west to procure them. This convention having been officially ratified, the emperor announced the consent of his Prelates to the doctrinal accommodation; and on the 6th of June, 1439, it was announced, that the divisions of so many centuries were at length closed for ever. The Confession of Union was recited in Greek and in Latin, and it was hailed by the acclamations of both parties, who embraced with seeming warmth, and interchanged the salutation of peace.

It will have been observed, that the public disputations had been entirely confined to one of the four subjects of difference; and that the arrangement of that, as it was considered by far the most difficult question, was held to be a sufficient pledge of agreement upon all. And so indeed it proved. The difference on the Azyms was removed by the confession of the Greeks, that the Eucharist might be celebrated with unleavened, as worthily as with leavened, bread. Respecting Purgatory, it was acknowledged on both sides, that those souls which could neither, through some unatoned sins, be received into immediate beatitude, nor yet deserved eternal condemnation, were delivered into some abode of temporary durance and purification; but regarding the method of purification-whether it was by fire, as some thought, or by darkness and tempest, as seemed to be the opinion of others-it was held more prudent to abstain from any positive declaration. The question of the Pope's primacy occasioned somewhat greater embarrassment, because its practical consequence was more directly perceptible; and though the Imperial eye might overlook the importance of doctrinal differences, it was not blind to any encroachment on Imperial prerogative. And thus, though Palæologus readily assented to the general proposition of papal supremacy, he objected to its application in two cases. He would not consent that the Pope should call councils in his dominions without his approbation and that of the Patriarchs; nor would he permit appeals from the Patriarchal courts to be carried to Rome. He maintained that the Pope should send his legates to decide them on the spot. The Poutiff insisted; but as the Emperor declared that he would prefer to break off the negotiations even in that their latest stage, rather than yield those points, a method of verbal compromise was discovered, which satisfied the consciences of both parties. To the attentive reader it will, perhaps, appear strange, that in so many controversies between the two Churches no dispute had yet been raised on the subject of Transubstantiation. And it will thence seem natural to infer, that, on that point, no difference existed between them. In a later age, when the Protestants were contending with the Roman Catholics for the spiritual adhesion of the Greeks, this important question was thoroughly investigated; and the result, as it appears to us*, was not quite favourable to either party. For, if some of the ancient Fathers indulged in very lofty expressions on the nature of the Eucharist, yet the Latin dogma was

Question on Transubstantiation.

6

This subject has been shortly treated by the author of this history, in a work On the Condition and Prospects of the Greek Church.'

never formally established among the Articles of the other Church. We shall now mention, that during the conferences at Ferrara and Florence certain expressions fell from the Greek Doctors, which excited suspicions of their orthodoxy so generally, that the Pope deemed it necessary to demand of them a formal declaration on that point, before the Decree of Union' should be finally ratified. Accordingly, Bessarion of Nice, on the part and in the presence of his brethren, made an affirmation to this effect: Since in the preceding congregations we have been suspected of holding an erroneous opinion touching the words of the Consecration, we declare, in the presence of your Holiness, . . . that we have learnt from our ancient Fathers, and especially from St. Chrysostom, that it is the words of our Lord which change the substance of the bread and wine into that of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ; and that those divine words have the force and virtue to make that wonderful change of substance, or that Transubstantiation; and that we follow the sentiments of that great Teacher.' These expressions are, in themselves, sufficiently explicit: but, on the other hand, we are bound to recollect, that the Greeks at Florence had by this time abandoned in despair every manner of resistance to the Emperor and the Pope; and also, that the Prelate who read the declaration, and whose motives are liable to very well-founded suspicion, was afterwards exalted to the dignity of a Cardinal in the Roman Church *. After this last confession of Bessarion, the Decree of Union' was signed and ratified; and the Greeks, their object accomplished, set forth, with various emo

Return of the
Greeks.

* Bessarion, an Asiatic Archbishop, ended his days in the peaceful enjoyment of a Roman dignity. His great antagonist, Julian Cesarini, Cardinal of St. Angelo, under a less auspicious influence, exchanged the field of controversial achievement for that of military dishonour. Let us here trace his concluding fortunes. Being appointed by the Pope to superintend, as his legate, the warlike operations against the Turks, he attached himself to the camp of Huniades. Under his sanction, and with his consent, (it was a reluctant consent,) a truce for ten years was signed, with religious solemnities, between the contending parties; and Amurat reposed in confidence on the shores of the Bosphorus, or employed his forces in some other enterprise. Suddenly some new circumstance came to light, which promised advantage to the Christians from the renewal of hostilities. Hereupon the Cardinal Legate, perceiving some hesitation among the generals, seized a favourable moment to counsel the violation of the truce. To this effect, he urged the impolicy of the secret engagement, the infidelity of the party with whom it was contracted. He pressed the injustice thereby offered both to the Pope and the Emperor; the prejudice done to their own reputation, and to the interests of the Church. He maintained that the very compact with the Turk was in itself an act of perfidy to their allies. These and similar arguments he advanced with his customary power. But seeing that his unlettered hearers were not yet persuaded, that a treaty so solemnly ratified could at once be violated without reproach, he proceeded more curiously to distinguish between the obligation due to a mere promise and that which is demanded by the public welfare, and to show the higher authority of the latter. Whenever these, forsooth, were at variance, the faith plighted to an infidel could have little solid weight. For though, in truth, an oath is binding, when it is just and founded in equity, it is properly considered as null, and displeasing to God, when it leads to private or public calamity, &c. &c.!

The eloquence of the Cardinal so well enforced his fallacies upon minds which probably were only thirsting for conviction, that the whole assembly demanded with acclamations the violation of the truce. The army moved forwards, and immediately engaged in that campaign, which was terminated by the battle of Varna. In that fatal encounter, among thousands of less illustrious victims, fell the Cardinal of St. Angelo. The nature of his death is uncertain. It is variously asserted that he was slain in the field, and in the rout; that he was drowned in the Danube; that he was plundered and murdered by Hungarian robbers. And it had been happier for his memory had the last struggle of his genius been wrapt in the same obscurity-could we forget that it was made for the purpose of corrupting the rude morality of Christian soldiers and statesmen, and leading them into that perjured enterprise, which ended in his destruction and their disaster, and the infamy of all.

tions perhaps, but with general satisfaction, on their return to the east. The voyage was favourable; and on the 20th of February, 1440, they were restored to the altars of Constantinople. With what feelings were these messengers of religious concord welcomed? What salutations hailed them on their arrival from that holy enterprise? The joy, the gratitude, the affection of their fellow-Catholics? Let us turn to the circumstances of their reception: through a general confederacy of the Clergy, of the people, and particularly of the Monks, who chiefly swayed the conscience and directed the movements of the people, the authors of the Union found themselves excluded even from their ecclesiastical functions. They were overwhelmed with insults. They were called azymites, apostates, traitors to the true religion; the sanctuaries which they entered were deserted; they were shunned, as if convicted of impiety, or blasted by excommunication; and in many of the Churches the spirit went so far, that the very name of the Emperor himself was erased from the Dyptics. On the other hand, Mare of Ephesus, who had fought. without concession or compromise the battles of his Church, and persisted inflexibly in his repugnance to the reunion, was rewarded by universal acclamation. Marc of Ephesus had alone stood forth as the defender of the faith, and of the honour of the Ecumenic Church. The controversy was immediately renewed in the East. Marc placed himself at the head of the schismatics, and many compositions were published, as well by himself as by others, to press the repeal of the Union. Various polemical treatises were also put forth in rejoinder; and at the same time the Emperor exerted, on the same side, a more equivocal method of persuasion. He selected for the Patriarch of Constantinople a decided supporter of the Union, and caused the patronage of the See to be conferred exclusively upon ecclesiastics of that party.... Within the limits of his temporal sovereignty the Head of the Oriental Church received a reluctant obedience. But beyond those boundaries, in the Patriarchats of Jerusalem, of Antioch, and Alexandria, his spiritual subjects-for they were no more than spiritual-broke forth into undisguised rebellion. In 1443 those three Prelates united in publishing a Synodal Epistle, in which they pronounced the sentence of deposition against all those, on whom their Brother of Constantinople had conferred ordination; and then added the threat of excommunication, in case this sentence should be neglected. At the same time they addressed to the Emperor himself a similar menace, should he still continue to protect his Patriarch.

Dissensions in the East.

A Synod, which combined the authority of three of their Patriarchs, was reverentially regarded by a people already predisposed to embrace its edicts. Even the resolution of Palæologus appears to have been shaken by so bold an act of insubordination. At the same time, as if to increase his confusion, the Clergy and populace of the Northern Provinces of his Church, Russia and Muscovy, loudly declared themselves against the Union, and insulted and imprisoned a Papal Legate who was sent to publish it among them. Thus, after his sojourn under foreign dominion, after his personal exertions in allaying the heats of controversy, and conducting it, as he fondly fancied, to a lasting termination, the Emperor of the East discovered that his ecclesiastical influence was confined almost to the city and suburbs of Constantinople; and that the treaty from which he expected such advantage was received even there with a reluctant and precarious, even though it was an interested, submission.

It might have been supposed that some sense of political advantage

would have moved the feelings of his subjects; that the prospect of a powerful alliance would have exerted some influence; that the sight of the advancing Turk would have inspired some moderation; or, if reason was, indeed, excluded from the controversy, that the passion of fear would, in some degree, have counteracted the passion of bigotry. Some mitigation of the first phrenzy might at least have been expected from time; and in the interval of eleven years, more charitable feelings, and more provident considerations might gradually have gained prevalence under the Imperial patronage. But the event was far otherwise: if the heat of either party relaxed during this critical period, it was that of the friends of the Union; its opponents increased in strength, and remitted nothing of their original rancour.

Prediction of Ni

cholas V., and fall of the Greek Empire.

Το

In the year 1451 Nicholas V., after engaging in some earnest endeavours to rouse the energies of Christendom against the common foe, issued a celebrated address to the Greeks. He exhorted them to pay some regard to their own safety, and not to paralyse the efforts which Providence was making to preserve them; to display their devotion in acts of penitence; and to receive, without delay, the decree of the Council of Florence. the Emperor Constantine he addressed a menace, dictated, as some have thought, by a prophetic spirit. After complaining, that the Greeks had now too long trifled with the patience of God and man, in deferring their reconciliation with the Church, he announced that, according to the parable in the Gospel, three years of probation would still be granted for the fig-tree, hitherto cultivated in vain, to bring forth fruit. But, if it did not bear fruit in that season-if the Greeks, during the space which God still indulged to them, did not receive the decree of the Union-that then, indeed, the tree would be cut down even to its root -the nation extirpated by the ministers of divine justice.

This denunciation contemplated no improbable catastrophe; and the Emperor took such measures as were left to him to conciliate the dispositions of the Vatican. But what was the spirit which at this last crisis animated his subjects? It was during this very year that several Greek ecclesiastics addressed, in the name of the whole Church, a communication to the rebels of Bohemia. They praised the zeal of their brother schismatics; they applauded them for their rejection of the innovations of Rome, and their adherence to the true faith; and, finally, called on them to conclude a treaty of Union with themselves-not such union as that mockery of concord dressed up at Florence, from which truth was far removed, but Union, founded on the respectable opinions of the ancient Fathers!.... And thus, those precious moments, which the Pope devoted to vows and exertions for the salvation of Greece, were employed by her zealous theologians in courting the bitterest enemies of his government.

In the year following, the Emperor having received with honour the Papal Legate, and made him some fair promises, they proceeded to celebrate the Liturgy in St. Sophia. But as soon as mention was made, in the course of the service, of the names of the Pope and the Latin Patriarch, the whole city rose in commotion, and, the multitude, uncertain what course to take, rushed in a mass to consult a popular fanatic, named Gennadius. This man was a monk; and attached to the door of his cell

* Gregory-then a voluntary exile at Rome, through his reluctance to preside over a rebellious Church.