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 470 THE DECLINE AND FALL Archipelago^ Lesbos, Chios, and Rhodes ; ^^ his brother Con- stantine was sent to command in Malvasia and Sparta ; and the eastern side of the Morea, from Argos and Napoli to Cape Tae- narus, Avas repossessed by the Greeks.^" This effusion of Christian blood was loudly condemned by the patriarch ; and the inso- lent priest presumed to interpose his fears and scruples between the arms of princes. But, in the prosecution of these Western conquests, the countries beyond the Hellespont were left naked to the Turks ; and their depredations verified the prophecy of a dying senator, that the recovery of Constantinople would be the ruin of Asia. The victories of Michael were achieved by his lieutenants ; his sword rusted in the palace ; and, in the transactions of the emperor with the popes and the king of Naples, his political ai-ts were stained with cruelty and fraud.-^^ Hisnnionwith I. The Vatican was the most natural refuge of a Latin em- church. AD. peror, who had been driven from his throne ; and pope Urban 1274-1277 ' r r the Fourth appeared to pity the misfortunes, and vindicate the cause, of the fugitive Baldwin. A crusade, with plenary indul- gence, was preached by his command against the schismatic Greeks ; he excommunicated their allies and adherents ; soli- cited Louis the Ninth in favour of his kinsman ; and demanded a tenth of the ecclesiastic revenues of France and England for the service of the holy war.^^ The subtile Greek, who watched the rising tempest of the West, attempted to suspend or soothe the hostility of the pope, by suppliant embassies and respectful letters ; but he insinuated that the establishment of peace must prepare the reconciliation and obedience of the Eastern church. The Roman court could not be deceived by so gross an artifice ; and Michael was admonished that the repentance of the son should precede the forgiveness of the father; and that faith (an ambiguous word) was the only basis of friendship and alliance. ^ [These islands were subject to Michael, but not conquered by him; see Appendix i8.] 3" [Michael released William Villehardouin, prince of Achaia, who had been taken prisoner at the battle of Pelagonia (see above, p. 439). For his liberty William undertook to become a vassal of the Empire, and to hand over to Michael the for- tresses of Misithra, Maina and Monemvasia. See (besides Pachymeres, Gibbon's source) the Chronicle of Morea (in Buchon, Chroniques Etrang^res. Cp. App. i).] 3" Of the xiii books of Pachymer, the first six (as the ivth and vth of Ni- cephorus Gregoras) contain the reign of Michael, at the time of whose death he was forty years of age. Instead of breaking, like his editor the P^re Poussin, his history into two parts, I follow Ducange and Cousin, who number the xiii books in one series. ^'Jpucange, Hist, de C. P. 1. v. c. 33, &c. from the Epistles of Urban IV.