Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/493

 OF THE EO^MAX EMPIRE 471 After a long and affected delay, the approach of danger and the importunity of Gregorj^ the Tenth compelled him to enter on a more serious negotiation ; he alleged the example of the great Vataces ; and the Greek clergy, who understood the intentions of their prince, were not alarmed by the first steps of reconciliation and respect. But, when he pressed the conclusion of the treaty, they strenuously declared that the Latins, though not in name, were heretics in fact, and that they despised those strangers as the vilest and most despicable portion of the human race."**^ It was the task of the emperor to persuade, to corrupt, to intimi- date, the most popular ecclesiastics, to gain the vote of each indi- vidual, and alternately to urge the arguments of Christian charity and the public welfare. The texts of the fathers and the arms of the Franks were balanced in the theological and political scale ; and, without approving the addition to the Nicene creed, the most moderate were taught to confess that the two hostile propositions of proceeding from the Father by the Son, and of proceeding from the Father and the Son, might be reduced to a safe and catholic sense. ^^ The supremacy of the pope was a doctrine more easy to conceive, but more painful to acknow- ledge ; yet Michael represented to his monks and prelates that they might submit to name the Roman bishop as the first of the patriarchs, and that their distance and discretion would guard the liberties of the Eastern church from the mischievous conse- quences of the right of appeal. He protested that he would sacrifice his life and empire rather than yield the smallest point of orthodox faith or national independence ; and this declara- tion was sealed and ratified by a golden bull. The patriarch Joseph withdrew to a monastery, to resign or resume his throne, according to the event of the treatv ; the letters of union and obedience were subscribed by the emperor, his son Andronicus, and thirty-five archbishops and metropolitans, with their respec- tive synods ; and the episcopal list was multiplied by many dio- ceses which were annihilated under the yoke of the infidels. An embassy was composed of some trusty ministers and pre- ^Trom their mercantile intercourse with the Venetians and Genoese, they branded the Latins as (caTnjAot and /Sai-ovo-ot (Pachymer, 1. v. c. lo). "Some are heretics in name ; others, like the Latins, in fact," said the learned Veccus (1. v. c. 12), who soon afterwards became a convert (c. 15, 16;, and a patriarch (c. 24). ■*! In this class we may place Pachymer himself, whose copious and candid narrative occupies the vth and vith books of his history. Yet the Greek is silent on the council of Lyons, and seems to believe that the popes always resided in Rome and Italy. b