Page:Orthodox Eastern Church (Fortescue).djvu/256

218 as the last remnant of a lost cause always is (witness the Jews of Jerusalem during the siege), had said: Rather the Sultan's turban than the Pope's tiara; and they have had their wish.

The two metropolitans who had most favoured the union ended by coming over to live in the West. Eugene IV made both cardinals. Isidore of Kiev when he got back to Russia was promptly put in gaol for his share in the union. He escaped in 1443, came to Rome, and, as Cardinal Isidore, was Legate to Constantinople and leader of the little band of soldiers whom the Pope sent to help the Emperor. He was called the Cardinalis Ruthenus. The Cardinalis Nicenus was Bessarion. He at last despaired of his own people, and came to settle at Rome. Here he became one of the leaders of the Renaissance movement. A scholar equally versed in Greek and Latin, he was one of the first men who introduced to the Western world the forgotten Greek classics. He was an enthusiastic Platonist, and by his writings greatly helped on the study of Plato, that, with the reaction against Aristotle (who had reigned unquestioned "master of them that know" in the middle ages), was one of the chief notes of the Renaissance. He was always a generous and splendid patron to the poor Greek scholars who had fled from Constantinople; a lavish collector of Greek manuscripts that he then edited or translated. He held in his palace an Academy of Italian and Greek Humanists, and although he had left his own country he never forgot his patriotism, and lavishly helped every enterprise against its enemies. The Popes continually used him as Legate, and charged him with the reform of the Greek