THF. DECLINE AND FALL

7-i

CHAP.LX VI.

after three genuflexions, devoutly kissed the feet,the hands, and at length the mouth, of the holyfather,who celebrated high mass in his presence,allowed him to lead the bridle of his mule, andtreated him with a sumptuous banquet in theVatican . The entertainment of Palteologus wasfriendly and honourable; yet some difference w asobserved between the emperors of the East andWest;'nor could the former be entitled to therare privilege of chanting the gospel in the rankof adeacon. k In favour of his proselyte,Urbanstrove to rekindle the zeal of the French king,and the other powers of the West; but he foundthem cold in the general cause, and active onlyin their domestic quarrels. The last hope of theemperor was in an English mercenary, JohnHawkwood , 1 or Acuto, who with a band of ad-venturers, the white brotherhood, had ravagedItaly from the Alps to Calabria ; sold his ser-vices to the hostile states; and incurred a just

1 Paullo minus qiiam si fiiissel Imperator Romanorum. Yet his titleof Imperator Graecoi uni was no longer disputed (Vit.Urban V. .p. 623).

* It w as confined to the successors of Charlemagne , and to them onlyon Christmas day. On all other festivals these imperial deacons werecontent to serve the pope, as he said mass, with the book and the cor-poral. Yet the abbe de Sade generously thinks, that the merits ofCharles IV might have entitled him, though not on the proper day(a. d. 1368, November 1), to the whole privilege. He seems to affix ajust value on the privilege and the man (Vie de Petrarque, tom. iii,p. 735).

1 Through some Italian corruptions* the etymology of Falcone in bosca(Mateo Viliam, U xi, c. 79, in Muratori, tom xv. p 74G) suggests theEnglish word Hawkwood , the true name of our adventurous country-man (Thomas Walsingham, Hist. Anglican , inter Scriptores Camdeni,p. 184) After two and twenty victories, and one defeat, he died, in1394, general of the Florentines, and was buried with such honours asthe republic has not paid Dante or Petrarch (Muratori, Aunali d’ltalia,tom, xii, p. 212-371).