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THE DECLINE AND FALL

C'H \P. anxious to conciliate the friendship of both par-ties, abstained from any correspondence with theindigent and unpopular rivals. His journey co-incided with the yearof the jubilee; but he passedthrough Italy without desiring, or deserving, theplenary indulgence which abolished the guilt orpenance of the sins of the faithful. The Romanpope was offended by this neglect; accused himof irreverence to an image of Christ; and exhort-ed the princes of Italy to reject and abandon theobstinate schismatic. 1

Greek During the period of the crusades, the Greeksnmi”ie' 1,ge beheld with astonishment and terror the perpe-s; nptions tna | stream of emigration that flowed, and con-tinued to flow, from the unknown climates of theWest. The visits of their last emperors remov-ed the veil of separation, and they disclosed totheir eyes the powerful nations of Europe,whom they no longer presumed to brand with thename of barbarians. The observations of Ma-nuel, and his more inquisitive followers, havebeen preserved by a Byzantine historian of thetimes : y his scattered ideas I shall collect andabridge; and it may be amusing enough, per-

1 This fact is preserved in the Ilistoria Politica, a. d. 1391-1478,published by Martin Crtisius (Turco Gracia, p. 1-43). The image ofChrist, which the Greek emperor refused to worship, was probably awork of sculpture.

7 The Greek and Turkish history of Laonicus Chalcondyles endswith the winter of 1403, and the abrupt conclusion seems to mark thathe laid down his pen in the same year. We know that he was an Athe-nian, and that some contemporaries of the same name contributed tothe revival of the Greek language in Italy , lint in his numerous di-gressions, the modest historian has never introduced himself; and hiseditor, Leunclav ins, as well as Fabricius (Bibliot. Graec. turn, vi, p. 474),seems ignorant of his life and character. For his descriptions of Ger-many, France , and England, see 1. ii, p. 36, 37, 44-50.