OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE

1'03

publicly whipped . 0 It was only by the alterna- chaptive of hunger or dispute that the Greeks could LXVI -be persuaded to open the first conference; andthey yielded with extreme reluctance to attendfrom Ferrara to Florence the rear of a flyingsynod. This new translation was urged by in-evitable necessity: the city was visited by theplague; the fidelity of the marquis might be sus-pected ; the mercenary troops of the duke ofMilan were at the gates; and as they occupiedRomagna , it was not without difficulty and dan-ger that the pope, the emperor, and the bishops,explored their way through the unfrequentedpaths of the Apennines

Yet all these obstacles were surmounted bytime and policy. The violence of the fathers ofBasil rather promoted than injured the cause ofEugenius: the nations of Europe abhorred theschism, and disowned the election, of Felix thefifth, who w r as successively a duke of Savoy, anhermit, and a pope; and the great princes weregradually reclaimed by his competitor to a fa-vourable neutrality and a firm attachment. Thelegates, with some respectable members, desert-ed to the Roman army, which insensibly rose innumbers and reputation: the council of Basil was reduced to thirty-nine bishops, and three

0 Syropulus (p. 141, 142, 204, 221) deplores the imprisonment of theGreeks, and the tyranny of the emperor and patriarch.

p The wars of Italy are most clearly represented in the thirteenthvolume of the Annals of Muratori. The schismatic Greek, Syropulus(p. 145), appears to have exaggerated the fear and disorder of thepope in his retreat from Ferrara to Florence, which is proved by theacts to have been somewhat more decent and deliberate.