142

THE DECLINE AND FALL

chap, speedily repaired; the rubbish was cleared bylx\'u. the incessant labour of every rank and age; andthe poor remains of riches and industry were con-secrated by the Greeks to the most stately andvenerable temple of the East. dThe Greek The last hope of the falling city and empireter'u™ af was placed in the harmony of the mother andFlorence^ daughter, in the maternal tenderness of Rome ,a ». M4o-and the filial obedience of Constantinople . In

1418 1

the synod of Florence, the Greeks and Latinshad embraced, and subscribed, and promised;but these signs of friendship were perfidious orfruitless;' and the baseless fabric of the,unionvanished like a dream/ The emperor and hisprelates returned home in the Venetian gallies ;but as they touched at the Morea and the islesof Corfu and Lesbos , the subjects of the Latinscomplained that the pretended union would liean instrument of oppression. No sooner didthey land on the Byzantine shore, than they weresaluted, or rather assailed, with a general mur-mur of zeal and discontent. During their ab-

d See the decay and repairs of St, Sophia, m Nicephoros Gregoras(1. vii, 12,1. xv, 2). The building was propped by Andronicus in 1317;the eastern hemisphere fell in 1345. The Greeks, in their pompousrhetoric, exalted the beauty and holiness of the church, an earthly hea-ven, the abode of angels, and of God himself, &c.

* The genuine and original narrative of Syropulus(p. 312-351) opensthe schism from the first office of the Greeks at Venice, to the generalopposition at Constantinople of the clergy and people.

f On the schism of Constantinople , see Phranza (1. ii, c. 17), Laoni-cus Chalcondyles (I. vi, p. 155, 15G), and Ducas (c. 31); the last ofwhom writes with truth and freedom. Among the moderns we maydistinguish the continuator of Fleury (tom xxii, p. 338, &c. 401, 420 tSee.) and Spondanus (a. d. 1440 ). The sense of the latter isdrowned in prejudice and passion, as soon as Rome and religion areconcerned.