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THE DECLINE AND FALL

CHAP.LX VII.

<f off; and the tongue that has pronounced the“ Latin creed deserves to be torn from the root.”The best proof of their repentance was an in-crease of zeal for the most trivial rites and themost incomprehensible doctrines; and an abso-lute separation from all, without excepting theirprince, who preserved some regard for honourand consistency. After the decease of the pa-triarch Joseph, the archbishops of Heraclea andTrebizond had courage to refuse the vacantoffice; and cardinal Bessarion preferred thewarm and comfortable shelter of the Vatican .The choice of the emperor and his clergy wasconfined to Metrophanes of Cyzicus ; he wasconsecrated in St. Sophia, but the temple wasvacant. The crossbearers abdicated their ser-vice; the infection spread from the city to thevillages; and Metrophanes discharged, withouteffect, some ecclesiastical thuuders against a na-tion of schismatics. The eyes of the Greekswere directed to Mark of Ephesus , the championof his country; and the sufferings of the holyconfessor were repaid with a tribute of admira-tion and applause. His example and writingspropagated the flame of religious discord ; ageand infirmity soon removed him from the world;but the gospel of Mark was not a law of forgive-ness; and he requested with his dying breath,that none of the adherents of Rome might at-tend his obsequies, or pray for his soul.

The schism was not confined to the narrowlimits of the Byzantine empire . Secure underthe Mauialuke sceptre, the three patriarchs ofAlexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem , assembled