201

OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

their swords in the resolution of death or con-quest. The primitive Christians might have em-braced each other, and awaited in patience andcharity the stroke of martyrdom; but the Greeksof Constantinople were animated only by the spi-rit of religion, and that spirit was productive onlyof animosity and discord. Before his death, theemperor John Palaeologus had renounced theunpopular measure of an union with the Latins;nor was the idea revived, till the distress of hisbrother Constantine imposed a last trial of flat-tery and dissimulation.* With the demand oftemporal aid, his ambassadors were instructedto mingle the assurance of spiritual obedience:his neglect of the church was excused by theurgent cares of the state; and his orthodoxwishes solicited the presence of a Roman legate.The Vatican had been too often deluded; yetthe signs of repentance could not decently heoverlooked; a legate was more easily grantedthan an army; and about six months before thefinal destruction, the cardinal Isidore of Russia appeared in that character with a retinue ofpriests and soldiers. The emperor saluted himas a friend and father; respectfully listened tohis public and private sermons; and with themost obsequious of the clergy and laymen sub-scribed the act of union, as it had been ratifiedin the council of Florence. On the twelfth ofDecember, the two nations, in the church of St.

1 In Spondanns, the narrative of the union is not only partial, butimperfect. The bishop of Pa miers died in 1G42, and the history ofDucas, which represents these scenes (c. 3f», 37) with such truth andspirit, was not printed till the \tdi 1649.

CHAP.

Lxvm.

Falseunionof the twochurches,A. D. 1452Dec 12.