OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

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to the cell of the monk Gennadius , 1 to consult theoracle of the church. The holy man was invisi-ble; entranced, as it should seem, in deep me-ditation or divine rapture: but he had exposedon the door of his cell a speaking tablet; andthey successively withdrew, after reading thesetremendous words: “ O miserable Romans, why“ will ye abandon the truth; and why, instead“ of confiding in God , will ye put your trust in“ the Italians ? In losing your faith, you will lose“ your city. Have mercy on me, O Lord! I“ protest in thy presence, that I am innocent of“ the crime. O miserable Romans, consider,“ pause, and repent. At the same moment that“ you renounce the religion of your fathers, by*• embracing imp' 'y, you submit to a foreign“ servitude.” According to the advice of Gen-nadius , the religious virgins, as pure as angels,and as proud as daemons, rejected the act ofunion, and abjured all communion with the pre-sent and future associates of the Latins; andtheir example was applauded and imitated bythe greatest part of the clergy and people.From the monastery, the devout Greeks dis-persed themselves in the taverns; drank confu-sion to the slaves of the pope; emptied theirglasses in honour of the image of the holy vir-

1 His primitive and secular name was George Scholarius, whieh hechanged for that of Gennadius , either when he became a monk or apatriarch. His defence, at Florence, of the same union which he souriously attacked at Constantinople, has tempted Leo Allatius (Dia-rib.de Georgiis, in Fabric . Bibliot. Griec. tom. x, p 760-7SO) tolivide him into two men; but Renaudot (p. 343-383) has restored thedentity of his person and the duplicity of his character.

CH U>.LXVIII.