Volume II Part 5 (1/2)
[Sidenote: The Council of Basle.] In a room attached to the Cathedral of Basle, with its roof of green and parti-coloured tiles, the modern traveller reads on a piece of paper this inscription: ”The room of the council, where the famous Council of Basil was a.s.sembled. In this room Pope Eugene IV. was dethroned, and replaced by Felix V., Duc of Savoie and Cardinal of Repaile. The council began 1431, and lasted 1448.” That chamber, with its floor of little red earthen flags and its oaken ceiling, witnessed great events.
The democratic influence pervading the Church showed no symptoms of abatement. The fate of Huss had been avenged in blood and fire by the Bohemian sword. Eugenius IV., now pontiff, was afraid that negotiations would be entered upon with the Hussite chiefs. Such a treaty, he affirmed, would be blasphemy against G.o.d and an insult to the pope. He was therefore bent on the prorogation of the council, and spared no means to accomplish his purpose. Its ostensible object was the reformation of the clergy; its real intent was to convert the papal autocracy into a const.i.tutional monarchy. [Sidenote: It declares the pope in contumacy.] To this end it cited the pope, and, on his non-appearance, declared him and seventeen of the cardinals in contumacy. He had denounced it as the Synagogue of Satan; on its part, it was a.s.suming the functions of the Senate of Christendom. It had prepared a great seal, and a.s.serted that, in case of the death of the pope, the election of his successor was vested in it. It was its firm purpose never again to leave that great event in the hands of a conclave of intriguing Italian cardinals, but to intrust it to the representatives of united Christendom. After a due delay since he was declared in contumacy, the council suspended the pope, and, slowly moving towards its object, elected Amadeus of Savoy, Felix V., his successor. It was necessary that its pope should be a rich man, for the council had but slender means of offering him pecuniary support. Amadeus had that qualification. And perhaps it was far from being, in the eyes of many, an inopportune circ.u.mstance that he had been married and had children. [Sidenote: Its real intentions.] We may discern, through the s.h.i.+fting scenes of the intrigues of the times, that the German hierarchy had come to the resolution that the election of the popes should be taken from the Italians and given to Europe; that his power should be restricted; that he should no longer be the irresponsible vicar of G.o.d upon earth; but the accountable chief executive officer of Christendom; and that the right of marriage should be conceded to the clergy. These are significantly Teutonic ideas.
[Sidenote: Cause and close of these troubles.] We have pursued the story of these events nearly as far as is necessary for the purpose of this book. We shall not, therefore, follow the details of the new schism. It fell almost without interest on Europe. aeneas Sylvius, the ablest man of the day, in three words gives us the true insight into the state of things: ”Faith is dead.” On the demise of Eugenius IV., Nicolas V.
succeeded. An understanding was had with those in the interest of the council. It was dissolved. Felix V. abdicated. The morality of the times had improved. The antipope was neither blinded nor murdered. The schism was at an end.
[Sidenote: End of the intellectual influence of the papacy.] Thus we have seen that the personal immoralities and heresy of the popes brought on the interference of the King of France, who not only shook the papal system to its basis but destroyed its prestige by inflicting the most conspicuous indignity upon it. For seventy years Rome was disfranchised, and the rivalries of France and Italy produced the great schism, than which nothing could be more prejudicial to the papal power. We have seen that, aided by the pecuniary difficulties of the papacy, the rising intellect of Europe made good its influence and absolutely deposed the pope. It was in vain to deny the authenticity of such a council; there stood the accomplished fact. At this moment there seemed no other prospect for the Italian system than utter ruin; yet, wonderful to be said, a momentary deliverance came from a quarter whence no man would have expected. The Turks were the saviours of the papacy.
At this point is the true end of the Italian system--that system which had pressed upon Europe like a nightmare. The great men of the times--the statesmen, the philosophers, the merchants, the lawyers, the governing cla.s.ses--those whose weight of opinion is recognized by the uneducated people at last, had shaken off the incubus and opened their eyes. A glimmering of the true state of things was breaking upon the clergy. No more with the vigour it once possessed was the papacy again to domineer over human thought and be the controlling agent of European affairs. Convulsive struggles it might make, but they were only death-throes. The sovereign pontiff must now descend from the autocracy he had for so many ages possessed, and become a small potentate, tolerated by kings in that subordinate position only because of the remnant of his influence on the uneducated mult.i.tude and those of feeble minds.
CHAPTER IV.
THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST--(_Concluded_).
EFFECT OF THE EASTERN OR MILITARY ATTACK.--GENERAL REVIEW OF THE AGE OF FAITH.
_The Fall of Constantinople.--Its momentary Effect on the Italian System._
GENERAL REVIEW OF THE INTELLECTUAL CONDITION IN THE AGE OF FAITH.--_Supernaturalism and its Logic spread all over Europe.--It is destroyed by the Jews and Arabians.--Its total Extinction._
_The Jewish Physicians.--Their Acquirements and Influence.--Their Collision with the Imposture-medicine of Europe.--Their Effect on the higher Cla.s.ses.--Opposition to them._
_Two Impulses, the Intellectual and Moral, operating against the Mediaeval state of Things.--Downfall of the Italian System through the intellectual Impulse from the West and the moral from the North.--Action of the former through Astronomy.--Origin of the moral Impulse.--Their conjoint irresistible Effect.--Discovery of the state of Affairs in Italy.--The Writings of Machiavelli.--What the Church had actually done._
_Entire Movement of the Italian System determined from a consideration of the four Revolts against it._
[Sidenote: The Eastern pressure.] From the West I have now to return to the East, and to describe the pressure made by Mohammedanism on that side. It is ill.u.s.trated by many great events, but, above all, by the fall of Constantinople. The Greek Church, so long out of sight that it is perhaps almost forgotten by the reader, comes for a moment before us like a spectre from the dead.
[Sidenote: Invasions of the Turks.] A wandering tribe of Turks had found its way into Asia Minor, and, under its leader Ertogrul and his son Othman, consolidated its power and commenced extending its influence by possessions taken from the sultans of Iconium and the Byzantine empire.
The third prince of the race inst.i.tuted the Janissaries, a remarkable military force, and commenced driving the Greeks out of Asia Minor. His son Soliman crossed the h.e.l.lespont and captured Gallipoli, thus securing a foothold in Europe, A.D. 1358.
[Sidenote: Extension of their power in Europe.] This accomplished, the Turkish influence began to extend rapidly. Thrace, Macedon, and Servia were subdued. Sigismund, the King of Hungary, was overthrown at the battle of Nicopolis by Bajazet. Southern Greece, the countries along the Danube, submitted, and Constantinople would have fallen had it not been for the unexpected irruption of Tamerlane, who defeated Bajazet and took him prisoner. The reign of Mohammed I., who succeeded, was occupied in the restoration of Turkish affairs. Under Amurath II., the possession of the Euxine sh.o.r.e was obtained, the fortifications across the Isthmus of Corinth were stormed, and the Peloponnesus entered.
[Sidenote: The Byzantine sovereigns apply to the West.] Mohammed II.
became the Sultan of the Turks A.D. 1451. From the moment of his accession, he turned all his powers to the capture of Constantinople.
Its sovereigns had long foreseen the inevitable event, and had made repeated attempts to secure military aid from the West. They were ready to surrender their religious belief. On this principle, the monk Barlaam was despatched on an emba.s.sy to Benedict XII. to propose the reunion of the Greek and Latin Churches, as it was delicately termed, and to obtain, as an equivalent for the concession, an army of Franks. As the danger became more urgent, John Palaeologus I. sought an interview with Urban V., and, having been purified from his heresies respecting the supremacy of the pope and the double procession of the Holy Ghost, was presented before the pontiff in the Church of St. Peter. The Greek monarch, after three genuflexions, was permitted to kiss the feet of the holy father and to lead by its bridle his mule. But, though they might have the will, the popes had lost the power, and these great submissions were productive of no good. Thirty years subsequently, Manuel, the son and successor of Palaeologus, took what might have seemed a more certain course. He travelled to Paris and to London to lay his distress before the kings of France and England; but he received only pity, not aid. At the Council of Constance Byzantine amba.s.sadors appeared. It was, however, reserved for the synods of Ferrara and of Florence to mature, as far as might be, the negotiation. The second son of John Palaeologus journeyed again into Italy, A.D. 1438; and while Eugenius was being deposed in the chamber at Basle, he was consummating the union of the East and West in the Cathedral of Florence. [Sidenote: The Greek Church yields to the Latin.] In the pulpit of that edifice, on the sixth of July of that year, a Roman cardinal and a Greek archbishop embraced each other before the people; Te Deum was chanted in Greek, ma.s.s was celebrated in Latin, and the Creed was read with the ”Filioque.” The successor of Constantine the Great had given up his religion, but he had received no equivalent--no aid. The state of the Church, its disorders and schisms, rendered any community of action in the West impossible.
[Sidenote: Mohammed II.] The last, the inevitable hour at length struck.
Mohammed II. is said to have been a learned man, able to express himself in five different languages; skilful in mathematics, especially in their practical application to engineering; an admirer of the fine arts; prodigal in his liberality to Italian painters. In Asia Minor, as in Spain, there was free thinking among the disciples of the Prophet. It was affirmed that the sultan, in his moments of relaxation, was often heard to deride the religion of his country as an imposture. His doubts in that particular were, however, compensated for by his determination to carry out the intention of so many of his Mohammedan predecessors--the seizure of Constantinople.
[Sidenote: The siege of Constantinople.] At this time the venerable city had so greatly declined that it contained only 100,000 inhabitants--out of them only 4970 able or willing to bear arms. The besieging force was more than a quarter of a million of men. As Mohammed pressed forward his works, the despairing emperor in vain looked for the long-promised effectual Western aid. In its extremity, the devoted metropolis was divided by religious feuds; and when a Latin priest officiated in St.
Sophia, there were many who exclaimed that they would rather see the turban of the sultan than the tiara of the pope. In several particulars the siege of Constantinople marked out the end of old ages and the beginning of new. Its walls were shaken by the battering rams of the past, and overthrown by cannon, just then coming into general use. Upon a plank road, s.h.i.+pping was pa.s.sed through the open country, in the darkness of a single night, a distance of ten miles. The works were pushed forward toward the walls, on the top of which the sentinels at length could hear the shouts of the Turks by their nocturnal fires. They were sounds such as Constantinople might well listen to. She had taught something different for many a long year. ”G.o.d is G.o.d; there is none but G.o.d.” In the streets an image of the Virgin was carried in solemn procession. Now or never she must come to the help of those who had done so much for her, who had made her a queen in heaven and a G.o.ddess upon earth. The cry of her wors.h.i.+ppers was in vain.
[Sidenote: Fall of the city.] On May 29th, 1453, the a.s.sault was delivered. Constantine Palaeologus, the last of the Roman emperors, putting off his purple, that no man might recognize and insult his corpse when the catastrophe was over, fell, as became a Roman emperor, in the breach. After his death resistance ceased, and the victorious Turks poured into the town. To the Church of St. Sophia there rushed a promiscuous crowd of women and children, priests, monks, religious virgins, and--men. Superst.i.tious to the last, in this supreme moment they expected the fulfilment of a prophecy that, when the Turks should have forced their way to the square before that church, their progress would be arrested, for an angel with a sword in his hand would descend from heaven and save the city of the Lord. The Turks burst into the square, but the angel never came.
More than two thirds of the inhabitants of Constantinople were carried prisoners into the Turkish camp--the men for servitude, the women for a still more evil fate. The churches were sacked. From the dome of St.
Sophia its glories were torn down. The divine images, for the sake of which Christendom had been sundered in former days, unresistingly submitted to the pious rage of the Mohammedans without working a single miracle, and, stripped of their gems and gold, were brought to their proper value in the vile uses of kitchens and stables. On that same day the Muezzin ascended the loftiest turret of St. Sophia, and over the City of the Trinity proclaimed the Oneness of G.o.d. The sultan performed his prayers at the great altar, directing the edifice to be purified from its idolatries and consecrated to the wors.h.i.+p of G.o.d. Thence he repaired to the palace, and, reflecting on the instability of human prosperity, repeated, as he entered it, the Persian verse: ”The spider has woven his web in the imperial palace; the owl hath sung her watch song on the towers of Afrasiab.”
This solemn event--the fall of Constantinople--accomplished, there was no need of any reconciliation of the Greek and Latin Churches. The sword of Mohammed had settled their dispute. Constantinople had submitted to the fate of Antioch, Jerusalem, Alexandria, Carthage. [Sidenote: Terror of Christendom at the fall of Constantinople.] Christendom was struck with consternation. The advance of the Turks in Europe was now very rapid. Corinth and Athens fell, and the reduction of Greece was completed. The confines of Italy were approached A.D. 1461. The Mohammedan flag confronted that peninsula along the Adriatic coast. In twenty years more Italy was invaded. Otranto was taken; its bishop killed at the door of his church. At this period, it was admitted that the Turkish infantry, cavalry, and artillery were the best in the world.
Soliman the Magnificent took Belgrade A.D. 1520. [Sidenote: Progress of the Turks.] Nine years afterwards the Turks besieged Vienna, but were repulsed. Soliman now prepared for the subjugation of Italy, and was only diverted from it by an accident which turned him upon the Venetians. It was not until the battle of Lepanto that the Turkish advance was fairly checked. Even as it was, in the complicated policy and intrigues of Europe its different sovereigns could not trust one another; their common faith had ceased to be a common bond: in all it had been weakened, in some destroyed. aeneas Sylvius, speaking of Christendom, says, ”It is a body without a head, a republic without laws or magistrates. The pope or the emperor may s.h.i.+ne as lofty t.i.tles, an splendid images; but they are unable to command, and no one is willing to obey.” But, during this period of Turkish aggression, had not the religious dissensions of Christendom been decently composed, there was imminent danger that Europe would have been Mohammedanized. A bitter experience of past ages, as well as of the present, had taught it that the Roman Church was utterly powerless against such attacks. Safety was to be looked for, not in any celestial aid, but in physical knowledge and pecuniary resources, carried out in the organization of armies and fleets. Had her authority been derived from the source she pretended, she should have found an all-sufficient protection in prayer--indeed, not even that should have been required. Men discovered at last that her Litanies and her miracles were equally of no use, and that she must trust, like any other human tyranny, to cannon and the sword.