CHARACTER AND CORONATION OF PETRARCH.―RESTORATION OF THE FREEDOM AND GOVERNMENT OF ROME BY THE TRIBUNE RIENZI.—HIS VIRTUES AND VICES, HIS EXPULSION AND DEATH.—RETURN OF THE POPES FROM AVIGNON. 1341. His poetic Coronation at Rome Birth, Character, and patriotic Designs of Rienzi 1355. Petrarch invites and upbraids the Emperor Charles IV. He solicits the Popes of Avignon to fix their Residence at Rome 1452. Last Coronation of a German Emperor, Frederic III. The Statutes and Government of Rome Last Disorders of the Nobles of Rome THE HIST OF THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAPTER LX. Schism of the Greeks and Latins.-State of Constantinople.- Revolt of the Bulgarians.- Isaac Angelus dethroned by his Brother Alexius. Origin of the Fourth Crusade.-Alliance of the French and Venetians with the Son of Isaac. Their naval Expedition to Constantinople. The two Sieges and final Conquest of the City by the Latins. - THE restoration of the Western empire by Charlemagne Schism of was speedily followed by the separation of the Greek and the Greeks. Latin churches.1 A religious and national animosity still divides the two largest communions of the Christian world; and the schism of Constantinople, by alienating her most useful allies, and provoking her most dangerous enemies, has precipitated the decline and fall of the Roman empire in the East. Their aver- sion to the In the course of the present history the aversion of the Greeks for the Latins has been often visible and conspicuous. It was originally derived from the disdain of servitude, inflamed, after the time of Constantine, by the pride of equality or dominion; and finally exasperated by the preference which their rebellious subjects had given to the alliance of the Franks. In In the successive centuries, from the ixth to the xviiith, Mosheim traces the schism of the Greeks with learning, clearness, and impartiality: the filioque (Institut. Hist. Eccles. p. 277.), Leo. III. p. 303. Photius, p. 307, 308. Michael Cerularius, p. 370, 371, &c. of the Holy every age the Greeks were proud of their superiority in profane and religious knowledge: they had first received the light of Christianity; they had pronounced the decrees of the seven general councils: they alone possessed the language of Scripture and philosophy; nor should the Barbarians, immersed in the darkness of the West, presume to argue on the high and mysterious questions of theological science. Those Barbarians despised in their turn the restless and subtile levity of the Orientals, the authors of every heresy; and blessed their own simplicity, which was content to hold the tradition of the apostolic church. Yet in the seventh century, the synods of Spain, and afterwards of France, improved or corrupted the Nicene creed, on the mysterious subject of the third person of the Trinity. In the long controversies of the Procession East, the nature and generation of the Christ had been Ghost. scrupulously defined; and the well-known relation of father and son seemed to convey a faint image to the human mind. The idea of birth was less analogous to the Holy Spirit, who, instead of a divine gift or attribute, was considered by the Catholics as a substance, a person, a god; he was not begotten, but in the orthodox style he proceeded. Did he proceed from the Father alone, perhaps by the Son? or from the Father and the Son? The first of these opinions was asserted by the Greeks, the second by the Latins; and the addition to the Nicene creed of the word filioque, kindled the flame of discord between the Oriental and the Gallic churches. In the origin of the disputes the Roman pontiffs affected a character of neutrality and moderation: they condemned the innovation, but they acquiesced in the sentiment, of their Transalpine brethren: they seemed desirous of casting a veil of silence and charity over the superfluous research; and in the correspondence of Charlemagne and Leo the Third, the pope assumes the liberality of a statesman, and the prince descends to the passions and prejudices of a priest.5 But the orthodoxy of Rome • Ανδρες δυσσεβεὶς καὶ ἀποτρόπαιοι, ἄνδρες ἐκ σκότους ἀνάδυντες, τῆς γὰρ Ἑσπέριου μоîpаs vπηрXov yevvýμara (Phot. Epist. p. 47. edit. Montacut.). The Oriental patriarch continues to apply the images of thunder, earthquake, hail, wild boar, precursors of Antichrist, &c. &c. 3 The mysterious subject of the procession of the Holy Ghost is discussed in the historical, theological, and controversial sense, or nonsense, by the Jesuit Petavius. (Dogmata Theologica, tom. ii. 1. vii. p. 362–440.) Before the shrine of St. Peter he placed two shields of the weight of 94 pounds of pure silver; on which he inscribed the text of both creeds (utroque symbolo) pro amore et cautelâ orthodoxæ fidei (Anastas. in Leon. III. in Muratori, tom. iii. pars i. p. 208.). His language most clearly proves, that neither the filioque, nor the Athanasian creed were received at Rome about the year 830. 5 The Missi of Charlemagne pressed him to declare, that all who rejected the filioque, or at least the doctrine, must be damned. All, replies the pope, are not capable of reaching the altiora mysteria; qui potuerit, et non voluerit, salvus esse non potest (Collect. Concil. tom. ix. p. 277-286.). The potuerit would leave a large loophole of salvation ! |