1. Effect of the Fall of Constantinople on Western Europe. § 2. Efforts to combine the Christian Powers against the Turks. 3. Greek Literature in the West before the Fall of Constantinople. 4. Diffusion of Greek Literature after the Fall of Constantinople. 5. Wars of the Venetians with the Turks. Battle of Lepanto. Expedition of Morosini. 6. Efforts of the Turks to recover the Peloponnesus: Peace of Passarowitz. 7. Turkish Organization of Greece. Extortions of the Pachas. Taxes. Haratch. Land Tax. Other Burdens. Condition of the Rayahs. § 8. The Taιdoμáčwμa, or Levy of Children for the Janizaries. History of the Janizaries. 9. General Condition of Greece. Greek Islands. § 10. Preservation of the Greek Nationality during the Period of Turkish Domination. Armatoloi, Klephtai. Character of the Klephts. Klephtic Ballads. § 11. Preparations for the Revolution. Rhegas. Coraës.

§ 1. THE fall of Constantinople sent a shock throughout the Christian nations of Western Europe. The capture of Constantinople by the Crusaders had destroyed the most precious memorials of ancient art and wealth in the city; had exhausted its resources, and broken down its martial energies; had divided the Empire into fragments for the benefit of their own princes, driving out the native rulers. And when, sixty years later, they were themselves driven back from a conquest they had wrongfully held, the Emperors of Constantinople reassumed an empire shorn of its power and splendor, not only by Saracens and Turks, but

more fatally still by Christians of another branch of one common faith; so that, when the final struggle came, the only wonder was, that a capital, over which conflagration and plunder had so often swept, resisted so long and with so much spirit the conquering energies of a people in the full impulse of their march towards extended empire.

§ 2. The Pope endeavored in vain to combine the nations of Europe for the expulsion of the Turk; war was actually declared in the Diet at Frankfort, in 1454; but that was all. Pius II. convened a Congress at Mantua, in 1459; and the princes of Europe agreed to furnish large means for the crusade, which the Pope was to lead in person; but when the head of the Church arrived at Ancona to embark, he found every promise and engagement had been violated, and none were there except a rabble rout of vagabonds, clamoring for service and for pay. The danger proved less than had been anticipated. Mohammed II. met with a gallant resistance from the Hungarians, and was repulsed by the Knights of St. John from the island of Rhodes. In the mountains of Epeirus, the heroic chieftain whose exploits are sung by his contemporaries under the name of Scanderbeg kept him at bay for twenty years. The successors of Mohammed were inferior to him in martial vigor, and thus the tide of Ottoman conquests was, at least temporarily, stayed, and the alarms of Europe somewhat quieted.

§ 3. From the downfall of the Western Roman Empire, and especially after the alienation of the Greek and Latin Churches, the influence of Greek literature had been decaying, until nearly all knowledge of it had died out in the West. Only here and there a name is retained, among the few who kept alive a love of letters in Europe, as having some tincture of Grecian learning. In the East, libraries of manuscripts had been formed, by the labors of centuries, not only connected with the schools of public instruction, but in the monasteries. The ancient classics had been multiplied, in parchment copies, carefully and handsomely transcribed, by the inmates of these establishments; but doubtless many of these perished in the successive plunderings of the capital, and the final loss of many of the most precious treasures of ancient genius is to be traced to the barbarous conduct of the Crusaders, whose very name Anna Comnena thought it an insult to the Greek language to record, and to the Ottomans, whose agency was scarcely more destructive. But before these pillaging enterprises took place, now and then an individual found his way from the schools of Constantinople, with a supply of Grecian literature, and, establishing himself in the West, communicated his treasures to a narrow circle of pupils and friends. As early as the seventh century, the Pope sent to England a Greek ecclesiastic born at Tarsus, who became Archbishop of Canterbury, and, having carried with him a quantity of manuscripts, introduced some knowledge of Greek into the Anglo-Saxon Church. The Venerable Bede and Alcuin are bright names

among the earliest restorers of learning; and Erigena, and other Irish ecclesiastics, even knew something of the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle. In 1240, John Basing, Archdeacon of St. Albans, brought a number of Greek books from Athens; and Roger Bacon was not ignorant of the Greek language.

But these studies were more assiduously cultivated in Italy, as might have been expected, than in any other country out of the Byzantine Empire, in the Middle Ages. Particularly, from the eleventh century, many individuals are known in literary history for their knowledge of Greek,— not very extensive, to be sure, but still worth something. Among these, for instance, Papias is classified, on the strength of a quotation of five lines from Hesiod. But the revival of Greek studies in Italy properly dates from the time of Petrarch and Boccaccio, in the fourteenth century. Italy was visited by many ecclesiastical Greeks, who adhered to the Pope of Rome, in the quarrel between the two Churches; and there are to this day, both in Ancona and Rome, Greek churches, with a Greek liturgy, acknowledging the supreme authority of the Pope. Several learned Calabrians, about this time, after having long resided in Greece, had much to do with the introduction of the Greek language among the scholars and poets of Italy. Barlaam, sent as ambassador by the Emperor to Italy, endeavored to teach Petrarch Greek; but whether he was too much absorbed by his fantastic passion for Laura, and by the composition of his amorous sonnets, it is certain, from his own confession, that the tuneful poet never got far enough to read Homer in the original, — which he pathetically laments. Boccaccio had better success with Leontios Pilatos, for whom he procured the appointment of public teacher at Florence, although he describes him as long-haired, hirsute-bearded, and very dirty. About the end of the fourteenth century, Emanuel Chrysoloras, a man of high rank, and distinguished in the diplomacy of the Byzantine Empire, was induced to emigrate to Italy, and taught the Greek language and literature in several of the principal cities. Among his scholars were the most eminent Italian men of letters. In 1423, two hundred and thirty-eight manuscripts, including Plato, Diodorus, Pindar, Callimachus, and others, were brought from Greece to Italy, by a Sicilian named Aurispa. Filelfo, a scholar well known in literary history in the same age, not only brought home from Greece a large number of manuscripts, but became Professor of Greek and Latin at Florence, exciting, as he himself says, the wonder and admiration of the whole city. "All love me," continues the self-complacent Professor, "all honor me, and exalt me to the skies with their praises. When I walk through the city, not only the first citizens, but the noblest ladies, yield me the pass, to show in what high honor they hold me. I have daily more than four hundred hearers; and these for the most part distinguished persons, and of senatorial rank.”

As the dangers that threatened the overthrow of the Greek Empire

drew nearer, emigration to Italy became more frequent. Theodore Gaza, well known in Greek philosophy, fled from Thessalonica in 1430, when that city was taken by the Turks. Bessarion of Trebizond was made a cardinal in 1439, and twice came near being elected Pope; and having been employed in many high functions, received from the Pope, who affected to consider himself sole head of the Church, the titular dignity of Patriarch of Constantinople. He was a great promoter of Greek literature, and wherever he lived, his house was the resort of all those who cultivated the sciences and the arts. In 1468, he presented his magnificent library to the republic of Venice, and the famous Aldine editions of the classics are founded chiefly on the manuscripts it contained. Here too, the manuscript of Panaretus was found by Professor Fallmereyer. George of Trebizond taught Greek at Vicenza, Venice, and Rome. Johannes Argyropoulos, a native of Constantinople, arrived in Italy in 1434, and was called by the Medici to Florence in 1456. He went to Paris to so licit the assistance of the king of France in purchasing his family, who had fallen into the hands of the Turks. He taught Greek fifteen years at Florence, and afterwards for some time at Rome. Here the celebrated Reuchlin being present at one of his lectures on Thucydides, the old Professor invited the young German to interpret a passage of the historian. He was so much astonished at the facility with which Reuchlin accomplished the task, that he exclaimed, "Exiled Greece has crossed the Alps." Gemistos Plethon, a man of the highest rank at the imperial court, of great learning and probity of character, and a voluminous writer, went to Florence as a deputy of the Greek Church, in 1438, where he became acquainted with Cosmo de' Medici, and during his residence there opened a school for the explanation of the Platonic philosophy, of which he was an ardent and eloquent advocate. Cosmo embraced his views, and Platonism became the rage of the literary people of that capital. The Platonic Academy, which afterwards produced many eminent scholars, owes its origin to Plethon. He afterwards returned to Greece, and died in the Peloponnesus, at the age, it is supposed, of about one hundred years. These few names will serve to show that the literary tendencies of Italy were favorable to progress; and that the diplomatic intercourse between the Churches of Rome and Byzantium, the interchange of visits among the literary men of the two countries, and the introduction of numerous manuscripts from Greece and Constantinople into the chief Italian cities, had made a great and almost providential preparation for those Greek scholars who, having witnessed the downfall of the capital of their nation and the seat of their religion, and the subjection of their nation to the despotism of the Turks, fled westward, and carried with them the light of the East.

§ 4. Of course the number of Greek refugees was very considerable, after the fall of Constantinople. Constantine Lascaris, belonging to one of the imperial families, became instructor of the princess Hippolyta, daugh

ter of Francesco Sforza, Duke of Milan. Afterwards he taught in several of the Italian cities, and finally died at Messina, having bequeathed his library to that city. It was afterwards transported to Spain, and now forms part of the collection of the Escorial. Another Lascaris, a relative of Constantine, was employed by Lorenzo de' Medici in collecting books in the East, and was afterwards distinguished at the courts of Charles VIII. and Louis XII. in France. When Leo X. was raised to the Papal throne he placed Lascaris at the head of a college he had founded in Rome for the education of Greeks. The Pope, in a letter addressed to Francis I., describes Lascaris as a man distinguished for his illustrious birth, his literary acquirements, his experience in affairs, the purity of his morals, and gentleness of his manners. He died at Rome at the age of ninety. Demetrius Chalcocondylas, an Athenian, and perhaps a relative of the historian, taught Greek at Perugia and Florence; afterwards he removed to Milan. Other distinguished names are Michael Apostolius, Callistos, and Masuros, Professor of Greek at Padua, where he knew Erasmus, who speaks of him as wonderfully learned in the Latin tongue; thence he went to Venice, and became an assistant of the elder Aldus in the publication of his beautiful editions. Moschos, a Lacedæmonian, son of an old teacher, who continued at Sparta after the catastrophe of 1453, was Professor of Greek at Ferrara and Mantua, and wrote a poem on the story of Helen. In the same century the Greek language was taught in Paris by Hermonymos of Sparta, and other scholars of the same nation. In 1474, Contablacos opened a school in Basle. The scholars of Germany, hearing of the literary excitement produced by these Greeks, hastened over into Italy, became their pupils, and purchased many books, with which they enriched the libraries of their native land. The most eminent of these was Reuchlin, one of the ablest, if not the ablest, restorer of learning in Germany; but his name is now chiefly known from its connection with the controversy that once raged on the pronunciation of the Greeks. Thus, a second time in the history of civilization, the arts and letters that embellish life were scattered by the Greeks over the world, after a tremendous national catastrophe.

§ 5. At the time when Mohammed II. invaded the Peloponnesus, the Venetians were still in possession of some places in the Peninsula. They held, in fact, Pylos, Corone, Methone, Nauplia, and Argos; besides the Ionian Islands, Naupactos, Euboea, and Crete. The Venetians and Turks soon engaged in a desperate struggle, which found a temporary lull in the armistice of 1478, which lasted for about twenty years, into the reign of Mohammed's son and successor, Bajazet. The condition of the Greeks during these destructive wars was wretched in the extreme. Many places in Greece changed masters frequently during these years. Sometimes the Greeks took part with the Christians in the struggle, and when the Christians were conquered, they suffered the most bar