CARDINAL BESSARION TO THE PRINCES OF ITALY ON THE CALAMITY OF THE CHRISTIANS IN CHALCIS ON EUBOEA, ON THE DANGERS HANGING OVER ITALY AFTER THE CONQUEST OF OTRANTO, ON SETTLING DISCORDS AND DECLARING WAR AGAINST THE TURKS, ORATIONS, TO WHICH IS ADDED A PERSUASION FROM DEMOSTHENES' OLYNTHIACA
Worthy of note and of being read are two letters which appear before the Orations in the Royal Turin Codex, no. 1165, parchment, 15th century. For when Bessarion had sent to Guillaume Fichet — a Savoyard, rector of the University of Paris, doctor of sacred theology, and a man, as Rossottus describes in his *Syllabus of Savoyard Writers* (p. 250), of great doctrine, erudition, and prudence — the orations in Latin which he had composed himself, so that he might explain the matters contained therein to the King of the Gauls and other princes, Fichet, having collected them into this volume, presented them to the Dukes of Savoy. He wrote a letter to them in which he urges them to take up the war courageously and, mindful of their ancestral splendor, to offer their strength and labor for the sake of religion and the defense of Italy’s safety. Furthermore, the letter of Bessarion is as follows:
Bessarion, Bishop of Sabina, Cardinal of Nicaea, Patriarch of Constantinople, to the reverend and most learned Father, Master Guillaume Fichet, professor of sacred theology at the Sorbonne in Paris, our very dear friend.
Reverend and most learned Father, our very dear friend, we hear that you labor not only in philosophy and the knowledge of sacred letters, but that you have also long been engaged in the study of eloquence and the method of speaking, and that you are marvelously delighted by them. Though we have nothing in this genre that you ought to desire greatly, nevertheless we have decided to send certain orations edited by us at this time concerning the very grave dangers which hang over Italy and all Christians: not so much that you might desire the purity of our language or the A force and excellence of our oration, but so that you might understand what a storm of evils hangs over the heads and fortunes of the Christian commonwealth, and that you might explain and persuade the whole matter both to the most serene king and to others who ought to bear aid as much as they can: for it is more bitter than it is obscure that Italy would not have erupted with such great conflagrations of evils, were it not that it vomits forth globes of flame from further away. Lest this happen, they whose salvation is brought into jeopardy ought to desire this for the sake of all kingdoms, and also on account of immortal God, whose most holy religion is vexed and dragged to destruction, with great calamity to all Christians. Farewell. From the City, the 13th day of December, 1470.
Fichet’s letter to the Dukes of Savoy follows:
To the most illustrious princes, Amadeus, Duke of Savoy, and his brothers, Guillaume Fichet, doctor of theology of Paris, but by birth a Savoyard, sends very many greetings with the greatest honor.
If you, most serene princes, desire to raise higher day by day the name of your noble house, certainly you will readily set yourselves to know and, once known, to defend your cause and that of the Christian commonwealth, which the sweet reading of this little work will teach you. Bessarion, Bishop of Sabina, Patriarch of Constantinople, whom they commonly call the Cardinal of Nicaea, ordered long ago that a copy of his work, which I now send to you myself, be returned to me, and at the same time commanded that I urge the most Christian king and other B princes toward the defense of the Christian religion against the monstrous Turk, just as you will learn from his letters to me. Meanwhile, although my fragile shoulders initially refused such a burden, yet first the love and dignity of the Christian religion conquered, in which I have not only been initiated like others, but have even pledged, upon the assumption of my doctoral profession, that I would teach and defend it, disregarding death. The very weighty authority of Father Bessarion also conquered, for whose singular dignity and most holy desire I will not suffer my labors to be lacking, nor will I even refuse to undergo the risk of life in so opportune a matter. It further conquered, how much in the future...
it may be destined for you, as the most select family composed of brothers born of the same blood, currently in the most flourishing age, magnanimous warriors, enjoying peace at home and abroad, associated with the highest dukes, the highest kings, and the highest emperors by treaty, benefit, and lineage, being most friendly to the holy Roman Church, and with a supreme Pontiff who is not only most excellent and holy, but also a fellow countryman and most loving toward your own kin, and who will be your leader and ally in waging this war. But if you proceed to take up arms, you will soon kindle all Germany, Gaul, Hesperia, Italy, and finally the whole Christian spirit against your enemies, and draw them into your own love and protection. Every excellent warrior will follow your standards, will defend and exalt them. That white cross, throughout all Greece, from whence your house once emerged as victor, will shine upon the enemies of the faith, and will liberate from servitude, neglect, squalor, mourning, and prisons, very many Christians. Once more, the Macedonians and your own Amadeus will set up their trophies on the borders of Greece. For you do not only possess the most ancient lineage from the Macedonians, but it was also fated for your ancestors to rule over Greece. For that forefather of yours, Philip, by force of arms subjected all of Greece to himself and his family. Alexander, his son, who received the right of empire from his father, then sought the most extensive world for the Macedonians in war, whose most splendid progeny, wherever it afterward betook itself, has always reigned. For in every part of the world, not to mention in Greece, the Macedonian line has ruled most gloriously. Moreover, after the Supreme Pontiff transferred the name of the empire from the Greeks to the Germans, and A accepted the Saxon line—or rather, what the Pontiff later willed to be mandated by the right of election, as if that excellence had belonged to the Saxons by hereditary right, seeing that for many centuries the election of the Emperor was lodged in Saxon houses, and indeed almost became hereditary—it did not so much take refuge from the Macedonian ancestors from whom it had begun, but because of its egregious deeds of war, it did not afterward find an equal splendor elsewhere. For the Saxon, to other princes, for the preservation of the Christian commonwealth, let alone his own private house, always proposed himself as an example. Which was also later, up to this time, possessed by the Savoyard princes by right of succession: that is, that they might secure the empire for themselves and their own through just war, act continuously and justly, increase domestic wealth by defending that of others, and extend their fame in deeds far B and wide.
These things, most serene Princes, when you read them or hear someone reading them intently, I pray you, place that first head of the house of Savoy, Berold the Saxon, before your eyes and thoughts. Him, whom I touch upon only with the tips of my fingers, as they say, while he was a comrade of the Kings of Arles, he was an egregious warrior; again and again he brought aid, and meanwhile found seats for his own, so great and ample, with sword and shield for his family, and sprinkled those found lands again and again with the blood of the enemy. That Maurienne, the foundation of your great house (which land he penetrated so often with iron), the Segusians, the Salucians, the marquises and counts of Piedmont (whom he routed so often), what else did they ever feel but the blade of Berold? Assuredly, let these things speak while I am silent. Nor will that military glory remain silent, with which Humbert, the son of Berold, was later adorned, or the other Amadeus, or their descendants whom I omit in a long series: for in martial praise, even if they be compared to great kings, they were by no means unequal. And if they had not been such and so great, you would by no means possess these riches at home, by no means these most opulent cities, by no means would your empire extend to the Helvetii, the Allobroges, the Arar, and beyond the Po to the Insubrians and the Nician port of the sea; the house of Savoy would not hold the perpetual vice-regency of the Empire; it would not have brought forth dukes from counts, and queens and kings from dukes. For they did not live their lives in sloth (as is imputed as a vice to most princes) or entangled in domestic strife; but in part by industry, labor, counsel, strength, effort, diligence, benefit, just command, and the custody of public liberty, and in part by conflicts and most fierce battles, they joined camp to camp, city to city, and empire to empire in a short time, being such that the arts which were submissive to their love were always a terror to the enemy. Indeed, if that Savoyard land (which you yourselves tread every day) could exude the blood with which it was imbued, it would certainly blush red and overflow with the gore of the robbers whom they bloodily cast out from there, and whom they struck down there when they resisted. Furthermore, if it were given to them to speak, "I," those princes of Sa-
A Savoy, would say that from those ancestors you received wealth, liberty, peace, splendor, fame, and glory, which I, though not customarily, now feed to you seven princes together. I fear lest you grow unaccustomed to arms. Often, while I had a single head, I carried victorious standards far and wide. I fear lest perhaps, while you yourselves love domestic leisure and peace—not to say softness—too much, you may appear effeminate, timid, and sluggish. By delaying too long to reclaim what has been shamefully lost, you grant the robbers the audacity to take away what you hold. I am not a little afraid that you might eventually be a source of shame to your ancestors, whether these Æacid, these Saxon, or the successors of my Berold. For which reasons, you ought either to be ashamed to remember ancestors who were such bright stars, or to hasten all the more quickly to the places they show you—into Cyprus, into Armenia, into the kingdom of Solomon and Christ. Greece waits for your sword; the treasures of the robbers and enemies will be your rich spoils. A triumph is to be led over your enemies; you and your descendants are to possess the richest kingdoms for all time. Even now, those who have been so long exiled from their Greek homes, B by the fate of Philip and Alexander, desire to return to their own house; for them, indeed, if any sense of their own people remains after death, the kingdom of the Greeks will seem to have been restored, when they feel that you are coming to achieve the honor of their lineage and the remaining glory of their name. And I wish that even now one or the other could emerge from somewhere! By no means would he permit the name and authority of his lineage to be obliterated or silenced there; rather, he would open the way for you from Greece with the sword right up to those Alps of yours. Nor should the greatness of Philip or Alexander deter you, as if you ought to attempt in vain what they have already accomplished. On the contrary, for you the rationale of waging war is far more convenient and honorable than it was for them. Philip and Alexander were each one man; one overturned the cities and arms of Greece, the other those of the entire world; will you seven not extinguish one or two, or at most three, robbers? From one Philip and one Alexander were foreign kingdoms sought—nay, by the former through Greece, and by the latter far throughout the world. By you, can yours be defended without blood, without sweat, without protest? C Toward one Philip and one Alexander, will Greece (which then was defending its liberty most strongly with arms), or even the outside world, not submit to your arms and those of all Christians, essentially unarmed as it is? Philip and Alexander placed the heavy yoke of servitude upon those who were praying and resisting. Will the Savoyards deny their own Sabaudian liberty to those who seek and entreat it? Doubtless, that noble Greek nation (which now lies hidden) has always so abhorred servitude—especially that which is alien to Christ—that when it forms the conjecture that war is soon being prepared by you and other most Christian princes against their treacherous tyrants, it will open the way to you with the sword, even against those who would be the restorers of its former liberty, and will provide food, ships, harbors, baggage, funds, and garrisons of its own free will, and will turn its standards wherever you wish, about to surrender to your command and obey true and pious masters. And it will do so the more willingly, the more reluctantly and for the longer time it has served its tyrants. Why should I, a private man, urge you further or with more words for the conveniences of your excellent lineage, for seeking an earthly empire, or for reclaiming the homes of your forefathers, when, even if all these things were put aside, the very salvation of the Christian religion ought by best right to lead you where Prince Bessarion counsels? I have deemed that in this part, indeed, there is no need for my exhortation, lest perhaps I should now attempt with superfluous labor a matter which has already amply persuaded you, or lest I, unarmed, should proceed to carry and defend the province which the divine Bessarion has chosen for himself and managed so well. For (as far as you and the cause are concerned) the military insignia with which your swords, shields, and standards shine D much more brightly are the spoils which can more easily than anything else persuade you of the Christian cause, seeing that Amadeus, the fourth prince of your house after Berold, brought them home from enemies defeated by Christ. From where did he bring them back? He brought them, at any rate, from Greece. But if now it pleases you to listen attentively to Bessarion, who speaks with a full mouth and in the great Greek manner, you will go eagerly, to return again as victors. But what letters he has ordered to be delivered to this little man, this servant of yours, and what business he has entrusted to him, perceive now with a favorable spirit.