GEORGE OF TREBIZOND'S LETTER TO EMPEROR JOHN PALAEOLOGUS THAT HE SHOULD SET OUT FOR ITALY FOR THE SYNOD.
A Georgius Trapezuntius to the most excellent and most divine Emperor of the Romans, John Palæologus, concerning the voyage to Italy.
It is not because I think you, most excellent Emperor, to be profoundly hesitant or doubtful—as most people suppose—as to whether you should sail to Italy in the triremes sent by the Prince of Bishops, that I have set upon this exhortation; but because I have judged that I would give even greater and fuller gratification to your Power if I were to commit to writing to you those things which, as one who feels the same way, would bring pleasure to you, and to me would procure excuse and pardon, seeing that I am an exile, as it were in a remote colony, from the use and exercise of the Greek language, yet I did not fear to write to your Highness. For just as it would be the mark of a man not in his right mind to attempt to offer counsel to such an Emperor—one so dedicated to wisdom and learning—if he had nothing capable of persuading, so it will perhaps appear the mark of a candid, faithful, and obedient man, while many are in the meantime doubtful about your will and sentiment, to write and pursue those things that are pleasing to you, and to be thought to have wished to persuade one who has long been persuaded, or rather one who is already rushing toward this by his own will and has already persuaded many. But I think I must establish some beginning to my speech, so that we may proceed by reason and method, and I may not suffer the same fate as those who, though they may be able to bear only small and few burdens, nevertheless take upon themselves many and great ones; for if we follow the order of events, it will perhaps assist my own lack of skill in speaking.
The synod, O Emperor, which assembled in the city of Germany known as Basel, as soon as it was gathered, decreed that if he who now holds the helm of the Church were to happen, according to the human condition, to depart from life while the synod was in session, it would be the right of the synod alone to elect the supreme bishop. By this decree it certainly declared that it had gathered for the purpose of transferring the primacy of the Roman Pontiff to the Germans or the French. And today, whatever it says or does, it says and does for this very reason: not towards each one of them, for indeed those who are B of superior virtue [text breaks]
A and conduct according to God have already discerned the better path. But the more wicked ones are not so much concerned with the union of the Churches—I mean the Greek and the Latin—as they are with tearing this Italy apart and dividing it into many fragments, the wretches! It is for this reason that they are said to have even prepared triremes at Avignon, which would carry you and the synod with you beyond the Pillars of Hercules and as far as Gades. That this is true, as the rumor goes, and that it aims not at union, but rather at the confusion of the Churches, is surely obvious to anyone with a mind. For they know well that it is not possible for the emperor of the Romans to sail to the ends of the earth with such a great multitude of holy Fathers. Are they, then, urging you toward the union of the Churches? And why, having abandoned the places to which it is easy to come, do they propose one to which it is almost impossible to arrive? What is this? Since it would be most easy for them to come to Italy, where the supreme pontiff resides and the synod with him, and where your majesty could be brought most easily and quickly, why do they pass this over and desire things that are both more difficult for themselves and impossible for the supreme pontiff and your power? But as it appears, it does not escape them that once you have sailed into Italy and pacified the Churches—a thing which depends entirely upon the most blessed Pope Eugenius and your majesty—there will no longer be any device for moving the primacy of Rome into Gaul B and shifting the boundaries already established by the Fathers, though they be wavering from the beating of the waves and so ancient that they seem ready to yield. Yet they are so far from thinking about what is right, that they understand nothing of what is expedient and proper; but they believe that they can either overcome your wisdom and dominate your counsel and lead the emperor of the Romans to the ends of the Ocean, far from his own city, or else hinder your voyage to Italy. For it seems to them that they are permitted to tear asunder the Church by either of these means, which they would have already torn apart if they could, and they will be able to do so if you do not sail to Italy. For whether, as you incline toward that place, the affairs of the most blessed Pope should cool, or if, having been hindered from your journey, they find a pretext, they intend to cause a schism. Thus, of the three things proposed—for you to sail to Gaul, or to Italy, or to neither one nor the other—if you do not sail to Italy, the remaining two introduce a double schism C instead of a single one, alas! For it is not possible for the Greek Church to stand with the Church of Rome if the latter is thrown into confusion. Then who would prefer their treacherous, malignant, and insidious plan over Italy? Again, let it be allowed for the Church of Rome to be united; having neglected this, would anyone strive to be united with that of Avignon or Narbonne, or I know not who else? If he does not reflect that, if not those ancient times when the French, having found Roman pontiffs conspiring with them, tore the kingdom asunder and rent the Churches (for these two follow upon one another), if he does not reflect on these things, I say, at least let him reflect on recent events, which, attempted at Lyon, came to nothing. For I do not judge them to be suitable for bridging and joining that which is distant D, who have—
A always disturbing and rending asunder the safe, and tearing to pieces the whole—shredding what is intact as much as they can—and even now they are eager for this. But let us wipe away the ancient things from our memory; yet, what kind of pretext for the peace of the Churches have they seized upon, that they are confident they can bring you to their synod, whose *roots*, as they are evil, and whose *foundations* are rotten, so too will its *ends* be ill-spoken of?
As for me, I do not call those who do these things in the city of Basel men of a synod, nor even close to it, but rather men of blood and a council of the malignant. For who, I ask, would dare to call that gathering "holy," from which the supreme pontiff is absent—not in body alone, but also in soul, opinion, and will? And he is not only absent, but is even attacked by some from that number, having suffered—and still suffering—terrible things, grieving as he sees the ship of the Church put in peril by their madness. B But God, the worker of wonders, knows how to heal evil even by means of the evil itself, and this is a sign of His supreme goodness. Therefore, He has awakened and urged on—much more than before—this new Moses, I mean Eugenius, the supreme pontiff, with the consent of all those bishops and as many others as desire a synod and love the common good, to send triremes to summon your power to Italy.
However, although various rumors are being spread, I would say that almost no one believes that you are inclined toward the Avignon triremes: the ships provided by them possess such rashness and thoughtlessness. Many, furthermore, are of the opinion that you have not even decided to sail to Italy; some among them, though they greatly desire it, hardly hope for it; others stray from your true mind, because they are unable to perceive your prompt and eager spirit for bringing about the peace of the Church; others conjecture that what they want will also come to pass. They wish for our affairs always to be situated in straits, C and in schism they will be straitened. Just as the Church was severed when the empire was divided, so they think—and they do not think wrongly—that if the Church were gathered together again, the empire would lift its head on high. For what other reason do they think so? Because not all those who are present at that synod are of the same mind, but the best of them—whom it is just, O Emperor, to love and honor and to prefer their judgment to that of all others—would even shed their blood for this cause.
But as for the fact that you have made agreements with the members of the synod? Some of them have stood with the Pope, while others have observed neither place nor manner—some striving to drive your majesty almost outside our inhabited world, and some, because they avoid the presence of the most blessed Pope—and even though this has been written into the agreements and pacts—he could by no means arrive at the designated place unless he were to ride upon Pegasus or take up the wings of Perseus. This, without controversy, has been contrived as an occasion for introducing schism. Others affirm that when you wish to set out for a synod, D you will by no means come to a synod. What do you say? they ask: "Is the Emperor being forced to an ecumenical synod already convened?" Who has ever heard of this, and that, too, when many ecumenical synods have taken place, the power of which the Emperor of the Romans always holds after the supreme pontiff? Count for me the synods, and having run through all of them, one and
only one, tell me, was ecumenical which the Emperor of the Romans did not initiate. You will not be able to name one. What then? Do you think that the other synods were assembled with the Emperor of the Romans holding the same opinion as the supreme high priest, but that this future one ought to be assembled by some Avignonites, or Narbonneses, or Lugdunensians, or whomsoever you wish? B And who, having any sense, will endure such things? Or rather, who will not open his mouth wide and shout that this is not a synod, nor even a trace of a synod, nor even near the shadow of a synod, but rather the wicked inventions of demented men troubling the inhabited world? Why? Because it is not according to the mind of the high priest of Rome, and because the Emperor of the Romans, to whom these things are entrusted from above, has not convoked it himself, but is summoned as if he were some private individual to one already convoked. But you, most excellent Emperor, consider and admire the divine laws which your fathers established, being preserved by divine justice. They, holding sway over many nations, convoked synods with the counsel of the high priest of Rome. But fortune having changed, and nonetheless, with both your status and that of the ancients remaining, when a meeting must be held for the correction of the Church, and since it is for no one—according to the law of justice, except the Emperor of the Romans—to be able to define the time, the place, and—I believe—the manner, and because the affairs of fortune are powerless, God, by judgments which He alone knows, has enclosed matters into this necessity, so that you alone might be, as is fitting, the lord of the place, and of the time, and of the manner, and of that very union, with no one or only a very few contradicting you at present, and shortly afterwards all, absolutely all, proclaiming your divinity as the cause of all good things. And this is not so much a thing to be wondered at, although it is wonderful, as that which will be the achievement of embarking upon the ship and sailing to Italy, O Emperor. Listen to what this is, although you know it yourself and have perhaps heard it from others; for it is no bad thing to say and hear such things frequently. You strive, in a most kingly manner, O Emperor, to gather the race of Christians into one fold and under one shepherd. The prince of this world, the devil, feels pain when he perceives this, and he strives to prevent what you are striving for, to rend the one Church of the Latins that now seems to exist. For such is the extent to which some of the Germans and Gauls rush toward their own desire, wishing unjustly to depose him who now holds the supreme pontificate, G and to introduce another, a Gaul, or at any rate a barbarian, in his place, that they would have already torn asunder the Church of God and confounded everything, had they not feared that by your setting out for Italy, the position of the most blessed Pope would be strengthened, and their own weakened. From which it is evident that if you do not sail to Italy, in wishing to unite you will tear asunder much more, and in striving to gather Christians you will scatter and afflict them with incurable wounds. Therefore, by the mere intention of sailing there, you have stopped the sedition, you have calmed the storm, you have extinguished the raging flame against the Church. And this is not just my own word, but that of everyone, for so are the affairs of the Church troubled, and such is the love both of those here and of [those there].
living beyond the Alps A (as one may hear from those arriving from there, if anyone finds it a matter of concern to ask), that God has stirred them to cry out with one mouth and one voice to Your Majesty, that "If the Emperor of the Romans does not come to the aid of the Church"—to which alone the facts themselves bear witness, sounding almost like a command sent from God that she might both stitch together what was once torn apart and keep intact what is now united—"the affairs of the Church are gone, and the affairs of the Empire are corrupted; the adversary demon is governing, and there is absolutely nothing to be expected, as far as human reasonings can discern, that will deliver Christians from such evils."
Hearing these things day by day, O Emperor—God, who predestined and chose you for the union of the Churches for an everlasting name, knows this—I cannot hold back my tears, sometimes foreseeing in my mind how great a danger hangs over the Church if you do not come; not that I suppose you will not come, as some do, but because the desire is so great that fear accompanies it. At other times, I am overcome with joy, imagining that I see the Emperor of the Romans not only B uniting it to the Roman Church of his own, but also preserving the Roman Church itself, and reconciling it, and rescuing it from such a manifest catastrophe, so that no one could say that such a glorious achievement was not the work of the Emperor of the Romans. For how, once you have come into Italy, will anyone be able to refrain from proclaiming you the savior and, under God, the cause of all good things—you whom even now, as many as care for such things, honor with these very same titles?
God has surely resolved to offer you distinguished glory, O Emperor, being refreshed by your virtue and rejoicing that you love the union; and He bestows upon you, and through you upon the Roman race, the sum of future blessings and the tranquility of the sea, unless you yourself hinder it by not coming. If, therefore, it is imperial and worthy of your nature, lest the Church of the Romans be torn asunder, to undertake solely the voyage to Italy—with so much money now happily collected, as if beyond expectation, for the coming of your power—will you not eagerly board ship and at the very first opportunity bind the Churches together in concord? C And who, reasoning correctly, would defer the voyage, even with such great difficulties assigned to navigation, for the overcoming of which any Christian would endure a thousand deaths? Especially when, by how much more glorious it is by coming to remove scandals, by so much more ignominious it is by not coming to confuse the Church; and when it is permitted to set all of Europe in order and to place goods in peace, to incite it, on the contrary—alas!—to internecine war by a most base example. For to hesitate and to dally is to be blamed as a vice. It behooves you, therefore, Emperor, not to neglect such an opportunity offered by divine gift, but to admire the divine providence and give thanks, since to you, longing for one union, He grants a double one. D For I know that you often ask of God simply that the Churches be united to you. But He grants it doubly, that you might come more readily. What, then, is this that enflames your zeal for the divine and fans the love for it, which some must fear might become an obstacle? This is like something, as if someone were not to be nourished by oil, but...
rather thought that it were quenched by it, or as if one were to claim that a man who was willing to do something for ten talents would not be willing to do the same thing if he were to find twenty talents. But I shall let these things be; for I do not even see what could hinder you. A Peace for the Churches, for which you have labored much, is at the very gates; and not this alone, but the Church of Rome also is inflamed and swollen, and calls out for your protection. All those who care for such things—absolutely everyone, Emperor—look to you, no less than if, as in the time of that Constantine the Great, or Theodosius, or Justinian, the splendors of fortune were breathing upon you. And in truth, when you come, as stars are [eclipsed] by the brightness of the sun, the fame of those who were emperors before you will be obscured by the clarity of your glory; for they may well seem to have achieved many things even by force, if we rightly examine the matter; for the suspicion of having done many things violently follows great potentates. But you—after fortune has already for many generations blown against your race—with the prudence, justice, gentleness, and other virtues with which you have adorned your reign, will, by sailing to Italy, keep the Church unharmed, and will fittingly join what was badly divided, and will well restore the affairs of the empire, and will provide for those who come after you a city that you govern, [ruling over] many nations. The exact opposite of these things will follow if you do not come; for there will be, there will be no hope hereafter, O Emperor, once this time has passed, of attempting to heal what has been shattered. For how could there be, when even those things which appear to be strong, as it were Babylonian walls—the affairs of Rome, I mean—are shaken and tremble, standing as they do upon the waves? And it is not possible to escape the storm unless you apply your right hand to the helm. I do not wish to predict the worst; but being driven by the facts, I cannot contain myself: if you do not sail to Italy, know that you have betrayed the race of Christians and have cast the affairs of the Church into the ultimate calamities. Oh, what a fall! Nor will the Church of Rome itself stand if it is not united with the Greek; and if the Roman [Church] is shaken—I am reluctant to say it, but I will say it nevertheless—the Greek will utterly perish. B C These things, O Emperor, O Autocrat, to whom now all of Europe—moved by divine impulse—is handing over the power of the Churches, ponder, using this as a sign that, God willing, the leadership of many nations will before long be granted to you. And with these reflections, by which I think you contemplate future things as if they were present (as is told of Themistocles), exert your spirit and your prudence; repel those who lead or seduce you elsewhere, if what is said is true, and the triremes from Avignon have reached Constantinople, and God does not drive them away, or [unless He] wondrously changes the minds of those by whom they are sent, bent by your virtue, and leads you to Italy with these and those triremes. I have therefore written, not because I have confidence in my eloquence—for I am conscious of my Greek poverty—