Turkey to Naples and Rome. Mahomet boasted that he would
soon feed his horse on the altar of St. Peter's. The pope, Sextus IV.,
in dismay, was about abandoning Rome, and as there was no hope of
uniting the discordant States of Italy in any effectual resistance, it
seemed inevitable that Italy, like Greece, would soon become a Turkish
province. And where then could it be hoped that the ravages of the Turks
would be arrested?

In this crisis, so alarming, Providence interposed, and the sudden death
of Mahomet, in the vigor of his pride and ambition, averted the danger.
Bajazet II. succeeded to the Moslem throne, an indolent and imbecile
sultan. Insurrection in his own dominions exhausted all his feeble
energies. The Neapolitans, encouraged, raised an army, recovered
Otranto, and drove the Turks out of Italy. Troubles in the Turkish
dominions now gave Christendom a short respite, as all the strength of
the sultan was required to subjugate insurgent Circassia and Egypt.

Though the Emperor of Germany was esteemed the first sovereign in
Europe, and, on state occasions, was served by kings and electors, he
had in reality but little power. The kings who formed his retinue on
occasions of ceremonial pomp, were often vastly his superiors in wealth
and power. Frequently he possessed no territory of his own, not even a
castle, but depended upon the uncertain aids reluctantly granted by the
diet.

Gunpowder was now coming into use as one of the most efficient engines
of destruction, and was working great changes in the science of war. It
became necessary to have troops drilled to the use of cannon and
muskets. The baron could no longer summon his vassals, at the moment, to
abandon the plow, and seize pike and saber for battle, where the strong
arm only was needed. Disciplined troops were needed, who could sweep the
field with well-aimed bullets, and crumble walls with shot and shells.
This led to the establishment of standing armies, and gave the great
powers an immense advantage over their weaker neighbors. The invention
of printing, also, which began to be operative about the middle of the
fifteenth century, rapidly changed, by the diffusion of intelligence,
the state of society, hitherto so barbarous. The learned men of Greece,
driven from their country by the Turkish invasion, were scattered over
Europe, and contributed not a little to the extension of the love of
letters. The discovery of the mariner's compass and improvemen