s age, the Greek exiles were indebted for a
patronage which they repaid by splendid services in the restoration of
their native literature throughout Italy. Bessarion, a disputant on the
Greek side in the council of Florence, was well content to renounce the
doctrine of single procession for a cardinal's hat--a dignity which he
deserved for his learning, if not for his pliancy. Theodore Gaza, George
of Trebizond, and Gemistus Pletho, might equal Bessarion in merit,
though not in honours. They all, however, experienced the patronage of
those admirable protectors of letters, Nicolas V., Cosmo de' Medici, or
Alfonso king of Naples. These men emigrated before the final destruction
of the Greek empire; Lascaris and Musurus, whose arrival in Italy was
posterior to that event, may be deemed perhaps still more conspicuous;
but as the study of the Greek language was already restored, it is
unnecessary to pursue the subject any further.

The Greeks had preserved, through the course of the middle ages, their
share of ancient learning with more fidelity and attention than was
shown in the west of Europe. Genius indeed, or any original excellence,
could not well exist along with their cowardly despotism, and their
contemptible theology, more corrupted by frivolous subtleties than that
of the Latin church. The spirit of persecution, naturally allied to
despotism and bigotry, had nearly, during one period, extinguished the
lamp, or at least reduced the Greeks to a level with the most ignorant
nations of the West. In the age of Justinian, who expelled the last
Platonic philosophers, learning began rapidly to decline; in that of
Heraclius it had reached a much lower point of degradation; and for two
centuries, especially while the worshippers of images were persecuted
with unrelenting intolerance, there is almost a blank in the annals of
Grecian literature.[921] But about the middle of the ninth century it
revived pretty suddenly, and with considerable success.[922] Though, as
I have observed, we find in very few instances any original talent, yet
it was hardly less important to have had compilers of such erudition as
Photius, Suidas, Eustathius, and Tzetzes. With these certainly the
Latins of the middle ages could not place any names in comparison. They
possessed, to an extent which we cannot precisely appreciate, many of
those poets, historians, and orators of ancient Greece, whose loss we
have long regretted and must continue to deem