Page:Destruction of the Greek Empire.djvu/340

This page needs to be proofread.

300 DESTRUCTION OF THE GEEEK EMPIRE CHAPTEK XIV DISSENSIONS IN CITY : BETWEEN GREEKS THEMSELVES ) BETWEEN GREEKS AND ITALIANS ; BETWEEN GENOESE AND VENETIANS J CHARGE OF TREACHERY AGAINST GENOESE EXAMINED ; FAILURE OF SERBIA AND HUN- GARY TO RENDER AID ; PREPARATIONS FOR A GENERAL ASSAULT ; DAMAGES DONE TO THE LANDWARD WALLS ; CONSTRUCTION OF STOCKADE. Dissen- I T i s convenient to halt here in the narrative of the siege in sions . . . . . among the order to call attention to certain dissensions within the city. besieged, ijij^gg di ssens i 0 ns are made much of by the Latin writers and are probably exaggerated. They arose in great measure from a traditional ill-feeling, due to history, to difference of race and language, diversity of interest, and to the hostility between the Eastern and Western Churches. It is especially to the differences on the religious question that the Western writers call attention. In reference to the dissensions among the Greeks themselves, it must be remembered that the majority of them, priests and laity, either openly repudiated the arrangement made at Florence or conformed under something very near compulsion. The Greeks, says Leonard, the Catholic archbishop, celebrate the Union with their voice but deny it in fact. 1 He points out that the emperor, for whose orthodoxy he has nothing but praise, accepted it with heart and soul. But he was an exception. The majority still followed the lead of Gennadius and the Grand Duke Notaras. If it be true that the Grand Duke declared that he would prefer to see the head-dress of the Turk rather than that of the Latin priests, his prejudice furnishes 1 Leonard, Opere, p. 94.