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The relations between the Basileus and the Church are strained to breaking; and the condition is not sanable while the quarrel between the Patriarch and Scholarius waxes hotter." "The Patriarch and Scholarius quarrelling? I had not heard of that." "Openly, openly! His Majesty and the Patriarch are tenderly sympathetic. What more is wanting to set the Prophet scolding?
The old demarcations of the heptarchy, as thou knowest, are scarce worn out; it is even now less one monarchy, than various states retaining their own laws, and inhabitated by different races, who under the sub-kings, called earls, acknowledge a supreme head in the Basileus of Britain. Mercia hath its March law and its prince; Northumbria its Dane law and its leader.
Boris, on the other hand, though no doubt full of genuine spiritual ardour, was above all impressed with the authority and prestige which the basileus derived from the Church of Constantinople; he also admired the pomp of ecclesiastical ceremony, and wished to have a patriarch of his own to crown him and a hierarchy of his own to serve him.
The Greek emperor was addressed by him as brother instead of father; and as long as the imperial dignity of the West was usurped by a hero, the Greeks respectfully saluted the august Charlemagne with the acclamations of "Basileus" and "Emperor of the Romans."
The Chamber of Relics was prohibited to all but the Basileus. He alone could enter it. By great favor, the Prince of India was once permitted to look into the room, and he remembered it large and dimly lighted, its shadows alive, however, with the glitter of silver and gold in every conceivable form, offered there as the Wise Men laid their gifts before the Child in the Cave of the Nativity.
He maintained the tradition of his family by making his capital at Tirnovo, which city he considerably embellished and enlarged. Constantinople at this time boasted three Greek emperors and one French. The first act of John Asen II was to get rid of one of them, named Theodore, who had proclaimed himself basileus at Okhrida in 1223.
I therefore command my Centurion, Quintas Cornelius, that he conduct publicly through the City of Jerusalem this Jesus Christ and that he be tied and flogged, dressed in purple and crowned with prickly thorns, with his own cross on his shoulders, so that he may serve as an example to malefactors; and to take with him two homicidal thieves; all of whom shall leave by the Giarancola Gate, designed to-day Antonia, and will proceed to the mount of the wicked, called Calvary, where crucified and dead, the body shall remain on the cross so that it may be a spectacle and example to all criminals, and on said cross there shall be the inscription in three languages, Hebrew, Greek and Latin, in Hebrew 'Jesu Aloi Alisidin'; in Greek 'Iesous Nazarenos Basileus ion Iouoaion'; in Latin 'Jesus Nazarenus Rex Judaeorum. We likewise command that no one of whatever class he may be, shall attempt imprudently to impede this justice by us commanded, administered and followed with all rigor, according to the decrees and laws of the Roman and Hebrews, under penalty which those incur who rebel against the Empire."
So there he stood with his calm brow, facing all, Monarch of England, and Basileus of Britain. Now unheeded amidst the throng, and leaning against a column in the arches of the aisle, was a woman with her veil round her face; and she lifted the veil for a moment to gaze on that lofty brow, and the tears were streaming fast down her cheek, but her face was not sad.
Even at that same period, she advanced into Persia more than a thousand miles from her own metropolis in Europe, under the blazing ensigns of the cross, kicked the crown of Persia to and fro like a tennis-ball, upset the throne of Artaxerxes, countersigned haughtily the elevation of a new Basileus more friendly to herself, and then recrossed the Tigris homewards, after having torn forcibly out of the heart and palpitating entrails of Persia, whatever trophies that idolatrous empire had formerly wrested from herself.
Landing at Venice, the Basileus was escorted to Ferrara, where Eugenius received him with suitable pomp. The Council of Basle, having been adjourned to Ferrara for the better accommodation of the imperial guest, was opened there in April, 1438. But the plague broke out, and the sessions were transferred to Florence where the Council sat for three years. Dost thou follow me, my son?"
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