came back starved, cut, and mutilated. Their appearance and the great
gaps in the ranks of those who returned, kindled a smoldering fire under
all Europe. Such had been the pre-eminence of Constantinople and the
Greek Empire that if the Greeks had retained their former quality, the
Turks might have been driven back by those who sat on that famous
throne. But when the corruption of decay was attacked by the vigor of an
almost savage state, there could be but one result.

[Sidenote: _Greeks Truculent_]

Among the Greeks the lowest qualities and the basest acts found
justification under the name of policy. Courage in battle was supplanted
by the shield and mechanism of bodily safety. They killed the men who
tried to rouse them. They had wasted all their inheritance but great
memories, and had acquired a truculent and factious spirit. While they
were nearing the utter decay of their influence the infant West was
found to have grown until all that was noble in character and all that
was true in Christianity, all which could respond in courage and
self-sacrifice to the call of Jerusalem for deliverance, was to be
found among those whom the Greeks had held to be Barbarians.

[Sidenote: _Papal Ambition_]

[Sidenote: Greatness of Gregory]

The Roman Curia, from its first date of political influence, had never
ceased to enhance its authority by the use of the secular arm when it
had none of its own, or by its own secular arm when it could command
one. The disturbed conditions in the East, together with the decay of
Greek influence and the cowardice and helplessness of the Byzantine
emperors, had led Michael Ducas to appeal to Pope Gregory for help. The
prize offered Gregory was the submission of the Greek to the Roman
Church and the removal of all barriers. From the standpoint of ability,
Gregory well deserves the title "Great." He seems as great in statecraft
as in executive ability. The hope of being a universal pope led him to
promise aid. He urged the faithful to take up arms against the
Mussulmans, and promised to lead them himself. His letters were full of
the loftiest ideas. Fifty thousand agreed to follow his lead. But he
found the management of Europe more to his taste and perhaps to his
need.

The decay of Byzantine power was wisely used for the development of
pontifical authority and the spread of the Latin Church. And, again, the
Eternal City through its popes, and particularly through Gregory,
became the rule