[236] Busbecq went there in the beginning of August 1561. He was accompanied by a cavasse, and twenty Janissaries as a guard. Charrière, Négotiations de la France dans le Levant, ii. 668-9.
[237] These references are to Cicero, De Naturâ Deorum, ii. cap. 48, and De Finibus, iii. cap. 19; Pliny, Natural History, ix. cap. 66, and Athenæus, iii. p. 93. For descriptions and figures of the pinna and pinnophylax or pea-crab, see Wood’s Natural History, pages 422 and 588. They are frequently found in the shells of bivalves. The real reason for this habit is not certainly known. For an account of Belon, see note, page [140].
[238] This passage illustrates the statement in the Life, pages 50, 51.
[239] In ancient times, and now in the English Church, the title of Metropolitan (Archbishop) was confined to the chief bishop of a province; but in the Greek Church at the present day the title is given to many ordinary bishops.
[241] After the Spaniards, in 1533, abandoned the fortress of Coron in the Morea, some Greeks, who had taken their part, fled with them to Charles V. Among them was one James Heraclides, whose ancestors had been Despots, or Lords, of Samos and Paros. In his suite was a lad named John Basilicus, the son of a ship-captain in Crete. He took a fancy to the young man, and had him educated, and for some years he worked as a copyist in the Vatican library. On the death of his patron, John persuaded his household to acknowledge him as the nephew of their deceased master by allowing them to take possession of the property left by him, only keeping for himself all the diplomas, title-deeds and other documents he could find. Many years afterwards he repaired to Charles V. in his retirement at Yuste, and obtained from him an acknowledgment that he was nephew and heir of Heraclides, and as such was recognised by him as Despot of Samos and Paros. Charles V. also acknowledged the good service he had done while in the Albanian light cavalry attached to the Spanish army, and according to some accounts gave him the right of conferring the degree of Doctor and creating Notaries and Poet-Laureates. Armed with these credentials he repaired to Wittenberg, where he became acquainted with Melancthon, published an historical work in Latin, and with the Emperor’s consent exercised his powers by creating some Poet-Laureates. At Lubeck he assumed the character of a prince banished by the Turks, and thence repaired to the courts of Denmark and Sweden, and next went by Dantzic to Albert of Brandenberg, the first Duke of Prussia. He then visited Nicholas Radzivill at Wilna, who introduced him to Sigismund, King of Poland. To gain Radzivill’s favour he professed himself a Protestant. In Poland he heard of the disturbed state of Moldavia, and found that the wife of the Hospodar Alexander was a kinswoman of his pretended uncle. Armed with letters of recommendation from Radzivill and the King, he entered Moldavia, assumed the name of James Heraclides, and on the strength of a forged pedigree, passed himself off as a descendant of the ancient Moldavian dynasty of that name. He applied himself to learn the language and to gain the affections of the nobles. Thereon Alexander, who at first had received him well, tried to poison him, but he escaped to Upper Hungary; here he obtained the assistance of Albert Laszky and would have invaded Moldavia through Ruthenia, if the Palatine had not stopped him by the King of Poland’s orders. He then retired to Kaschau, where he gained the confidence of Busbecq’s old colleague Zay, then Governor of Upper Hungary. Having come to an understanding between themselves, they wrote to Ferdinand, who entered into a secret agreement to assist Basilicus with money, and allow him to levy troops in his dominions. To lull the suspicions of Alexander, a report of Basilicus’s death was circulated, and his funeral was actually performed by Laszky at Kesmark, the capital of the County of Zips. His second invasion proved more successful. In November, 1561, he defeated Alexander near Suczawa, who fled to Jassy, and thence to Constantinople. There he endeavoured to prejudice the Sultan against him, and spread reports that he was about to invade Thrace with his German mercenaries. Though Solyman was much annoyed at these events, and had commenced to assemble an army to attack the Despot, yet he deemed it wiser to dissemble his vexation, and, yielding to the representations of the Despot’s envoys, which were supported by a judicious administration of bribes, he conferred on him the vacant dignity. The Despot, however, soon made himself unpopular by raising the taxes, which he was obliged to do in order to provide the increased tribute he had agreed to pay, Alexander having carried off all the money in the treasury. Moreover, to save expense he dismissed his German and Italian troops, retaining only Hungarians. The priests and common people were alienated by his religious innovations, especially as they could not refute his arguments, ‘having learnt to worship God with more zeal than knowledge.’ He declared his intention of abolishing vain ceremonies and false doctrines, and introduced Calvinist preachers from Poland, who ridiculed the mass-books, expressed their abhorrence of all ceremonies, destroyed images, and, in the words of the episcopal historian, had the arrogance to affirm that their doctrines agreed with the testimony of the Scriptures. He began to plunder the churches of their treasures, plate, &c., which made the priests fear their turn would come next. His crowning act of sacrilege was to melt down certain silver crosses, venerable both from their age and the relics they contained, and to coin them into pieces bearing his image and superscription. The nobles were further estranged by his projected marriage with the beautiful Christina, daughter of Martin Zborowski, Castellan of Cracow, a man of great influence in Poland, and the leader of the Protestant party. Accordingly, they conspired against him, treacherously surprised and killed most of his foreign guards, his other partisans, and his infant child, and besieged him in Suczawa. After three months his Hungarian troops mutinied and surrendered the fortress, and he was cruelly murdered by Tomza, the leader of the conspirators.
[243] The farewell audience took place on the Tuesday before September, 10, 1559. Apparently, however, it was on June 6 that Lavigne procured the release of the prisoners. The Baily, Marini di Cavallo, was much annoyed at the favour, which had been refused to his entreaties and bribes, being granted to Lavigne. ‘Et il ne s’est peu tenir, tout saige et cavallo qu’il est, de se faire cognoistre fol et asino: car usant de paroles magnifiques et de ceste bonne créance de Realto contre moy, au lieu de me louer et vous faire remercier par sa seigneurie d’une si bonne œuvre qu’il n’eust jamais sceu mectre à fin, soubz main il a tasché de faire dresser les commandements desdits pellerins en son nom, et de corrompre l’ambassadeur du roy des Romains (Busbecq) affin qu’il escripvit à l’empéreur que c’estoit à la requeste de ladicte seigneurie qu’ils avoient esté déliverez.’—Charrière, Négociations &c., ii. 584.
[244] It is curious to find that some Goths still existed in the Crimea so late as Busbecq’s days. They occupied the south coast from Balaklava to Sudak, and the mountains north of the latter, and the Genoese officer who governed this coast in the fifteenth century, bore the title of Capitanus Gotiæ. They are mentioned by the monk Rubruquis, who was sent in 1253 by Saint Louis to the Great Khan, and also by Marco Polo, (book iv. c. 24, Yule’s edition, ii. p. 421 and note). The traveller Pallas, at the end of the last century, could find no traces of them or of their language, so that he thinks (Travels, vol. ii. p. 358), that Busbecq’s belief in their existence must have arisen from some German, Swedish, or other captives being found in the Crimea. Busbecq, however, is not the only writer who notices these Goths, and it is not difficult to understand that the tribe may have disappeared before the time of Pallas in the numerous wars which devastated the Crimea. The ruins of Mancup still remain, four leagues south of Simferopol, and nearly due east of Sebastopol. It is an almost inaccessible fortress, on a high isolated rock. Pallas describes the ruins of it in the second volume of his Travels. One of Gibbon’s numerous references to Busbecq is found in a note to Chapter xl., where he alludes to ‘these unambitious Goths.’
[245] The Flemish is not given by Busbecq, but has been taken by the translators from an article on Busbecq in Les Voyageurs Belges, ii. p. 30, by the Baron de Saint-Génois,