Bessarion, the famous Greek, first, archbishop of Nice, afterwards, cardinal, and, at length, patriarch of Constantinople, came into Italy with the archbishop of Russia, to endeavour to bring about an union between the Greek and Latin churches. Bessarion made no difficulty of subscribing to the orthodoxy of the latter; and this was what got him a cardinal’s hat: his long beard, and that of his companion, accustomed the court of Rome to this mode. Bessarion was one of the stoutest men of his time; every one longed to look like this illustrious man, were it only in the fleece on his chin; and his fine Grecian beard soon produced a number of Latin ones.[74] Footnote 74: This cardinal’s beard was not so well received in France. This great man being sent thither as legate, visited, through policy, the duke of Burgundy before he saw king Lewis XI. This monarch was so offended at the preference given his enemy, that, at the first audience he gave this legate, he roughly seized him by his long beard, and gave him a great deal of abuse. The patriarch took this affront so near to heart, that he did not survive it above a year. Some years after, Julius II. was elected pope; his youth, which suited but badly with the majesty of the papacy, determined him to let his beard grow out, in order to inspire more respect: he was the first pope of his time who gave the Church such a holy and rational example. Clement VII. one of his successors, did not imitate him at first; but having been detained five months in prison by the troops of Charles of Bourbon, the general of the emperor’s army, he came out as if regenerated and triumphant, with his face enobled with a large, bushy beard, which he would never part with. This custom was eagerly adopted by those clergy, who, by their revenues or exploits, held a distinguished rank in the Church or State. It was then that the inferior clergy, and especially the chapters, strongly opposed this pretended indecorum. We read, that, in the reign of Lewis XII. one Anthony de Langheac, canon of the church of Paris, abbot and canon of that of Clermont, counsellor-clerk to the parliament, and ambassador to the republic of Venice, could not enter the choir of the church of Our Lady at Paris with his long beard. On account of the commission with which the king had honoured him, he at length obtained permission to hear matins, which were then said at midnight.[75] In a little time, they were not so scrupulous, as all the clergy let out their beards, even the lowest among them, in order to give themselves a pontifical appearance;[76] when, in France, Francis I. (who might justly boast of having worn the first beard of his kingdom,) for œconomical reasons, armed the enemies of clerical beards with destructive weapons, and was the occasion of the war which we are going to speak of. Footnote 75: