Cardinal Albergati opens the Council at Ferrara on this day in 1438. After the forces of the Fourth Crusade occupied Constantinople in 1204, the Imperial capital was moved to Nicea (now Iznik in Turkey). In 1261, Michael VIII Paleologos recaptured the city, and Pope Urban IV proclaimed a crusade against the “infidel” Greeks. The newly installed Emperor Michael could not afford a confrontation with the “prince of Western Christendom” and began negotiations with the pope, which were supposed to buy him time. The prospect of a joint council became realistic only after Pope Gregory X was elected pope in 1271. The Pope saw the Byzantines as inferior schismatics and, through his embassy, instructed Michael to accept his primacy and the filioque (the addition to the Creed of the words “and from the Son” regarding the procession of the Holy Spirit). Because Michael assented to this condition, Pope Gregory restrained his “faithful son,” Charles of Anjou, from advancing on Byzantium. At the council in Lyon in 1274, Michael subscribed to the papal primacy and the filioque. This event was a restoration of the ecclesiastical peace broken in 1054. The organizers of the Council of Lyon did not consider that Eastern Orthodoxy was not as centralized as Western Christianity. The people of God (o Laos tou Theou, cf. 1 Peter 2:9), clergy, monks, and laity in masses resisted this union without “representation.” As a result, at the Council in Florence, Roman Catholics agreed to have an open competition to achieve full recognition in the Orthodox Church. This 1438–1439 council, which began in Ferrara, but due to a plague, had to move to Florence, is considered ecumenical by the Roman Catholic Church since it dealt with the reconciliation of rival factions within Roman Catholicism (“Conciliarists” vs. “Papists”). Patriarch Joseph II, Emperor John VIII Paleologos, and Metropolitan St. Mark of Ephesus led the Byzantine delegation at the council. The role of Metropolitan Mark was of a theologian expert and a representative of the Patriarch of Alexandria. The council conducted its work through a joint Orthodox-Catholic theological commission. Both parties reached an adequate understanding of Purgatory (the famous Tomás de Torquemada was St. Mark’s opponent). Although most of the Byzantines agreed with the Latins’ explanation of the filioque, St. Mark found their arguments unconvincing. As a result, at the meeting on March 30, 1440, St. Mark pronounced his famous words that the Latins were not schismatics but heretics. Further meetings were conducted without his participation. On July 5, 1440, a union between the churches was signed. The crusade of Varna (1443), which materialized due to the Council, suffered a crushing defeat. When Constantinople was about to be taken over by the Ottomans in 1453, the Unionists and the Orthodox held each other accountable for God’s wrath against the Romans. Sources: A.V.Barmin, “Mark Evgenik” [St. Mark Evgenikos], Pravoslavnaia Entsiklopedia. Aristeidis Papadakis, “Ferrara,” Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, 2 (Oxford, 1991). A Chronology of Byzantium, Timothy Venning ed. (New York, 2006). Christiaan Kappes, “Orthodox Reception of Ps.-Pope Sylvester's Canon: ‘The First See is Judged by no Human Being:’ From Photios to Mark of Ephesus,” Kanon 25 (2017) = Society of Law of Eastern Churches: 23rd Congress – Primacy and Synodality, Debrecen, Hungary. |
