Council Of Florence Essay ⋆ History Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

The Council of Florence, which ran from 1438 to 1445, was a council of Roman Catholic bishops and other church officials that convened to reform the church and deal with the issues of the east-west schism.

The year 1054 marks the date of the schism that broke Christendom into its western (Latin/Catholic) and eastern (Orthodox) branches. Their differences were first brought to light in the ninth century when eastern missionaries (like Cyril and Methodios) working among the Slavs and Bulgars encountered western missionaries, as Constantinople and Rome vied for influence in Central Europe and the Balkans. These differences included the Eucharist (unleavened bread for the west, leavened for the east) and filioque (the addition of the phrase and the son to the Nicene Creed, which first appeared in the west in the sixth century and was adopted by the papacy in the 11th century).

Eastern Christendom, on the other hand, adhered to the official and original creed promulgated by the fourth century Ecumenical Council, and the papacy (which in the west was understood as the head of the church, while in the east it is given primacy of honor, but viewed as only equal in power to the patriarch of Constantinople). Other differences emerged later, such as clerical celibacy (required in the west, while in the east priests could be married prior to ordination, though monks and bishops could not) and the doctrine of purgatory (accepted in the west, but not in the east).

The gulf between east and west was driven home to the Orthodox Church during the Crusades, as wave upon wave of western Christians passed through the empire, often pillaging and threatening violence. The Fourth Crusade resulted in the Western Christian conquest of Constantinople and much of the Byzantine Empire in 1204. After the Orthodox reconquest of Constantinople in 1261, the east continued to view western Christendom with great suspicion. Yet, as the political situation in the east grew more endangered, Emperor Michael VIII Palaeologus offered to submit the Orthodox Church to the Western Church at the Council of Lyons in 1274. Michael achieved his political objective when the pope stopped the invasion of Byzantium by the west. Despite the emperor’s efforts, the union was not accepted in Byzantium and was repudiated by his successor in 1282.

Byzantium continued to endure political and economic troubles, exacerbated by the rise of the Ottoman Turks in the early 14th century. As the Ottomans expanded their control over Anatolia and the Balkans, Constantinople was caught in an Ottoman vise. In desperate need of help, Emperor John VIII Palaiologus turned to the west. The price, as before, was submission to ecclesiastical union. An Orthodox delegation of 700, including the emperor and patriarch, journeyed (at Pope Eugenius IV’s expense) to Italy. The council opened in Ferrara in October 1438 and was moved to Florence in February 1439 for security reasons. The aforementioned issues were discussed and, as at Lyons, the Orthodox Church submitted to the Western Church. The emperor, the patriarch, and all the delegates signed the Union of the Churches—with the notable exception of Mark Eugenikos, metropolitan of Ephesus.

Many recanted, including George Scholarios—later the monk Gennadios—who, after the fall of Constantinople in 1453, became the first patriarch under the Ottoman Turks. The emperor had hoped that the union would bring about the security of the empire, but Sultan Murad II defeated a western crusade at the Battle of Varna in 1444, and in 1453 the Ottomans conquered Constantinople. The Orthodox Church repudiated the council shortly afterward, although the Catholic Church continues to view this as an ecumenical council. After the union was signed, the council tried to reconcile the Catholic Church with the oriental orthodox churches, including the Armenians, Syrian “Jacobites,” Nestorians, and Maronites. Although widespread union was not achieved, the interaction of the council members encouraged connections between east and west.

Bibliography :

Hussey, J. The Orthodox Church in the Byzantine Empire. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986;
Nicol, D. The Last Centuries of Byzantium, 1261–1453. London: Hart-Davis, 1972.

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