assent, and charged Isidore to strenuously uphold the Orthodox faith, and to return with it intact. "Our fathers," said he, "and our ancestors would never listen to the reunion of the Greek and Latin religions, nor have I any such intention. Yet you may go, if such be your desire; I will not oppose your departure, but remember the purity of our faith and come back with it unsullied."[1]
The council met at Ferrara in 1438; adjourned to Florence, and separated in 1439. Its sessions were violent and stormy, its debates acrimonious and endless. Accord between the opposing parties which composed it was hopeless, but the emperor and the pope were determined not to lose the fruit of their labors, and to secure, by any possible means, at least the semblance of a union. Private negotiations supplemented public discussions, and with more profitable results. Isidore was promised a cardinal's hat, and, by similar influences, opposition was gradually reduced to the single voice of Mark of Ephesus, who denounced the compact in unmeasured terms, and was compelled to seek safety in flight.
The reunion of the Churches was proclaimed by the council, and the articles of reconciliation, subscribed to unanimously by the members present, bore on four important points. They declared,
That either leavened or unleavened bread might be used in the Eucharist.
That, as regards purgatory, the righteous enjoy eternal happiness in heaven; unrepentant sinners suffer eternally; while those who have relapsed into sin after baptism and repentance are purified in some intermediate state, by various torments, until penance be accomplished;
- ↑ Karamsin, vol. v, p. 335.
