been shut up, restored him (although he was on his death-bed), and deposed John Bekkos. Then the Emperor did public penance for having formerly accepted the union, and made every one else do so too. The whole movement had never been a really genuine one, and it now came to an utter end. Already it was the enemies of the union who could pose as the conservative party, and the intensely conservative instinct of all Easterns in Church matters made that position a stronger one as each century passed, strengthening the schism merely by making it older.[1]
3. The Council of Ferrara-Florence, 1438–1439.
The most famous reunion council was that held by Eugene IV at Ferrara and Florence. Its story is very much like that of the Second Council of Lyons. Again the Eastern Empire is in the direst distress from the Turks, again the Emperor wants union with the Latins for purely political reasons—that they may come and fight for him—and again the union is hated and soon denounced by the Byzantines. Pope Eugene IV (Gabriel Condolmer, 1431–1447) was having great trouble with the Council of Basel. At that time the schism of the West was just over, and the whole Catholic world had been scandalized by seeing two and then even three rival claimants to the Papacy. In that horrible confusion many people saw only one means of restoring order, a general council. This was the cure for all evils, and so they were always demanding general councils. There had been a great council at Pisa in 1409, another at Constance from 1414–1418, and as soon as Eugene IV was elected again every one clamoured for another general council to reform the Church. Since the confusion of the Western schism people had begun to distinguish between a council and its president the Pope, and the watchword of the reforming party was that a council is above every one, even the Pope. The Pope must obey a general council like any one else; once it has been lawfully summoned it can do anything—
- ↑ The story of the Second Council of Lyons will be found in any Church History. See especially Hefele's Conciliengeschichte (ed. 2), vi. pp. 119, seq.
