monasteries in Southern Italy. He was a warm friend to Grottaferrata, the chief of these monasteries.[1] As a scholar, philosopher, and Mæcenas, he redeemed the honour of the Greek name throughout Europe; certainly no one in his age was more worthy of the sacred purple. After having very nearly become Pope[2] he died in 1472. It was doubtless not only the religious motive[3] that led the great Humanist to despair of the wild fanaticism, hopeless narrowness and unbearable pride of his own countrymen, and to turn away from the ugly clouds that gathered around the dying Empire to take his part in the movement that was rising like a wonderful dawn all over the broad lands of the West. And we, who know what we owe to the light of the Renaissance and who are grateful to the men who brought it, have to remember together with the Humanist Popes, with More, Erasmus and the others, also the Nicene Cardinal, Bessarion.
Summary.
Since the schism there have been three councils in which Eastern and Western bishops met to discuss their differences. At Bari, in 1098, Pope Urban II summoned some Greeks, apparently Calabrians or Sicilians, and argued with them about the Filioque. St. Anselm of Canterbury defended the Catholic belief; otherwise this synod is not at all important and we know little about it. Two general councils brought about a reunion, each for a short time. The Eastern Emperor, Michael VIII, sent ambassadors to the Second Council of Lyons, held in 1274 by Pope Gregory X. They accepted the faith of the Roman Church in every point at once, in
- ↑ Bessarion was made titular Abbot of Grottaferrata. They still have his chalice there. Krumbacher: Byz. Litt. pp. 117–118.
- ↑ When Paul II died in 1471 the Conclave hesitated between Bessarion and Francis della Rovere, who was eventually elected, and became Sixtus IV (1471–1484).
- ↑ It would be quite unjust to think, on the other hand, that his motive was only mean time-serving. He had eagerly defended the union, and had taken up an entirely Catholic attitude at the very beginning of the council, when no one could foresee what would be the end of things; and he never wavered from that position.
