waters lie beneath, and it will not be long before the ice breaks. There can be no solid union without a frank admission of differences. That was not seen at the time. It rarely is seen by amicable peace-makers. In July 1439, after twenty-six sessions of the council, the act of union of the Eastern and Western Churches was signed. In August it was published in the Duomo at Florence, and the Te Deum was sung in Greek.
It was not long before the futility of all these proceedings became apparent. The old patriarch had died just before the signing, and he was buried in the baptistery at Florence; so he had escaped from the dilemma. But the emperor's own brother, Demetrius, refused to sign the act of union. Neither Mark of Ephesus nor any of the bishops from Georgia would be present at the grand proclamation service. When at Venice, on his way home, the bishop of Heraclia was required to recite the creed in St. Mark's, he did so in the Greek form—without the Filioque clause. On returning to the East, John saw to his chagrin that all his efforts had been spent in vain. Mark of Ephesus led the opposition to union. The patriarchs of Antioch and Alexandria refused to sign it. The union was never really effected, and from this time the schism went on without any hope of healing.
The failure of the last important attempt to unite the Churches was inevitably followed by coolness on the part of the Western peoples towards the Greeks and indifference to their fate. This fact should be duly weighed when we are inclined to charge Europe with supine stupidity and heartless selfishness in permitting Constantinople to fall into the hands of the Turks. For generations that great city had been the bulwark of Europe, the one outstanding barrier against the rising tide of Asiatic barbarism, the only safeguard of civilisation against savagery, of Christianity against Islam. In the inception of the Crusades this had been perceived by the wiser men of the West. To their credit let it be said, the popes had seen it all along, and had consistently shaped their policy accordingly.
