Page 276 - Orthodoxy Zizioulas

O r t h o d o x y
The L ast Effort Toward Union of the
Churches
The final serious attempt at reunion between East and West
was made under the pressure of imminent catastrophe. By
the early fifteenth century, the Byzantine Empire had been
reduced to a shadow of itself as the Ottoman Turks advanced
steadily. It had become clear that without help from the West,
Byzantium could not survive. Emperor John VIII Palaiologos,
a shrewd realist, therefore prepared the way for a council that
met first at Ferrara and then at Florence in 1438–1439.
When the council opened at Ferrara on 9 April 1438, all
outward signs suggested that union was near. The emperor
and the pope were both present, surrounded by great splen-
dor, and the Byzantine delegation included distinguished
bishops and theologians. Yet beneath this magnificence lay
deep division. The emperor desired a rapid agreement, driven
by political necessity, while the Byzantine delegation itself was
divided: Bessarion of Nicaea and Isidore of Kiev favored
union, while Mark Eugenikos of Ephesus, though initially
disposed toward agreement, came to oppose it when he judged
that the theological differences could not truly be reconciled.
The greatest part of the council’s labor was devoted to the
filioque. The debate centered first on whether Rome had the
right to alter the Creed of Nicaea-Constantinople, and second
on whether the filioque itself was heretical or could somehow
be tolerated. The impasse was profound. Other issues also
arose: purgatory, unleavened bread in the Eucharist, the use
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