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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 March 2011
Despite the superabundance of material available for the historical preliminaries and the progress of the Council of Ferrara-Florence, there is a source which to all intents and purposes has been neglected and has, therefore, remained outside the purview of the historiography concerning this critical Council. In more than one respect this source sheds significant light on the attitudes, mechanics and state of mind of at least some Greek sections and their aspirations in the matter of the union of the Greek and Latin Churches. The source is not an official document but, as we shall presently see, a memorandum or, to use Foreign Office jargon, a minute by a highly placed official who was not either in his private or public capacity in any way involved in the matter reported. The memorandum demands attention on several counts. It records an unexpected approach on the part of some Greeks to the duke of Milan shortly before Eugenius IV decided to transfer the Council from Ferrara to Florence. The record reveals, like a flashlight, how much diplomatic activity was going on in the corridors of power, in the couloirs, in the backrooms safely removed from the gaze of the public, of the annalists, official shorthand writers, and the forerunners of the modern journalists and of the media, that is to say, the diarists, eavesdroppers and reporters appointed by the various European courts at the seat of the Council. This memorandum or minute is the only source that informs posterity of an abortive, but nonetheless very symptomatic approach intended to settle the question of the union by radical means. Above all, the memorandum faithfully reflects the age-old Byzantine ideology which reached back into the somewhat hazy ancient Roman period and which had matured over more than a millennium that manifestly linked Nea Roma with Roman antiquity. The core and tenor of this approach associates historical continuity with historical Roman law, a combination that had served as the very ingredient, nay, as the anima that gave birth to, and shaped the future of, the Church in Byzantine realms.
page 338 note 1 For details cf. Ostrogorsky, G., Geschichte des byzantinischen Staates, 3rd ed. Munich 1963, 444 ff.Google Scholar; and for the background see especially Nicol, D. M., ‘Byzantine requests for an oecumenical council in the fourteenth century’ in Annuarium Historiae Conciliorum, I (1969), 69–95.Google Scholar
page 338 note 2 He saw the king, Henry IV, on 21 December 1400 and spent Christmas with him at Eltham: Chronicon Adae de Usk A.D. 1377–1421, ed. Thompson, E. M., with English translation, London 1904, 56 f.Google Scholar and 219 f. Adam of Usk has locc. citt. quite a perceptive description of the appearance of the emperor in the streets of London: ‘The emperor always walked with his men dressed alike and in one colour, namely white, in long robes cut like tabards; he finding fault with the many fashions and distinctions in dress of the English, wherein he said that fickleness and changeable temper was betokened. No razor touched head or beard of his chaplains. These Greeks were most devout in their church services which were joined in as well by soldiers as by priests, for they chanted them without distinction in their native tongue …’. The emperor was ‘also comforted at his departure with very great gifts’. See further Eulogium Historiarum Continuatio iii, ed. Haydon, F. S., in Rolls Series, London 1863, at 388Google Scholar: ‘Hoc anno (i.e. 1400) imperator constantinopolitanus venit in Angliam ostendens indulgentiam papae omnibus … et petiit auxilium a rege contra Turcos et infideles. Qui habebat quotidie missam per notam in camera sua ab episcopis suis ritu Graecorum, et quotidie imperator et omnes sui communicabant. Quem rex honorifice recepit et omnes expensas suas in Anglia persolvit …’. The emperor left in February 1401 and received a grant of some £2,000: see Jacob, E. F., The Fifteenth Century 1399–1485, repr. Oxford 1969, 76–77Google Scholar; Nicol, D. M., ‘A Byzantine Emperor in England’ in University of Birmingham Hist. J., XII (1971), 204 ff.Google Scholar
page 339 note 1 The ‘three-sided situation’ is rightly pointed out by Geanakoplos, D. I., ‘The Council of Florence (1438–1439) and the problem of union between the Greek and Latin Churches’ in Church History, XXIV (1955), 324 ff., at 328.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
page 339 note 2 For some remarks on this topic cf. Beck, H.-G., ‘Byanz und der Westen im Zeitalter des Konziliarismus’ in Vorträge und Forschungen, XII (1960), 135 ff., at 146, though this focal point might have been emphasised a little more.Google Scholar
page 339 note 3 For his election as king of Hungary on 18 December 1437, see Deutsche Reichstagsakten (abbreviated: RTA.), ed. Beckmann, G., Stuttgart-Gotha 1925, XIII. 168Google Scholar n. 1; and for his election as king of the Romans see the proceedings and official acta, ibid., nos. 28 ff., at 73 ff.; the final voting was on 20 March 1438, nos. 36–37, at 92 f. For some details (based on inadequate source material) cf. W. Wostry, König Albrecht II.: Prager Studien aus dem Gebiete der Geschichtswissenschaft, ed. A. Bachmann, fasc. 12 and 13, 1906–1907.
page 340 note 1 For this topic only a few specimens can be given, since the literature is too rich to be quoted here. Cf. Bréhier, L., Les institutions de l'empire byzantin, 2nd ed., Paris 1949Google Scholar, esp. chapters 1 and 2, at 1 ff. and 52 ff.; book iv, ch. 1, at 430 ff.; Jäntere, K., Die römische Weltreichsidee (= Annales Universitatis Turkuensis, series B, XXI (1936) 128–42)Google Scholar; Cerfaux, L. and Tondriau, J., Le culte des souverains, Paris 1956, 439 ff.Google Scholar; Treitinger, O., Die oströmische Kaiser- und Reichsidee nach ihrer Gestaltung im höfischen Zeremoniell, 2nd ed. Darmstadt 1956Google Scholar; Michel, A., Die Kaisermacht in der Ostkirche, Darmstadt 1959Google Scholar; Rahner, H., Kirche and Staat im frühen Christentum, Munich 1961Google Scholar, esp. chs. 3 ff.; Dölger, F., Byzanz und die europäische Staatenwelt, Darmstadt 1964, esp. 9 ff.Google Scholar, 34 ff., 282 ff.; Beck, H.-G., ‘Reichsidee und nationale Politik im spätbyzantinischen Staat’ in Byzantinische Zeitschrift, LIII (1960), 86 ff.Google Scholar; id., ‘Res publica Romana: Vom Staatsdenken der Byzantiner’ in Sitzungsberichte der Bayrischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, phil. hist. Kl., 1970, fasc. 2.
page 340 note 2 Ulpian's classic definition in Dig. 1.1.1 (2).
page 340 note 3 For this cf. Ullmann, W., A Short History of the Papacy in the Middle Ages, and ed. London 1974, 7, 23, 29, 41, 43 45. It is, nevertheless, interesting to see that in course of time the ecclesiastics began to assert their own independent position: the imperial rights concerning the ecclesiastical organism became questioned in the fourteenth century when the right of the imperial government to translate bishops from one see to another was no longer accepted and, in fact, disputed. It is the great merit of H.-G. Beck to have stressed this important feature, in Sitzungsberichte, cit., at 36–38.Google Scholar
page 341 note 1 This is incontrovertibly demonstrated by the designation of the patriarch of Constantinople as universalis patriarcha which indeed was officially used by the imperial government in the sixth century, cf., e.g., Justinian's Novella 83, proemium, designating the patriarch Mennas as ‘universalis patriarcha’. Cf. in this context the highly significant letter by Felix III in 483 to Acacius, the patriarch, in which the pope expressed his astonishment at the temerity of the patriarch's calling himself ‘totius ecclesiae princeps’: cited in Ullmann, W., Growth of Papal Government in the Middle Ages, 3rd-4th ed., London 1970, 15 n. 9.Google Scholar
page 341 note 2 On this cf. Short History of the Papacy, cit., 150, 211, 215 f.
page 341 note 3 ibid., 303 f.
page 341 note 4 Text in Conciliorum oecumenicorum decreta, ed. Alberigo, J. et al., 3rd ed., Bologna 1973, 523 ffGoogle Scholar. For an authoritative commentary by an eminent participant of the Council see Johannes de Turrecremata on the relevant passage in the decree: E. Candal (ed.), Apparatus super decretum Florentinum unionis Graecorum (=Concilium Florentinum, II (1942)) at 96–114Google Scholar. For the Byzantine reaction in Constantinople after the return of the Greeks see the illuminating account by Syropoulus, in his report: Les ‘Mémoires’ du Grand Ecclésiarque de l'Église de Constantinople Sylvestre Syropoulos sur le Concile de Florence (=Concilium Florentinum, IX (1971)),Google Scholar ed. V. Laurent, at 546 ff. This magnificent edition of the Greek text (with French translation) is the first full-scale edition of Syropoulos's large work and is the fruit of some four decades of editorial labour.
page 342 note 1 For details cf. Gill, J., The Council of Florence, Cambridge 1959, 77 ff.Google Scholar; id., Constance et Bâle-Florence (in Histoire des conciles, IX (1965)), 214 ff.Google Scholar
page 342 note 2 Cf. J. Gill, Florence, 80 ff. H.-G. Beck (Vorträge und Forschungen, cit., at 146) rightly points out that because the Greeks knew very well that Basel as well as the papacy needed them for their respective programmes, they would be in a position to put all their expenses on Western shoulders. On 25 October 1437 the imperial government replied to the Basleans that the Greeks would sail in the papal fleet: see Dölger, F., Regesten der Kaiserurkunden des oströmischen Reiches von 565 bis 1453, Munich 1965, no. 3476Google Scholar. For a detailed and lively account, see Syropoulos, Mémoires, ed. cit., at 160 ff.; here also the severe economic difficulties which faced the Greeks, ibid., 188 ff., 296 f.
page 342 note 3 Gill, op. cit., 88 ff.
page 342 note 4 It would seem that he conceived some of the basic ideas set forth in his De docta ignorantia on his voyage; cf. the dedication of the work to Cesarini, ed. Heidelberg Academy (1932). For some details cf. Nikolaus von Kues als Promotor der Oekumene, ed. Haubst, R., Mainz 1971 ( = Mitteilungen und Forschungsbeiträge der Cusanus Gesellschaft, ix).Google Scholar
page 342 note 5 On 25 February 1438 the emperor wrote to the Basleans and suggested that they should join him at Ferrara in the Council: Reg. no. 3478.
page 343 note 1 For some personalities see J. Gill, op. cit., 89 n. 2, and now especially Syropoulos, Mémoires, ed. cit., at 184 ff. Further, J. Décarreaux, ‘L'arrivée des Grecs en Italie pour le concile de l'union des églises d'après les mémoires de Syropoulos’ in Revue des études italiennes, VII (1960), 29–59Google Scholar; ix (1962), 33–99; id., ‘L'union des églises au concile de Ferrare-FIorence’ in Irénikon, xxxix (1966), 46 ff. and 177 ff. Cf. also J. P. Arrignon, ‘Les Russes au Concile de Ferrare-FIorence’ ibid., xlvii (1974), 188–208.
page 343 note 2 The point is made by Syropoulos in his Mémoires, ed. cit., at 298 f.
page 343 note 3 For the bankruptcy of the papacy see J. Gill, Florence, 173 ff. and for the relations between Eugenius IV and Florence, see Kirshner, J., ‘Papa Eugenio IV e il monte comune’ in Archivo storico italiano, CXXVII (1969), 339–82Google Scholar. Cf. also Acta camerae apostolicae et civitatum Venetiarum, Ferrariae, Florentinae, Ianuae de concilia Florentino, ed. G. Hofmann (=Concilium Florentinum, III. 1 (1950)) nos. 54 ff., at 45 ff.Google Scholar
page 343 note 4 See Decreta (cit. above, 341 n. 4) at 523.
page 343 note 5 See Johannes de Segovia, Historia Gestorum Generalis Synodi Basiliensis, xiv. 13, ed. in Monumenta conciliorum generalium saeculi XV (Vienna Academy, Vienna 1857–1886) iii. 183 ffGoogle Scholar. For Johannes de Segovia, see U. Fromherz, Johannes von Segovia als Geschichtsschreiber des Konzils von Basel (in Basler Beiträge zur Geschichtswissenschaft, ed. E. Bonjour and W. Kaegi, LXXXI (1960)) esp. 67 ff.Google Scholar Of particular merit is H. Diener, ‘Zur Persönlichkeit des Johannes von Segovia: ein Beitrag zur Methode und Auswertung der päpstlichen Register des späten Mittelalters’ in Quellen und Forschungen aus italienischen Archiven und Bibliotheken, XLIV (1964), 289–365.Google Scholar
page 344 note 1 The royal document appointing the ambassadors and giving them full powers of attorney is in Johannes de Segovia's Historia, cit., iii. 185–6; and in RTA., xiv. 6, no. 1, dated 13 November 1438 at Görlitz. The relevant passage runs:‘… nobilem Conradum de Winsperg eiusdem imperii camerarium et venerabilem utriusque iuris doctorem magistrum Johannem de Eyke (he was professor ordinarius of both laws at the university of Vienna) oratores et consiliarios nostros devotos et fideles dilectos, dantes et concedentes ipsis plenariam facultatem et omnimodam potestatem coram prefato reverendissimorum patrum cetu nostri parte comparendi, desiderium quod gerimus ad conservandam tutandamque ecclesiasticam unitatem proponendi, omniaque media pro tollenda huiusmodi differencia apperiendi …’.
page 344 note 2 Koller, G., Princeps in ecclesia: Untersuchungen zur Kirchenpolitik Herzog Albrechts II. von Österreich, Vienna 1964, stops before Albrecht's election as king of the Romans.Google Scholar
page 344 note 3 Cf. Hödl, G., ‘Zur Reichspolitik des Basler Konzils: Bischof Johannes Schele von Lübeck’ in Mitteilungen des österreichischen Instituts für Geschichtsforschung, LXXV (1967), 46 ff.Google Scholar
page 344 note 4 Cf. above n. 1 and RTA. xiv. 57 f., no. 21, and Johannes de Segovia, Historia, ed. cit., iii. 186. Details in Welck, H., Konrad von Weinsberg als Protektor des Basler Konzils, Schwäbisch Hall 1973.Google Scholar
page 344 note 5 RTA. xiii. nos. 41, 47 at 97 f., 110, esp. 112 n. 1.
page 344 note 6 See Schumm, K., ‘Konrad von Weinsberg und die Judensteuer unter Kaiser Sigismund’ in Württembergisch Franken, new series, LIV (1970), 20–58Google Scholar (reference kindly supplied by Mr. E. Gindele, University of Tübingen). Cf., e.g., RTA. xiii. nos. 347 ff. For his other plans, cf. now Koller, H. in Festschrift H. Heimpel, ii, Göttingen 1973, at 70 f.Google Scholar
page 344 note 7 Details in Johannes de Segovia, Historia, ed. cit., xvi cap. 15, in ed. iii. 455, lines 7 ff.; and cap. 17, at 464, line 18 f.; also cap. 28, at 495, lines 6 ff.
page 344 note 8 See Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, XLI (1896), 519.Google Scholar
page 345 note 1 See H. Weigel (ed.) in RTA. xiv. 57 n. 4. There are numerous and illuminating entries, ibid., nos. 160–167, at 278–95.
page 345 note 2 J. Albrecht (ed.), Einnahmen und Ausgaben Conrads von Weinsberg aus den Jahren 1437 und 1438 (=Bibliothek des literarischen Vereins in Stuttgart, XVIII (1850)).Google Scholar
page 345 note 3 It is in the Gemeinschaftliche Hausarchiv (GA), part IV, G59, no. 25. I would like to thank the Chief Archivist, Dr. Taddey, for his help and the supply of photocopies.
page 345 note 4 There is a brief mention in Beckmann, G., Der Kampf Kaiser Sigismunds gegen die werdende Weltmacht der Osmanen, Gotha 1902, 62 n. 2.Google Scholar
page 345 note 5 Ed. H. Weigel in RTA. xiv. 56–57.
page 345 note 6 Referred to by G. Beckmann, loc. cit. and ed., loc. cit., at 57.
page 345 note 7 Ed. cit: ‘Animo ulterius Romam iturus se ad Florentiam transferret’. The pope explained to the Milanese ambassadors that he had no intention of going to Florence with a view to entering into an alliance with the Venetians, Genoese and Florentines against the duke of Milan.
page 346 note 1 To judge by the entries ed. in RTA. xiv. 278 ff., he really had his antennae every-where and was in touch with virtually everyone of consequence.
page 346 note 2 See Johannes de Segovia, Historia, ed. cit., iii. 216; R. Bäumer, ‘Eugenius IV. und der Plan eines “Dritten Konzils”’ in Reformata Reformanda: Festgabe für Hubert Jedin, ed. Iserloh, E. and Repgen, K., i, Münster 1965, 87 ff., at 95 (1 February 1439). For the original Greek reaction to a third place see Syropoulos, Mémoires, ed. cit., 130, 146.Google Scholar
page 346 note 3 See Johannes de Segovia, Historia, ed. cit., iii. 197.
page 346 note 4 Cf. J. Gill, Florence, 226, 234 f., 248 f., 250.
page 347 note 1 Dölger, F., ‘Politische und geistige Strömungen im sterbenden Byzanz’ in Jahrb. der österreichischen byzantinischen Gesellschaft, III (1954), 3 ff., at 12 ff. gives a survey of the various sections and parties in Byzantium and their aims. The overwhelming part of the civil service and of the higher clergy formed one such segment which would have no union with the West under any circumstances, even if Constantinople were to become an easy prey to the Turks.Google Scholar
page 347 note 2 The Reg. have no entry that even faintly could bear upon this démarche: Reg. nos. 3484 and 3485, both of December 1438, deal with entirely different matters. Nor is there any mention of the embassy in the Vita Philippi Mariae Vicecomitis Ducis III, ed. in L. A. Muratori, Rerum italicarum scriptores, xx (=Rerum Mediolanensium Historia, ii), Milan 1731, 985–1020. There is no reference or allusion to it in Syropoulos's Mémoires. Nor have I found any reference to it in a modern work, except as noted above, 345 n. 4.
page 348 note 1 See the Lex Rhodia, in Dig. 14.2.9. Literature and significance in Ullmann, W., Law and Politics in the Middle Ages, London 1975, 57 f.Google Scholar
page 348 note 2 This was first recognised by Meyer, O., Ἑἰς τ⋯ν ῾ρῆγα Σαξωνίας in Festschrift für Albert Brackmann, Weimar 1931 123 ff.Google Scholar, at 130 ff.; see further Ostrogorsky, G., ‘Die byzantinische Staatenhierarchie’ in Seminarium Kondakovianum, VIII (1936), 41 ff. and F. Dölger, ‘Die Familie der Könige’ op. cit. (above, 340 n. 1), 34 ff.Google Scholar
page 348 note 3 Einhard, Vita Karoli, 5th ed. by Holder-Egger, G. O., in M. G. H. Scriptores Rerum Germanicarum, Hannover-Leipzig 1905Google Scholar, cap. 28, at 28: ‘Quo tempore … vicitque eorum contumaciam magnanimitate … mittendo ad eos crebras legationes et in epistolis fratres eos appellando.’ See further M. G. H. Epistolae, iv, no. 37, at 556 (anno 813); in 811 he apostrophised Nikephoros ‘tua fraternitas’, ibid., no. 32, at 546. See also O. Meyer, art. cit., at 135; F. Dölger, op. cit., 45 f. and W. Ullmann, Growth (as above, 345 n. 1) 113 n. 3.
page 348 note 4 Cf. Growth, 104 ff.; Short History, 85 ff. The passages cited clearly prove that the idea of a division into an occidental and oriental empire was Charlemagne's.
page 349 note 1 Cf. the numerous examples quoted by F. Dölger, op. cit., at 46 ff.
page 349 note 2 The Unitarian theme—imperial unity (Reichseinheit) as a precondition of ecclesiastical unity (Kircheneinheit)—was first concretely applied after Constantine when imperial governments adopted the policy of compulsory ecclesiastical union (see Caspar, E., Geschichte des Papsttums, i Tübingen 1930, 167 ff)Google Scholar and found in Justinian its most consistent representative. Cf. on this the literature cited above, 340 n. 1; Growth, 31 ff., 75 ff.; Short History, 41 ff. For the doctrinal side of the problem see Beck, H.-G., Kirche und theologische Literatur im byzantinischen Reich, Munich 1959, 32 ff.Google Scholar, 626, 682. This Byzantine view would have been directly relevant to the important thesis advanced by Ohnsorge, W., Das Zweikaiserproblem, Hildesheim 1947.Google Scholar
page 349 note 3 This makes it clear that the search for a ‘Third Council’ was still going on. Whether the Greeks would have accepted the Basleans' suggestions (above, 342 n. 5) is far from certain in view of their earlier rather vehement rejections.
page 350 note 1 For these details see de Mesquito, D. M. Bueno, Gian Galeazzo Visconti, Duke of Milan: a study in the political career of an Italian despot, Cambridge 1941.Google Scholar
page 350 note 2 Details in von Savigny, F. C., Geschichte des römischen Rechts im Mittelalter, 2nd ed. vi Heidelberg 1850, 281 ff.Google Scholar; N. del Re, Paolo di Castro, dottore della verità (=Studi Senesi, lxxxii (1970)); Horn, N., ‘Die legistische Literatur der Kommentatorenzeit’ in Handbuch der Quellen und Literatur der neueren europäischen Privatrechtsgeschichte ed. Coing, H., Munich 1973) 276, 340.Google Scholar
page 350 note 3 Ed. Consilia, Frankfurt 1582, pars II, Cons. 34, fol. 18rb-19vb. On him as a Consiliator cf. H. Lange, Die Rechtsquellenlehre in den Consilien von Paul de Castro' in Gedächtnisschrift für Rudolf Schmidt, Berlin 1967, 421 ff., cited by N. Horn, loc. cit, 340.Google Scholar
page 350 note 4 Cons, cit., fol. 19vb; here also the statement concerning the right to wage wars like kings ‘de plenitudine potestatis’.
page 350 note 5 Details in Savigny, op. cit., vi. 312 ff.; N. Horn, loc. cit., 273.
page 351 note 1 Ed. Consilia, Lugdunum 1585, vol. i, Cons. 2, fol. 4v, no. 9.
page 351 note 2 For some reflexions on this topic cf. Short History, 306 ff.
page 352 note 1 The importance of the memorandum makes it advisable to append the entry in full. I have collated the original with the text in RTA. xiv. 57 without adopting the latter's questionable punctuation. I would like to thank Mr. R. V. Kerr, of the University Library Cambridge for his help with some textual problems.