Council of Florence - Council Transferred To Florence and The Near East-West Union

Council Transferred To Florence and The Near East-West Union

With finances running thin and on the pretext that the plague was spreading in the area, both the Latins and the Greeks agreed to transfer the council to Florence. Continuing at Florence in January 1439, the Council made steady progress on a compromise formula, "ex filio." In the following months, agreement was reached on the Western doctrine of Purgatory and a return to the pre-schism prerogatives of the Papacy. On 6 June 1439 an agreement was signed by Patriarch Joseph II of Constantinople and all the Eastern bishops but one, Saint Mark of Ephesus, who held that Rome continued in both heresy and schism. However, after Patriarch Joseph II of Constantinople died only two days later, the Greek monks therefore were able to assert that ratification by the Eastern Church could be achieved only by the agreement of the whole Church. (The agreement of a Patriarch is not binding over the whole Orthodox Church; the Patriarchs are just considered first among equals among the local bishops of the patriarchy, and do not hold any power outside their bishopric - they cannot even perform sacraments outside their bishopric without blessing of the local bishop.) Upon their return, the Eastern bishops found their agreement with the West broadly rejected by the monks, the populace and by civil authorities (with the notable exception of the Emperors of the East who remained committed to union until the fall of the Byzantine Empire two decades later). The union signed at Florence, even down to the present, has never been accepted by the Eastern churches.