Episode 331 - The Last Hope

Hello everyone and welcome to the history of Byzantium Episode 331, The Last Hope. Manawield Pallioloco's died in 1425 at the age of 75, for a medieval person that is a very long life. And Manoile's was far richer than most. He traveled widely across Europe. He met many famous people. He fought, negotiated, and schemeed. He wrote a lot down, and if

you want to know more about the last Roman Emperor that we can actually get to know, then check out our last episode on Patreon. Stepping back into the narrative, what becomes clear is that very little had changed for Romania during Manuil's lifetime. When he was born the disastrous civil war was raging

between his father John and his grandfather, John, Cantakuzy-Nos. By the time Manuil was ten, the Roman Empire had been reduced to two major cities, one province and a string of islands and forts. As he breathed his last, by his anti-imlook much the same. A lifetime of struggle to improve the position of his people had largely come to naught.

And the reason why was simple, in that same 75-year period the Ottomans had gone from holding northwest Anatolia and one European port to being masters of about 70% of both the Balkans and Anatolia. Five years after Manuil was buried, the Turks stormed the walls of Thessaloniki and sacked

the city. John 8th of Paliel Logos was born in December 1392, the eldest son of Manoeel and Helena Dragash. When he was two, the Ottomans placed Constantinople under siege. So unlike previous generations, he was under no illusions about the state of the empire he was destined to

in herod. He was crowned in his teens and worked closely with his father from his mid to late 20s. John led the army onto the walls to fight off the Ottoman siege of 1422, the one where they used cannons for the first time. Manoeel had a stroke shortly afterwards, so by the time his father died, John had already been effective sole emperor for three years.

is. John knew that there was only one way he could save by Zantium, and that was to recruit a crusade, which could defeat the Ottomans in battle in the Balkans. The hope was that if the Latins could inflict just one notable defeat on the Turks, then the other Christian powers of the region would throw off the Suzer and

of the Sultan. John had already traveled west to ask for help in person. He'd received no real assistance, but he had been told by King Sigismund of Hungary that he should become a Catholic. John's grandfather had done just that, but it hadn't brought any significant aid. There was one step which had not been taken though, and that was full church union.

if Byzantium was seen by everyone in Western Europe as having come back into the fold, as being one of them, perhaps that would help move hearts and minds in the direction of another crusade. The fact that the King of Hungary was encouraging this idea was the most hopeful part of the equation, the Hungarians would form the backbone of any crusading effort they were after all,

the only major land power who shared a border with the Turks. John was ready to do whatever it took to get help, and this was the final card he had to play. Of course, Church Union was not an easy thing to sell to the Roman people.

The specifics of Michael the 8th's persecutions may have been forgotten, but Latin subjugation was very much a live issue for all Romans. The ideal situation for the emperor would be the opportunity to hold an ecumenical council, where the issues between the two sides could be debated.

Only then was there a chance that the Orthodox Church would accept some form of union with Rome. The Latins had ruled this out in the past since the Pope was head of the Church, what was there to debate. Fortunately, for John, the chaos of the 15th century papacy actually made some form of council a possibility. The division between Rome and Avinion had ended by this point, but the reality of that

skism created a legitimacy crisis within the papacy. There were many in the church who wanted a numerical councils to decide important matters, rather than having to follow the whims of individual pontiffs. A council had been called a Basel in 1431 to deal with conflicts within the Holy Roman Empire,

as well as to discuss the rising threat of the Ottomans. But during the course of its discussions, the setting Pope died. A new pontiff was elected, but some members of the council refused to accept him. This created space for Pope Eugenius IV to agree to an actual council where the Greeks could

come and debate the issues which separated them from the Latins. The Pope wanted to be the man who put this matter to bed rather than see his rivals in Basel under mine him. Paleo Locos sees the opportunity.

He spent several years in consultation with the Patriarch and leading bishops over how to approach a possible union, orthodox objections to Latin doctrines were centuries old and he was not expecting the Pope to concede much, but there must be a way to negotiate a compromise.

Romans were therefore well prepared when the call finally came. Pope Eugenius invited them to join him at an acumenical council to be held in the town of Ferrarra in 1438. Ferrarra is to the north of Revenner and Belonia. Now some of you might be thinking hang on Robin, Manuel died in 1425 and here we are in 1438. What happened to those 13 years? Well don't worry,

We'll get to that. In November 1437, the emperor, his aging patriarch, Joseph II, and 700 compatriots boarded a papal fleet and sailed for Italy. Yes, 700. The Romans were treating this as a true ecumenical council and took as many clergy as they possibly could. This meant about two dozen Roman bishops, including the patriarchs of Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem, all of whom lived

in Constantinople and had no prospect of visiting their seas. Representatives from Georgia, Walaqia and Russia were also present. The Emperor wanted to try and bring as many of the Orthodox into this union as possible to avoid the kind of splits that had undermined similar attempts in the past.