CHAPTER FOUR

CARDINAL BESSARION

Though Cardinal Bessarion has many claims to fame—as a

humanist,, a diplomat, a reformer of monasteries—he is best
known as the apostle of union between the Latin and the Greek
Churches, and it is rather under this last aspect that we shall
consider him here.
He was a native of Trebizond, born on 2 January 1402, at a
period, that is, when the last Greek possessions were being threat-
ened on all sides by the victorious arms of the Turks. What had
once been a great empire, embracing all the eastern Mediterranean,
was by this time sadly reduced. Africa, Syria and Palestine had
been lost early, and then Turkish forces absorbed Asia Minor,
crossed the Dardanelles, and encircled Constantinople also from
the west and north. That city had been besieged for more than
three years at the turn of the century and was relieved in 1402
not by the prowess of its own arms, but because the Mongolian
invasion had temporarily challenged the Turkish power and
defeated it. Trebizond, it is true, was then an independent Greek
kingdom, but it would not long survive the eclipse of Constanti-
nople and lived equally under an ever present threat of destruction.
Of Bessarion's early life little is known in detail. While still
quite young he was taken by the Archbishop of Trebizond to
Constantinople where he was educated under the care of the
Metropolitan of Selymbria in one of the schools of rhetoric that
flourished there. He took the monastic habit on 30 January 1423
with the name Bessarion, by which he has always since been
known. Thereafter he began to make a reputation for himself as
an orator, and in 1426 was in his native Trebizond on a diplomatic
mission, perhaps concerned with the imperial marriage of John
VIII to Maria Comnene, daughter of the Emperor of Trebizond.
He was ordained priest in 1431 and shortly after went to the
Peloponnesus whose Despot received him graciously. At Mistra
he studied under George Gemistus, the great exponent of Platonic
philosophy, as a result of which Bessarion too became an ardent
Platonist and a great admirer and friend of Gemistus. In 1436 his
46 PERSONALITIES OF COUNCIL OF FLORENCE
mediation in composing one of the many quarrels between the
Emperor John and his brother, the Despot Theodore, drew the
attention of the authorities of Constantinople to his talents, with
the consequence that he was soon called to that city and made
head of the monastery of St Basil. Shortly afterwards he was
elected to the See of Nicaea, at about the same time that Mark
Eugenicus became Metropolitan of Ephesus, Isidore Metropolitan
of Kiev and All Russia, and Dionysius Metropolitan of Sardes.
The elevation of all these was not unconnected with the negotia-
tions for a council of union between East and West, then reaching
their j climax, for they were outstanding among the Greek clergy
for their philosophical and theological ability, whereas the general
level of learning of the oriental hierarchy was not very high.
After the Greek arrival in Ferrara in the beginning of February
1438 and the solemn opening of the Council of union on 9 April,
there was a lull in the proceedings till Latin insistence on action
of some kind produced a reluctant acquiescence from the Greeks
to consider such a possibility. In the preliminary meetings that
followed between committees of ten members from either side,
Bessarion was one of the Greek delegates. When Mark of Ephesus'
reply to the opening speech of Cardinal Cesarini was censured by
his colleagues as too rough and discourteous for such an occasion,
Bessarion was put up to speak the next time so that his urbanity
and polish might make up for the bad first impression. The result
of those meetings was the decision to discuss the question of
Purgatory, still between the two committees. On the Greek side
the Emperor appointed Mark Eugenicus (of Ephesus) and
Bessarion as sole spokesmen. The Latins opened the discussion
on 4 June asserting that there is such a state as Purgatory and that
in it there is purification by fire. Subsequent debate was largely
centred on the second assertion, Bessarion speaking on 14 June
to prove that Greek theological tradition did not accept it, The
discussions on Purgatory continued for some weeks and then
petered out, without any agreement having been reached, probably
because by then everyone's attention was focused on the plague
that had infested Ferrara.
The Greek ecclesiastics remained in the plague-stricken city
all that summer, though without casualties. Fear of the pestilence,
financial difficulties (for the Pope was already in arrears with his
payments for their maintenance), prolonged absence from home
 CARDINAL BESSARION 47
—these and other like factors reduced the Orientals to great
distress and made them anxious now to get on with the dogmatic
conversations and to get away. The date for the discussions was
fixed. Six orators,on each side were to act as speakers for the rest.
The Greeks elected among their six Bessarion, Mark Eugenicus
and Isidore. The choice of the exact subject of debate was left to
the Greeks who, at the instigation of Eugenicus and George
Gemistus, decided to impugn the legitimacy of the addition by
the Latins of the Filioque (fand from the Son') to the Creed,
whereas Bessarion and a few others would have preferred to start
on the orthodoxy of the Filioque doctrine.
The honour of making the opening speech of the doctrinal
sessions fell to Bessarion, a proof that he was considered by his
own as their most accomplished orator. To the Fathers assembled
in solemn session he extolled the greatness of the occasion, con-
gratulating both sides on their goodwill for union and exhorting
Pope, Emperor and Patriarch with all the other members of the
Council to bring to a glorious conclusion what they had so happily
begun. Mark Eugenicus then enunciated the Greek charge that
the Latin Church was responsible for the schism by the addition
of the Filioque to the Creed in defiance of the prohibition of the
Council of Ephesus that forbade any change at any time to any
part of the Creed, and added his proofs from the definitions of the
Councils. Andrew, Bishop of Rhodes, answered from the Latins.
Bessarion in a speech extending over the greater part of two
sessions (1 and 4 November) replied to Andrew's syllogisms and
reaffirmed the Greek position, that to add to or subtract from the
Nicene Creed even a word or syllable was forbidden, not only to
the Roman Church, but to the universal Church, and therefore
much more so to the Church of Rome, because the Council of
Ephesus had so enacted.
Writing later, Bessarion said that until Cardinal Cesarini began
his defence of the Latin action (some two sessions later) the Greeks
were having the better of the debate, but Cesarini's many and
forceful arguments began to make him doubtful of the strength
of the Greek position and then convinced him that the Council of
Ephesus could not have tied nor have meant to tie the hands of
the Church for ever. Not all the Greeks, and especially Mark of
Ephesus who was the speaker of the Greeks for the rest of the
time at Ferrara, were of the same opinion, and the sessions went
48 PERSONALITIES OF COUNCIL OF FLORENCE
on till mid-December, always on the same topic and showing no
prospect of leading to agreement.
In January the Council was transferred to Florence. By
mutual consent the subject of discussion was changed to the
orthodoxy of the Filioque doctrine. Bessarion did not speak on
this in the Council. Mark Eugenicus was the sole Greek orator.
Eight sessions were held, but ended without agreement, and by
that time it was already 24 March 1439 and the Greeks, by now
away from home for full sixteen months, were beginning to be
desperate. They refused to entertain the idea of further public
discussions, a method that had so far proved fruitless. Some
other way should be found to lead to union, they said, or else they
should go home.
The public sessions, however, had not been entirely without
result. The able arguments and wide patristic learning of John
of Montenero, O. P. had convinced Bessarion, Isidore, Dorotheus
of Mitylene, Gregory the Emperor's confessor and others, of the
orthodoxy of the Latin teaching and of its compatibility with
Greek doctrine. These now began to try to persuade their fellows,
chiefly Mark of Ephesus, the only man of learning among the
Greek clerics who still obdurately refused to acquiesce. The
greater part of the Greek prelates, by tradition and sentiment
inclined to hold the Latins as heretics, were yet impressed by
Montenero's scholarship, especially in the Greek Fathers, though
they were not on a high enough level of theological learning to
assess all the arguments. They would follow a lead, and they got
not one lead but two—Bessarion and his friends argued to Latin
orthodoxy and union; Mark Eugenicus asserted that by Greek
tradition the Holy Spirit proceeded from the Father only, and so
the Filioque clause was heretical.
The Greeks, divided among themselves, argued this way and
that. Half way through April, Bessarion addressed his Dogmatic
Oration to the Greek synod—as all saints are inspired by the same
Holy Spirit, their teaching, even if expressed differently, must be
fundamentally the same. Latin saints declare that the Holy
Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son; Greek saints that
He proceeds from the Father through the Son. These two
assertions must therefore be of identical meaning, so both Churches
are orthodox, 'from' and 'through' in respect of the Holy Spirit
having the same signification. This thesis he demonstrated with
 CARDINAL BESSARION 49
copious quotations from the Greek Fathers, specially from those
on whom Mark Eugenicus relied to rebut the Latin doctrine.
George Scholarius, a lay theologian in the Emperor's suite,
followed with an exhortation in the same sense. The fruits were
not immediately seen, but they were not long delayed. Meetings
between ten delegates from each side, among whom was Bessarion,
towards the end of April brought no result. Then the Latins sent
a kind of profession of faith, which the Greeks amended in such
a way that the Latins rejected it. A few days later, during a meet-
ing of the Greek clerics with the Patriarch and the Emperor,
excerpts from the Fathers were read by Bessarion on the lines of
his speech; the prelates approved: all gave their opinions in
writing and the upshot was that the Greek synod (always excepting
Mark Eugenicus) accepted the equivalence of 'from' and 'through'
in the formula of the Procession of the Holy Spirit and, therefore,
the orthodoxy of the Latin doctrine. The first great step to union
had been achieved. Unfortunately the general jubilation of the
Council was overshadowed by the sudden death on 10 June of
the aged Patriarch.
The Greeks would have been willing to consider that the
Council had now accomplished its main object and that they
therefore could sign a formula of union and depart. The Latins,
however, insisted on agreement over the other outstanding points
of difference, Purgatory, the primacy of the pope, the effective
words of consecration in the Liturgy (the Sacrifice of the Mass)
and the legitimacy of the addition of the Filioque to the Creed.
These were treated of mainly by small committees, though there
were, at the request of the Greeks, two more public sessions, on
the primacy and on the Liturgy. There were times when agree-
ment seemed to be an impossibility. In the general despair
Bessarion, Isidore and Dorotheus of Mitylene, refusing to abandon
hope, stimulated both Pope and Emperor to new endeavours, and
discussion was begun again. The Latin method was to present
the Greeks with a statement, to let them debate it privately, and
then to discuss with them any difficulties that arose from it. The
method proved effective. With slight modifications in the Latin
statements on Purgatory and the primacy, and the omission of
any formal pronouncement on the words of consecration, on
which the Greeks were to make a declaration (read by Bessarion
before the Latins on 5 July), agreement was reached on all four
E
 50 PERSONALITIES OF COUNCIL OF FLORENCE
points. The decree was written in Latin and Greek, Bessarion
doubtless having a hand in the process; it was amended to suit the
emperor, and solemnly promulgated on 6 July in a plenary session
in the cathedral of Florence, Cardinal Cesarini reading it in Latin
and Bessarion in Greek. It was an honour that Bessarion deserved,
for he had played a large part in the discussions and negotiations.
The Pope gave him a pension of 300 florins annually, to be raised
to 600 florins if he resided in the Roman Curia. He returned,
however, to Greece with his compatriots, and in his absence he was
made a cardinal in the consistory of December 143 9. He came back to
, Italy towards the end of 1440, never to return again to his native land.
Thirty years of life still remained to him, which he spent in
various activities entrusted to him by the popes and in furthering
the humanism of the time, which gave him also the opportunity
of helping many an unfortunate compatriot in exile from the power
of the Turks. One of the first things he did was to learn Latin,
in which he acquired great facility. At about this time too he
composed his * Letter to Alexius Lascaris Philanthropinus about
the Holy Spirit', at once a short history of certain phases of the
Council of Florence, and a treatise on the Procession of the Holy
Spirit. Eugenius IV gave him the revenue of certain monasteries
for his upkeep and, after the return of the Curia to Rome, of
a site for a suitable residence. Among the abbeys of which he had
charge were some under the Basilian rule. In 1446 he summoned
their superiors to a General Chapter in Rome to introduce needed
reforms, and drew up for their use an epitome of the Rule of St
Basil. A few years later he was empowered to act as visitor of all
Greek monasteries in Italy, a task he was eminently fitted for
from the fact that he was both a Greek and a monk.
Bessarion had been created Cardinal with the title of the church
of the Twelve Apostles. In 1449 he was made Bishop of Sabina,
but he retained his interest in his original church where in 1463
he substituted for the secular Canons a community of Friars
Minor whose Protector he had become in 1458. In 1449, too, he
was appointed legate to reconcile Venice with Milan, and the
following year was sent as governor to the turbulent city of
Bologna. One of the lasting effects of his rule there was the
restoration of the once-famous university which had latterly fallen
on evil days. While Bessarion was at Bologna, Constantinople was
taken by the Turks (29 May 1453). Thereafter one of his chief
 CARDINAL BESSARION 51
preoccupations was to aid his fellow countrymen by fostering
every, even faint, prospect of rousing the western princes to a
crusade against the Turk, and by assisting unfortunate Greeks,
some by providing ransoms to buy them or their families from
captivity, others by receiving them in Italy and either giving them
work to do or rinding them a means of subsistence. It was at this
time, too, that he conceived the project of gathering together as
many Greek manuscripts as he could so that Greek learning should
not perish with the fall of the empire.
Pope Nicholas V died in 1455. In the conclave that followed
Bessarion seemed at one time likely to succeed him, but that was
not to be. Under Callistus III, relieved of absorbing appoint-
ments, he gave himself for a few years to literary work, from
which there issued among other things his In calumniatorem
Platonis. At the death of Callistus (1458), Pius II was elected, an
ardent promoter of a crusade against the Turks. In this he found
a supporter, equally enthusiastic, in Bessarion. The Pope sum-
moned the Italian States and the Christian princes to a congress at
Mantua to arrange the crusade. The response was poor, but, as
the German envoys asked for a papal legate to compose the
ecclesiastical and political differences of their country and organize
the levies for the crusade, Bessarion was the papal choice. He
crossed the Alps in mid-winter, traversed large areas of Germany
and effected reconciliation in Austria and Hungary, but he could
not bring the various princes, intent only on their own immediate
problems, to combine for a larger cause. He returned to Venice
towards the end of 1461, to learn that Thomas Palaeologus had
had to abandon his despotate in the Peloponnesus and that his
native town of Trebizond had fallen to Turkish arms. But Pius II
had not given up his determination to oppose the Turks. He sent
Bessarion in 1463 as legate to Venice, where the Cardinal per-
suaded the Signoria to declare open war on the infidel, and then
went with the Venetian fleet to the rendezvous of the crusade at
Ancona. He was just in time to greet the Pope, who had come in
person to assume its direction, before Pius II died (14 August
1464). With his death the crusade died too. It was little con-
solation to Bessarion that in the previous year he had been made
Patriarch of Constantinople, in which capacity he addressed an
encyclical letter (27 May 1463) to the Greeks living under Venetian
rule, commending to them the union of Florence.
52 PERSONALITIES OF COUNCIL OF FLORENCE
In the conclave that followed, Bessarion was doyen of the
Sacred College. The new Pope, Paul II, rejected the conditions
that the cardinals had drawn up and, as a consequence, his
relations with the doyen were for a time somewhat strained.
Bessarion retired to the abbey of Grottaferrata (he had become its
archimandrite in 1462) which greatly benefited by his sojourn
there, for he did much to re-establish it both spiritually and
temporally and not least to reconstitute its once-famous library.
He had not, however, forgotten the cause of Greece in the midst of
his private studies and local activities. When the Emperor Fred-
erick! I l l came to Rome, Bessarion urged him to action against the
Turks, who, he said, would not and could not cease from war.
His warning was justified, for next year (1470) they captured the
Venetian island of Negroponte (Euboea) and later attacked
Carinthia. Bessarion's residence in Rome became the meeting
place of the commission of cardinals appointed to combine a plan
to meet the Turkish threat, but the measures started by the Pope
were interrupted by his death (26 July 1471).
The new Pope, Sixtus IV, immediately made Bessarion (22
December 1471) his legate a latere to bring France, Burgundy and
England together in a crusade, but soon his commission was
changed to one of more limited scope, the preliminary settlement
of outstanding questions between the Holy See and France. The
Cardinal, for reasons of health, hesitated for some time before
undertaking the arduous journey. His hope, however, of inducing
France to take part in the Holy War, a consequence that might
have resulted from a successful issue of his mission, finally led
him to accept. But his hopes were not fulfilled. While on his
return, he died at Ravenna on 18 November 1472. His body was
taken to Rome and solemnly interred in the church of the Twelve
Apostles where his tomb can still be seen.
Bessarion was a great man whose name has unjustifiably been
blackened. It has been said that his support of the union was the
fruit less of conviction than of ambition and of desire for papal
rewards. The only proof ever offered of this assertion is the fact
that actually he was given a pension and made a cardinal by
Eugenius IV. That apart (and by itself it proves nothing), there
is no incident in any contemporary document, not even in the
bitter Memoirs of Syropoulus, that would suggest that Bessarion
acted from any less worthy motive.
 CARDINAL BESSARION 53
That he changed his views goes without saying. He began
persuaded of the traditional opinions of his Church; he ended
convinced by the arguments of the Latins, predisposed perhaps
somewhat for this by a correspondence he had had before the
Council with Andrew Chrysoberges, O.P., (Latin Archbishop of
Rhodes) about the theology of hesychasm, which had made him
wonder if the official approval given to this by the Eastern Church
was altogether sound—if it could be wrong on one point, it might
be wrong on another. He did not disguise his change of opinion.
His 'Dogmatic Speech' of April 1439 was at once a proclamation
openly made to the whole of the Greek synod that he had come
to hold that the Latin doctrine was as sound as their traditional
faith and an exposition of the theological reasons for his belief:
it ended with a declaration that he would ever be true to his
convictions, even if that brought persecution. His subsequent
action in the Council, and indeed for the rest of his life, was the
logical fruit of his faith.
Yet, even though he was soon held by many of his leading
countrymen as a traitor both to his religion and to his fatherland,
he was in fact one of his country's best friends. After the fall of
Constantinople in 1453 Bessarion was ever active, through
diplomatic missions, in letters, by personal contact, trying to
persuade the western powers to realise that the destruction of
the Byzantine empire would be but the prelude to Turkish designs
on their territories, and that the danger of attack was imminent
and immense. For their own sakes they must compose their
differences and unite, in order to thrust the Mohammedan peril out
of Europe. In so doing, they would restore Constantinople to the
Greeks. The fact that the western princes were so involved in
their own quarrels as to be blind to the larger issues defeated all
of Bessarion's endeavours. But he was not to blame for that,
nor was a succession of popes who likewise urged unity and the
crusade, but in vain.
The Greek exiles also, and there were many of them, received
the benefit of his patriotism. Not only did he supervise the
education of the three orphan children of Thomas Palaeologus,
but he aided with money, with counsel and, very often, with
patient restraint many others seeking a living in the new country.
Some of these, with Latin humanists, met regularly in his residence
and formed his 'Academy', by whose means the translation, con-
54 PERSONALITIES OF COUNCIL OF FLORENCE
servation and study of treasures of Greek literature and philosophy
were greatly advanced. The Cardinal, in the course of years, spent
large sums of money on buying and copying manuscripts and the
(for those days) rich library that he thus acquired he gave before
he died to St. Marks, Venice (1468), as a token of gratitude to
that city for its constant goodwill towards him and so as to keep
his collection of books together and make it more accessible to
his compatriots, for Venice was the nearest great port to Greece
and had a large colony of Greeks resident there. Not only his
contemporaries, but posterity too, has reason to be grateful for
his wise forethought.