По пътя към уния: византийските пратеници на Констанцкия събор (1414-1418)
On the Way to a Union: the Byzantine Legates at the Council of Constance (1414– 1418)

Summary/Abstract: The activities of the Byzantine delegation at the Council of Constance (1414–1418) has been analyzed on the basis of a wide variety of sources: conciliar acta, private correspondence, the chronicle of George Sphrantzes, and others. Did Emperor Manuel Palaiologos really intend to sign a union with the West or was the presence of his legates at the council no more than a political maneuver on his part? In the beginning, the council was attended by the Byzantine legate Manuel Chrysoloras. Upon his death on 15 April 1415, another Byzantine delegation arrived in Constance; it was led by Nikolaos Eudemonoioannes. The second delegation attended the conciliar sessions until the closure of the council. The participants in the council of Constance remained under the false impression that the Byzantines were ready to enter the fold of the Latin church. Upon returning to Constantinople, however, the Byzantine legates were accused of having exceeded their powers: they had no right to give their consent to the transfer of Byzantium to the church of Rome. The author points out that, despite the difficult situation they found themselves in, the Byzantines were not yet ready to sign an ecclesiastical union with the West. Faced with the dilemma of whether they should gain western help in return for submission to the Latin church or preserve their ecclesiastical independence and fight the Ottomans on their own, the Byzantine policy makers chose the latter.

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