The History of the Council of Florence Author:Basil Popoff General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1861 Original Publisher: Joseph Masters Subjects: Council of Florence/ (1438-1445) History / General Religion / Christianity / Catholic Religion / Christianity / History Religion / Christianity / Orthodox Religion / Christian Church / History Notes: This is a blac... more »k and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER I. VlBW OF THE STATE OF THE EASTERN EMPIEE AND THE CHUECH OF KOME PRECEDINa THE FlOEENTINE COUNCIL. Pitiable was the state of the Empire of Constantinople, when Manuel II. (1391) began those negotiations with the Pope, which resulted in the Council of Florence. At that time everything was in the hands of the Turks. Manuel himself, during the very lifetime of his father, was forced by Bajazet II. to join him in his expeditions. Manuel's father, by the Sultan's order, was compelled to raze to the ground the city fortifications then only in course of erection. Then came the demands from Bajazet, that a mosque should be erected, and a cadi appointed in the town for the Turks, demands coupled with threats of shutting up the inhabitants within the city walls, in case of a refusal. True to his threat, Bajazet commenced ravaging towns and villages in the suburbs of Constantinople, forcing the poor inhabitants to migrate into other places; at the same time his armies devastated the Peloponnesus and demolished towns on the coast of the Euxine. The armies of Islam stationed close to the town cut off the import of corn; hunger drove the inhabitants to despair. Such was the beginning of Manuel's reign! Six years afterwards, Manuel at the demand of Bajazet was obliged to divide his nearly powerless authority between himself and his nephew Andronicus, who proclaimed hi...« less