Page:Destruction of the Greek Empire.djvu/156

 122 DESTBUCTION OF THE GEEEK EMPIRE The Council was determined to limit the power of the pope ; the pope would endure no limitation. Two years were lost in useless negotiations. John strongly urged that the Council should consider the question of Union without delay, and sent a representative to Bale in October 1433. When the members refused by a two-thirds vote to remove to Italy the emperor's representative suggested that the meeting-place should be Constantinople. The Council in 1434 declared against this proposal, but offered to pay the expenses of the Greeks if they would come to Bale. The latter, possibly from their ignorance of the geographical situation of the city, refused to go thither. Other places were suggested and the pope again gave his approbation for Bologna or some other place in Italy. Eepresentatives arrived in Constantinople from both the Synod at Bale and the pope, who were again in opposi- tion to each other. To such an extent had these hostilities grown that the Council declared Eugenius guilty of per- jury and schism and incapable of holding any ecclesiastical office. Eugenius retorted by calling them an assembly of devils. The deputies from Bale brought with them to Con- stantinople a comminatory decree of the Council against the pope. The emperor and patriarch had therefore to choose between the Council and Eugenius. Each had invited them, had offered to bear the expenses and menaced them in case of refusal. The deputies from Bale were heard at a public session of the Synod and threatened that if the Council were not recognised, the nations of the West would make war upon the empire, and this notwithstanding the aid of the pope, whose decrees they insisted were null and void. The ambassadors from Eugenius, who had arrived with a band of three thousand crossbowmen, offered terms as to transport and convoy similar to those which the messengers from Bale had proposed, and suggested that the proclamation calling the meeting of the Council might be issued in the emperor's name. They were also heard in a public sitting of the Synod in September 1437, a few days after the