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210 had once again joined all the Easterns to the West under his authority. And the Byzantine Court, at any rate, was very willing to be reunited. The Eastern Roman Empire was then at its very last gasp. The Ottoman Turks had come into Europe, taking Adrianople in 1354; then gradually they had swallowed up more and more of the Empire. Macedonia, Thessaly, Thrace, Bulgaria, Servia had all gone. Every one knew that they meant to take Constantinople, and, unless help came from the West, it could only be a question of time, and of a very short time, till they did so. So again during the early part of the 15th century there had been negotiations with the Latins. Already at Constance in 1418 an embassy from the Eastern Emperor had appeared; Pope Martin V (1417–1431) had had relations with the other patriarchs. The Emperor John VII (Palaiologos, 1425–1448) at last made up his mind that some steps must be taken at once. Unfortunately there were two powers, each claiming to represent the Latin Church, that wanted to treat with him. Pope Eugene and the Basler Fathers. Eugene was first in the field and sent a fleet of ships to Constantinople to bring the Emperor and his bishops to Ferrara; while they are waiting another fleet arrives, sent by the Council of Basel. The Pope's admiral is so angry at this that he is hardly prevented from sailing out to fight the council's fleet. So the first time the Byzantines saw these Latins who had come to preach the absolute necessity of union to them they enjoyed the edifying spectacle of a violent schism nearly leading to battle between two Latin parties. However, consistent to their own traditions, the Greeks thought that if they were to have any dealings with the Latins at all it must be with the Latin Patriarch, so they would have nothing to say to the Basler Council. The Pope agreed to pay all expenses and to entertain them as long as they were in Italy. The Emperor came himself with a gorgeous train. The dying Empire still had wonderful jewels, brocades and vestments, relics of a better time, and all these were shipped onto the Pope's vessels to impress the Latins. With the Emperor came the Patriarch of Constantinople, Joseph II (1416–1439, his own brother and a very old man), twenty-two other bishops, and a train of seven