Floor (■|"lh, yo'ren; llXcov'), prop, a level or open ared (as the "place" or square around the gates of Oriental cities, 1 Kings xxii, 10 ; 2 Chron. xviii, 9) ; hence usually the spot, well-beaten and smooth, on which grain is trodden out by cattle in the East, i. e. the "barn-floor" or "threshing-floor." See Thresh- ing. For tlie floor of rooms, see House ; for that of court-yards, see Pavement.
Flore, Order of {Floriacences, Florenses, or Flori- ensiis), a monastic order of the Roman Catholic Church, was founded, in 1189, bv Joachim de Celico (generally called Joachim of Floris), who resigned liis position of abbot of the Cistercian monaster}- of Corazzo in order ' to withdraw with some companions into the desert of j Flora. Soon a monastery arose there, the statutes of i
which were sanctioned in 1196 \>y pope Celestine III. Graduallj' the statutes were adopted liy .several mon- asteries in Naples and the two Calabrias ; but, as the founder was suspected of heresy, the order had repeat- edly to suff"er persecution. In 1470 began the rule of commendatory abbots, which led to a rapid degenera- tion. In 1505 most of the monasteries connected witli the order joined the Cistercians, while a few others were incorporated with the Carthusians and Dominicans. At the close of the IGth century no more monasteries of the order seem to have been in existence. There were also a few convents of nuns following the rule of Flore. The order differed but little from the Cis- tercians.— Wetzer u. Welte, Kirchen-Lexikon, iv, 102. (A. J. S.)
Florence, Council of (transferred from Ferrara in 1439). The circumstances under which the Council of Ferrara was called by Eugenius IV are stated imder Basle, Council of; Ferr.vra, Council of. The plea for the transfer of the council from Ferrara to Flor- ence was the prevalence of the plague in Ferrara ; but this must be pronounced a blind, as tlie plague had pre- vailed for months, and was nearly over when the trans- fer took place. "Are we, then, free to surmise that the true reason was kept a profound secret after all, and was, really, that the Latins were getting thoroughly the worst of it on the point of adding to the creed, and that attention was to be diverted from the subject bj' a change of scene and improved fiire?" (Ffoulkes, Chris- tendom''s Divisions, ii, 346). " It is clear that the Greek bishops were only led to consent to obey the pope and go from Ferrara to Florence bj- the promise that their allowance for expenses, which had been withheld for several months, sliould be promptly paid" (Popoff, His- tory of the Council of Florence, edited by Neale, Lond. 1861, ch. vi).
The bull transferring the council to Florence was read in the catliedral of Ferrara, Jan. 10, 1439 ; on Feb. 9 the pope and bishops entered Florence ; the emperor, John Palaeologus, arrived on the 15th. The aim of the council was (in continuation of that at Fer- rara) to restore union between the churches of the East and the West. Eugenius IV desired this great- ly, in order to confound his enemies at the Council of Basle, who were still in session, and who soon after- wards deposed him (June 25, 1439 : see B.VSLe) ; while the emperor John Palaeologus sought to gain the aid of the West in his wars with the Turks. The chief topic of discussion was the addition of the filioque to the creed [see Filioque] ; but the Latins succeeded in taking up the doctrinal question of the procession of the Holy Ghost instead of the historical one of the additions to the creed. The cardinal Julian chiefly represented the Latin side, and Mark of Ephesus was the strongest disputant on the side of the Greeks. Bessarion, of the Greek side, was won over to the Lat- in hy promises of rewards from tlie pope. See Bessa- rion.
At the first session, Feb. 26, 1439, Joseph, patriarch of Constantinople, was absent on account of illness. He died before the close of tliis council. Cardinal Julian proposed a discussion of the means of union ; the emperor reminded him that the dispute on X\\e, fili- oque was not ended. At the end of the sitting, he held a private meeting of the Greeks to consider terms of union, but nothing came of it. In the second session (March 2) a beginning was made in discussing the doctrine of the pmcession, the Latin side being ably represented b}' Johannes de jMonte Nigro, provincial of the Dominicans in Lombard}'. Tlie discussion was continued in several sessions up to the ninth (March 25). The Greeks succeeded best in the scriptural ar- gument, and also showed that many of the passages from F^piphanius, Basil, and Augustine, cited by the Latins, had been coiTupted. After the session of Mar. 17, the emperor prohibited Blark of F^phesus and An- thony of Heraclea, the two strongest advocates on the
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