182 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1294-1517.
The first common^ session_was not held till Oct. 8. 143g.
Most of it was taken up with a long address by Bessarion, as was the time of the second session by a still longer address by another Greek. The emperor did liis share in promoting delay by spending most of his time hunting. At the start the Greeks insisted there could be no addition to the original creed. Again and again they were on the point of withdrawing, but were deterred from doing so by dread of the Turks and empty purses. ^
Aj3ommission of twenty, ten Gr'^Q^'^n nnd ton Latins, was appointed to conduct the preliminary discu.ssioii_Qii the que^tions of difference.
The Greeks accepted the addition made to the Cnnstantipopolitan creed by the synod .of Tok-do, oS9, declaringLlliatjyie Spirit proceeds from tli^ FntTiPr nnrl th^ S{Q'n^ but with the stipulation that they were not to be required to introduce the filioque clause when they used the creed. They justified their course on the ground that they had understood the Latins as holding to the procession from tlie Father and the Son as from two principles. The article of agreement ran : " The Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son eternally and substantially as it were from one source and cause. "^
In the matter of purgatoj-y, it was decided that immediately at death the blessed pass to the beatific vision, a view the Greeks had rejected. Souls in jDurgatory are purified by pain and may be aided by the suffrages of the living. At the insistence of the Greeks, material fire as an element of purification was left out.
The^use of leavened bread was conceded to the Greekg.
In the matter of the eucharist, the Greeks, who, after the words, "this is my body," make a petition that the Spirit may turn the bread into Christ's body, agreed to the view that transubstantiation occurs at the use of the priestly words,
1 Hergenruther-Kirsch, II. 940, lay.s stress upon the Greek readiness to accept alms.
2 ^ternaliter el suhstantialitcr tanqnam ab uno principio et causa. The statement ex patre et filio and ex patre per Jilium were declared to be identical in meanin'T.
§ 18. THE COUNCIL OF FEREARA-FLORENCE. 183
but stipulated that the confession be not incorporated in the written articles.
The primac:i;:-a£-the4lomai3.Jbi8kap offered the jnost serious difficulty. The article of union acknowledged him as "having a primacy over the whole world, he himself being the successor of Peter, and the true vicar of Christ, the head of the whole Church, the father and teacher of all Christians, to whom, in Peter, Christ gave authority to feed, govern and rule the universal Church." ^ This remarkable concession was modified by a clause in the original document, running, "according as it is defined by the acts of the oecumenical councils and by the sacred canons." ^ The Latins afterwards changed the clause so as to read, " even as it is defined by the oecumenical councils and the holy canons." The Latin falsification made the early oecumenical councils a witness to the primacy of the Roman pontiff.
The articles of unioii,were incorporated in a decree^ beginning Lcetentur cceli et exultat terra, "Let the heavens rejoice and the earth be glad." It declared that the middle wall of partition between the Occidental and Oriental churches has been taken down by him who is the cornerstone, Christ. The black darkness of the long schism had passed away before the ray of concord. Mother Church rejoiced to see her divided children reunited in the bonds of peace and love. The union was due to the grace of the Holy Ghost. The articles were signed July 5 by 115 Latins ^nd
1 Diffinimxis sanctam apostol. sedem et Bomanam pontificem in universum orbem tenere primatmn et ipsum pontificem Eomanum sticcessorem esse B. Petri principis apostolorum, et verum Christi vicarium, totiusque ecclesiis caput, et omnium Christianorum patrem et doctorem existere, etc. Mansi, XXXI. 1697.
2 Quemadmodum et in gestis oecumenicorum conciliorum et in sacris canonihus continetur. The change placed an etiam in the place of the first et, so that the clause ran quemadmodnm etiam in gestis, etc. See DoUinger-Friedrich, D. Papstthum, pp. 170, 470 sq. Dollinger says that in the Roman ed. of 1626 the Ferrara council was called the 8th oecumenical.
3 The document, together with the signatures, is given in Mansi, pp. 1028- 1036, 1695-1701. Hefele-Knopfler, Conciliengesch.,Yll. 742-753, has regarded it of such importance as to give the Greek and Latin originals in full, and also a German translation.