The Byzantine reaction to the Second Council of Lyons, 1274

Abstract

On Friday 6 July 1274 the reunion of the Greek and Roman Churches was solemnly proclaimed at the Second Council of Lyons. It was a great occasion, and an occasion of great rejoicing for Pope Gregory X who had convened the assembly. In some ways the Greeks, or the Byzantines, had responded to his invitation rather more satisfactorily than his own people. For of the thirteen crowned heads of western Europe who had been invited to attend only one had found it possible to accept. But the Byzantine Emperor from distant Constantinople had sent his own representative in the person of his Grand Logothete George Akropolites; and with him had come a former Patriarch of Constantinople, Germanos, and the Metropolitan of Nicaea, Theophanes. The Council had opened at Lyons in May 1274. But the Byzantine legates had been delayed by shipwreck on their long journey, and it was not until 24 June that they reached their destination. They were welcomed with the kiss of peace by the Pope and all his cardinals and presented the sealed documents that they had brought with them from the Emperor Michael Palaiologos and from the Byzantine clergy.