In 1054, The Great Schism occurred this was an official 'split' or in reality, a mutually agreed divorce between The Roman Catholic Pope-(i.e. The French and the English were in war agaist each other.įinally, only Venice and Gene have sent some limited help. The latin world was discouraged by the defeat in Varna in 1444.īy 1453, Hungary and Venise were bound by numerous treaties with Mehmed II the Conqueror. The subsistence of the 'byzantine schism' is the formal pretext for the Pope Nicolas V not to help Byzance.Īfter the Union was proclaimed in Constantinople in december 1452, the Pope has changed his mind, but his call for a new Crusade met no success. In 1451, even the unionist Bysantine Patriarch has to seek refuge in Rome. In 1441, the Russian Church proclaimed its independence, imprisoning the Kiev Patriarch (who has after become a cardinal and later, the Latin Patriarch of Constantinople).

The Greek Church has repudiated its signature. In fact, the Union weakened the Orthodox Church.

This has resulted in a long-lasting civil war between the Latins and the Byzantines.įinally Constantinople was taken back by the Byzantines in 1261, but the Empire did not regain all its territory and wealth.įacing the Tukish menace, Byzance has tried to gain the help of Rome by uniting with the Latin Church.īut, though the Orthodox Churches have signed the 'Laetentur coeli' union with the Latin during Ferrafa-Florence Council in 1439, this union was often rejected by the clergy and the population. Please keep in mind that the IVth Crusade mentioned in the first answer has resulted in taking of Constantinople by mostly Venician troops in 1204. The result was the Crusades, which lasted for roughly 2 centuries, and one of which ironically ended up administering the coup-de-grace on the Byzantine empire. He backed this up with a edict forbidding Christians waging war on Christians except on alternating weekdays(!), and with a rousing speech that was distributed and publicly read by the clergy throughout the Catholic area.

He convened The Council of Clermont, where he argued that it was a Christian moral duty to aid the Byzantines against the Muslims. However, Pope Urban II had a more grandiose vision in mind. This was just a simple request for mercenaries to help against the Seljuks. What little commerce the west had was in direct competition with the Byzantines, whose geographic position forced Western merchants to pay whatever fees were demanded (or try to sneak through the Bosphorous).Įven so, in March of 1095 relations got warm enough and the Byzantines got desperate enough to ask the west for help. Part of this was religious: They belonged to different sects of Christianity, and thus often viewed each other as little better than heretics or Muslims. There was a certain amount of natural antagonism between the west and the Byzantines.

Why did the byzantine empire fall