International congress of byzantine studies belgrade, 22 27 august 2016

Eleftherios Despotakis
University Ca’ Foscari, Venice, Italy; 
[e-mail] 
Venetian Attitudes towards the Union of the Churches: 
A Letter in Praise of Cardinal Bessarion
The timeline extending from the 12
th
to the 15
th
century, during which the Byzantine emperors 
raised the question of the Union to the pope, concurs with the period of the configuration of 
Republic of St Marc in an autonomous state and its gradual consolidation as economic, political and 
military hegemony in the Eastern Mediterranean. It is quite certain that since the 12
th
century the 
Venetian Republic had understood the way in which the Byzantines were handling the Union issue. 
According to the actions of the Venetians for the transfer of the relics of St Marc from Alexandria 
to Venice in the early 9
th
century and the construction of their imposing ducal chapel in the name 
of the Evangelist modeled in consonance of SS Apostles’ church in Constantinople, someone 
might consider that Venice tended to adopt the ‘theocratic’ archetypal of the Byzantine Empire’s 
governance. However, as the historical-religious events demonstrated, the emblem of the St Marc’s 
lion was actually independent from the political perceptivity of Venice and should be considered as 
one more side effect of the Byzantine Empire’s past splendour.
As it is known, during the last hundred years of the Palaeologan emperorship, the issue of 
the Union of the Churches constituted the main field on the diplomatic discussions between the 
byzantine emperors and the Holy See. From the mid-14
th
century the city of Venice was the place 
of reference for the byzantine emperors who were moving to the West seeking help in order to 
bear down the Ottoman threat from the East. However, evidence that could prove a religious 
homogeneousness on this major issue does not exist. Only in the mid-15
th
century, after the fall 
of Constantinople, Venice seems to support the papal attempts to experiment the acceptance of 
the catholic faith in the Levant. The island of Crete, under Venetian rule, was the ideal place for 
the fulfilment of this project and Cardinal Bessarion of Nicaea, Latin patriarch of Constantinople 
since 1463, primarily encouraged the finance support of the filo-catholic group of priests in favour 
of the preservation and the propagation of the unionism among the Cretan-venetian society. Even 
if the Venetians concurred with Bessarion’s political and religious concernments of that period, 
the finding of an unknown letter of condolences sent from the doge of Venice to the pope for the 
Cardinal’s death in 1472, presents a worthy occasion to remark some significant elements of the 
Venetian policy in relation to the Uniate Era of the 15
th
century.

---

612
FRIDAY, 26
TH
AUGUST