away from his city, among the Latins whose ways he could not understand, and a set of Latin verses over his tomb still tells the traveller of the strange chance that brought "Joseph, the great prelate of the Eastern Church," to be buried here. Meanwhile, the real business of the council was this. First ten Fathers from either side were elected to examine the differences between the Churches. On the Byzantine side the chief members of this commission were Isidore of Kiev and Bessarion, both conciliatory, and Mark of Ephesus, steadily opposed to us. The chief Latins were Cardinal Julian Cesarini, Andrew Archbishop of Rhodes, and John of Montenegro, who on one occasion made a speech that lasted two whole days. The differences were: the Filioque, Azyme bread at Mass, Purgatory, the Epiklesis, the Primacy. They soon agreed about Purgatory when they were told that material fire is not part of the faith of the Latin Church. They gave in altogether about the Epiklesis[1] and admitted that Consecration takes place at the words of Institution. As for Azymes, the Turkish armies at their very gates had at last made them see reason; they admitted that both leavened and unleavened bread are equally valid and lawful. Naturally the longest discussions were about the Filioque and the Primacy.
In the Filioque dispute Mark of Ephesus got into trouble for misquoting St. Basil. At last the Greeks agreed to admit the formula of their own Fathers, and both sides united in the confession that the Holy Ghost proceeds from one principle and that the truth is rightly expressed by the Latins who say "from the Father and the Son" as well as by the Greeks in their form "from the Father through (διὰ) the Son."[2] The Easterns were not asked to add anything to their Creed—a position, by the way, that the tolerance of the Holy See has always accepted. Concerning the Primacy they admitted this formula: "The Pope is the Sovereign Pontiff, the Vicar of Christ, Shepherd and Teacher of all Christians, to guide and rule the whole Church of God, though without prejudice to the rights and privileges of the other Patriarchs."
- ↑ For this question see p. 386.
- ↑ This formula is taken from St. John Damascene, see p. 379.
