Mark of Ephesus
Chief spokesman of the Greeks at the Council of Florence and the bishop who refused to sign its decree of union. His encyclical letter called on the Orthodox to shun the union, and he is honoured as a saint among the Orthodox.
Doukas calls Mark the chief spokesman of the Greek bishops at Florence, and in Greek learning and the decrees of the holy councils a rule and an unswerving standard. He says that Mark alone held out when the others agreed, and that his objection was to the addition made to the creed: let it be removed from the confession of faith and sung anywhere else (Doukas, History 31.3–4 (Bekker pp. 213–214)).
In his own letter to all Orthodox Christians Mark rejects the decree’s teaching on the procession of the Spirit, the addition to the creed, unleavened bread, purgatory and the papacy, and tells the faithful to avoid those who signed (Mark of Ephesus, Encyclical Letter §§1–2, 6–7 (PO 17, pp. 449–451, 456–459)). The handbook of the Orthodox Church in America calls him Saint Mark of Ephesus and says that he is venerated in the Orthodox Church as one of the Three Pillars of Orthodoxy (Orthodox Church in America, The Orthodox Faith, vol. III, Fifteenth Century, The Great Schism in the Papacy, and the Conciliar Movement). See the Council of Florence Proclaims Reunion.
In the timeline
- 6 July 1439, firm dateThe Council of Florence Proclaims Reunion
Pope Eugene IV and the Byzantine emperor John VIII proclaim the reunion of the Latin and Greek churches at Florence on 6 July 1439, in a decree affirming the Filioque and papal primacy. Mark of Ephesus refuses to sign, and the union finds little acceptance in Constantinople.