Michael VIII Palaiologos

In the letter read at Lyon the emperor accepts the confession of faith sent to him by the pope, with the procession of the Spirit from the Father and the Son and the primacy of the Roman church, and asks that his church may keep its creed and rites as they were (Michael VIII, Profession of Faith (1274) cols 67–74). The introduction printed with the council’s decrees notes that he had taken Constantinople from the Latins in 1261 and wanted the pope’s support against Charles of Anjou (Second Council of Lyon, introduction).

Pachymeres, who watched from among the clergy of Constantinople, reports his argument to the bishops, that union came to three concessions empty in practice (Pachymeres, History, Michael 5.18, pp. 386–390), and his treatment of those who refused: an oath that the creed would not be touched, and exile for any who would not sign (Pachymeres, History, Michael 5.20, p. 395). Pachymeres tells how he took communion on his deathbed and was carried by night to a nearby monastery, having reigned twenty-four years less twenty days (Pachymeres, History, Michael 6.36, p. 531). His son Andronikos then sought the pardon of the union’s opponents, who had the great church purified and the unionist clergy punished (Pachymeres, History, Andronikos 1.2–7, pp. 14–22). See the Second Council of Lyon.