Decrees of the Council of Ferrara and Florence
The decrees of the council that Eugene IV moved from Basel to Ferrara in 1438 and to Florence in 1439, among them Laetentur caeli, the bull of union with the Greeks of 6 July 1439, and the later bulls of union with the Armenians and the Copts.
The decrees are cited by the session numbers of Tanner’s edition, which begin again at Ferrara. They include the declaration opening the council at Ferrara on 8 January 1438, the decree of 10 January 1439 moving it to Florence because of plague, the definition of 6 July 1439 known from its first words as Laetentur caeli, and the bulls of union with the Armenians (1439) and with the Copts (Cantate Domino, 1442).
Laetentur caeli was issued in Latin and Greek in the name of Eugene IV with the agreement of the emperor John VIII Palaiologos and the Greek delegation. These are the texts of the side that held the union to be valid; for the Greek refusal see Encyclical Letter to All Orthodox Christians and History. See the Council of Florence Proclaims Reunion.
Cited in
- 6 July 1439, firm date