Encyclical Letter to All Orthodox Christians
The letter in which Mark, metropolitan of Ephesus, the Greek bishop who refused to sign the union at Florence, called on Orthodox Christians everywhere to shun those who had accepted it.
Read the text at archive.org ↗Petit’s introduction to the letter, pp. 316–317 ↗
Mark of Ephesus addresses the Orthodox Christians everywhere, on land and in the islands. He attacks the Greeks who signed at Florence, whom he calls “Greco-Latins”, and goes through the points of the decree one by one: the procession of the Holy Spirit, the addition to the creed, unleavened bread, purgatory, and the pope as vicar of Christ. For him the pope is one of the patriarchs, and that only if he is Orthodox. He ends by telling his readers to flee the unionists and keep to the traditions they have received.
The letter is undated. Its editor, Louis Petit, says in his introduction that it is aimed chiefly at the supporters of Rome in the islands, where the patriarch Metrophanes had the union proclaimed in June and July 1440. It is a controversial pamphlet by the leader of one party and is cited as such in the Council of Florence Proclaims Reunion.
Cited in
- 6 July 1439, firm date