Crusades and Crusaders in Medieval Greece 43
The forces for any expedition against the Turks would have to be provided
by the lay rulers, but its character as a crusade required papal endorsement.
However, the papal schism (1378–1417) limited the papacy’s control and uni-
versal reach and therefore undermined the potential for a common effort in
the East. The problem of authority for the papacy persisted in the following
decades, as papal leadership of the Church was then challenged by the con-
ciliar movement. In this context, the unionist negotiations with the Greek
Church were to play a crucial role, as they could boost the prestige of rival
popes or, later, of the conciliarists vis-à-vis the papacy. This added impetus to
the Byzantine initiatives for anti-Ottoman action. The Byzantine emperors
were aware of the ecclesiastical turmoil in the West and decided to hedge their
bets by seeking the support of all sides: contacts were made not only with Rome
and Avignon, but also with the short-lived papal line of Pisa.53 When eventu-
ally the Council of Constance resolved, for the most part, the division with the
election of Martin v (1417–1431), Manuel ii lost no time in requesting his help
too. Then, in the early 1430s, the Byzantines approached both Pope Eugenius iv
and the Council of Basel, trying to secure better terms by bargaining with both
sides.54 This culminated in the Council of Ferrara/Florence (1438/9) as John viii
eventually opted for the papal offer.
The Ottomans had made their presence felt in the early decades of the 14th
century, seizing control of most of Asia Minor. The civil war between Anna of
Savoy and Kantakouzenos provided the opportunity for the Ottomans to cross
over to Thrace as allies of the latter. In 1354, they took possession of Gallipoli
after an earthquake had ruined the city’s walls. Their expansion continued on
the European side of the Straits: in the 1360s they conquered Didymoteichon,
Philippopolis and Adrianople, which became Sultan Murad I’s base of opera-
tions in the Balkans.
From the mid-1350s, Emperor John v took unprecedented steps, such as
pledging his conversion to “the faith of the Roman Church” and visiting the
Hungarian court in person in 1365–66, in order to stir the West to action against
the Turks. Innocent vi, indeed, revived the League of Smyrna, in 1357. The flo-
tilla led by the papal legate Peter Thomas attained a victory over the Turks at
Lampsacus (1359). But most plans for a crusade in Romania over the following
twenty years were abortive, including an expedition to be led by King Louis
of Hungary (1366), and Gregory xi’s ambitious plans to organise a congress of
53 Oskar Halecki, “Rome et Byzance au temps du grand schisme d’Occident,” Collectanea
Theologica 18 (1937), 477–532.
54 Geanakoplos, “Byzantium and the Crusades,” pp. 91–92; Harris, End of Byzantium,
pp. 130–33.