Editing Bessarion (section)

===Role in the Council of Ferrara===
[[File:Cristofano dell'altissimo, basilio bessarione.jpg|thumb|Portrait of Bessarion, 16th century|272x272px]]
On becoming a tonsured monk, he adopted the name of [[Bessarion of Egypt]], whose story he has related. In 1436 became [[abbot]] of a monastery in Constantinople and in 1437, he was made [[metropolitan of Nicaea]] by the Byzantine Emperor [[John VIII Palaeologus]], whom he accompanied to [[Italy]] in order to bring about a reunion between the [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Eastern (Orthodox)]] and [[Catholic Church|Western (Catholic)]] churches. The emperor hoped to use the possibility of re-uniting the churches to obtain help from Western Europe against the [[Ottoman Empire]]. Bessarion participated in the Byzantine delegation to the [[Council of Ferrara-Florence]] as the most eminent representative of unionists, although he originally belonged to the party of anti-unionists. On 6 July 1439, he read the declaration of the Greek Association of Churches in Florence cathedral, in the presence of [[Pope Eugene IV]] and the Emperor [[John VIII Palaeologus]].

Some historians have impugned Bessarion's sincerity in adhering to the union.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=wFZoAAAAMAAJ&dq= ''Miscellanea marciana di studi bessarionei''], Antenore, 1976, p. 121.</ref> However, Gill upholds Bessarion's sincerity in being convinced to the truth of the Roman position in the matters discussed at the Council quoting from Bessarion's own work ''Oratio Dogmatica'':
{{blockquote|But if we had discerned error in the doctrine of the Latins or distortion in their faith, not even I would have counseled you to embrace union and agreement with them in that case, that for fear of bodily ills you should prefer the values of the present world to spiritual values, the freedom of the body to the betterment of the soul, but I myself would have undergone all that is worst and I would have exposed you to it before I would have urged you to union with them and have recommended such action.<ref>Joseph Gill, "The Sincerity of Bessarion the Unionist," ''Journal of Theological Studies'' n.s. 26 (1975), p. 387.</ref>}}