Byzanz und das Konstanzer Konzil (1414‒1418). Beobachtungen zur griechischen Präsenz und zur vorkonziliaren Korrespondenz Sigismunds und Manuels II

This paper reviews the evidence for a Byzantine presence and action at the Council of Constance (1414/18), which is usually considered a major step towards Church Union. With regard to the Council’s prehistory, we concentrate on a group of letters addressed to Manuel II and attributed to Sigismund of Luxemburg. The first of them (ACC I 111) is shown to go back to Sigismund’s encounter and alliance with Wladyslaw Jagiello, the letter’s co-sender, in 1412. Furthermore, we discuss the scattered evidence on Byzantine envoys at Constance from 1415 to 1418. These references, some of which (Syropulos, Ulrich Richental) have to be treated with utmost caution, are shown to be equally compatible with a discontinuous presence as with the permanent sojourn of Greek representatives that is usually assumed. Against this background, a letter by Isidore (of Kiev), if attributed to Nikolaos Eudaimonoioannes as recipient, probably implies that the Byzantine legation of 1416 did not stay at Constance, but travelled to France and England in search of Sigismund.