VII. THE POPES AND THE MOSLEM MENACE IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY
1306—Clement V exhorts the Venetians to co-operate with Charles de Valois in the reconquest of Constantinople.
1307—Clement V urges Charles II of Naples to re-conquer Constantinople, but his interest is diverted by a project of a crusade to support Cyprus and Cilician Armenia against the Egyptians.
1309—Papal court transferred from Rome to Avignon.
1310—Clement V encourages Knights of St. John to drive both Greeks and Turks out of Rhodes.
1327—John XXII does not respond to appeal of Andronicus II to aid Byzantium against the Turks.
1333—Similar unsuccessful overture is made by Andronicus III.
1334—Papal effort to form crusade against Turks results in the capture of Smyrna.
1347—Marquis de Montferrat, heir to the Latin Emperors, makes agreement with Clement VI to conquer Constantinople.
At the same time appeals are received at Rome from Cantacuzenos for union of western princes against Osmanlis.
1349, 1350, 1353—Cantacuzenos makes three more overtures to Clement VI and Innocent VI.
1352—Inhabitants of Philadelphia appeal to Pope for aid, promising return to Roman communion.
1363—Urban V on Holy Friday gives the cross to several princes of the Occident.
1366—Urged by Urban, Amadeo of Savoy sails for the crusade against the Osmanlis. He spends his efforts in releasing John V from the Bulgarians, and abandons the Byzantines when they refuse to return to the Roman Church. Urban writes to Louis of Hungary to put off his crusade until the union of the Churches is accomplished.
Urban V denounces the traffic of the Italian Republics with Moslems.
1369—Emperor John V, at Rome, abjures errors of Orthodox Church, and receives from Pope letters, recommending that Christian princes come to his aid.
1371—Gregory XI makes appeal to Christian nations to co-operate with Genoa in saving the last Christians of the Holy Land.
1372—Gregory urges Louis of Hungary to resist the Osmanlis before they advance farther into Europe, and orders a crusade to be preached in Hungary, Poland, and Dalmatia.
1373—Gregory, receiving the last envoy from John V, bursts into tears, and says that he will save Constantinople, if only the Byzantine Emperor will cause his people to renounce their heresies and return to the Roman Church.
1378—The Great Schism.
1388—Urban VI sends two armed galleys for the defence of Constantinople, but is unsuccessful in raising crusade.
1391—Boniface IX stirs up trouble between Latin and Greek Christians in the Balkan peninsula.
1398 and 1399—Boniface IX orders crusade to be preached throughout Christendom for the defence of Constantinople.
1399—Boucicaut, the only one to respond, goes to the aid of Constantinople.
1402—Smyrna is lost to Timur.
1403—The strife between rival Popes, Benedict XIII and Boniface IX, makes impossible a papal effort to take advantage of the civil strife between the sons of Bayezid, after Timur’s abandonment of his conquests in Asia Minor.