Constantinople’s Emperor John VIII Palailogos, who has…

Constantinople’s Emperor John VIII Palailogos, who has already traveled to Venice and Hungary in search of help, is prepared to reopen negotiations for the union of the churches as a means of stirring the conscience of Western Christendom.

His father Manuel II had been skeptical about the benefits of such a policy, knowing that it would antagonize most of his own people and arouse the suspicion of the Turks.