[Atlantis]

The French historian Marcello Simonetta has a look at history and finds parallels between 15th century and today's Europe:

A poor nation, with a talent for begging

Fifteenth-century echoes in a 21st-century Grexit.
By MARCELLO SIMONETTA, 4/7/15, 6:12 AM CET

History seems to repeat itself these days. The heated debate about Grexit from Europe may have deeper roots than one realizes. Here is what Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini, humanist and future pope (1405-1464), wrote about the Council of Basel (c.1435) in his Commentaries:

“At that time the Greeks had promised the Council that they would come to Latin territory to discuss the question of union. Being a poor nation, with a talent for begging, they asked to be reimbursed for their expenses. To that end they demanded some 70,000 gold florins. In order to scrape together such a sum the Council promised plenary indulgences and remission of all their sins to those who would contribute money to the cause.”

The system of indulgences was massively practiced in the Renaissance: Sinners who sought spiritual comfort bought themselves entry to Heaven by giving money to the Church, which thus enriched itself considerably. This ploy to gain material riches became the target of Luther a few years later. In the 1430s, though, it was still widely accepted, just as toxic debts are now. But even back then, financial deals did not necessarily work out. As Aeneas went on:

“It appeared, however, that the indulgences would not be worth much unless backed by the Pope’s authority and though he did not refuse to give it, there was a dispute about the form. The delegates at Basel maintained that the indulgences should be granted in the name of the Council with the concurrence of the Pope, while Eugenius IV insisted that the letter should be sent out in his name with the approval of the Council, this being the time honored and usual custom.”

Monetary concerns

Bureaucratic concerns trumped the urgency of the situation: The need for reuniting the impoverished and needy Greek Orthodox Church in the East with the wealthy and spendthrift Latin Catholic Church in the West was real, but the banal monetary concerns made it hard to find a solution to the problem.

“They had many long debates about this, some of them quite heated: When someone mentioned the authority of the Council, Tommaso [of Sarzana] (who later sat on the throne of Peter, as Nicholas V, 1447-1455, but was then merely a private individual in the service of the cardinal of Santa Croce) cried, ‘Why set so much store by the Council? No one in his right mind would that this is a proper council or even a proper church. Sons of perdition, henchmen of demons! It’s not a synod you’re holding, but a synagogue of Satan!’” The violent language adopted by another future pontiff captures the profound religious and cultural rifts rippling through Europe then, and now. What followed is indeed history. The Council was ineffective in its attempt to reform the Church and (bad) business continued as usual. The Reformation, started in Germany, split Europe.

Aeneas was a deeply political man: He was — in sequence — secretary of three cardinals, one emperor and one anti-pope, before starting his amazing ecclesiastical career, becoming bishop, cardinal and eventually pope as Pius II in 1458.

Once he had become the head of the Church, he revealed his international agenda: He wanted Europe to be united and face the Turkish threat, which, after the fall of Constantinople in 1453, had been steadily and scarily increasing.

With a well-organized, hostile army at its gate, the Christian leaders had, indeed, to stop squabbling among themselves and get their act together. So Pius summoned a G7 type of meeting in Mantua, northern Italy, hoping that all the Western monarchs would get together. However, many did not show up and the glorious summit turned into a big failure.

Pius was a fighter and did not give up. He organized a crusade and died just before the fleet he had gathered sailed off from the eastern coast of Italy, to Greece and on to Constantinople, the fatally collapsed Byzantine capital. No bailout would be in sight for centuries to come.

Marcello Simonetta is a historian based in Paris. Among his books are “The Montefeltro Conspiracy” (Doubleday, 2008) and “Napoleon and the Rebel” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011). He teaches at Sciences Po and at the American University of Paris. The translation of Pius II’s “Commentaries” is by Margaret Meserve, co-edited by Marcello Simonetta (The I Tatti Renaissance Library, Harvard University Press, 2003).

History does seem to repeat itself. Now we have to find a modern day Luther to rid us of the indulgences. I think, the EG head Dijsselbloem has what it takes to play this role. Mark my word, the man will go places.